NEW HUMAN COMMUNITY, NEW PERSON, AND COMMUNION THROUGH THE SPIRIT

Sometimes meditating on God is like holding a precious cut diamond up to the light.  I cannot directly see what lies behind it, but the light still illuminates.  And, the brilliant colors that emerge from the multitude of facets change as I turn the jewel just a trifle, causing a new sparkle that catches my eye.  Reading a recent article by a theologian friend has given me some new sparkles that I will attempt to reflect here and in some future devotions.#

First, I now think of my connection to humanity a little differently.  The Incarnation created, in a sense, a new human community.  I am part of a grace-directed community, all of for whom God emptied God-self and took on human frailty such that Jesus could vicariously serve each one of us.  My fellowman/woman are now more precious to me.  (Thank you Chris.)

Second, being born again/from above/of the Spirit makes me a Jesus-like new being – which will take explaining.  Embracing weakness in human form, Jesus through the Spirit lives in the Father-Son-Spirit communion.  From the Father, Jesus is born of the Spirit, baptized in the Spirit, led by the Spirit, ministered in the Spirit to testify of the Father and be one with the Father, and was raised by the Spirit.  Such communion is to be present in the believer who becomes a new being through one’s participation in God’s life (doctrine of theosis); that is being in Christ and being one in whom the Spirit dwells.  We are told both that Jesus in his vicarious humanity as the ascended Christ intercedes for us “downwardly” (e.g. Heb 7:25, see devotional Dec. 11, 2023).  We are also told that in our acceptance of our weakness, the Spirit within us intercedes for us “upwardly” articulating the longings of my heart (Rom 8:11, 15 – 16, and partic. 26 – 27) to align me with the Father's will.  My friend spoke of a divine “echo” of communion between the heavenly interceding Jesus and the indwelling interceding Spirit.  I like that.  Embracing my weakness, but as a new creation, my role is to nurture and facilitate that “echo” so that something about my life might testify of the glory of the Father.

Lord, may it be so in me.  Help me never to quench or grieve the Spirit, but to be open to the production of the Spirit’s “fruit” in me (1Thess 5;19; Eph 4:30; Gal 5:22 – 23) so that the divine communion may shape and form who I am.  Amen.

# Christian D. Kettler, "Life in the Spirit: Communion with the Vicarious Humanity of Christ," Participatio, vol. 10: "The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience" (2022) at https://tftorrance.org/sites/default/files/2023-05/2022-CDK-1.pdf.  (This is a densely packed article.)