Welcome to Episode #145 of Way of the Bible podcast. This is our first of eight episodes in our nineteenth mini-series entitled, The Vineyard Owner’s Son.
On this episode, The Blessed and Happy, we’re going to introduce this mini-series and then identify the blessed and happy in the Kingdom of God. This is our second mini-series to encounter the God/man Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospels.
I want to encourage all of my listeners at the outset of this episode and for all future episodes to discover for yourself, if you have not already, the practice of Lectio Divina and/or contemplative prayer. I personally was introduced to both through the St. Ignatius Spiritual Exercises. These are all huddled under the academic heading of Spiritual Formation.
Spiritual formation is ubiquitous in the world and is not limited to Christianity. Every person of every tribe, language, and nation is individually created by God in his own image and likeness. Into each person, God gives a spirit. It says in Ecclesiastes 12:7 – the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Both the Old and New Testaments clearly indicate a result of sin is the death of this spirit to God and his commands. Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Romans 8:7 – For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Ephesians 4:18 – They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. Colossians 1:21 – And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.
While dead to God and his commands due to sin, this spirit given by God is not dead to the world and the powers and authorities that control it. The formation of this dead to God spirit is at the heart of all rebellion on earth. Read Romans 1:18 to the end. In this passage you’ll have a very good picture of how this dead spirit to God leads mankind into ever increasing darkness and eventually literal death. In this downward spiral, the scriptures note three milestones which cause God to turn mankind over to the next iteration of self and self-destruction.
At the heart of all this is Spiritual Warfare. Paul notes in Ephesians 6:12 – For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
We learn the nature of mankind in: 2 Timothy 2:26 that mankind is captured by the devil to do his will; Hebrews 2:24 that mankind is held in slavery by the devil because of our fear of death; Mark 10:18 – No one is good except God alone.
The devil is called the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), the ruler of this age (John 14:30), and the whole world is under his power (1 John 5:18). With that in mind spiritual formation in and of the world is accomplished through deceitful spirits and demons. And these were both to be anticipated in the church. 1 Timothy 4:1 – Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, We are well into those later times in 2024.
Here's the issue today. For two hundred years or more, the focus within the protestant churches in the West has been primarily on Soteriology which deals with who is saved, by whom is one saved, from what is one saved, and by what means is one saved. Little or no emphasis in the church has been placed on sanctification, being made into the image of Christ.
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