The Grace Project

There is an interesting difference between the religious mind and the spiritual mind. The religious mind is intent upon becoming righteous for God, whilst the spiritual man has recognised that he is the righteousness of God.
 

For one, for him to live is to live like Christ; for his counterpart for him to live is Christ.   This distinction is crucial.   They represent two different trajectories from which the religious or ethical life if launched.   Needless to say, the outset has implications for the outcome. Religion is man’s attempt to do for God, what God in Christ has already done through Christ for man. 

 

In the first session we noted that we are invited to enter through the narrow-gate.  For many of us, the narrow gate is typical of the constricting, self-harming, self-righteous-asceticism that we has come to be associated with the Christian life.    See to download the talks in this series www.paulanderson-walsh.com/store/product_Audio_Pathway_Series.php

 

The point was made in the first session that abstinence of this type was not the message of Christianity at all.  The gate was referred to as narrow because it was a counter-intuitive opening.  It is not the way of self-validation.

 

 If we are to proceed along the ancient pathway that we stumbled upon in our first session, then the first thing that we must resolve in our minds is that the relationship between man and God is not based on any form of transaction or quid-pro-quo.   

 

At the very heart of all religious service is the need to balance the cost/benefit equation that is the gain if you do versus the pain if you don’t.   The thought process runs something like this: “I do A,B & C, then God will be obligated to do D,E & F; but if I fail to do G,H,I, then, God might do J,K,L and we don’t want that to happen. 

 

So first and foremost we must dismiss from our minds any notion that God operates in this way.  God is a God of covenant.  Moreover, his is a covenant of love.  More of that later.  Suffice for now to say that loves reward is to love. 

 

There is no us and them and no him an us, there is just Him in us and he is all and in all.   In the words of John in his most mystical of Gospel accounts: 

 

 

You’ll recall Thomas Merton’s statement that he doubted that there were no more than 20 men in the world who knew who they were.  

 

For most of us, we have become who others have thought we should be.  

We have made ourselves in the image of others of that others have had of us. 

We have been hardwired to focus on making a living not making  life.  

 

The answer to Merton’s question is contained in Psalm 82.  

 

 

The Text:

 

The word ‘selah’ means to pause, to reflect.  why don’t you take a few moments to do just that: pause, and reflect and capture your thoughts   what do you feel when you read the verses below? what conclusions can you draw?  who or what does the writer say we are? what are the implications of the statement in verse six in particular? 

 

1 God has taken his place in the divine council;in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 2 How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

 

3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

 

4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

 

5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding,they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

 

 

God stands in the assembly of gods; 

 

Q:   who are the gods in the assembly that God addresses?

Q:   how can there be more than one God?

Q:   how did God say that Moses would be received by Pharaoh Ex 7:1? 

 

...and in the midst of them all will judge gods.  How long will you judge unrighteously and accept the persons of sinners?

 

Q:  who is judging unjustly?

Q:  according to 1 Cor 6 who are the judges ?  

Q:  what are the implications of 1 Cor 6:1-8?

Q:  what is man that you are mindful of him? what is man that: the angels are           designated to serve him? or

Q:  that creation groans waiting for him to be revealed? or that 

Q:  the Godhead would give itself up for him? 

 

...I have said YE ARE GODS 

 

 

That means that the writer is not speaking about us in the  possessive sense, ie., you are God’s precious possession, but rather that we ourselves are gods, i.e., it is a descriptive statement of our nature.  Now I don’t expect you to feel very comfortable with me or this line of reasoning. So let m be clear, I am not offering a pantheist (many gods) view of the world, we are not gods apart from God, but we absolutely are a part of God.  How long will you judge unjustly?

 

Q: what does it mean to judge unrighteously?

A: an unrighteous judge is one who:  sees-at and can’t see-through

     is extrinsic and not intrinsic who judges with man’s measure and not with           God’s judges others by himself (+/-) 

 

Q:  when will we be qualified to judge the world? -

A:  when we can judge the world the way God judges it

 

Q  how does love judge? 

A: Love says: neither do I condemn you, whatever remains outstanding let it be charged to my a/c, here I am send me, save them and damn me.

 

These notes are designed to be read alongside the audio series: 

 www.paulanderson-walsh.com/store/product_Audio_Pathway_Series.php