The whole law is fulfilled in one word: The word made flesh.
Monthly Archives: February 2015
By the lenses of shadows
You can try to interpret and understand a substance by means of its shadow but by doing that it really just becomes a guessing game. At what angle is the light hitting the object to make it cast such a shadow, what type of light, in what environment? Religion has been trying to use this technique as a means to interpret and understand the divine for too long; by using the bible, the law, moral codes, and formula after formula after formula. It’s a dead end of blind leading the blind straight into a ditch.
Maybe the only way to really understand the divine is by understanding that we are his/her image and likeness. When we undoubtedly see that we co-exist as God and Human and when we see that we are joined at the hip we will see a much clearer picture and have a shimmering transcendent reference point.
We do NOT uphold the law
Paul states in Romans 3, “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.”
Many read this out of context without seeing the full picture that is being presented. The previous verse states, “For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.” And again a few verses before that he states,”But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.” One minute Paul is telling us we are justified apart from the law and then in the very next he is trying to say we still uphold the law? What gives?
It is simple really. When he states that we uphold the law he is not saying that we live by or that we rely on in it in any sense but he is simply stating that the law has its proper place. Just like something lurking in the shadows has its proper place but once a light is shined into the shadows what is lurking is clearly seen and understood. They are two separate realities and they cannot coexist. The only connection they have is that the true substance casts the shadow. Now a shadow can be interpreted as many different types of figures: to one person the shadow can appear as a Christ-like figure to another as a devil and to another as an ice cream cone. That says nothing about the true substance other than that it is impossible to interpret by means of a shadow. Paul states in Galations 4, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace.” There you have it.
Bottom line is they do not and cannot co-exist. To mix law with grace is to end up with a stiff cold hard drink of nothing but law. So for reason of misinterpretation and misunderstanding of this verse, I will say we do NOT uphold the law and neither do we uphold grace. Grace upholds us.
The secret is out
Something transcendent is woven into every single one of our ordinary day to day lives. Every breath, every fiber and every cell is laced with it.
The condemnation card is not in Gods hand
God does not condemn us. So who does? Religion, the world, the devil? If we believe in the liberty of the gospel this so called condemnation will not sting us or even singe us. We will walk through its flames with out being burned. Those who do not believe still hold onto old belief systems that divide everything according to the tree of knowledge of good and evil and not according to the tree of life which is the tree of inclusion and reconciliation. Does unbelief affect our inclusion? Hell no! But it can affect our enjoyment of that reality drastically.
The silver screen
All of history has taken place ‘in’ God. From the most atrocious acts to the most benevolent deeds. The whole story plays out on his silver screen; in his theatre. That’s how God upholds the past, present, and future. When we listen to his/her narrative is when we get the full scoop on things and see all happening’s, all the whys and how’s. This isn’t heard by a book but by our hearts and our open ears
The Christian Christ and His Awakening
What would Christ say to an unbeliever on The Day of Judgement? According to Christianity He will say something like, “You did not believe in my redemption therefore you shall burn eternally!” As an unbeliever my reply would be,”well neither was I a believer in Adams failure so we are even…I have not died nor raised just been alive this whole time. I believe in an everlasting union between all existence and the divine.”
The Christ of Christianity would probably then at that very moment wake up and be converted, take off his crown of thorns, and retire to a life of unending love and bliss.
The dungeon of redemption
What we see when we look into the reality of Gods wrath is not a torture chamber set up for a malfunctioned humanity but instead a most scandalous and benevolent redemption. The story of the most miserable hell that humanity could concoct for itself through a mindset plagued by a persuasion of alienation and illusion interrupted by the divines response and narrative, not in agreement per se but in compliance, we could only imagine Gods response….
“If this is the hell and so called truth that you believe in let me take it upon my shoulders, crucify and bury it, then raise you up to a perspective free of alienation and illusion. There I will reveal to you a oneness and Union that has always existed between us that can in reality never be broken or interrupted.”
It is wrath against deaths illusion of alienation and sin consciousness, not a ‘sinful’ humanity. This doesn’t bring us into a state of torment as a millennia of bad doctrine would have us believe but into a state of liberty and bliss.
Invincible summer
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
-Albert Camus
Sin: a modern day irrelevancy
According to either a literal or allegorical interpretation of the bible the problem of sin and ‘original sin’ is clearly solved.
Summary (the crux):
(Take in mind that both examples of cause and effect took place without anybody else’s hand, faith, or acceptance in the matter)
In the beginning….The so called first Adam plagued the whole human race (the good, the bad, and the ugly) by his sin/fall.
In the end…..The so called second Adam – The Christ unplagued and restored the same whole human race (the good, the bad, and the ugly) by his death and resurrection.
Case in point.
So where is the evidence to make a legitimate case for exclusion, condemnation, fear of judgement and urgency to get people saved if all have already been saved from every so called ‘debt’, and if every charge has been absolved? Where is the ‘sin’ in that and where else is salvation needed?
Sounds to me like a finished deal and a non-issue.
Jesse A. Kelley 