dt

do i believe that jesus is messiah and that he truly did usher in the kingdom of heaven (i.e., yhwh’s dream for humanity coming true – or new creation)? do i believe that new creation really did begin that first easter morning when jesus was raised from the dead and mary mistook him for a gardener (second adam in the new eden)? do i believe that yhwh’s dream will ultimately come true completely; that is, the sons of the kingdom will be fully revealed and all creation will realize the hope of its present groaning and anticipation by being renewed; and, the new heaven and new earth will indeed come down (instead of the saints going up); and, the peolple of earth will so effectively learn the new way of being human revealed by jesus that they will pound their weapons into plowshares and learn war no longer; and, the aggressors (wolves) will lay down with the helpless ones (lambs)? i have no choice but to believe these things if i believe that jesus was telling the truth when he said that the kingdom of heaven is among us, that it is near, at hand, and available for me to enter if i so choose. if all of this is true, and i do choose to enter the kingdom, i must believe that all of what the kingdom is, all of what new creation has to offer, the fullness of the realized dream of yhwh is actually what i am stepping into when i proclaim ‘jesus is lord’. by faith new creation is either available or it is not – there is no middle ground.

faith is the substance and evidence of the things we are hoping for but can’t see yet.

the epitomy of the meaning of faith in jesus is living now, within history, as if the dream of yhwh were already actualized. faith is not shelving our hope until we reach some eternal disembodied existance at the end of history when it’s too late to participate in the dream coming true. faith in jesus means becoming, now, the kind of human being who will ultimately inhabit the culminated kingdom. jesus did not usher in a shadow of the kingdom but the kingdom itself. faith is (as i have previously stated) being human in the way of jesus. faith is being the human jesus was and still is on our behalf. faith is living the way of the culminated kingdom while still exiled within earthly kingdoms. faith is being completely naturalized into the new country and living in its way here and now. we need to look again at the words and walk of jesus. we need to stick with him a little bit longer on the mount where he gave that most important sermon. we will know at once where our allegiance lies and if we have exercised any faith in jesus at all. maybe we can start to understand how many will actually say ‘lord, lord’ yet still be unrecognizable to the lord of new humanity. maybe we can start to understand how notorious sinners will enter the kingdom ahead of the apparently righteous. maybe we could start to love.