Just a Thought from Reading - (Our tent, Our Mansion, With God Forever!)

I love it when I am listening in a bible class, reading the bible, or reading something from an outside source about the bible and my mind takes a detour of thought. Having begun a study of the apostle Paul in our Sunday morning bible class, I want to be reading on my own so my learning might be more fruitful. I have and incredible teacher, Lanny Partain, who is always successful in getting my mind flowing. In the direction he might like is not always a given, but I fully believe he simply wants people to think about God. 

The reading I have been doing (ever so slowly since the writing is way above my head) is from N. T. Wrights book, "Paul, The Faithfulness of God." While difficult to read from my almost non-existent background in theology, he does stir my thought and when combined with Sunday morning class this morning, the tangent is exciting and I believe plausible, even if it is no more than a figment of my imagination.

In the second chapter of his book, N.T. Wright is discussing the worldview of Paul and describes the temple as Paul would have most likely understood in his development. He expresses the temple as being a microcosm of creation where the heavens and earth come together and God is with His people on the throne. As I understand things, the original creation has God with Adam and all is well prior to sin entering the garden. The temple desired by David and built by his son Solomon becomes God's dwelling place with His people and represents (in my understanding of what is written) a time when creation will be back as planned with God living once again in the midst of HIs people. Paul like other faithful Jews, is awaiting the time when all is made new and his job on earth is to continually prepare and nurture people back into being the faithful people finally out of bondage to this world of sin. 

Coming to mind is this passage from 2 Corinthians 5:4 NIV

For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

It catches my attention because it seemed to speak to me of the same thing being represented in Wright's book regarding bondage. In a way, we have what is described as a tent and this is only a preliminary dwelling as we move toward the final heavenly dwelling with God. I definitely see our earthly (bondage body) now and the free and perfect covering/body when we are rewarded with eternal life with God.

My mind immediately went to a song I sang just a few days ago, "I've Got a Mansion," and thoughts went even further. Some translations us the word rooms in John 1:14, but the ASV used the word, mansions.

In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 

I can't even begin to consider how many times I've been told the concept described concerning our final dwelling with God is so wonderful the writers simply could not put things in to adequate words for us to know how special things would be. While in my youth, I often dreamed and thought of how wonderful it would be to get to Heaven and we would sing the songs about how wonderful Heaven must be. Like many, I dreamed of my spirit going to God at death as is taught and believed by many still today. As I began reading and trying to understand for myself what was being said, I gradually gave up the concept of existing for all eternity because of what I had been taught was "included" in the concept of being made in the image of God and took on a belief which I think is more in line with what the bible actually says. As I have been so many times, I might be wrong on this too, but the bible seems to tell me that only God is eternal and His gift to us on judgment day will be eternal life. Until then, I have the promise of being eternal with Him and nothing more.

I read Revelation 21:1-4 and I no longer dream of going to Heaven, but rather being with God, much like I think Wright is telling us about Paul looking forward to a time when all will be new and right with creation once again.

Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 'He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

After leaving class this morning, I was excited because I knew I had come to looking forward to the time when I would be given eternal life and a perfect "heavenly" body, but what I had not considered prior to class this morning was the community of God in the final setting when all is as it should be. The thoughts came from the discussion of the church and how we are members of the one body of Christ. The community of Christ tasked with making the will of God done on earth as it is in Heaven and all the while figuratively walking around in the desert (bondage of our current situation and need for a tent) one step closer to the "Promised Land!"

As far as I understand, God never returned to the temple and to me, right now, Revelation 21 speaks of the next time (final time) when God will be HOME and all will be as planned by our Heavenly Father. The body of Christ, the Community of God all together in one place for all eternity. In my reasoning, it is a grand thought and yet, the most exciting part was what came next in my thinking.
The community of God will no longer be wandering in the desert but in the house of God where in the translation from ASV there will be many mansions. Whether simple fantasy of thought or reality,
we will no longer be clothed in a tent. We will be clothed in a MANSION!

Did Jesus Pay the Price For My Sin?

This is one of the questions I can answer right from the start according to my belief structure. Yes, Jesus paid the full price necessary to pardon me from my sin. It should be a really short question and answer statement but after being in worship with my church family this morning, I couldn’t get these thoughts out of my mind because what I was taught growing up would not allow me to answer this question with a YES!

I am used to the concept of crime and the punishment to fit the crime. From a very young age, this mischievous guy began to experience the pain of a belt used on my bottom for things I said and did around the house to the fines I had to pay for tickets received while driving. Speaking of a ticket, I would show up in court on the day assigned and discover how much I had to pay. In the days prior to my commercial license, I could even satisfy the debt by taking defensive driving. Regardless of the situation, I was guilty and paid the price. While it never happened to me, I have seen parents reach into their pockets and pay the price for their teenager and this brings me to the point of confusion with Jesus paying the price according to the “biblical” view I was raised to understand. When the parent pays the price, the judge doesn’t look over and say, “Oh, if you are paying the price for your child, you may pay this lesser amount!” It just does not happen and so I can’t accept it happening when Jesus paid the price for me.

While the best of my reading in the Bible tells me the wages (penalty) of sin is death, I was taught something quite different. I was taught the bible said death but that God had something far worse in mind for me if I was to continue the life of sin! Oh, nothing would be a simple as death but instead I would be tortured in the fires of hell for all eternity! This concept had its effect on me and scared me enough to “obey the gospel” as all of my bible teachers and preachers exclaimed. From an honest desire (I believe) to impress upon me the need to have a relationship with God, I was taught I had been created with a soul that would live forever and my choice was whether I wanted to spend that forever being tortured or in Heaven where all pain and tears ceased to exist. Wow, what kid having felt the sting of earthly punishment on his behind, would not want to be in Heaven without pain. I thought my Papa was the finest man on earth and yet, he also while standing next to a large fire impressed upon me how much he want to make sure I never felt the fires of hell because standing beside a fire at a distance to feel the burning was nothing like actually being in the fire and never being able to get out.

It would be my hope that my question at the top now has another aspect of reasoning. While it might just be another paradox alluding my understanding, how can the punishment for me without Jesus be more than Jesus paid? He rose on the third day and this makes me believe He did not undergo the torture of hell for all eternity. Am I to belief Jesus gets a pass on the full price or that some “game” is being played out where the guilty are punished more severely because they chose not to accept the payment by someone else?

When thinking of this, I immediately think of the criminals on trial who might have done some incredibly wicked thing several times and as the verdict is handed down, I hear, “because of this verdict, you will be given life in prison with no parole. On the second charge you will be given life in prison with no parole and on the third charge you will also be given life in prison with no parole.” It seems rather “stupid” to me, but in cases like this we might often hear the phrase, “these penalties will be served back to back or simultaneously.”

According to the best of my human reasoning, which might prove faulty, I fail to see how Jesus paid the complete debt for all of humanities sin with even three days in the hell when I am told the wicked will face torture at judgment lasting for all of eternity. Much like the crusades being a terrible and destructive force against Christianity, I fully believe the concept of torment taught to me as a child is even more destructive to those needing and wanting the salvation offered by God through His son Jesus, who I believe fully paid the price!

Having stated my belief of Jesus completely paying the price for my sin and the sin of everyone else, I wish only to help others realize how easy it is to reconcile a complete payment for sin. To get to this point in my life, I had to completely rethink everything I had been taught concerning heaven and hell and I’m not even sure I know how long this has consumed my thinking over the last 5-10 years.

First, I was taught that a part of me was eternal and would live forever instead of what I believe the bible teaches of us being created by God who has always desired for us to be reconciled back to Him so He can reward us with an eternal existence. I believe eternal life, living forever is a gift to those He calls His own and will be received as a gift!

Second, I believe the lost will die for good at judgment. They will have no hope of being resurrected again or having any part in life for all of eternity. It will be a punishment with the eternal consequence of no longer existing! If we take our “heritage filters” off, I believe this is exactly what we get from what is said in the Bible.

Third, I believe Jesus gave put up His own eternal existence to come to earth as a man and earn, not only His own eternity with His Father but ours as well!

Fourth, Jesus was convicted by man and sentenced to die. I believe He was put to death and ceased to exist just like I believe will happen to the wicked on judgment day. (I find myself out on a limb by myself with this one having never heard anyone exclaim the same thing and yet it is my “current” belief)

Fifth, the glorious thing is that DEATH had no power over Him because He was innocent of ALL charges. While men put Him to death, God who is faithful resurrected/recreated Him giving Him the gift of eternal life He chose to turn down for all of us. He was only the FIRST of many, having fully died for ALL SIN!