The End of Religion

If you had one child in whom you found unspeakable delight, would it not be normal as a parent to want many more? And if you had many more, you certainly would not want them to be identical to one another. Similar maybe, but you would also want each one to be his or herself—to be distinctly unique—thereby experiencing tremendous pride and joy in each one, and yet multiplied by their numbers, and multiplied exponentially by their combinations and interactions.

This is exactly the case with the eternal Father, who by nature and choice has desired and purposed to have a vast family of children like His only begotten Son.

This desire becomes all the more evident when we realize that the Father made all His plans with the Son in view—looking from the eternal past into the unfolding ages to come, that Jesus Christ would have a glorious body and resplendent bride to be the visible expression and perfect counterpart (ezer kenegdo) of the unseen God in the earth.

And even more so when we apprehend that the Son has in turn dedicated Himself to helping the Father realize His eternal purpose—His ultimate intention—that the Father might have innumerable children in whom He can have parental honor, glory, pleasure, and delight.

So it is with the Godhead. No one member lives for or unto Himself, but each for the other. The Father intends that in all things the Son might have preeminence. The Son lives to reveal the Father. Likewise the Holy Spirit dedicates Himself, as the “operating system” of the Godhead, to revealing and realizing the purpose of the Father and the Son.

This innate attitude of selfless giving, serving, and sharing is the divine rule of action that pours forth from the very heart and nature of God, and is seen nowhere clearer than in the eternal cross.

Eternal cross, you say? Yes, eternal. The cross is not a one-time historical event in the material realm, but an eternal principle and action conceived and executed in the councils of the Godhead from before the foundation of the earth (Rev. 13:8). The cross is inherent and eternal in God.

The cross (death and resurrection) is and always has been the one method by which God moves His purpose and advances His kingdom. It expresses the very qualities and manner of life of the triune God. It is the life-giving, light-sharing, and love-bestowing principle by which God has dealt with mankind since the very beginning.

Among the manifold tragedies of the fall of mankind—symbolized by Eve eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as opposed to the tree of life—is that mankind refused to “live” by the “cross-principle.” (And yet this was paradoxically and immediately followed by Adam eating of the same fruit with the knowledge that he would die—in effect laying down his life for his bride.)

If we see the cross strictly as a redemptive measure in time and space, we miss the bigger picture—that from the beginning the Father has longed for a family of children who would embrace the same divine rule of action that has eternally governed his own heart. It was God’s intention, that by choosing to live by the tree of life—that is, to live by divine life—that the way of the cross would likewise become mankind’s manner and purpose of life.

Essential to the cross-principle however is the exercise of free moral choice—to choose to live to love, to give, to serve, and to share. And essential to free choice is the presence of a legitimate alternative—an alternative that in this case would ultimately prove to be fruitless—but a legitimate offer nonetheless. And given the choice of living unto the Creator’s purpose, the fitting alternative was the option to choose to live unto the creation’s (the created thing—that is—mankind’s) purpose. In other words, the choice was between living unto God’s purpose, or living unto self-purpose. For mankind, choosing to live unto God’s purpose would mean yielding back to God his own rights, goals and dreams. By choosing his own way and self-purpose however, mankind chose to live by his own knowledge, exercise his own rights, and pursue his own goals by his own strength, ability, and effort. The choice between God’s purpose and his own self-purpose was mankind’s first opportunity to choose the way of the cross, thereby setting the stage for each successive choice to more fully fashion the cross as an operating principle in the heart of man—thus God and man would have become two hearts living in common unity (community).

By choosing God’s way, the way of the cross would have become inwrought within the human race—God’s own divine rule for realizing his eternal purpose. In doing so, Adam would have entered into his high calling—to share God’s divine life, to bear His image, to fill the earth after his kind, and to have dominion over the earth. By choosing his own way, mankind became blind to God’s methodology and instead chose to advance his own agenda by his own efforts.

The eternal cross demonstrates that free choice, giving, serving, and sharing have been God’s chosen methods of operation since before time began, and will continue to be His primary intended methods of operation in perpetuity. As the manner of life within the Godhead, it demonstrates that genuine relationship is “unto the other” by definition.

In contrast, successive generations of the human race living by self-effort and in self-interest have only succeeded in establishing the opposite attributes—controlling, taking, and commanding (regardless of how cleverly disguised they are as virtues)—as mankind’s modus operandi. Human nature, and thereby all human systems and institutions—including and especially religion—default to these methods, although again, they are frequently camouflaged as being admirable qualities, or as being necessary for effectiveness or efficiency.

Unfortunately, we know all too well the way Adam chose, and that due to selfish choice and henceforth limited by sin and his natural senses, mankind could not understand the cross-principle of self-giving without an outward demonstration—hence the necessity of the historical cross.

For this reason, as well as by nature and by choice, the Father clothed the Son in human flesh and sent Him to walk among men. From the moment He emerged from the Jordan, every step Jesus took and every word He spoke was a revelation of the divine rule of action and was thus immediately and irrevocably at “cross-purposes” (pun intended) with human paradigms.

Cross Purposes-

Whether tempted by the enemy in the wilderness, facing down the Pharisees, or mysteriously slipping through a crowd that would make Him king, Jesus refused to do anything by self-effort or in self-interest. The eternal cross-principle had invaded space-time. Every encounter revealed the contrast between man’s way and God’s way. Whether offered by the devil in the wilderness, or attempted to be forced upon Him by the people—He refused the crown apart from the cross. When Peter rebuked the necessity of His death, Jesus responded at cross-purposes. When His own mother sought to press her maternal claims to His affection, Jesus responded at cross-purposes. When the Pharisees sought to stone the woman caught in adultery, Jesus responded at cross-purposes. Thus the road to Golgotha was strewn with many crosses.

Time and again Jesus cut “a-cross” the grain of human self-interest and worldly paradigms until fallen man nailed Him to one.

And while we may marvel at the blindness of those who made this fatal error, we must use great caution so as to not make a similar mistake. To limit the scope of the cross to a one-time historical event as a remedy for sin, and as a source of blessing and power, may be to see the cross as only an answer to our needs as opposed to an eternal rule of action, the point of which is to become the operating principle whereby God fulfills His eternal purpose and ultimate intention.

The way of the cross is a way of life. It has been practiced by the Godhead since time immemorial, and likewise will be for all the ages yet to come. But it is only as the cross becomes an inwrought rule of action in his children that we become truly alive to God and able to realize His eternal purpose in us.

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. [Philippians 3:10 KJV]