God's ancient
covenant with the Jewish people was, as Ezekiel wrote, that, “My dwelling place
will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people" (Ezekiel 37: 26-27). At the end of Bible we find these words, “God’s dwelling place is now
among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God
himself will be with them and be their God.” (Revelation 21: 3).
This covenant which
God made with his people is fulfilled through Jesus. Jesus says that he dwells
in God the Father and the Father dwells in him. In other words, he is united
with God and lives out as a human being what God himself is like. When he says
to his disciples that there are many dwelling
places in his Father’s house, Jesus is letting his disciples know that it
is not he alone who is to dwell with the Father but that there is room for all
of them and many more (John 14. 1 - 7).
He then says to his
disciples that he is about to leave them to prepare a dwelling place for them
with God. He is speaking of his death, resurrection and ascension, as these enable
his disciples to be united to him and, in him, with God, his Father. Heaven is
experienced through our union with God. When we are united with God, we, like
Jesus, dwell in God and God dwells in us. Through Jesus, we experience this
unity with God in the here and now and it continues into our life with God
after death.
Jesus is the way to
unity with God. He is the way to God dwelling with us and our dwelling in God.
Eugene Peterson has encapsulated Jesus’ point about being the way, truth and life by
saying, “Only when we do the Jesus truth
in the Jesus way do we get the Jesus life.” In many funeral services we pray for the wisdom and the grace to use
aright the time that is left to us on earth. That wisdom and grace come to us as we ask
ourselves, ‘Am I living the Jesus truth?’ ‘Am I living the Jesus
way?’ ‘Am I living the Jesus life?’ We too can experience unity
with God when we do the Jesus truth in the
Jesus way to get the Jesus life.
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Madness - Our House.
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