God’s Purposes For You

Precisely what—if anything—did Jesus of Nazareth accomplish by means of his birth, his life on earth, his tortuous death on the cross, his resurrection, and his return to heaven some 2,000 years ago? Coupled with that question is this: What are God’s ultimate purposes for his entire creation? For you? Are there answers to such questions? Yes—if we believe the Bible is God’s fiinal, revealed written Word to humankind. If we don’t believe that about the Bible, then we are totally at a loss to answer such questions. No other religions or philosophies (or science!) offer more than vague, nebulous, and incomplete glimpses into such matters. The Bible alone offers clear, substantive, definitive answers.

 The answers I share with you from the Bible in this teaching are very controversial, unconventional, and “unorthodox,” but I believe you will find tranquil peace and soothing rest in your inner being if you will read on and allow God to teach you through what I write—although I readily confess to you that my understanding and comprehension of such matters is faulty and limited.

I begin by stating that the concept of the ages of time is quite often misunderstood by many people—even by those who believe the Bible’s teachings. The concept of eternity is even more misunderstood by many people. For example, eternity is not a state of unending time—or of time that stretches on . . . and on . . . and on . . . forever and ever. Just a thought: How can there be a forever . . . with an “ever” after it, anyway?!

Eternity is a state of absolute timelessness and absolute simultaneousness, a state in which time does not even exist. Hebrews 1:2 informs us that Jesus created all the vast reaches of space and the rolling ages of time: time had a beginning . . . and time will end; time does not go on . . . and on . . . and on into eternity. Time has both a beginning and an end. Eternity is not unending time. In eternity there is no time or space. I invite you to read our companion teaching on this web site entitled “Beyond the Far Shores Of Time.”

Time and space are “gifts” given by God to humans so they can learn and appreciate his purposes for them in both time and eternity. But time and space are not eternity. God uses time and space to work out his purposes for each of us in preparation for our life in eternity. Time is divided into ages and eons, and at some point time will end and be swallowed up into the state of being we call eternity.

After that brief introduction about time and eternity, I now want us to consider 11 STATEMENTS in the Bible declaring God’s ultimate purposes for all people . . . including YOU. I could write many more such statements, but these 11 seem to best summarize the subject about which I am teaching.

         1.  The FIRST STATEMENT is found in Revelation 4:11: “God created everything for his purposes and for his glory.” That’s such a simple, clear statement, isn’t it? First, let me state the obvious: God is Creator; all else is part of his creation. As Creator, God is in charge. He is infinite and unlimited in all aspects and in all respects. We are—and always will be!—finite and limited. We will never be God; yes, ultimately we will be like him in some respects, but never God! Only God is—or ever will be—God.

 God created everything—including YOU and me—for his purposes and for his glory. It is one of God’s ultimate purposes he has decreed from the very beginning. Everything is part of his purposes, everything was created for his glory. Everything includes everyone, of course, but many people have been taught that only those who are followers of Jesus were created for God’s purposes and God’s glory.

When this reference says God created everything for his purposes, what does that mean? It means there are no accidents of creation. Everything God created is intentional and directed toward a specific end in view. Did you know that about your life? This thought makes me think of another biblical reference, Jeremiah 29:11, where God says of YOU: “I know the thoughts and purposes I have for you—thoughts and purposes for your welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope about the final outcome of your life.” I hope such promises of God are meaningful to you. God is always thinking about you. He is always working out his purposes for your good. Your birth. Your life. Your death . . . are no accidents! God is always working to fulfill his pre-determined, definite purposes for your good.

 What does it mean that God created all humanity for his glory? The definition of the word “glory” is multi-faceted throughout the Bible, but one important aspect of it’s meaning is that God takes great delight in his creation (including YOU and me); he is very proud of his creation; he is elated, delighted, and in high spirits about YOU, all the while he is working out his purposes for the entire creation. He glories in his creation. He glories in YOU!

 That’s what it means when this reference in Revelation claims God created everything for his purposes and for his glory. I find that tremendously encouraging and hopeful as I rely upon him to keep working in my life (both in time and eternity), to bring me to his appointed, pre-determined end.

 Yes, all things—including all people—were created for God’s glory. I don’t presume to explain that, but I believe it. It just makes plain sense to a normal thinking person who believes God exists and that He has created all things. He didn’t create all things—including all people—simply to abandon some of them and separate them from his good creation. No, he is actively involved in working out his purposes in all things and in all humanity for our good and for his glory.

          2.  Colossians 1:20 furnishes us the SECOND STATEMENT about God’s ultimate purposes for all humanity. “God’s purpose is that through the work of Jesus on their behalf, God has reconciled everything and everyone in the universe and earth to himself, making peace with them through the blood Jesus shed on the cross.” The word “reconcile” in this reference means to restore to favor someone who had previously fallen out of favor; it also means to renew broken friendships. It also means to reconstruct something that has fallen into ruin.

Many of us have “fallen into ruin” and broken our friendship with God because of self-centered, wrong choices and decisions we’ve made during this stage of our life journey. We’ve gotten detoured from our journey. God is in the process of rebuilding our lives and bringing us back from our detour, placing us back on his High Way.

Through sin, we humans fell out of favor with God and broke off our friendship with him. By means of the work Jesus accomplished on our behalf, God has taken care of the estranged and broken relationships we fell into and brought all people back into a loving relationship with himself. He didn’t merely wave a magic wand and arbitrarily reconcile all humanity to himself. He did it by means of the awesome, eternal work of Jesus dying on the cross for us.

Yes, God is always in the process of rebuilding, reconciling, restoring, rehabilitating, reclaiming, and renewing. He will not stop until the entire creation has been fully restored to himself. We must always remember that God is able to accomplish his purposes in our lives because of the completed redemptive work of Jesus on the cross on our behalf. No Jesus on the cross, no shed blood: no reconciliation!  I invite you to read our companion teaching on this web site about God’s restoration of all things; it’s titled “Restoration.”

          3.  Our THIRD STATEMENT is found In Revelation 21:5. God proclaims: “I am creating all things new!” In the original Greek language in which this statement was written the tense is present-progressive, and the word is “create” rather than “make” as it reads in some older versions of the Bible. Simply stated, it means that God is still in the process of creating and making all things new, of making all things in his image. God is presently—progressively—unfolding his purposes for all people everywhere. His ultimate objective will be reached when all things are made new and his image is fully restored in all humanity.

When the Bible teaches that humans are made in God’s image, it means that we are visible representations of the invisible God. We have marred his image in us by our sin. We are presently imperfect images of God, whereas Jesus is God’s perfect image. God is progressively restoring all humanity into his clear image as exemplified and personified in Jesus.

When the Bible speaks in four different places of the “new heavens and the new earth,” the Hebrew and Greek words for “new” mean “freshly restored.” God is not going to destroy the present earth and universe and create new ones. No, he is in the process of “freshly restoring” all the present created universe, the present earth, and everyone and everything on the earth and under the earth (in graves).

One example of the process of making all things new is found in 2 Corinthians 5: 17. It claims that whenever any person is joined to Jesus, all his or her old self-filled life passes away and they become totally new persons, re-created to live God-filled lives. The Bible is replete with other corroborating references informing us that God is in the process of renewing, restoring, and reconciling the entire creation—including all humanity—to himself—always making all things new. A few such references are Isaiah 43: 19 and 65: 17; Ezekiel 11: 19; Revelation 2: 17 and 5: 9.

Yes, God is in the process of renewing everything throughout the entire created cosmic order. Everything is in the process of metamorphosis, in the process of transition and change, in the process of being reconstructed and restored. That’s what the ages of time were created for. The ages of time will continue to unfold and progress until God’s plans and purposes are finalized—and then time will end and the ages and eons will be swallowed up by the eternal state in which everything will be new.

God is in the process of creating your life and mine into something newly restored and beautiful! We may resist his work, we may take 3 steps forward and 2 backwards many times, we may not understand his creative work in our lives, but his purposes cannot be thwarted. He is inexorably at work making us new!

          4.  The FOURTH STATEMENT about God’s purposes for his creation is Acts 3:21. There we read that “Jesus returned to the heavenlies to remain until the time of the complete restoration of all things.” That complete restoration of all things actually began with his birth, life, and death, and continued with his resurrection and ascension into heaven. God’s work of restoration continues to unfold in the lives of each person born in each generation since Jesus returned to heaven.

The restoration of all things is finished and complete in a transcendant, cosmic, and eternal sense, and yet—in another sense—it has only begun being worked out in the lives of individual humans born in each generation since Jesus was here as a perfect human. This complete restoration . . . or restitution . . . or reconstruction of all things was foretold by many of the prophets of Old Testament times.

 Incidentally, in case you are struggling with this concept of God reconstructing ALL things, in the Greek language in which the New Testament was written the word “all” really does mean all. It does not mean some, or a few, or a partial amount. It means all, i.e., the entire amount, the whole extent or quantity, everyone, everything, the totality, etc.

Ephesians 1: 9 and 10 corroborates Acts 3:21. At the “climax of the ages” (when Jesus was here on earth) all things were consummated in Him. All things includes all humanity. There are those who feel the climax of the ages is yet to come in the future. That’s a misconception. The climax of the ages—a time when all the ages came together—a time called “the fulness of time”—a time called “the maturity of the times”—began 2,000 years ago. The work that Jesus did on behalf of all humanity is a finished work; it’s complete, it’s over, it’s done.

          5.  My FIFTH STATEMENT may shock you: The Bible does not deal primarily with eternity! It is primarily a book dealing with time. The Bible is about the journey that all humans take through time . . . on their way to eternity. It is a book about the grand purposes for humanity that God is working out through the ages of time—ages which reached their climax or maturity beginning with the birth of Jesus and which will begin to end when He returns to earth from heaven.

Ephesians 1: 19-23 constitutes the “blueprint” of God’s grand purposes for the ages. This reference teaches us God’s almighty power raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenlies. Jesus is far above all other powers and dominions of all the ages of time. God has put all things—including all people—under Jesus’ dominion and has appointed him Head of the Church.

The Church is actually God’s corporate, organic body on earth, just as Jesus was God’s body when He was on earth 2,000 years ago. The Church is not an organization! Working through the Church, God will make everything complete and fill everything and everyone—everywhere—with himself. God’s blueprint is to use the Church to work out his purposes for reconstructing the entire creation.  Don’t shun the Church: you need the Church; it needs you; you are an integral and intrinsic part of the worldwide Body of Jesus, the Church.  

          6.  Romans 11: 36 discloses the SIXTH biblical STATEMENT about God’s grand purposes for creation: “All things originate with God and come from him. All things exist through him. All things center in him. All things consummate and end in him. To him be glory for all time!” What a bold statement. What a clear statement. What a concise statement. What a precise statement. How can it possibly be misunderstood? How can such a statement be limited in any way? God was fully present at the beginning of all things. He is fully present now while all things continue to unfold. He will be fully present at the end—and beyond—when he consummates all things. It’s a “package deal,” dear reader, from beginning to end. Nothing—and no one—is left out of his grand plans and purposes.

          7.  1 Corinthians 15: 28 is the SEVENTH STATEMENT, again giving us the ultimate purposes of God for all humanity: “When everything is finally subjected to God, then Jesus will voluntarily place himself under God, too. Once, God put everything under Jesus, but Jesus will put everything—including himself—back under God. And then God will be All in all–everything to everyone!” This cosmic event occurred in the heavenlies when Jesus ascended to Father God to usher in his unfolding eternal kingdom.

 This is a cosmic event occurring beyond the scope of time and space. Although it occurred in time 2,000 years ago, in reality it occurred in eternity before time was even created. We must always distinguish between events that occur in eternity (over, above, beyond, and transcending the limitations of time and space) and how those eternal events are actually manifested and worked out in time so we humans—who are bound by time and space—can see them, understand them, and have them become part of our own experiences. From his perspective in eternity, God is already—and has always been—All in all.

From our perspective within the limitations of time and space, God is not yet All in all. But he is in the process of making himself All in all as each of us makes our journey through time enroute to eternity. From God’s vantage point everything has already been returned to God. From our limited vantage point, it is yet to occur.

          8.  Our EIGHTH STATEMENT is found in Philippians 2: 9-11: “God has highly exalted Jesus and given him a name above every other name. Before him every knee shall bow and every mouth confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Some people might suggest that although every knee shall bow to Jesus and every person confess him as Lord, some of those doing so will do it only because God forces them to do so. Not so! 1 Corinthians 12: 3 tells us the only way people can bow their knees and confess Jesus as Lord is because Holy Spirit lives in them, gently and sweetly influencing them to bow to Jesus, and of their own free wills confess him as Lord.

All people will not be coerced into bowing to Jesus and confessing Him as their Lord. They will do so of their own free will, fully recognizing and acknowledging all Jesus has done for them in order to restore them into God’s clear image. Their eyes will be fully opened and they will see Jesus as He truly is, thus freely swearing to Him their allegiance and fealty.

          9.  We’ll begin our NINTH STATEMENT with 1 Timothy 4: 10: “We labor, strive, and even suffer reproach because we have fixed our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all humanity, especially of those who believe.” Here again, the word “all” as in “all humanity,” means all. Verse 11 commands us to teach these matters. I’m obeying God’s command by writing this teaching and teaching you these truths about God’s grand purposes for all humanity.

1 Timothy 2: 4 tells us it is God’s will for everyone to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Can anything God has created thwart God’s will?! True, people might stubbornly resist God’s will for a time, but in the end they cannot thwart the complete fulfillment of his will. In the end, God will prevail. In the end, God wins and declares “It’s good!” about all he has created.

 Look at Titus 2: 11. It boldly states “God’s grace, bringing deliverance from sin and salvation to all humanity, has been made known to all people.” Can anything be clearer? Can any statement be plainer? Can there be a simpler statement about God’s purposes for you and me? God’s grand purposes for their lives has been revealed to all people. Presently, it might be clearer to some than to others, and some may deny knowing it, but everyone has some intuitive knowledge that God is a good God and is working all things for their good. God has made it known to all people. It’s usually not lack of inner intuitive knowledge that causes some people to deny these truths; it’s wrong teaching that has led them to wrong conclusions about God’s character, nature, and the good things he is doing for all humankind.

Yes, there is sin, evil, and wrongdoing in our world—but that’s caused by us, not by God. God is always at work behind the scenes restoring, correcting, and making good out of all our wrongdoing. Don’t blame God for your own wrongdoing or for the sin and evil caused by others. That’s your fault, my fault, their fault. We’ve made sinful, evil, and wrong choices, not God. We’ve chosen to lead self-filled lives instead of God-filled lives. But God will swallow up into final victory all our sin, evil, and wrongdoing and make something amazingly beautiful of each of our lives!

          10. Here’s our TENTH STATEMENT. 1 Corinthians 15: 22-24 unmistakably affirms: “Because all people are ‘in’ Adam, they die, but all those same people are made alive ‘in’ Christ. Each person takes his or her own turn: Jesus first, then those who are ‘in’ him when he comes back to earth. After that, the final consummation of all things will occur when Jesus voluntarily gives the kingdom back to God the Father—after he has rendered inoperative and abolished every other authority and power. (verses 25-27 continue the same theme; earlier, we examined verse 28 in detail) Simply stated, this passage in 1 Corinthians 15 says: In the end, God will be in everything and everyone . . . everywhere . . . everywhen! Yes, God will be ALL in all!

At this point in my teaching, I want to ask you this question: Have I taken any of these references out of their context, twisted them, or stretched them? You may feel that’s the case because of some preconceived notions or traditional religious beliefs based on what you’ve been taught in the past, but the truth is I have not done any of those things. I have written those references just as they’ve come from the Greek language in which they were first written.

The only liberty I’ve taken with any of the references is to paraphrase portions of them to make them a little easier to read in modern, everyday English—and put some clarifying information in brackets. [The information in brackets is my own viewpoint, not what the biblical text says.] All the biblical texts I’ve quoted and written are true to the original biblical language in which they were written. Check them out with a good Bible concordance. Check them out with someone you know who understands biblical Aramiac, Greek, and Hebrew. Check them out with various modern-language versions of the Bible.

Romans 5: 17 and 18 shed even more light on what God has accomplished for the salvation of all humanity: “Death came to all people through Adam’s trespass. By the same token, God’s grace and righteousness cause all humanity to reign in life through Jesus. Put another way, Adam’s trespass led to condemnation for all humanity, but Jesus’ righteousness leads to acquital, right standing, and life for all people.”

 At this point, I hope you have clearly seen that I have not been taking isolated, obscure, and hard-to-understand texts from here and there in the Bible. I hope you see the consistency of this teaching about God’s purposes for everyone. It is a strong, recurring theme found throughout the Bible if one will simply open one’s eyes to see it. I am giving you only eleven statements from the Bible. There are many more I could furnish you, but that would make this teaching far too lengthy.

          11. Finally, here is STATEMENT ELEVEN. Let’s take a look at 2 Corinthians 5: 14-21: “The love of Christ compels me to tell you if he died for all, then all were dead. Yes, he died for all so that those who live might die to the old life they used to live—because he died and was raised from the dead for their sake . . . . . Therefore, if any person is in Jesus, he or she becomes a totally new creation, beginning an entirely new life. Yes, all these things are accomplished for us by God who reconciled us to himself through Jesus. God has given us the privilege of inviting everyone to return to God and be reconciled to him. God was in Jesus, reconciling all humanity to himself, completely removing their sins from them. We are ambassadors of Jesus, urging you to be reconciled to God. God poured all our sins into the sinless Jesus. Then, in exchange, he poured his goodness into us!”  Dear reader, this is the real GOOD NEWS called the Gospel of Jesus!

In conclusion, I will attempt to answer some important questions that often arise when people hear this good news for the first time: “What about people who have already died—people who weren’t ‘saved’ before they died? What about people who have never heard about Jesus? What about atheists and agnostics? What about people who lived and died many thousands of years ago? What about—?” Those are very insightful questions. Some of my other teachings on this web site attempt to answer such questions in more detail.

There is much we do not know about the process of how God is working out his purposes for all people—for YOU!—everywhere and everywhen. But God has given us some insight into how all this takes place. First, we know that all of us originated with God. God is the “father of spirits,” and when we are born on this earth, he places our spirits within us and we come alive as human beings.

We also know that there is much, much activity in other realms and spheres other than what takes place only on this earth. There is much activity in the heavenlies, in spirit realms and spheres, and after death that we know very little about—other than brief glimpses and insights we may get from time to time from the Bible and from our interactions with God and with other people.  

True, some of those processes and activities may involve punishment, correction, judgment, and the like. But think about this: in the Bible, the concept of “hell-fire” after death is always used by God as a means of cleansing and correction, not punishment forever and ever. See our companion teachings entitled “Fire” and “Beyond The Far Shores of Time.”

 In fact, the Bible declares that the “real world” constituting eternity is invisible and vastly “larger” than what we think is real here; our so-called reality this side of the grave is only a dim reflection of the real world beyond the grave and outside the limitations of time and space. Let’s not limit God to working in humans only when they’re alive on this earth. That’s only a very limited part of the overall work God is doing throughout his vast creation.

In that light, many people tend to think that death is a final “passage” wherein people who die simply cease to exist. Not so! The Bible is clear that death is merely a temporary passage, a momentary transition into a state of existence far more real than our present state of existence. But the Bible doesn’t really tell us very much about the new life we enter into after we die.

Some well-meaning people often quote Hebrews 9: 27 as proof positive that when a person dies, he or she is immediately judged by God. Yet Ruth 2: 20 and various references in chapters 3 and 4 of 1 Peter (and many others) give us some blurry glimpses into other types of activity which occur in the “place” to which the spirits of people go after they have died. The truth is we cannot be certain about what happens to people after they die. Perhaps all we can say with any certainty is that God continues dealing with people and working out his purposes for them after they die—in ways we know very little about this side of the grave.

There is only one thing about which we can be certain: God is the God of both the living and the dead. Jesus died and rose from the dead. He knows all there is to know about death—and beyond. And because God has reconciled all humanity to himself through the risen Jesus, we will rise again “in Jesus” after our own death—and go to be with him in the realm or sphere where he is. That we can say with certainty. Most everything else is speculation and wishful thinking.

 So what happens when we die—bottom line? Our spirits return to God, the father of spirits, the God of both the living and the dead, fully reconciled to him with a totally new form of life because of Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and future return to earth on behalf of all humanity. That’s what happens when we die. After that, God alone knows the full story. My own belief is that the brief journey we began here simply continues on, while God continues to work out his purposes for each of us during the remainder of time, and then beyond time when we enter into the eternal state.

          Let’s journey on!

God, I pray for your eternal purposes to be fully worked out in the life of the person reading this teaching!

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated February 2023

God’s Will For You

Don’t misunderstand the title of this teaching! I don’t presume to have the faintest clue about God’s will for you in the day-to-day events of your life. If I claim I do, that’s presumptuous and foolish of me! In fact, don’t let anyone else ever presume to know what God’s will is for you in the day-to-day events of your life. If they do, they’re a “false prophet,” period! Beware of listening to anyone who claims they can predict or foretell your future!

But I can tell you with absolute certainty what God’s will is for your salvation now, in the eons of time to come, and in the eternal state of being to which we are all journeying. So…read on. What you are about to read for the next few moments might be a very pleasant surprise for you. I promise you it’s not what you might ordinarily expect to read about the subject of God’s will…

Some matters we learn about from the Bible are very clear, specific, and plain—easy to understand. Some matters are not, having to be dug out, comparing reference to reference and digging deep until the matter becomes clear.

It’s Really Quite Simple

One matter that’s simple and easy to understand is God’s will for all people. It couldn’t be any clearer. A Bible reference, 1 Timothy 2: 3-6, plainly states “…God our Savior’s will is that all people be saved and come to know the truth. There is only one God, and only one Reconciler between God and people, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people…”  To me, that statement seems simple and easily understood, but some people have been attempting to explain it away for centuries because it’s contrary to most “orthodox” and mainstream church thinking.

For example, some people have tried to dilute the word “will” in that statement, translating it as “wish,” so it reads “…God our Savior’s wish is that all people be saved….” They say the Greek word “thelo” from which the word is translated could mean either “wish” or “will.” Let’s give that view the benefit of the doubt.  For sake of enlightened debate, let’s say it does mean “wish” instead of “will.” I ask you: “Even if God wishes for something to occur—rather than wills it to occur—won’t God’s wish be fulfilled? After all, he’s the Creator, the All-Powerful God. Whatever he wishes for, He gets!”

So, regardless how the word “thelo” is translated, the end result is the same: God wishes to save everyone—and he will save everyone!—and bring them to his truth.  The definition of the word “will” in this reference in Timothy is “God’s strong, fixed, determined, unrelenting, unalterable purposes for every human being.” May I ask this simple question: “If that’s what God’s will means, do you think anything or anyone can stop God from accomplishing it?”

Human Free Will?

Other detractors might say, “Even if it is God’s will for everyone to be saved, humans have free will—so they can thwart or “derail” God’s will.” C’mon now, you don’t really believe that, do you? How can a limited, finite, created human being thwart the will of its unlimited, infinite, All-powerful Creator? People don’t have free will to thwart God’s will as far as their salvation is concerned. Oh, we have free will in the matter of day-to-day life choices and decisions (such as what color toothbrush to purchase), but in such an important matter as our salvation, humans don’t have free will. God does it all for us. Salvation for all people is God’s lavish gift to us!

Yes, people can stubbornly resist God’s will for a time, but in the end his will shall prevail and he will save everyone. You see, our salvation is not based on what we do or don’t do, upon what we believe or don’t believe, upon whether or not we resist God’s will. It’s based entirely upon everything God has already done on our behalf to save us. He’s done it all for us; there’s nothing we can do to change that. From his all-seeing perspective and vantage point of eternity—outside of and beyond the limitations of time and space—God has already saved us. In the vernacular, “It’s a done deal!”

Having said that about the word “will,” let’s examine that statement in Timothy in more detail. First, it states clearly that God’s pre-determined, fixed will is for all people to be saved. It seems to me if God pre-determines something, then it will be accomplished, period! Can any part of God’s vast creation do anything contrary to his will? Not if God really is all-mighty, all-powerful God. Some years ago a book was written titled “Your God Is Too Small.”

If you mistakenly believe God’s will can be thwarted in any manner, then your God is too small. God’s will shall be done–“on earth as it is in heaven,” as God’s people have prayed for centuries. God’s will is for all people to be saved. That will happen, period! I don’t presume to know how or when God will complete working out his purposes to save all people, but it will occur because God has pre-determined it.

The French language contains an expression, “fait accompli,” meaning something is an accomplished fact, something is undeniably completed and put into effect, whether or not one agrees with it. Dear reader, God’s salvation for you—and for everyone everywhere—is fait accompli!

What Does “Saved” Mean?

Next, let’s look at the word “saved” in the statement written in Timothy. Let’s let the Bible be it’s own commentary in defining what it means to be saved. Elsewhere in the Bible we read that the apostle Paul had been imprisoned for his faith in the city of Philippi, when a miraculous earthquake occurred opening all the prison doors. The jailor was so frightened the prisoners might escape he was ready to commit suicide rather than face his anticipated punishment for letting them escape. Paul urged the jailor not to take his own life.

Surprised and grateful, the jailor fell to his knees in front of Paul and pleaded, “What must I do to be saved?!” There’s that word “saved” again. What was Paul’s response to the jailor’s urgent plea about how to be saved? Paul declared, “Believe in the Lord Jesus—entrust yourself to him—and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:25-31)

Being saved means to believe in the Lord Jesus and entrust one’s life to him. It means asking Jesus to take up permanent residence in a person as his “unbodied other self,” in the “unbodied form” of God’s Spirit. The Bible uses other terms to describe the same life-changing phenomenon: be converted, receive Jesus, trust in the Lord, repent, be born again, be regenerated, accept Jesus, follow Jesus, etc. All such terms mean essentially the same thing: entrusting one’s life to Jesus as one’s Savior and Lord for all time and eternity and having him take up permanent residence in that person.

Another biblical reference, Revelation 3:20, sheds more insight into this important salvation phenomenon. In that reference, Jesus is speaking and says: “Look, I am standing at the door of your inner being and knocking. If you hear my voice and open your life to me, I will come in and the two of us will permanently become the closest of friends for all time and eternity.”

Who Paid What?

Let’s return to our reference in Timothy again. It teaches that Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all people. What does that mean? Let’s put ourselves in the minds of the first-century readers who read Paul’s letter to Timothy. The concept of paying a ransom was tragically familiar to such readers. In fact, Jesus himself used the term, stating he came to give his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45).

Most first-century readers knew all too well about captives and ransoms. Many people in the world of that day were slaves and captives, enduring horrible bondage and slavery throughout their lifetimes. On occasion, someone might pay a ransom price for a slave, thus setting the slave free. It wasn’t common but it did happen. Yes, the concept of ransom was very clear and understandable in the minds of Paul’s first century readers.

Today we have some familiarity with the concept of ransom, although it’s much more distant from the daily lives of most of us. From time to time we read in the newspapers or see on television news that someone has kidnapped an important person and then demands some sort of monetary payment (ransom) before they will release the person who had been kidnapped. And we know about various types of slavery still practiced throughout our modern world. In fact, there are various organizations working throughout the world to pay ransom in order to free people who have been enslaved. Yes, we know what ransom means.

Jesus paid a ransom to liberate us from slavery to sin. To whom did Jesus pay the ransom? There are differing teachings, but many feel he paid the ransom to Satan who held all people in cruel bondage and slavery to sin. Others feel the ransom was paid to God because all humanity had sinned against him. I’m sure there’s much more to it on a cosmic scale than our finite minds can grasp. Regardless of how and to whom the ransom was paid, Jesus paid it in full and released all people from their captivity to sin and death. His ransom payment saved all people.

How can I make such a statement that his ransom payment saved all people? On one occasion John the Baptizer, pointing to Jesus, proclaimed: “Look, there’s God’s sacrificial lamb who takes away the sin of the entire world!” (John 1:29) Could any proclamation be more clear? Jesus, as God’s sacrificial lamb, by paying the full ransom for all humanity, took away the sin of all people.

He did not take away the sin of just religious people. He did not take away the sin of just good people. He did not take away the sin of only some people. He did not take away the sin of only those who name themselves “Christians.” No! He took away the sin of all people! He took away your sin! If you’re still clinging to your sin, I encourage you to release it to God and let go of it….

Another biblical reference informs us that “He [Jesus] bore all our sins in his own body on the tree….” (1 Peter 2:24) I am not attempting to explain all this means—all this involves—but it seems quite clear to me that when Jesus died on the cross, he died with all our sins heaped on him. And I mean all the sins of all of us.

The horror of the sinless Savior’s death was not simply that he died an ugly, painful, lingering death on a Roman cross at 3 o’clock one afternoon many centuries ago. Thousands of criminals died in that manner in those days; Roman crucifixion was almost commonplace. The true horror of Jesus’ death is that he died carrying the awesome, horrible, incalculable weight of all our sins upon him—yours, mine, everyone’s—the sins of billions and billions of people! Don’t ask me to explain how he did that. But he did.

Suffering under the weight of all our sins is what Jesus meant when he screamed from the cross: “It is finished!!” (John 19:30) Earlier, he had told God in the presence of his followers, “I have completed the work you gave me to do.” (John 17:4) What was Jesus saying? “I’ve done it. It’s over. I’ve completely finished paying the total ransom price for the sin of all people. Nothing more can be done. My work on behalf of all people is total and complete. I’ve saved all humanity. It’s over and done, bought and paid for by my shed blood, never to be repeated.” God accepted the ransom payment, and ever since then his mission among all people is telling everyone everywhere the good news of their full, complete, and abundant salvation purchased for them by Jesus!

Reconciliation and Restoration

Still another reference in the Bible furnishes us this startling good news: “God was personally present in Jesus reconciling and restoring everyone to favor with himself, not holding anyone’s sins against them. God has given us—as his ambassadors—this message of reconciliation, declaring to everyone that they have been restored to favor with him. God made Jesus—who was absolutely sinless—to be sin for all people, so that through him God might replace everyone’s sin with his own righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 5: 19-21) Think of it! God not only removed all our sin through Jesus’ death on the cross, he also reconciled everyone to himself—and replaced our sinful natures with his own righteousness! That’s too much for any human mind to grasp, but it’s true!

After his cruel death on the cross, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead three days later, and his ascension back to his Father in the heavenlies was God’s seal of approval—his stamp of acceptance—of Jesus’ work on behalf of all people. Placing his Spirit inside people was God’s additional guarantee or “down payment” that he accepted Jesus’ work as being full, total, and complete on behalf of all humanity. (2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:14) Dear reader: it’s done!

It Wasn’t Cheap!

Another response I often receive when I teach this view is people question me asking: “Are you telling me that God is going to arbitrarily save everyone? Are you claiming that everyone who has ever been born—or will be born—will be saved? Are you saying that’s God’s will? Doesn’t that make it too easy—for God just to sort of wave his hand like a magician over the masses of humanity and say to everyone, ‘Okay, now you’re saved’? That’s just cheap salvation for everyone.”

No, no, no! That’s not cheap salvation for everyone! How can a rational person even suggest God’s salvation is cheap and easy when Jesus, God’s dearly beloved Son, paid such a horrible, painful ransom price for our sins? How can a person logically suggest this view weakens and cheapens God’s full salvation for all people!

On the contrary, this view discloses the unimaginable lengths God was willing to go to save all people. He was willing to heap all our horrible, dark sins upon his own beloved Son in order that he could pay the ransom price for them and take away those sins completely and forever. God’s salvation is cheapened only when someone suggests Jesus died for only some, not all. The plain truth is Jesus either died to save all…or his death was tragically ineffective and futile, saving none. He died for all…or he died for none!

Yet another response I often get when I teach this view is: “Well, what if someone doesn’t want to be saved?” My response is the same as my children sometimes gave me when they were young and unthinking: “S-o-o-o,” meaning “So, what does that have to do with anything?” God’s will is for everyone to be saved. So what if someone doesn’t want to be saved? They’ll eventually change their mind and accept God’s salvation. That’s God’s will!

Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking mere human beings can thwart God’s will. Yes, they may stubbornly resist it for a time, but in the end they can’t stop God’s will from eventually being completely and totally fulfilled in their lives. If you happen to be resisting God’s salvation, you might as well stop it right now, because eventually—one way or another—you will receive Jesus into your life and accept God’s salvation for you.

The B-I-G Question!

Here—in composite form—is the Big Question that is always asked when people first have this view presented to them: “What about atheists, agnostics, and people who are “anti-Christ”? What about pagans or heathens who have never heard about God’s salvation? What about people who lived many thousands of years ago who never had the opportunity to hear about God and his salvation. What about people who follow or practice other religions? What about the Jews who reject Jesus? What about Hitler?”

Here’s how I always respond to such questions: “1 Timothy 2: 3-6 plainly states ‘…God our Savior’s will is that all people be saved and come to know the truth. There is only one God, and only one Reconciler between God and people, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people…'”

In response, some people angrily shout at me: “If God is going to save someone like Hitler, then I want nothing to do with that kind of God!” What is my immediate response to such an outburst? I just say over and over, “1 Timothy 2: 3-6 plainly states ‘…God our Savior’s will is that all people be saved and come to know the truth. There is only one God, and only one Reconciler between God and people, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people…'”

The Bible clearly teaches there will come a point in time when—because Jesus died on the cross for everyone—“all people everywhere will bow their knees before Jesus and with their mouths confess him as Lord and Savior to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2: 8-10). Some might argue, “Sure everyone will do that, but it’s only because God will force most of them to do so.” Not true!

Elsewhere the Bible clearly teaches no person can openly and honestly proclaim Jesus as Lord unless they are influenced to do so by the Spirit of God who lives in them. (1 Corinthians 12:3) Someday every human being who has ever been born will accept God’s salvation and proclaim Jesus as Lord because they willingly choose to do so—encouraged and influenced to do so because God’s Spirit resides permanently in them. And because it’s God’s will!

An Unorthodox Viewpoint

I understand this view is contrary to “orthodox” biblical views of God and salvation. My response is that if you come to understand even in a limited, finite way the true character, nature, and attributes of God—and if you come to understand the Bible’s teachings as a whole—you cannot help but embrace this view. We must see the matter from Almighty God’s eternal, infinite vantage point and from the comprehensive, overall teachings of the Bible.

We must not limit ourselves to our pre-conceived notions, to our extremely limited view from “down here,” to what we’ve been taught and simply accepted as true without examining the “big picture,” and to our finite thinking. The German language contains the word, “Weltanschauung,” meaning one’s comprehensive world view. I am suggesting that if we can understand just a little of God’s Weltanschauung—his comprehensive universal view—we will begin to understand much more clearly how it is God’s will for everyone to be saved…and that everyone will be saved.

God’s will is for all people to be saved—because he loves all people equally. After all, he created all people and he loves what he creates. There is nothing you or I can do to make him love us more. There is nothing you or I can do to make him love us less. His love for us—for you, for me—is all power-full, all-encompassing, all-knowing, all-embracing, all-welcoming, all-drawing, for all time and all eternity! God’s love forgives all. God’s love conquers all. God’s love draws all to himself. God’s love wins all. God’s will flows from God’s love and is one and the same as God’s love.

I’ve been teaching the Bible and related subjects for many years. Recently a friend jokingly asked me if I could summarize everything I believe and teach in 10 words or less. I accepted the challenge; here it is: “God saves everyone. Those who know, tell those who don’t.” That’s why I wrote this teaching. God wants me to tell you this g-r-e-a-t news about your bought-and-paid-for salvation!

 Here’s my prayer for you, dear reader: “God, may your sovereign and eternal will be done in the life of the person reading this teaching!”

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated February 2023

Eternal LIFE

Got LIFE?!

As I visit with various followers of Jesus and pre-followers here and there in person and by correspondence, soical media, and e-mail around the world, I find that many of them have only a vague, nebulous concept of what real LIFE—eternal LIFE—is all about.  Here’s what the Bible teaches: Eternal LIFE is God’s own uncreated, self-existent, imperishable, undiminishable, indestructible, inexhaustible, incorruptible, boundless, limitless, abundant LIFE He implants within people through Jesus when they become followers of Jesus. In short, it is God’s own LIFE in all its fullness. It is the quality, inherent nature, or character of that LIFE, not its duration, that is paramount.  In most of my writings, I almost always capitalize God’s LIFE in us to emphasize its exceedingly wonderful quality, not its duration.

Many Mistaken Beliefs

We mistakenly tend to think of eternal LIFE in terms of an endless, future existence in a fantasy heaven far off somewhere “beyond the blue.” And the existence it seems to imply is a sort of religious church service in the sky “in the sweet bye and bye,” which leaves many people wondering if they would really want that kind of life to go on forever . . . as dull and boring as are some church services.  

But Jesus is quite clear when he speaks of eternal LIFE—He means it is LIFE that is absolutely wonderful and can never be diminished or stolen from you. He says, “I have come that you may have LIFE, and have it to the fullest.” (John 10:10)  The eternal LIFE God gives us is a life exceeding that of the highest life any human being possesses, just as the highest life a human being possesses far exceeds that of the lowliest one-celled organism.

Eternal LIFE is not the mere continuity of this mortal life in an immortal, endless religious life playing harps while sitting on clouds in some far-off forever. No! It begins now and “ends” in a state of being called the eternal state. All spiritual growth of a follower of Jesus during this life is simply to receive more and more LIFE from God! Sometimes when God first implants his LIFE within us, it may lay dormant for a time. Then when we are ready, it begins to come awake in us, blossoming into its full, vibrant expressiveness in ways that only God can “grow” it in us.

There comes what I call a “magic moment” in each person’s life when God’s embryonic LIFE—whether in root, in seed, in tiny acorn—that moment in time comes when it begins to blossom and bear fruit. That LIFE in our innermost being begins to fulfill its destiny within God’s new-creation son or daughter. (2 Corinthians 5: 17) That LIFE begins to shoot upward from where it has taken root in our spirit. It sprouts within us, sending forth new leaves and branches and fruit, flowering and blossoming until that LIFE in us is all in all.

We don’t need to experience more and more of this finite, perishable, mortal life we have on planet earth in order to have a more fuller life. No, we need more and more of the infinite eternal LIFE of God in us—more of his LIFE-making Presence in us. If we will simply let God pour more and more of his LIFE into us by means of the inner work of Holy Spirit, there will never be a limit—throughout time or in eternity—to the enlargement of our existence, to the flood of LIFE that will flow into us, through us, and out of us. Most of us simply have no conception of how full and “complete” and vast real LIFE is.

Life Without LIFE

The condition of most men and women without God’s LIFE in them is actually a sort of “life in death,” an unreal dream existence, an emptiness, a pointless wandering in a twilight zone. LIFE eternal is not merely an endless elongation of consciousness. No, LIFE eternal is given us by God—a LIFE which is his own, beyond the attack of decay or death.  Eternal LIFE is an existence in this mortal life in which the believer has been given a portion of the very self-existent, uncreated character and nature of God!

I can’t emphasize it enough: Eternal LIFE is not some sort of endless life we’re going to get (future tense) when we die. No, it’s God’s very own LIFE He gives to us now (present tense) when Jesus comes to live permanently within us in his unbodied form of Holy Spirit. It’s the very LIFE of the Eternal God flowing into our mortal lives in time and space before we reach our eternal state of being.  If the Son of God lives in us by virtue of our having been born from above, we have (present tense) God’s very own eternal LIFE within us . . . NOW! (1 John 5: 11- 13)

How Humans Get LIFE

As simply as I can put it in summary fashion, here’s how humans “get” God’s eternal LIFE. When we are born from above (see John 3: 5 – 8), God takes a portion of his own uncreated, self-existent, imperishable, inexhaustible, undiminishable, incorruptible, indestructible, boundless, limitless, abundant LIFE and permanently implants it within our human spirits. And we instantly come ALIVE with that LIFE within our human spirits, inseparably and permanently fused with God’s LIFE-giving Spirit within us for all time and eternity!

Time and Eternity

To get a better understanding of what I’m attempting to teach about eternal LIFE, it would help to understand a little about the differences between time and eternity. So . . . let’s examine for a few moments the concepts of time and eternity. They are both integral parts of the broader truth of God’s very own LIFE within his sons and daughters. I’ll attempt to teach these two concepts as somewhat separate from one another, but, of necessity, there is much overlapping of the two. When we look at the overall subject of time, we will also look at other time-concepts that are temporal, non-absolute, and relative.

Let God’s Spirit Teach Us

Only Holy Spirit, the true Author of the Bible, can teach us in depth about time and eternity. And I encourage you to ask Him for assistance as you continue to study this teaching. He can fill in the many gaps I’ve left out of this teaching because of my own limited understanding. I freely admit there is much I don’t comprehend about time and eternity. There is much yet to be learned as Holy Spirit gives us illumination and enlightenment. In a sense, there is much about time and eternity that only time to come and eternity afterwards can clarify for us.

Time And Space

Continuing on with our thoughts, let’s think about whether or not time and space are finite or infinite. If they are infinite, are they necessarily eternal? By definition, space is “the expanse in which all material things are contained.”  Infinity is defined as “something that lacks known or measurable limits and bounds,” not that something has no limits or boundaries. With my present understanding, I believe that space and time do have limits and boundaries, but they cannot be measured by presently known astronomical instruments. I am open to changing my mind as additional study might dictate. Space, time, and the material universe are created phenomena and are infinite, but only in the sense they cannot be measured by finite humans. I believe they are not infinite in the sense of being eternal—as only God is.

What Is Eternity?

Now let’s consider the concept of eternity. Please understand that the strictest, non-theological definition of eternity is “a state of being.” We shall see that it is much more than that, but it is a state of being, first and foremost. In other words, eternity is not a created phenomena as time is. In all candor, I believe the Bible teaches very little by way of defining or describing eternity. Why? Because the Bible is essentially a book of time and for time. It was written for us who are temporal beings, not yet totally eternal.  We are presently creatures of time—journeying through time.

Only when we arrive at and fully enter that state of being called eternity . . . only when He who is Eternal becomes All in all in us . . . only when time ends and is swallowed up into eternity . . . only when eternity becomes an absolute reality to us . . . only when we are spiritually metamorphosized into our eternal milieu . . . Only then will we time-beings, who were formerly physical and material beings, comprehend eternity and matters of an eternal nature.

There’s an old familiar Gospel song which speaks to the issue of our “going home” upon Jesus’ return, to our metamorphosis, to our Great Transition, to our change from mortal to immortal:

“When the trumpet
of the Lord shall sound,
and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks
eternal, bright, and fair;
When the saved of earth
shall gather over on the other shore,
and the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there . . .

On that bright and cloudless morning
when the dead in Christ shall rise,
and the glory of his resurrection share;
When his chosen ones shall gather
In Jesus’ Kingdom when He returns,
and the roll is called up yonder,
I’ll be there . . . . “

I hasten to say I don’t necessarily agree with all the “theology” of that old song or with the time sequence of the events it describes, but it is, nevertheless, a great old Gospel song describing us.

The Eternal God

We read in the Bible that God is Eternal, or, more literally, the Father of Eternity (Deuteronomy 33: 27, Isaiah 9: 6). He is called so in the sense that he is the originator and sustainer of eternity. In short, eternity is part of God. He is eternity. Eternity is in God.  “So . . . to the King of the ages of time and eternity, to Him who is invisible, to the only God there is, full of wisdom—may honor and glory be given to Him alone for all the ages of time and eternity. Amen!”  –1 Timothy 1: 17

Time To Get Ready

In continuing to consider the concepts of time and eternity, we must completely jettison any thinking that time has anything to do with eternity or is part of eternity. Time and eternity are two separate entities. They are mutually exclusive of one another in an absolute sense.  Eternity IS a state of absolute timelessness, NOT a state of unending time. There are NO endless ages of time in eternity. Eternity IS a state of absolute simultaneousness, NOT a state that goes on and on and on with the passing of “unending” time.  Eternity is a state of being, resident in the very nature and person of God in which such time-concepts as past, present, future, before, after, minutes, hours, and years do not exist.

Time Shall Be No More

The ages and eons of time will end; they are alien concepts in eternity. Time and eternity have no relationship with one another just as up or down, for example, have no relationship with light or dark. The terms “up” and “light” are mutually exclusive. Time is not part of eternity just as “up” is not part of “light.”

It may seem like I’m overemphasizing this point, but it is absolutely essential that we understand such differences between eternity and time before we can begin to comprehend what the Bible teaches, for example, about eternal LIFE. Time is not part of eternity. Eternity is not composed of segments of time. Eternity is not time standing still. It simply is not time in any sense that we understand time. Eternity doesn’t go on and on, ad infinitum. Eternity doesn’t go anywhere or anywhen, nor does it do anything. Eternity simply is. It doesn’t go on and on and on.  Time is created. It is extra-eternal in the sense we say something is extra-biblical. Time is a measurable, fixed, limited, created phenomena. Eternity, in contrast, is part of the very nature and person of God.

The Great “I AM”

Eternity transcends beyond our comprehension anything having to do with time. Eternity simply is, just as God simply is. The expression, “It is that it is,” has unique reference to eternity just as “I am that I am” has unique reference to God. Just as Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” (John 8: 58) it can be said of eternity, “Before time was, I am.”

Some Misunderstood Terms

For my next point let’s consider only briefly the definitions of such biblical words and terms as “forever,” “forever and ever,” “eternal,” everlasting,” and related expressions. By the way, have you ever pondered how there can be a “forever” with an “ever” following it? I’m just asking.  In over 500 places in most modern translations of the Bible where we find such terms in the English language as the four just mentioned, they have with very few exceptions been mistranslated from the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic languages in which the Bible was written.

“Forever” can most often be translated as “age-lasting,” or “continuing for the ages of time.” “Forever and ever” and “everlasting” should be translated as “for the age(s) of the ages,” “enduring for the ages of time,” or “throughout all generations.”  Such biblical words or expressions are not about segments of time that go on and on and on without end. I am simply saying that these words are all time-words, words expressed in time-languages, fallen languages of a fallen race of beings, languages that are inadequate to wholly express and define that which is eternal. They are not words having to do with eternity; they are only about time.

In the original languages, the biblical emphasis on such words seems to be upon the quality and purpose of such words rather than upon an unending duration. In other words, eternal LIFE means the nature, quality, or purpose of the LIFE rather than it’s length or duration.  Eternal LIFE is God’s self-existent, uncreated, undiminishable, imperishable, incorruptible, inexhaustible, indestructible, limitless, boundless, abundant LIFE of God in us, a LIFE the seed of which we now possess and which will come to full fruition in eternity when the ages of time have ceased to exist.

Check ’em Out Yourself

I’ve given only a few examples of such words and expressions. An exhaustive—and startlingly convincing—personal study can be made of every such word in the Bible with the use of a good Bible concordance.

In summary, it can readily be seen that both time and eternity are concepts beyond total comprehension by fallen and limited human beings. Our “darkened,” finite, limited minds and understanding are too limited to fully grasp their meanings. Nevertheless, even a dim understanding of such concepts will help change our thinking and preconceived notions of space, time, the universe, God’s nature and personality, God’s “size,” God’s inherent eternality, and our own future eternality.

God is cultivating within Jesus believers an eternal nature, a nature no longer rigidly bound to and regulated by time, by clocks, by seasons, by cycles. The thoughts of God’s people are becoming boundless and eternal, no longer controlled and motivated entirely by memories of the past, by present events, or by dim hopes for an endless future in the “sweet bye and bye.” God’s people are becoming age-less and time-less, are being “caught up” to God and his throne, are becoming truly and genuinely eternal beings in many ways. The fledgling eternal spirits of God’s people are growing up into the limitless expanses of God’s own eternal, spiritual nature.

New, Eternal Beings!

His people are becoming new eternal creations, no longer limited by the restrictions of the space-time continuum and by our physicality and materiality.  We are not human beings having a temporary spiritual experience; no, we are eternal spiritual beings having a very brief human experience!  We are seeing with our “inner eyes” of our “faith-sense” the reality of a state of being called eternity—resident in the very nature and person of God—and our hearts strain and leap upward toward that “place” in God that awaits us beyond the eons of time.  

I hope that brief discussion of the concepts of time and eternity will help you more fully appreciate the wonder-full, rich, abundant, eternal LIFE God has implanted within you through the eternal sacrifice and total and complete salvation God has given you through God the Son, Jesus! He implanted that LIFE in you at the time of your new-creation, second birth, and it will continue to grow within you throughout all the eons of time and then beyond time into the eternal state! Thank God for such amazing salvation!

Beyond The Far Shores Of Time

Here is a little scenario I recently wrote based on my own very, very limited understanding of Eternity, that place in God to which we are all journey-bound:

“Beyond the far reaches of the vast sea of time and space lies a fair and lovely land called Eternity. It is a land beyond measure in which no mortal feet have yet trod. A land of great delights, of fulfilled desires, dreams, goals, and visions. A land where all is well and all is peacable.  A land where He Who Is . . . is All in all; there is nothing in that altogether lovely land which The Great Presence does not fully permeate and fill to the full. We . . . you . . . me . . . all are bound for that unclouded land beyond the far borders of time.

In that ever-bright land there will be no need of the sun or lamps, for there will be no night there. The permeating, en-Lightening Presence of Him Who is All in all will provide all Light. And, in that wondrous land of light and beauty beyond compare, there is a pure River of Life flowing from the throne of the All in all.  On either side of that River is a Tree of Life which bears fruit always, and the leaves of the Trees will heal those from every tribe, tongue, and nation who made the long journey to that wondrous Land.  No dark and limiting curses will find a place in that comely Land, but only extraordinary blessings for all . . . from Him Who is All.

Pure love will radiate throughout that land from Him Who is seated on the throne and from the Lamb seated at his right hand; love will be the very atmosphere breathed by all in that fair land. And love will be the very core character and nature of all who dwell there . . . because He is Love.  It’s a land of dazzling beauty no human eye has ever seen—a land of light beyond the crystal sea. A bountiful land of abundance, a land of milk and honey where Justice and Mercy fall and nourish the land like spring rains, sweeping gently across the lush, verdant meadowlands of Eternity.  Love and grace waft unceasingly throughout the land, filling the very atmosphere. The knowledge of God and his Righteousness and Good cover the earth as the waters fill the seas.

Praise and joy resound from every corner of the land. Salvation and Deliverance flow down as crystal rivers flow from high mountains.  All is Peace—peace which surpasses finite comprehension, Peace which overshadows all that might cause anxiety and worry, Peace which stills any tumult and storms that might arise on the crystal seas in that radiant land to which we go.  There are still, sparkling waters, beside which the Great Shepherd of all sheep leads us into verdant meadows where Feasts surpassing abundance are ever provided to all.

We shall dwell there beyond the far shores of time, ever in the Presence of Him who fills all with Himself. Death shall be no more. Nothing shall ever disturb the peace and tranquility that pervades that all-spacious land over which the King of kings and Lord of lords rules with eternal benevolence toward all creation.

Ceaseless High Praise—loud as rolling thunder—is ever heard, yet there is always a hushed and still quietness that is palpable to all. Such Praise rolls effortlessly from all created beings, originating from deep within the redeemed who ever come singing to the Temple of God—whose temple we are, filled with all the fulness of the Spirit beyond measure and comprehension.  Dear reader, that is the wondrous land called Eternity to which we are all journey-bound beyond the far reaches of time and space. Let’s journey on.”

“God makes everything beautiful in its own time. He has placed within the heart of every human ever born the knowledge of the ages of time and eternity. But our understanding is so finite and limited that during our journey here we can never fully grasp what God is doing. What we are able to comprehend of God’s working throughout human history is always unclear, partial, and distorted.”                                                      –Ecclesiastes 3: 11

My readers may be interested in a book that can be ordered at amazon.com, titled “Heaven: Our Home Sweet Homeland.” It’s a true account of my actual visit to Heaven on March 6, 2018. The book gives just a little glimpse into the reality of God’s eternal LIFE in Heaven, as contrasted with this time and space dimension in which we live before we die.

To Think About:

“On most gravestones there’s a date of birth, a dash, and then a date of death. The dash is very short; it represents my life from conception to death. It’s what I do during the dash that really matters!”

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Updated and Revised February 2023

Water

Water. What a mysterious substance!

On one occasion Jesus said: “Those who believe in Me will have rivers of living water flowing out of their innermost being.” He was speaking about Holy Spirit Who would later come to reside permanently in his followers. (John 7: 37 – 39)

There’s an interesting principle found throughout the Bible that is best encapsulated in 1 Corinthians 15: 46b. The principle goes something like this. Every element in our natural, physical, material universe has it’s greater, more real counterpart in the spiritual dimension, in the invisible Kingdom of God.  

For example, when we drink, or bathe in, or otherwise experience water in our natural lives—such as “walking in the rain” as the old song puts it—those experiences always point to a greater, more real, spiritual reality. Such walking in the rain in this material dimension signifies “”walking in the Spirit” as we read, for example in the eighth chapter of Romans in the Bible. That is only one example among many of that basic biblical principle.

In other words, that biblical principle means that first we see a natural element such as water in the visible creation of God, and that portrays for us a different, greater type of “spiritual” water found in the invisible realms of God. Holy Spirit is that “greater water” of God.  The abundant pervasiveness of water on earth points to the more abundant pervasiveness of “water” in the spiritual dimension; in this case, it is the abundant pervasiveness of Holy Spirit throughout the transcendent, spiritual dimension of the Kingdom of God, of Eternity.

The Water of LIFE

Our home planet, this azure orb we call Earth, breathtakingly lovely when viewed from space, is covered with approximately seventy percent water in its shining oceans and seas, its polar ice caps, and in its rivers, lakes, and streams. Even more water floats beneath Earth’s surface in vast subterranean pools and aquifers. Every living creature on this earth must have water to survive. Every spiritually alive creature in the spiritual dimension must have the water of Holy Spirit to exist. Holy Spirit is the very LIFE of God.

When most astronauts and cosmonauts view earth from space the first time, they invariably describe Earth as a vast turquoise ocean dotted with a few islands. They marvel at Earth’s waters in all its visible forms. Those who are followers of Jesus cannot help but marvel at Holy Spirit in all his “forms” through not only the material universe, but also throughout the non-material, spiritual universe, the Kingdom of God.

What is natural water? It’s a clear, colorless, nearly odorless and tasteless substance existing in a liquid, solid, or gaseous state depending on its temperature. It is essential for all animal and plant life on our planet. So basic a substance, and so common. A mysterious substance, indeed! Holy Spirit is a “clear, colorless, odorless” Being whom we are told to “taste and see” in the spiritual dimension with our “faith senses.”

Why did God create and place so much water on our planet? There’s really no answer to that question. He simply created water “in the beginning” as told in the first chapter of Genesis. Perhaps water’s basic significance is that its occurrence on our planet is the only large amount on one celestial orb yet known in the universe. However, recent astronomical findings continue to disclose the presence of water in different parts of our solar system. Perhaps there’s much more “out there” on other planets. Only time will tell. Just as there is so much more “out there” for us to experience of Holy Spirit.

Here’s an idea just how much water is a “large” amount. If all the water on our planet alone were equally divided among the 7 billion persons now living on Earth, each would have approximately 80 –90 billion gallons! So much water on our planet alone… When the Bible speaks of God’s vast abundance of love, grace, and truth, it is an abundance conveyed to us by unlimited Holy Spirit, for whom nothing is too difficult, nothing limited.

As noted above, most scientists believe thus far Earth is the only planet yet discovered containing significant “large” amounts of water. In fact, liquid water is still considered to be an extreme rarity in the universe as a whole. Yes, God created water in abundant, lavish amounts on Planet Earth; it is one of the most plentiful and widely distributed substances on (and within) our planet. This “speaks” to us of Holy Spirit, the Living Water God so graciously provides throughout the transcendent spiritual dimensions both here and now and in “places” beyond the limitations of time and space.

Characteristics Of Water

Let’s examine some of water’s natural, physical characteristics and importance before considering its spiritual significance.  Chemists know water by the formula H2O, meaning it consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Exactly how those three atoms are linked to form a delicate, precisely balanced compound is still a mystery to modern science.

In a molecule of water, each of its three atoms has a large central particle; grouped together the three atoms form three points of a triangle (three points of a trinity, if you please!). Before bonding together, each atom is in a “neutral” state electrically, i.e., none of the three atoms is either positively or negatively charged.  

When the three atoms bond, however, becoming a molecule of water, they create a tiny but highly charged, life-giving electrical system. If the three atoms linked even the tiniest fraction of an inch differently than they always do when they become a molecule of water, they would remain electrically neutral and all of their life-giving properties would be changed; they would cease to sustain life for all Earth’s plants and animals. That tiny difference? 1/100,000,000th of an inch! That’s all it would take to render all of Earth’s water lifeless and useless in terms of sustaining life.

We who are followers of Jesus immediately think of the Trinity, the tri-une nature of our God when we read such truths about a simple natural element such as water. Water in its three forms as liquid, solid, and vapor does not point so much to the tri-une nature of God as does the simple three-molecule makeup of water itself. Three “atoms” that sustain physical life: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who create and sustain not only natural life, but also spiritual LIFE.

Water has a remarkable capacity to absorb heat to a much greater degree than many other substances and elements. As it absorbs and discharges heat, thus releasing energy, it forms Earth’s global temperature control system. Earth’s waters store heat where it is abundant and release it where it is scarce.  Warm water is lighter than cold. Thus, the cooler waters of the polar seas continually press toward the warmer regions of the equator.

Those movements of water, coupled with the tides caused by Earth’s rotation and by the tidal pull of the moon, keep Earth’s oceans and seas in perpetual motion. In addition, Earth’s rivers empty 35 billion tons of water back into oceans and seas each year. All those movements of water transport immense quantities of heat in a remarkably uniform and consistent manner.

Earth’s polar ice caps play a large role in this process, keeping Earth from becoming too hot during its summers. Remember, the polar ice caps cover approximately six million square miles of our planet and are more than a mile thick in places!  Evaporation and condensation play a role, too. The global energy involved in this process is almost beyond comprehension. Water continually evaporates from all Earth’s oceans and seas, its rivers and streams, from its lakes and swimming pools, and backyard birdbaths—even from cooking utensils and glasses of water placed by one’s bedside. And…from all Earth’s baptismal waters; keep that last fact in mind as you read on.

Age after age, century after century, year after year, water in all its alternating and changing states serves to balance global temperature extremes. In contrast, our waterless moon experiences temperature variations that preclude any life from surviving there. Yes, Earth’s waters in all its forms serve as an amazing thermostatic process to keep our planet home livable and comfortable.

Seeing With Our “Inner Eyes”

Are you beginning to see earth’s vast water supplies with your “inner eyes and ears” pointing to and signifying the vastness of the supply of Living Water God furnishes us for our life “in the Spirit?”

Remember, too, that water is mobile, always in a state of flux. For example, the 100 pounds of water in the body of an adult human is totally replaced approximately seventeen times a year. In Earth’s atmosphere, water is usually about twelve days old because it is always on the move. The water in Earth’s oceans is totally “transferred” every 50,000 years. Yes, Earth’s waters are constantly on the move, renewing and cleansing not only Earth itself, but all life upon it.

The Water of Life, Holy Spirit, is always on the move, too, always flowing in, through and out of our lives to quench the spiritual thirst of others whom God brings into our lives in order to have their deep spiritual thirst quenched.

Water has many other unique traits, too numerous to expound upon in this brief teaching—traits which make it unique and different from virtually all other similar compounds. In fact, in some instances water seems to defy many natural “laws.” For example, in some cases it defies gravity as it “climbs” from within to the top of tall trees.

Another amazing characteristic of water is found in the billions of clouds that drift to and fro thoughout earth’s atmosphere, sometimes drifting lazily, sometimes swirling with the awesome force of a hurricane or typhoon. An “average” sized cloud drifting lazily through the blue skies above you on a warm summer day carries many hundreds of tons of water in it—defying the pull of gravity. What keeps the clouds in the sky? What keeps them from “falling” to earth all the time?

Holy Spirit defies all natural laws as He moves in and out of our lives, unbound by human conventions and traditions, unbound by all the ways we attempt to limit Him with our human-made teachings and doctrines. He absolutely will not be limited by any human-made “religious boxes” in which we attempt to confine Him.

Waters of Baptism

What are some more of the spiritual characteristics or traits of water. Earlier, I mentioned baptismal waters. Consider this—in an average drinking glass, there are 900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of water, all in such a constant state of flux that statistically it can be calculated with certainty: every single baptism ever performed involves water molecules that flowed in the Jordan River when Jesus was baptized!  Think of it: your baptismal water contained some of the same molecules with which Jesus was baptized!

We are indeed one with Him in baptism—and one with all others who have ever been baptized in Him in the past 2,000 years. That is the true “communion (coming-into-union) of our baptisms. When each of us is baptized in water, we come into true spiritual union with Jesus and with all other followers of Jesus allwhere and allwhen who have also been baptized.

As previously mentioned, in John 7: 38 and 39, Jesus said water is symbolic of Holy Spirit who would flow out of his followers as living water. Earlier, Jesus told a woman at a well about living water which would flow from his followers as an artesian fountain (John 4: 14). How is water like the invisible Spirit of God?  We’ve already seen how water exists in different forms, each form having different properties; Holy Spirit comes to us in different forms: gentle as a dove, strong as a mighty, rushing wind, quiet as a still, small voice, power from on high, guarantor of our inheritance, one who intercedes for us, deep water, Living Water…

In the natural realm water has unequaled cleansing ability; given enough time—and in large enough quantities—water can cleanse and remove virtually any stain. We are soiled and stained by sin as we journey on our way from earth to our eternal state. The cleansing power of Holy Spirit washes us and cleanses all humanity from all sin (1 Corinthians 6: 11), based upon the all-atoning sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth upon the cruel cross of Calvary.

Earlier, we were reminded that water is absolutely vital to all living things, nourishing and sustaining all plant and animal life; without water, we would die. Jesus spoke of himself as the Vine and we as the branches (John 15). When we are nourished by the Water of Life, Holy Spirit, we—the vines—bring forth rich fruit (Galatians 5: 22 and 23). We are nourished and sustained by the life of Holy Spirit. Without Him, we can do nothing of any lasting, spiritual value.

Historically, water has played a vital role in humanity’s development of power. Before the widespread use of fossil fuels to power machines and factories, much energy came from water in the form of water wheels strategically built on rivers and streams. Even now, water continues to produce physical energy. Holy Spirit empowers us; he is the Spirit of power (2 Timothy 1: 7).

As relaxing by a seashore brings tranquility… as gazing westward from a ship at sea, observing the grandeur of a stunning sunset over the waters brings calmness to the troubled soul… as reclining by a babbling brook on a mild summer’s day evokes peace… as taking a hot bubble bath on a cold winter’s night releases tension and reduces stress… Holy Spirit gives us peace which transcends all human comprehension and understanding, such peace being a fruit of Holy Spirit “grown” in each of us in a sovereign manner (Philippians 4:7; Galatians 5: 22).

If you are an adult reading this teaching, you have in your body right now about forty to fifty quarts of water! Consider this interesting analogy. When Jesus returns to earth, your physical body—composed mostly of water—will be transformed into a spiritual body; just as you are now composed largely of water, you will then be resurrected to a state wherein you will be composed mostly of spirit—enlivened and energized, and nourished by the Spirit of God instead of by water (Romans 8: 11; Philippians 3: 20 and 21; 1 Corinthians 15).

H2O is a label given to water to help us understand what it is. But the label is really just a tool attempting to explain a substance beyond understanding. Water is a unique, complex, amazing, created compound; one scientist, P. H. Kuenen, calls water “”he most extraordinary substance known to science.”  

The next time you take a drink of water, feel a raindrop light gently upon your forehead, or swim at the local pool, remember that water is a mysterious compound—God’s miraculous gift to Earth—through which all biological life is sustained and by means of which we catch a few glimpses into the realm of Holy Spirit as symbolized by water. Remember the spiritual realities behind God’s amazing gift of water to you.

The Coming Kingdom

There is coming a future time—eons after Jesus has returned to earth to establish his Kingdom—when the ages and eons of time will end and be “swallowed” up and “replaced” by eternity. When that occurs, the great city the Bible calls the New Jerusalem will descend out of heaven to earth to become God’s capitol city of the entire universe. God’s eternal throne will be in the center of that city. Just as his throne is now at the center of our beings.

Flowing from that throne will be a pure river of LIFE-giving water. No human now knows much about that eternal city nor about that river of LIFE. It is my own opinion, however, that the river of LIFE will not only be a river of natural, LIFE-giving water, but will also be Holy Spirit flowing from that throne, giving the LIFE of eternity to the entire universe…and beyond.

One of my favorite songs (a so-called Celtic Christian song) makes me think of the throne of God and that River of Life flowing from that throne each time I hear it sung; it’s entitled “Down The Mountain The River Flows’:

Down the mountain the River flows,
And it brings refreshing wherever it goes.
Through the valley and over the field,
The River is rushing and the River is here.

CHORUS:
The River of God sets our feet a dancing.
The River of God fills our heart with cheer.
The River of God fills our mouths with laughter,
And we rejoice for the River is here.
We rejoice for the River is here!

The River of God is teeming with life,
And all who touch it can be revived.
And those who linger on this rivershore
Will come back thirsting for more of the Lord.

CHORUS:

Up the mountain we love to go
To find the presence of the Lord.
Along the banks of the river we run.
We dance with laughter,
Giving praise to the Son.

CHORUS:

Water. What a mysterious and wondrous substance God has created for our use, reminding us of the deep, deep, ever deeper Waters of Life!

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated March 2023

The Unpardonable Sin

There are 5 major religions in the world: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. Christianity is the only major religion that offers humanity full and complete pardon from sin based upon the substitutionary death of a sinless, divine Savior–who was brought back to life after his death on a Roman cross. all the others are dead.  Therein lies a unique paradox. The paradox is this. On one hand Christianity offers full pardon for sin; on the other hand, it is the only religion in which some of its adherents propose that there is some type of unpardonable sin. A paradox, indeed! Where does the concept of unpardonable sin come from?

These are the only references in the entire Bible about the so-called “unpardonable sin”; one would think there would be many more references if it were such a critical subject:

  • Matthew 12: 22 – 37; Mark 3: 22- 30; Luke 11: 14 – 26 and 12: 8 – 10

The entire context of these passages is a confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders of his day after Jesus evicted a demon from a man. The Jewish religious leaders, recognizing Jesus’ supernatural power, falsely attributed his power to Satan, not to God. The Jewish religious leaders had already made up their minds against the idea held by many of the Jewish people that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah (Matthew 12: 14)

A second scenario of this passage is about how we use our words—and the significance of how we use them.  A poor demon-afflicted wretch, both blind and deaf, was brought to Jesus, who miraculously healed him, giving him his sight and hearing. The people who saw it were impressed and exclaimed—“This has to be the Son of David, the long-awaited Messiah!”

But the Jewish religious leaders heard the report and were [stubbornly and willfully] cynical. “Black magic,” they said. “Some devil trick he’s pulled from his sleeve. The only way this man can evict demons from people is if he’s in league with the devil.”  Jesus confronted their [stubborn and willful] cynicism and slander. His first response was to point out what a silly idea it was that Satan would attack his own minions:

“A family that’s in a constant squabble disintegrates; if Satan banishes Satan, is there any Satan left? You’re accusing me of being in collusion with the devil in order to cast out demons. If that were so, then Satan’s kingdom could not long survive, could it?

“But if it’s by God’s power that I am evicting evil spirits, then God’s kingdom is here for sure. How in the world do you think it’s possible in broad daylight to enter the house of an awake, able-bodied man [this man being symbolic of Satan in this episode] and walk off with his possessions unless you tie him up first? Tie him up, though, and you can clean him out. To plunder a ruffian, you must first overpower him.

“There is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse. There’s nothing you can do or say that can’t be forgiven. But if you Jewish religious leaders deliberately [willfully and stubbornly] persist in your slander against God’s Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives.

“If you Jewish religious leaders [willfully and deliberately] reject the Son of Man out of some misunderstanding about who he’s working with, Holy Spirit can forgive you, but when you reject Holy Spirit, you’re sawing off the branch on which you’re sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives. In this case, if you [stubbornly and willfully] persist in claiming what I do is by the devil’s power you won’t be forgiven either in this age or the age to come. [But that is not to say they could not be forgiven in ensuing ages after this age or the next—another subject altogether.]

“If you grow a healthy tree, you’ll pick healthy fruit. If you grow a diseased tree, you’ll pick worm-eaten fruit. The fruit tells you about the tree. You Jewish religious religious leaders have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words.

A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you Jewish religious leaders something: Every one of your [willful and stubborn] cynical, slanderous words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Your words can also declare you guilty when the time comes.”

Again, it’s important you see this entire scenario in the overall context of a confrontation between Jesus and some Jewish religious leaders of his day. Through the centuries of time many people have insensitively and wrongly applied to other people this specific situation [about Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders] which bears no resemblance to the Jewish religious leaders’ deliberate [willful and stubborn] perversion of the truth about Jesus and Holy Spirit.

Such wrongful and insidious application of this specific scenario—out of context—has caused great distress for many vulnerable people. It has caused many people to “give up” on God because they feel they have committed an unpardonable sin and are no longer within reach of God’s love, blessings, grace, favor, forgiveness, and pardon. Such misinformed people have wrongfully believed they will “go to their grave” unforgiven of an unpardonable sin and are, therefore worthless to God and to others as a result. They often mistakenly feel they deserve (or don’t deserve) one thing or another because they are a hopeless, unpardonable sinner.

Questions to ponder if you feel you may have committed the “unpardonable sin”:

  • Are you a Jewish religious leader in stubborn and willful opposition to Jesus, saying slanderous words about him and being cynical of where he receives his power to evict demons?
  • Are you a Jewish religious leader stubbornly and willfully persisting in claiming Jesus evicts demons because he’s in league or collusion with the devil?
  • Whose side are you on? On Jesus’ side or stubbornly and willfully on the devil’s side?
  • Are you a Jewish religious leader stubbornly, willfully, deliberately persisting in saying slanderous and cynical words against God’s Spirit?
  • Are you a Jewish religious leader stubbornly and willfully repudiating God’s forgiveness [in this eon of time or the next]?
  • Are you a Jewish religious leader carelessly [and stubbornly and willfully] using words that oppose Jesus and the work of Holy Spirit?

If your answer is “no” to these questions then you have not “blasphemed” Holy Spirit, nor have you committed any sin which is “unpardonable.”

Jesus is the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who has taken away all the sins of all humanity—including yours! (John 1: 29) He hasn’t just covered over your sins, or “swept them under the rug,” of “misplaced” them. No! He has taken them away and erased them completely and totally for all time and eternity.

If you have agreed (“confessed”) with God that you are a sinner, then he has cleansed you from all sin (1 John 1: 9) If and when you do sin, Jesus acts as your “defense attorney” before the throne of God, informing the “judge” that He himself has paid for all your sins and they can no longer “legally” be held against you. (1 John 2: 1 and 2)

In fact, symbolically God has cast all your sins to the bottom of the deepest ocean and chooses to remember them no more nor ever bring them up again. (Micah 7: 19) You are no longer unrighteous in any manner; instead, Jesus has completely taken away all your unrighteousness and has become your righteousness, displacing and replacing all your unrighteousness with his complete righteousness. (1 Corinthians 1: 30) Jesus knew no sin. He became sin for you so that you might be given the righteousness of God and be fully reconciled to Him. (2 Corinthians 5: 18 – 21)

In Jesus, God has completely forgiven you all your sin. (Ephesians 4: 32) In Jesus, God has forgiven all your trespasses (Colossians 2: 13) In Jesus, you have complete redemption through his blood, and forgiveness of all sin by his grace. (Ephesians 1: 7) Jesus offered Himself and shed his blood once to completely take away all the sins of all people for all time and eternity. (Hebrews 9: 26 – 28)

Are you choosing to believe the lie and your unreliable and capricious feelings that you have committed the unpardonable sin? Or, are you choosing to repudiate such lies and your feelings and, instead, believe the clear teachings of the Bible that you have not done so?

You have not committed an unpardonable sin! Only those Jewish religious leaders with whom Jesus was interacting at that time were committing the unpardonable sin; and their sin was unpardonable only during the ages of time. After the ages of time have ended and phase into eternity, all the sin of all humanity–including the sin of those specific religious leaders–will be taken away as John 1: 29 clearly states: Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of all humanity!

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated March 2023

Satan: From Beginning to End

When the Bible uses the phrase, “in the beginning,” it is speaking of the origination point of the subject in question. For example, “In the beginning God created the universe and the earth.” Before their creation, there were no heavens and earth. Their creation had a starting point in time—in the beginning.  The Bible declares “The reverential, worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 1: 7) That means wisdom begins when we develop the reverential fear of the Lord. Jeremiah 28: 1 says ” . . . in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah . . .” That doesn’t mean during or at the end of King Zedekiah’s reign; it means when his reign began.

When it Started

 I don’t mean to insult your intelligence by stressing this self-evident point. It seems to make such common sense that everyone would understand what “in the beginning” means. It means just what it says. A related point is this: if something has existed in a certain condition from the beginning, that means from the time it began, it was in that condition. Certainly there is no difficulty in following that line of reasoning.

Yet, on this very point I have a head-on collision with traditional and orthodox Christian teaching, for despite the fact that “from the beginning” obviously means at the creation of something, people have taught a doctrine for years that contradicts this simple statement of fact. I am referring to traditional teaching about Satan’s origin or beginning.

Who’re Ya Gonna Believe?

Traditionalists have long taught that from the beginning Satan was the “anointed cherub that covers . . . “ (Ezekiel 28: 14). They have taught that he held a high position among the angels of God until he led a rebellion against God in an attempt to usurp God’s throne. At that time, we are told, Satan–a supposedly good angel–was cast out of heaven and morphed into the evil devil he is today.

It is amazing that such a doctrine has received such widespread acceptance in the light of Jesus’ teachings on this subject. Traditionalists say that in the beginning Satan was a holy and good angel (possibly an archangel), but rebelled against God and was thrown out of heaven. In direct contradiction, Jesus says that Satan was a murderer “from the beginning.” (John 8: 44) Who do you choose to believe—Jesus or tradition?  Not only do we have Jesus’ clear statement, but the apostle John, writing under the inspiration of Holy Spirit, wrote these words about Satan’s origin: “The devil has sinned from the beginning.” (1 John 3: 8). Again, who do you choose to believe?

If we are to believe what the Bible clearly states, we must believe that from his very beginning Satan has sinned and is evil.  Usually, when people are first confronted with these plain biblical references, their immediate response is: “How could Satan be evil from his very beginning? Wouldn’t that mean God created him that way?” Yes, God created him that way. I don’t see that conflicting with the nature of God, as some might feel. I have heard the argument that God would never have created something that was evil.

My reply to that is another question: If God creates a being he knows is going to become evil anyhow, isn’t that the same as creating something that was evil in the first place? It’s no less thinkable that God would create one who would become evil than just to create an evil being to begin with. However, we offer God’s own words in Isaiah 54: 16 where he declares, “I have created the destroyer to destroy.” I understand from this reference in Isaiah 54 that Satan is a created being with a definite purpose for which he was created. I believe that purpose is stated in the opening words of Isaiah 54: 16: “I have created the blacksmith (the devil?) who blows on the fire of coals and who produces a weapon for its purpose; . . . “

An Ancient Man

An example of this purpose being fulfilled is seen in the life of Job who lived in the Middle East thousands of years ago. Job was a righteous person according to the light of spiritual comprehension he had in that ancient time. He was perfect in his generation. That is, his perfection was a comparative perfection. In comparison to those who were living around him, Job was a perfect man.

Relative to the amount of revealed truth in that day, Job was a perfect man. But in Job’s inner person, God saw something that did not measure up to the standard of godliness, for the spirit of God is one of humility, and Job was not a humble man. He was proud of his righteousness. Here’s what the Bible says about Job: “So [Job’s three friends] ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own thinking.” (Job 32: 1)  It was because God desired to burn out the pride in Job (who even had the testimony of God that he was a righteous man) that God brought forth the [black]smith to blow the coals upon the fire. Please note it was not Satan’s idea to persecute Job! Oh, no! It was God himself who brought up the subject! There Satan was, presenting himself before God, and God asked him, “Where have you been?” To this question, Satan replied, “From walking up and down all over the earth.” (No mention at all of Job.)

“Satan,” God asked. “Have you considered my servant Job? Have you noticed that he hates evil and fears God? Have you noticed that, Satan?”  Indeed, Satan had noticed Job, but he wasn’t doing anything to him. One of the most glorious testimonies of God’s preservation and protection of his followers is given here in this passage by Satan himself: “Does Job fear you for no reason, God? Haven’t you built a hedge around him, around his family, and around everything he has?”  Praise God! God has built a protective hedge around his people, and that hedge is Jesus himself. The psalmist recognized this when he wrote: “The angel of the Lord [Jesus] encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.” (Psalm 34: 7)

“You’ve put a hedge around Job,” Satan said to God, “and I can’t touch him!” Then he went on to say to God: “You must put forth your hand and touch all he has, and then he will curse you to your face.” But God knows the hearts of all humans; he knows the ones who can be trusted with affliction. He therefore replied to Satan, “Behold, all that Job has is in your power [I delegate that power to you], only don’t touch Job’s person.”  Any power Satan has is limited power delegated to him by God. His power was not unlimited and he could not touch anyone unless God expressly permitted him to do so. Don’t believe for a moment that anything in the universe is out of God’s control . . . or under the control of Satan. It never has been, is not now, and never will be. God is in full control of everything—and Satan himself is under the restricted and permissive jurisdiction of God.  

Satan has no power at all except that which God allows him to have. Do you really believe Satan could cause any trouble in the world unless God permitted it? If you believe that Satan is a thorn in the side of Almighty God, then your God is entirely too small. Satan poses no problem for God. It is God who set his boundaries and limited his power. God created Satan for one purpose and one purpose only: as merely one instrument among many to work out God’s eternal purposes for all humanity.  

When that purpose was accomplished on the cross, Satan completed his usefulness as an instrument in the hands of God who has everything under control . . . and then Satan’s end came when Jesus defeated him on the cross. (Colossians 2: 15) Satan always knew there was a time limit on his presence and activity here. You’ve read the words of Revelation 12: 12 which say: “Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in fierce anger, because he knows he only has a short time left.”

A Building Made From Living Building Materials

God is constructing an eternal temple (the church) made of living stones, through which to make Himself known throughout the remaining ages of time and in the eternal state, and Satan was created from the beginning as a chisel and hammer to be used in the early stages of the construction of this building. The first living stones of this temple were chosen, says God, in the “furnace of affliction.” (Isaiah 48: 10) God, however, is mercy; God is love; God is compassion. He is a healer, not a destroyer. It was, nonetheless, necessary that an oven be heated in which to purify the gold—a furnace in which the wood, hay, and stubble of God’s followers were to be tried and tested by burning. (1 Corinthians 3: 10-15)

But God—whose very nature is love—could not directly perform the necessary affliction. For that reason he created an instrument that was capable of performing this essential action in the lives of God’s people, for in Satan God literally created a chastening rod, an afflicter, a destroyer, an oven.  If we have now received the testimony of Jesus and the Apostle John concerning the origin of Satan, that he was a “murderer from the beginning,” we must now deal with another point of traditional theology and teaching. If Satan was not the “anointed cherub that covered,” who was?

Two chapters in the Old Testament are where traditional teachers glean most of their information about Satan’s supposed origin: Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. Those two chapters are primarily where most traditionalists get their information about what they feel to be Satan’s origins. The traditional view holds that the 28th chapter of Ezekiel teaches about Satan in his state of perfection before he rebelled and was cast out of heaven. As already pointed, out the 14th verse uses the term “the anointed cherub that covers,” and God says, “I set you so.” This is the primary biblical reference for the traditional view teaching Satan was the anointed cherub.

I must raise a question here, however, about the essence of Satan. Is he spirit or is he human? There can be only one reply to that question, of course: he is a spirit being. Should you disagree about that point, I point out that Satan, on the night of Jesus’ arrest, “entered into Judas.” (John 13: 27) We know that a human cannot enter another human. However, a spirit being can enter humans. Satan, as spirit, entered Judas that night and motivated him to perform his evil deeds.

Look at verse 2 of Ezekiel 28, where God is addressing the “anointed cherub”. God says, “Because your heart is lifted up and you say you are a god . . . you are only a man.” Satan is not a man; he is an unbodied (non-corporeal) spirit being. But the being addressed in this chapter is a man. Notice verse 9 where God asks this man: “Will you still maintain you are a god . . . ? But you are only a man . . .” The personality whom God addressed in this passage was unquestionably a man, not a spirit, and the verses that follow (12-15) are a description of that man.  Verse 12: “You are full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” It is important to understand what “wisdom” is if we are to understand the nature of the man in this passage. By comparing various references throughout the Bible, we learn that “wisdom” is personified in Jesus, for Paul wrote in I Corinthians 1: 24 and 31 that Jesus is the “wisdom of God.”

The man spoken of here, then, is filled with Jesus. To be filled with Jesus is to be filled with “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,” for we read in Colossians 2: 9 that Jesus is the fulness of the Godhead. Just think—whoever this man is in Ezekiel 28, he is filled with Jesus. Can we go just one step further and say that if one is filled with Jesus, that person is filled with the image of God?

 This man was also “perfect in beauty.” Again, we compare Bible reference with Bible reference and learn that “beauty” is holiness. The psalmist wrote, “Worship God in the beauty of holiness.” (Psalm 29: 2) The singers of the Lord in 2 Chronicles 20: 21 were commissioned to praise the “beauty of holiness.” Thus, when David said, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek . . . to behold the beauty of the Lord . . . .” (Psalm 27: 4), he was saying, “I will seek the holiness (or righteousness) of the Lord.” These are the words Jesus spoke in the sermon on the mount: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (holiness).” Matthew 6: 33.

Out-Rayings Of God’s Light

To fully grasp the meaning of “perfect in beauty” and being “full of wisdom” we must understand the meaning of Hebrews 1: 1 which proclaims: “Jesus is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of God . . . “  Noted Greek language authority, Kenneth Wuest, gives us the meaning of the original Greek for this word “brightness” as “out-raying”. The sense of the Greek here, he writes, is that there are “rays of light coming out from the original body and forming a similar light-body themselves.” What it means, literally, is that “the Son is the out-raying of the divine glory, exhibiting in himself the glory and the majesty of the divine Being, ” according to Wuest and other biblical language scholars.

When the writer of Hebrews states the Son is the “brightness of the Father’s glory” he means that the Son is so fully indwelled by the Father that the glory of the Father’s nature shines forth from within him, thus clothing the Son with himself to the extent that the Son is the exact image of His person. The evidence of this “forthshining” was manifested once on the mount of transfiguration, where Jesus was transformed before His disciples. He was, at that point, “putting on” the light-body, which was literally the Father shining forth from within him.

 Note this was a marvelous manifestation of the sacrificial love of the Lord Jesus. His faithfulness to God had brought him to the place of glorification but he refused it, choosing, rather, to remain in the flesh that he might suffer the death of the cross and bring that same glory to his followers. Who can comprehend the height and depth and breadth of such love? Jesus was “perfect in beauty” and had attained the end of holiness: glorification. But he was willing to temporarily lay down that awesome glory in order to share it with all God’s followers.

To be “perfect in beauty”, then, is to be clothed in the “light-body” that is produced by the out-raying of the indwelling Spirit of God. Spiritual Zion, whose physical manifestation is the body of Jesus’ followers, the church, is to be clothed in such a manner, for it was prophesied “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined.” (Psalm 50: 2) Child of God, can you hear the call of the Spirit within your own soul crying, “Awake, awake: put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments.” (Isaiah 2: 1)

Yes, put on the Lord Jesus! (Galatians 3: 27) How our hearts praise God for the time when this beautiful prophecy began to find its fulfillment in the hearts of all those who are known as Zion: “Out of Zion, God has shined.” Our hearts praise God for the day when he began the process of making us perfect in beauty and began the process of re-creating us in the image of God, clothed in His righteousness.

Do you not see, however, that the man in Ezekiel 28 had already partaken of this perfection? He was already perfect in beauty, he was already in the image of God. There is only one man, besides Jesus himself who was ever created in the full image of God, and he is that man of whom it is written in Gen. 1: 27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” That man was Adam! Adam alone, of all the race of humans, ever bore the full image of God. Only of Adam can it be said, “You have been in Eden, the Garden of God.” (Ezekiel 28: 13)

Only of Adam can it be said, “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.” (Ezekiel 28: 15) Adam, not Satan, was the “anointed cherub that covers,” and it was Adam whose heart was lifted up “because of his beauty, who corrupted his wisdom by reason of his brightness.” (Ezekiel 28: 17) You see, his “brightness” was the “light-body” which he possessed by virtue of the indwelling God. But Adam made the mistake of thinking that it was his own brightness and he thought in his heart: “I am a god; I sit in the seat of God.” (verse 2)

That is why it was not difficult for the serpent to tempt Adam (and Eve) in the Garden of Eden. The Satanic temptation appealed to the thought that was already in Adam’s heart, for the serpent whispered, “You shall be as gods.” Adam and his wife received the serpent’s testimony because deep inside them they already believed what he was saying was true.  Because of their sin, therefore, God drove them from the Garden (Genesis 3: 24), or as Ezekiel records this event, “I will cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out.” (verse 16) The Garden of Eden and the Mountain of God are the same thing. This mountain is called in Psalm 48: 1—2 that “city of our God,” the “mountain of holiness.” This city is seen again in Revelation 21: 2 and 12 and is called “the New Jerusalem.” Paul, wrote of this city saying, “Jerusalem . . . is above.” (Galatians. 4: 26)

The point I wish to make here is that the mountain of God is Zion, or the New Jerusalem, and that it is above. (This is a spiritual city with a physical counterpart on earth.) Jesus identified “above” in the words recorded in John 8: 23. The “beneath” is identified as “this world,” and the only other world to which “above” could apply is the spiritual world, i.e., the heavenly realm. The mountain of God, therefore, is the heavenly realm. When “the anointed cherub” was cast out of the mountain of God, he was cast out of the heavenlies.

We have another view of this truth in Song of Solomon 4: 12 where God speaks, saying, “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse (bride).” The New Jerusalem, which is above, is also the Garden of God. When God said to Adam, “I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God,” He was saying, “I will cast you out of the heavenlies, out of the spiritual realm.” And that is exactly what happened.

Driven From The Garden

Driven from the Garden, no more could Adam hear the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. He no longer possessed spiritual ears. He who had never known anything but the “rest of God” now had to labor and toil in the field. Communion with God was broken, the heavens were closed, and Adam found himself naked, stripped of the light-body that had been his, and was left with only his own human flesh to cover him. What a loss! What an unspeakable loss! Oh, I think that the heart’s cry of the apostle Paul must have originated within the soul of Adam himself: “Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death.” (Romans 7: 14)

“How you are fallen from Heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning.” (Isaiah 14: 12) (How are you fallen from the heavenly realm, Adam.) “How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations.” (How you are fallen into the realm of the flesh, you who sold all humanity into the bondage of sin and death.)  The above reference provides us with another tragic picture of the fall of Adam from his exalted position in God. I am keenly aware that Lucifer is generally believed to be Satan in this passage (verses 12-17), but the evidence of the Bible does not support such a view.

Lucifer means “day star” or “light-bringer.” This should read, “How you are fallen from the heavenlies, O light bringer and day star.” We are encouraged by God to compare spiritual things with spiritual things, which is the only way that we can arrive at the true identity of Lucifer. If, then, we are to understand the nature of this person called “Lucifer” we must determine how “day star” or “light bringer” is used in other biblical references.

Peter writes of this “day star” in his second letter to the church. He had been discussing the glorious experience that he, along with James and John, had with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration. Speaking of the voice that spoke to them there on the mountain, Peter wrote, “And we have the prophetic word made firmer still. You will do well to pay close attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day breaks through the gloom of night and the day star [morning star] (Lucifer) rises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1: 19)

Peter indicates that he was awaiting the dawning of a new day. That new day began to dawn with Jesus’ birth. Full dawn will break when Jesus returns and fully consummates his Kingdom on earth. With the dawning of this new day (as with any new day) came the rising of the sun, which is the day star. Malachi prophesied of the rising of this day star when he said, “The Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings.” (Malachi 4: 2)

 Jesus said, furthermore, He will give to those who are his body, the church “the morning (day) star.” (Revelation 2: 28) Whether we call it “day star,” “morning star,” “sun,” or “Lucifer,” they all mean the same—Jesus. The “rising of the day star” occurs in our individual lives and is the out-raying of Jesus within, for you see, Jesus is the day-star. (Revelation 22: 16)  If the one called “Day Star” is Satan, we could well ask ourselves why Peter showed such enthusiasm for its rising in the hearts of he and his readers.

No, the Day Star cannot be Satan at all but is, rather, the “hidden man of the heart” (I Peter 3: 4)—the indwelling Jesus—the perfect man—(Ephesians 4:1 3)—and that which we experience daily in our ongoing relationship with God through Jesus. It is what Adam had in the beginning with him. Remember, Adam was so in-dwelt with the presence of God that he was covered on the outside with a light-body exactly like the one on the inside. As long as he was a partaker of God’s LIFE within him, he was himself a “day star” for he was a member of the Perfect Man, which is Jesus.

For more information about what pre-Fall Adam and Eve were like, see my companion teaching on this web site, “Let There Be Light.”  Lucifer means “shining one.” Daniel said, “They that be wise shall shine with the brightness of the firmament.” (Daniel 12: 3) This is no mere figure of speech. You see, God is light, and when that God-light works its way out to our outer-Man and clothes us with that light-body that will never die, we shall, in truth, shine with the brightness of the firmament. The Day-Star is the out-raying of the Father, i.e., the forthshining of the Son. It is the “putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 13: 14)

The day has come when the Son has begun to shine forth from within us, the Day Star has arisen in our hearts, and we have put him on as a garment. This mortal has begun to put on immortality, and we are being clothed upon with our house from heaven, Jesus himself.  “In this present body,” Paul wrote, “we sigh and groan inwardly because we yearn to put on our celestial body like a garment—to be fitted with our heavenly dwelling so that by putting it on we may not be found without a body [as Adam found himself without his light-body]. For while we are still in this body, we groan under the burden and sigh deeply, not necessarily that we want to be rid of the body we now have, but that we be additionally clothed so that our mortal body may be swallowed up by resurrection life.” (2 Corinthians 5: 2-4)

No, Lucifer is not Satan. Lucifer is the perfect Man, and we experience with awe that he has arisen in our hearts. He shines out of us, enveloping us in himself. How great the tragedy, then, when we read the words: “How you are fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer [Adam], son of the morning.” Adam, walking in perfection, reflecting the glory of God, the express image of the Father, fell from that place in the heavenlies and because of the sin of pride, the Day Star no longer shone from within. Adam could no longer be called the “shining one” for the light-body had departed from him, and he knew “that he was naked.” (Genesis 3: 7)

We know it was the sin of pride that caused the fall of Adam (who, because of the fall, could no longer be called Lucifer, the Shining One from the heavenlies, but, rather Adam, from the earth), and we see this evidenced in the words that are attributed to him in Isaiah 14: 13—14: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God . . . I will ascend above the height of the clouds; I will be like the most high.”  This was his response to the serpent’s temptation: “You shall be gods.” You see, Adam was not content to have God manifested through him. He desired to be a god in his own right. He was not content to be the out-shining of the Father. He wanted to be the Father. He was not content to allow the authority of God to rule and operate through him. He wanted to take dominion for himself.

The temptation that the serpent offered was merely the verbalization of the hidden thoughts of Adam’s prideful heart: And the punishment mentioned in Isaiah 14:15 is just another way of saying, “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.” Hear it! “You shall be brought down to the region of the dead, to the recesses of the grave.”  Further proof it is not Satan who is being discussed in this passage lies in verses 16 and 17 which read: “People will gaze at you saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities . . . ?” I think we readily agree Satan is not human; he is a spirit. But this is a man that shook kingdoms and made the world a wilderness. It is Adam who made the world a wilderness, for it was to him that these words were spoken: “The earth is cursed because of what you have done.” Genesis 3: 17.

The full implication of the curse is set forth in Old Testament typology in the “wilderness wanderings” of the people of Israel. Remember, all the things that happened to Israel are a symbolic picture and example of spiritual truth. It is, therefore, very significant that the wilderness into which they wandered is called in Exodus 16: 1, “the wilderness of Sin.”  When God created humans, He placed them in a Garden—a kingdom of peace and righteousness—but when Adam sinned, he and all his descendants were cast out into a wilderness of sin, death, and suffering. That Is why Paul wrote in Romans 5: 12, “By one person (Adam), sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death (a type of wilderness) came to all people.”

Paul was lamenting this “making of the world a wilderness” when he said, “I am sold under sin.” (Romans 7: 14) Humanity was sold into the bondage of sin and death by Adam’s transgression. That is why it is written of him that he “opened not the house of his prisoners.” (Isaiah 14: 17) Indeed, he could not open the doors of the prison houses, for he himself had become a slave to the flesh. And we who have inherited his nature, are all too aware of the power of sin. We know the meaning of bondage and slavery, and our hearts cry out with Paul, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” With hearts weary of sin, we echo Paul’s victorious reply: “I thank God. Through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

A Highway Out Of The Wilderness

The world is a wilderness of sin, a desert of death, but hear, 0 child of God, what the Lord has spoken of this wilderness in which we now roam: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing . . . They shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come . . . and save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall lame people leap like deer, and the tongue of the mute shall sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. And the burning sand and the mirage shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; . . . And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the Holy Way . . . And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, and the joy of the ages shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 35: 1-9)

Praise God! That prophetic reference began to be fulfilled during Jesus’ life and ministry, and during his resurrection and ascension. The ransomed of the Lord have begun to return and we follow in a long train of refugees from the parched wilderness of sin coming with singing back to Zion. The wilderness has begun to bring forth fruit, and from within us living waters are bubbling up and flowing out to thirsty and parched people. The “morning stars” (Job 38: 7) once again sing and shout for joy because the Day Star has arisen in our hearts and clothed us with Himself!

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated March 2023

O Christmas Tree

I suggest you first sing the song, “Oh, Christmas Tree,” and then read this teaching aloud during your Christmas season. You might even want to consider reading a portion of it serially each day for a few days every year as part of your annual Christmas celebrations at home or church. Make it a tradition—much like reading the Christmas story from the Bible; see a companion teaching I wrote for reading the Christmas story in modern English: The Hidden Scroll.

Oh, Christmas Tree

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!
Your boughs are green in summer’s clime
And through the snows of wintertime.
Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me
When oft at joyous Christmas-time
Your form inspires my song and rhyme.
Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me.

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson,
That constant faith and hope sublime
Lend strength and comfort through all time.
Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson.

Our Father God, Our Father God,
How wondrous are your mercies.
When I reflect upon your grace,
Such grace inspires my heart to praise.
Our Father God, Our Father God,
You fill my life with all good gifts.

Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus Christ,
What wonders you have done for me.
Eternal Life, salvation free.
Christmas is your gift to me.
Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus Christ,
I praise you for your wondrous gift.

Sweet Holy Spirit, Sweet Holy Spirit,
You fill my life with all good gifts.
As we journey on t’ward eternity,
The way is sure with You in me.
Sweet Holy Spirit, Sweet Holy Spirit,
Great Three in One, blest Trinity!

Once upon a time many years ago, a few days before Christmas, a young father sat down with his wife and three small children to explain to them why his heart was so full of joy this particular Christmas. First he told them about some past Christmases during which he had no joy. Why was the young father’s heart so full of joy this Christmas?  

Perhaps it was all the friendly parties and dinners his family attended during the holiday season. Or, maybe it was the relaxed, cheerful, holiday atmosphere pervading the family’s small community. Or perhaps it was the happiness of anticipating relatives and friends at their home Christmas day for a sumptious dinner followed by games, eating leftovers, snacks and desserts, and napping and visiting during the afternoon. Whatever the reason, the young father’s heart was full of joy and he didn’t want the season to come to an end. Have you ever felt that way about the holiday season? I hope so. It’s a wonderful feeling—like all is well with the whole world during those few days.

What about those past Christmases when the young father did not have much joy? There was one holiday season when he almost became “the Grinch who stole Christmas.” During many past Christmas seasons he had become fed up with the commercialism and secularism of Christmas. Christmas just didn’t seem to be about Jesus anymore. Why, he wanted to do away with Christmas altogether! He almost didn’t let his family have a Christmas tree that particular year, but finally gave in to their pleading and brought one home for them to decorate. Shortly before Christmas Day that year he reluctantly put the tree into its stand and prepared to help the family decorate it—mumbling and grumbling all the while—just like a Grinch.

Suddenly—in an instant of time—an awesome hush came over the young father’s spirit. In a solemn moment he felt as though he had been transported from time into eternity as God began to share some of his thoughts with him—thoughts which rolled into his mind as waves from the vast sea of God’s limitless mind no doubt break upon eternity’s shores. God’s Spirit whispered four simple words to the young father: “Concentrate on the colors.”

For many centuries, certain scholars have studied the meanings of colors, concluding that colors help us understand concepts and ideas. That is especially true of colors in the Bible. Did you know there are actually “colorologists” who study such matters? For example, what woman hasn’t been approached by someone who tells her how various colors she wears improve or take away from her personality and “aura”? Many modern automobiles are sold largely on the basis of their colors. We all think in terms of warm colors, bold colors, rich colors, “cold” colors, and the like. Yes, throughout history colors have played important roles in the lives of people.

The same is true of colors mentioned in the Bible. Occurring throughout the Bible from cover to cover are numerous themes which are vividly enhanced and symbolized by the Bible’s use of colors. Let’s think about some of those colors as they relate to our Christmas trees.  After the young father heard God speak those four words into his spirit, he immediately turned his attention to the Christmas tree and to the decorations and lights his family was placing on it.

All of a sudden it came to him: the various colors of the tree itself and the decorations and lights began to weave in his mind a rich tapestry of thoughts about the marvelous, full and complete, miraculous salvation God conceives and brings to birth in the hearts of all people by the power of his Spirit, just as Jesus was miraculously conceived in Mary long, long ago and was born on that wonderful, starry, starry night while shepherds tended their flocks in the fields near the village of Bethlehem.

Here are some simple thoughts about trees and colors which now brighten and enrich all that young father’s Christmases; that young father is now an old man and his children are all grown; there are grand-children and great-grandchildren now, too. I hope these thoughts help to make this Christmas—and all of your Christmases to come rich and wonderful—full of brightness and joy.

Let’s begin with the color brown. The Bible mentions this color only four times, but history and mythology tell us a great deal about the color brown. With very few exceptions, brown is symbolic of death and dying.  First let’s consider the brown trunk and branches of the tree. They symbolize our old human sin-full natures which are now “dead.” The trunk and branches of the Christmas tree are really dead although they appear to be still alive.

The Christmas tree’s life ended the moment it was cut down; our old human nature ended at the cross and we are dead to that old life, crucified with Jesus on another tree, its brown surface stained red with his LIFE-giving blood. By faith, we are no longer living that old life; for all practical purposes our old life is part of an ancient, pre-historic race which is now “extinct” as far as God is concerned. God doesn’t see the brownness of our old life; all he sees is our new LIFE freely given to us by Jesus.

Yes, from God’s eternal perspective, we are no longer members of the old human race; we are part of a new race of beings patterned after the risen Son of God; he is the pattern, and God is creating in us an entirely new race of sons and daughters formed in the same likeness as the living Lord Jesus! Yes, our old lives are “dead.” That’s what the brown colors of the trunk and branches of our Christmas trees symbolize to us.

The green needles of the tree portray our new lives in Jesus, new lives which obscure our old lives just as the green needles of our Christmas trees obscure their “dead” trunks and branches. Oh, occasionally, our old lives will surface and come into view, just as we can occasionally spot the brown branches of our trees here and there behind the green needles. But when one looks at our trees it is the rich green color that comes into focus most clearly, Just as God’s focus is upon our new resurrection lives which we now live by faith.

That is how God sees us because of what Jesus has done for us. We have been raised to new lives with him. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. We are like lush green trees planted by the river of life. (Psalm 1: 3) Our “leaves” are for the healing of others as the Spirit of God produces his own life-giving fruit (Galatians 5: 22 and 23) through us, fruit which bears abundantly in its seasons because our roots are planted deeply in the rich soil of God’s word. (Revelation 22: 2)

We live and move and have our new being in Jesus by means of God’s indwelling, LIFE-giving Spirit. Yes, our green Christmas tree needles symbolize our new life in Christ.  Perhaps we best think of the color green in Psalm 23 in the Bible, where we read of the fresh, tender, green pastures into which God leads us so he can refresh, restore, and renew our lives.

The bright, multi-colored lights twinkling among the green needles of our trees express Jesus, the light of the world, to us. He is THE Light. (John 1: 4) We all perceive that Light differently; we perceive him as many-hued, as all colors of the spectrum of light. He is a rainbow of colors; each of us perceives that rainbow differently, based upon our own levels of understanding about who Jesus is at whatever point we are in our relationship with him. He is the many-hued Light; we are lesser lights which shine with his brightness in a darkened world.

By his grace we have been snatched from the kingdom of darkness (Colossians 1: 13) and created as newly born citizens of the Kingdom of Light. It’s a kingdom with a brightness far greater than that of the noonday sun on a cloudless summer day. Our individual lights blink on and off and twinkle in a sin-darkened world when we permit THE Light within us to shine out of us. We are clay containers out of which his bright Light shines, ignited and sustained by the oil of the Spirit of God. (2 Corinthians 4: 7) That’s what the multi-colored, twinkling lights on our trees symbolize.

Yes, Jesus is the Light of the world, written about so eloquently by John in the first three chapters of his Gospel. We are dimmer lights (Matthew 5: 16), reflecting his brighter light to a relatively dark world.


The Bible is full of references indicating that gold symbolizes the pure character of God. The gold garlands we wind around our Christmas trees symbolize God’s character he is reproducing in our new lives through trials and testings which he lovingly permits to come to us. When he has tested us, we shall emerge as gold, refined and purified to the point of transparency—no longer dark, but clear so his own golden LIFE can be seen in us. (Job 23: 10)

He has laid a new foundation in our lives and is building upon that foundation a new character and nature in us consisting of gold, silver, and precious stones. Gold in its purest form is like clear glass, and God wants our lives to be clear and transparent so other persons seeing our lives will see Jesus living his own LIFE out through ours.  Just as the gold garlands encircling our Christmas trees are intertwined among the green needles, God wants his LIFE to be so much intertwined and interwoven with ours’ that the onlooker will not see just us, but a blending of both God and us—God living his own LIFE out through us.

God wants to appear to our world in a very real sense as Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.” (Matthew 1: 23) God wants people to see Him in us, our lives hidden in his; his LIFE expressed through ours. Yes, he wants others to see his golden character and nature displayed through us.

The shiny blue ornaments placed among the green needles and the golden garlands remind us of royalty, heaven, and the power given to us by God’s Spirit. To be anointed means to receive God’s power for daily living. We need his anointing for us to yield to God so he can live his own LIFE out through our new lives. Only through the anointing and power of Spirit at work within us and throughout all the areas of our lives can we yield to God’s refining, character-building work within us; God’s anointing must be at home in us and we must rely unreservedly upon Him. It is the anointing of God’s Spirit which teaches us, guides us into truth, bears fruit in our lives, and purifies us.

The color blue also causes us to think of heaven and of our life and service to God in the ages to come, assisting him with the eternal restoration and management of the universe. It also reminds us of our royalty as God’s sons and daughters being groomed as princes and princesses, kings and queens in the royal courts of King Jesus. It has been said we are in schooling for ruling and in training for reigning.

Throughout the Bible, silver often symbolizes redemption. The few silver icicles we have delicately suspended here and there among the other ornaments and decorations on our tree remind us that the Son of God was killed on our behalf for a few silver coins, a paltry sum when we consider the actual purchase price of our redemption. Our purchase price was the very life’s blood of the King of Kings who voluntarily stripped himself of his royal apparel and descended to earth to be born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.

All the silver in the universe could not have paid the price he paid for our redemption, restoration, and reconciliation to God. But once having made himself relatively poor for our sakes, Jesus resumed his proper place at the right hand of the throne of the universe. All the Father has given to him, Jesus now freely shares with us as his joint-heirs, princes and princesses being groomed in the royal household of God. Yes, the delicate silver icicles remind us of the unimaginable price paid for our redemption and the wonderful future God has in store for each of us as we continue our journey to eternity.

Let’s think about the color red in the Bible. It most often symbolizes the blood Jesus shed to pay the ransom price of our sins. In fact, it can be said that a “red river of LIFE” flows through biblical history culminating in Jesus’ bloody death on the cross. We have redemption through his blood. (Ephesians 1: 7) All the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament were symbolic pictures, pointing forward in time to the supreme sacrifice of the ages for all people, occurring on a bloody cross on a barren hillside near Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

Although that event occurred in historical time and space, in reality it occurred outside of time and space—an eternal event on behalf of all people living in all the ages of time. The Bible puts it this way: “Without Jesus shedding his blood, there would be no release from sin and all it’s penalties.” (Hebrews 9: 22) Thank God for Jesus’ willingness to come to earth as a baby, for living his sinless life, for dying on the cross and shedding his blood, for God raising him from the dead, for his return to heaven, and then his coming return to earth in the future to consummate his eternal Kingdom!

The white bulbs and ornaments symbolize God’s righteousness he has freely given to us. He has replaced our sin with his righteousness, so that when He looks at us He sees only the righteousness, not our sin. The book of Revelation in the Bible contains many references to the color white. In most cases, white refers to righteousness—but not our own righteousness. Left to ourselves we are not good and clean and pure and righteous. No, left to ourselves we are a mixture of both good and bad—sometimes we can be quite good, sometimes we can be quite bad. But our own goodness is never good enough; it’s always mixed with sin. For that reason, God covers us with his own goodness, replacing our sin with his righteousness.

For all the Christmases of all his years to come, every time that young father (now much older and wiser) sees a Christmas tree he will be reminded that God has cut down our old human life and nature; he has given us a brand-new life in Jesus, a new life in which he is reproducing his own LIFE. He has adorned our lives with bright ornaments of truth and light. He has anointed us richly with his Spirit. He has paid the full price necessary to redeem each of us. I was that young father!

I love Christmas. I love Christmas trees. They are joyous reminders of God’s entire plan of creation, redemption, and restoration for my life . . . for yours…and for all humanity!

Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus Christ, what wonders You have done for us . . . at this Christmas time. We thank You for this beautiful Christmas tree and all it symbolizes in each of our lives!  I wish you, my reader, a very merry and Jesus-filled Christmas this year and hope you have the most beautiful Christmas tree ever . . . !

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated February 2023

Mah Jesus Din’t Drink No Wine!

There’s a 2,000-year-old controversy about whether or not Jesus drank real alcoholic wine. I hope this teaching lays that controversy to rest for you.

“Mah Jesus din’t drink no wine!” Those were the exact words a man was screaming at me when I thought he was about to slug me because I was teaching a small audience of students some of the thoughts I’ll share with you in this brief teaching. I’ve heard lots of similar words during the years I’ve been serving and participating in Communion (the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Table, the Eucharist—whatever you choose to call the solemn and holy event). Let me share some irrefutable scientific facts with you about wine and grape juice and then you decide the matter for yourself, okay?

From the very dawn of agriculture, humans have grown grapes (and other agricultural produce) from which to make wine. The very second a grape is plucked from the grape vine, an enzyme in the skin of the grape immediately begins to ferment. Until 1869 (more about that in a few minutes), there was no way to stop that fermentation process originating in the grape skin. From the moment a grape is removed from the vine, it begins to ferment into alcoholic wine.

In ancient times (and in some cultures yet today), people spoke of “new wine” and “old wine.” New wine was made from grapes shortly after they were plucked from the vine and contained little alcohol content. Old wine was wine that had more time to ferment and become more alcoholic in content. Between new wine and old wine, there have always been varying stages of wine’s alcoholic content depending upon the time elapsed from the time the grape was plucked from the vine and the natural fermentation process began. For centuries, there was never any thought given to wine not having an alcohol content; it was simply a matter of fermentation time. Until 1869, wine always had some level of alcohol content–a little or a lot. Always!

Did Jesus live before 1869? Yes, He did. Jesus drank wine with an alcoholic content! If it was new wine, it had less alcohol. Sometimes, back in those days people would dilute old wine with water to make it less alcoholic. Old, new, or diluted—it contained alcohol. Always! Until 1869 . . .

Until that time, most ordinary, normal people simply drank wine in moderation. Often, people drank wine because it was “safer” to drink than water that was often full of harmful bacteria and germs. People didn’t know about bacteria and germs back then; they just knew it was unsafe to drink much of the water back in those days. They felt they were safer and healthier drinking wine—in moderation. And it was always that way . . . until 1869. Yes, Jesus drank alcoholic wine. He had no choice, unless He chose to drink no wine at all, just water.

Okay, what’s the great secret? What happened in 1869 to change all that? A dentist in Vineland, New Jersey, named Thomas B Welch (and his son, Charles, also a dentist) were active members of the “temperance movement.” They were experimenting with ways to create a non-alcoholic wine for their Wesleyan church’s communion services. They invented a special pasteurization process that could arrest and stop the fermentation of the wine. Viola!

That was the very first non-alcoholic grape juice in all of human history! Before that year, if people drank wine at all, it was alcoholic. Never non-alcoholic grape juice. Period! As a sidebar, ironically most of the parishioners in the Welch’s church continued to use wine instead of grape juice . . .

Later, in 1893 Charles Welch founded Welch’s Grape Juice Company in Westfield, New York. And now you know “the rest of the story,” as famed newscaster Paul Harvey used to proclaim.

Do I try to push these facts on other people, especially on well-intended followers of Jesus who feel that Jesus could not have drunk alcoholic wine? No, I do not! I simply share what I know to be scientific fact and let people decide for themselves what they want to do.

Whenever I serve Communion, I always give people the choice of consuming wine or grape juice.

But . . . the unalterable, historical fact is: Jesus did drink wine. Period! He didn’t change water into grape juice; he turned it into wine. Paul didn’t tell Timothy to drink grape juice; he told him to drink a little wine for some gastrointestinal health challenges he was having.

It’s okay for followers of Jesus to drink either wine . . . or grape juice.

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated February 2023

Let There Be Light

As we study together in this teaching about light (and darkness), I hope Holy Spirit will use it to liberate you just a little more through Jesus. Holy Spirit permanently implanted within you is Jesus in his “unbodied Spirit-form.” I want Holy Spirit to take whatever truth you find in this teaching and use it to release you into the true freedom of God’s love, light, and life, for John 8: 32-36 informs us genuine freedom is found only by knowing and experiencing the Source of truth which is Jesus.

Let’s jump right into our study of light. To do so, we will first learn what science and the Bible teach us about the origin of light and darkness. Frankly, as to the origin of both, modern science teaches us absolutely nothing of a concrete or conclusive nature; scientists simply cannot give any plausible explanation about where and how light—and darkness—originated.  No, science cannot tell us much about the origin of light and darkness; all their attempts to do so must be considered as purely speculative theory thus far in scientific endeavor. On the other hand, even though science discloses nothing about the origin of light and darkness, we can learn much from science about the properties, action, “composition”, speed, and effects of light and darkness.

Science often answers HOW the universe “works.” The Bible answers WHY things work!

What Does The Bible Teach?

As is so often the case in dealing with natural phenomena, we must turn to the Bible for a definitive statement about the origins of light and darkness. For example, we read in Daniel 2: 22 that light dwells with God. That is to say, light is part of the essence and “substance” of God. It is part of His person, makeup, and nature. It is embodied in him. God is light (I John 1: 5). All natural light (including the entire range of the spectrum, both visible and invisible) and all spiritual light or illumination are outrayings of God’s own Light-Being. Light has its origin in, and emanates and radiates from God. From the brightest star in the universe to the tail of the tiniest firefly—all light originates with God, for God is Light.

Psalm 104: 2 teaches that God is clothed with light. I Timothy 6: 16 tells us that God lives in light (not that he lives in the focus or beam of an external light as an actor before a spotlight, but that he “inhabits” light); and, finally, James 1: 17 sums up the matter of the origin of light by stating cogently that God is the Father of all that gives light. Also, we must not overlook the classic statements of the origin of light at the time of creation as found in the first chapter of Genesis and in Isaiah 45: 6 and 7.

Definitions

 Now let’s briefly examine the nature of light and a definition of light. The simplest definition of light is that it is radiant energy, luminous energy, or a “force” which illuminates that with which it comes in contact. Light is the basic life-giving source throughout the universe. By the marvelous chemical process of photosynthesis, light “creates” life by converting radiant energy to chemical energy. Later, we shall discuss in more detail “spiritual” as well as natural photosynthesis.

Light is generalized throughout the universe, and where there is no light there is darkness, intense cold, and generally chaotic conditions. Light “curbs” darkness and since both are forces or energies, there is a conflict between the two throughout the universe. Light by its curbing and limiting power is inherently “stronger” than darkness. Various spectrums, degrees, and types of light possess healing qualities—such as vitamin D in sunshine, the soothing, healing qualities of infra-red light, or the awesome power of laser light as used in modern medical and surgical techniques.

Of course, I have been speaking thus far of natural light; the reader who has had his spiritual eyes opened will have already begun to see some awesome implications of spiritual light, too, however.  By simple definition, spiritual light possesses in the spiritual realm the same illuminating and healing powers as natural light in the material realm. Much more will be said about that later in this teaching.  

Darkness—which is also a created phenomena as we read in Isaiah 45: 6 and 7—is simply the absence of light or a force which interferes with the radiation of light. In the presence of darkness (ranging from twilight to total darkness) there is cold, chaos, and little or no life, because the process of photosynthesis is rendered inoperative. Spiritual darkness is for one to be lacking in spiritual illumination, to be lacking in the experiential knowledge of God which can be had only by personally accepting and appropriating to oneself the sacrifice of Jesus on one’s behalf.

The Bible uses the expression “kingdom of darkness” to illustrate the milieu and lifestyle of those who have not yet been born anew into God’s kingdom of light. Here you should take a few moments to read and ponder Colossians 1: 12 and 13 and John 3: 3-8 in the light of this study about light and darkness.  Thus far in discussing the origin and nature of light my thoughts have been largely introductory. Let’s hasten on to the major theme of this teaching.

Lights In Human History

Until the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth in human flesh as the only begotten Son of God, the brightest “light” the world had yet seen up to that point in history was Adam. Adam was a glorious, scintillating, shining being arrayed in light. [see our other teaching on this website titled Whole In One] This was Adam in his perfection and innocence before his fall into sin and death. Adam was literally clothed in light before his transgression in the garden; he was a spectacular being, beyond human languages to describe.

The artistic representations we see in religious books and magazines picture Adam in the garden before the fall as a kind of “Charles Atlas” or Tarzan-like Superman. These drawings and pictures fall far short of what Adam was really like—clothed in a garment of light that literally shone as the noonday sun, scintillating with all the colors of the spectrum as he walked and talked in unbroken fellowship with God, the Father of Lights.

Only the last Adam, Jesus, as John saw Him in Revelation 1: 14-16 can compare with, yes, and surpass in glory, the first Adam as he was before the entrance of sin into the experience of humankind. Only the cleansing blood of the last Adam can restore fallen humanity to that awesome place of fellowship with the Father of Lights that Adam once knew. How very far we see humanity has really fallen when we behold with our spiritual eyes what Adam was like before his fall.

The next great man of light to appear on this planet was Moses. But how dim was his light compared to that of Adam. His relative dimness compared to Adam’s brightness certainly shows the ravages of sin upon the human race in just a few thousands of years. We all know—or should know—the story of Moses’ testings and trials as God molded and shaped him into the great leader of God’s people for that generation—as God shaped him into the forerunner of a greater Prophet (Jesus) who was yet to come.  

We read in Exodus 34: 29 that when Moses descended from Mt. Sinai with the two tablets of stone—he had been so close to the living God—that “the skin of his face shone and sent forth beams of light by reason of his speaking with the Lord.” The New Testament commentary on this event (2 Corinthians 3: 7) tells us that Moses’ face shone with brilliance and glory. Yes, the light of God shining from within Moses, much dimmer than that of Adam, shows us how far humanity had fallen by Moses’ time; and yet it is a prophetic picture—a foretaste—of that which is yet to be.

Another human to have within his being a portion of the light of God was John the Baptizer. We read of his light in John 5: 35. Yet, we do not see his light; he was merely called a light. Adam was clothed in light; Moses’ face shone with light; John was merely called a light. Do you see how sin in the successive generations of humanity has slowly dimmed the actual light of God shining forth from his children? We see the progressive—or should we say regressive—ravages of sin down through the centuries of human history. From being clothed in light, to merely being called a light.

Another Species Of Light-Beings

Not only do we read of a man who was clothed in light, of a man whose face shone with light, and of a man who was called a light, but we also read of another race or species of created beings who share these characteristics of light: Angels. However, since it is not within the scope of this teaching to discuss these other created beings, I refer you to only two biblical references as a starting point if you wish to pursue a further study about angels: Matthew 28: 3 and Revelation 10: 1. The angels, too, are clothed in light as God is.

Jesus, the LIGHT Of The World

There is one light, of course, which is the Light. I refer to Jesus, and let’s now study at length that wonderful light. One basic point at the outset: all of the characteristics—and greater—regarding light that were a part of the first Adam will, of course, be part of the person and nature of Jesus, the Head of an entire new race of supernaturally created beings. Whatever the first Adam had, the last Adam, Jesus, possesses in far greater measure.

Let us pause again to point out that every time I refer to light in this teaching, I am referring to light in the sense of actual, literal light as well as to spiritual light. Let us not spiritualize away the actual, nor literalize away the spiritual.

Many of my readers are familiar with the description of Jesus in the first chapter of John’s Gospel. It seems clear that here the description of Jesus as the light of the world is primarily spiritual; on the other hand, in the first chapter of the Revelation to John we read of Jesus as the actual literal out-raying of the light in which God dwells.  Let us look at a few of the verses in John 1. In verse 4 we read that Jesus, the light, is the life of all people. Could we say that through a process of “spiritual photosynthesis” Jesus gives LIFE to all humanity? If not now, by the end of the ages of time?

What profound depths of truth we still need to have Holy Spirit teach us about how Jesus gives LIFE to all people. In verse 5 we read that the light of Jesus shines on in the darkness and that the darkness cannot overpower that light. In verse 9 of John 1, we read that the true light illumines every person who comes into the world. Expert estimates inform us that since the creation of humanity there have been approximately 50 billion people upon this planet of whom almost 8 billion are now living; by what amazing process does Jesus illumine every person who comes into the world?

Other references in John’s gospel (8: 12 and 12: 46) tell us that Jesus is the light of the world and that whoever follows him will not walk in darkness. Are you walking in darkness, are there areas of your life that are yet dark? Are you following him? If you are, there should be increasingly less and less darkness in your life. What a test of true discipleship, of a true follower of Jesus.  We conclude this portion of our study with Hebrews 1 :3 where we read that Jesus is the sole expression of the glory of God; He is the light-being, the outraying of the nature of Father God.

Jesus, The Light Of The Universe

Let us now see that Jesus is not only the light of the world in a spiritual sense, but that He is also the only true light of the world in the sense of natural light. As the creator and sustainer of the atomic structure of the entire universe as we read in Colossians 1: 16 and 17, Jesus is the very First Principle, the First Cause, the sustaining power by which all things adhere together, consist, and have life. Jesus actually “binds” together the entire created universe, all things visible and invisible.

Jesus is the elusive “God Particle” physicists have been searching for the past few decades. His actual being is the very outraying of all light in the universe as it flows forth from the Father. His unveiled being is brighter than a thousand suns, far surpassing the brilliance and splendor of countless galaxies.

Let us not limit the Jesus to his humanity—to a babe in a manger, to a man of flesh and blood. He is far above all principalities and powers and has “ascended” into the heavenlies. Yes, he is Man, but let us not forget that he is also God, and that one of his characteristics is that he is light. We have already seen just a dim glimpse of this in the first chapter of the Revelation.

Preview Of Coming Attractions

There are other Bible references that reveal this facet of Jesus’ nature and being. How often we have skimmed over the amazing account of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mount in Luke 9: 28-36 and Matthew 17: 1-6. You recall the incident: Jesus, accompanied by Peter, James, and John, went up on a high mountain. There, Moses and Elijah appeared in vision and were talking with Jesus. As they talked, the veil of flesh was momentarily stripped from Jesus and the disciples caught a fleeting glimpse of the true person of Jesus. The disciples saw his face shining clear and bright like the sun, and his clothing became white as light. This is Jesus as he now is, as he really is, no longer veiled by his humanity.

Mark 9: 2 uses the word “transfigured” referring to Jesus’ “change” on the mount. That same word is found in 2 Corinthians 3: 18 where we read of how we are gradually being changed into the image of Jesus. Think of it—as he was on that mount, brilliant in scintillating splendor, so shall we be one day, helping to illuminate the entire universe with the outraying of Jesus from within us. Did Peter, James, and John realize that they were seeing what they would one day become? Do we realize what God has in store for his children? Everything—and more—that the first Adam lost, we shall regain as God the Holy Spirit transfigures—metamorphosizes—us into the very image of his only begotten Son.

A Shadow Not A Shadow

Peter, a short while after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into the heavenlies experienced just a slight foretaste of this royal splendor in an interesting incident in the 5th chapter of Acts. Do you recall how people kept bringing the sick to Peter that perhaps by just his shadow falling upon them they might be healed?  Interestingly, in the original Greek language the word here for “shadow” is not a word meaning a dark spot cast by something in the path of the sun’s light. No, it is a word meaning just the opposite of shadow. It means a shining of divine energy, a radiance as of a beam of sunlight. So it was not Peter’s shadow that healed; it was God’s healing light within him, an actual, tangible light emanating out from within him that healed the people. Praise God for at least this one New Testament glimpse into what God has in store for his children as they are filled more and more with light of God, now veiled by the flesh.

In this present portion of our teaching, we must not, of course, overlook the second most important light ever to illuminate the spirits and minds of men: the written Word of God. But again—as with the matter of angels—it is not within the scope of this teaching to dwell at length upon such verses as Psalm 119: 105, Proverbs 6: 23, and scores of others which declare the written Word of God to be a lamp unto our feet and a light in the darkness. Entire libraries are filled with writing upon this subject and our devoting so little space to it herein is certainly in no way intended to minimize the fact that God’s written Word is, and always shall be for the ages of time and eternity, a light to lighten human hearts and minds to the truths of God and Jesus.

Other Lights In The Darkness

And we would also be derelict in our discussion of light if we neglected God’s people who are “lights” to their generations—people such as Peter, Paul, “Saint” Francis, Jeanne Guyon, John Hus, Luther, Calvin, John and Charles Wesley, Dwight L. Moody, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Anne Graham Lotz, Beth Moore, and the like. Certainly such people of God as these have been and are lights of God in a unique sense in their own generations.

Our entire discussion thus far has been only preparatory and introductory to what shall now follow throughout the rest of this teaching. Let us begin to personalize our subject of light and now dwell at some length upon the real “meat” of that which I really long to share with you. And that “meat” is to see how you and I are involved in this matter of light, both natural and spiritual.  We come now to see where we fit into God’s purposes to illumine the present darkness upon our planet. While it is true we live in God’s Kingdom, it is also true there remain pockets of darkness (some large, some small) throughout his Kingdom. Some pockets of darkness might remain for ages to come yet, but they will grow increasingly smaller as God’s light illumines more and more of his Kingdom.

You Are The Light Of the World

Let me make a very simple statement first, a statement so simple, yet very far reaching in its fullest implications and ramifications. That statement is: I am the light of the world. You are the light of the world. We are the light of the world.

Before you begin to cry “blasphemy” and “heresy”, or ask “Who does he think he is?” I invite you to turn in your Bible to Matthew 5: 14 and read it very carefully where Jesus said to his followers: “You are the light of the world.” Of whom is Jesus speaking when he proclaims “You are the light of the world?” His followers. His disciples. You. Me. Yes, you and I are the light of the world. Are you offended? Do you hasten to read into Jesus’ simple statement something to explain it away? If so, you need a deep work of Holy Spirit done in your life to teach you the basic truth of this simple statement of Jesus’. I had been a twice-born follower of Jesus for almost 10 years before the raw and awesome truth of that simple statement took root in my heart and mind.

If it hasn’t happened to you yet, when Holy Spirit really begins to reveal to you the simple truth of this verse, an entirely new universe of God’s purposes for humankind—for you—will unfold in your spirit and mind. You will begin to see and acknowledge before God a new humility in the face of his awesome purposes for the creation, redemption, restoration, and reconciliation of the universe. Do not shy away from nor let anyone rob you of the simple truth that you are the light of the world.

A simple fact must be understood and then you will see how it is so that you are the light of the world. Only that part of you which is the direct outraying of God’s own nature is involved when it is said that you are the light of the world. Only your spirit is involved at this point in time, as we read in Proverbs 20: 27 that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. Now, it is the spiritual part of your being which is the light of the world. After you are resurrected from among the dead, then the whole person, body and soul, as well as spirit, will be the light of the world.

We now turn to a very brief survey of the Bible to better establish the fact that you are the light of the world. What did Jesus say about this, besides his profound statement in Matthew 5: 14? Have you let that statement sink in yet? Is Holy Spirit even this very moment planting that truth deeper in your heart? Do you believe it? It cannot be explained away . . . No, the original language of the Bible does not say something else.

Do not say, “Yes, but . . . ” Simply believe it; it is a basic truth necessary for the unfolding of God’s entire purpose for this world, for this age, for the ages to come, for eternity. At this point we would like for you to stop and read the following biblical references before continuing on with your study of this teaching; do not go on with this teaching until you have read and meditated upon these verses: John 12: 35 and 36, 46; Ephesians 5: 18.

As we are filled with light, we become children of the light, and Jesus, the self-sustaining light of the world, shines out through us so that we become lights to the nations to bring salvation to the entire earth. See Acts 13: 47. Are you even now allowing God to do whatever deep work in you that is necessary for you to be the means of bringing his Good News to the entire earth? Will you be displayed to the entire creation as one of God’s children? See Romans 8.

I now urge you to read Romans 13: 12 and 13. Here we read that we are to put on armor of light. Please compare this passage in Romans with Ephesians 6: 10-18. The armor of light is simply to put on—to be clothed with—Jesus as we are commanded to do elsewhere in the Bible. Ephesians 5: 8 and 9 and I Thessalonians 5: 5 teach us that we are light in the Lord and as such we are to walk as children of light, the effect being that we will radiate goodness, righteousness, and truth.

Note in Philippians 2: 15 that we are bright lights in the sense that we are guiding stars or beacons shining in a dark world; the terms guiding stars and beacons are nautical terms in the sense that a ship’s captain would use a guiding star to fix a position and follow a beacon such as a lighthouse beacon shining out from a treacherous and perilous shore on a dark and stormy night.  

All we have done for the last few paragraphs is simply to let you see for yourself that the Bible plainly teaches we are lights in this world—in this present age. When the Bible teaches that, it not only refers to light in the sense of spiritual illumination but also in the sense of natural, physical light that is even now resident within our beings—in our spirits—hidden by the veil of flesh, waiting to burst forth from our new light-bodies we shall receive when our personal resurrections are completed.

Even though veiled by flesh, the light is there, nonetheless, flickering, slowly increasing in intensity and in radiated output. We have only the earnest—the downpayment—now, but that is but a foretaste of that body we shall one day surely have—a body like unto Adam’s; yet, even more like Jesus’ own glorified body which far surpasses Adam’s even as the brilliance of the noonday sun far surpasses the reflected splendor of the moon.

 At this point in our teaching I urge you to put the teaching down and meditate very carefully upon Proverbs 4: 18 and 19. In the context of what we are just now studying, Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see some deep and wonderful truths in these verses. Isaiah 9: 2 tells us that great light will shine upon those who walk in darkness and the shadow of death. What causes a shadow to disappear? When the source of light is directly above the object casting the shadow; this, we believe, signifies our being directly “above” or “taking dominion and authority” over the last enemy to be destroyed, even Death.


Once again because I feel that the Bible itself—without any human intervention or comment—afford the clearest teaching on a particular subject, I urge you to read the following verses in their entirety, simply allowing Holy Spirit to teach you the truths therein. These passages are speaking about you and to you: Isaiah 60: 1-3; Ephesians 6: 12 and 13; 2 Peter 1: 19; and 1 John 2: 8 and 11.

Ages Yet To Come Before the Eternal State of Being

At this point it is pertinent to discuss briefly the basic biblical teaching about the ages to come since there is so little understanding among God’s people about the successive, overlapping ages of time. There are “spiritual ages,” so to speak, (sometimes called salvific ages)—ages that transcend time and space. And then there are chronological ages of time. The chronological ages of time continue to roll on—and will continue to do so until the ends of those ages . . . when time shall end and cease to be.

Many people see this age in which we live as being the final age of the chronological ages of time—which will eventually be swallowed up into eternity. My own view is that there may be many ages of chronological time yet before creation is swallowed up by the state of being called Eternity. I am not dogmatic about my view and remain open to additional light and understanding.

During these successive and overlapping ages, the children of God—arrayed in glorious light-bodies as was Adam before his fall and Jesus as seen in Revelation 1—will be playing active, co-creative roles in restoring, rebuilding, and replenishing the earth and universe prior to the advent and onset of eternity at the end of the ages of time.

How shall this restoration and rebuilding of the universe take place? The simplest explanation we can furnish is to look at the action and effects of light in the natural and physical realm. And as restoration by the action of light occurs in the natural universe, so simultaneously will restoration occur in the micro-universe within the minds and spirits and bodies of fallen mankind—by direct reaction to the light of the children of God shining upon them.

The Marvelous Process Of Photosynthesis

How does light “create” life in the physical realm? By the simple, yet so very complex, chemical process of photosynthesis to which we have already referred. Throughout the ages of time and then in eternity until the entire universe is restored and reconciled to God–including all humanity–his children, outraying God’s life-giving light from within, will be the indirect sources of life for the entire micro- and macro-universe, for all that is natural, for all that is spiritual.

Of course, we only see dimly the “how” of such matters, but as Adam was to have complete dominion over the earth, so shall we have co-dominion over the universe, sharing it all with Jesus. As Jesus is, so we shall be . . . in a sense; yet, he is always the infinite God, while we will always be finite created beings. He is the One by whom and in whom all things are and were created, and the One by whom all things consist; we, as members of His Body, will share in that continual creation and sustenance of the entire universe.

By a process of both physical and spiritual photosynthesis, our glorified light bodies will literally bathe the universe and all created things everywhere in the warm elysian sunlight of Father God’s loving and tender care for His creation.

In passing, too, we must note that the process of photosynthesis is not only any action of “creation” but also a process which brings healing and cleansing. Regarding this matter of healing and cleansing, I urge you to look up and seriously meditate upon and ponder the following references: Isaiah 58: 10, Daniel 12: 3, and Daniel 5: 11.  We shall also be directly involved in the divine government of the universe by being those through whom God delegates his authority and through whom he will govern the universe in righteousness.

Justice shall at last prevail in all the affairs of all humanity. There will be honest and humane laws and “courts” of law, presided over by those who have God’s laws as part of their very own nature. And, yet, there will be judgment upon the sins of men until all sin and wrongdoing is at last eradicated from the universe.  Regarding this matter of future government and judgment, I urge you to turn to your own Bible and ponder the following references; I give them for you to look up without comment on my part because there are some matters that simply cannot be further expanded upon by human comment: Psalm 90: 8, Isaiah 51 :4, Daniel 12: 3, and Hosea 6: 5.

The Glorious City Of God

 The “seat” of God’s government (be it literal or spiritual, or both) will be that glorious “city” we see in Revelation 21: 23-25 and 22: 5. Note the presence of the light of God in this marvelous city of God. It is a city, yet it is a living organism composed of the saints of all the ages. Consider the effects of photosynthesis by which the tree of life (whom we are) will dispense life, health, and healing to the world. There shall be no night there, for the entire universe will at last be bathed in the glorious sunlight of God’s love.

I conclude this study of light and darkness by simply stating: Through God’s redeemed children who will be fully restored into the image of Jesus, a day is coming when the entire universe will have found rest at last and will be bathed and sustained in the reflected light of Father God radiating from his children throughout the eternal realm. All creation will be bathed in the life-giving light of Father God flowing out through his children to the infinite vastness of the universe and of eternity. Jesus—THE Light—will be at the precise center of all, but there will be no circumference.

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated February 2023

“Good” Good News vs “Bad” Good News

We’ve all seen little religious leaflets someone leaves at our front doors or in restaurant bathrooms; or, from time to time we see them being blown about on downtown sidewalks on a windy day. Sure you’ve seen them: the kind a zealous religious person hands to you as you round a street corner or you find shoved under the windshield wiper of your vehicle at a mall parking lot.

 Most such leaflets begin by telling you the “good news” about how much God loves you, but then go on to stress in gory, vivid detail that because you are a terrible sinner, God is going to cast you into a fiery hell in which you will burn forever as punishment resulting from a comparably brief lifetime of sin. Human lifetime of sin—punishment forever… Oh, it’s true they also tell you about a way out of such terrible doom, but often the major emphasis of the leaflet is on your horrible, everlasting punishment in hell if you don’t “get right with God.” I suppose the writers of such leaflets are trying to “scare the hell out of you” and make you plead with God to break you out of hell in some cosmic jail break.

Whoever provided you that type of leaflet probably had the best of intentions—but such intentions all too often translate into brazen audacity to think the emphasis upon everlasting punishment is “good news” that will literally scare the hell out of you and make you turn to God because He is so loving. Forget about that kind of so-called good news. It’s not!

But there is honest-to-God good news for you. And it comes from the same Bible the “bad news” people get their information from. It’s all a matter of the Bible reader’s point of view. Same Bible, two widely differing views. This teaching is about the “good” good news view. I’ve summarized most of the information in this teaching from dozens of references throughout the Bible. If you don’t believe the Bible, that’s okay. Just read along anyhow. It’ll only take a few minutes of your time and could possibly make some sense to you. Maybe. Maybe not.

Here are a couple of facts most thinking people know almost instinctively. The first fact is we are all mortal, human sinners and are going to die. Please note I didn’t say we’re all going to die and then burn in hell forever. I merely said we’re all going to die; if you don’t believe that, you may want to rethink your position, because so far everyone who has ever been born has either died or is destined to die. I don’t think any of us will be the exception to the rule…

The second fact? What about sin? Okay, let’s just put it this way: we all violate rules and act against our consciences—some, more than others; can you accept that concept of sin? And we’re all mortal—meaning we will all die. So far this doesn’t sound like very good news, does it? In fact, it sounds like the “bad” good news we mentioned above. But keep reading. Good news is on the way…

In the Bible, God assures us we’re in this sin-full, death-full condition through no fault of our own. God places the human responsibility for our condition upon an incident that occurred in the lives of our primordial and remote ancestors, Adam and Eve. They turned against God in our remote past; all their descendants—including you and me—became subject to mortality and death. Most people don’t like to hear that background and history of sin, but that’s just the way it is…

We didn’t “choose” Adam and Eve as our first ancestors. We had no choice at all in the matter. We had no choice in our mortality and being placed on “death row.” Yet we sin, suffer mortality, and will die simply because we were born as the human descendants of Adam and Eve. Oh, it’s true that when we sin, we always exercise our own volition; we sin willingly and experience the consequences. Nevertheless, death will come to each of us, not because we chose to be born as mortal, sinful human beings, but simply because we are here on planet earth—through no choice of our own.

In fact, God claims direct responsibility for placing the entire human race in the condition in which we find ourselves. Yes, God made us mortal sinners! God placed us in the world to experience both good and evil for very specific reasons. I’m going to put it to you bluntly: It’s God’s responsibility you are a mortal sinner who will die some day! This still isn’t sounding like very good news, is it? But at least it presents a radically different—and more hopeful—view from the traditional biblical view you may have heard or read. The good good news is still on the way…

Okay, in a nutshell, here’s the “good” good news: Through the death of Jesus on the cross some 2,000 years ago, God has already provided salvation for all of us from our dying condition as mortal sinners. Yep, it’s all taken care of. Bought and paid for. Totally. Completely. He is responsible for our being in our sinful, mortal condition. He’s fully responsible. So…it’s also his responsibility to get us out of the condition we find ourselves in. And that’s what he’s done. God assures us that because of Jesus’ virgin birth, sinless life, cruel death, and resurrection from death on our behalf, we will all be set free from sin, “overcome” death, and experience immortality in an eternal, loving relationship with God.

Through what Jesus accomplished on our behalf, God has already set us free from our mortal dying condition, forgiven us of all our sins, and reconciled us to himself. That has been his intention all along. Those have always been his purposes for every human born since Adam and Eve. Those were his intentions for you even before you were conceived and born.

God left nothing to chance. Remember, none of us had any choice in becoming mortal sinners. But, being sinners, we have all sinned through our own volition, choosing to sin. Nothing we do can change our mortal, sinful condition. Also, there’s nothing we can do to make ourselves righteous (“right with God”) or earn God’s good favor toward us. From the very beginning, God placed all humans in this “school of hard knocks” we call life, subjecting us to a mixture of good and evil, with the same final goal in mind—that each of us will of our own volition ultimately choose to love him and have fellowship with him. Such qualities as goodness, love, joy, peace, righteousness, and the like cannot be truly appreciated without experiencing their absence, their loss, or their opposites.

Again, in providing salvation from our sinful, mortal condition, God has left nothing to chance. God’s salvation from our sin is totally his work on our behalf. It was fully accomplished by Jesus’ obedience to God, his death on the cross, his resurrection, and his ascension back to heaven where He is presently seated at the right hand of the throne of God. That’s the sheer beauty of God’s plan. Jesus died for every human ever created. God’s intention has always been to ultimately reconcile to Himself every human being ever born on this planet. He will be satisfied with nothing less. Every single one of us will be set free from our sin and mortality in due time.

If the Bible teaches anything, it’s that God saves us totally by grace. What is grace? It means God has done it all because he loves us all—freely, with no strings attached. He has taken the initiative totally and completely. God has done all that needed to be done on our behalf to free us from sin and rescue us from death. Why? Because he loves each one of us—you!—completely totally, unconditionally, and eternally. He loves you because his very inherent nature is love. Just because of Who He is, He cannot not love you.

There are no conditions we have to perform or live up to in order to be saved. All humanity has potentially already been saved because of what Jesus did on our behalf over 2,000 years ago. We don’t have to weep and moan over our sins, be baptized, give God money, join a church, speak in tongues—whatever. We are saved simply by believing—having faith in—the good news about Jesus of Nazareth.

But even that last statement is not completely true. Faith—belief—is not a condition; it’s the result of what God has done for us. Even the faith we need in order to believe is not something we can conjure up ourselves. Faith to believe is given us by God. Yes, you already have the faith you need to believe and accept God’s awesome love for you. There is nothing we can do to “qualify” for salvation, “earn” God’s forgiveness, or impress upon Him to give us faith. Nothing!

According to God’s eternal purposes, he has worked it out so some people will freely receive this gift of salvation during this mortal life. All others will be saved later in their own order before time ends and “morphs” into eternity. But all humans ever born, each in his or her own order—before time ends—will receive the salvation secured by Jesus on the cross. I urge you to get in on his great salvation now.

Why wait until later when your sins might have to be purged out of you? Such waiting is pure foolishness in light of all God has done to save you. After all, He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever (that’s you!) believes in Him shall not perish but have his very own LIFE implanted in them. Get in on his full and complete salvation now, not later! That’s the wise thing to do….

So what, specifically, is this good news from God? Jesus, God’s son, died and rose from the dead, and he did it for you! Jesus actually lived for 33 years here on planet earth. Jesus actually died; that’s one of history’s most well-established facts. His death secured forgiveness of our sins. Jesus was actually raised from the dead by God; that’s an historical fact, too. His resurrection made us completely righteous and sin-free—from God’s eternal perspective and vantage point.

As far as God is concerned, He sees us as already totally forgiven sinners and completely righteous. Not only that, but God already perceives us as completely redeemed, restored, and reconciled to himself. To be reconciled means God sees to it that we become best friends with Him. There is no condemnation for anyone ever again—only peace and friendship between God and each of us.

Jesus accomplished all this for us while we were still sinners. In fact, this full and complete salvation was God’s purpose for us even before God created the world. God has no backup plans. There is no “Plan B.” There is just the one plan—worked out by God before the world was created, and accomplished by Jesus 2,000 years ago. The sin of Adam and Eve did not take God by surprise, causing him to have to scramble around and wrack his brain to come up with some alternate means of salvation.

 Hey, God is God. He is absolutely sovereign. He knows the beginning from the end and everything in between. He is working out all things according to his eternal purposes. His intention has always been to fully reconcile all humanity to himself. In fact, even God’s enemies are fulfilling all his intentions. Good and evil are both necessary to fully reveal God and his goodness and love for each of us. We will come to realize and appreciate the interplay of good and evil in our lives only after we have died and are ushered into his awesome presence. We’ll finally see the “big picture” as God has seen it all along.

You may have been informed that billions of people are going to spend eternity in “hell” because they are not saved in this life. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible does not teach that. Period! That would mean God is a failure—either unable to save those he wants to save, or unwilling to save all he could have saved. That’s not good news. That’s bad news. That’s not what the Bible—properly understood—teaches.

“Hell,” as most people have learned to envision it in our day and age, is medieval, dark ages fiction foisted on people to keep them in line in an attempt to “scare the hell out of them.” Oh, don’t misunderstand me: there is a state of being called “hell” (actually a “lake of fire and brimstone”), but it serves an entirely different purpose than what you’ve been taught. It’s a “place” of fiery burning, painful cleansing, purging, correction, and discipline, not a never-ending place of punishment for sin. Such hell-fires will not burn forever, but only until the end of the long eons of time when the fires will die out for lack of “fuel,” when the last person subjected to them finally yields to their cleansing and confesses Jesus as Lord to the glory of God the Father!

Thus, it can be said that all humanity will ultimately come to God either “through the cross” or “through the fire,” both being part of the eternal work of Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension back to heaven. Jesus proclaimed that if He were lifted up on crucifixion’s cruel cross, He would inexorably draw all humanity to Himself as iron filings are drawn to a magnet. When He shouted on the cross “It is finished!” He was proclaiming that His provision for the salvation of all humanity became at that very moment in time and eternity an accomplished fact.

At this very moment—in some way known only to you and God—He is drawing you to Himself; He has been doing so all along, He is doing so now, and He will continue to do so as long as it takes for you to give up your pride and yield your stubborn will to receive his full and complete, gracious, free salvation.

 You may have been taught that people can refuse God, eternally resist God’s will, even choose to remain lost forever. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. If it’s the will of the sovereign, almighty, and all-powerful God that all humanity be fully reconciled to Himself—how could that not happen—if God is really that kind of God?! How can any mere human being eternally resist God’s will? Salvation is a free gift to everyone from a good and loving God, paid for with the awesome, eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross 2,000 years ago.

What do we have to do to be saved? Nothing! Jesus is the Savior; we aren’t. He is the one who saves. We cannot save ourselves. He’s the good shepherd who seeks and finds every lost sheep: us. Me. YOU! Jesus doesn’t seek and save us provisionally, potentially, or conditionally. He actually seeks for, finds, and saves every lost sheep—and returns them to God’s sheepfold.

Are you a sinner? C’mon, be honest. Yes, you are. Are you going to die? Same answer. But God has included your salvation in his eternal purposes. Jesus died for you and rose from the dead for you. Believe it. When you do, that doesn’t save you; that’s merely when you receive the salvation God has already provided you. Reconciliation and peace with God are already yours now—this instant. Just receive them by faith! This is the real good news!

Forget about the bad news. There’s enough of that going around. Just accept all that God has done for you. And then move on, enjoying your new relationship with God to its fullest and enjoying your new-found peace and fellowship with God. He’s done all that needs to be done for you. Receive it. Enjoy it.

 And then spend the remainder of your life here in time and, later, in eternity in an ever-growing relationship with an awesome God who loves you and chose to save you long before time and eternity ever began.

One bright day when all the vast eons of time have ended, eternity will resume, the wheels of mortal life shall all stand still, all death and sin will be swallowed up in victory, and God will be All in all!

 That, my dear reader, is Good News!

One of my readers—not a Jesus-believer—wrote to me: “Hey, I’ve never before been able to even remotely relate to the Christian god who would ‘save’ about 5% of humanity and condemn the other 95% to a never-ending hell for sins they committed during a very brief lifetime here on earth. But the kind of God you’re teaching about in this teaching, well, I could almost come to believe in Him! Tell me more!”

NOTE: This teaching is a summary, condensation, and paraphrase of dozens of biblical texts. They were not cited or footnoted in the teaching so it would be more readable and flow more easily. Such biblical texts will be furnished to the reader upon request.

Bill Boylan
leservices38@yahoo.com
Revised and Updated Febuary 2023