Abundant Living
Our show tonight is titled Abundant Living. Obviously, we have something different going on here at the start of our show – our resident in-house musician, Brother Steve Utley. Now, Steve is the owner of Guitar Dynamics Plus here in town and a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each week on our show, ChristianArchytoday, Steve opens up with an original tune and will shortly be coming out with an album of his own. I wanted him to rip open tonight’s show for a reason… which we will discuss momentarily. But for now, Brother Utley – give us something from your heart and hands.
In my ears that’s worship music. Is that okay to say? I ask because it doesn’t sound like the worship music played on the radio. Stay with me and stay tuned for when Steve releases his first full album. And thanks for sharing your talents with us, my friend. I frankly had Steve open our show up tonight because of his style – which I love – but I know others will hate – especially those who believe themselves to possess more holy taste in music.
The Debate on Christian Music
Is there such a thing as holy music on this earth? Such a thing as Christian music? Is Christian music music made by Christians or is Christian music music that speaks of Christian themes? The debate rages on and on and on. If Christ has had the Victory perhaps we might see all music as Christian music. Think about it.
I would suggest that things like “heavy music,” and art films, and other elements of our modern world are often “type cast” as “not of God” by Christians because they live by an antiquated model – an inferior model that once reigned but has since lost ALL of its application relative to order. Let me see if I can explain this. And if you listen carefully you will hear and see me appealing to the new model and watching it have application tonight.
Reflections on Art and Music
Most of you know I have an artist's temperament. I love art and I dabble in the arts. Because of this, I will, at times, look at art from different periods and a couple of weeks ago saw some Dutch art. Now, there is a style of painting peoples countenances I don’t enjoy and I started following a trail of this certain style and came upon a well-known painting by Dutch artist Earon ee mous Bosch. I recognized it and remembered that while I find some of his style offputting, I've always found myself attracted to one of his most popular works.
It’s titled, In the Garden of Earthly Delights. So I examined this piece and read up on it and discovered I appreciated the piece even more. In the art world, the piece is known as a triptych which is a three-paneled piece with each panel presenting something different but connected to the others. In the Garden of Earthly Delights, the far-left panel depicts the Garden of Eden, the middle panel depicts the World (and it's full of playful nude figures enjoying life on earth), and then the final panel depicts judgment in hell presumably.
So there was that segment of ten minutes of my life. A few days ago I heard one of my favorite of all-time Metallica songs which I love because of its style and lyrics – which speak to who I am in my flesh. At night I was watching something and tuned into YouTube and looked up the video for Until it Sleeps and lo and behold I was confronted with depictions of Earon-ee-ous Bosch’s triptych played out in seething imagery for this song I have always loved. The connection was uncanny and off-putting as the content is about the sinful nature of man and our inability to escape it – except through Christ – which I loved.
A couple of days pass and I wake midsleep and it comes to me – the triptych – and I have a realization – garnered from all these seemingly disparate elements coming together. Now in my religious life, when these elements are taken into account, religious advisors would have called them of the devil, evil, dark. But I have learned in the age of fulfillment, where God has had the victory over all things.
Understanding the Model of Fulfillment
that all things are used by Him to reach and preach and speak Him . . . and his ways – into our lives. And I knew this was a gift, a revelation if you will, that helps me teach and explain fulfillment to others. So let me try and explain this model by going to the board and appealing to Earon-ee-mous Bosch’s work painted almost 600 years ago.
We begin with God and the creation of the World. In the Genesis account of the creation of the world we read (at the end of every day of creation): “And God saw that it was GOOD.” Six times, “and God saw that it was Good.” And then at the end of all the creative periods we read that God saw that it was VERY GOOD. Pretty cool, huh? Then we read about God creating Man – innocent or without sin, right? Both Adam and Eve. So the whole of creation started off GOOD, didn’t it? This is the first panel of Bosch. Fine. Of course we know that Adam fell and therefore the world fell too. So once “what was good” entered into a period where it became “bad” – or at least fallen, and separated from God – this is presented in the middle panel – that of the world.
The World's Condition and the Law
In response to the “World’s ways” God introduced to a Nation he made His own, the Law. And the operative worlds were OBEY and REPENT when you fail to obey. Again, Christ had not had the victory so in this world there was the LAW, and the Commands were to Obey and to Repent. Got that? And guess where all of this lead to for the world (in both Bosch’s art but more importantly in scripture)? It lead to judgement. It lead to hell, sheol, the covered place for all of the human race. There was no amount of animal blood could propitiate for sin and since all had sinned, all ended up in sheol (or hell) – separated from God.
With me so far. This is standard fare illustrated by the Earon-ee-mous tryptich, with the major principles being Everything started off Good. Everything went steadily downhill from there. Everything ended separated from God. We also learn that under the Law the mode of operation was to OBEY and to REPENT when there was a fail. You would do this because even though you were headed to sheol and separation from God you would either go to a separated part called prison or a separated part called paradise – so obedience and repentance was vital in determining your afterlife residence. And as a result of living under the law we have a people living according to Religious hierarchy, Tribalism (and therefore warfare), Insular thinking, Fearful living, Judgmental attitudes. There was one way – God’s Law and God’s demands – and everything naturally orbited around them. Still with me?
Jesus and the Promise
THEN ALONG CAME GOD’S PROMISE TO THOSE UNDER THE LAW. Jesus, His Only begotten, only human Son. Now listen – there are a lot of names and titles of Jesus in the Scripture – here are just a few:
- Alpha and Omega – Revelation 1:8; 22:13
- Teacher – Matthew 8:19; Matthew 23:10
- Testator of the New Covenant – Hebrews 9:16
- The Way the Truth and the Life – John 14:6
- Wisdom of God – 1 Corinthians 1:24
- Wonderful Counselor – Isaiah 9:6
- Word of Life – 1 John 1:1
- Hope – 1 Timothy 1:1
- Chosen One – Luke 23:35
- Horn of Salvation – Luke 1:69
- Indescribable Gift – 2 Corinthians 9:15
- Consolation of Israel – Luke 2:25
- Deliverer – Romans 11:26
- Life – John 14:6; Colossians 3:4
- Source of God’s creation – Revelation 3:14
- Spiritual Rock – 1 Corinthians 10:4
- Prince of Peace – Isaiah 9:6
- Ransom – 1 Timothy 2:6
- Redeemer – Isaiah 59:20
- Light of the world – John 8:12
- Lord of Peace – 2 Thessalonians 3:16
- Morning Star – 2 Peter 1:19; Revelation 2:28; Revelation 22:16
- Power and wisdom of God – 1 Corinthians 1:24
- Resurrection and Life – John 11:25
- Rising Sun – Luke 1:78
Now stay with me. This is really important
The Misunderstanding of Christ's Victory
Most readers of the Bible, most Christians today, when they consider who Jesus is and what He did, take the old model over here and reapply it over here. They approach the faith and God and Christianity as saying: “We are born into this world, beautifully and wonderfully made, we all fall prey to the wiles of the World, and our destination is hell.” Then they say: “Receive Jesus and you can be saved from the destiny of hell.” And then once we receive Jesus they say: “Now, Jesus saves us, but once He does you need to OBEY the Law and REPENT (or else you are still going to hell!)” And all they are doing is repeating a problematic model, cementing it on top of the heads of those who are supposed to be free in Christ and to have life more abundantly, not less! In an age where God has overcome all things by His Son and had the total victory, there is a serious problem with our repeating this model in this order!
Now I have given some words to describe Jesus. Let me give you 15 more that are key to my point. Ready? Jesus is also called the Author and Finisher of our Faith – Hebrews 12:2, Captain of our Salvation – Hebrews 2:10, Chief Shepherd – 1 Peter 5:4, First Fruits – 1 Corinthians 15:20, Head – Ephesians 4:15, Christ who is above all – Romans 9:5, First born from the dead – Revelation 1:5, Leader and Perfecter of Faith – Hebrews 12:2, Ruler of the kings of the earth – Revelation 1:5, Savior of the world – 1 John 4:14; John 4:42, Lord both of the dead and the living – Romans 14:9, Lord of all – Acts 10:36, Second Adam – Romans 5:14, Firstborn Son – Luke 2:7, Last Adam – 1 Corinthians 15:45. None of the traditional order makes sense when we look at the victories Christ has had on our behalf.
The Old and New Covenants
Remember, He is the second Adam, and the implication is sure – through Him all things are brought back to being good! In the Old Covenant everything God made went bad ending in separation from Him. In the New Covenant it's all reversed! Calvinism says that God created human beings and elects some of His own good will to life, thereby sending the rest that He created to an eternal hell because He won’t elect them. Arminianism says that God created human beings with free will knowing that most wouldn’t be able to make the grade – and there is nothing He can or will do about it. But with Christ having had the victory, total reconciliation makes biblical sense, moral sense, rational sense, and is in harmony with God giving total freedom to all men but also having the total victory in the end by His Son.
A New Perspective
So let me erase this faulty former model that we live by and explain the new wonderful greatest news to ever come down the proverbial pike! Remember, it's just the reverse of the problematic model. So first, we are all born into hell. We are not born as Adam and Eve into a perfect existence but we begin existence in relative bleakness when we consider emotional, psychological and physical pain and stress we all endure. We have genetic predispositions due to our forefathers, physical maladies due to the same, and start life by crying.
But remember, God has had the victory (by and through His Son) and so His Spirit of love is calling to all and offering them freely His love, His warmth, His open arms. Believe in my Son and learn of my love, turn to me in the face of all of this hellish stuff brought on by the first Adam and you will have rest.
In the former covenant Satan reigned. God reigns now. We all enter a world where God is reigning. Yes, there remains difficulty, disease and death – there is darkness that wages war against the light but those who are His no longer need to war against it – we now have the ability to see and live the abundant life through faith in His Son. We see that the world is good that God made when…
The New Economy of Faith
He spoke it into existence. We see His hand in medicine, in all of nature, in community, in social advances – all possible by and through our “second Adam,” Jesus Christ. In the former economy, the Nation was at war with the World, constantly being called to obey and to repent and therefore having to remain tribal and fearful. But here all are constantly being called to believe and love – all people – fearlessly, openly, knowing He is over all. In the former economy there was a progression from things being GOOD toward the ultimate bad – separation from God. In this economy there is an ongoing economy of going from BAD (our natural state and our places in the world around us from birth) to Good – the heavenly restoration of “the Goodly Garden of Eden – a heavenly paradise!”
The Former vs. the Current Economy
In the former economy, they lived by religious hierarchy, tribalism (and therefore warfare), insular thinking, fearful living, judgmental attitudes. But in this model of victory, BELIEVERS live by a multifaceted, universal world of inclusivity, fearlessness, accepting others, and pulling from innumerable sources of insights and inspirations as God is working through everything to bring about His beautiful ends. This model is fantastic news worthy of sharing as it kicks to the curb this idea that the FORMER MODEL is still being heaped upon us by religionists and pastors who want to believe that the war is still on, that the world needs to be feared and that hell awaits most!
And again, the key is that Jesus is our second Adam, the Last Adam, and that He has had the victory over all. Looking back to last week's board discussion, this shift in thinking, and a refusal to adopt the former model of human existence and to try and assign it to the present will better enable all Christians around the world to, equipped with the fruit of the Spirit, to love the faithless, those of a faith, those who profess faith in Jesus, and those who are clearly Sons and Daughters of God.
A Shift in Operational Models
A final thought: In the spirit of this age, we see a shift in the standard operational models of the past to a more inclusive, open, fearless model – whether we are talking about music and the arts, other entertainment, education and business – it is the same. This must be the case for our faith – or we have yet ANOTHER reason why it will become extinct. I am not talking about ANY change to the Good News. It remains the same. But so much has been assumed and adopted over the centuries that it is time to admit to our former failures and change.
If we were talking about western Philosophy, then the former model would be represented by all the attempts by men to obtain the ONLY model on earth. But the newer approach would be something like Hegel who proposed a model where everything lends to the development of other ideas and themes. If we were talking about psychology we might see the former as being Freudian – that everything extends from our parents and we are essentially screwed as a result. But in the era of fulfillment we would be speaking of Jung, where God’s collective is orchestrated to bring about understanding. Hold fast to what is good. Stand upon that Rock that is Christ and allow God to use you through whatever means possible to reach, serve, and love others. And let the relics of orthodoxy die the slow, lingering death it demands of itself.
