Message

Articulating a High Fidelity Message

Like foolish children, Adam and Eve ran away from their home with God in paradise and took us with them into godlessness (Learn More). Godlessness sucks. We were in trouble. We needed help. So the Son of God dove into godlessness after us to rescue us. He did not delegate the job to his subordinates. He did not send his flunkies. Rescuing us was so important to God that the Son of God did the job himself. None shall perish because our rescuer is the God who loves us. God does not fail. God does not come up short. God does not miss the mark. The only people not rescued are the fools who refuse to be rescued - those who tell God to bugger off.

The purpose of the visit he paid us for approximately thirty-three years at and about the city of Jerusalem in a region of our planet called the Middle East more than two thousand years ago was apocalypse - revelation. He wanted to enlighten us about himself. He wanted to give us insight into the nature of God. He paid us a visit to reveal to us the nature of God. The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the Son of God stepped out from behind the veil to show us the nature of God (Matthew 27:51). On the canvas of Calvary and in the pigment of suffering, the Son of God painted a self-portrait of the nature of God. The fidelity of the self-portrait exceeds the fidelity of all other representations of the nature of God made by human hands. Compared to the high fidelity representation of the nature of God that the Son of God himself painted for us at Calvary, all other representations are children's scribbling. Furthermore, the revelation is not carried by the words that Jesus said. The revelation is carried on the shoulders of a sequence of historical facts that happened to him. It was a wordless revelation (more or less).

What did the Son of God reveal in the revelation?

He revealed the sweetness of paradise. The revelation made by the Son of God during his visit shattered the illusion conjured up by the serpent that camouflaged the sweetness of paradise from us.

Why did the Son of God reveal the sweetness of paradise?

Rational people seek the sweetness of paradise (and flee the sourness of godlessness). It would be crazy to do otherwise. The sweetness of paradise is the engine that produces the force that pulls the children of Adam and Eve to the gates of paradise. It is the honey that draws the bees back home to the hive. (Note: the sourness of godlessness is the force that pushes the children of Adam and Eve to the exits of godlessness).

What is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet?

The indestructible and monumental love of God for us is the ingredient that makes paradise sweet.

The revelation consists of three parts. The content of each of the three parts can be given a name:

  1. the prefix
  2. the suffix and
  3. the connection between the prefix and suffix.

Each of the three parts carries meaning. The prefix carries meaning. The suffix carries meaning. The connection between the prefix and the suffix carries meaning.

If you omit any of the three parts, you distort the revelation. Accuracy, therefore, requires that we articulate all three parts of the revelation. 

Everyone is aware of the prefix of the revelation. The prefix of the revelation is the boiling cauldron of pain and suffering into which we baptized him.  It is the sharp hook of salvation onto which we impaled him with the same insouciance with which the fisherman impales a live worm on a sharp hook. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. 

His death ought to have been the end. It ought to have been all she wrote - the final chapter - the end of the road. It was over. Finished. Done. Quite remarkably, however, death was not the end. There was more to the story. The story did not stop at death. Something emerged from the boiling cauldron of pain and suffering into which we baptized him.

He died, yet, he did not stay dead.  He emerged.  He emerged alive from the boiling cauldron of pain and suffering.

But that is not all that emerged. 

The evil baptism into which we immersed him  (Matthew 3:13-17) ought to have, at the very least, pissed him off. It ought to have triggered his reflex for revenge, retaliation and retribution. It ought to have transformed him into the God who hates us. But it did not. He emerged with his heart still filled to the brim with love for us. Not a drop of his love for us had spilled. 

The normal pattern of cause and effect ought to have held true. Our wickedness toward him ought to have produced a God who hates us. We lit the fuse of the bomb. The bomb ought to have exploded. However, it did not. The bomb was a dud. God refused to explode. Thanks be to God (Isaiah 55:8-9).

The emergence of Jesus alive and still in love with us is the suffix of the message. He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. 

This is a most unusual byproduct. Ordinarily, the prefix and suffix do not exist together. The combination is so rare that it is quite possibly unique. Like a unicorn, the combination is not found in nature.  It is a supernatural combination - alien to humanity - foreign to us. It is akin to finding, in the same compound, fire and water, matter and anti-matter, hot and cold, fat and skinny, left and right, inside and outside, or up and down.  It is extraordinary because, in nature, the first component extinguishes the second component - annihilates it completely - obliterates it - wipes it out. That the prefix and the suffix existed together in Jesus makes Jesus unique.

Between the evil we did to him and his love for us is a firewall. The firewall is God's refusal to let our evil control the dial that regulates his love for us. The dial is set to the highest degree and is locked in place. We do not have any power over it. It is beyond our reach.

By making the connection between the evil baptism into which we immersed him and his love for us, God showed us the magnitude and indestructibility of his love for us. He paid the cost of our salvation not from His limitless divine resources. He paid the cost from His limited human resources. He paid them all for us. He kept not a penny for Himself. He has never paid more for anything else. The exorbitant price he paid for our salvation is the best evidence of our exorbitant value to him (John 15:13). Moreover, if torturing and killing him did not extinguish his love for us or reduce it by even the slightest degree, nothing we do to him can or will. His love for us is humongous and indestructible.

Therefore, never just say God loves us. It is a true statement but it is also incomplete. Its incompleteness makes the statement an inaccurate representation of the revelation. The statement, 'God loves us' is the revelation without the prefix and without the connection. 

Here is the compete revelation:

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us.

Behold how easy it is to squeeze the complete revelation into a small space! Twenty-two (22) words hold the crux of Christianity.  Contemplate the twenty-two (22) words - the prefix, the suffix and the connection - to gain insight into the nature of God.

At Bethlehem, God hand delivered to us a love note. Imagine. A love note from God to us. "I love you," God said to you and me. It was a most unusual love note. It was not dried ink written on dead paper. It was the word of God written on life itself. It lived and breath. He himself was the love note. The love note took the form of a baby born in the most humble of circumstances. The love note was a precious gift from God to us. It was so precious that it came with a guarantee. Imagine, a love note with a ironclad guarantee attached! At Calvary, God hand delivered to us a guaranty that the love note was genuine. God let us put the love note to the test. If the love note were counterfeit, God's love for us would have faded as we tortured him and died when we killed him. But it did not. It survived the test. We killed him but he did not stay dead. We tortured him but he did not stop loving us.

Pregnant by the Word of God

We have been made pregnant by the knowledge of God.

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14)

 

Like foolish children, Adam and Eve had run away from their home with God in paradise and took us with them into godlessness. Godlessness sucks. We needed help. So the Son of God dove into godlessness after us to rescue us. He did not dispatch his subordinates. He did not send his flunkies. He came to our rescue himself. 

To rescue us from godlessness, God decided to put us in possession of an important piece of the truth so its light could illuminate the darkness to make the escape route from godlessness to paradise visible. The job was revelation. The job was apocalypse.

The yeast of divinity was introduced to the mud of humanity to leaven the mud with the knowledge of God.  God paid us a visit to impregnate us with the knowledge of God. 

How was this accomplished? How were we "knocked up" by the knowledge of God? The job was given to the Word of God, the second person of the most Holy Trinity (John 1:1-5). 

The process of insemination consisted of three steps (Matthew 13:31-32) (Mark 4:1-32). 

  1. The message was composed
  2. It was delivered to us and
  3. A guarantee of its genuineness was created to verify the truth of the message

 

STEP 1: THE MESSAGE IS COMPOSED

God composed a simple message: Jesus is the God who loves us dearly. Yet, it is a message that transformed the world.

 

STEP 2: THE MESSAGE IS DELIVERED

At Bethlehem, the Son of God, the king of the universe, exchanged the penthouse of heaven for the basement of humanity. He did not send his subordinates to do the job. He did not send his flunkies. The job was so important that He did it himself. The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud to reveal to the mud the sweetness of paradise. The yeast of divinity came to leaven the mud of humanity. How? With a love note. At Bethlehem, the Son of God delivered a love note to us. Imagine - a love note from God to us! It was not an ordinary love note. It was unique. It was not words written on dead paper. It was the very Word of God written on life itself. The love note lived and breathed. It was alive. It came in the form of a baby born in the humblest of circumstances.

 

Step 3: A Guarantee of the Genuineness of the Message is Given to us

 

To determine whether the love note was genuine or counterfeit, God let us put the love note to the test. We tortured and killed the love note. He suffered and died.  This was the test. This was the evil baptism into which we immersed him. What was the result of the test? He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is the proof that Jesus is God. That he did not stop loving us is the proof that divinity is love. The test revealed that the love note is indestructible.

The Son of God has planted the seed of the knowledge of God within us. We are pregnant with the knowledge of God. Jesus is the God who loves us. He is the sweetness of paradise. Rational people seek the sweetness of paradise. It would be crazy to do otherwise. 

 

The Relationship of Suffering to the Message

God had something to tell us. God had something to say. God had an important message for us. The message was so important that God personally involved themselves in 1) the message 2) its delivery and 3) the guarantee of its genuineness.

What is the message? 

The message is that God loves us dearly. 

How was the message delivered to us? The message was so important that God did not delegate its delivery to a subordinate. God did not put the message into the hands of a flunky. God delivered the message themselves. The most Holy Trinity sent the Son of God to deliver their message to us. He was the messenger and the message. Furthermore, He was the guarantor of its genuineness. 

He was their love note to us.

How did God guarantee the genuineness of the message?  

Suffering.

God allowed us to baptize the love note in the boiling cauldron of suffering.

God allowed us to impale the love note on the sharp hook of salvation while He was human, alive, tender, vulnerable and our guest upon the earth..

Like silver, God allowed us to test the love note in the furnace.

God allowed us to torture and kill the Son of God. 

If the love note were counterfeit, His love for us would have faded as we tortured Him and died when we killed Him. But it did not. His love for us survived.

The survival of His love for us is the guarantee that God gave us that the love note was genuine. The survival of His love for us despite the suffering and death we inflicted upon Him verified the veracity of the love note. Suffering authenticated it. Suffering proved that God's love for us is indestructible. 

Can you even imagine a better, more reliable guarantee? 

God wrote the guarantee of the genuineness of their message of love in the ink of suffering. Why? Because the guarantee was addressed to creatures who suffer. Creatures who suffer understand what it means to survive suffering.

On the canvas of Calvary in the pigments of pain and suffering, God painted a self portrait of the nature of God  Why? Before Calvary and since Calvary, many representation have been created of the nature of God. All of them without exception and regardless of their author are inferior to the self-portrait that God painted with their own hand at Calvary. All of them must yield to the self-portrait.

In the Ten Commandments, God admonished us not to make any representations of them. Why? God knew that any representations of them would be inferior to the representation God would give us at Calvary.

Suffering was not the message.

Suffering was not the messenger.Suffering did not deliver the message.

Suffering guaranteed the message.

Suffering is the seal that God placed on the message of love to guarantee that the message is genuine.

The only universal language to survive the confounding of languages that took place at Babel was the language of suffering. All creatures who suffer understand it. It is our native tongue. God became a creature who suffers so He could communicate with us in our native tongue



Why did the Son of God become flesh?

God wanted to tell us something. God had something important to tell the children of Adam and Eve. 

"We want to tell the children of Adam and Eve that God loves them dearly", God announced to the heavenly host. What language shall we use? Shall we communicate with them in Russian? in English? in Mandarin Chinese? in Spanish? in Greek? in Aramaic?

What is the best way to communicate the message? How can we convey the message so that none of its meaning gets lost.

Since the confounding of languages that took place at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), no universal language exists that they all understand.

Or is there?

Did one universal language survive the confounding of languages that took place at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)?

Indeed, one did.

The universal language that survived the confounding of languages that took place at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is our native tongue. All of the children of Adam and Eve understand it without exception. Its meaning is unmistakable. It is the language of pain and suffering. The language of pain and suffering conveys unambiguous meaning.

The Son of God took flesh so God could communicate with us unambiguously in our native tongue. He did not use the language of angels; he used the language of the mud. 

The God who fashioned us out of the mud with his hands put himself into the hands of the mud to reveal to the mud the sweetness of paradise. The yeast of divinity came to leaven the mud of humanity with the knowledge of God. 

God let us pass him through the gauntlet of pain and suffering so we would see what emerged on the other side. God let us baptize him in evil so we would see what emerged. God let us put him through the test so we would see the results.

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. This was the gauntlet. This was the baptism. This was the test.

Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. These are the facts that emerged on the other side. These are the results.

Therefore, to fairly and accurately  represent  the message that God conveyed to us requires two components not one. We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. This is the first component. This is why the Son of God became flesh. Yet, he did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is proof that Jesus is God. That he did not stop loving us is proof that divinity is love. 

The first component of the message was necessary in order to give us the proof.  No pain and suffering; no proof. 

On the canvas of Calvary in the pigments of pain and suffering, the Son of God painted a self-portrait of the nature of God. No other representation made by human hands matches the fidelity of the self-portrait. 

 

 

The Message is best expressed as a Sequence of Historical Events

Often, it seems that someone took the pieces of Christianity, jumbled them up, tossed them in the air and let them fall where they may. So many odd and strange combinations are made this way.

The best way - no, the only way - to accurately convey the message is as a sequence of historical events (i.e. contextualized). The message, therefore, consists of three components.

  1. The first component of the message is its prefix: The prefix of the message is 'We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died'. The prefix of the message is the fact that we baptized him in the boiling cauldron of suffering (Matthew 3:13-17).
  2. The second component of the message is its suffix. The suffix of the message is 'Yet, he neither stayed dead and he did not stop loving us'.  
  3. The third component of the message is the connection between the two components. The connection conveys cause and effect. The cause and effect connection between the prefix of the message and the suffix of the message is the critical part of the message. The prefix is the cause; the suffix is the effect or, in this case, the no-effect. Break the connection and the message evaporates. Poof! 

Jesus is a compound of the most extraordinary combination of components.  The combination is so rare that it is quite possibly unique. Like a unicorn, the combination is not found in nature.  It is a supernatural combination - alien to humanity - foreign to us. It is akin to finding, in the same compound, fire and water, matter and anti-matter, hot and cold, fat and skinny, left and right, inside and outside, or up and down.  It is extraordinary because, in nature, the first component extinguishes the second component - annihilates it completely - obliterates it - wipes it out.

In nature, there is a normal pattern of cause and effect that ought to have held true in Jesus. Yet, in Jesus, it did not (Isaiah 55:8-9).

By baptizing him in the boiling cauldron of suffering (Matthew 3:13-17), we ought to, at the very least, have pissed him off. Our evil baptism of him ought to have triggered his reflex for revenge, retaliation and retribution. Our wickedness toward him ought to have produced a God who hates us. Pressing the detonator ought to have exploded the bomb. However, it did not. The bomb was a dud. Thanks be to God (Isaiah 55:8-9).

We killed him but He did not stay dead. We tortured him but He did not stop loving us. In addition, He did not revoke the invitation to follow him back to our home in paradise. Furthermore, He did not confiscate the knowledge of God that he had distributed to us during his life. He let us keep it.

Is there anything worse we could have done to him than torture and kill him? Baptizing him in the boiling cauldron of suffering was the sin of sins. He suffered and died. Yet, He emerged from the evil baptism alive and still in love with us. Wow!

Never sever the connection between the components of the message. Much misunderstanding is generated and much mischief is done when the connection between the two components is severed.

We tortured and killed him. He suffered and died. Yet, He did not stay dead and he did not stop loving us. That he did not stay dead is proof that he is God. That he did not stop loving us is proof that divinity is intransigent love.
We did everything in our power to extinguish his love for us. Yet, we failed. The dial that controls his love for us is in his hands not ours. Moreover, it is set to the highest degree and is locked in place.