Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back to the seventh part of our series on spiritual Transformation and the second part of our look at the Incarnation.

Today's passage is taken from 1 John 4:4-21 with the key verse I was to expand on being v.10. I am going to read from the Kingdom New Testament which I have cosmetically changed using Messianic terminology:

"But you, children, are from Elohim (God), have overcome them (false Antimessiah/Antichrist spirits) because the One who is in you is greater than the one (Satan) who is in the world. They are from the world, and that is why they speak from the world, and why the world listens to them. We are from Elohim (God); people who know Elohim (God) listen to us, but people who are not from Elohim (God) do not listen to us. That is why we can tell the spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

"Beloved, let us love one another, because love (ahavah, chesed, agapé) is from Elohim (God), and all who love are fathered by Elohim (God) and know Elohim (God). The one who does not love has not known Elohim (God), because Elohim (God) is love (Ps.145:9). This is how Elohim's (God's) love has appeared among us: Elohim (God) sent His only Son into the world (the Incarnation), so that we should live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved Elohim (God), but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the sacrifice that would atone for our sins. Beloved. if that's how Elohim (God) loved us, we ought to love one another in the same way. Nobody has ever seen Elohim (God). If we love one another, Elohim (God) abides in us and His love is completed in us. That is how we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us a portion of His Ruach (Spirit). And we have seen and bear witness that the Father sent His Son to be the world's Saviour. Anyone who confesses that Yah'shua (Jesus) is Elohim's (God's) Son - Elohim (God) abides in them and they abide in Elohim (God). And we have known and have believed the love which Elohim (God) has for us.

"Elohim (God) is love; those who abide in love abide in Elohim (God), and Elohim (God) abides in them. This is what makes love complete for us, so that we may have boldness and confidence on the Day of Judgment, because just as He us, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; complete (perfect) love drives out fear. Fear has to do with punishment, and anyone who is afraid has not been completed (perfected, made whole) in love. We love because He first loved us. If someone says, 'I love Elohim (God)', but hates his brother or sister, that person is a liar. Someone who doesn't love a brother or sister whom they have seen, how can they love Elohim (God), whom they haven't seen? This is the mitzvah (command) we have received from Him: anyone who loves Elohim (God) should love their brother or sister too" (1 Jn.4:4-21, KNT).

Last week we were giving voice to the proposal that the Incarnation is the most important truth in the Christian/Messianic faith. This may have surprised some of you who are accustomed to thinking mostly in terms of love, or faith, or the atonement, or the resurrection as being the primary emet or truth. But if we miss the centrality of the doctrine of the Incarnation, as many heretical groups do, then we bypass the centre and finish up on the outskirts of truth. In order to be transformed men and women, we do not have to try and find Elohim (God), but simply let Him find us.

Now there are those like the Calvinists who believe Yahweh only seeks and comes to those whom He has chosen from the beginning, for reasons (according to them) we do not - and cannot - know and bypasses all the rest who are damned no matter what, an unbiblical doctrine we utterly and unapologetically repudiate. We, the finite, could not possibly find the infinite. The false way is man's search for Elohim (God) because the Besorah - the Gospel or Good News - is Elohim's (God's) search for man. There are many religions but only one Gospel. You see, Yah'shua (Jesus), the Incarnate Elohim (God) - the 'God-Man' - is the personal approach from an unseen and unseeable Elohim (God) save indirectly through His Creation. He comes so near to every man and woman that is born into this world at least once, if not several times, in a lifetime that to miss Him we deliberately have to run in the opposite direction.

If you believe that we have to search for Elohim (God) instead of the other way round, then put yourself in the position of everyone who has ever lived, and who is currently living, in their individual situations no matter what the culture or the upbringing, no matter the geographical location, no matter whether they are enjoying freedom or languishing in slavery. The chances of each of the persions having the possibility of finding Elohim (God) is slim indeed. For centuries some societies have been utterly closed off to Christendom so they have no possibility of ever hearing the Besorah (Gospel) preached to them or coming across a Bible they could read and understand. How are they to know, and be judged at the final day, if it's solely their responsibility to find Him? How could they possibly study all the Scriptures and literature of every religion and philosophy, to learn of their doctrines and practices, and so sift through them all, weighing each in the balance?

And yet, no matter your circumstances or situation, even if you're living in a remote location in Papua-New Guinea or the Amazon rain forest where animism is the only religion and world-view, to discover Elohim (God) is the easiest thing in the world. You don't have to struggle or strive - you simply have to consent to be found. And that desire to be found is implanted in every soul born into this world - everyone. It's called the Light of Christ and is Yahweh's homing beacon (Jn.1:4-5,9). All of us are in reality never more than one step away from Elohim (God), the Creator. Now I am not, of course, saying we don't have to do some searching of our own, for once 'found' by Elohim (God), we still have the responsibility to 'go' to Him.

Yahweh found me in four distinct stages. He first found me when I was a young boy in Malaysia [1]. I wasn't looking for Him. I was on vacation by the sea, carefree and happy. Most of you know the story. He planted a seed that would not start sprouting for some years later, not until I was a student at college when He reminded me of that planting in a vivid, spiritually animating dream. That's when the seed started germinating and I spiritually 'took off' for though I was now on a 'road' I did not know what that road was yet, or who the 'Master' was. It took another 'special revelation' when I was a student of Buddhism to learn that that derech, road, or way, was Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). First the nameless Elohim (God) found me, planted a seed, began to germinate that seed, and then when the sprout popped its head above ground did I understand who Elohim (God) was...not as Yahweh yet, but as His incarnate Son, Yah'shua (Jesus). And then in the fourth stage I was born-again knowing who the Father and Son were, not just in my head but my whole inner being.

One of the earliest truths I learned in physics was that if you start on a journey in space and keep going in a fixed direction at, say, the speed of light, you will eventually return to the place where you started albeit it millions of years later because space is curved and circles back on itself. The Asians understood this but somehow Satan inserted the idea in someone's mind that to accomplish such a long journey, spiritually speaking - to be transformed - would require millions of reincarnations or lives over millions of years, and so the doctrine of multiple lives was invented. Such would indeed have been the only way to discover Elohim (God) had we had vast amounts of time to figure things out but Yahweh ordained but one lifetime for each man and woman and provided a quick route to knowing the Creator. It is called the Incarnation.

You see, we don't have to go on a billions-of-years-long journey to find Him. Rather, Yahweh finds us. I thank Elohim (God) that I don't have to make such a torturous journey. Indeed, Mahatma Ghandi, who was a Hindu (and you know Hindus believe in it) called reincarnation a "burden too great to bear" [2]. And he was right. What a nightmarish doctrine. One clever satanic counterfeit that nearly fooled me decades ago claimed that reincarnation was a reality but claimed that by coming to Christ you could break the endless cycle of rebirths and that that was the reason Christ came into the world - to end the never-ending rebirths. Yet we know that even this clever twist isn't true either because "it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment" (Heb.9:27, NKJV).

So what about those people who reject Christ? If not physically - since we only get one life in mortality - then how does this principle of 'curved space' play out spiritually as far as being found by Elohim (God) is concerned or trying to find Him under our own steam? An Protestant preacher was once asked if he knew the way to heaven and he replied, 'Certainly. Turn right round and keep straight on.' He was not wrong because we can face in one of two directions. The building - Elohim (God) - is right next do us and we can either make a 180° and find Him instantly (it's called repentance and self-surrender) or we can start on a painfully arduous 'journey', another 'burden too great to bear', and try to find Him through turning inwards and searching through our own messed-up self.

All that does is takes us on a long and painful circuitous journey viâ 'hell' until finally we admit we don't want to do this any more and instead turn away from 'self' and to Him through self-surrender. We do this by accepting His gift of salvation on the terms that He gives. It requires a death blow to pride and self-suffiency - a small price to pay to skip the other tortuous route. Now 'orthodox' Christians say the alternative is 'eternal hell' or 'annihilation' (the two opposing views) which is just their crueller version of 'reincarnation'. We say the alternative is universal reconciliation after a very, very long and painful time as a disembodied spirit which to my way of thinking is 'hell' all in itself.

Spiritual transformation is, like salvation, both an event and a process...a journey. Protestantism focuses almost exclusively on the event, calling it 'salvation', and that's it as far as most of them are concerned. Many of them view salvation and sanctification as being one-and-the-same which they aren't, as we learn from the annual festivals. Elohim (God) finds us at 'Pesach (Passover)' at which time we are spiritually conceived, as it were, but spiritual rebirth - being 'born again' - comes at Yom haBikkurim (Firstfruits) which is symbolised by water baptism in the New Covenant.

Once found by Elohim (God), we still have decisions to make. As spontaneous abortions occur in the physical world, the same happens in the spiritual dimension. Having been found we can still choose to be 'unfound' - we can turn back 180° if we so choose because we have free agency. We are prioners neither of heaven nor hell if that's what we choose. Yah'shua (Jesus) taught this in the Parable of the Sower (Mt.13; Mk.4; Lk.8). Indeed we can turn back at any point in our ongoing spiritual journey. Do not be deceived by the lazy man's 'Once Saved, Always Saved' apology of a doctrine which has more in common with the self-entitlement spirit of the age than with the truth of spiritual reality.

Protestantism was a partial restoration of the truth. We are absolutely spiritually transformed through simply receiving the free gift of salvation which was made possible through the Incarnation otherwise we would never have been found for we would never have found Elohim (God) through our own egotistical striving. What an amazing gift to man, almost 'too good to be true', but it is true. He's right next to us and all we have to do is make a 180° turn and say 'yes!' We need this spiritual transformation from self to Him so badly that Elohim (God) took the extraordinary step of becoming a man so that we might become - not Elohim (God), which is impossible but like Elohim (God). If we can but burn this fact deeply into our minds it will bring an end to all the needless anxiety and unnecessary suffering that comes from self-striving, our egocentric attemmpts at spiritual transformation which would take millions of lifetimes to aconmplish and even then still elude us - instead, we are ever so gently and lovingly invited to simply let Elohim (God) find us and renew us and to stay facing Him! We do not have to ascend up to heaven to bring Elohim (God) down by our efforts. He's already down here amongst men! The Incarnation of the Son of Elohim (God), Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), brought Him to us in the flesh. And that babe in a manger at Bethelehem was the moment that Truth became visible to human beings, as we saw in today's passage.

Let me end with an illustration from a true story. Quintin Hogg (1907-2001) who later became Baron Hailsham of St.Marylebone, in his younger days, gave his time and attention to some down-and-out boys in a poor part of London. One of the young men, a wild and wayward character before Quintin Hogg influenced him, was asked by a friend how he managed to keep going straight. 'Oh,' he said, 'it's not too difficult. You see, I always carry a photo of Quintin and when I am tempted, I just take it out and look at it. It helps me to overcome.' Now Yah'shua (Jesus) is more, obviously, than a mere photograph, yet in Him we have the best 'photograph' that Elohim (God) ever took of Himself to give to us and, when tempted to go astray, we have only to look at Him - to seek His face - to see Elohim (God) once more and thus be enabled to overcome.

The English poet Robert Browning (1812-1889) wrote:

Tis the weakness in strength, that I cry for!
My flesh that I seek in the Godhead!
I seek it and find it.
A Face like my face that receives thee; a man like to me
Thou shalt love and be loved by, for ever: a Hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee!
See the Christ stand!"

The writer of Hebrews prefaces his message with these words:

"In the past Elohim (God) spoke to our forefathers through the nevi'im (prophets) at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by his Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of Elohim's (God's) glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Davar (Word). After He had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So He became as much superior to the malakim (angels) as the name He has inherited is superior to theirs.

"For to which of the malakim (angels) did Elohim (God) ever say,

'You are my Son; today I have become your Father'?

"Or again,

'I will be his Father, and he will be my Son'?

"And again, when Elohim (God) brings his firstborn into the world, He says,

'Let all Elohim's (God's) malakim (angels) worship him.'

"In speaking of the malakim (angels) He says,

'He makes his malakim (angels) winds, His servants flames of fire.'

"But about the Son He says,

'Your throne, O Elohim (God), will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore Elohim (God), your Elohim (God), has set You above Your companions by anointing you with the oil of simcha (joy)'" (Heb.1:1-9, NIV).

In Hinduism they have many so-called 'gods' - millions of them, as in ancient Egypt - and one of them is armless. Yah'shua (Jesus) is Elohim's (God's) arm stretched out, offering to our hearts all the compassion of Yahweh's heart. And He's right next to us. All we have to do is to spiritually turn around 180° and gaze into His face through trusting and worshipping.

Let's pray: "O Yahweh-Elohim, how glad I am, that whenever I am tempted, I can look at the photograph of Yah'shua (Jesis) which Your Davar (Word) gives me, and by grace - your free and boundless undeserved loving-kindness - I am able to overcome. In Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Until next week, may the grace and shalom (peace) of our Master Yah'shua (Jesus) go with you as you daily seek His face.

Endnotes

[1] See A Glimpse Into Heaven: My Life Story and How I Came to Know Yah'shua the Messiah
[2] See Reincarnation: The Great Delusion

Acknowledgments

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