An Audible Universe
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. Genesis 1:3 NASB
Said – Why is the Genesis account of creation so radically different than other ancient accounts? It’s not because the Genesis story is the only story of creation. All the ancient societies had creation myths. The difference is the mechanics of creation. Genesis portrays the beginning of the world with sounds. God speaks and things happen. Of course, there are other gods who speak, but the words themselves aren’t the creative power. Other things have to happen to bring about physical existence, and those other things are typically representations of the same kind of things men do to make things. So we find cosmological stories that involve conflict, aggression, sexual activity, and physical construction. But no human being causes something to come into existence by merely speaking, so no ancient mythology is based on this idea because it is simply inconceivable. Except Hebrew. And the reason that this is even possible in Hebrew thought is because of the language itself. Consider the Hebrew word for “word,” dabar.
“In Hebrew, the word dabar means both word and also deed. A word doesn’t merely say something, it does something. It brings something into being. It makes something happen.”[1]
This is true even if it isn’t God’s word being spoken. Whenever you and I speak a word, in Hebrew thought we are also doing something; we are bringing into existence not simply an idea but a reality that will affect all of the rest of the universe and all of the rest of its temporal existence. Our words matter, and they matter eternally. Is it any wonder, then, that Solomon and James have so many cautions about speaking, or that the Decalogue is so concerned about the application of God’s name? It’s difficult to determine if this particular characteristic of Hebrew is the result of God’s creative activity or the source of God’s creative activity, but regardless of the “chicken and egg” conundrum, it is critically important for the way we understand the Bible. For example,
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me’ (John 14:6). He didn’t say that any particular ethic, doctrine, or religion was the way, the truth, and the life. He said that he was. He didn’t say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you could ‘come to the Father.’ He said that it was only by him—by living, participating in, being caught up by, the way of life that he embodied, that was his way.”[2]
And he told us that just saying you believed wasn’t enough. You had to live it out, to do it, to be engaged in this life of his. You had to speak yourself into being by being dabar, both word and deed. It all starts in Genesis—and, as Abraham Heschel reminds us, “No word of God’s is the last word.” It’s still going, speaking, being, doing, becoming.
Topical Index: dabar, word, speak, deed, John 14:6, Genesis 1:3
[1]Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life(HarperOne, 1992), p. 190.
[2]Ibid., pp. 57-58.
People who are “in the flesh”: people who are attempting to live and love without the invited, conscious, “indwelling of the Holy Spirit” are people who, I believe, live one split second after the fact: they live as the tail on the donkey of life. The human take on life is either fate: that there is nothing you can do to change reality (East): or that we HAVE to change reality ourselves, on our own (West). I think this yin/yang dialectic represents so many pottery pieces of a broken vase. I think that East and West both ran off with the pieces that ‘fit’ their paradigms already; but in doing so, I think the West doomed itself to failure, and the East doomed itself to never trying. Both camps, however much they are trying, are just spinning wheels, though. Neither of them have tapped into what makes reality tick because neither of them are yoked with the Spirit. When people came along who represented what it was like to be actively teamed up with the power of heaven, it turned the whole world upside down.
What does it mean (what should it mean) to be baptized into – to be baptized with – that Spirit (which is to ask what it means to be in agreement with the will of God that the Spirit motivates us with in our hearts)? I think it means that the “power of life” has been returned to the tongue: that we were given speech for the purposes of speaking that life into the world: to be a walking, talking “savor of life unto life” instead of a “savor of death unto death”. What does that mean? I think it has everything to do with whether or not we are walking and talking (and thus choosing to create future space for) either faith (life) in the future or the futility of reacting to the past that cannot be changed (death).
If – in the Spirit, anyway – speech is action, then action is also a form of speaking, too. We were given the commission of witness. That witness is about our lives. When people see love in action, it gives them faith that love is possible. That faith is our part: the Spirit makes it true. Faith (which is spawned by those who are literally creating the future) – like doubt (which is spawned by those who are stuck in the death of the past) – is contagious. What are we infecting those around us with today?
This has to be the most straight forward response to the “sola fide, faith alone” believers. I would like to hear any response to the contrary to this argument.
Be careful, George. An argument implies that a baby has already been split: a dialectic has been formed in a vacuum not built by God. You simply cannot “respond” to either side without agreeing with the premises of the argument. I think the “works” and the “faith” camps agree to disagree because they both share the premise that you CAN split works and faith, but you can’t. Yes, BY OURSELVES “we can do nothing”; but, then, we were never meant (“it is not good”) to be alone. So much for following the rules (like Skip has spelled out). HOWEVER, partnering with the Spirit and motivated by love, everything we think, desire, choose, speak and act on in that Spirit does – follows through on – what faith is. Faith is where we throw our own ball and then run to catch it. You can’t play the game if you don’t run to catch the ball, but you can’t catch a ball that didn’t get thrown. Faith is a gift of God. Reality is simply a medium in which the game of faith is played. It is not “perfected” unless the ball is actually thrown AND caught, however. I think the premise of the argument is about whether the game consists of EITHER throwing OR catching the ball. Insist on redefining the terms, however, and I bet both sides are going to walk out on you. Together.
George, I agree with your general sentiment BUT
The thief on the cross in Luke 23:39-43 is John Wesley’s example of saving faith without works. He says, the thief believed in Christ and was told, “Truly I tell you today you will be with me in Paradise.” This would be impossible if the good works that are the fruit of genuine repentance and faith were unconditionally necessary for salvation.
But I note that Christ on the cross doesn’t actually say, “Your faith has saved you.” His reply, although very promising, leaves much unanswered. I would argue we are saved by the gift of grace, (but then, how does one “qualify” for grace, which by definition, means “undeserved”?)
Sorry not to be of much help.
Dan, for me this issue is entirely enveloped in one word, Shema, hear/obey, one word one action; if you didn’t act, you didn’t hear. The thief on the cross saw, heard, obeyed, (spoke out for all to hear) and he was rewarded (today) accordingly for his faith/action. Simple. (I notice you did not include the infamous “comma” in your response.
Laurita, I agree with you that faith and works can’t be split but the sola fide crowd disagrees with this position somewhat along the lines of, “if you HAVE genuine faith you WILL act but the act is something of an optional extra somehow. You SHOULD do it, you MAY WELL do it, but whether you do or do not, it DOESN’T change anything. You can spend your ENTIRE life sitting merrily on a log contemplating your eternal redemption by faith alone.
Sorry about the slow response but my access to TW is severely impaired these days and very fragmented for reasons unknown for the past two weeks or so. It is VERY frustrating and I am not able to even see it, read it some days. But I guess that wont matter in a couple of weeks. Sigh!
Well said, George! I find that if I save the TW’s in my mailbox and then go back and hit on the one I want to view, it will show me current status. This site is obviously being down-regulated artificially. Lots of sites that I visit are complaining about this same treatment.
Dan, who says the thief on the cross wasn’t acting on his faith? In a crowd of enemies and family and disciples, too, where not ONE VOICE was raised in acknowledgment of Messiah: where only denial was heard, there was exactly one person who encouraged and acknowledged Him for who He was. Perhaps He would have failed even at that point if He had not experienced at least one person who took Him up on His offer of salvation: who said “thank you”. Perhaps the thief did what He needed most from all of us and perhaps we all owe that thief for doing what the rest of us either didn’t or couldn’t do. Noble action, indeed!
To answer your other question “how do we qualify for grace?”: we don’t. We have been qualified by God’s love for us. I think we disqualify ourselves by not taking Him up on that grace already offered and available to all. Good works are not necessary for salvation, but the instant we are motivated by faith we come into agreement with the will of God. I said MOTIVATED BY faith: not ,mentally agreeing with it. I can mentally agree with the speed limit all day long, but if I am being motivated by a desire to get home faster, that mental assent does me no good at all. I have to be convicted: motivated: (which is what I think true belief – faith, if you will – really is) – and act on that conviction, too – before I actually quit speeding. If I speed, that action puts me “back under the law” again. I put myself back under God’s Law umteen times a day, and lose my freedom in the process; over and over again. I need to quit speeding! (In other words, I need new motivation to obey… now; where did I put that faith in God again?)
… now; where did I put that faith in God again?
Laurita, you have a really cute way of summing up your erudite responses with homespun vernacular that I love so much and will miss enormously.
Thanks y’all for your years of friendship and meaningful engagement.
George, you know where I live and I have your contact info, too. I would be willing to continue to write if anybody wanted to read. I have been blocked from F B for many months, even tho I never wrote anything on there. We would have to try some other way. I could write in email, of course, which I do anyway. You and Penny better keep me in your loop or I am going to come looking for you. I love all y’all, and everybody, too.
Laurita,
I do believe the thief was acting on his faith but that’s not what saved him. James says even the demons believe there is one God, (but that doesn’t save them). What “saved” the thief was his implied repentance, submission, and request for mercy. Because of these, he was granted grace, but he still died, like we all will because we are all sinners.
Despite his plea, he had no absolute right of forgiveness, and he had not yet repaid any of his victims, but his attitude toward repentance seems willing. Perhaps that is the key, the willingness to gratefully accept and do the judgment of the just Judge in Paradise. I’m not sure anyone gets off scot free. Just because it’s called “Paradise” doesn’t mean justice is abandoned. Just the opposite, justice must be carried out to its full degree if Paradise is to truly be Paradise. (Or is the Law done away with?) That doesn’t mean there is no mercy. Just the opposite, we all deserve eternal death but we will all have the opportunity to repent and repay. What’s wrong with that? What else are we going to do? The Millennium is a long time.
The unrepentant thief is going to miss out completely on the Millennium. His judgment will come later, but I have hope even for him, even if it involves a symbolic purification in the Lake of Fire. That doesn’t sound pleasant but neither does the “iron furnace of Egypt” (Jer 11:4) where Israel was forged, and not annihilated.
Of course we agree, Dan, that the actions did not save the thief, but I want to ask why you seem to think that we are expected to do a specific set of actions: namely, “repay” for our sins. Now, where in the Bible does it tell us that we are even capable of doing that? I mean, if we were, wouldn’t salvation be unnecessary in the first place? (And we certainly wouldn’t need a Kinsman Redeemer, who’s chief job was to “pay”.) It sounds like God just needed to set up some sort of mandatory purgatory and send us all there to get the job done.
What do you think sin is? Some sort of action that some other action can pay for, like some sort of cosmic ‘money’? What is sin? We know that the least sin tears the entire fabric of the cosmos: how do we ‘pay’ for that? And, is ‘paying’ the same as FIXING? How do you ‘fix’ things like neglect; not to mention murder? Can you give life back; or time, for that matter? And if it is back to punishment that ‘pays’, aren’t we back into the Roman concept of law, where the problem is an angry god, and out of the concept that law is about relationship? Can you put back what tears relationship? I know I can’t.
Finally, to finish picking on you completely (no, actually, I love you a lot and just simply want to understand you), I want to ask why, if you think that we can satisfy God’s sense of justice (please give me chapter and verse on this), did Yeshua die? If ANYTHING we do can ‘pay’ for sin, why did He die? I mean, it becomes meaningless.
I think I can show you where salvation is called a “free gift of God”, but can you show me where it isn’t? And if salvation does not mean salvation from ALL the aspects of sin (including payment for it), then what is it? (And, yes, I agree with you that we need to, as per Leviticus, strive to make amends, but what is the purpose of amends? To ‘pay’ for sin, or to try to reopen hearts to relationship?) I think the question may boil down to: is purgatory Biblical (because that it what I think I may be hearing you trying to describe)? Do you think the Bible teaches purgatory (other than the highly allegorical story of Lazurus and Abraham’s bosom, of course)?
Laurita,
Before this blog ends I will offer a few short thoughts on this matter.
Yes, I agree we cannot “earn” our salvation. Yeshua’s death and resurrection guaranteed us ENTRANCE to the next life. Entrance to our current life was also a gift, but it is not without an ongoing cost. Do the saints “repay their debts” after their resurrection, or, are they immediately “perfected”?
It’s hard for me to imagine a specific dividing line between “saints” who gets off totally free and all others who are exterminated for all time. It seems much too black and white. Can you imagine one of your loved ones being just barely on the wrong side of the line? Yes, I understand there will be different rewards in the kingdom, but I don’t understand how saints go from a “filthy rags” state, to perfection, in the instant of their resurrection. That would be great but I would think there would be a perfection process . . . as by fire.
1Co 3:12 And if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, 13 each one’s work shall be revealed. For the Day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try each one’s work as to what kind it is . . . he shall receive a reward . . . he shall be saved, yet so AS BY FIRE.
Heb 12:23 and to a gathering, an assembly of the first-born ones having been enrolled in Heaven; and to God the Judge of all, and to spirits of just ones who have been PERFECTED
Will this “perfecting” or completion be pain free? The fire is symbolic but even if it is used symbolically it does not suggest a pain free process to me.
Heb 12:5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which He speaks with you, as with sons, “My sons, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint while being corrected by Him. 6 For whom the Lord loves, He disciplines, and whips every son whom He receives.” Prov. 3:11, 12
This, “whipping” we get, do we ALL get it while we live this life? I’m not sure. I don’t doubt Paul suffered plenty enough in his first life but my trials seem trivial when compared to the saints of the first couple centuries AD. I’m not sure I would have agreed to martyrdom.
Hebrews 2:2-3 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
Yes, we are saved but if every disobedience receives an unalterable just penalty, how do we escape all penalties?
John 5:28-29 . . . all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment
That sounds promising but are we applying the statement too simply? Does “life” mean, total unconditional forgiveness, and does, “judgment” mean, eternal extermination? Will not the righteous Judge, judge equitably?
Someone once said words are cheap.
Someone didn’t know God’s Words.
“For the Word of God is alive and active.
Sharper than any double-edged sword, it
penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,
joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts
and attitudes of the heart.”
God’s Word lives in a realm we little understand.
But we do know it has the power to change people,
to raise them from the dead, to heal them of their
sicknesses and to make them whole.
That, in itself, is all we need to know.
“In Hebrew, the word dabar means both ***word and also deed***. A word doesn’t merely say something, it does something. It brings something into being. It makes something happen.”
“And he told us that just saying you believed wasn’t enough. You had to live it out, to do it, to be engaged in this life of his. You had to speak yourself into being by being dabar, both word and deed. It all starts in Genesis—and, as Abraham Heschel reminds us, “No word of God’s is the last word.” It’s still going, speaking, being, doing, becoming.”
Wow! Isn’t that the truth?!!! Many times, even things that I already know and believe, when put in a certain way or in a different light, still blow me away. Truly, Yah’s word is, not only life, but it’s alive!
Thank you, Skip!