Wrath in the Context of the Trinity

"For a small moment, I have forsaken thee; but with great mercies, I will gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting loving-kindness, I will have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Isaiah 54:7, 8

Juxtaposed next to God's love is another immutable quality of His character: holiness. Holiness is defined as "moral perfection," perfection is defined as "completeness" or "wholeness." Within God's character, there is no deficiency, defect, or divide. In can be said that, because God is perfect, that His holiness is a perfect holiness, a whole moral wholeness, i.e., a moral wholeness that is constant. He is not morally whole sometimes and morally unwhole other times; He is in a constant state of moral wholeness. He is 'wholly holy,' so to speak. Likewise, if God is perfect, then His love is perfect as well, i.e., His communion is complete and whole; there is no shadow of severance within God's communal nature. Thus within the Trinity, we see two factors played out: perfect holiness and love, perfect wholeness and communion. It is the picture of absolutely immutable unity.

Whereas the Trinity carries with it the sense of absolute immutable unity, Sin carries with it the sense of absolute immutable separation, separation between God and man, man and man, man and creation, and man and himself. Sin divides; the Trinity unites. Those who are bound to Sin by Adam (and continue therein) are bound (and continue to bind themselves) to division, and the Trinity has no part in them; likewise, those who are bound to the Trinity by Christ are bound to unity, and Sin has no part in them. The Trinity is the fulfillment of communion, while Sin is communion's dissolvement. The two are oil and water: the one displaces the other. The wages of Sin, the natural consequence of being bound to Sin, is separation from God, and separation from God is death (and thus the further separations of man result). To be separated from God, from the Trinity, from absolute and perfect moral wholeness and personal communion, is to be separated from true life, and thus it is death.

The space-time realities of God's wrath upon the peoples of earth must be viewed within the context of God as absolute immutable unity and Sin as absolute immutable separation. When once you bind yourself to Sin, "the death sentence is at work in you," as Mr. Chambers would say. It is at work because what indeed is the natural consequence of turning from God, absolute unity, the source of life? The only other ground to run to is absolute separation, the source of death. When people Sin against God, when they cling to death and separation over life and unity, life and unity withdraws itself from us (for what fellowship has unity with separation?), and we are left to the consequences.

Thus, within the context of the Trinity, we see God is Love, and thus is Savior: He desires communion with us, because it is His nature to desire communion with others. We also see, however, that God is Holy, and thus is Judge: His very presence is the destruction of separation, because it is His nature to be whole and complete. Let no man say that God desires separation, that He desires the death of the wicked; He does not. His holiness demands separation Sin; His love demands communion with us.

"Holiness and Love

Burning forever

In Divine Dance.

Sweep us up into such Joy..."

-Jon Vowell

Commentary on "The Gospel in the Context of the Trinity"

From a discussion between fellow believers on Facebook:

Bro S asked: "Do you think God can commune with people who are 'positionally' righteous (i.e., righteous in Christ) but not personally righteous (i.e., righteous in their own actions)?"

JLV responds: Being positionally righteous is what gives you the power and motive force (i.e., the indwelling Holy Spirit) to be personally righteous. If you have a complete lack of personal righteousness, I would question your positional righteousness.
Still, I understand and agree with you that are actions can affect our communion with God, but only as a hindrance or a help; they can neither abolish nor establish it. Christ's Atonement makes you positionally righteous, and thus reestablishes the communion man lost at the Fall. Your personal righteousness only serves to strengthen or weaken (or keep stagnant) that communion.

Bro JS asked: "Can one be 'personally' righteous in this life?"

JLV responds: We can be "personally" righteous, but only because we have been made "positionally" righteous. Remember, any righteous action we do is not us, but God working in and through us.

Bro JE asked: "Just curious about your phrase 'but are destined to stay separate from Him forever, which is the true meaning of Hell.' I understand that separation from God is part of hell, but there is a definite punitive aspect of hell, and that punishment must be meted out. That punishment only intensifies the abandonment...or the abandonment intensifies the punishment. They go hand in hand."

JLV responds: I do believe that there is a punitive aspect to Hell, and that the punishment and abandonment go hand in hand. However, I've believe that the punishment and abandonment are so hand in hand that they are one and the same.
For me, 'separation from God' is not merely a separation in regards to proximity (i.e., God's here and you're there). It is a complete severance from all that is good in the universe (i.e., God). God is the source of (and His very nature is made up of) all good things (e.g. the fruits of the Spirit). To separate from Him is to be separate from those things and bound to their opposites.
God is light; to be separate from Him is to know only darkness. God is love; to be separate from Him is to know only hatred. God is peace; to be separate from Him is to know only confusion and chaos. God is joy; to be separate from Him is to know only sorrow. Etc., etc. My definition of Heaven is absolute communion (i.e., complete unification) with God; thus, my definition of Hell is absolute communion (i.e., complete unification) with not-God. To be bound in an intimate and total way to God is heaven; to be bound in an intimate and total way to everything God is not is hell.
Therefore, the abandonment is the punishment because it is a complete severance from God and thus a complete unification with all He is not (e.g., darkness, hatred, chaos, sorrow, etc.). When we desire God, our desire becomes our reward; when we desire not-God, our desire becomes our punishment.

The Gospel in the Context of the Trinity

"For thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer [is] the Holy One of Israel, The God of the whole earth shall He be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God." Isaiah 54:5, 6

The idea of God as a romantic (in a relational and not literary sense) strikes many as unconventional, especially men (God is my husband?). Imagery aside, however, the thing to grasp here is that God desires communion with you: to love, to have and to hold. Regardless of gender, all people desire to be desired; whether for beauty or strength, all people long to be wanted by another. The desire for communion with others is a fundamental element of humanity, and the Bible tells us the shocking truth that the terrible and glorious Almighty desires to commune with us.

Now, there is a difference between desire and need. God desires communion with us, but He does not need it. Existing as the Trinity, God is in an eternal, perfect communion and society within Himself; He needs nothing more. The flip side of all this is that the truth of God existing as the Trinity is the fundamental reality behind the oft over quoted and misquoted phrase, "God is love," i.e., God's very nature is bound up in communion with others. Thus, we see two facts that emerge from God existing as a Trinity: He does not need to commune with us, for He is in perfect communion always; He does desire to commune with us because it is His very nature to commune with others. Note that the reason God desires communion with us has everything to do with Him, not us. There is nothing in us that merits God's desire; His desire springs from His own nature and nowhere else. Though we are unlovable, God loved us; while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Of course, Christ is the fullest expression and proof of God's love for us (Romans 5:8), and He came to 'make us lovable,' i.e., make us so that we can commune with God. That God desires to commune and whether or not He can commune are two different things. God cannot commune with Sin (for Sin is the rejection of and separation from God), and we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). Thus, unless something drastically changes within us, we cannot commune with God, but are destined to stay separate from Him forever, which is the true meaning of Hell (Matthew 7:23 & 25:41; notice the use by multiple translations of the word "depart"). At the Cross of Christ, however, a transaction was made. Christ, who was and is God, took our Sin upon Himself and in return gave us His righteousness, i.e., God's righteousness (II Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, Christ has (through the Cross) made a way for us to be made lovable, by making us a way to become like Love Himself. Having been 'made lovable,' (i.e., saved) by Christ, commune with God is now possible, but only if we (1) believe that Christ is the only way to be 'made lovable,' and (2) accept such a salvation (for a gift is not yours until you accept it).

Thus, by accepting the salvation found only in Christ, that which separates us from God (i.e., Sin) is done away with, and our communion with Him is restored. It is restored becomes Sin (that which absolutely separates) has been removed, and Love (that which absolutely unites) has replaced it. Therefore, the gospel is about love, romance, about God desiring us and making a way for us to commune with Him. We can reject such communion if we wish, but we do so at our own peril.

"All consuming Love and Passion,

Holy Fire of pain and pleasure,

Draw us deeper still

Into the Light of Your Glory and Grace..."

-Jon Vowell

The Ultimate Happening

"...that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, who calls thee by thy name, am the God of Israel." Isaiah 45:3b

God's workings in our lives are always in order to bring us into an understanding of Himself. Many today are under the foolish notion that God is working to get things done. That is utter nonsense. Things do not need to be done, they are done: God's will is an unstoppable rolling tide whose breakers will crash upon the shore with or without us (God prefers that it would be with us). From where God sits, all things are finished, as good as done; the thought that we can help or hinder His will is utter prideful foolishness.
God never calls us to works or ministries, He always calls us to Himself; whether or not we are led through works or ministries of whatever kind is none of our business. The ultimate happening is God, not our circumstances or situations. God engineers our happenstance in order to bring us to Him, not to fill some quota. The finished product of all of our lives is intimate communion with God.
"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee," (John 17:3) not "work for thee" but "know thee." God is neither haphazard nor utilitarian; He is strictly a lover, and all things are ordered towards our good (Romans 8:28), and that good is oneness with Him.

"Draw me close to You;
May I never let you go.
Help me see how all things
Are to lead me to You..."
-Jon Vowell

The Knowing that Glorifies

"[Every]one that is called by my name...I have created Him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.... Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant who I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He. Before me, there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me." Isaiah 43:7, 10

The purpose of our existence is the knowledge of God; and through that knowledge, we glorify Him. By "knowledge," I do not mean the accumulation of facts, but the idea of intimate communion. The "knowledge" of God is trinitarian: it is the complete enmeshing of one person with another. Intimate communion is the way to know a person; abstract reasoning can only take you so far. God was meant to be known, not studied.
By "glorify," I do not mean mere worship or evangelism. I also mean that, in intimate communion with God, you are drawn more and more into Him; and by that drawing in, you become more and more like Him. Thus, the knowledge of God glorifies God because the more we partake in intimate communion with Him, the more we disappear and the more He remains. By this, we become a living channel of His presence, and therefore His glory.

"To know You and be known,
Me in You and You in I,
Wed to Fire that burns and soothes.
Oh the agony and the ecstasy..."
-Jon Vowell

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

"At that time [the king of Babylon] sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and was recovered. And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his precious things...Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah...'Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house...shall be carried to Babylon, nothing shall be left, saith the Lord.'" Isaiah 39:1-8

This was not a punishment; this was a reality check. Hezekiah's flaunting did not cause the Babylonian exile; the exile was an inevitable consequence from things before Hezekiah's time. What God did here was demonstrate to him how the impending exile rendering all his flaunting foolishness, i.e., shatter his supposed reality with His true Reality. "Why do you treat like friends those who are not your friends? Why are you obsessing with that which does not matter?" Good question.
One of the biggest caveats to being a Christian in the modern world (both of the East and West) is the danger of being swept up into a corporate consumeristic materialism. This is not merely "mega church" syndrome. This is "the American Dream" syndrome. If you want to do or be anything or something around these parts (or so we are told), you need money, status, and power. To get that, you must throw yourself, body and soul, into the world corporate machine, or into a business endeavor. You have to "know people," you have to "schmooze," play politics, jump through hoops, dance, play ball, etc., etc. The tragic irony of it all is that once you have finally got the money, status, and power, your life is now consumed with the pursuit of them, and all spiritual applications of your life are left to the back burner. In trying to be useful to God, we become absolutely useless. In trying to serve Him, we serve ourselves. In trying to love Him, we become friends of this world. If one could just stand back and take in the whole horrific scope of our "busy-ness," our frittering and fluttering about, one would be led to ask, "What are we doing?"
God does not need money, either yours or others. He does not need your talents and abilities. He does not need your usefulness. He does not need your wit or wisdom. He does not need your pluck or personality. He does not need your humor. He does not need your sense of fashion or style. He does not need your creativity or "new" ideas. He does not need your strength or determination. He does not need your political candidate. He does not need your political party. He does not need your country. He does not need your denomination. He does not need your translation of the Bible. He does not need you to save souls. He does not need your service. He does not need your praise. He does not need your sermons and your lessons. He does not need what you "know." He does not need what you are. He does not need anything. What He wants, what His will is for you is (please pardon the cliche) for you to "let go and let God," i.e., stop trying to tell God what kind of person He gets to use and start letting Him make you into the person that He wants to use, i.e., a spitting image of Himself, a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29).
Jesus Christ is not a cookie cutter. God is not monotony, sterility, and generality. All the unique elements of your person that He created will be brought to bear in a life of Christ-likeness. However, all those elements too often become distractions and hindrances to God's will for us when we get wrapped up in them and not in Him. "Oh God! I am so beautiful! So witty! So talented! So smart! So useful!" No you are not. You are nothing without Him (John 15:5). You can offer Him nothing (Philippians 3:4-11). All you can offer (pardon another cliche) is yourself (Romans 12:1), the real you, the one unhindered by fleeting wishes, wants, desires, and ambitions. God wants to take our fading dreams and gives us His own eternal ones, to make His desire our own. That can only happen when we stop dictating to Him how things are going to work and start being swept up into Him.
We so easily take our eye off of the ball. God does not need anything from us, nor does He even need us. The wonder is that (despite His lack of need) He still wants to use us, to take us into Himself and make us one with Him; but to do it as He says, not as we say. We do not know ourselves as well as He does. What we see as a talent could actually be a hindrance that must be removed, and what we see as a triviality (or even a weakness) could actually be what God plans to use (What good are the skills of a shepherd on the field of battle? And yet the giant was not slain by a warrior). The key here is that we do not get wrapped up in ourselves, in what we "can" and "cannot" do or be; but get wrapped up in God, Who He is, what He does, and what He is doing and being through us. To put it simply: keep your eye on the ball, i.e., God. That was king Hezekiah's foul--He thought he knew what was up, what he was doing. God demonstrated that he did not: "You think you know what's up? Here's the reality. All 'your' greatness, I will give to Babylon."
Do we keep our eye on the ball? Do we live in the reality of God? Do we walk in that light? Do we realize that life is found, not in doing things or being something for Him, but by being swept up into Him (John 17:3)? Do we realize (as Lewis put it) that our lives are "a perpetual Evangel, a story written by the finger of God," and not written by our own finger? Are we ready and willing to stop distracting ourselves with our own stories, our own plans and our own knowledge, and let God take us "further up and further in" to the adventure that is Himself? Are we finally ready to stop flaunting our feathers before Babylonian kings and start letting all become shadows as we stand in the light of His presence? That is true Christianity; that is what it means to be "Christ-like"; that is eternal life. The burning question is, "Are you ready?"

"Let Your Presence, like a fire
Burn all dross and tin away.
Lead me ever away from me,
And take me further up and further in
To You..."
-Jon Vowell

The Dramatic and the Subtle

"And this shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He hath spoken: 'Behold, I will bring again the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.' So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down." Isaiah 38:7, 8 (Rev. Marg.)

God's miracles are not His "bail out" maneuver. He does not do them simply because someone needs bailed out of their problems. He does them for one reason only: to reveal His control of all things and His will for all things. His control is dramatic, but His will is subtle. "This sign shall be so that you will know that the Lord will do this thing that He hath spoken." The dramatic miracle (i.e., moving the sun back ten degrees) was a seal of certainty on the subtle miracle (i.e., Hezekiah's sickness).
Such a thing has happened before. God did not send the ten plagues on Egypt because there was no other way to save His people. The plagues taught Israel, as well as Egypt, Who was in control. They were the dramatic miracle; the grand, subtle miracle of His will was the covenant of Mt. Sinai. No flash, no flair; just God's promise that Israel would always be His people. Why was the promise certain? "I am the Lord thy God, Who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus 20:2) The dramatic made certain the subtle.
Jesus was the same. The grand, subtle miracle of the Incarnation was preluded by the dramatic of a virgin birth, angels in the heavens, and a star in the sky. The grand, subtle miracle of Christ's ministry was the redemption of the atonement, a redemption hid within the agony of the cross. What purpose served all that flair and publicity, all those calming of storms and the feeding of thousands? So that all would know that He is who He said He is: the Son of God, the Messiah come to redeem all people. Again, the dramatic made certain the subtle.
The grand, subtle miracle of the Christian life is that intimate communion with God (John 17:3, 20-23). There will be moments, if we are awake, when drama comes, when the bill gets paid, when the work gets completed, when the disease his gone, when the unconquerable obstacle is suddenly overcome. We are to revel and glorify in such things, but remember that they are not the keynote of our lives. They are "signs" pointing us to the real keynote. They are but glorious echoes leading us to the real song, a song that is much deeper and more hidden, that is "further up and further in." It is the song of the inner workings of our communion with God, of our union with the most terrifying and intoxicating of presences, a song that will culminate in a crescendo that is never-ending. The dramatic makes certain the subtle: these miraculous things that happen in our lives are precious reminders of the reality of our communion with God. He has not, will not, and shall not forget His beloved; and all these signs make that sure. They are, however, mere taste of the water that we will one day drown in with wondrous rapture.
If you ever find yourself asking how these things can be, watch for or remember when those precious reminders came, and remember that "these shall be a sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He hath spoken."

"Heaven is with us,
In the moment, every moment,
Heaven in the here and now.
What bubbles to the surface are mere glimpses
Of the deeper Life to come..."
-Jon Vowell

I Tremble at the Thought...

"...the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." Isaiah 37:32b

Most people get befuddled by the relationship between God's sovereignty and man's freewill, but I find the relationship between His sovereignty and His zeal to be more interesting (and scandalous in its implications). Ask yourself: If God knows all and is in control of all, why is He zealous about anything? Why is He zealous to defend His city and His people? Surely He knows that the Assyrians cannot win against Him? That they cannot take one step without Him? You would think a God with completely control and power would yawn at the flagrant claims of Sennacherib, or any other king. Why, then, does the Bible say that He laughs (Psalm 2:1-4)? What's so funny about things going according to plan? In short, if God is sovereign over all, then on what grounds does He interact with this world with life and energy and zeal? Even shorter: why do we not have the God of the deists? The plan will go as He set it; why such zealous involvement? Why any involvement at all?
I know that there may be deep, theological answers to such queries that a scholar could easily give you. I am not a scholar, and will not try to attempt such answers. I do have two thoughts, however. First of all, God's zeal should be a wondrous reminder to us that God is a person and not a machine. The premium mobile has a heart; the first cause has love and passionate zeal. We do not communion with mere brain.
That communion is the second thought. God is intimate. There is no aloofness, no ivory tower. He is with us always (whether we want Him or not). For some reason, God felt that overarching sovereignty was not enough, that it would make Him (dare we say it?) incomplete. He could not be merely in control of all things; He had to be with all things. Not that He needed to be with all things (for He needs nothing), but that His very nature implies not only all-encompassing sovereignty, but also intimate communion with all that is from Him and of Him. He is paradoxically enmeshed with and independent from His creation; it is not Him, and He is not it, and yet they are one.
If you think such an intimate relationship (one, yet separate) is impossible, you are a blatant liar (or an ignorant fool). Such a unity is known to humanity on its concrete plane, known in a form that only lovers or poets can utter with any clarity. Can it be that the human act hailed as the most animal is in fact the most sacred? Is that so called (and vulgarly called) "biological function" humanity's fullest imitation, on the physical plane, of the very nature of God Himself? I believe it is.
Furthermore (and I tremble at the thought), could it be that this unity (one, yet separate) that is the nature of God, which humans share with each other (how amazing the idea!), is the same basis by which God relates to us? Again, I believe it is, and again, I tremble at the thought; not out of fear, but of wonder. We (through Christ) are made one with God as a lover is one with a lover? Scandalous; yet, apparently, the truth.

"Your Love is Extravagant.
Your Friendship, it is Intimate..."
(from Casting Crowns)
-Jon Vowell