His Name

Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 01:05-07, NKJV).

What's in a name?

Does it matter what something is called?

The answer to the first question is this: in a sane and sensible world, a name is meant to convey meaning about the thing or person so-named. This was especially true in ancient times, when a person's name was chosen precisely because of something (or many things) about that person. That is also why a person's name could change over time. Think of Abram (“Exalted Father”) renamed to Abraham (“Father of Many Nations”), Sarai (“Princess”) to Sarah (“Noblewoman”), Jacob (“Supplanter”) to Israel (“Ruled by God”), Saul (“Desired One”) to Paul (“Little One”).

When something (or many things) about that person changed, then so did his or her name.

The answer to the second question is similar, but addresses an even more significant issue. It matters what something is called because words matter. The study of the meaning of words is called, Semantics, and semantics are important because of the way people are built by God to think.

Why?

Because words can be used, for good or evil, in forming the hopes, beliefs and actions of people. That is what God intended in creating us in His own image. We respond to words because God gave us Intelligence, patterned after His own Intelligence, and words are the nuts and bolts that enable that Intelligence to be shared and communicated.

It is no accident that one of the names of Jesus is, The Word of God. The word in Greek that we translate in English as “word” is, “Logos”. And “logos” is also the root of our word, “logic”. Underneath, at the very center of both concepts (word and logic) is “information”, and underneath that, is the foundational root of what was already mentioned above, “intelligence”.

Because of all these things - the meaning of names, intelligence, communication, logic and information - it definitely matters what's in a name and what something is called.

Which brings us to His name, and what Paul has written in the verses above.

There are many names for God, and many names for Jesus, and every single one of these is significant, and has meaning for each one of us created in God's image.

Consequently, whenever the Bible speaks of anything in regard to His name (either for His name, or in His name) it is speaking of not merely of the name itself, but all that the name signifies.

So, let's look at some of the many names of Jesus and consider their meanings, starting with one already mentioned, The Word of God.

In the first verses of the Book of John, the apostle tells us that in the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

Just this passage alone, naming Jesus as the Word, tells us many things about Him:

Because John is describing Jesus before He was born in Bethlehem, he is conveying the fact that Christ is pre-existent, meaning before there was anything – anything at all – there was God, that mysterious, all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere-present Being who exists as three Persons, yet One God.

He is all that God is: His power, His intelligence, His presence.

In becoming a Man, He has conveyed to us the very nature of God in a way that we could comprehend. In other words, He has communicated to us all the information we need to know about God so that we could understand who He is, and what He is like. By becoming a Human (incarnating), and speaking to us the very words of God, He has shared with us all that we need to know, from A to Z (as the saying goes), about our Creator and Savior.

In Isaiah 9, we are given yet more names:

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6, NKJV).

Let's look at each of the bolded words, above.

Jesus is called, Child. Why? Because that indicates His utter humanity. Human life begins and grows in the womb. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the body of a young Jewish virgin, and developed in her womb as every human being has since the Fall of Man in Eden. He was born of a woman as an infant, and was nurtured and cared for as a human, and lived His life as a human so that He could die on the Cross for our sins, as a human.

Without Him dying as a Man, a sinless Man, His death could not have saved us.

Next, He is a given Son. This describes His relationship in the Three-Personhood of God (The Trinity), something very hard for us to understand, but conveyed to us in this way (His Sonship), so that we can at least get a glimpse of what it means.

Firstly, a son is intimately a part of his father. This is true in human nature, and since that is modeled after divine nature (God's image), it is even more true with God. The Son of God is God, and in Him is all the fullness of the godhead, meaning that the Son, though distinct, is all that the Father is.

From ancient times, to be called “the son” of something is to indicate distinction (being different than) and equality (being the same in nature and essence). So while we may not understand all there is to understand about the Trinity, we can understand that it involves Jesus' Sonship as the cornerstone of the eternal and intimate relationship He has with the Father.

Note that Isaiah tells us further that the government will be upon His shoulder. This is a sweeping statement about Jesus's authority and rulership. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Sovereign of the Universe. Jesus, Himself, says:

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18, NKJV).

Next, He is called Wonderful. Literally, this means that all who look upon Him, and know Him cannot help but to be filled with wonder and awe at His magnificence, His nobility, His beauty, His power, His glory and His intelligence. There is nothing about Him that fails to do this in us, and the more we know Him, the more wonderful we realize He is.

The name Counselor is given in regard to His all-encompassing wisdom. Paul writes in Corinthians:

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:22-24, NKJV).

All knowledge, anything that can ever be known, indeed, the very meaning of knowledge itself, is possessed in complete fullness by Christ.

Mighty God relates to His power, the very same power that merely spoke and all the vast galaxies leapt into existence from nothing. The power that made all that is made, and that gives and maintains life.

The name, Everlasting Father, can also be translated Father of Eternity. This means that because Christ had no beginning and will have no end (which is what being eternal means), and, because, by His sacrifice He provides us entrance into eternal life, He is the initiator (the Father of) our eternity. It also speaks to His equality with the Father.

Lastly, Isaiah tells us He is called the Prince of Peace. By this, we understand that Jesus is the One who makes peace with God possible - peace with God, and peace on earth. You see, when Adam sinned in the Garden, he began a long war with God, a war that is continued by all his descendants since. It is a war powered by sin that can only be won by our complete surrender. No truce is possible.

By dying on the Cross in our place, Jesus made the conditions of our surrender something entirely amazing - by surrendering we obtain victory. We become more than conquerors. It is in surrendering that we exchange our sin for Christ's righteousness, and thereby escape Hell.

Does Jacob's battle with the Angel of the Lord in Genesis make more sense now? When Jacob was winning the wrestling match, he was losing his soul. When he gave up the battle, he was renamed from Jacob, which means “supplanter” or “conniver”, to Israel, which means “ruled by God”. He was made lame in his hip so that he would never forget that lesson.

But the most important aspect of His name is the name Jesus, itself.

It is Yeshua in Hebrew, and it means Yah (God) is Salvation. And it is that name which conveys His mission of sacrifice on our behalf. It is in that name that, through belief in all that it means, that we are spared the just punishment of our sin, and given eternal life.

Do you love someone with all your heart? If you and she believe in the name of Jesus, no matter what befalls you in this life, you will never need say good-bye.

Do you fear death? If you believe in the name of Jesus (all that it means), you have no need to fear it, for Jesus has conquered death for you.

Finally, this means that if we live for His name, which is what believing the gospel enables us to do, then we will live forever in His presence in Heaven, and are spared the unthinkable end of unforgiven sin.

Obedience to the Faith

Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 01:05-07, NKJV).

The word apostle means “sent out one”. Jesus chose 12 men, mostly from the backwaters of Galilee, as “sent out ones” to proclaim the gospel and lay the foundation of the faith for all time, with Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone upon which the rest of the foundation is built.

After Judas committed suicide for betraying His Lord to the Jewish authorities, Mathias was chosen by lot (a game of chance) to replace him, but nothing else of Mathias is recorded in the New Testament. Then later, we learn that Saul of Tarsus became Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles (non-Jews). It is this man, Paul, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write nearly two-thirds of the books and letters contained in the New Testament.

Paul also was “sent out”, literally, on three missionary journeys, spanning more than a thousand miles, which he writes about like this:

For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient-- in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. (Romans 15:18, 19, NKJV).

Now, he did these things, despite repeatedly being arrested, beaten, stoned and shipwrecked because he knew – he knew beyond any shadow of doubt – that he was called to do exactly that. And he obeyed that call. It was his life's purpose.

In one sense, there are no more apostles, at least not the 1^st century kind that Jesus used to build the early church and record the doctrines (teachings) of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Their work was done after the Apostle John finished Revelation, the last book of the New Testament.

This is important to know and understand, because some cults and deceivers claim even today that there are new teachings from new apostles that add to, or alter, the very fabric of Christianity itself. THIS IS NOT TRUE. All that we need to know for a life of faith and godliness is completely contained in the Bible that has been handed down to us for nearly 2000 years, unchanged. There is no need of “new” revelation, and those who proclaim differently are deceived and deceivers.

But in another sense, we who believe in Jesus are all “sent out ones”, not laying the foundation of the faith, but proclaiming that foundation to all those God brings around us by our words, our deeds, and the example of our lives.

We, too, are called to go out into the world, perhaps not as missionaries or church-planting evangelists, but as disciples of Jesus who reflect His light and His truth by what we do and say and how we live.

Since “obedience to the faith”, in other words, believing what the Bible commands us to believe about mankind and sin and forgiveness in Christ, is the ONLY means by which anyone is saved, we are to live our lives out in the world so that people can see and understand who we are, and who Christ is.

Why?

Because that is the means God has chosen to spread the good news of the gospel. We have the privilege of being His bondservants, His ministers (which is another word for servant). And when we obey, we will know the same joy and rewards (and sometimes trials and tribulations) that Paul wrote about in his ancient letters.

God has chosen to use us, forgiven sinners, in His marvelous work of salvation! For when a person believes in Christ, a miracle occurs, sometimes right in front of us – a human heart is made new, and the person is born again.

Do you see how incredible that is? We are tools in the hands of the Master Builder, and we are meant to share in the joy of Heaven when even one sinner comes to faith!

What a gift!

By being obedient to the faith – believing and living out what we believe – we have a part in changing someone else's life for all eternity. We are with them as they go from death into life, from darkness into light.

There is no greater satisfaction than to be used by God as a participant in this, the most significant miracle – the regeneration of a human soul.

But even if we are not present at the point of conversion, Jesus assures us that our witness of obedience is never overlooked. As recorded in John after evangelizing in the city of Sychar, He says,

“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! “And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. “For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.” (John 4:35-38, NKJV).

Paul, in another place, addressing the same issue, writes,

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. (1 Corinthians 3:6, NKJV).

Finally, we humans mistakenly believe that obedience is burdensome and boring, but that is mostly because we are rebels at heart and look at things through the fallen perspective of sin, but the truth is very different.

Obedience to a perfect, loving and just King is an extravagant joy like no other. It is, by far, the most noble and satisfying activity conceivable.

And remember this:

Then Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15:22, NKJV).

Receiving Grace

It is of the utmost importance to know this truth: we cannot earn our way into eternal life in Heaven, it is a gift of God and not of works, lest anyone should boast.

This gift (or grace) is the essence of the pure and simple gospel (good news) of God.

But with it comes the bad news: there is no amount of good that you can perform that will change (transform) your sinful nature into something acceptable to God. We are all automatically barred forever from Heaven because of what (not who) we are – sinners deserving of eternal judgment.

This means, of course, that unless we put aside our delusional pride and baseless self-worth and accept our own helplessness and hopelessness – figuratively falling on our faces and crying out for mercy – we are doomed to an unthinkable fate.

But God, because of the great love with which He loved us, will hear our cry and offer us the free gift of salvation through faith in His Son. If we receive this grace - sincerely, humbly, gratefully - then we are automatically and forever granted irrevocable citizenship in Heaven because of who (not what) we are - forgiven sinners in Christ with our sins paid in full on the Cross of His sacrifice.

Do you see the glory of God in that exchange?

We are transformed from creatures heading inevitably toward death into persons bestowed with eternal life who are becoming like Jesus!

All because of God's immeasurable grace.

It has rightly been said that grace changes everything – every human equation of cause and effect conceivable by man.

This is so important to understand so that the burden of guilt and the conviction of unrighteousness and the fear of losing that which God has so graciously provided in His Son is overwhelmed by the truth of His goodness and faithfulness.

Among so many other things, His grace means that He will complete that good work He began in us when we exercised that capacity for faith that He has so graciously provided each and every human being coming into the world.

By His grace, we are transformed day by day into something very different than what we started out being. It HAS to be this way because what we were before we believed is incapable of being good according to God's perfect standards.

Our “old” nature MUST die, so that our new nature, created according to His righteousness, can live. And that new nature is glorious beyond imagining! It is all that we consider good and noble and strong and beautiful and worthy... and more!

Just to confirm this, the apostle Paul writes later on in this incredible letter:

...that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (Romans 6:6, NKJV).

Can you begin to see why Romans is so exciting?

God frees us from the slavery of sin and death by redeeming us (purchasing our freedom) through the death of His Son.

He has done this because of His great love and kindness.

It is a gift.

But that gift has to be received in order for it to be ours.

It makes perfect sense. If someone offers me anything – a bicycle, a house, a horse, money – it only becomes mine if I accept it.

Now you may think this is easy, but it can be very difficult to accept a gift because of our ridiculous pride.

Many people are offended by great and generous gifts.

Why?

Because it says that they are in need of something that they cannot attain for themselves. It says that they are lacking the ability or means to provide for themselves whatever is being offered. And that offends our insane sense of self-worth.

Insane, because that sense is not based on reality. In truth we are weak and helpless and destined for death. Jesus said that we can do nothing in ourselves, and He is, of course, right.

We didn't make ourselves alive, nor can we prevent our own deaths. Our very breath – every inhale and exhale – is under His control.

But acknowledging that fact takes the one thing that is farthest from our inherent sinful nature: humility.

That is why it is so difficult to receive God's grace, because it is an admission of what we really are in the face of who He reveals Himself to be: our Creator, our Sovereign King... our Judge.

But when we humble ourselves and accept the grace He desires with all His heart for us to receive through His Son, we can relax about the single most important issue facing every single man, woman, and child under Heaven: eternity.

We are all immortal, whether we believe it or not. That which God has created in His own image cannot be unmade. We will all experience eternity, but only those who believe in Jesus will have an eternity of everlasting life.

Everyone else – everyone else – will know the unthinkable eternity of conscious death.

But grace does not mean that we are given permission to sin. Again, later in Romans, Paul writes:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? (Romans 6:1, 2, NKJV).

No, receiving God's grace means that we are changed forever, and are being transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

While that transformation will only be complete when we are done with this life, or when Christ returns for His church, it also means that we can rest assured that He WILL complete it until the Day of Jesus Christ.
It also means what Paul writes in Ephesians:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10, NKJV).

True believers in Christ are no longer of the world. We are citizens of Heaven living, for now, in the world.

Jesus said that because of this, the world will hate us because it hated Him.

But that's OK, for ...the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:17, NKJV).

Love,

Dad.

Grace Be With You All

And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. Amen. (Hebrews 13:22-25, NKJV).

Grace and peace are the conjoined twins of the New Testament, especially as salutations from the Apostle Paul (as he aged, he amended his benedictions to include grace, mercy, and peace – and for those of us who are also aged, we understand completely).

It has rightly been said that you cannot know the peace of God until you understand and accept His grace (unmerited favor) through Jesus Christ. God's grace is that which pours out upon His children all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. It is God's grace that make us coheirs with Christ. It is God's grace that bestows us with eternal life in glorified physical bodies.

His grace is almost the opposite of His mercy, since mercy is not receiving the punishment we do deserve, while grace is receiving all His immeasurable gifts which we do NOT deserve.

Without Christ we can have neither grace nor peace. Without faith in Him we are enemy combatants in the long war against God waged daily by all those who have not accepted the gift of His righteousness through His Son. It is a war that He has allowed to persist from Satan's rebellion until He recreates all things at the time of restoration, so that all those born in sin can have opportunity to repent and be saved.

As His ambassadors and soldiers operating behind enemy lives, apart from His everlasting mercy, we need His grace more than anything to endure and do His will until our time here is done, or His Son returns for His church.

Paul understood and communicated the importance of this grace in each of his epistles. If John, the reformed Son of Thunder, is the apostle of love, then Paul, the transformed legalist, is the apostle of grace. He knew that it was God's grace that was his life's blood, and he exhorted and encouraged the early church to never forget that truth.

From hate-filled Pharisee to the foremost Christian missionary of the 1^st century church, Paul always credited his miraculous metamorphosis entirely to God. It was none of himself and all of Christ. And it was the grace of Jesus Christ that fueled him more than his necessary food.

This is what I know about grace in my own life:

My Savior does not hold against me my time in the enemy's camp, despite the fact that it encompassed most of my life thus far.

My Lord does not return to me evil for evil, but good. He has blessed me beyond anything I could ask or think or imagine.

By His grace I have been washed clean. It is not merely that He has taken my punishment upon Himself – though that is an unfathomable gift in and of itself – it is that He has purposed before the foundation of the world to view me and love me as He does His Son, Jesus. I have not “just” been absolved of guilt, I have been adopted as one of His own.

Christ calls me not His subject or servant, though I am privileged to be both, but His friend.

I am implored by His Spirit to come boldly to His Throne of Grace to find mercy and help in time of need.

By His grace nothing of value in my life is lost, ever. He will restore the years that the locust ate and guarantees that He will complete that good work in me that He began at the moment I came to repentance and faith – an act empowered by His grace.

When I die, it will be a Homecoming that I cannot comprehend or fully understand, but which I know He has prepared for me, uniquely, and which will fill me with everlasting joy.

By His grace, I never have to say “good-bye” to those whom I love in this life, but only “see you later.”

This marvelous Book of Hebrews has been a journey through the revelation of Christ's superiority to anything and everything that can possibly be conceived or worshiped.

His unparalleled beauty, majesty, nobility, power, intelligence, love, and grace has been given to us in this 1^st century letter as a divinely inspired gift beyond price.

Beloved, I urge you to make the truths of Hebrews part of the very fiber of your heart and soul, so that your love and faith in Christ is deepened with each incredible verse.

Grace be with you all. Amen.

The Word of Exhortation

And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. Amen. (Hebrews 13:22-25, NKJV).

In Greek, the word here translated exhortation (paraklesis), is the same root word used to refer to the Holy Spirit as Helper in John 14. It's meaning encompasses supplication, entreaty, admonition, encouragement, consolation, and that which affords comfort or refreshment.

This is the essential nature of the entire Word of God.

It is the one source of all those things provided by the Holy Spirit Himself as He inspired holy men of God to record His thoughts, intents, and instructions for all posterity. It is that which shall never pass away. It is that which shall outlast the current material Universe. It is that which saves and transforms and makes alive.

And it is ours for the taking.

What a gift!

Thus it is fitting, as we near the end of this series of devotions on the marvelous Book of Hebrews, to include a brief examination of one of the most tangible gifts from God to men: His Word.

It is His Word that caused Existence to come into being. He spoke and all that ever was or will be leapt into time and space and the spiritual realm.

He spoke and His Word brought forth light and darkness, the heavens and the earth, animals and mankind.

His Word bespoke the curse upon sin and the Promise of redemption.

And it is His Word to which we look for joy beyond measure for in it we find eternal life (John 5).

Yet, sadly, even Christians often neglect the edification and nourishment that comes from feasting on this gift of wisdom and truth. We set aside divine revelation for earthly philosophy and so-called science. We look to human experts rather than to seek first the Kingdom of God in His Word.

It is not that Bible-believing disciples of Christ eschew human wisdom, it is that we measure all such information against the source of wisdom itself. When there is a conflict we align ourselves unapologetically with God's Word.

Otherwise (and this is vitally important), we find ourselves adrift in the turbulent sea of worldly opinion, and the shifting, treacherous sands of fallible and fallen human priorities.

Thus, for example, we spiral downward from the lofty position of the inviolable sanctity of human life, to the evil and barbarous profanity of institutionalized and legalized abortion on demand.

We move from the foundational family of husband and wife to the various and inevitably chaotic alternatives of virtually anything else.

This is not surprising. In fact, this end times apostasy is foretold throughout God's Word, but it is nonetheless tragic. Among other things, it places the gossamer and fragile “wisdom” of man above the revealed will of the Eternal Creator, Himself.

The unmitigated hubris evident in these “modern” trends is astonishing, but it is most decidedly not new.

The long war against God has been ongoing since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden, and is destined to continue until the return of the King, our Lord Christ.

Such statements as these are ridiculed and marginalized by the intellectual and cultural elites in this life. These are viewed as throwbacks to a more “primitive” age, but such arrogant dismissal is merely symptomatic of the long war itself, and should in no way undermine the believer's faith in God's Word and goodness.

On the contrary, this fulfillment of prophecy - this superior and vindictive attitude toward the things and purposes of God - is incontrovertible proof that His Word is true.

What then are we who base our lives and eternal destiny on the Bible to do?

The answer is in the focus verses above: we are to bear with the word of exhortation.

This means to submit to it by the renewing of the spirit of our minds by the washing of the water of the Word.

We are to esteem it more than our necessary food.

And most importantly, we are to live by it as the truth is in Jesus.

The requirements of a godly life are not complicated, but it does entail the one ingredient that makes all else possible: faith.

And we know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Through Jesus Christ

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21, NKJV).

The essence of our salvation from Hell is distilled within our relationship to our Savior, and is captured in four English prepositions: with, in, by, and through.

Such small words that, in the context of Jesus, are more powerful than the forces currently holding the Universe together. In fact, when the Universe suffers its inevitable demise, those words, as they apply to our relationship with Christ, will keep us alive.

In the beginning of each saved person's path to redemption, the Person of the Holy Spirit, sent by Christ, is with him or her, gently (and sometimes not so gently) leading us to Jesus.

Now we can reject this persuasion by staying in the darkness of our own sin, fueled by pride, steeped in our natural enmity to God. Or, we can surrender to the grace, mercy, and forgiveness offered freely to us by the gospel.

If we come to the humiliating realization that we, in and of ourselves, are hopeless and helpless, and in need of a Savior, then the Spirit at our conversion indwells us – He is in us. Further, the apostle John teaches us that all three Persons of the Trinity will come and make our home with us.

This indwelling is not possession, as in the demonic sense. Far from it. Our will remains our own, sometimes much to our chagrin and shame. Instead, it is the intimate fellowship lost by our forefather Adam in the Garden, and restored to us through our faith in Christ and His substitutionary sacrifice on the Cross.

We are literally in Him as He is in the Father, and the Father in Him. Think on that truth for a moment and be overwhelmed with wonder. That Triune Being who was and is and is to come, that One who spoke all Causality into existence, condescends – no desires – to be in such close fellowship with us mere human beings that He becomes one with us.

In some sense, this is like us desiring to become one with an amoeba, or fungus. The difference being that in doing so, He conforms us into His image. He lifts us up in ways we are barely able to comprehend. We would have no such transforming influence on any lower creature, even of we were able to enter into such a relationship.

Once we are indwelt, it is by Him that we become righteous, and are granted irrevocable and eternal citizenship of the Kingdom of God. This is no small feat in that it took the death of God the Son, Himself, to propitiate the Father's wrath against our sin. This is grace beyond measure, for it is on the Cross of Christ that God's inexorable judgment and boundless mercy came together to effect our salvation.

Finally, it is through Him that we are sanctified and work His will in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

Sanctification is that moment by moment process where we die to ourselves and live to Christ. It is that good work the He is faithful to complete. It is the gradual (or sometimes precipitous) shedding of our old, sinful nature, our dead man who was crucified with Christ, so that we may fully realize His eternal life within us.

More often than not, this sanctification comes through trials and tribulations. More often than not, we are figuratively dragged through the process kicking and screaming, stamping our feet and holding our breath in stubborn and fearful resistance. But He promises to complete us, and through Him we become increasingly like Him.

Until we are fully baked and our work and His work through us is done. Then He brings us safely Home.