It is possible that the very servants of Satan may be transformed into ministers of righteousness and become greatly revered amongst the good349. But there is a benchmark that can be applied if such people happen to be theologians or spiritual teachers in the Church and it is JHWE’s own assessment of Himself:
“I AM who I am: the God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and constancy, maintaining his faithful love to thousands, forgiving fault crime and sin, yet letting nothing go unchecked, punishing the parent’s fault in the children and in the grandchildren unto the third and fourth generation”350
That is God’s nature; these are His judgements which are evidently right and just and in accordance with human reason. That is, they are exactly how one would expect a loving and just God to behave in judgement. There surely can be no better theologian than God Himself, so if anyone presents a markedly different picture, he is no theologian at all however revered he may have become. We may be mystified by God’s ways at times, but this is a Being that we as human beings can truly love and adore as well as fear; not just for the grace and mercy we believe He has shown us, but because He is genuinely good from the perspective of those created after His own likeness. JHWE is forgiving, tender and compassionate just as a saintly human is consistently tender and compassionate, only more so. Like a good parent He will have a special affection for His own (or His Son’s) immediate family but will show magnanimity towards all, for that is His nature. As such He makes full allowance for the human weakness unavoidably inherited at birth; toleration being a vital ingredient of love as any parent will know. At the same time, He will take vengeance on behalf of His people351, being all who fear Him and seek to do justice in accordance with the revelation they have received from Him. Truly, we shall praise God with uprightness of heart when we have learnt of His righteous judgements.
Who may approach God?
Many have come to understand that a godlike perfection in righteousness is the prerequisite for a relationship with God or to enter His courts in eternity. Since such cannot 346 Jn4:14
347 2Cor5:8 cf. Phi1:23
348 2Cor5:2
349 2Cor11:14-15
350 Ex34:6-7
351 Cf. 2Thes1:6
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be humanly achieved, they believe such perfection must be credited to a person’s moral account through an act of grace. It is linked to the illogical notion just considered that because God who is love personified is also holy, He will not relate in any positive way to anyone less holy than Himself. If that were true it would be the antithesis of love and holiness as Scripture has defined those qualities, as well as opposing what we know from our own human and Christian experience. It also challenges historical and scriptural reality in terms of the relationship JHWE had with His prophets and kings. The holier a person is the more acceptable and forgiving he is of other’s faults and shortcomings, especially those of weaker humans. He also tolerates the foibles and is tender hearted towards those lower order creatures over which he has care and oversight, as is the case in man’s stewardship of the animal kingdom. This is not sentimentality but a reflection of the divine quality of love, holiness and noble condescension that God Himself possesses and has imparted in measure to those made in His image; and in the Christian these qualities are being perfected through association with His Son. Such is the imparted love of the Father, which far from being flaccid, incorporates a measure of holy hatred. That takes the form of a heightened sensitivity towards the cruelty, deceit, and wickedness of others, especially towards those weaker than themselves.
God and those who partake of His holiness are well able to differentiate between pure evil on the one hand and the imperfection of human weakness on the other. Such are tolerant and compassionate towards the one yet invariably incensed by the other. Examine the Scriptures carefully - this is the reality of God’s relationship with His people. JHWE had shown incredible patience towards the human weaknesses of His servants yet does become angry when they wilfully disobey Him or particularly test His patience. Likewise, Jesus with His disciples: review His dealings with Peter on the one hand and Judas on the other. This has nothing to do with “imputed righteousness”, it is our God and the outworking of His holiness. The true Christian who already partakes of the divine nature develops an instinctive and intuitive theology which senses the very nature of God. Such thereby discern the quality and outworking of divine love and holiness for they are in measure already partaking of it352. Be it human or divine, Love is love; Holiness is holiness; it is a question of measure, not nature.
Adding to such misconceptions, Christianity has imported a Hellenistic perspective concerning how man is to relate to His Creator through eternity. Albeit unintentionally, it can demean the comprehensive divinity of Jesus as Son of God and Son of Man. At least one of His disciples fell into the trap: “Show us the Father and it will suffice us”, pleaded Philip.
Observe the Saviour’s reply: “Have I been with you so long and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father”353. Note here that Jesus is referring to His person and nature as revealed during His earthly ministry. The incarnated Jesus and His Father have the same nature. Jesus had never been the “compassionate face of God”, He was the very image ( eikon) of God: the incarnate Word. Of course, the Father dwells in a
“light that no man can approach, whom no man has seen nor can see”354. Yet man can know communion with the Godhead even now through the Son and the Spirit who are equally holy yet communicable; apart from which man’s destiny is not to be “lost in God”
352 Heb12:10b
353 Jn14:9
354 1Tim6:16
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but to resume his existence as a physical entity in union with the Man who is God’s true Son. “For in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily and (man) is complete in Him -
the Head of all principality and power”355.
The Christ (anointed King) is also the Judge of humanity; God the Father judges nobody but has committed the matter to His Son356. It follows that the kind of people who were accepted, albeit sometimes rebuked yet clearly loved by Jesus during His earthly ministry will be accepted by Him at that judgement and rewarded according to their works357, the difference being that when He appears in His unveiled glory those in whom Jesus was profoundly offended358 will be “consumed with the breath of His mouth and destroyed with the brightness of His coming”359. These are the children of the devil (chapter six).
Yet it is certainly the case that only the pure in heart may see God360 but that is not a requirement to possess the triple holiness of the Divine Glory. Solomon was told by JHWE
he would be blessed provided he walked in “innocence of heart and in honesty” as had his father David361. It is that childlike purity required for those who are to enter the Kingdom, not the inviolable perfection of God Himself, for He is superior to His creatures in every way and will continue to be so. A measure of holiness is required even now to be in a living relationship with His glorious Son through internal communion, for He does become spatially intimate with the Christian362. Such is not possible within a sin-prone mortal body without the forgiveness and cleansing of sin through baptism, without which one cannot be raised to eternal life. But nor can such be sustained without the ongoing cleansing of the blood. For in shedding that blood Christ had provided a purification through Himself (Heb1:3
Greek: di heautou katharismon poiesamenos)363. Once again, this verse deceives through mistranslation in many versions, implying that the sins of the believer were purged at Calvary. They were not, they were pardoned. “Katharismon (purification or cleansing) is a noun, not a verb. The New International Version more accurately translates the verse as
“(Christ) provided purification for sins”: we have to avail ourselves of it - the blood must be
applied . The writer to the Hebrews refers to the blood of the New Covenant as “the blood of sprinkling”364, referring back to the act of sprinkling the blood of bulls on the people of Israel to seal God’s covenant with them. Peter refers to the same concept in the context of something that, like the believer’s obedience, would be ongoing:
355 Col2:9-10
356 Jn5:22
357 Mt16:27
358 E.g. Mt23:33
359 2Thes2:8
360 Mt5:8
361 1Kin9:4
362 Col1:27
363 Heb1:3. - the similarly constructed 2Pet1:9 refers to the purging of former sins through the sacrament of baptism, the bath of regeneration (Tit3:5)
364 Heb12:24 (cf. Heb9:13; 11:28 re Old Testament Covenant)
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“(To the) elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through a hallowing of the spirit365 leading to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus”366
whereas the once-for-all shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross is referred to by Paul in the context of universal reconciliation:
“Having made peace through the blood of His cross, God would reconcile all
things to Himself by Christ, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven”367
Whilst all true humanity (cf. chapter six) is reconciled to God by Christ’s death, the Christian goes on to be “saved” by participating in His life 368. And that salvation pertains to a healing of the soul through sanctification of the spirit. That requires the body, soul and divinity of Jesus to be received into the believer so that Christ’s spirit is united to his own369.
Such purification was not available until the shedding of His blood370 and as God well knew and intended, although the Good News of Jesus’ Lordship was to be announced to all, relatively few would rise to the challenge of discipleship and so come to benefit from it. Yet Jesus had said: “If I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself” and Paul was later to confirm that it was God’s intention to reconcile the whole world to Himself, not holding their faults against them. All is resolved once the three soteriological categories are acknowledged and it is understood that those who are called to be Christ’s little flock371 are those whom He sanctifies, disciples, and spiritually empowers to play a priestly role within a vastly broader healing and reconciling process:
“It is all God’s work; He reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation. What I mean is - God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not holding anyone’s faults against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation”372
God’s reconciliatory strategy for the world has been to work from within; firstly, reconciling a particular grouping to Himself (the seed of Isaac) to act as a bridgehead to the rest, who in turn would come to admire their wisdom and their laws373. Through Israel’s failure that preparatory stage has itself been sub-divided and therefore extended by a realignment of personnel. Consequently, we are still in the process of assembling the priestly enlighteners that are replacing the race of Israel, not in the process of fulfilling Old Testament prophesies in a “spiritualized form”. So shall the mystery of God be brought to pass in accordance with the Good News He has brought to His servants the prophets.
Peter drops a further clue to that mystery when he refers to the Church both as a peculiar people and as a “nation” (Greek: ethnos). He is drawing on an Old Testament 365 Greek: en hagiasmo pneumatos (genitive) = of spirit , not by the Spirit 366 1Pet1:2
367 Col1:20
368 Rom5:10
369 1Cor6:16-17
370 Zech13:1; Mt26:28
371 Lk12:32
372 2Cor5:18-19
373 Deut4:5-6
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prophecy to summarize the nature and purpose of the Church; a purpose the prophets had expected to be fulfilled by others who were a nation in the more usual sense of the word:
“But you (the Church) are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light”374
But this time there is no conditional clause as there was with the previous participants375. Christ and His Spirit have promised to see this one through to its completion: individuals may default for sure, but not the entire people – not the whole Church.
The scope of God’s salvific plans
“(I pray that you) may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge”376
For most of the gospel era it has passed knowledge that Christ’s love and sacrificial death have made it possible for all who fear God and endeavour to walk in accordance with the light they have received to be accepted by God and in due time be received into His eternal Kingdom. The reality is, only a third of the world’s population is nominally Christian, about the same proportion as a century ago. There are now more Muslims than Catholic Christians and nearly as many Hindus. It is an historical fact that a very small percentage of people inhabiting the largest Continent on the planet have been Christian, but we can be assured God loves Asians as much as anyone else; He is no respecter of persons but is preparing them to serve His Son and ultimately be united to Himself in His own way. Those who through elective grace are offered the challenge to suffer and serve with Christ as part of His mystical Body on behalf of their human family are called to a life of self-discipline and self-denial. Those prepared to sacrifice much in this life gain much in the next377. That is intuitive to all with religious faith.
Christ’s disciples must “lose their own life that they might save it”. For them “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. The pros and cons need to be weighed up before making the commitment to Christian discipleship378. Those who by the help of the Spirit and applying all the means of grace rise to such a challenge will be greatly compensated as the sons of the resurrection379, i.e., those who are to be raised up at Christ’s coming380. In terms of who will be raised, Polycarp an immediate disciple of the author of Revelation understood that we will obtain the first resurrection “if we do His will and walk in His commandments and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking and false witness381. Achieving such a role in the Kingdom of God is not easy “for many I say to you will seek to enter and will not be able”382. Disciples of Christ act as the 374 1Pet2:9 cf. Ex19:6
375 Ex19:5
376 Eph3:18-19
377 Mt19:29
378 Lk14:28-33
379 Lk20:36; phil3:11
380 Jn6:39,40,44,54
381 Polycarp – Epistle to Philippians chap. 2
382 Lk13:24
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advance guard; those who have fore-trusted383 in advance of His coming to the praise of His glory. They are the first fruit of His creation384 chosen to show forth the praises of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvellous light385. Christians are Christ’s own purchased possession; not the totality of those who will be liberated as the children of God386 but the firstborn of those children387, set apart to act as intercessors on behalf of the whole human family, for such is the role of the firstborn. The firstborn almost by definition are likely to be the minority; the rest are on the broad road to “apoleian”388, usually translated as “destruction” whereas the Greek actually conveys the meaning of being severed or cut off from something vital, or being “lost”, as per “the Son of Man came to seek out and save those who were lost”. What they have been severed from is “zoen” (life), that is the Life for which they were ultimately created, being a two-way relationship with God that only those “on the narrow road” can experience whilst in mortal flesh.
There was no fountain provided for sin and uncleanness for the people of the Old Testament389. The forensic benefits of the atoning Sacrifice are trans-historical; the participatory benefits cannot be. Old Testament saints could be pardoned on account of the later shedding of the blood of Christ as represented by the offering of bread and wine by the mysterious timeless priest of JHWE, Melchizedec390. He offered for the world what the Church now offers as God’s priesthood at the Eucharist, but unlike the latter those under the Old Covenant could not themselves be spiritually nourished by His body and blood for they could not partake of it. Those who think otherwise do not comprehend the letter to the Hebrews391 and are denying the teaching of Christ:
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in Me and I live in that person… This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live forever”392
Clearly, the spiritual food and drink in question “came down from heaven” when the Son of God was incarnated. Internal healing and spiritual empowerment were not available for the faithful Jew until Christ physically shed His blood on the cross - so that the Gift may be engrafted and “the whole spirit, soul and body may be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord”393. This is what it is to be “saved to the uttermost”394, requiring access to the sacrament by which Christ and the participant become one spirit395 and a partaker of the divine nature396.
383 Eph1:12 “proelpikotas”
384 Jam1:18
385 1Pet2:9
386 Rom8:21
387 Heb12:23
388 Mt7:13
389 Zech13:1
390 Cf. Heb7:3
391 Especially 9:14-15; 10:1-2; 13:11-12
392 Jn6:56,58
393 1Thes5:23
394 Heb7:25
395 Cf. 1Cor6:17
396 2Pet1:4
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The Church as priesthood for the world
Through the sacramental mystery, the Sacrifice at Calvary is actualized and represented in pure form for the benefit of the participants and for the glory of the Father who continues to delight in his Son’s faithful act of obedience to death through His love for humanity. For every chief priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, so it is necessary that this One also has something to offer397 which is Himself as Victim; an offering in which the whole Church participates. “It is finished” - the Passion itself has been accomplished, and the Church implements its achievement to advance the salvation of the world and for the sanctity of the faithful.
Savours are not inclined to linger yet that historical sacrifice is perpetuated through the offering of the Church, propitiating God’s displeasure at the world’s sinfulness and justifying all those who fear God and seek to do what is right. Each participant acts as a priest joining in the offering of the Eucharist, receiving the sacrament in prayer and thanksgiving, offered in the hands of the celebrant, who in persona Christi acts as a high priest of the New Covenant, approaching the holy altar to offer the pure gift with incense398.
The Church as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood offers up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ399.
Yet if the Church is a priesthood, it cannot be offering sacrifices exclusively for itself alone. The offering is also for the benefit of those “who are ignorant and have gone astray”400. The Church shares in the sacrificial offering with her Head. Those outside her therefore must potentially benefit, not just from her enlightenment and good works within wider society but through her priestly intercession and sacrifice. Once understood, this resolves many biblical tensions and explains the broader reconciliatory picture painted particularly by Paul – and how Christ’s atoning work at Calvary is at the heart of it.
Justification within the Universal Covenant is not directly linked to association with the Church but through an association with the cross of Jesus Christ (cognisant or otherwise) who has atoned for the sin of the world. That leads to an indirect association with the Church for she is God’s royal priesthood making present that historical Sacrifice. Thereby all people of good will benefit in an expiatory (guilt removing) and propitiatory (God appeasing) sense from the sacrifice that the Christian faithful as God’s nation of priests offers on the world’s as well as its own behalf at the Eucharist.
However, only those partaking of the body and blood may benefit in a salvific or soul-healing sense, for which reason they say, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed”. Likewise, as Jesus offered His body for the good of the Church so the believer having been spiritually nourished by partaking of that body may in turn offer his mortal body as a living sacrifice401, primarily to God but also to benefit the world. Though already raised to heavenly places in Christ402, like His Master before Him the Christian disciple is to offer his life in the body in humble service 397 Heb8:3
398 Mal1:11
399 1Pet2:5
400 Heb5:1-2
401 Rom12:1
402 Eph2:6
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for the good of humanity. Just as Christ came not to be served but to serve, so the Church is currently serving with Him. As His future partner she is destined for Monarchy, but for now, far from “ruling with Christ” she is His suffering Body, Servant to the world.
As far as I can see, all doctrinal and biblical tensions become resolved once the historical misunderstanding concerning the outworking of original sin, the true nature of
“faith” and the two-tier benefits of the atonement are acknowledged. The Catholic Church’s reluctance to acknowledge doctrinal error pertains to her ecclesiology and the scope of her self-perceived infallibility. Yet that Church’s ability to have fulfilled her historical and universal primary obligations is not compromised, for the Lord has never ceased to gather a people to Himself so that from the rising of the sun until its setting a pure sacrifice is offered to His name. As universal sacrament for the world, the Catholic/Orthodox Church (West and East) has ensured that the fullness of sacramental provision necessary for gospel salvation has been provided, such that the ones called out to be the people of God may be supplied for divine service now and in the ages to come.
The Eucharist – our sanctification
I have been outlining why all who respond positively to conscience demonstrate they are “of God” as opposed to being like Cain “of the Wicked One”403. However, agnostics and those of other faiths cannot be presented “faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy”404. That requires one to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and a partaker of Jesus Christ so as to become conformed to His image. One must draw on His spiritual life-force by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, for “whoever eats Me will draw life from Me405.
Receiving this Sacrament might be likened to the body’s blood flowing through the heart and being renewed and cleansed by it: spiritual life is renewed and refreshed by participation in the Eucharist. Yet it is no mechanical process even for those regularly attending this means of grace: faith is required just as it was when Jesus was physically present on earth by those who would be healed by Him. The pupil of the apostle John (Ignatius) affirmed this Sacrament to be the medicine of immortality; yet it is more than a salve it is a Saviour (i.e., a Person). The Eucharistic meal possesses the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, not through the magic of a priest but by the Holy Spirit imprecated by him.
One must have faith to regard it as such if one is fully to benefit from its transforming power, for one is not merely receiving medicine for the soul but a Person to relate to it.
The analogy within the liturgy recited communally by the participants refers to the idea of Christ “coming under our roof”, drawing on the Roman Centurion’s words to Jesus in Luke 7:6. That Gentile soldier sponsored by his Jewish friends (v3) did not feel worthy that the Saviour should enter His home “but only say the word and my servant shall be healed”
(v7). In the Eucharist, unworthy though we are, the Lord enters our eternal spirit’s earthly home and wishes to engage in meaningful communion with His host: “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice I will come into him and will sup with him, and he 403 1Jn3:11-12
404 Jud1:24
405 Jn6:57
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with Me”406. The context of that invitation is not evangelistic, it was addressed to Christians in Laodicea. So “supping” in this context is not just eating but communing together and reasoning together. Such communion is challenging, intimate and potentially transformative: Jesus Christ wishes to unite His spirit with ours and thereby empower us and remain with us to direct the life-changes that are needed for our inner sanctity. For in Paul’s words: “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit”407. Hence priest and people exchange the greeting: “God be with you” - “And with your spirit”.
He is received not by faith but with faith: it is not faith alone for He must be received. Indeed, Christ is received at the Eucharist regardless of the faith of the priest or the recipient408, yet the fruits of the sacrament depend on the disposition of the one receiving it, remembering its purpose is not to deliver the many from hell but to sanctify those being prepared for glory - not a place or realm but the unspeakable privilege of partnering Christ, the head of all principalities and powers409. But many again will ask “How can this man possibly give us His flesh to eat?”410 The answer pertains to a profound mystery which is not scientifically explainable, which is what can happen when the Holy Spirit is at work; for not many rationalists can explain creation from nothing or the feeding of the five thousand either. Its heart is an interior union with Christ: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him”411. Such are the participatory benefits of the Atonement for those incorporated into the Body of Christ – our Holy Church from which are dispensed the mysteries of heavenly grace.
Yet all people of good will shall be subjects of God’s eternal Kingdom:
“The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the Day comes, that great and terrible Day. All who call on the name of JHWE will be saved for on Mt Zion will be those who have escaped, as JHWE has said, and in Jerusalem a remnant
whom JHWE is calling”412
Under Plan B413 the location and logistics will have changed: the secure Jerusalem remnant will be the called, chosen and faithful gathered to Christ; those escaping on the mountain equate to those calling on the name of the Lord for mercy. Only the former shall through rapture escape the mayhem of the Day of Wrath414 and only they will have been prepared to receive an immediate inheritance and intimate association with their Bridegroom at His coming415, whereas in view of the corrupting nature of original sin the unsaved soul will be tarnished for it cannot be made whole except Christ had first been admitted to the vessel. Even disembodied and re-clothed in an incorruptible body, a soul will not by nature be disposed, disciplined, or formed in the ways of righteousness to serve in intimate communion with the Lord of Glory, for everyone must enter eternity as
406 Rev3:20
407 1Cor6:16-17
408 Ex opere operato
409 Col2:10
410 Jn6:52
411 Jn6:56
412 Joel2:31-32; ch3:4-5 some editions
413 I.e. the replacement of Israel by a universal Church as royal priesthood to God (c.f. Eph3:3-6) 414 Mt24:31,40,41
415 Col3:24
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themselves or else it is not their life. Nevertheless, all are to be subjects of God’s eternal Kingdom providing they have evinced “faith” through love416 and they will be forever reunited with those they have loved and lost.