A Few More Analogies About Our Connection to Christ!

 

1.) Have you ever seen a remote control car, boat or plane? A person leads the vehicle with a remote control and guides it wherever he/she wishes. It appears that the vehicle is driving itself and has no connection to the remote, but the vehicle is NOT driving itself and it DOES have a connection with the controller.

In fact, if there were no connection between the controller and the vehicle, there wouldn’t be any way for the vehicle to have guidance or power to go. The invisible connection between the remote control and the vehicle is by what are called radio waves. You cannot see these waves but they are there, nonetheless, AND, they ARE connected to the vehicle, giving it guidance!

It appears as if the remote and vehicle are “separated” from each other, doesn’t it? But the truth is that the remote and vehicle are absolutely connected by the radio waves. The connection is VERY REAL, even if that connection cannot be seen with the naked eye. John 4:24!

Creation’s connection with Jesus, by analogy, is kind of like the connection a remote control has with the vehicle. Jesus made us and sustains and guides us all! As the last post stated, all things live move and have their being in Him! We can’t even breathe without him! 1 Cor 8:6!

The “radio wave” connection is similar to the communion and connection we have with Jesus in the Holy Spirit EXCEPT that the Holy Spirit is a Person with a distinct personality. The Holy Spirit is not a thing or a radio wave, but the Third Person of the Trinity! 2 Cor 13:14, John 16:12-15! In history, the Holy Spirit has often been referred to as the “Go Between” Person of God. Rom 8:26-27! All created things are something like the vehicle, in that they have no power or ability to move apart from the Father, Son and the Spirit.

Obviously, this analogy falls a little short of a fully accurate picture because Triune God DOES NOT control every move we make, even though he is the basic source from which we make all movements. We are distinct and have a real freedom to participate in His Truth with understanding. And we have freedom to choose and make decisions just like Triune God. We are made in God’s image Gen 1:26!

However, just as the vehicle has no power of its own to move and get around, we, too, only “live, move, and have our being” in Jesus Christ, the Son of God! Acts 17:28!

Now, it’s one thing for the remote control to guide the car from a distance, but what if the controller could actually get inside the vehicle and start guiding it even more “up close and personal”? Wouldn’t that make the connection with the remote control and the vehicle even more “intimate”? That is something similar to what God the Son did.

Jesus came from a “distance”, per se, to get “up close and personal” and become what we are, FULLY! The Father’s plan was for the Son to get into human flesh and make the connection between God and creation even stronger than it already was!! Astoundingly, Jesus not only got in creation, “the vehicle”, but is still in creation in his divine flesh and always will be! Jesus will always sustain and guide all of Creation in His Divine/Human Body! Matt 28:18!

Think of how stupendous this is – with another analogy! J

2.) If YOU had created monkeys, and you wanted the monkeys to be able to relate with you forever, would you consider becoming a monkey in order to make that happen?! An even larger question is: If you did decide to join the monkeys as they were, would you REMAIN 100% monkey, FOREVER, so that the monkeys (who had sinned against you!) could share in who you are forever??

If you said that you would, I would NOT believe you!! Ha-Ha! I wouldn’t do it either! John 2:23-25! BUT God the Son did this exact kind of thing for us!!! He stooped to the level of a human being and remains a glorified human being for our sake! Phil 2:5-11!

3.) Another good example and analogy of our connection with Triune God in Jesus is our human body. We ARE connected to our toes but we are also “distant” and “distinct” from our toes at the same time! We are NOT our toes, and yet, our toes are fully connected to us, right?!! Right!

We can also influence our toes immediately, through the connection of nerves, at anytime, but we don’t directly control our toes 24 hours a day, do we? Don’t our toes sometimes move involuntarily, or “on their own?”

May these examples and analogies be yet one more proof for those of us who believe, that everything, and everyone, is caught up in the Life of the Father, Son and Spirit! Creation was made by the Triune God and His Fingerprints can be seen everywhere when we have eyes to see!

YOU and I are GOOD with Jesus’ Goodness!

 

How is that for an encouraging and TRUE compliment toward you in Jesus Christ?!

I can imagine that there are some few of us who believe that a statement like that is true of us because we have prayed, gone to church, been baptized, do good works and share in other religious things. However, the bible is clear, no one is good except ONE, the Father, Son and Spirit! Psalm 14:3, Romans 3:12, Mark 10:18!

I can imagine a larger set of you struggling to believe a compliment like this because, in all honesty, you can pile up the evidence (beginning with something you have done or thought in the last hour!), that PROVES beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are NOT good with Jesus’ goodness! For you, I have nothing less than the stunningly beautiful words of the Gospel from the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1:

“27 God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you [emphasis mine]; therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message.”

So, we are all in somewhat of a dilemma, aren’t we? On the one hand, to be embarrassingly honest, no matter how righteous we claim to be, there are bad things we think and do that we want no one else to see or know about!! Good Gravy – I KNOW that is true of me!! Yikes! This is a confirmation on how even our good is still tainted with things that aren’t so good! This is what Paul was wrestling with in his argument in Romans 7:14-25!

On the other hand, we and others CAN observe good things going on with each other and there has to be an explanation for that, too! The explanation for all of this is the Gospel, or the Good News of Jesus Christ!

Because Jesus Christ is good, and he created and sustains everything and everyone, AND he entered our humanity in a special and mysterious way 2000 years ago, whatever happens to him, happens to you! This is why Paul says that when Jesus died, everyone died! 2 Corinthians 5:14! This is also why he says that when Jesus rose, everyone rose with him in the Father’s grace! Ephesians 1:1-10! Do you notice in this passage how everything is given to us soley by God’s grace, for free?! Even the faith to believe this is true is given to us freely through Jesus!!!

SOOOOOOO….Jesus is good, because he is God, and Jesus mysteriously lives in everyone. This is the Gospel! Therefore, everyone has REAL good in them because Jesus, Who is the ONLY source of Good, lives in them and shares his goodness with them! Therefore, YOU and I ARE FUNDAMENTALLY GOOD with the Goodness of Jesus, no matter what we think about it!!!

All of this was brought home to me recently in a powerful way! I was dating my two daughters a few weeks ago. We decided to go out to a local Chili’s restaurant and have at it! I ordered one of my favorites, sizzlin’ fajitas, and both girls ordered their hearts desire – a huge hamburger and some hot, hot, hot wings! Oh how delicious the food AND conversation was!

I asked them of them about their hopes and dreams! I looked them in the eye and told them that I loved and liked them – yet again! I told them that they were good and I was proud of them, and that I was proud to be their father! I told them that I appreciated that they were also good students because I had been a poor one early in life. I prayed before they were born that they would not inherit that poorness from me! The Father was gracious enough to answer that prayer by making sure I married a woman whose genes would have more influence over them in that area! 🙂

 

I told them that the reason we were dating and sharing like we were was because my dad had passed this tradition on to me and my 4 brothers and I had loved every minute of it! I was determined to share this with my wife and children and pass it on (yes, Donna and I still date, too, after 17 years of marriage!) This got us on the subject of my father who had died 4 years ago, in February of 2004.

I asked each of the girls, starting with Jocelyn, the oldest, what they remembered most about him. Jocelyn, my very thoughtful child, searched her memories carefully and then stated, VERY ACCURATELY, “I remember bouncing on a mini-trampoline and paw-paw coming up to me and shadow boxing in front of my face! I also remember that he could quote a bible verse on any subject, at anytime, at will, and always did!!”  Ha-Ha!! How true! He was always known for 2 things: God and Boxing…and he could wear most people out with both!! 🙂 Just “Google”: Rufus Brassell!

I then turned to my youngest daughter, Autumn, and asked the same thing. She thought for a moment and then uttered these words that put me in my personal dilemma on this subject, “I remember that he was as good and loving as you are!” Honest – I could NOT take those words in at first and thought I had misunderstood! I was almost afraid to ask for clarity but finally did. I said, incredulously, “What did you say?!” She then repeated just as firm and sincere, “Paw-Paw was as good and loving as you are!”

Well, I have never ever felt so GOOD and BAD at the same time in all of my entire life!! Ha-Ha! Understatement! Didn’t Autumn know me after all of these 11 years, and how much improvement I needed to be a truly good and loving father? I am SURE she and Jocelyn both could dredge up a negative list a mile long about how truly bad I am, and I would have to agree! Sheeesh! There was no way she could have just said that! I had a hard time receiving it!

BUT, because of the Goodness of the Father, Son and Spirit, and their passion and insistence to share the Gospel with me REGULARLY, and Their helping me to share it with others, I was able to REPENT AND BELIEVE THIS GOOD NEWS quite quickly and say “Thank You!” The Father was so passionate to flood me with His encouragement that he inspired my eldest daughter, Jocelyn, to put an exclamation point on it all by saying “That’s True!!”

We concluded our fellowship in the restaurant by ordering ONE huge dessert that we shared as THREE persons. 🙂 As we ate, I couldn’t help but think again of our One God in Three Persons Who had graciously included me and Jocelyn, and Autumn, (AND DONNA, my wife, and THE WHOLE WORLD), in their Shared Relationship.

God was certainly at Chili’s in a special way that day and, even though the dessert was admittedly good and sweet, I have to admit that receiving the Good News of Jesus’ Goodness and Love in ME was even better and MUCH sweeter!!! I hope you eat plenty, too!! I promise there’s nothing better!!