EMASCULATING THE CHRIST
10/07/21 12:29
Legalised formulations of the Gospel of Jesus are second only in their effectiveness in suffocating the Kingdom to the remnants of Arianism that survives in some faith communities. They reduce the Word of Life who is a person to words (the letter that kills) and they do so because they are a not so subtle Christian version of the knowledge of good and evil - that actually perpetuates the fall into the post cross age. *
DRY BONES
Whether legalism is explicit or implied, it is a deconstruction of our Christ-life and a negation of the Kingdom. A negation because the Kingdom Jesus began is an incarnation of the trinity in us and as us and not a religion in the religious sense. Years ago, Dr Gordon Moyes wrote, ‘Christianity is not a religion. It’s a person. Incarnation means its about that person being us.
Our relationship with Jesus is not a legality because Jesus is not an abstraction or a creature of the law. Our relationship with Jesus is Jesus Himself.
A RELATIONSHIP TO WHAT JESUS?
In the 1980s, people in the circles I moved in began to talk about our God-Life being a relationship – which it is. But it’s the kind of relationship that is more than following Jesus, copying Jesus or ‘keeping close to Jesus.’ It’s oneness with Jesus which means we are woven into God. John called this Christ come in our flesh and pointedly observed that any other doctrine was a product of antichrist.
HYPOSTATIC UNION
How are we woven in? Firstly, ‘Hypostatic union is how Christians explain the relationship between Jesus’ divine nature, his human nature, and his being. It means that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. Jesus has all of the characteristics that are true of a person, and all of the characteristics that are true of a divine being. Both natures fully exist in one person.’ Thus in His person we are joined to God.
OUR ONENESS CONFORMS TO HIS BEING
Theologian, Thomas Torrance explained this profound union with God that is ours as follows. “Since the relation of the Son to the Father belongs to the union and communion of love which God eternally is in his own Being as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Incarnation of the Son in which God gives himself to mankind takes the form of a 'hypostatic union' between divine nature and human nature in his one Person, which is the immediate ground for all Christ's mediatorial and reconciling activity in our human existence. [This is the living way in which we are one with God].
FOUNDED IN TRINITY
“The hypostatic union* is grounded in, derived from and is continuously upheld by what is called the 'consubstantial communion' within the Holy Trinity, . that is, the mutual indwelling or coinhering of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three Persons of one and the same Being in God. That is a union in which divine nature and human nature are united in Christ in such a way that there is no diminishing or impairing of his divine nature and no diminishing or impairing of his human nature.” (1)
The truth is that our union with God far exceeds any parody that might be suggested in cosmic legalism. The issue of life and Godliness has everything to do with our achieved enfolding in the trinity and nothing to do with the law whose essence is separation in the knowledge of good and evil. In Christ you have been enfolded in God. This is your real life. It is our real Godliness. In the law we cannot be fully human let alone sons and daughters of God. In Christ our life we are both decent human beings and sons of God.
*Hypostatic union: Hypostatic Union is the union of the two natures (Divine and human) in the person of Jesus. Jesus is God in flesh (John 1:1, 14, 10:30-33, 20:28, Phil. 2:5-8, Heb. 1:8). He is fully God and fully man (Col. 2:9), thus, He has two natures: God and man. He is not half God and half man. He is 100% God and 100% man. He never lost His divinity.
*Religion can be made from doctrines of demons.
DRY BONES
Whether legalism is explicit or implied, it is a deconstruction of our Christ-life and a negation of the Kingdom. A negation because the Kingdom Jesus began is an incarnation of the trinity in us and as us and not a religion in the religious sense. Years ago, Dr Gordon Moyes wrote, ‘Christianity is not a religion. It’s a person. Incarnation means its about that person being us.
Our relationship with Jesus is not a legality because Jesus is not an abstraction or a creature of the law. Our relationship with Jesus is Jesus Himself.
A RELATIONSHIP TO WHAT JESUS?
In the 1980s, people in the circles I moved in began to talk about our God-Life being a relationship – which it is. But it’s the kind of relationship that is more than following Jesus, copying Jesus or ‘keeping close to Jesus.’ It’s oneness with Jesus which means we are woven into God. John called this Christ come in our flesh and pointedly observed that any other doctrine was a product of antichrist.
HYPOSTATIC UNION
How are we woven in? Firstly, ‘Hypostatic union is how Christians explain the relationship between Jesus’ divine nature, his human nature, and his being. It means that Jesus is both fully God and fully man. Jesus has all of the characteristics that are true of a person, and all of the characteristics that are true of a divine being. Both natures fully exist in one person.’ Thus in His person we are joined to God.
OUR ONENESS CONFORMS TO HIS BEING
Theologian, Thomas Torrance explained this profound union with God that is ours as follows. “Since the relation of the Son to the Father belongs to the union and communion of love which God eternally is in his own Being as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Incarnation of the Son in which God gives himself to mankind takes the form of a 'hypostatic union' between divine nature and human nature in his one Person, which is the immediate ground for all Christ's mediatorial and reconciling activity in our human existence. [This is the living way in which we are one with God].
FOUNDED IN TRINITY
“The hypostatic union* is grounded in, derived from and is continuously upheld by what is called the 'consubstantial communion' within the Holy Trinity, . that is, the mutual indwelling or coinhering of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three Persons of one and the same Being in God. That is a union in which divine nature and human nature are united in Christ in such a way that there is no diminishing or impairing of his divine nature and no diminishing or impairing of his human nature.” (1)
The truth is that our union with God far exceeds any parody that might be suggested in cosmic legalism. The issue of life and Godliness has everything to do with our achieved enfolding in the trinity and nothing to do with the law whose essence is separation in the knowledge of good and evil. In Christ you have been enfolded in God. This is your real life. It is our real Godliness. In the law we cannot be fully human let alone sons and daughters of God. In Christ our life we are both decent human beings and sons of God.
*Hypostatic union: Hypostatic Union is the union of the two natures (Divine and human) in the person of Jesus. Jesus is God in flesh (John 1:1, 14, 10:30-33, 20:28, Phil. 2:5-8, Heb. 1:8). He is fully God and fully man (Col. 2:9), thus, He has two natures: God and man. He is not half God and half man. He is 100% God and 100% man. He never lost His divinity.
*Religion can be made from doctrines of demons.
- (1) Thomas Torrance, The Mediation of Christ. P 65.