A Critical Redemption?

What does it mean to be restored? Reconciled, moreover.

Given new life. From above.

And what does it require of us?...what are we impelled unto, having experienced such a miracle?

So, yes, this requirement is in the sense of being complicitly entailed of progressive revelation of the experience--not a separate act, not a disparate course of intent, not a chosen directive even given ardent study.

But entailed. Impelling us, as a complicit act. In accord with God's own will.

Not of our own prior will, then, but of ours coming into alignment with His. Reconciled unto Him.

What does that mean?

...if not restoration.

Sin, rather, is a deviation. A destruction of right order. Aberrant against right order. In discord with goodness and mercy and love.

Sin acts against God, who is good. Goodness is of Him. All which deviates, opposes, contradicts, and attempts to reject His will or His ways or the spiritual, moral law He's instituted does so at the expense of goodness.

I've heard argument that He allowed this that love might have a fuller meaning, as not enforced but chosen. That love without choice as to love or not love isn't love, in some manner. As though there were deviations from love that aren't unto hatred. As though we do choose to love.

Do we?

Or does He have mercy on some?

Is it as Paul proposed might be a reason--that He ordered things in such a way as that His patience and lovingkindness would be shown so clearly in enduring and even giving grace for so long as unto judgment of those who yet despise and slander Him, that the glory of His patience and mercy and grace would be magnified per such a longsuffering endurance of those would would yet despise their own Maker. Even as the glory of His grace is so greatly manifested to those who receive forgiveness of sins, in Christ, eternal...that the power of His might may be displayed through due wrath unto those who life-long refuse repentance.

Job claimed He hardened whom He would, giving the hearts of some...entirely over to wickedness. And upholding others, according to an order which could be known only to God, Himself...not fathomable at any level, to man.

Job claimed it was even as God told Moses--it is the Almighty's prerogative to do with His creation whatever is His will, without anyone daring to question His motives. He's too far beyond us. Too far superior to us. Far too powerful and wise and utterly secure for us to dare attempt to question and expect to even be capable of understanding His response, were He willing to even reveal His intents.

Someday we'll know. If it's His will to truly reveal these things. If we are at all capable of adequately understanding.

Yet, what would love be, without contrast? Is it all the more dear to love and be loved, when there is such a travesty as hate, even amongst brethren?

And if He who created us loves so much even as to take on flesh, to save us from ourselves and the wrath we have chosen...

...who are we to fight amongst ourselves?

There were some rather strong words sent to the Romans in terms of attempts to differentiate according to "reason," rather than the Spirit. We aren't to judge. We aren't to look down on anyone.

IF we have been granted reconciliation through Christ, we have all the less justification for being discriminatory. Did He discriminate against us, according to our wrongness?

And our own wrongness is one increasingly realized to be an abject and not preferential matter--not as though, like Paul described, some are able to eat meat and others aren't and this is more a matter of opinion than of either salvation or sanctification. A matter of mere preference, really, according to the manner of each individual's own faith...as specifically pertains to their own, individual walk before the Lord, whom they will have to answer to, same as we.

Those who honestly and truly know Jesus now are increasingly becoming aware of the truth of their wrongness before Him, prior to salvation especially, but also as pertains to those matters which are presently being sanctified unto Him. Not preferential, then, if He is convicting us unto repentance for them.

Always, always, always....we must test whatsoever comes to us against Scripture. Regardless from whom it comes, regardless from what book...and even testing Scripture against itself! Didn't Satan even attempt to use Scripture against Christ, Himself, when He was enduring temptations?

How much more apt are we to succumb to that same precise attack, if and when it comes even through words recorded in Scripture?

For it's not the Law that gives life, but the Spirit. And the spirit in which a thing is taught or spoken is that which flavors and enlivens or distorts and perverts the message, as a whole.

These are hard things.

Not to be taken lightly. Think on this--immediately prior to Christ's great work, He told the disciples...told Peter that Satan had been seeking, imploring to sift them...but that He, Christ, had prayed to the Father on their behalf, that they would not be lost.

They endured their own sufferings--far less than Christ's, infinitely--but they were entirely overwrought, dispersed, distraught, despairing...all hope seemed utterly lost to them, for at least three days, in full. But He resurrected, He took on life again, overcoming death through the power of His Holy Spirit (which dwells in us, even now). And He restored them to faith. And not only restored them, but utterly altered the entirety of their natures. They were converted. They were given the Holy Spirit, when He breathed upon them.

And instructed to wait, to pray, for empowerment from on high.

A baptism by the Holy Spirit, which turned Jerusalem upon its head, within a day.

120 received. 3000 converted, the first day.

By His Spirit.

Not by the understanding of man.

Not by emotional pleas. Not by rational arguments, although one was certainly given...by Peter, who had previously run in fear of even being recognized as knowing Christ. He spoke boldly, without pretense, without preparation--but as given by the Spirit of Christ, so to speak.

Do we do this?

Can we, moreover?

I hear arguments to the effect that things have changed, these last few centuries. We no longer need signs from on high. We no longer need such revelation of God. Because we have the church?
Because we have books?

Because we have ourselves to look to, for direction and order.

Ourselves as those others before us--but ourselves, none the less.

But can we save ourselves?
Who, ever, has restored a spirit to life, having once endured the cup of death, as sin?

Who, ever, has done such a thing, but Christ, Himself?

And He, alone.

We may think ourselves wise.

We may think ourselves learned.

We may think ourselves near to God, for a long manner of having sought Him according to what seemed right and orderly and best, so to do.

But are we the ones who order these things, in truth?

Were we not in error, when He called us unto Himself, into salvation?

Was it our own understanding which allowed us to, in some flash of inspiration akin to a wholly new light having borne forth into our awareness, realize the actual truth of who Christ is, and what that means to each of us?

We could not have known the truth, except that the Spirit of Christ had revealed it to us--making deaf ears hear, blind eyes see, closed minds open to truth, and mute tongues proclaim praise of the One who has come!

To speak a thing is nothing, lest there be a force behind it which exceeds all reckoning.

In matters of truth.

I am guilty. We all are guilty.
But His love...His kindness to me...
...His purity and goodness and mercy...

...oh, but His love...

...it broke me, unseated my opposition. And set me free.
Even still, His work continues.

Seeing His goodness...His wonderful, radiant, total purity...
...that even hanging, enduring untold pain--not merely of the crucifixion, but of the weight of sin, as well...
...silent, suffering, enduring long what He could have ended in a second, had He chosen not to complete the trial, the payment, the exchange...
...fully aware, all the while.

No dregs of sluggish thought that might have come upon another man, whose body had endured such unconscionable torment.

Not a whit of mistiness.

Fully aware.
Suffering keenly.

What mercy He shows us, even, that our torments...our physical pains...are dulled by the endorphins our bodies are even designed to release. In such an extreme.

And shock, for us, would grant us, most, at least slight delirium. In that such a circumstance, at least, if not in all.

We have an apex unto internal pain mitigation--a turning point, even as there are those who have studied long to find ways to maximize and prolong and offset such points, intended torture...wicked, evil, murderous...as we all are, to have done so to Him...

...as the sin.

Without solace of delirium.

This is what we wrought, per our high minds and understanding of what is right. Per our desire to do good to one another, without seeking first to know the will of the One who made us.

This is what we wrought, unto Him. That He would make way to reconcile any one of us, into His love. His guidance, His fellowship. Into an accord with Him.

Dizzying.

He endured.

Would we crucify Him anew, unto ourselves, so to have a stake in saying which of each of us is more correct than another? ...as that He's blessed us with life, through His death and resurrection, would we now consider ourselves superior so as to maintain a stance that proclaims ourselves capable of remaining free from error, in our own power, now that He's shown such mercy as to have ever, Himself alone, drawn us out of error in the first place?

Does He keep us, or do we?

Because if we are the ones responsible to keep ourselves, then it's not the Good Shepherd whose voice we're following.

Which of any of His commandments and ordained effects are we capable of keeping, in our own power, truly? If we cannot do the very first of even the most basic of them all, then why on earth or within heaven's graces would we expect to be capable of managing the rest, apart from grace and divine intervention? (And He is willing! So, so willing! Even as to have offered up Himself, so to make a way!--what else would He not do, as needed?)

But, to say these things is one thing. To live them...comes by grace, alone.

Many times, I've heard explanations given for various things which, by nature, cannot be contained to word. And have heard questioning come regarding certain matters which are also, by nature, impossible to wholly describe except experientially. Would we quantify faith?

Is faith truly faith if we plan it out? Or is it not lived, in each moment?

Do you make plans so to take your next breath? Do you make plans regarding the function of your next-fifth heartbeat? Are these matters we had ought to expound, methodologically, expecting such a process to make the experiential working and endurance somehow more understandable and consciously comprehended?

Do you think that the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage sat down for days, wondering to herself what it might be to act on faith, searching her long-past-heard remembrance of any known Scripture for an instance which might inform her on what it should look like for her to "have faith?" Do you think it was even anywhere remotely near her mind--self-reflections upon what faith is, reflections upon the word, itself?--when she literally took her life into her hands, stepping forth into the crowd, desperate to touch His garment?

She would have been stoned for defiling the crowd by coming into physical contact with them. She would have been mercilessly cast down, most likely, especially for having such a long-standing, socially repulsive condition as was hers...and to have dared enter a crowd?

She counted her life as loss, to reach out to Him, for healing.

And why would she have trembled, that He called her into public awareness?

...her condition would have made her an object of stoning, for what she'd done.

But His mercy. His love. And such grace.

Not only was she healed, physically, but in the center of a crowd, she was exonerated and declared clean by the One who ordained her to live.

She was publicly declared clean. In the midst of the crowd.

A dying child, yet waiting, but He took time to stop and publicly give her pardon. He could have continued on, knowing she'd received healing, but without making a remark.

But He stopped for her. For one who had been publicly shamed, entirely outcast, utterly bereft for over a decade...one who counted life worth forsaking, for sake of receiving healing, even without begging notice, but just to receive what she knew was of Him. Then, even to slip back into obscure rejection.

He restored her.

Her faith made her whole.

How many are there, now, who suffer...longing for healing of some sort, but knowing no source? And would we consider ourselves superior to them--esteeming ourselves, mentally, even unconsciously over them when "mingling," if exists external evidence of brokenness?

He knew her state. He knew the whole of her condition. And not only did He not allow her to receive her physical healing, yet slink away in silence...He accorded Himself with her, saying power had gone out from Him according to her faith and even as a daughter she was thenceforth whole.

So many matters, like this. Where even something within me wants to raise a fist, strike an opposition, that there's no good to come of being too open.

But, again--I follow Him. Same goes of any of us, who know Him. We each will stand or fall, according to His will, not our own. Faith without works is dead, but works which aren't of faith are, too.

So, either the Lord build the house, or he labors in vain, who builds it. Consider, now, quite what a house is meant to be?...when God, Himself, tabernacled amongst us.

Has He changed, then? Or have we?

Or does He give gifts, only to take them back?

We cannot earn what is freely given. And yet, if we lack a thing, is it His fault that we would not be forced to endure that which we neither ask of nor seek for, in Him?

He has no faults. But we don't receive, in truth, that which we will not ask for according to His will, and not according to ungodly desires. 

Just as being undesirous of submitting entirely to Him will leave us dependent upon our own understanding, then we are to that degree liable to falter and stumble and succumb to deceptions which are constantly seeking to lead each of us and all of humanity astray.

He is good and merciful, so He saves many.

Yet, still, we don't trust Him.

Still, we trust in ourselves.
Our experiences or our understanding.
Only looking to God on the side, as whatsoever we think to see of Him aligns with what we've experienced or read.

All things must be in accord, though, or there's a false note.

It's not "one" or "the other" or "that lattermost."
He is the one who brings all things into alignment.

He must, or nothing would ever accord.
From Him, all order flows.

He restores. He reconciles.
In and unto Himself.
Leading, all the way.

From start to finish.
By whatever means we might otherwise seek to busy our hands, fill our minds, lift our hearts...still He is the one who progresses all works, unto good.

We can't see as far as our nose, in terms of all that goes on--how would we presume to think to understand what needs to be done, for Him?

He indulges us our odd inconsistencies in thought, on these terms, or otherwise...He'd have stopped doing His work on earth at the time of the fall, in the Garden.

Yet, even in Christ...even led by Him, unto Him...when will we learn just to love and to trust Him?

To stop "picking things apart" as though we understand anything.

We don't.

If we know anything at all, then it's only knowing Christ, Himself.
All else is only relative to the truth of who He is.

And He...

...is infinite.

I only know these things for being so very guilty of them, that He's allowed me to see, to repent, to pray for deliverance of those yet struggling, in whom these many painful and sore tendencies still hold such sway.

We simply cannot comprehend infinity.
No matter what angle we approach from.

Yet, He has come to give us life.
And to lead us into all truth.
And guide us into righteousness.
So that we might love one another.
Loving Him, as He gives us hearts to do so.
Out of which flows the abundance of our ministries to Him.

I am tired of fighting against Him on these fronts.
I am grieved of seeing it so common a feint in the lives of so many whom He ardently loves and desires to draw near.

May we lay down our arms from against the One who leads us?
And pick them up only as He directs, from now on?

And not against those for whom He died, like us?
...but against those powers, principalities, and the like as we've been instructed to resist?

It's such a strange thing to see so many actively engaged in attempting to convince the Holy Spirit that His work is no longer much necessary...that the world has things right, that we need only apply ourselves more diligently to studies and practical helps.

This is something which absolutely devastates, of myself.
There is no, "I can do this, Lord, just bear with me," when it comes to Christ's redemption.
There's only, "Lord, You've done this, help me to walk in step with You," it seems.

May we cease to fight Him?
Oh, Lord...Your will be done.