Today is the Day the World Died

Today is Good Friday. We call this day “Good” because it is the day the whole world was crucified in Christ. Sounds like a contradiction doesn’t it: death is good.  

Death is the ultimate blessed-curse.

God issued this blessed-curse at the inception of the world: “If you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will surely die” (Gen 2:17). Personally, I understand this word death to mean: dead as a doornail; cessation of life; irreversible termination; 100% dead. This kind of death is a curse to any person who receives it, but truly it is the mercy of God.

If we ponder the tragedies of the world around us: starvation, rape, war, sexism, racism, homophobia – it is a mercy that we should die and not live in a state of perpetual sin-symptoms for all eternity.

This is why the whole world must die.

However, God never willed for the existence of humankind to cease. God set this world into motion knowing that it would falter and he declared that he would save us from the very “foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8).

Jesus was born as a human being – able to die, just like one of us – and he transformed the curse of death into the blessing of resurrected life. The best analogy I can use for this blessed-curse is pregnancy. Jesus was pregnant with the whole world when he died. “For IN Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28) & “IN him ALL things hold together” (Col 1:17).

As Jesus willingly hung on the cross, I hung there with him. The whole world hung there IN him. How do we know it was the whole world? “One died for ALL, therefore ALL died … Anyone IN Christ is a new creation! The old has passed away; the new has come … God was IN Christ, reconciling THE WORLD to himself!” (2 Cor 5:14-19)

Hallelujah! Today is the day we died with Christ!

“Where, oh death, is your victory?

Where, oh death, is your sting?

Death has been swallowed up in victory!”

(1 Cor 15:55&54)

Death became our birth canal! Jesus is the “firstborn from among the dead” (Col 1:18) and we also “must be born again” (John 3:7). Many believe that being born-again is a choice or a decision that we make as cognitive human beings. But when a man and woman conceive a baby, that baby has no choice but to be born. The loving motions of the father and mother bring that baby to life. The baby does not create or birth itself. It was no mistake that John used the phrase: born again. Jesus knew he was carrying the whole world. He dove deep into death with the whole world IN him, and he gave birth to a resurrected, new creation!

After John speaks of being born again (chapter 3) he goes on to say that Jesus must be ‘lifted up’ to bring about eternal life. “For God so loved THE WORLD that he gave his one and only son” (verse 16). Then in chapter 12 he brings this phrase ‘lifted up’ to its climax in Jesus’ own words: “And I, when I be lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL PEOPLE to myself!”

This is why Jesus had to die!

“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds!” (John 12:24)

On Easter Friday the world died in Christ and on Easter Sunday it resurrected. The world was reborn. And the world is still being reborn. And the world will be reborn. It has happened spiritually IN Christ and it culminates physically at the point of death. All who ever live will be touched by death. It is when we physically die, that we experience Jesus’ resurrection power at its fullness and our rebirth is complete!

We celebrate Easter, not just to bring to mind something that happened to someone else 2000 odd years ago! Easter is both a memory and future declaration of what has happened and is happening to the entire human race IN Christ. This is the Gospel! This is the Good News. This is Good Friday.

Another look at Hell

If God is love and everything he does is loving, then Hell cannot be anything other than the love of God full blast, compelling those in the midst of it to stop trying to put the fire out and instead surrender to its red-hot passion.

If God's love is unconditional, then it cannot be conditioned or altered by the existence of any Hell.

If God is more unconditionally loving than I am, and I wouldn't wish eternal damnation on my worst enemy - then why would God?

If God is "a forgiving God" then why are there supposedly, no room for second chances once you die?

If I would go through Hell to help the ones I love, why would God who is love, not go into Hell to come rescue me, whom he loves?

If God would abandon even one soul to eternal, irreversible Hell, he cannot be trusted not to abandon me also.

If God sent his only son to rescue us from sin, then Hell cannot be punishment for those sins - or Jesus epically failed.

There are some universalists that teach that Hell is still a place we go to get "cleaned up" and learn to do good works. I must state emphatically that I am NOT this kind of universalist! If Hell is about learning good behaviour, then why did Jesus die? If Hell is about punishment for sin, then the cross failed. Hell is the opposite of these notions!!!

The law was given: to frustrate our works / self-righteousness (Romans 5:20)

Jesus was given: to forgive the sin of the whole world (John 1:29, John 12:32, Romans 5:18-19) and reveal that we are saved by grace not works (Ephesians 2:6-8)

Judgement day will come so that we can take our eyes off our works and cling to Jesus' finished work - we are only judged for one "work" if you want to call it that and that is putting our faith in Jesus' faith and ability to save us (John 6:29)

Hell is provided for the same reason: to take our eyes off our evil self-righteousness and look to Jesus as the Only Saviour, the Only Answer, the Only Grace.

And I believe that all will come to this faith because God's will and God's love and God's faith are stronger than our free-will, love and faith. Our eyes will become open, our blindness healed and our faith restored, whether in this life or the next ...

Be more like Jesus or be Yourself?

The world says: be yourself.

Christianity teaches: be more like Jesus.

Which one is it?

I struggled with these questions as a child and teenager.

I thought that being myself meant I was living “according to the flesh” and my concept of ‘being like Jesus’ meant:

Control my emotions – especially my temper

Always be kind

Let people walk all over me – turn the other cheek

Be polite and never swear or complain etc

Respect and obey adults

Forgive everyone and resolve all conflict in the other person’s favour

Love everyone equally

I couldn’t do these things, and I knew I was a miserable failure. In fact, many times over the years I’ve been called a snob. This is possibly because I was insecure about who I was and perhaps I avoided relationships because of the responsibility I felt to put on this façade – which was exhausting and made friendship exhausting too.

I’ll never forget the day one of my teachers actually called me an inverted-snob. He said that I hated myself, and because I hated myself, other people thought I hated them as well. (He said it very kindly and this was helpful for me, although I was perhaps a slow learner.) It was true. I was both an inverted-snob and a snob!

Recently, a very wise friend said to me that Jesus was always himself. Jesus needed alone time. Jesus had some friends that were closer than others. Jesus even had enemies and has been recorded calling those enemies a “brood of vipers!” Jesus knew his identity as God and man and he lived it out without worrying what anyone thought of him.

In recent years I’ve stopped trying to be perfect – which is what I was really trying to be, when I thought I was trying to be like Jesus – according to my own idea of perfection.

Now, more than ever, I feel convinced that God wants me to be myself. That he created me uniquely and wants me to be true to who I am. Another wise friend, Daniel Dolman (RIP), once told me that “The glory of God is Liss fully alive.” In other words, God’s glory shines through much more when we are truly ourselves.

It is through knowing Jesus more and more deeply over time, that I have learned more about who I am deep down, and how to be more authentic, real, honest, open – more Elissa! I believe that becoming more like Jesus, is also becoming more yourself. These two concepts are not at odds. 

There is certainly a struggle around being ourselves in a sinful world. But God has allowed for that too – it’s called: grace.

God created me to be exactly who I am and you to be true to who you are.

And God said that it was good.

Christian Doctrines I have never read in the Bible

1. Human beings have "free will" 

2. God is "in control" of everything that happens on earth

3. Jesus died to save us from hell - zero verses on this

4. There are no "second chances" after you die

5. The "age of accountability" - the idea that before this age you get a free ticket to heaven is nowhere in the Bible

6. Hell means "separation from God" - it doesn't say that

7. God is fair / treats all people the same way

8. The word "Hell" itself does not appear in the original Greek and Hebrew Bibles. It is a man-made conglomeration of various different words with differing meanings: the grave, the pit, Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, the lake of fire etc.

I have read the OT 5 times and the NT 11 times.

In my opinion, Western-Christianity needs to go back to the drawing board...

Hellfire-Love Endures Forever

There is an Old Testament phrase: His love endures forever

This word ‘forever’ is not limited to endless time and in fact when the word ‘forever’ or ‘eternal’ appears in the Bible it quite often refers to a limited period of time. Jonah was in the belly of the fish ‘forever,’ yet we know it was only 3 days. Even in Modern English, I can use the expression: ‘this is taking forever’ and you know what I mean: it is taking a long time.

The word ‘eternal’ in the Bible refers to the realm of God, the realm of the spiritual or supernatural. It refers to the kind of relationship we have with God: a loving, reconciled relationship. John 17:3 says “Now this is eternal life: that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” This is a quality of life: knowing God intimately.

We accept that God is eternal in the sense of endless time and we believe that his love endures forever, but what we neglect to understand that God’s love is of an intimate, other-worldly quality. That God himself is love. Perhaps this phrase – “his love endures forever” – repeated so often in the Psalms is whispering the most powerful truth of all. God never changes and he is always love. God is love forever. God’s love never dies. God loves you unconditionally the same way while you are in the womb; at the moment that you steal a cookie from the cookie jar; when you lose your virginity; at the time of your death and on into eternity. He always loves you. This verse is talking about how amazing God’s love is – not just how endless or how long suffering. His love ‘endures’ means nothing can conquer it! He will never cease to love you.

The Western Church accepts that God’s love endures forever. But most of the Western Church also accepts that people will burn in hell for all eternity. Trying to marry these two concepts is near impossible. It does not make sense that God would love a person and at the same time abandon that person to endless torture. With a traditional concept of hell, these concepts are contradictory. However, this is a misinterpretation of Scripture. Hell is not endless! This word eternal, as I pointed out, has been used throughout the Bible to define things pertaining to the afterlife – it is a quality of life and a functioning of our relationship with God. To say that Jonah was in the fish ‘eternally’ is to say that his fate was in the hand of God – that he was in a spiritual place. In the same way, hell is a spiritual place or state of being.

What is this place or state we refer to as hell? The most common understanding is that it is fire. The New Testament writers referred to the fires of Gehenna and the lake of fire, so my purpose here is to search out the meaning of hellfire.

Today, my neighbour was playing an old John Farnham song: “Burn for you.” This song is not about burning in a literal fire, it is talking about the fire of love. To burn with passion is a reference to love or to lust. The world has equated love and burning for centuries – possibly since the beginning of time. Love burns like fire. The fire of love never burns out. This is the same in the Bible. Hellfire is the love of God. Let me show you.

“Our God is a consuming fire” – Deuteronomy 4:24 & Hebrews 12:29.

“I will put them into the fire. I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say ‘They are my people’ and they will say ‘The Lord is our God’” – Zechariah 13:9. This reference to the fire of God refining us occurs repeatedly in the Bible. See also Malachi 3:2 & Isaiah 48:10.

Similarly the fire of God cleanses and purifies: “The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger. Then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him shoulder to shoulder” – Zephaniah 3:8-9.

In the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah worried about his guilt as he stood before God. He called himself a man of unclean lips. The angel of God took a live coal (fire) and said “See this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” – Isaiah 6:6-7.

God appeared to Moses in a Burning Bush to promise that he would deliver the Israelites from Egypt into the Promised Land – Exodus 3:17.

God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire in the book of Genesis. Then he promised to restore this dead nation in the afterlife – Ezekiel 16:53.

Jesus preaches a sermon about cutting off the dirty hand (that's been in the cookie jar) and throwing it in the fire of Gehenna, rather than throwing the whole body into Gehenna. Then he makes this remarkable statement: “Everyone will be salted with fire” – Mark 9:49. In this life or the next we will be burned by the fire of God’s love. And the burning will hurt, hence the references to weeping and gnashing of teeth. It hurts because we resist it (preferring the cookie). We go against the flow of love and dirty our hands all the time. When we stop resisting love, we will no longer perceive our experience as being 'hellish' and experience the heavenliness of God’s love.

Then, in 2 Thessalonians we have a classic hellfire text. “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” This word ‘everlasting,’ refers to a quality and not a quantity of existence. In other words, they will be punished with fire from the presence of the Lord in the age to come. Versions of the Bible that use the phrase ‘shut out from the presence of the Lord’ are incorrect. The original Greek says that the punishment or hellfire comes ‘from’ the presence of the Lord! It is called punishment because we are resisting the Gospel of grace as it says in the verse prior.

Do you see? God is love – 1 John 4:16. And God’s love is hellfire! It is going to burn up the lies that people believe about God, until they surrender to his love. It is not eternal – but the results are endless. The result being that every person will experience the love of God in the core of their being and succumb to it: “Every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” – Philippians 4:10 & Isaiah 45:23-25.

“For Love is as Strong as Death

Its Jealousy as Unyielding as the Grave

It Burns like Blazing Fire

The Brightest Kind of Flame

Many Waters Cannot Quench Love

Nor can Rivers Drown it

If one were to Give all their Wealth for Love

It would be Utterly Scorned” – Song of Solomon 8:6-7.

Our God’s Hellfire Love is Priceless!

He is not going to abandon you. Not ever.

He burns for you!

His Love Endures Forever!