The big question arises: “What is the dream of God?” The dream of God is, simply, the glory of God. The “glory of God” is a religious-sounding phrase that points back to the Garden of Eden; the desire of God is for the universe to be like it was when He first created it. When we read the Genesis texts of what the world was like back before sin plagued the universe, we find that mankind existed in an interactive, dynamic dance involving God and creation. Sadly, this dream has been lost. Why? As Romans 3.23 puts it, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” God did something very dangerous, something the angels may have found peculiar or even borderline foolish: He made a creature and gave this creature free will, the ability to choose between two polar opposites. In other words, God gave the creatures the ability to abandon the Garden; He warned them not to, but they did. We follow in their footsteps. We have left the garden of the “glory of God” and have embraced a life totally opposite of God’s desires: a life of selfishness, greed, and indifference to God and man (in short, a life of sin!). God did not create sin; we are its makers. God did not urge us to sin; He warned us against it! God is not the cause of all the suffering and pains of our world: we are!
Yet God has not abandoned us; rather, propelled by His love, He intervened, even to the point of taking on human form and being executed as a criminal, mocked and beaten and humiliated by the very creatures He adores. What is the point of the cross? The point of the cross is not merely forgiveness; yes, the cross brings us forgiveness, yet this forgiveness paves the way to something great: reconciliation. The Greek word from whence our English “reconciliation” comes from is apokatallasso; it means, literally, to return to a state of former harmony. Another Greek word for “reconciliation” is diallasso; this is the inauguration of friendship between two people. Through the cross, God returns us to the “glory of God” and befriends us, we who were formerly His enemies! Through the cross, we have become friends with God! A beautiful text in the Old Testament shows how great friendship with God is. Moses ascends a mountain two times, and both times God appears to him. The first time God appears in thunder and lightning, fire and earthquake. The second time God appears with a banquet, laughter, and a brilliant blue sky. It is a scary thing to be enemies with God (the first ascent), but a beautiful thing to be His friends (the second ascent). In Christ, through the cross, we become “friends of God.” We return to the “glory of God.”
How do we experience the glory of God now, in our daily, mundane lives? The three cornerstones of the glory of God are connection with God, connection with humanity, and connection with creation. Through the cross, we are able to be intimate with God. In Old Testament times, God’s people could not come into His presence; to do so was to die! When Jesus died, the curtain separating the people from God’s presence was torn in two, signifying something great coming into being: now we can bathe in God’s presence, commune with Him daily, converse with Him and hear His tender voice. Through the cross, we are able to commune with humanity in the body of Christ; the followers of Christ unite together, loving one another with kindness, compassion, servitude, and friendship. Through the cross, we are able to be connected with creation in a way we will not finally understand until we get to heaven.
Yet we do not experience the glory of God now in its totality; the day is coming, however, when we will experience a return to
The dream of God is for the universe to be reconciled with Him. His dream is for the return of the glory of God. “So what?” begs the question. We all have a choice to make: heaven or hell? This is not a matter of mere destination; we must choose whether to bring heaven to earth or to bring hell to earth; we must choose whether to bring God’s dream to earth or poison the creation with our own self-centered dreams.
“How do we bring heaven to earth?” First, we become children of God through Christ. We experience the salvation of God through faith, repentance, confession, and baptism. Second, we begin living the lifestyle of Christ in all arenas of our existence, public and private: we embrace a lifestyle of selflessness, sacrifice, serving others, humility, kindness, compassion and justice. In short, we embrace and live-out a lifestyle of divine love. Third, we bring God’s dream to earth by inviting others into the dream of God.
Yet we can also choose to bring hell to earth. We rebel against God, or we blatantly ignore Him. We remain children of the devil, enemies with God. We live the lifestyle of “the world”: a lifestyle of selfishness, greed, and indifference to God and man (the opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference). We use and abuse others, urging those without God to dig deeper holes for themselves.
As I stand here today, the choice is yours: “Will you bring heaven—or hell—to earth?” Will you embrace the dream of God or cling to your own futile, empty, suffocating dreams? No matter your decision, God’s dream is coming true. Depending on the paths we take in this life, we will either live with God in His dream for eternity—an eternity that starts now!—or we will receive that which we deserve and that which we’ve chosen every time we rebelled against God or ignored Him: hell in this life and in the next.
No comments:
Post a Comment