Our Problem With Roles
We fallen creatures have a difficult time understanding the concept of roles in equality. We don't do well with the role issue in marriage, church relationships, society in general. That is because of our loss of Sustaining Love in Adam. Man was created in Adam to live in the Loving Embrace of the All Sufficient God. As long as man walked in the Embrace of God's Provision and Fellowship, he had no fear, no sense of need, along with an incredible intimacy with the Almighty. That walk with God in the cool of the day in Genesis 3:8 was a lot more than a conversation about the condition of the garden! Having lost that union and communion with Life Himself, death reigned from that day forward. Death has no covering, no protective properties. Death will do its thing no matter what. In our vain attempt to protect ourselves, we have aspired to "godhood", seeking to establish some protection in this death existence. We do this by crowning ourselves as kings and queens of our universe. We establish ourselves as the one in charge, and place all others beneath us. How's that working out for you? Out of that mentality come wars and rumors of wars in every relational area of our lives. Our control at the expense of others spells doom to any healthy relationship.
With God, this isn't so. He is God, that sort of explains everything! He is God in Three Persons. There is no such thing as subservience, because God is Ultimate in His Being. Therefore, Each Person of the Godhead expresses that Ultimate Character that is God. The differing Role of Each Person flows out of God's Ultimate Essence! The Lord Jesus expresses His Eternal Role in relation to the Father in John 17:20-26. Just looking at the phrases that refer to His Eternal Relationship, He says "as You, Father, are in Me, and I in you."(vs 21) "the Glory which You gave Me I have given them"(vs22), "I in them, and You in Me"(vs23), "that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world"(vs24), "And I have declared to them Your Name, and will declare it, that the Love with which You Loved Me (from all eternity)may be in them, and I in them." (vs26) Notice that The Father is in Him and He in the Father. They are One in Essence and Union. And yet there are differing Roles expressed. May I say that the only way for man to function in harmony in the role and job that he finds himself in is to be fully convinced by faith that He is loved in that same Love Bond that is the Godhead from all eternity. All insecurity, all need to domineer, all need to be god is lost in the all Sufficient Love that Jesus died to bring us into. "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me." John 17:23
We fallen creatures have a difficult time understanding the concept of roles in equality. We don't do well with the role issue in marriage, church relationships, society in general. That is because of our loss of Sustaining Love in Adam. Man was created in Adam to live in the Loving Embrace of the All Sufficient God. As long as man walked in the Embrace of God's Provision and Fellowship, he had no fear, no sense of need, along with an incredible intimacy with the Almighty. That walk with God in the cool of the day in Genesis 3:8 was a lot more than a conversation about the condition of the garden! Having lost that union and communion with Life Himself, death reigned from that day forward. Death has no covering, no protective properties. Death will do its thing no matter what. In our vain attempt to protect ourselves, we have aspired to "godhood", seeking to establish some protection in this death existence. We do this by crowning ourselves as kings and queens of our universe. We establish ourselves as the one in charge, and place all others beneath us. How's that working out for you? Out of that mentality come wars and rumors of wars in every relational area of our lives. Our control at the expense of others spells doom to any healthy relationship.
With God, this isn't so. He is God, that sort of explains everything! He is God in Three Persons. There is no such thing as subservience, because God is Ultimate in His Being. Therefore, Each Person of the Godhead expresses that Ultimate Character that is God. The differing Role of Each Person flows out of God's Ultimate Essence! The Lord Jesus expresses His Eternal Role in relation to the Father in John 17:20-26. Just looking at the phrases that refer to His Eternal Relationship, He says "as You, Father, are in Me, and I in you."(vs 21) "the Glory which You gave Me I have given them"(vs22), "I in them, and You in Me"(vs23), "that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world"(vs24), "And I have declared to them Your Name, and will declare it, that the Love with which You Loved Me (from all eternity)may be in them, and I in them." (vs26) Notice that The Father is in Him and He in the Father. They are One in Essence and Union. And yet there are differing Roles expressed. May I say that the only way for man to function in harmony in the role and job that he finds himself in is to be fully convinced by faith that He is loved in that same Love Bond that is the Godhead from all eternity. All insecurity, all need to domineer, all need to be god is lost in the all Sufficient Love that Jesus died to bring us into. "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me." John 17:23
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