The Finished Work-Subjectively and Objectively

More divers and sundry stuff….
I’ve been reading through Job…admittedly at a very slow pace.  I find myself pausing often… saying in deep profound wonderment…

“Huh?”

Job is not all that easy to understand.  Especially in the King James Version.  Poetic and lovely…but with so much symbolism and oblique wording…difficult to wrap my mind around the meaning.  I’ve had more luck with The Message…and the other day, I read a few chapters from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Wow…

I loved chapter 26…where Job answers Bildad. And sitting out here on the back deck, enjoying a gorgeous early fall afternoon, I tried to write a post about it.  But the ideas would not congeal. 

Reluctantly, I forced myself to go vacuum and dust…and even clean the bathroom. 

And then I connected some dots between the verses in Job and an email sent out earlier today by Gary Sigler about the finished work.  The finished work of the cross.

There are a lot of kingdom ministries that are preaching the finished work.  There are a lot of ministries that are not even close to kingdom theology that are teaching the finished work.  Eckhart Tolle comes to mind.  A lot of what is considered new age also comes to mind.

Gary Sigler said it this way:

Of course the work was finished as Jesus said from the cross. The scriptures also says that the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Many hear these truths and begin to try and believe the work was finished and therefore there is nothing left for us to do. They say “We are finished and there is no further processing needed.” To me this is a foolish thing to say. Some of those who are claiming this are still full of negative things in their lives. Since they believe there is no more processing they are stuck with a doctrine that is useless to them.

He goes on to say:

I do believe the works were finished from the foundation of the world. However the work was finished in the spirit and must be worked out in our experience. There is an objective truth and a subjective truth. They are both true but if we only have the objective it will not bring change to our lives. We must have the subjective experience of becoming all that Jesus said and taught.

And

However you have fallen in your mind and have lost the reality of being complete. 

Fallen in your mind? Keith has a favorite tag line…in fact it is the name of his blog.  We are spirit beings…on a human journey.  In this realm…this human realm….spirit beings on a human journey…the truth of who we are is covered…veiled….

One of the verses in Job 26 declares…..

⁹ He obscures the view of [His] throne,
    spreading His cloud over it.

The NLT words it this way:

He shrouds his throne with his clouds.

Connecting a few dots….the Strong’s meaning of throne? 

seat (of honour), throne,
royal dignity, authority, power

As unbelievable as it may seem, the presence of God abides within US.  We are his throne, his seat of honour, his dwelling place, his temple. 

But the view has been obscured by his clouds.

His doing?  Our doing?  The answer depends on where you weigh in on the free will/total determinism scale.  Did we fall?  Did he “push” us?  Did he set us up so there was no other possible outcome?  Scripture provides equally compelling, yet opposite answers to that question…depending on where you look and what you choose to believe.

The Bible tells us we are alienated (to be shut out from one's fellowship and intimacy) from God IN OUR MINDS. Perhaps part of the purpose of this life is to discover/uncover the mystery of who(se) we really are.  To restore the fellowship we once shared with God. To renew our minds. To put all the traces of adam to death.

I’ll close this post with one more quote from Gary’s email….

“Therefore you must have the eyes of your understanding opened and the veils removed from your mind so you can experientially walk in the completeness.”