God’s Family

We return to the consideration of the family of God.  God’s children are found in both creation (physical) in the world to earth’s citizenship context which closes in death, and by adoption (spiritual) in heaven’s citizenship context opening to immortality into God’s kingdom. (Galatians 4:5)  All his children maintaining eternal fellowship with him must pass through both gates, physical and spiritual.  The physical ends in death, but for the spiritual there is immortality that is partly characterized by presence.  That God creates is perfect, and remains perfect, unless by some factor it is betrayed, in which situation it can be redeemed by the creator.  Whatever he does is not dissolved or lost, unless that created, capable of losing legacy, is not openly amenable to recovery in the plan of God.  That plan may not appear attractive to the pride of mankind, but God will not deny himself.  His kingdom is governed by his perfect standards.  Because his nature is marked by attributes far beyond the understanding and nature of mankind, there will be some conflict in the reach of both mankind and God for desired resolutions.  In wisdom the persons of mankind do well to accept the resolutions of God, if the gifts of God are to be appropriated.  Without adequate perception of immortality (hope) the meaning of God to the individual is largely muted, perhaps lost. (I Peter 1:3-4)  There is no other recourse for us.  We find in natural life certain directions for this or that we must follow or lose the privileges of citizenship.  Similar observation fits for spiritual life.

In recent years to this writing there have been trials and experiments in attempts to verify or deconstruct the claims of Scripture about God, and life.  Recently one writer emerged from a year in applying what he determined were 700 rules by which the Christian, the biblical Christian, is supposed to live.  He went into the personal experiment as a firm skeptic.  He emerged as a skeptic, although he benefitted in following many of the rules.  His context was flawed in that he could not, without faith, accept the God of Scripture.  His presuppositions both about God and about Scripture were flawed in the sense that Scripture admits that without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)  Just as nations become bitter enemies because of the differences in their contexts, so go to war in bitterness, willing to give their lives than to permit this co-existence, so the reader of Scripture is directed to a faith life context that interprets much that appears in natural life in a different light than the humanist.  The informed Christian reviewing the man’s experiment could have saved him a troublesome year by admitting that he would emerge as he did.  (In forensics this is what is done when the contending parties waive material – no need to argue the point, we agree that is the way of it whether up or down to either the affirmative or the negative.)  God makes clear, through reporting the broad experience of mankind, especially in the history of Israel, how mankind will respond to both natural and spiritual life concepts and truths.  The man entirely missed the point that God cares and blesses mankind in matters of importance to his plans, when he describes marriage conflict, so offers, if mankind insists, what we call divorce.  He is utterly opposed to slavery, but offers, if mankind insists on the practice how it may be carried through with some consideration for the oppressed.  (God offered limitations that became known as apprenticeship in history.)  He opposes neglect of responsibility but proposes what ought to be done in a family (even for outsiders in pagan communities) when some members fail responsibility.  One chapter carries the story sufficient to this understanding.  (Leviticus 25)

There is so much more in Scripture to bolster this line of interpretation.  Where he can, God provides some range, not to violate his nature, but without some range we would never gain his approval for his kingdom.  I like the way the King James Version casts the idea: times of this ignorance God winked at – Acts 17:30.  The Greek word for winked here is overlooked – the infraction will not be punished.  Mortals have no grasp on how far reaching are God’s mercies.  They can’t be expected to cover all issues that violate the nature of God.  The issues here are similar to our own.  Human beings will go so far in accepting some matters, but there is just so much that can be tolerated, without resolution.  Our context is like that of an imperfect child loved by a parent playing a game.  The game may become too dangerous and we end it in some way.