The Only Moment There Is

The Incarnation of Christ is not only the union of divinity with humanity, of God with humankind, it is also the union of eternity with time in such a way that time is transfigured. This is why Paul can speak of us as being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And why John the Beloved, in the book of Revelation, can speak of Christ as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 

The Moment of the Creation
Is the Moment of the Fall,
The Moment of our participation
In its downward spiral
    By our own thoughts and deeds.

But it is also the Moment of
The Incarnation and the Cross,
And of the Resurrection.
It is the Moment of Christ drawing
All Creation to Himself.

The Moment of Christ
Transforming All Creation,
Making All Things New,
Conforming All to the Image
Of the Divine.

The End is in the Beginning
And the Beginning is in the End,
In the One Eternal Moment.

My Heart is Not Proud

The journey has been long, and there is yet more to go. We have been to the bottom, cried out from the depths, learned humility, and there experienced the mercy of God. It does not answer all — or perhaps any — of our questions but it changes us. We have begun to realize that answers are not really what we are longing for. And now we are ready to move forward, not in pride of soul but in humility of heart. For in humility, there is hope.

My Heart Is Not Proud
(Psalm 131)

My heart is not proud
And neither my eyes
And I do not seek
To understand why
But I have stilled
And quieted my heart
And so have I placed
My hope in my God
© 2001 by Jeff Doles

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.

Baptism is a True Participation in Salvation

Baptism is not a work by which we merit salvation. It is a work of God in us, by Water and the Holy Spirit, and manifests our salvation in a very tangible way. It is a participation in salvation, in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. (Romans 6:3-5)

God really does something in baptism. We are really and truly baptized into the death of Christ. By baptism, we are really and truly buried with Christ. We are born again through the resurrection of Christ (1 Peter 1:3), and in baptism, we are really and truly united with Christ in his resurrection to walk in newness of life.

Baptism is symbol, but it is not empty symbol. A true symbol is a joining together; it is from the Greek symbolos, a compound of syn, together, and ballein, to cast or throw. Baptism truly casts us together with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

Out of the Depths

Now we come to a turning point in the journey. We began from far away in a land with no peace, and awakened to the joyful prospect of coming again to our heart’s true home in God. We have remembered how the Lord has delivered us in the past, how He has protected and provided, how He surrounds us on our journey and gives us rest. We have rejoiced in the Lord, the Righteous One, for He has been faithful to us.

But as we draw ever closer, we become more and more aware of something that has been going on inside us from the beginning, a calling out from the depths of our being. It is a deepening awareness of our many faults and failures, in the light of God’s faithfulness. And we realize our helplessness in the face of it. We are like Isaiah who, in his vision of the unfathomable glory of the Lord, experienced the profound sense of his own “unclean lips,” his own lack of righteousness (see Isaiah 6). Yet the Lord was faithful to cleanse and heal him, and we cry out to God for that same cleansing and healing. It is Christ and the Cross that we need, and with that assurance we can move forward and meet our God in the Holy Place.

Out of the Depths
(Psalm 130)

Out of the depths I cry
To You, O Lord
Now let Your ears hear my voice

If you should count my faults
Lord, who could stand?
In awe, we find that You forgive

How my soul waits for You
I wait for You
More than the watchman waits for dawn

Now let us trust in His unfailing love
He will redeem us from our sins
Himself redeem us from our sins
© 2001 by Jeff Doles

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.

Heal My Tangled Heart

Lord, you know everything
going on in my heart
better than I do.
I am a mix,
and I am a mess.

Come and heal my heart,
and put right everything
that is in me.
Amen.

How blessed it is when we come to our helplessness, for then we turn to the LORD, who loves us deeply and cares for us more than we can imagine, and He will gladly help and deliver us, even from the tangles or our heart. This is the judgment of God, the judgment of Love, for God is Love. It corrects us, sorts us out, and sets right the thoughts and intents of our heart. There is no hiding out from the Lord, and this, too, is blessedness, as the psalm writer understood very well:

You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
(Psalm 139:1-7, 23-24)

The Righteous Lord

They had been greatly oppressed, harnessed to the plow and run over time and again. But the Lord cut the straps that held them, the cords that bound them, and set them free. The testimony of Israel is that the Lord brought them up out of the land of bondage and into the Land of Promise. That is our testimony, too, for it is the same Lord Jesus who sets us free, and the same Cross by which we are redeemed. The Lord had been faithful to keep the covenant he made with their ancestors, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and would continue that faithfulness to them. That assurance enabled their perseverance so that they, too, would arrive safely at journey’s end.

The Righteous Lord
(Psalm 129)

From the days of my youth
All my enemies assailed
From the days of my youth
But they never did prevail
And the plowman plowed my back
And they made the furrows long
And the plowman plowed my back
And they made the furrows long

But the righteous Lord
Has cut me free
And the righteous Lord
Is keeping me moving on

They were grass on the roof
Where the grass will not grow
They were grass on the roof
Where the grass will not grow
And they turn from the Lord
He will turn them away
And they turn from the Lord
He will turn them away

But the righteous Lord
Has cut me free
And the righteous Lord
Is keeping me moving on
© 2001 by Jeff Doles

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.

God Reconciling Us to Himself

What does “separation from God” mean? Inasmuch as all are created through Christ, by Christ, for Christ and in Christ (Colossians 1:16-17), it is therefore actually impossible to be separated from God, for Christ is God, and everything exists in him, or else does not exist at all.

God has never separated himself from us. Though we turned away from God, God did not turn away from us. When Paul speaks about the reconciliation brought about by Christ and the blood of the cross, it is not about God reconciling himself to us but about God reconciling us to himself (Colossians 1:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:19). 

Whatever sense of separation there may have been was only in our own minds, not in the mind of God. It is the enmity of the fleshly mind (not controlled by the Spirit/spirit) that Paul speaks about in Romans 8:7, “The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.” The Cross did not change God’s mind about us but it changes our minds about God.

This enmity that was in our own minds was not any kind of punishment from God, nor does Scripture speak of it as such, but it is part of what we needed to be delivered from.

Inasmuch as “separation from God” is not any punishment imposed upon us by God, the Cross and the Atonement was not about Christ taking any such punishment upon himself in our place.

The Incarnation demonstrates that God did not separate himself from us. Quite the opposite, by the Incarnation, Christ, who is God, united himself with all humankind, joining God with all humanity.

It is simply not possible for Christ to be separated from God, because Christ is God. To speak of any separation within the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is to speak incoherently. Any theory of atonement that posits such a separation fails to understand the historic Christian faith and the doctrine of the Trinity.

So, the Cross was not about Christ being punished in our place. Nor was it about Christ being separated from God. It was not about reconciling God to us but about reconciling us to God. At the Cross, Christ was not drawing God to us but, rather, drawing all to himself (John 12:30-33; see The Cast Net).

When we make the Cross about Christ appeasing God, or changing God’s mind about us, or turning God back toward us, we have gotten the whole directionality of it exactly wrong. Penal theories of the atonement get it all backwards.

You Shall Be Happy

In the middle of the journey, the psalm writer speaks quite unabashedly about the blessing, the joy — the happiness — that attends those who honor the Lord and walk in His ways. Yes, there are dangers and difficulties encountered along the way, but there is also the protection and provision of God, the fellowship of friends and family, and the warmth of hearth and home. And in all things, the Lord reveals Himself to us in unexpected ways. Glory to God for all things.

You Shall Be Happy
(Psalm 128)

Blessed are you
Who worship the Lord
And all those who honor His name
Blessed are you
Who listen to His voice
And all those who walk in His ways
You shall be happy
It shall be well with you

Blessed be your household
It shall multiply
Many the ones at your table
Joy for your sorrow
Comfort for your tears
All that you need from your labors
You shall be happy
It shall be well with you

For so are the ones who are blessed by the Lord
So may the peace of the Lord be with you
© 2001 by Jeff Doles

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.

When I Hide and When I Confess

When I hide
In shame or pride,
I crumble inside.

When I confess
My mess,
I come to my rest.

Pride and shame are but two sides of the same coin. Both sides are false, teaching us lies about who we are. They create distance between us and others, and lead us to hide behind our false self, in denial, lest anyone discover what frauds we are.

But Lord Jesus sets us free from all that. For he is neither proud nor ashamed. He is humble. Yet he carried our pride and shame to the crossed and was crucified by them. He teaches us humility — and that is where we find our rest and become our true self.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry. (Matthew 11:28-30)

The Lord’s Gonna Give You Rest

This pilgrim journey is one of giving up the vain notion that everything — or anything — depends upon us, and coming to the place of humility, realizing how great is our helplessness. It is a joyful realization, for it means that we can cast all our cares, all our distracting thoughts, over onto the Lord, who loves us deeply and will take care of us always. Lord Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry” (Matthew 11:28-30).

The Lord’s Gonna Give You Rest
(Psalm 127)

Build a house, build a wall, build a city
That’s a mighty fine work,
But ain’t it a pity
It’s all gonna fail the test
Take some time, take some thought, take a minute
Did you ever ask yourself
If the Lord was in it?
As humble men will confess
Only the Lord’s gonna give you rest

You get up early and you’re staying up late
And you work like a mule to put food on your plate
You know, you settle for less
You keep depending on what you can do
And you’re forgetting all the love He has for you
He wants to give your His best
Only the Lord’s gonna give you rest

You don’t have to be afraid to grow older
I know they told you but it’s just not true
You don’t have to take the world on your shoulders
Just be faithful to the way He works in you

The road we’re traveling is straight and its narrow
But He’ll direct you like the bow directs the arrow
And He will give you success
And if you doubt that the Lord is a giver
Just remember all the children in your quiver
Then you will know you’ve been blessed
Only the Lord’s gonna give you rest
Only the Lord’s gonna give you rest
Only the Lord’s gonna give you rest
© 2001 by Jeff Doles

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.

The Cast Net

The gospel is not a transaction, or an offer. It is an announcement, and it is unconditional. It is not about what we must do but about what Christ has done, and is doing through the Holy Spirit.

Looking to the Cross, Lord Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself” (John 12:31-32).

The Greek word for “draw” literally means to drag, like a cast net. Christ has been lifted up from the earth and has cast his net, drawing all, gathering all, dragging all, to himself.

St. Paul said that it is the goodness of God the leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). And the grace of God has appeared, giving salvation to all and teaching us to live righteously and godly in this present age (Titus 2:11-12). And so Christ crucified, risen and ascended gathers all to himself.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Draw us all into the Eternal Bliss
Of Your Divine Fellowship.
Amen.

The Lord Will Redeem All Our Years

Our journey well under way, singing the goodness of the Lord, we are glad, full of joy. But all the while, we are mindful that there are others who are yet far away, and we hold them in our heart. For they are part of us, and we are not complete without them. So, as we travel this pilgrim way, we pray, sowing our tears in hope of joyful reunion at journey’s end.

The Lord Will Redeem All Our Years
(Psalm 126)

When the Lord brought us back to our homeland
We were like people who dream
We had begun to believe that
It was something we never would see
And our hearts were all filled up with laughter
And our laughter was filled up with joy
And the joy inside us was singing
Of the things that were done by the Lord
Things that were done by the Lord

As the rain swells the streams of the desert
And the water brings life to the land
May the Lord look upon us from heaven
To bring life to His people again
For we’ve sown many seeds in our sorrow
And we’ve sown many seeds in our tears
But we wait for the joy of the harvest
When the Lord will redeem all our years
And the Lord will redeem all our years
© 2001 by Jeff Doles

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.

What Great Love the Father Has Lavished

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us.” Lavished! I love that word. It speaks of generosity, abundance, extravagance and grace. It reminds me of the extravagant love of the father in Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son (see here and here). So, I like that the New International Version uses this word to translate didomi (in its perfect tense). The King James Version, too, renders the line very nicely: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” It is freely given to us.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

What manner of love is this? How magnanimous and strange and unexpected it is. See what God has done in his great love for us: He has called us his children — children of God. He is not unapproachable deity, for he has come and revealed himself fully to us in Christ the Son, for Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

The Father has bestowed his love upon us, lavished it upon us without condition and without boundary. God, who is love, has given us what and who he is — divine love. He has given us himself in intimate relationship.

Children of God is not what we must aspire to and somehow accomplish. Children of God is what we are — right here and right now, fully and completely. We will never be more the children of God, more loved and accepted by God, than we are in this present moment.

We are children of God not because of anything we have done, not even by our faith, but because of what God has done for us in Christ. That is the gospel truth about every one of us. But the world does not recognize the truth of this; it does not recognize our identity — and their own identity — in Christ because it did not recognize Christ himself.

When John says that all who have this hope purify themselves, he does not mean that they go to work, do the do and clean themselves up. That would be to miss the point about our identity in Christ. It would fold being back into doing and collapse everything down into moralism and legalism. We do not become children of God by our own doing, nor do we purify ourselves by our own efforts. We will be like Christ not by what we have done but because “we shall see him as him as he is.”

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The Lord Surrounds His People

The world is a danger, but we do not travel alone — and never have. Lord Jesus has walked the road himself, on the journey he calls us to travel with him. He encircles us as the mountains encircle Jerusalem. He protects us and ensures our way. The Sons of Korah understood this very well:

Blessed are those whose strength is in You,
    whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Weeping,
    they make it a place of springs;
    the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
    till each appears before God in Zion.
    (Psalm 84:5-7)

The wicked will not last. They will not withstand the Judgment of Christ and the Cross. He will not put up with them forever; the Consuming Fire of God’s Love will complete its work in them until each one appears before God in Zion, whose gates are never shut.

The Lord Surrounds His People
(Psalm 125)

The world is a danger, the timid overtaken
Cry out like children in the night when they awaken
Those trusting in the Lord will not be shaken
But we’ll be standing when the Lord surrounds His people

Wicked men come with evil infection
And try to lead us in the wrong direction
The Lord will keep us in His circle of protection
And none will harm us when the Lord surrounds His people

Some will slip away and think they’re being clever
And be surprised He won’t put up with them forever
But every true believer He will treasure
And we’ll continue as the Lord surrounds His people
© 2001 by Jeff Doles 

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.

A Sacrament of Water and the Word

Baptism is not a statute to be observed but a sacrament to be received. It is not a work we perform but a work God does in us through means of Water and the Word. And by it, God accomplishes some very important things in us:

Do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. (Romans 6:3-5)

Baptized into the death of Christ, we are buried with Christ through baptism, so that we may have new life, the life of Christ, through whom we are united through baptism. As Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” This is what salvation looks like.

The idea suggested by some, that Paul is speaking here of a baptism of the Holy Spirit rather than a baptism of water, is of relatively recent vintage. It is absent from the early Church. We do not find it in the early Church Fathers, nor do we find it in the Reformers. It was not until the last century or so that this idea began to arise.

Certainly it is the Holy Spirit who baptizes us, and what God accomplishes in us by baptism, God does through the Holy Spirit — but also through the substance of water. Just as our Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us through the substance of human flesh, and of wood and nails, so also God ministers grace to us through such means as water, oil, bread and wine. As someone has well said, matter matters. God works through material means as well as through spiritual.

That is the nature of sign and sacrament. The sign participates in the reality of the thing it portrays. The early Church held no Nominalist views, where the only significance of a thing or act was merely whatever name or meaning we assign to it in our own minds. Nominalism did not arise until around the Enlightenment era. Rather, the Church was Realist, understanding that a thing or act participates in the reality, the ontology, the very being of whatever it portrays and presents (or re-presents) to us.

In Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul tells us that there is but one Body and one Spirit and one Baptism. That one baptism is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and it is through the material of water, baptizing us into the One Body. For baptism is the initiatory rite into the Church, the Body of Christ.

Baptism is not a statute to which we submit, or a work we do to earn something. It is a gift we receive, a gift of God’s grace, given to us by means of water and the Word.

If The Lord Was Not With Us

Sometimes it is the anger and pride of others who would entangle us in their arrogance, foolishness and deceit. Sometimes it is our own anger and pride that would trip us up and enslave us to the passions we have so easily learned to accommodate. But the Lord is faithful, and with us to deliver us, and so we learn to abide, even amid all the dangers and snares we may encounter on our journey.

If The Lord Was Not With Us
(Psalm 124)

Now when men rose against us
In their fury and pride
We would surely be swallowed alive
If the Lord was not with us
Standing right by our side
In the name of the Maker
Of heaven and earth we’ll abide

O their anger was rising
Rising up on that day
And the raging flood would have washed us away
If the Lord was not with us
Standing right by our side
In the name of the Maker
Of heaven and earth we’ll abide

And the fowler was waiting
And preparing his snare
Thanks be given to God, Who was there
For the trap has been broken
It held us in vain
In the name of the Maker
Of heaven and earth we’ll remain
© 2001 by Jeff Doles

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.

The Gospel of Recapitulation

Adam blew it. Christ renewed it. Recapitulation. 

Recapitulation as atonement is a very biblical idea. Paul speaks of it expressly as the plan and purpose of God. It is the saving work of Christ, through the Incarnation and the Cross:

God did this when he revealed to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ – the things in heaven and the things on earth. (Ephesians 1:9-10 NET)

The Greek word for “to head up” is anakephalaioo, meaning to gather up into one, to sum up — quite literally, it means to head up. It is recapitulation, or as we would say in today’s jargon, “recap.” Paul tells us that all in heaven and on earth are summed up, headed up, “recapped” and brought to unity, to oneness, in Christ. St. Irenaeus of Lyon (AD 130-202), picking up on Paul, here and elsewhere, speaks specifically of recapitulation as the saving work of Christ:

Wherefore also He passed through every stage of life, restoring to all communion with God ... For it behoved Him who was to destroy sin, and redeem man under the power of death, that He should Himself be made that very same thing which he was, that is, man; who had been drawn by sin into bondage, but was held by death, so that sin should be destroyed by man, and man should go forth from death. For as by the disobedience of the one man who was originally moulded from virgin soil, the many were made sinners, and forfeited life; so was it necessary that, by the obedience of one man, who was originally born from a virgin, many should be justified and receive salvation. St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.18

For the Lord, taking dust from the earth, moulded man; and it was upon his behalf that all the dispensation of the Lord's advent took place. He had Himself, therefore, flesh and blood, recapitulating in Himself not a certain other, but that original handiwork of the Father, seeking out that thing which had perished. — St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.14

That the Lord then was manifestly coming to His own things, and was sustaining them by means of that creation which is supported by Himself, and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience which had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience which was [exhibited by Himself when He hung] upon a tree, [the effects] also of that deception being done away with. — St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.19

These things, therefore, He recapitulated in Himself: by uniting man to the Spirit, and causing the Spirit to dwell in man, He is Himself made the head of the Spirit, and gives the Spirit to be the head of man: for through Him (the Spirit) we see, and hear, and speak. — St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.20

He has therefore, in His work of recapitulation, summed up all things, both waging war against our enemy, and crushing him who had at the beginning led us away captives in Adam, and trampled upon his head, as you can perceive in Genesis that God said to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall be on the watch for your head, and you on the watch for His heel. — St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.21

The words of St. Irenaeus echo the author of Hebrews:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:14-18)

Recapitulation means that what Adam got wrong, Christ put right. And humankind, which was once headed up in Adam, is now headed up in Christ.

Consequently, just as one trespass [Adam’s] resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act [Christ’s] resulted in justification and life for all people. (Romans 5:18)

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22) 

Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:9-10 that all in heaven and on earth are summed up, headed up, “recapped,” brought to unity, to oneness, in Christ. If Christ is the head, then humankind is the body. St. Gregory of Nyssa understood this very well: “Now the body of Christ, as I have often said, is the whole of humanity.”

This is Recapitulation.
This is Atonement.
This is the Gospel.

Our Eyes Look Up To You

With repentance, hope, and the prospect of returning to the heart of  God — the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit — and so be properly aligned with everyone and everything, and at peace within ourselves, it is renewal we now seek. We learn to offer up our ways and our days, that they may be filled with God. For we have had enough of the twisted ways of the world, which drain our days dry. We long to be free of their grip.

Our Eyes Look Up To You
(Psalm 123)

We are servants of the Lord
Our eyes look up to You
Send forth Your word once more
The people of Your covenant renew

O Maker of our days
We make our life Your home
We offer up our ways
And lift our eyes to You upon the throne

Have mercy on us, Lord
And conquer every part
Of everything that seeks
To rule within our hearts
Our eyes look up to You

We are servants of the Lord
And waiting at Your hand
We pray that we might see
The glory of Your name throughout our land

Have mercy on us, Lord
And conquer every part
Of everything that seeks
To rule within our hearts
Our eyes look up to You
© 2001 by Jeff Doles

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.

Christ of the Fiery Eye

Here is one of the three main Bible passages used by many evangelicals in an attempt to shut down any idea of Christian universalism. Does it succeed in doing so? I don’t think so, but consider for yourself.

In flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 NKJV)

Here are several brief points I would note in response (and have done in discussions of this passage on Facebook).

The Fire
The fire of God is purgative. The God who is a “consuming fire” is the same as the God who is love. So, whatever the consuming fire of God is, it is always about love. God’s fire is a refiner’s fire (see Malachi 3; 1 Corinthians 3), not for the purpose of destruction, or retribution — God is love, and love is not retributive (see 1 Corinthians 13) — but for restoration. 

In Revelation 19:12, the eyes of Christ are like “flames of fire.” Nothing can be hidden from his penetrating gaze — he sees all. The flames are the consuming fire of God’s love, a refiner’s fire burning away all evil yet preserving in us what is good, what comes from God.

The Vengeance
The vengeance God metes out is not about retribution — for God is love, and love is not retributive. In Romans 12, Paul tells us about the “vengeance” of God. God does not repay evil with evil but with good; God overcomes evil with good.

The Punishment
The “punishment” is not retributive — God is love, and love is not retributive. The Greek word is tino and refers to a recompense. But again, Paul shows us in Romans 12 how God pays back: not with evil but with good; God overcomes evil with good. The vengeance and punishment of God are about chastening, for the purpose of correction and restoration.

The Duration
The Greek word translated as “everlasting” (or “eternal”) here is aionion and refers not to endless duration but to an age; generally, it is the age that is to come (and which is already breaking into this present age). The chastening punishment Paul speaks of here may be in the age to come, but it is not of endless duration. For chastening always has an end in view: the correction of an offender.

The Destruction
The “destruction” (Greek, olethros) itself is not endless. Nor it is retributive — God is love, and love is not retributive but corrective and restorative. In 1 Corinthians 5:5, Paul uses olethros concerning the man who was having sexual relations with his father’s: “Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction [olethros] of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” The purpose of this was not the final destruction of the man but for his ultimate salvation and restoration.

The Presence
“From the presence of the Lord” does not mean that those undergoing such a terrible experience are shut out from the presence of the Lord. Quite the opposite, it is exactly the presence of the Lord — the overwhelming glory of God’s presence — that causes the distress felt by those who turn away from the love of God. They cannot escape the glorious, loving presence of God, yet they are unable to bear it — until the consuming fire of God’s love has burned away every wrong, dark thought about God that prevents them from seeing God as he truly is: self-giving, other-centered love, revealed in the crucified and risen Christ. There is one other place in the New Testament where we find the expression, “from the presence of the Lord,” and that is in Acts 3:20, where Peter says, “so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” It is not about being shut out from the presence of the Lord but, rather, what proceeds from the presence of the Lord. 

See also From the Face of the Lord. 

The icon form above is Christ of the Fiery Eye, from whose face nothing is hidden.

The House of the Lord

Having begun in repentance, and with our eyes lifted up in hope, there is now joy at the invitation to go up to the true home of the heart, the House of the Lord. We have been here before. We were born for it. It is inherent to our being. Though we may have often departed from it, it has never departed from us. It has remained in us as our longing — and our belonging. And now we remember, and now we rejoice. For the House of the Lord is not only our dwelling place in God; it is God dwelling us — in the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The House of the Lord
(Psalm 122)

I was so glad when they said,
“Let us go up to the House of the Lord”
I was so glad when they said,
“Let us go up to the house of the Lord”
You and I are the House of the Lord
He shall dwell in our praise
He shall dwell in our praise
And see His love displayed

Well, I looked down and I saw my feet
Within the walls of the House of the Lord
I looked down and I saw my feet
Within the walls of the House of the Lord
Let us give thanks to the Lord
He shall dwell in our praise
He shall dwell in our praise
And see His love displayed

Pray, pray, pray
Pray for the peace of the House of the Lord
Pray, pray, pray
Pray for the peace of the House of the Lord

You and I are the House of the Lord
He shall dwell in our praise
He shall dwell in our praise
And see His love displayed
He’ll see His love displayed
© 2001 by Jeff Doles

The Pilgrim Psalms project is now streaming at Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever you enjoy music. It is also available for download at Amazon and iTunes.