Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back to the eighth part of our series on spiritual Transformation and the third part of our study of the Incarnation. We continue the astonishing thought that Elohim (God) made us in His image, we fell and distorted that image, and then Elohim (God) transformed Himslelf into our image so that we could be transformed back into His. That's that's the story of creation and redemption in one sentence.

Today I want to examine arguably the most beautiful verse in the Scriptures, one which tells the same story but in a different way - Elohim (God) came down to earth in infinite identification so that we might go up in infinite identification:

"...as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up [1], that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For Elohim (God) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For Elohim (God) did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in Elohim (God)" (John 3:14-21, NKJV).

Selwyn Hughes tells of the time he was once preaching a sermon on this verse. What made it all the more poignant was that the location was Gordon's Calvary in Jerusalem where it is believed Yah'shua (Jesus) died on the cross. After the short sermon which included the reading we have just had, an American tourist who had been present came up to the Welsh minister and said to him, "I have always considered John 3:16 to be so charged with new wine that one phrase from it leaves one intoxicated with redemption. To drink all of it, as we have done this morning, has transformed me into another person."

It is a powerful passage, isn't it? How is it that it has grabbed the lives of so many millions of readers and hearers over the centuries? Because this verse 16 in particular,"For Elohim (God) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life", tells us that the initiative for our transformation begins with Yahweh: "For Elohim (God) so loved the world...". You see, all other religions start differently: 'For man so eagerly sought for God that...' Now you can go and search the world's literature about man's search for God and you will find it bulging with accounts. You'll find stories aplenty of men and women who have tried to storm His citadel with austerity, incantation, meditation, and the like, in the hope that He would respond in some way, believing that by pressing their search so forcefully in the hope that He would respond out of the imagined desire that to do so would enable Him to return to His calm.

Here John puts the emet (truth) in its proper persepctive. We do not have to overcome Yahweh's reluctance to be in touch with us, but simply lay hold on His highest willingness. In coming to us, He took the initiative: "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19, NKJV). If the initiative is with Him, then the 'referendum' and the decision whether to accept that or not is with us. We decide whether we agree or not, and whether to choose to believe or not. That's our choice. That's the faith that saves because it lifts us out of doubt that He is far away, and the notion that we must somehow persuade Him that we are worth saving. He proved that's true by incarnating as Yah'shua (Jesus) and that's all the divine motive we need to know. Even more important, perhaps, it both defines what kind of love He has and, in response, what kind of love we should show to others. Love always takes the initiative.

That such a deep and beautiful truth should provoke a hostile response from the Enemy should not surprise us. I want to share a couple of the most common ones that again illustrate the importance of getting our theology straight. Some years ago a missionary, speaking to a group in India concerning Elohim's (God's) love for the world, asked his audience what their response was to this exciting truth about the Incarnation. A village woman spoke up and said, 'What kind of a Father was He to send His Son - why didn't He come Himself?' It was a deep and penetrating question that deserved a deep and penetrating answer. The answer is that the Father, Son and Ruach (Spirit) are so echad - one and united - that where One of the Divine Persons is, the other is there also. The Father was, and is, always present in the Person of His Son because all are One Elohim - One God. When we take hold of the Son we take hold of the Father and the Ruach (Spirit) too; and when we take hold of Yah'shua (Jesus) the Son we take hold of the very nature and character of Yahweh too, because both are Elohim (God). A little girl responded, 'I love Yah'shua (Jesus), but I dislike Elohim (God), because Elohim (God) wanted to destroy the world, but Yah'shua (Jesus) wouldn't let Him.' You see, she saw Yah'shua (Jesus) as a third person standing between her and Elohim (God), in much the same way Catholics see Mary as standing between us and a very angry Yah'shua (Jesus)! (Do you see how the devil confuses things?) This is a mistake that countless thousands of adults make too, so hear this well: Yah'shua (Jesus) is a mediator only in the sense that He mediates Elohim (God) to us. As Paul explained to the Corinthians who may very well have initially got the wrong end of ther stick too (because Satan is so eager to twist the true meaning):

"Elohim (God) was in Messiah (Christ) reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses (sins) to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (2 Cor.5:19, NKJV).

Now, if you don't already know it (and I'm sure you do), a true Christian/Messianic or believer is not able to tell where Yah'shua (Jesus) the Son ends and where Yahweh the Father starts in his experience - well can you? Can anyone here truthfully say, with hand on heart, he can tell the difference between the Father, Son and Ruach (Spirit) existentially? You cannot, and that's because you experience them as One or Echad. They melt into one on our level because we only experience them as Elohim (God). But even when He was in the flesh, when the apostle Philip, one of His talmidim (disciples) asked Yah'shua (Jesus), "Master, show us the Father and that will be enough for us" (John 14:8, NIV), what was His response, do you remember? Did He say, 'Oh, you'll meet Him one day and then you'll be able to see for yourself'? Not at all. Rather, He replied:

"'Don't you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me?'" (John 14:9-10, NIV).

This is part of the mystery of the Elohimhead (Godhead)) and thinking in finite human terms won't cut it. This is partly what I meant when I described Yah'shua (Jesus) as the Father's plenipotentiary in a recent sermon, meaning (in human terms), He was the Father's representative as though the Father were Himself present. Now we can't do what Elohim (God) does because we aren't Elohim (God). I can send a son of mine out to represent me somewhere with the spoken or written authority to act and speak on my behalf, and that's about as far as I can go. Yes, I can go one step father, because if my son and I think and feel alike on the matter for which I am sending him out, then we draw a little closer to the divine idea. But even that isn't enough. What links my son and I is a common humanity, but what links the Divine Father and the Divine Son together is Divinity, a divine substance, what we call 'Elohim' or 'God'. So Yah'shua (Jesus) spoke the truth to Philip - the apostle was indeed seeing the Father because Yah'shua (Jesus) and His Father Yahweh share a common substance, Divinity, which no other creature outside the Elohim (God) possesses, which includes immortality or 'everlasting life'.

So, no, a true believer cannot, when He encounters Elohim (God) existentially or experientially, tell where the different members of the Elohimhead (Godhead) begin or end. There is an ancient tradition, which I believe is true, that Adam and his first son Abel were so alike outwardly and inwardly that it was hard to tell them apart in either nature or appearance, and that the same kind of relationship existed between Adam and Seth after Abel had been murdered by a jealous and rebellious Cain. Part of the work of the Spirit of Elijah, spoken of by Malachi at the end of his book, the very last verses of the Tanakh (Old Testment), is to bring out the restoration of that kind of union between father and son. And that is one of the works of Christ, why he was sent here.

This is a very rich spiritual vein of gold we are examining today, very deep indeed, very profound and infinitely precious, because it explains the way Elohim (God) is by nature and how we in our turn were designed to be too. It's why good men and women by nature like rescuing other people and even animals. We are supposed to treat them redemptively, with kindness, taking the initiative, in the same way Yahweh took the initiative by sending His Son to us. I was watching an extraordinary documentary the other day of people who rescue animals in dire circumstances. I was frankly astonished to see a couple of men take a huge risk rescuing a very large pregnant stingray who was giving birth on the beach on the spot where the tide had stranded here. She and her young were dying unable to reach the water. These are very dangerous animals, their sting can kill you. Yet these two men, first, rescued the babies that had been born (they too are dangerous) and got them back into the sea, and then dragged the giant mother into the water too where her new found mobility would have given her greater opportunity to strike and kill them with her tail now rendered free by the waves. But they took the risk. We too are called to take the initiative to reach out and offer to help the lost, risking getting hurt in the process, because hurt souls do have a tendency to lash out without always knowing what they are doing or why. We, too, at sundry times have all required such help and ministry because we all find ourselves lost having taken a wrong turning or two. We need, and appreciate, the help of thos human saviours who become the instruments of Messiah as His plenipotentiaries, ambassadors or representatives on earth

And so the passage, "For Elohim (God) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16, NKJV) becomes more and more real, doesn't it? But what exactly is meant by "everlasting life"? How can we practically identify it when someone is possessed of it because he or she is possessed of it from the Master? Well, everlating (or eternal) life, without getting too much into the nitty-gritty of the meaning of the word 'eternal' today, simply means 'a state of blissful communion wih Elohim (God)'. Though you'll find this expression in the other Gospels (e.g. Mt.19:16) and in the Pauline Epistles (e.g. Rom.2:7), it is a characteristic of the apostle John who uses it liberally. 'Eternal or everlasting life' is that state of blissful communion with Yahweh-Elohim which is enjoyed by the believer who is reconciled to Elohim (God) through faith in Messiah (Christ). If you've made peace with Elohim (God) you are drinking eternal life. And whilst it is often spoken of as a future possession, it is also, to some extent, a present reality in this world, at least in part. We are given access to divine life from another world ahead of actually enjoying it in Paradise.

The word 'eternal' or æonian in Greek, doesn't necessarily mean 'endless' (though it can, and does, when applied to Yahweh) but 'belonging to the world to come' and therefore 'supernatural', 'spiritual' or 'heavenly'. 'Eternal life' is not something that is natural to this world and must be acquired from beyond it, from the realm of Elohim (God) Himself. Thus the one touched or infilled by this special kind chayim or life is quite different from anyone else in the world, not meaning they have become 'supernatural' themselves or that they have turned into 'godlets', but meaning they are in possession of a nature or quality of life that can only come from above. That nature is transformative, unlike the flesh kind of life we acquire here through natural birth. It transforms them into becoming more and more like their Heavenly Father above. It can be lost by repudiating it (giving lie to the 'Once saved, always saved' heresy), as Judas did, who in consequence of his betrayal, became the possession of Satan. Yahweh never withdraws from us - we, if we so choose, withdraw from Him, and in doing so, leave that 'eternal life' behind because it cannot be disconnected from its source. We can regain it only by genuine repentance and the choice to thereafter follow Him again.

As we deepen our consciousness of Elohim (God), then at the same time we deepen our Messiah-consciousness or awareness. When we deepen our Christ-consciousness, we deepen our conscious-awareness of Yahweh too. Yahweh and Yah'shua (Jesus)...the Father and the Son...are not rivals. They do not push each other out of the way which is the wicked teaching of Gnosticism and all gnostic permutations of Christianity. Father and Son are echad or one in nature, in character, in love, and in purpose, two Persons but one Elohim (God).

The next thing I want to draw your attention to in today's John 3:16 text is the word "whoever" or in the older KJV, "whosoever" because it's a word that stretches its arms across the five continents and the seven seas. Or to put our text in a more modern version, "For Elohim (God) loved the world so much that He gave His Son, so that everyone who believes in Him should not be lost, but should have eternal life" (J.B.Phillips). This single word answers the question, 'How wide is His redemption?' and as you can see it isn't limited to just a few arbitrarily selected souls as the Calvinists falsely teach but is extended to every single human being. It knows no limit and leaps over all barriers of class, colour and creed.

An pagan called Celsus, who was an early opponent of the Besorah (Gospel), strongly objected to this aspect of Christianity, and said: "Other religions invite the respectable, the moral, the upright, but this faith scandalously invites the riff-raff, the immoral, the drunken, the dishonest - and welcomes them!" This is very true but the Besorah (Gospel) does not say they may remain that way. You see, a supernatural transformation occurs in those who genuinely accept Yah'shua (Jesus) so the riff-raff become respectable, the immoral become moral, and the drunken become sober.

Many years ago a minister tried an experiment in a children's service. He placed a coin underneath a cup, as I have done with a silver dollar today, and said, "Now whosoever will come and take this coin can have it." Immediately a few dozen children rushed forward. "Now wait a minute," he said, "I don't remember inviting all you children to come out here!" Nonplussed, they returned to their seats, except one brave boy who stood before the upturned cup, "What do you want?" the minister asked him, looking suitably stern and serious. "The money sir," he said. "I don't remember mentioning your name," he said. "No sir," he blurted out, "but you said 'whoseover' - and that means me."

You see, the devil would have you believe, even if your own name were actually spelled out in that passage of Scripture, that 'Fred', or 'Jane' or whatever your name is, means 'someone else going by the same name'. Calvinists would have you believe that Christ only died for some souls and the rest are doomed to eternal damnation no matter what kind of lives they lead... such a wicked doctrine. When Yah'shua (Jesus) said, "For Elohim (God) loved the world so much that he gave His only Son so that anyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (TLB), that's exactly what He meant: anyone and everyone. It means you, it means me - all of us. That's your name written there. Believe it, accept it, and take that 'coin'!

And finally we come to the last phrase of this matchless verse which is so important that we are going to look at it once again and then end today. "For Elohim (God) loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not die but have eternal life" (GNB). As I pointed out, this word 'everlasting' or 'eternal' - æon in Greek and olam in Hebrew - carries three aspects or dimensions: quality, location and time. In other words, æonian life is a quality or type of life that belongs to a different Age to the one we currently live in, is of the highest quality there is, and doesn't come to an end like this mortal physical life. One preacher said of this phrase that "it bursts the seams of time as a butterfuly bursts its chrysalis" transporting us to a reality so much greater and more beautiful than this one.

Most people would find this proposition highly desirable. Yet one Harvard professor who lectured on the question, Is Eternal Existence Desirable?, concluded that it was not. And I completely agree with him if it is mortal existence he meant. If 'eternal life' was simply about lengthening our stay on earth, who would want to live this life as it is forever? That's not unlike the threat of reincarnation, is it? Now you may n ot feel that way when you are young but when you get to my age you absolutely do not, in most cases I venture to suggest, want to go through this life again, all the good and wonderful times notwithstanding, whether it be for a few million years or for eternity. In that sense, eternity would be a curse. And indeed a reason Yahweh prevented Adam and Eve from having access to the Tree of Life with Cherubim wielding flaming swords after they had fallen, was precisely so they would not be stuck in such an eternal nightmare, for then they would become immortal in sin without hope of redemption. No, we do not wish to stay like this, at least not after having tasted what the fullness of heavenly life is like! The Tree of Life was only for the 'unfallen' or 'redeemed'. So eternal life, if by 'life' we mean the mortal, unredeemed kind of life man has in this world, isn't worth it - it would be hell, especially for those living through traumas of one kind or another. But what the Bible calls eternal or æonian life or chayim, that's a different matter altogether. Any life that has the seeds of death in it, as this life does (because noone can cheat death...we all die), is not desirable in the long term. This life is but a test, the opportunity to go onto the next and final one.

I quite agree with George Bernard Shaw, much as I dislike him personally, who once wrote: "I don't want to have to live with George Bernard Shaw forever." If a person hates himself, as Shaw clearly did, then the thought of living forever with that self is no joke. But suppose you have a self with whom you can get along - a transformed self, a self you can respect and love in Yahweh, with the possibilities of even greater transformation - then that's different. So everlasting life itself isn't enough. It has to be everlasting redeemed life and in a place which, for wont of a better word, let's just call 'Paradise' or 'Heaven' [2]. We all dream of our 'ideal' home and place, don't we? Well, that's a divinely implanted desire, a longing to return to the place akin to where we came from where the quality of life is unsurpassable but first we ourselves have to be changed. Chesterton said of Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous British author, that he "died with a thousand stories in his heart". A Christian/Messianic, when he dies, has a thousand æons or ages in his his heart because he needs them to fulfil the creativity Yahweh gave him which one lifetime isn't nearly enough to accomplish in. For myself, after 40 years of ministry, I feel as though I am only just beginning and I know I don't have much time left! Then there are all those other careers and hobbies I would love to have had! The chayim, the life of Elohim (God) within our hearts, is so positively exhilarating that it has to be eternal. Nothing this good can ever end!

Let's pray: "Father Yahweh, thank you that You took the initiative to reach out to me by sending your Son Yah'shua (Jesus) down to earth to die in my place. The choice to accept or reject is entirely mine. I don't want my choice to be half-hearted but whole-hearted so help me overcome any disbelief when it assails me, Your ahavah-love is slowly but surely overpowering my heart's deepest antipathy, and overwhelming all my inbred suspicion and distrust - may it continue to do so and may I never turn My back on You. I choose not to. Enable me to be true to that vow, no matter the circumstances and challenges. Thank you for your marvelous word in John 2:16 - it is so deep and profound! I accept that 'whosoever' means me and that You are addressing me personally. I desire that eternal, heavenly 'livingness' and I want more of it every day. Assist me in my determination to reject and eject the old fallen 'life' and its contrary desires - I am tired of being pulled in multiple directions. Give me the resolve to go in only one, Yours. I am grateful that you have given me 'eternal life' now even in the midst of dissolution and decay. Help me to live today, and every day, as one who has a thousands æons in his heart. Thank you for this incredible gift in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] "Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself" (John 12:31-32, NIV). The cross was Yahweh's judgment on the world but was also the supreme exaltation of Yah'shua (Jesus).
[2] Though Heaven is not the final goal, but an interpediate resting station, with restored and glorified earth the final destination of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) as physically resurrected beings

Acknowledgments

[1] Selwyn Hughes, Every Day With Jesus: The Transformed Life (Crusade for World Revival, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, UK: 1979)

[1] "Soooo inspiring. Many blessings wished your way" (MW, USA, 25 August 2021)