A basic human right is that an individual can believe anything he or she chooses to believe. Even God honors that right in that it is part of freedom, and the free choices made in the direction of the meaning of the creator are important to him. This is one factor that distinguished mankind’s relationship to God as higher than that of angels. (Hebrews 2:2-16) God stands alone above all other factors and served by a magnificent entourage of his own making. That creation belongs to God’s artistry and the miracles of his competency to create that he wants to create from nothing. In mankind he has created creatures from nothing (dust) but reflecting his creative nature in procreation and other status privileges, persons who have the freedom to choose. In this choice lies the privilege of friendship with God. He has called us friends. As friendship, when pure and full between two persons in natural life is high pleasure, so relationship with God for human kind is high pleasure for both humanity and God. In conclusion mankind can find pleasure in that which pleasures God. (Revelation 5:11; Ephesians 1:5, 9; Philippians 2:13) We admire true friendship, but may not know how important and meaningful it is to God and mankind. (Proverbs 18:24) An interesting aside here is to note that Pilate and Herod, who had long been at odds with each other, became friends in their mutual encounter with Jesus. (Luke 23:12) Their friendship did not reach to Jesus, a loss of immortal friendship. Jesus pointed out that true friendship might lead to laying down one’s life for a friend. He did just that.
We sometimes confuse the matter with heavy thought we identify as theology, so we argue about whether God decides for us or we decide for ourselves. The love and will of God includes all, and in that we are chosen – to receive the sincere invitation to accept the invitation of God, to move from the physical creation to the spiritual creation to be finalized in due course. Judas ultimately rejected the invitation. He freely chose to take a natural course to wait out human life in the legalism that had developed in the privacy of his faith. Even in legalism he had failed, betraying innocent blood (a true friend), and meted out judgment upon himself. We need to remember that Judas had to be a regular fellow to have been identified with the disciples of Jesus for three years, and sufficiently respected that he managed the funds for the team related to Jesus in an itinerant ministry that had to be financed. He could have been a revered part of the most dynamic spiritual context of the world and society remaining with billions of persons centuries following.
I am a part of a sacred context of earth called a family; a part of a sacred context of earth called society (related to government or tribal identity that incorporates all of my own human kind); and, this pattern may be explained in various contexts. The one context not visited upon me in self-consciousness after birth innocence is spiritual. Spiritual life context is superior above all others in that it is perpetual, guided by a supernatural relationship that is understood in the lessons of earth and the revelation from God. Scripture provides specificity – gained from both statements and parables of affirmative and negative experience to provide evidence relating to the award of ongoing spiritual life. It goes beyond the experience of natural life. I may pick up the invitation to that spiritual life from my family, but I may not. The discovery may actually separate me from my family and much else in natural life. Nothing, not even the threat of the loss of my natural life, prevents me from making the belief (faith) choice – if I am willing to take on the divine context through faith which when pure does not violate the natural context unless those in the wholly natural context believe that it does for them. If penalized in some way through the secular context I accept that judgment without ill will. Jesus illustrated the principle in healing the ear of the soldier taking him to prison and crucifixion. In the years following, the pattern was accented beginning with Stephen praying for his executioners, and followed with the execution of Jesus’ disciples. All this suggests that I have enormous responsibility to make my faith commitment, with a willingness to live by it, and an affirmation so strong that I will pay the price for it as exacted by either plan or accident. Christianity is to be declared and ultimately proved in those Christians affirmative to life so to seek righteousness. In this is the Christ-life – not found in unaided nature, but in the redemptive friendship of God. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020