His Word Enfleshed
How Humans Become the Language of God
I was finally home after a long trip overseas. It was good to be back, although my two brothers, the way they were acting— it seemed like something had changed. They told me about a South African preacher who had spoken at their churches. After the message, he had called for all who were sick to come up and be healed. He even had one of my brothers stand directly behind him with one hand on his shoulder, so that any doubt about what was going to happen would be removed.
Naturally, my curiosity was piqued.
I’ll never forget the night I made it to one of his services. A Scripture was being unpacked that evening over the crowd:
God’s love has reached its goal in us.
So we look ahead with boldness to the day of judgment.
Because even as He is, so are we in this world. —1 John 4:17
The text seemed to grow in power and scope as the preacher handled the revelation, diamond-like, making it tilt and burn.
As Jesus is, so are we in this world…
As Jesus is now, not as He was…
…so are we
…not in the afterlife, but now, in this world.
It caught me off guard, to the point that I was trembling. I didn’t know what was going on, just that whatever it was, it felt like something deeply set was shifting. It echoes still.
From So-so News to the Excellent
At that time in my life, I was deeply entrenched in neo-Calvinism. In the famous acronym, TULIP, the letter “T” symbolized the total depravity of man, a doctrine that teaches that humanity is not only wretched due to sin, but (at least among the circles I was running with) in their fallen state had little or no worth in themselves. It should come as no surprise, then, that in my life and ministry I held a very negative view of people, especially in their relation to God.
Aside from its undoubtedly Augustinian roots, one source that may have further popularized this sentiment, at least in North America, is a line repeated in country singer George Jones’ Sinners & Saints:
Nobody’s perfect, we’re just flesh and blood
One foot on the high road, one in the mudThere’s a mighty fine line between right and wrong
Don’t point your finger, don’t matter which side you’re onThe only thing different in sinners and saints
One is forgiven and the other one ain’t.
One must admit, the heart of this lyric is in the right place. It appeals to the same issue that Jesus so powerfully addressed to the Pharisees in the story of the prodigal son. However, what should be said is that the songwriter doesn’t take grace nearly far enough. The consequence, to be honest, is that many evangelicals see grace as a sort of one-time “bath” (one which is, perhaps, depending on the circle, product-accessorized), instead of the spiritual equivalent of gene therapy.
Back to the point, psychological research points to a natural correlation between the way you value yourself and the way you value others. This is, undoubtedly, an echo of Imago Dei. When you don’t — well, the side effects in my case were a fundamental unwillingness to listen to unbelievers as well as Christians who did not hold my view, coupled with a style of evangelism that was more bull-in-a-china-shop than the gracious intuition of, say, a Paul-in-Athens.
However, now was different —the issue had become personal. I began to search . Obviously, the preacher’s text was in the Bible, but I felt I needed to find out from the Scriptures exactly how true the idea was that we were like Jesus.
By the time I stopped, more than thirty-five items lay before me. In my journal, in stark black-and-white stood dozens of descriptions of Jesus that correlated with descriptions of human beings in light of Jesus:
- As Jesus is the Son of God, so I am a son of God in this world.
- As Jesus is the image of God so I have been created in God’s image in this world.
- As Jesus is the righteousness of God, so I have become the righteousness of God in this world.
- As Jesus is the glory of God, so I am the glory of God in this world.
- As Jesus is the light of the world, so I am a light in this world.
- As Jesus came by the Spirit, and was baptized by the Spirit, so I am born again by the Spirit and joined with him.
- As Jesus is the Anointed One, so I have been anointed by him in this world.
- As Jesus is the king of kings, so I have been made a king in this world.
- As Jesus is the great high priest, so I have been made a priest in this world.
- As Jesus is the most free being that has ever been, so I am free in this world.
And on an on it went, with several attested multiple times throughout Scripture.
The light turned on. So, it was true. As Peter wrote, here were “great and precious promises,” through which we might “share in the divine nature.” I felt stunned as realization began to dawn that so much truth had been bitterly concealed by a lie.
As you might guess, it was the beginning of a journey out of a fruitless focus on the inherent worthlessness of man and into a bold and fragrant belief in the value of the Christian, people in general, and, most surprisingly, myself.
For the first time, I saw that, like Jesus —our paragon and prototype — man was designed to be his Word in the flesh. The ideas and rationale of God fleshed out in a creature. That, where Adam had failed, Christ was the firstborn of a new species that embodied the vocabulary, archetypes and expressions of the Godhead (you might see yourself as a kind of creole, but no matter). Taken together, we are to be the translation team of heaven on earth.
Certain passages began to gleam afresh in that between-the-lines kind of way:
Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We [Word] will come to him and make Our home with him [flesh].
May they [flesh] also be one in Us [Word], so the world may believe You sent Me [Word]. I have given them [flesh] the glory You have given Me [Word].
Now if Christ [Word] is in you [flesh], the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ [Word] in you [flesh], the hope of glory.
A Fox in the Classist Henhouse
This notion of the saint’s divine identity is not at all unorthodox in historic Christianity. In all seriousness, what else could be inferred from the term, new creation? Or body of Christ? Or bride, for that matter?
On this point, I found a compelling voice in the notorious iconoclast George Fox (1624 -1691). In many ways, the life experiences of this historical figure still parallels modern controversies of Christian thought. Due largely to his radical convictions, a three-way battle arose between himself, the monarchy and the Puritans.
The point of controversy is apparent from things like this introduction to his personal journal:
“[Fox] met the doctrine of the divine right of kings with the conviction of the divine right of man. Every man is to be treated as a man. He was a leveler, but he leveled up not down. Every man was to be read in terms of his possibilities — if not of royal descent, certainly of royal destiny. This view made Fox an unparalleled optimist. He believed that a mighty transformation would come as soon as men were made aware of this divine relationship which he had discovered. They would go to living as he had done, in the power of this conviction.
“He began at once to put in practice his principle of equality — i.e. equality of privilege. He cut straight through the elaborate web of social custom which hid man’s true nature from himself. Human life had become “sicklied o’er with a cast of sham, until man had half forgotten to act as man.” Fox rejected for himself every social custom which seemed to him to be hollow and to belittle man himself. The honour which belonged to God he would give to no man, and the honour which belonged to any man he gave to every man. The Lord Protector and the humble cotter were addressed alike. He had an eye for the person of great gifts and he never wished to reduce men to indistinguishable atoms of society, but he was resolved to guard the jewel of personality in every individual — man or woman.”
As an aside, the impact of George Fox’s unassailable belief in the value of man is undeniable. His influence, and that of the Society of Friends, much more than the Puritans helped spark an international awakening on the issue of slavery.
But, what one gathers from this, and which theorists like Marx and Engels fatally couldn’t see past, at least in The Communist Manifesto, is that problems of inequality go way beyond mere classism — or even sexism, or racism. What Fox saw, perhaps, was that in the kingdom there’s a “melting point” so to speak, where elements that might seem different outwardly, at a certain “temperature” see that what they share (or are being invited into) is far deeper and more important than any perceived differences. In becoming members of a whole, one realizes that melanin, ethnicity and even culture itself are but the merest properties of what it means to be a human being.
One may rightly argue that Jesus came to bring a totally new way of life, a transcendent society that finally addresses but is not tied to the griefs of the past.
In this sense, the purpose of the poured out Holy Spirit was to guarantee that, though the Son of Man had ascended into heaven, the Anointing remained incarnate in the physical realm. It is one reason why Jesus taught that Holy Spirit would convict the world about “righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me.” Here, I believe righteousness includes a right view of ourselves, and not only right living.
But, at this point, the question often arises — why do we, the supposed righteousness of God, still continue to sin?
Find out in The Black Hole in Our Gospel.
Thank you for reading. Besides being a Fox diehard, I’m a graphic designer and Bible instructor who believes in the power of fellowship over the written word. May the peace of Jesus rest on you today.
N E X T → Falling From the Rich Man’s Table
When the Merciful Rise ← P R E V I O U S
