Let's go back to the phone lines, talk to Marnie, listening in Farmington, New Mexico
on KTGW. Hi Marnie.
Hi Hank!
I just had a question. I've been listening to, you know, a lot of worship
music, and in one of the songs it talks about "Christ's blood running through our
veins," and then I've heard some men speaking at church that have filled in
for our pastor saying the same thing, and as I looked in the scriptures I can't
find anything to support that. So I was just wondering your take on that.
Well, I think there are a number of ways of looking at this. I mean the first thing
we have to recognize is that from the standpoint of ontology, we are different
than God is. So we will never take on the incommunicable
attributes of God. We only take on that which is communicable. So if God has
rationale, there's no great mystery that we might have a rationale as well.
If God has will, there's no great mystery that we might have will as well. These
are communicable attributes. Love is another one of those communicable
attributes. But the incommunicable attributes of God - God in His
ineffability finds no correspondence in humanity. However we have to realize
that in the Incarnation, Jesus Christ took on another nature. So he's one
person with two natures - 100% human, 100% divine. And something happens as a result
of that. The incarnation of Christ - Christ becoming man - allows a human being to
become a partaker of the divine nature. And we become partakers of the divine
nature through means. Which is to say that if we partake
of the Eucharist, we are partaking of means by which we by grace become
what God is by nature. So in that sense, we can say as we partake of the pure
body and the precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we have partaken
of uncreated energy. That does not mean that that energy is physical blood, it
means that that energy is an energy that's not biological.
It's zoetic energy, and that zoetic energy is energy that that allows us to
do what we do not by might nor by power, but by his spirit. So I think there's a
way of contextualizing that but it takes some explanation.
- Okay well I just had
never heard of it before, and then I've heard it several times in the last few
months and I know that the scriptures say that flesh and blood, you know, cannot
inherit the kingdom of God.
- Yeah, the idea there though--
- I know it's said that if the spirit is in us...
- Yeah the idea there with flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God is that mortality cannot inherit the
kingdom of God. And in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 we recognize something
transitional that takes place. Those who are mortal become immortal. Those who are
perishable become imperishable. Those who are corruptible become incorruptible. So
we are transformed as human beings and then inherit the kingdom of heaven.
- Okay.
- That make sense?
I had a hard time wrapping my mind around this whole thing.
- Sounds like you've got your door going off or something going off in your car.
- Yes. Sorry about that.
- No problem.
Well hopefully that helps Marnie.
- It does, it actually gives me a different
direction I thought so thank you so much.
- You got it. And this is the one of the
things we want to do is stimulate your thinking. You know I say so often on the
Bible Answer Man broadcast please don't take my word for it. I seek to teach what
I teach with clarity and conviction and I do so under a great deal of stress. Not
because I'm afraid of a microphone but because I recognize the solemn
responsibility of teaching. James says do not let many of you become teachers
because with teaching, there is a stricter judgment. And I take that
very seriously, so before I ever come into the studio I'm always praying and
asking God to guide me - not by might nor by power but by his spirit. But also and
letting people say or recognize that I am saying that I want you to test what
I'm saying in light of Scripture and then hold fast that which is true. So for
example, what I was saying about Christ returning a second time or Christ
appearing a second time, as Hebrews puts it, well you can check on what happens
when Christ appears the second time by reading first Corinthians chapter 15 or
for that matter - Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 dealing with the
universe now groaning in travail being liberated from this bondage to decay and first
Corinthians chapter 15 giving us all kinds of analogies. I mean zoology and
botany and-- they have all these analogies by which we recognize that we are going
to be transformed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, and to the question
that Marnie asked, the perishable will become imperishable and so we will be
changed. So flesh and blood is not the configuration for the eternal being. What
that will be we don't know. We'll be the same
physically but different organizationally. The caterpillar and a
butterfly is a great analogy. I wrote about that in my book Afterlife. We'll be
right back with more. Please don't touch that dial.