Let us allow the imagination of our minds to lead us into exploration of what might possibly be, as we seek to understand the mysteries of life, its purpose, its plan, and its destination. Join me in a late summer stroll down a path cut through an untouched field flowing with life. Where the wind gently moves the flowers and wild grasses as they yield to its effect on their presence. The bees are busy tending their garden, the birds are singing their instinctual melodies, and the frogs are croaking out the beat of the unending song of life, each carrying out the intended purpose of its existence. Contemplation comes easy here. Here, in the wild, life is not encumbered by man’s attempts to control it. Yet, while it is able to grow and exist in an unhindered manner, it is still bound by the laws of Nature and Nature’s God. So it seems with our lives as well. Similarly, we claim the right of our freedom and liberty in Christ, but at the same time seemed bound by laws that have their effect on what we call our flesh, these temporal tabernacles that we find our spirits contained in, our “earthen vessels”. Our spirits seem to literally be wrapped and bound by this fleshly body. As the inspired writer asks, ‘who will deliver me from this body of death’? This begs the question, who is this ‘me’ that is entrapped in this body of death that does what it doesn’t want to do and doesn’t do what it wants to? “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” It is a statement often used to gain personal power. But it is really a spiritual truth to be understood through the eye of faith in the context of God’s purpose for man, to be a being created in the image of the Creator. I was chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world according to Ephesians 1:4. One should ask, chosen for what? Chosen to escape the fiery flames of an eternal torment? Chosen to enter into an eternal paradise in some undisclosed, blissful location? This escapism mentality has left us short sighted and unprepared for experiencing the fullness of God’s Kingdom. So often we quote, and rightly claim, the scripture declaring this world awaits ‘the manifestation of the sons of God’. In the same frequency we find ourselves looking around, wondering where these individuals are, and neglecting the hope of our own calling. Instead, we should be focused on ‘giving more diligence to making our calling and election sure’ (2 Peter 1:10). Let us practice some diligence by reaching beyond the confines of our religious minds and dogmatic traditions. Let us allow the Spirit to encourage and guide us into comprehension of what truly is the breadth, length, depth and height of Christ’s love and His dwelling place within us; for He is our salvation and deliverance from the ‘body of death’ (Rom 7:24-25). In the remaining limitation of this discourse, we will focus on the encouragement that we find in the realization that our ‘bondage’ was by design. It is difficult to understand how a God of love could, or would, do such a thing. What we can understand is that from the beginning, God’s purpose and our destiny is to be created in His image (Genesis 1:26). To that end, all things have worked, do work and will continue to work towards. Instead of looking at mankind’s experience through time as solely a linear one through which we fell, perhaps we should see it as a circular path where the end is really just the beginning. In other words when God said let us make man in our image, He did so and this is the means by which He accomplishes that. “For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who had subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19-21).The creation was subjected unto vanity by Him who subjected it. This vanity is a place where in his own attempt mankind would find futility and meaninglessness. Something that is vain is pointless, its end is nothing. Everything that man does outside of the will of God is going to end and disappear, at the appointed time (Colossians 1:16-17;Hebrews 1:10-12). This hope in which we have been subjected is nothing less than Christ in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 12:48:46 +0000
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