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Receiving the Things of Jesus
By Linda Rex
June 12, 2022, HOLY TRINITY—Last week we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus from the Father, following Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. During our journey through the days on the Christian calendar, we have come to see the love of the Father expressed to all humanity as the Word of God, the Son of the Father, took on our humanity in the incarnation, lived our life, died our death and rose again, bringing all humanity in his glorified human flesh into the presence of the Father.
There at the Father’s side Jesus reigns supreme, and death, evil, and sin have lost their power over us. We are free now, in Christ, to love God and man, to be who God designed us to be as image-bearers of the divine One who is Father, Son, and Spirit, living as unique but equal persons in unity and perichoretic love. We celebrate the ascension and the coming of the Spirit, for now we find ourselves included in the midst of the intimate union and communion of the Father and the Son in the Spirit—included by faith in God’s very life and love.
During the season following Pentecost, we begin to look at what it means that Christ and the Father are present now in human flesh in the Person and presence of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean that God dwells with man even now in and through the Spirit? What difference does this make in our lives?
For many of my younger years, I believed that God was made up of the Father and the Son but that the Spirit was merely their power and essence, that he was not a personal being. I had missed all the scriptural references that quite clearly showed that the Spirit was a Person—the other Helper like Jesus—who made decisions, who gave gifts, who spoke and who listened. The biblical evidence was that what the disciples experienced and what Jesus taught about the Spirit, indicated that the Spirit was of the same essence as the Father and the Son, and was equal with them and yet uniquely related to them in that the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father.
The unique role that the Spirit plays in our lives is to take what is Jesus’ and to reveal it to us. Jesus forged within us the capacity to be temples of the living God—the dwelling place of God himself by the Spirit. What we find in the coming of the Spirit is that we can, by faith, participate in all that Christ did for us in his life, death, resurrection and ascension. His life as the beloved Son of the Father becomes our very own as we by faith are adopted as the Father’s beloved children. The perfected humanity of Christ becomes our very own as we trust in Christ’s finished work. What we discover when we turn away from ourselves and turn to Christ in faith is that God himself dwells in us.
The beginning of the human story was in God’s heart, as he determined to share life with his creatures in a unique and special way. We, as human beings, were designed from the beginning to reflect the nature of God and were given the capacity to make choices and to reject or accept God and his love. Our true way of being is to live in loving relationship with God and others. But we human beings have so often chosen instead to turn away from God and to determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong, and to try to run this universe in a way which so often ends in death.
God knew, though, before he ever created us our capacity to reject him and to choose the ways of death. And he planned even then to come himself and do whatever it took to bring us home to himself. And so, we see that even before he created us, God had planned through the coming of his Son to include every human being in his life and to give them his Spirit so that they could live in union and communion with him forever.
Whatever we do as human beings, we need to realize that the truth of our being is found in the person of Jesus Christ and is present within us by the Holy Spirit. God wants us to awaken to the reality of what Christ has done in offering himself freely in his life, death and resurrection—by the Spirit we participate in his loving relationship with his Father. All of our life then becomes an expression of that loving relationship—we begin by the Spirit to reflect the qualities of Christ and begin to look like our loving heavenly Father, as we trust in Christ.
The Spirit is, as Jesus said, another Helper just like himself. When you see the Spirit, you see Jesus. When you see Jesus, you see the Father. The oneness of the Triune God is evident in their relationship with you through Jesus in the Spirit. How amazing it is that we each now live swept up into the life of the Triune God! But it is by faith in Jesus that we participate in and experience this reality. It is the Spirit who makes our experience of Christ’s intimate relationship with the Father and with us, real.
The Holy Spirit in you and me speaks to us the words of Jesus. Jesus said while on earth that he spoke only what he heard the Father say. This is why the apostle Paul said that when we walk in the Spirit, we won’t walk in our flesh. If Jesus is the truth of our being, then we want to walk in him, right? So, we follow the lead of the Spirit, who speaks to our hearts the truth about who Jesus is and how Jesus lives, and we won’t live in a way that is contrary to the truth of who we are in Christ.
The Spirit in us gives us guidance. When we read the Scriptures and ask for God’s inspiration and guidance, the Spirit enables us to discern the truth about Jesus and about ourselves. When we listen to inspired speakers who preach the Word of God in accordance with the truth, the Spirit enables us to understand it and moves us to live in obedience.
The Spirit places within us Jesus’ own heart and mind, and we discover we don’t want to do the wrong thing, but desire to do what is right in the Father’s sight. We find when temptation is strong and we turn to Jesus, that we are able to resist the temptation and make the God-honoring choice because Jesus’ choice is given to us by the Spirit. And when we don’t do what is loving and we experience the guilt that comes with failure to be true to who we are as image-bearers of God, the Spirit reminds us of the grace of God, enabling us to see that God knows all things and he does not condemn us—he forgives us.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday, we pause to ponder, in awe and wonder and gratitude, our amazing God, who is Father, Son, and Spirit, and who has included each of us in his life and love. How blessed we are, that we are never alone, but are always and ever held in God’s love, cared for and cherished, now and forever, as God’s beloved adopted children, in Jesus by the Spirit.
Heavenly Father, thank you for making us your very own, beloved and cherished, and for including us in your life. Thank you for the gift of your Spirit, who enables us to know you and live in relationship with you, all through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16:12–15 NASB
[Printable copy of this blog https://newhope4me.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/receiving-the-things-of-jesus.pdf ]
Living in the Breath
by Linda Rex
I love it when I drive home from East Nashville and there is a sky full of puffy clouds just starting to glisten with colors from the sun setting in the background. Every time I see the sky, it looks different, and as an artist, I am always amazed by how creative God is as he paints the sky with clouds and color.
Is it possible that our God spends each moment making our world a beautiful and stunning work of art, using all the elements he put into motion millennia ago? What if he intentionally breathes into our world each moment, bringing into our existence his new life in some new form or fashion? What if, while his mercies are new every morning, so are his sky, his clouds, and the breathing of his breath of life on all he has made?
Before Jesus came, it seemed the Spirit’s active intervention in human affairs was only in inspiring particular prophets, priests and kings to do a specific work in preparation for the coming Messiah. But the silent, unobtrusive, self-effacing Spirit was also holding all things together, even though humanity had chosen the path for all things to return to the nothingness from which they had been made.
During the long history of the nation of Israel, God was known as the Helper of Israel (Psa. 146; Isa. 41) In the coming of the Son of God into human flesh, we find Israel’s Helper is present and real here on the earth in Jesus Christ. He lived, died and rose again, and in the ascension which we celebrated last Sunday, we find Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, with all humanity—even all things—reconciled to God in him. Our Helper is the Living Lord Jesus Christ, who is always at work in this world and in our lives and hearts.
The apostle John shares in his epistle: “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). There is an Intercessor present with the Father, intervening for us moment by moment in every situation and circumstance. There is no reason any of us should fear coming before God and sharing ourselves fully with him, even if we have fallen short in some way. We can trust Jesus Christ is praying for us, interceding for us, and helping us no matter how bleak things may look to us at the time.
Here we see the amazing goodness and love of God at work. It was not enough that he would give us his own beloved Son in this way, to help us and to intercede for us. But he also gave us Someone who would be even more intimately involved in our world, our lives, and even in our very being.
Jesus said before he returned to his Father he would send another Helper like himself (John 14:16–17). This would be an Advocate who would intercede on our behalf with God and with others. Jesus returned to his Father and sent us this Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 16:7) to be with us forever.
If the Spirit has been present and involved with creation and our cosmos since the beginning—hovering over the waters and acting when the Word spoke all things into existence—what was so special and necessary for the Spirit to be sent by Jesus? If God has sustained all things for all these millennia, then why did Jesus have to go so the Spirit would come?
We need to pay attention to the details here. This universe would not exist except for the grace and mercy of the living God. The breath of God, the Spirit, gives life. (Acts 17:25; Psalm 104:29–30) Apart from God, all things return to nothingness. The life-giving Spirit is ever and always at work in this cosmos to breathe God’s life into all things.
God in Christ reconciled all things to himself, whether the things he has made, or every one of us human beings—nothing is excluded (Colossians 1:19–23). Even the evil which acts as a parasite on all that is good and holy was taken up in Christ and overcome. Jesus is the Victor over sin, death, and the evil one!
In Christ all things were made new and are being made new—in and by his Spirit at work in the creation. The decay into nothingness has, in Christ, been reversed. And part of that reversal involves us as human beings. We were created for intimate relationship with the God who made us out of nothingness. But we turned away from this God to the creation and to one another, as though we had no need of him. We fell into the evil one’s trap of trying to be lord of the universe ourselves. But God has other plans for us.
Before any of this came into existence, God intended for us to be his image-bearers. We were to bear his image, not only in our relationships with God and with others, but also by having the very presence of the living God within us—in our very hearts and minds. We were to be the bearers of God’s living Presence, the Holy Spirit. And remember, where the Spirit is, so are the Father and Jesus Christ. So God himself was to dwell, or take up permanent residence, within the human beings God would and did make.
God, in Jesus Christ, took on our humanity, in its brokenness, shame and rebellion. God encountered the worst of who we are, even within his being in Jesus, and was not altered in the least. No, in his life, death and resurrection, he translated us from the kingdom of darkness into his kingdom of light. Jesus forged a perfected humanity in which the Spirit would permanently reside. And when he ascended, he poured out from the Father his Spirit on all humanity, so all could receive and participate in this perfect gift.
So we find ourselves in this place, living on this amazing earth, wondering where our next meal will come from, how we will pay our bills, and what to do about the fight we had with our spouse this morning. And we pay so little attention to what really matters—we are living in God’s presence, breathing in the very Breath of God himself. We are God’s children, made in his image, redeemed in Christ, meant to have an intimate relationship with him, and to live in the truth of the humanity forged for us in Christ.
There is a way of living and being we were created for—a humanity we see in Jesus which lives in total dependence upon the Spirit and in perfect obedience to the Father. We can embrace this truth of our being and fully participate in the relationship with the Father by the Spirit Jesus brought us into, or we can stubbornly hang on to our independence of God and our rebellion against his ways of living and being. God protects our freedom to choose.
Either way, the Spirit never ceases to breathe his life into us and the world around us. God’s mercies continue to be new every morning. Every sunset sky is a new expression of God’s creativity. And we never stop having an Advocate and Helper in Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit who also intercedes for us when we cannot express the deepest yearnings of our heart (Rom 8:26).
Our Abba continues to hold a seat for us at his table, loving us unconditionally as he does, and he expectantly watches at the door for us to come over the horizon so he can run to meet us. We have nothing to fear, and everything to hope for. Life in the Spirit through Jesus with the Father forever—it is ours right now.
I don’t know about you, but I’m heading home—there’s nothing in this world worth hanging on to. One day it will all be gone and all that will be left is what God intended in the first place. I’m thinking his plan is a lot better than mine, and a whole lot more fun in the long run. And the best part? Having these amazing relationships and this loving family to hold and embrace for all eternity. Now that is something worth going home for.
Abba, thank you for drawing us to yourself through your two hands of love, Jesus and the Spirit. Thank you for saving us a seat at your table and a place in your heart. Grant us the grace to surrender to your will and your ways, and to turn away from ourselves and the world around us, and to turn to you in faith, through Jesus our Lord and by your Spirit. Amen.
“You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground.” Psalm 104:30 NASB
Our Life in the Trinity 