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Summary
For the last two decades I’ve tried to preach the full Gospel: that God in Christ Jesus saves the world (the whole world) and that Scripture has said so all along. During that time, I think I’ve heard two questions more than any others: “This is so good; why doesn’t everyone believe this?” and “Why is it that when I share it, some people get so angry? How can such Good News seem like such bad news?”
It reminds me of a Christmas morning 25 years ago. We asked the children what they wanted for Christmas. “Pokemon cards! The Pretty, Pretty Princess Game! Thomas the Tank Engine!” were the responses from three of the four. When I asked Elizabeth, our second child, she responded, “a punching bag.” “One of those inflatable toy punching bags?” I asked. “No, a real punching bag!” she exclaimed.
Then I had a brilliant idea: “I’d also like a punching bag,” I thought. “Maybe the other kids would like one too. I’ll get a great punching bag for everyone, hang it from the I-beam in the basement, and have money left over to buy more presents for Elizabeth!”
Christmas morning, I announced the Good News (the Gospel): “You all get a punching bag!” The other kids were like “OK…whatever, Dad. Thanks.” But Elizabeth began to punch me… not physically but psychologically, like only an 11-year-old daughter can.
I think I understand. Sometimes, people who have rejected the full gospel start preaching the full gospel, and I get perturbed. It’s as if something in me is saying, “Hey, wait a minute; that’s my gospel, not their gospel. Do you love them more than you love me, Dad?”
Have you ever shared the Good News, people received it as the worst news, and then turned you into a punching bag? If so, you’re not alone. John the Baptist “preached good news” (Luke 3:18). That’s how Luke describes his ministry. (Surprising, huh?) And he took some punches.
Luke 3:3, “John went… proclaiming a baptism of repentance [metanoia: change of mind] for [eis] the forgiveness of sins.” “Eis” is normally translated as “into,” and even if it’s translated as “for,” the Greek clearly indicates that we have a change of mind, for we are actually immersed in the reality of forgiveness; our repentance doesn’t earn forgiveness.
When Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them,” Luke believes that the Father answered that prayer from the foundation of the World. The Blasphemy of the Spirit, the Unforgiveable Sin, is unforgiveness; unforgiveness is unforgiveable, for all reality is actually forgiveness — What do you have that was not first given to you? So, John the Baptist preaches a baptism of repentance in the burning hot lake of the forgiveness of God. Is that Good News?
Luke 3:4-6, John the Baptist quotes Isaiah 40:1-5 “…every valley shall be filled… every mountain made low… and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
People say, “Sure, they’ll see it… right before God casts most of them into the Lake of Fire while the chosen say, ‘I’m glad I’m me and not them… here on this mountain and not down in that valley with the last, the least, and the humbled.’”
Isaiah 40 – 66 (the End) is one amazing oracle, that sounds like the Revelation, and a description of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus… because it is. In chapter 63, it even describes the Scapegoat coming in from the wilderness, trampling the winepress alone, making blood that’s wine and wine that’s blood, and saving God the Father by saving His children from their own sin in which each one is trapped and alone. The Scapegoat was Israel’s punching bag.
Isaiah ends like this: “’For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh (There’s that phrase again.); and those slain will be many… ‘From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come worship before me,’ declares the Lord. ‘And they (all flesh) shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me (That’s all men and the Scapegoat, according to Isaiah). For their worm will not die and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
There’s only one way to believe all of Isaiah, and that is to believe that one day you will have new flesh that is also our Lord’s flesh, for we are actually His City, His Bride, and His Body — billions of members but all one body. And one day, we will all look down on our old individual bodies of flesh being destroyed in the valley of Gehenna and erupt in spontaneous worship, for we’ll see that God our Father, in Christ Jesus our Lord, has saved us from ourselves.
Twenty-five years ago on Christmas morning, my daughter and I had rather different views of our “own flesh.” She had once been our flesh, literally Susan and Peter’s flesh. But now she was her own flesh, not her sister and brother’s flesh. And so, she wanted her own punching bag and her own identity.
And 25 years ago on Christmas morning, as a young father, I was just beginning to see that my flesh was also my Bride’s flesh, and my children were bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, so what you did to them you did to me. I was no longer just “me”; I was a family. I was just like Elizabeth at age 11, but God was giving me a taste of Heaven.
The job of every father is to help each child establish a unique identity, so they can one day give it away to a family. And maybe we’re all one family, God’s Family. And that’s a Body, the Body of Christ.
In a body, every member is unique and essential. Every member receives all “the life” (the life is in the blood) and freely gives all the life to every other member of the body. To keep the life is to dam the life and become a vessel of wrath (a blood clot), until one bleeds the life (forgives the life) and becomes a vessel of mercy, a blood vessel — losing the life and finding it all at once.
You will forgive as you’ve been forgiven, and you are trapped by the Snake until you do.
John calls the crowd a “brood (offspring) of vipers (snakes),” then talks about trees and the tree in the middle of the garden, when and where we took His life (a tree of death), and He fore-gave His life (a tree of life) which transforms death into life.
They say, “What shall we do?” And He tells them, “Be content, be honest, and share all your stuff.” It’s not rocket science; it’s the law. But doing it because you want to do it and so, allowing yourself to become a punching bag, that’s a miracle. Love is The Miracle.
“I baptize you with water,” says John. “‘He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and Fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear the threshing floor and gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.’ So, with many other [encouragements] he preached good news to the people,” adds Luke.
God is Love, and Love is Fire. The Fire is released on this world as Jesus cries “Father Forgive” and “delivers up His Spirit.” The Fire burns away the false self, even as it fills that false self with the true self, just as the glory of God fills the old stone temple and we become the body of Christ. In this way, God the Father makes us just who it is that we actually are: The Family of God.
This is the terrifying implication of a Universal Salvation.
#1 You’re not better than anyone else.
#2 You’re not worse than anyone else.
#3 You’re different than everyone else. So,
#4 You will forgive everyone else.
#5 You will lose your life (psyche) and find it (eternal life, the psyche of God).
#6 You are, and everyone is, the Family of God.
#7 If you want to be a disciple, you must pick up a cross, and let yourself become a punching bag…
Years ago, the Lord instructed me to hold a friend who couldn’t weep, for she had been severely abused decades before… to hold her and let her scream and pound on my back in place of Him. She did and then fell apart, weeping in my arms (The arms of Jesus!). Could there be a greater privilege?
We had a great Christmas this year. Elizabeth didn’t punch me, not even once, not even psychologically. I think she may be the kindest person that I know.
You didn’t choose God. He chose you to be his family. He knows that it’s hard to learn to love. If you have to blame someone, you can blame Him — blame Him to His Face. And then, you’ll see that there is no one to blame, and you’ll fall apart in His arms weeping. All that satan intended for evil, He has always intended for good.
“This is my body given to you. This is the covenant in my blood. Drink of it, all of you, and do it in re-member-ance of me.”
The terrifying implication of a universal salvation is that God is absolute, furious, and relentless Love — the King of Kings and a punching bag. And you are to be His image, the image of Love.