On The Eagle's Wings

Our Father Doesn't Pick Favorites!

Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.

Romans 2:11 For there is no partiality with God.

Ephesians 6:9 And you, masters, do the same things to them, giving up threatening, knowing that your own Master also is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.

(see also Colossians 3:25, James 3:17, 1 Peter 1:17)

I am deeply disturbed by the doctrine of eternal damnation which clearly states the opposite of these scriptures.  Having grown up in strict Calvinism we were taught that God has elected some for glory and rejected others for damnation.  As much as this seemed to be supported by scripture, in my experience it produced either pride or fear in people rather than the fruits of the Spirit.  Pride because you were IN and those who were not, deserved what was coming to them.  The phrase, "He will get what he has coming to him in the end" was some how a consolation for all the injustices of life.  At the same time there was fear for one could never know God as a comforting Father when there was this dangerous, abusive side to His nature.  I have to wonder what could possess a person to assume that anyone deserved eternal hell fire.  Nevertheless it was what we were taught from the time we were old enough to hear and it is what we believed.  I remember as a small child often being told, "Don't question things, just believe!"   

God's plan for His people is good.  It is true that there are consequences for sin but His ultimate plan and purpose is to bring about wholeness and unity.  His ultimate plan depends on His redemptive nature not on our human nature. If we were the masters of our own destiny, as much of Christianity teaches...well, I don't even want to speculate on that one.

Christ is all in all!

Col. 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Gal. 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Phil. 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.

In Christ we are no longer recognized by our sex, our race or culture, our status in society, or any other distinguishing feature, those things no longer define who we are.  Our complete definition is found in Christ!

Eph. 1:10a that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ.

1 Cor. 15:28  Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

As is made clear in the above scriptures, God's plan is to gather all things into one in Christ. The difference between the old covenant and the new is that the old pertained to a specific people group and the new is for all.  There was God's people, natural Israel, there is now, God's people, Spiritual Israel.  God's order in things is clearly stated. 1 Cor. 15:46 "However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual."  Even as the Scriptures sa, the natural things were a shadow or copy of things to come.  Always throughout God's word He pictures things of the spiritual for us through natural things, so that we might see in the shadow a glimpse of the spiritual and thereby understand it when it is come in us.

Hebrews 8:4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

Heb. 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

Col. 2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Studying the shadow actually gives us great insight into the Spiritual and if we have considered the natural things spoken of in the old covenant as unimportant and irrelevant then we have missed so much.  It is essential to understand the natural in order to fully understand the Spiritual.  For this reason we study those things. 

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Our Marriage to Christ

We see in scripture a transition that takes place between the old covenant and the new.  A shift from the natural to the spiritual.  What was bondage becomes freedom.  God had dwelt with His bride (natural Israel) in a master-slave relationship and it was indeed a turbulant marriage.  The new is ultimately about a marriage of mutual love and submission, climaxing in complete oneness and unity.

Eph. 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. ² And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

We are called to be imitators of Christ willing to give ourselves up for Him just as He has given Himself for us.

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

The old covenant was darkness but the new is illuminated by the Lord.  No more dark shadows.

¹⁷ Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸ And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another in the fear of God.

New covenant marriage is about union. Jesus said He came not to be served but to serve. So we are called to mutual servanthood.  Here are the instructions for how mutual servitude works in marriage which is the natural picture God uses to explain to us our Spiritual marriage to Christ.

²² Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. ²⁴ Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, ²⁶ that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷ that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. ²⁸ So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. ³⁰ For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ³¹ “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 

Here once again we see the purpose for natual marriage, which is the same as God's purpose for His Spiritual marriage with His bride, that the two shall become one.

³² This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. ³³ Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

More about the analogies in natural marriage another time.