Healing in the Fulness
Background: This teaching started with a prayerful sense that the Spirit wanted to communicate something of his fulness in Christ to me. Following this, the direction I was led became quite different from all my usual expectations
Foundational Problems
Last Saturday night Donna and I were asked to attend a local fellowship in another state by relatives of a friend. “No worries” I thought, only to find the vast majority of the meeting, especially the sermon, was in a language totally foreign to Indo-European speakers. If I was going to make an intelligible contribution, as I had prayed and been requested on the night, it would need to be something universal (1 Cor 14:19); not restricted to any special ethnic group. Thank God, this proved to be the case.
From the start I could not miss the unmistakeable gender differentiation in the group. The men were concentrated almost entirely in a group leading the service from the front of the assembly, including music, and, in a monolithic block at the far rear. Apart from the impassioned sermon by a (male) visitor from the homeland, and one or two prayers, the men were largely, unanimated and silent (≠ 1 Cor 14: 34; 2 Tim 2:11-12). The women however were vitally engaged in prayers, notices and noticeably dynamised by the Spirit of God. In the past I have attributed such male impotence in intimacy to various deficiencies in Western masculinity. In this case however Donna and I were the only Westerners present.
Praying in my heart (Gal 4:6) over the root cause of the lack of male spiritual energy, clarity gradually started to emerge. First, I heard with clarity one of the senior women praying to God as ,“Abba, Father” (Mark 14:36; Rom 8:15; 4:6). Shortly after, one of the male leaders shared his visible grief over the recent death of an Aussie “spiritual father” who had been a great help to him in his personal spiritual development*. I immediately sensed here was the key to genuine spiritual, and masculine, boldness (cf. Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). The Spirit-imparted (Rom 1:11) authority of Jesus, who prayed radically to God as his intimate Father (in a way that was totally foreign to the Rabbis of his time), ““Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”” (Luke 23:34 cf. Mark 15:34). Anyone who has a powerful revelation of Jesus, will have forgiven the foundational sins of their patriarchal ancestor (form Adam to their biological, or spiritual father), and so will walk with the liberty of the resurrected children of God (Rom 8:21) towards all others, male or female.
I went to talk about some of these things with the grieving brother*, for which he was thankful. However my lesson was as yet incomplete. The next day Donna and I attended the local Anglican parish, where, unsurprisingly, in a “liberal Catholic” diocese like Brisbane, all the major liturgical roles, presiding, praying, preaching, Lord’s Supper, were performed by women. The issue, though radically different outwardly from the first group, is essentially the same: deficiency in male spiritual authority is due to the absence of the presence of godly fathers. “ For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me.” (1 Cor 4:15-16)
Back to Basics
Theologian Karl Barth said “Creation is the external basis of covenant, and covenant is the internal basis for creation.” This concisely summarises the reason why, “all things were created through him and for him. (the beloved Son)” (Col 1:13,16). God created the universe so that he might have creatures in his Image with whom he could have a special intimate, i.e. covenantal, relationship (https://jrjarvis.com/whats-the-difference-between-a-covenant-and-a-contract/). The climax of the creation story of Gen 1, is the pinnacle expounded in: “27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”” (1:27-28). The ultimate power of this foundational text, that the Image of God is male-plus-female, is pointed out by Paul, “31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”32 This mystery is profound/great/μέγα mega, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” (Eph 5:31–32). Never sharing his exalted ways with superficial people (Isa 55:6-9), whatever their “tribe and language” (Rev 7:9), the great eternal mystery about the final destiny of the cosmos, is communicated by the betrothal between Jesus and Church, and only accessible to those who trust that their life is “hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3) in “the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). Only here can sincere believers (2 Cor 11:3; 1 Tim 1:5) have privileged access to the exalted One “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col 2:3). Expressing this revelation at its simplest yet most profound way, male-plus-female in complete unity, (Christ-and-Church in eternal glory), are the final and fullest Image of God reflecting the new creation in the Son’s limitless love (Col 1:13). This is ultimately why marriage and fruitfulness were created. PTL.
Overcoming the Adversary
The limitless holy power resident in you, “ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Rom 8:11), is fiercely resisted by every marital, ethical and cultural force flowing from the Fall of Adam and Eve. Men and women are radically different in constitution, but not in a call based on the resurrection of Jesus into a new eternal covenant (Heb 13:20-21). Whilst aspects of Paul’s teaching requires careful interpretation (https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/first-timothy-212-ordination-women-and-pauls-use-creation/), it is clear that “there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”(Gal 3:28). In “the eternal Spirit” of the glorified Jesus (Heb 9:14), our “Abba! Father!” has only one sort of son (male and female) made in the completed Image of his own all beloved Son. We must see ourselves in Christ, not like the impoverished believers last weekend, but as risen, ascended, glorified in him eternally. As the Fathers of faith testified, (our) “humanity has been taken into God” (Athanasian Creed). In the humanisation of all things in Christ every fracture in social relationships has been healed. This is what the healing of all tings in the fullness of Christ finally involves (cf. Col 1:21; 2 Cor 5:18; Eph 1:10). Why do we struggle so much to embody these final truths?
Conclusion
The fullness of Christ can only be imparted to us through what Jesus is doing today; whilst the life of Jesus in death, resurrection and ascension is sufficiently rich to transform the entire cosmos (1 Cor 3:21-23), as still-sinful men-plus-women we must abode in the Lord’s “indestructible” intercessory life (Heb 7:16). Without “gender-full” humiliation there can never be Christly exaltation (Phil 2:5-11). Despite all pro and anti-“woke” sentiments to do with gender, our proud vested interests in maintaining the status quo testify against us that we are not living as free people in Christ. About such things Paul speaks emphatically, “ Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” (Gal 6:2). For such things we need to earnestly pray.