But We Are Not Alone

 It would be disingenuous of me to just leave us focusing on our Loneliness and the devastation it causes us; and, although helpful, encouraging us to transition to Solitude is all very well (and necessary), but it leaves us with the wrong impression – an impression that has been part of what Paul called “a delusion,”(see 2 Thessalonians, 2:11-12) which has been upon us for a very long time.

Because the truth of the matter is: We Are Not Alone! No one; nowhere; no time. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, and all that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1) There are two major lies – delusions, if you will – that have blighted our lives and prevented us living our best (“eternal”) lives in God: 1) We are separated from God and have been abandoned by God because we are evil; and 2) God is not good. These lies have enabled a power-hungry, hierarchic, anti-Christ, religious system to dominate our understanding and dictate our lives for at least 1700 years. We are blind, certainly; and we are deaf. We are estranged, but God has never divorced us! God made us in Their image; male/female They created us. And they declared us “Very Good!” They have never changed Their mind in that regard!

I really can’t go into a detailed theological exegesis here, but know that you are indwelt by the Father, Son, and Spirit of God. Whoever you are! Paul explained it all so clearly, and far more simply than we have been led to believe. When Christ died, all humanity died; when Christ rose from the dead, all humanity rose with Him. “For God,” writes Paul, “was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.” All of it. From everlasting to everlasting – time past, to time future.

Thomas Merton wrote: "At the centre of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God, which is never at our disposal, from which God disposes of our lives, which is inaccessible to the fantasies of our mind or the brutalities of our own will. This little point of nothingness and of absolute poverty is the pure glory of God in us. It is so to speak His name written in us, as our poverty, as our indigence, as our dependence, as our sonship. It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in everybody, and if we could see it we would see these billions of points of light coming together in the face and blaze of the sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life vanish completely...I have no programme for this seeing. It is only given. But the gate of heaven is everywhere," (Conjectures of A Guilty Bystander. Doubleday, 1966 - my emphasis.)

Or, as Paul (again) so succinctly puts it: “…the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory…” (Colossians 1: 26-27.) And Jesus made it absolutely clear when he said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth [crucified], will drag all humanity to myself.” (John 12:32)

“If the essence of God’s nature is relationship, then sin must be defined and understood as missing a relational reality, a distortion of the image of God in us.”

(Wm. Paul Young)

We have been brainwashed (“soul-washed”, we might say!) into believing that we are depraved, untouchable, unlovable and disgusting because of SIN. Sin (hamartia in Greek), we have been told through a non-Gospel and perpetrated by an anti-Christ system, means “missing the mark” according to those moralists who insist upon moral perfection or “right behaviour” as the gold-standard for life in God. However, as Paul Young explains: “Hamartia is made up of two parts: ha- (an aspirated alpha), which is a negation (like un- or dis-), and -martia, from the Greek root meros, which means “form, origin, being” or “formlessness.” Yes, it is about “missing the mark,” but the mark is not perfect moral behaviour. The “mark” is the Truth of your being…Sin, then, is anything that negates or diminishes or misrepresents the truth of who you are, no matter how pretty or ugly that is…And what does the truth of your being look like? God. You are made in the image of God, and the truth of your being looks like God.” (From Lies We Believe About God, Wm. Paul Young, Simon & Shuster, 2017 pp 228-229)

And Young also explains: “If the essence of God’s nature is relationship, then sin must be defined and understood as missing a relational reality, a distortion of the image of God in us.”

And God looks like Jesus: “Have I been with you for so long a time, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9) Or: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1: 14-18 NASB) The Mirror Bible develops verse 18 most revealingly: “Until this moment God remained invisible; now the authentic, incarnate begotten Son, the blueprint of our design who represents the innermost being of God, the Son who is in the bosom of the Father, brings Him into full view! He is the official authority qualified to announce God! He is our guide who accurately declares and interprets God within us.”

The essence of the Gospel as preached by Jesus, Paul, Peter, James and John (at the outset) was, and will always be, “Repent [change the way you think – change your mind] for the Kingdom of Heaven is in you!”

We are not alone! Emmanuel, God with us!

God is in us, and with us, and for us.

God is Love!