Colton

Where Heaven and Earth Meet:

Now that classes are over and I have time to read, I picked up N. T. Wright's book "Simply Christian" in hopes of finishing it this week. With that said, I've come upon a section that...well, just read it:

Talking about the history of the Jewish Temple (A building devoted to the worship, or regarded as the dwelling place, of a god or other objects of religious reverence. I am not diminishing anyone's intelligence, I know you know what a temple is...just wait) being destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries and how it has somehow become understood that "part of the central task of the kind, should the TRUE king ever emerge, would not only be to establish justice in the world; it would also involve the proper reestablishment of the place where heaven and earth met. The deep human longing for spirituality, for access to God, would be answered at last." It's funny how when you have a little history things Jesus said start to make more sense. This can be taken a couple of different ways. The first and most obvious being found here:

"Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days."
-John 2:19

Jesus refers to him self as the temple (John 2:21), the new place where one is to come for forgiveness and praise. Meaning that one no longer need rely on clergymen, priests or saints for forgiveness and salvation!

"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus."
-1 Timothy 2:5

"I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me."
-John 14:6


It seems pretty straight forward, Jesus is the mediator between God and us measly humans. What are we to make of the Holy Spirit now residing within us? Are we to suppose that we too can be a place where heaven and earth meet, or does this only happen when we pray to/through Jesus?

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own."
-1 Corinthians 6:19

This is where some people have come to be led astray and believe that we humans are gods because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. A very presumptuous and utterly wrong outlook that is demeaning to the real god. I have heard the demands and standards required of a god by many humans and have yet to see more than one met by a single person (other than Jesus). While our bodies may be a temple, one does not worship the temple itself, rather what abides therein. I digress...With God's grace, we can become the middle ground upon which [pieces of] heaven can be found on earth once again, much like in the garden before our fall. We, too, are the place where heaven and earth can meet. God has given us access to the Holy Spirit. As a result, heaven and earth may interact much like crochet; God/Holy Spirit/Jesus being the crocheter, we being the needle and hook the world will become the cumulative result of weaved yarn. The result being peace and justice as is promised by God since the beginning.

Now, I seem to have worked myself into a corner. Jesus is the mediator between man and God, but we are in the middle of where heaven and earth meet. Contradictory? Possibly, but perhaps we should look deeper into what the life of Jesus meant. Is it possible that he was the symbol for a coming age where the human religious experience is no longer external and physical (i.e. the temple and all of the rituals therein)? In other words the religious experience comes to you, instead of you to it (yes). When Jesus is talking to his disciples he once says this:

"If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever..."
-John 14:15-16

So what it comes down to is that once Jesus lives, dies, then is resurrected He becomes a symbol that we must believe in for our own "rebirth" to begin, and for the Holy Spirit (another "Helper") to grow in us. Now if we think about who God is, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is the trinity implies that they are three in one, but all separate (quantum physics, y'all). This is extremely difficult to understand, and as a result even harder for me to explain what I am thinking in regards to the trinity and each one of the three's role in all of this. However, if one is in you then all three must be in you...in a sense, right? Perhaps when Jesus refers to believing in Him for salvation he means God, or Himself, or the Holy Spirit. Would believing in any one of the three solely be wrong if they are all one? Since Jesus died and was resurrected he fulfilled one of many prophecies which then led to the Holy Spirit being given to humans (the subsequent prophecy). Not just the Jews, but the pagans and heathens et al, as well, are available for salvation. Because Jesus died, we are given the spirit, thus through Jesus death we are saved. On the other hand, no one is saved without having the Holy Spirit enter. Think about it. "No one comes to the Father except through Me." Believe in the plan, God wants a relationship with you
, not with you through your preacher, your priest, your guru, or your saints. If you have a relationship with God/Jesus/Holy Spirit then you are bringing them into this world, and are consequently the place where heaven and earth meet; you are God's temple.
Deep...Amen