The Good Of The Father (The In Crowd)

 

Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone should be loving Me, he will be keeping My word, and My Father will be loving him, and We shall be coming to him, and making an abode in him 

Johns Account 14: 23, Concordant New Testament 

Have you ever heard of God coming to make His home in you?  Up until a few years ago, I had never even heard of such a thought.  I certainly have never heard of it spoken in all of my years in the mainstream church.  Yet it is these words which we find spoken by Jesus in the book of John.  Jesus proclaims that the Father will be loving us and coming to make His home in us {Johns Account 14:23}.  I've spoken more than a few times of my own life in the Father, and I suppose that He has already come to make His home within me.  This is just what I believe.  My first inclination of my life in the Father came from reading the words of Jesus as He speaks of our union life in He and the Father {Johns Account 14:20}.  See, Jesus did not simply rise from the dead, appear to some people then ascend into heaven to remain there.  It was never the Fathers desire that He would be separated or apart from us.  Yet this is the mainstream church theology that I was taught for so many years.  Therefore, one can understand just why it has taken me so long to grasp the truth of the Father in me.  From the fourth century onward, the church has been speaking the same narrative.  That man is sinful, and that sin has separated him from God.  I recently had a conversation with a gym friend who pretty much spoke these thoughts exactly.  If I were to step foot into a church some Sunday, I would more than likely be surrounded by so many others who have been taught that they indeed are sinners.  You may agree or disagree with me, but I have seen enough of church teachings to know that this is true.  But is it true?  Am I still a sinner?  Does my sin continue to separate me from the Father?  Well, even the most indoctrinated Christians confess that Jesus bled and died on the cross for the forgiveness of sin.  That our once filthy rags are now white as snow.  So, if this is indeed true, why does our sin still continue to be that barrier between ourselves and God?  What sin did Jesus miss while He was dying on that cross?  The church needed to come up with an answer for that.  

In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you

Johns Account 14: 20, Concordant New Testament 

Some say that a definition of sin is rebellion against God.  Lucifer rebelled against the Father when he desired to be greater than God {Isaiah 14:12-15}.  Some will say that this was the original sin committed against God.  But i have another take on that.  I believe that sin, in its essence, is our own lack of acknowledgement of the Father.  Nowhere is this more evident than in the false belief that we have somehow been separated from the Father.  We find the roots of this in the lie spoken by the accuser to Eve in the garden.  The serpent spoke to Eve that if she were to take of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that she would "Be like God, knowing good and evil" {Genesis 3:5}.  Satan placed the thought in the mind of the Lords creation that He had been holding out on them somehow.  But, if they took of the fruit which God had commanded them not to, that they would be like Him.  Well, if we follow scripture, we know that as the Fathers creation Adam and Eve were already like God.  For it is God who created us in His likeness {Genesis 1:27}.  It is also the Father who breathed into us the breath of life, creating a living soul {Genesis 2:7}.  How much more like God could we ever be?  As a result of their disobedience, Adam and Eve were banished from the garden.  Banished because of sin?  Again, the scriptures tell the story.  God banished His creation from the garden because "The man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.  And now, lest he put out his hand and take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever."  Gods creation was banished from the garden because of what it is which we MIGHT do.  Man had already shown his propensity to act on his own.  To this day, the mindset of many in the church is that man has been separated from God due to his taking of the fruit, the original sin.  But for Jesus, our fate would have been sealed.  But for the love and mercy of the Father Who has come to make His home in us.  If we were yet sinners, could we still be in the Father?  Indeed, through the love and mercy of God, we're now part of the in crowd. 

~Scott~