BibleProject - The Christian Ideal Part 2: Our Divine Nature

Episode Date: September 21, 2017

This is part two of our discussion on the Christian Ideal. Tim, Jon and their colleague Paul Pastor continue their discussion on redefining and reimagining holiness. In the first part of the episode ...(0-11:45), they discuss what divine life looks like according to Old Testament authors and Peter in 2 Peter 1. The guys ponder on whether holiness is an attribute someone has, or if it is someone's nature. Then (12:00-20:00 ) they ask how are people supposed to participate in the divine life? They discuss how to best reframe holiness, from a word that conjures up stiff, uptight religion (like SNL's Church Lady), to a word that excites and inspires people with the possibility of living a transcendent and abundant life. Finally, (20:01-end) the guys talk about why we often stand in awe when we meet celebrities and some words that could be used as synonyms instead of holiness. They also ask what does living spellbound or enchanted with God's spirit look like? Thank you to all our supporters! Resources: Our theme video on Holiness: INSERT LINK Subscribe here and get an update when our workbook on Holiness will become available: INSERT LINK Music Credits: Defender Instrumental : Rosasharn Music Heal My Sorrows : Greyflood Where Peace and Rest Are Found : Greyflood

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st
Starting point is 00:00:17 and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode. Here's the episode.
Starting point is 00:00:33 Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode.
Starting point is 00:00:41 Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the episode. Here's the we're going to finish a conversation on the Christian ideal. It's a discussion about the biblical theme of holiness. If you haven't listened to the first hour of this conversation, I highly recommend that. It's the last podcast episode. We're having this conversation on holiness because we're making a workbook that will company the theme video of holiness. And so we had to get together and discuss what we wanted to cover, how we were going to frame the contents of the workbook.
Starting point is 00:01:11 And we began to wrestle with the question, what's going to make someone want to pick up a book on holiness? And as we thought about that, we realized that holiness is really an answer to a more basic question we have as humans, which is how do I live a full, complete, joyful life where relationships are right, where I myself feel good about who I am? It's a desire we all have, it's a desire for divine life. The Christian narrative is putting its some on the universal human feeling of lack of emptiness or of disappointment
Starting point is 00:01:51 or failure. And then in Jesus of Nazareth, who's embodiment of the whole story, he is that fullness meeting us on our own terms and then inviting us into something more. And who doesn't want to be a part of that kind of story? Many people don't want to be a part of an official religious institution, whether a person would say,
Starting point is 00:02:12 I want to participate in the divine nature. Most people would never say that, but I'm aware that I don't love as well as I ought to. So if we want to reframe holiness, we want to say that those longings and disappointments, those speak to something real. So today on the podcast, we talk holiness. How to participate in the divine nature. We're joined by Paul Pastor, a colleague of ours, just helping us write this workbook. Thanks for listening. Here we go. the completeness is the word divine. You know, like that was such a divine moment, that was a divine encounter.
Starting point is 00:03:07 I'm experiencing the divine. Yeah. That meal was divine. That meal was divine. And it's almost like we're talking about the quest for the divine in a way like this. I mean, I'm almost imagining the workbook being called something like, you know,
Starting point is 00:03:24 like seeking the divine or the life of the divine or something. But what does it mean practically to be looking for a life that is more full and more abundant than you normally experience it? Why do we have that? Yeah. And what does the Bible have to say about living that kind of life, seeking that kind of life? That now grabs me and I'm like, yeah, I want to know about that. And then I'll all of a sudden,
Starting point is 00:03:50 now I'm talking about these things, like God's holiness and purity laws. And I'm talking about all of a sudden, we talk about actually, that's a dangerous quest, you know? Think like while we live in an imperfect state, it's going to be a perilous kind of task at times. And so now all those things have a lot more bearing for me and are more interesting than just going into and talking abstractly about perfection and God's holiness.
Starting point is 00:04:19 And yeah, but yeah, but it raised the question, what does it mean for a human to become divine? Yeah. I mean, and some people get nervous for that kind of question, but I think that's the humans as far as my life experience, I don't realize any kind of divine ideal on a regular basis. Right. But I have moments where I experience something very powerful and transcendent, I wish they were more often. And it seems to me that's what the whole biblical tradition is calling humans into is
Starting point is 00:04:56 there is something more. Yeah, I mean, there's those moments where you realize, you know, like you've been working really hard at a relationship or something, and you're seeing the fruit of that, or you've been working really hard on a project to help you and to help other people and you see the fruit of that. And there's a sense of when it all starts working and evil isn't corrupting it, it's just kind of moving, you're like, whoa, this is, this feels right. And it is rare because there is a lot of corruption. And we never fully can realize these things even in our
Starting point is 00:05:34 best intentions. But that is something we long for. And I don't think anyone would be like, yeah, no, I don't really want that. I think people would say like, I don't know how to attain that. I don't think I ever would be able to, but no one would say, yeah, count me out of that. Deal me out. Yeah. Strikes me that some of the most direct advice as to how to live that ideal comes from the Apostle Paul in his writings.
Starting point is 00:05:58 And he always points back to the person of Jesus and the idea that if we are in Jesus, the holy one, we somehow take his life into ourselves and can begin manifesting that and living that in our individual lives, not just in relationship to a good life or what we might say as a holy or a morally pure life, but actually to the point where we get to inherit everything that he gets to inherit. It's this very abundant language where because he took on our poverty, we get his richness because he took on our death, we get his life. Yeah, and he says again and again, have the same mind in yourself that was in Jesus walk like Jesus
Starting point is 00:06:45 Yeah, that's where the stature of Jesus is that like can you connect to the same power that Jesus is connected to? Can that yeah the spirit of Jesus live inside of you? can you keep in step with it and yeah that? Becomes very it's not like a five-step program. No, yeah. I mean, in the video, we just actually just use one obscure Old Testament illusion in the Gospel of John. To do that, where we connected Ezekiel's River, he has a vision of God's holy presence emanating out of the temple to make the universe Yeah By a river. It's the what he sees is this image of a river flowing out of Jerusalem going to the
Starting point is 00:07:33 Most desolate place on the planet and the Dead Sea Valley and making it new and then in the gospel of John chapter 7. I think it is Jesus. I might be chapter 4 He made yes this phrase where he talks about for those who believe in me, streams of water will flow out of their bellies, flowing up to eternal life. Right. And he's picking up.
Starting point is 00:07:57 It's like you're care bearing. Well, cabbularing, yeah, from that vision, but he's what he's saying is, he talked, Jesus talked about himself as the temple. Yeah. And then he says those who come to me, participate in that living water. Participate in this divine stream.
Starting point is 00:08:11 Vitilizing life, it flows out of God and it goes out into creation and that people can participate in that. In the video on holiness, that's all we did with it. And then we're just like, and then just part of the stream. Be part of the stream. To be part of the stream.
Starting point is 00:08:30 Or something. But yeah, this brings us in then to the broader narrative and holiness just becomes one theme, one strand. Right. Then this is connected to then, living in the spirit. Yeah, all kinds of other, yeah, all sorts of things too.
Starting point is 00:08:48 But it's the Holy Spirit. Yeah, the Holy Spirit. So it is very connected. Yeah, and it's the Holy Spirit that makes people holy. Yeah. It makes them, and by that, it's their set apart,
Starting point is 00:08:59 but they're set apart because they're becoming more like the Holy God. They're participating more in the divine life. Yeah. Two words that we used earlier were mimic and participate in regards to how we relate to God's holiness. It strikes me that those are really interesting that we mimic who God is
Starting point is 00:09:17 and that we participate somehow in the space and the life that He's created to be a canvas for his abundance. In the second letter of Peter, he uses a phrase that Protestants haven't quite known what to do with, but the Eastern Orthodox traditions have really jumped on this, but he says in 2 Peter chapter 1, well, yeah, he opens it, grace and peace to you. God's divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness by truly knowing him who called us by his glory and excellence. And he says this, for by these traits is glory and excellence, he's granted to us his precious and magnificent promises so that by them, y'all may become participants in God's
Starting point is 00:10:14 divine nature, escaping the corruption that's in the world by lust. And then he goes on to give this ethical exhortation towards moral excellence knowledge self-control perseverance godliness So it he's he I don't think the word holiness appeared. Mm-hmm, but he's talking about it It's a nature thing. Yeah, call this theosis don't they? That's right. So it's there's a divine there's a divine character Just set of character traits that make God set him apart as holy. And the whole biblical story is God getting people to share more in that divine life. I can get behind that. It calls it glory and goodness. Yeah, that's right. Glory and goodness. Which are different ways to approach that same way. That's right. So once again, we're
Starting point is 00:11:01 to that thing. Holiness is just describing the difference between me and a being. It's a experience of interacting with glory and goodness. Yes. The glory and goodness, makes beauty and power are the things that are the ideal. That's really interesting then, because Peter here and then Paul as well,
Starting point is 00:11:19 they often do follow up these huge theological expositions obviously with with these opportunities to exhort and tell us how to live and maybe a way of thinking about it is to think of those exhortations as protocol as like the new protocol from approaching the holiness found in Jesus but now the holiness that's found in ourselves as well through the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. It's protocol when you come into contact with a being who is
Starting point is 00:11:51 life and love. Yeah. And anything having to do with life or death, I wonder if the same logic of the ritual purity laws would apply. There's also some purity language in this. If you continue on, verse 9, it says, whoever does not have them, the character qualities, is nearsighted in blind forgetting that they
Starting point is 00:12:13 have been cleansed. Yes. So what do we saying? So this guy just backed to the ideal in some little way, right? Like this points us. Well, yeah, we're saying that Peter here is talking about the desire for the ideal, the quest for the ideal. Which he calls the divine nature. Divine nature. Yes.
Starting point is 00:13:08 And he says that there is a divine power that we have in order to participate in it. To have a godly life. That's another way to talk about it. And it comes through this, the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and goodness. Is he talking about Jesus there? Or is he talking about God? Who is the calling one?
Starting point is 00:13:33 I think God, the Father is the calling one. Yes. I'm just noticing. So the phrase, sharers or participants of the divine nature, the word sharer is the word koinania, which is the common Greek New Testament word for participation or sharing. So it's, yes, actually in an earlier conversation that we weren't recording, we were talking about having a movement of the book on holiness be about participating in the divine life. And that's exactly the phrase that
Starting point is 00:14:10 uses right here. It says, so that through them referring to the promises, you may coin a knee in the divine nature. You may become, yeah, a coin, coin a knot, participate in the divine nature. And God's divine nature. Yeah. So what is it? Yeah, what is that seems to me, the anchor of all this is participating in the divine nature. Yeah. Yeah. That when the reverence the road, that's why all this matters. And holiness is is a good way to begin to unpack how the Bible thinks about that. Correct. Idea. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:49 Because in a sense, humans are already called a divine, an image of the divine. And they are images of the divine. I guess who are capable of being even more closely connected to divine. Through Jesus, who is the icon, right? Like the Greek word is the icon. Yeah, that's right. And so if we're in the, who is the icon, right? Like the Greek word is the icon. And so if we're in the icon who is, who is himself, not just an image, but also the reality behind the image, because he says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, and we're brought into him, there is
Starting point is 00:15:17 this sense of really intimate, mystical, strange union that is at the heart of the gospel. mystical, strange union that is at the heart of the gospel. You know, I suppose I think I'm not super well read on the history of like the Christian missionary effort, but there's a, you know, Christianity has been compelling to hundreds of millions of people, more. So what's up with that? There's something really powerful about a felt need of the human condition that I ought to be, but in reality I'm this. I ought
Starting point is 00:15:54 to be this, in reality I'm this. And yeah, like the biblical narrative, the Christian narrative is putting its thumb on a really universal human feeling of lack of emptiness or of disappointment or failure. And then in Jesus of Nazareth, who's embodiment of the whole story, he's this, he is that fullness meeting us on our own terms and then inviting us into something more. And who doesn't want to be a part of that kind of story? Many people don't want to be a part of an official religious institution, you know, that's trying to get more elizon or more elizon or something, but
Starting point is 00:16:39 in many people find fullness in lots of different kinds of things, but that is the essence of the story. And whether a person would say, I want to participate in the divine nature. Most people would never say that, but they wouldn't use that language. You wouldn't use that language. But I'm aware that I don't love as well as I ought to, and I'm very aware that I'm mortal. It's becoming more clear to me every day. I want abundance. Yes.
Starting point is 00:17:04 Yeah. We all say abundance. Yes. Yeah. We all say that. Yep. Yeah. So if we want to reframe holiness for people, we want to say that those longings and disappointments are real and that they, this is a CSList theme, I guess, then. Either we're just projecting our desires and hopes onto the universe
Starting point is 00:17:31 and we're just making this out. Or those speak to something real, that we actually live in a world where it's possible, where those needs and desires speak to something that can meet them. That's a pretty radical claim to say that that kind of life interacting with that kind of life is possible. Not just some fantasy that you can live a life that is much bigger than common life, this divine life. It's also becoming clear to me, okay, so here's another thing I'm thinking about. If this is just about holiness, there's some clarity for me about the word holiness, which
Starting point is 00:18:17 is it's really just that moment. I love you talking about being at the shore. It's this moment of coming in touch with something transcendent and realizing how other that thing is and how small you are and realizing how grand and awesome it is but also how dangerous it is. It's those mix of emotions that's this very nuanced, beautiful moment that is the word holiness. We describe that as encountering something holy. Now if that's all we're trying to do is tell people
Starting point is 00:18:55 that's what holiness is, we can just write that chapter. And then we can be like, that's holiness. And then we can maybe throw some stuff in about how does purity laws fit into that and how does Jesus talk about it and change. And we can talk about the narrative. But if we do want to wrap this, the other opportunity is to wrap this in a bigger conversation of why is that such a special moment? And is there any hope for kind of going through the veil and connecting to that holy thing in a way
Starting point is 00:19:27 that won't destroy you and but will make you complete? And that's the that's a bigger narrative that I'm wondering do we want to tackle that in this book? It's interesting to think through the book of Hebrews in relation to that, the way that Jesus unites God's nature with the protocol of approaching him. He is our great high priest who has really united in himself the demand and the satisfaction of the demand. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, the letter to the Hebrews picks up the priestly traditions of the Old Testament that point out this gap and then says that
Starting point is 00:20:07 yeah the incarnate son of God is the fulfillment, the embodiment for me has gone from being a word that's difficult and loaded and feels even a little trite to feeling more inspiring and almost wishing that we did have it in a normal language. It's that moment of like that, of this moment of transcendence, this moment of I've encountered something really special and and bigger and more complete and I got to I got to come in contact with it if only by by vicinity, you know, like I've only got to sort of see it, but I want more of it. You know, if you ever met a celebrity, there's this sense of like, whoa, I'm right next to you. And for whatever reason, they just feel bigger than life. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:45 More important. And it's this exhilarating, like, feeling. And usually that's because we ascribe to them some kind of more full existence. Yeah. They, they must be a human who's like more, just a better human. More human. Superhuman. Yeah, we actually have some friends of ours, They must be a human who's like more just a better human more human super human
Starting point is 00:22:05 Yeah, we actually have some friends of ours their neighbors and friends They met the Pope recently and and The husband and wife and and the wife she was describing what it was like to meet the Pope Yeah, what kind of words do you use in this? compelling fascination or whatever we talk. Yeah, I mean she said it was it was like to meet the Pope. Yeah, what kind of words do you use in this situation? Compelling fascination. Or whatever we talk about. Yeah, I mean, she said it was like,
Starting point is 00:22:29 one of those moments where you're not in control of yourself. And so she ended up like looking away for a moment and then she turned back and he was standing in front of her and then her cell phone was in her hand to take a picture and she grabbed the Pope's hand and put the cell phone in his her hand to take a picture and she grabbed the Pope's hand and put the cell phone in his hand. Just didn't know why. He just was all sudden.
Starting point is 00:22:50 And then all of a sudden she's putting her cell phone in the Pope's hand, smiling and not knowing what to say. And someone took a picture of that moment for her. And so she was showing me this picture of her looking into the eyes of the Pope. She lost her faculties. Yeah, totally. Be rich. But so we, yeah, but that's a good example where she's
Starting point is 00:23:09 bewitched, yeah. But these are almost always people that we don't know. Therefore, we, we describe some mystery to them. Superhuman quality to them. Yeah. And then when we encounter them, we feel like we're in the presence of something of the holy. Right. Interesting. It is interesting. Yeah. Coming back for a moment to reclaiming the word, what do you guys think about,
Starting point is 00:23:32 because I'm thinking about how to handle like myths of holiness? What do you think about having like synonyms, like almost like a little fake thessarus and a real thessarus of how the Bible uses holy. Like these are words that you might replace holy with in your life. Errogant, moralistic, naysaying, you know, you think of church lady from SNL, you know. Yeah, stuffy, stuffy, boring. But in the Bible's imagination, holy, this is actually the opposite of all those things. Part of this workbook will be making that shift. So where when you hear that word, you get excited instead of deflated. And that's the sense I've been just like after this conversation, the word now has this user word sparkle before. But it has this quality too, which is just kind of like,
Starting point is 00:24:22 it has some more pop and excitement and vitality where before it just fell a little kind of dead. Yeah. Yeah. What if you could interview Moses after the burning bush? What words would he use to describe? Sparkly. Would he encounter? Sparkly. He'd be sparkly. Or Isaiah. Yeah. Yeah, or yeah, exactly. Okay. So full circle, the ideal, I don't know if we have to start by trying to describe the sense of the divine or desire for the divine, but I still think it might be a good place to start. The idea is, again, just to flush it out, start with, we all desire this divine life. We could start there, and then go, you know, what is that? This abundant, complete, full, and then to take a step back and say in the next chapter, why does that even exist or does it exist and who authored it?
Starting point is 00:25:25 And what does it say about the author if someone put that together this ideal? And then that's then talking about God as being holy. And then by the fact that he is the author of it, he is holy as an act and then and then by the fact that he is the author of it he is holy as an attribute because he's the only one who's created something so awesome. So not only are you in the are you in the vicinity of the ocean being stoked out of your mind, you can be in an vicinity of the god who invented the ocean, which is even more transcendent and divine. Yeah, I think the biblical authors, but especially here the poets of the Psalms, I'm thinking of Psalm 19 where you look at the sky and it's a statement or a testimony to God's glory and then it just describes the arc of a sun in just a day's rotation of the earth.
Starting point is 00:26:40 You know, in all this metaphor and I don don't think, I don't, pretty certain the word holiness doesn't appear anywhere in the, in that poem. But the encounter that I'm having with the ocean on that day is the encounter the poets inviting you to have looking at the sun, crossing this guy. And in both of those cases, you're being invited to, those cases, you're being invited to see a person behind these realities. What I'm actually encountering when I'm overwhelmed, compellingly fascinated by the pounding surf is the author of the surf. That's how the biblical authors want me to think. So I am encountering a person when I'm encountering the power of the
Starting point is 00:27:26 And and the modern Westerners have so many hang-ups viewing the world that way, but it becomes to What what's the Pantheistic maybe it feels it smacks of that. Oh, well, I guess there's that Yeah, there's I guess there's that. Yeah, there's, I guess, more Eastern worldviews that the ocean is the ocean is the bottom of the divine. I'm more thinking about the modern Western kind of enlightenment child. Nothing but H2O molecules. I live in a disenchanted world. I just, you know, it's just molecules crashing into each other. Well, and Play-Dos in there too, whenever we talk about this idea of the ideal, oh yeah, it becomes this very platonic calculus.
Starting point is 00:28:13 Which may not help us, you're saying? Yeah, it doesn't help us, because it's almost too close to the biblical imagination. In this sense, I don't want to rabbit trail us, but Play-Dos' whole idea is that everything we see is a faulty reflection of something that is essential, that is beyond this reality. But the biblical imagination says, no, this is a corrupted version, but it's not a faulty reflection. And actually, the capacity for goodness is woven in everything that we see, not only as a reflection, but in its real, essential creative form. Well, you're saying that's a liability using the word ideal instead of it.
Starting point is 00:28:52 It's far less. I think we can move away from the word ideal and talk more about divine completeness. Our fullness completeness. Divine as an adjective. Maybe divine and we unpack it. Full complete, abundant. Yeah, and we unpack it for complete abundant. Yeah, yeah, I guess I don't.
Starting point is 00:29:08 I'm trying to think there is divine as an adjective to talk about how awesome something is, a meal. Yeah, but are we looking for a noun? Oh, I see. What is it in second Peter, isn't it a? Divine. Divine. It's the word deity, but then as an adjective.
Starting point is 00:29:24 As an adjective. Divine. Yeah. But if we're looking for a noun, what would the noun be? Is it too vague to say God's life? Like his kind of life, his method of existence, his mode of being? It's's gotta be a biblical author that shows a noun at one point to describe this. Yeah, I'm trying to think. So just, to just to vote, glory? Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:51 When we talked about this last time, I think glory would be the... Glory is the noun. Yeah. That's another word you have to unpack though. Yeah, yeah. Let's find a word we don't have to. I know.
Starting point is 00:30:01 I know. Yeah, well, we don't have to find it now. But, cool. I think this helps a lot. Does it help you, Paul? We don't have to find it now, but Cool, I think this helps a lot Does help you Paul it does it helps me very much cool great. No, just write it I'll get started on that. Yes Yeah, this will be really really exciting workbook if we if
Starting point is 00:30:29 Yeah, if we can bring people from the stodgy feeling of holiness to this very enchanted and compelling fascination of this life, yeah. Man, is there something there? Ah, this is the whole other conversation. Bring it. Well, this whole idea of being under spell fascinated. And this idea of being connected to God's spirit and having the mind of Christ. I've been always just trying to think practically, does that mean I'm actually, I get to turn off, you know when you're in a flow state, I'm sorry I'm just rambling,
Starting point is 00:31:17 you're in some sort of flow state and it's like you're just firing on all cylinders and you're not really being consciously aware of all the decisions you're making, you're just making them intuitively and effectively. And I wonder if that's, it's almost a sense of your under spell, right? You're connected to this kind of like energy, some people call it the muse, you know. And you lose yourself.
Starting point is 00:31:44 And then there's something very similar to that. It seems to be with being walking in the spirit, having the mind of Christ, these kind of things, which is living life in such a way where you lose your sense of self, you aren't so consciously trying to control everything and you're living out of this other power. And in a way, you could say you're fascinated.
Starting point is 00:32:08 You're enchanted or you're spellbound in a way. Paul talks about this when he talks about basically living out the life of Christ in such a way that he feels like he's actually dead. And that Jesus' life has come to life inside him, so that it's the Messiah working out the works of the Messiah. It's not me living. Paul, yeah, it's not me living, but Christ.
Starting point is 00:32:32 The Messiah living in me. In me, and... Or you'll say, I worked harder than any of the other puzzles that planting churches. And they'll say, but it was God's grace. Yeah. His over abundant... It was for me working through. And maybe we're back to Jesus talking about how the living
Starting point is 00:32:47 water will flow out of us. This idea of total abundance and giving where it's not sourced in us, but it is flowing through us. Yeah, and it's us. Yeah, I mean, but it's not us. Yeah, well, that's the sense you get when like you were driving a not-o-pilot, right? You drove and all of a sudden you get when like you were driving on autopilot right. You drove and all of a sudden you're there and you're like how did I I didn't do just do that but you did
Starting point is 00:33:10 it or like if you're if you're doing some creative writing or drawing and you just kind of get in that flow state and all of a sudden there's a 500 words on the page and you're like whoa did I write that? Sure. I think it's that kind of thing. Yeah, we're close to, this is, yeah, a Holy Spirit territory in terms of theme video, but this is also, I was reading and reflecting on David's final poem in the book of Samuel, second Samuel 23, and he opens it as a prophetic utterance. The utterance of the son of Jesse raised up on high, the utterance of the sweet one of the songs of Israel.
Starting point is 00:33:52 And then he says, God spoke by me, his word was on my tongue. And then he goes on to give this little parable about how a righteous king is like the sun shining on a cloudless morning, reflecting off the dew of the grass and making the grass grow. And then how when a bad king reigns, he's like thorns that grow up and dry out and then you have to cut them down and burn them in the fire. And then those are the last words of David in that poem. But one, it's one of the few statements in the Old Testament explicitly about the nature of inspiration. David wrote a poem, he woke up and wrote a little parable one day about a righteous king and a bad king. And it turns out that he was ended up being both.
Starting point is 00:34:49 You read this at the end of the family and I was like, oh yeah, David, you were actually were in both of these modes. But then the statement about inspiration was the word, no, God spoke by means of me, his word on my tongue. And so he was clearly in full possession of his faculties. He wrote the poem. Yeah. Like no one else wrote it, he wrote it.
Starting point is 00:35:13 But he recognized there's something different about his. Yes, that's right. And so there's a moment, and the biblical story is full of this. I mean, I think the story's trying to tell us this ought to be our normal way of living in the world. Right.
Starting point is 00:35:26 Is so in touch with the divine life that we are, you could say we are just expressions of God's character in the world. And then all the ethical exhortations of the Bible are to be in that mode. Yeah. It's describing that mode. Yeah, but for me, what's fascinating is, especially in modern Western Protestantism, Churchy entity, whatever, we've so divided those two, that if God's really at work, it must not be me. Or if it's me, then it's not God.
Starting point is 00:35:58 And then we bring that to the Bible. We then, while the sudden, if the Bible is a divine word, it has to be a magical book that fell out of heaven. It can't really have too many human fingerprints on it. Or else we start to get a hot and sweaty and nervous, right? Once the human agency of the biblical authors is really highlighted. But it comes into all these other ways, too, where I really am... It's an idea that says, I become myself most fully when I'm most full of the divine life.
Starting point is 00:36:29 I'm not less myself. I'm more myself than ever when I'm in touch with the divine life. While you are also dead to yourself. Well, but, well, totally, when I want to highlight how it's different than my, my whatever more selfish mode of existing, I'll say it's not me, it's the Messiah living in me. But then when I want to talk about it in terms of the image of God in our era, it's in
Starting point is 00:36:54 becoming what God made me to be. I'm fully me. Then it's me. And word of the Lord is on my tongue. It's my tongue. And it's God's word on my tongue. Yeah. It's my tongue. And it's God's word on my tongue, anyway. All right, that's a good place to end. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project.
Starting point is 00:37:13 This workbook will be done sometime early next year. If you want to know when it's done, make sure to sign up for our email updates from our website. And you'll get to know everything that's going on at the Bible Project. You can sign up for that at thebibletproject.com. We've got lots of other free resources available. They're on our YouTube channel and our website. Also, we have a new podcast. Tim has a couple decades worth of teachings that we are re-editing and putting them up on a podcast called Exploring My Strange Bible. So make sure you've checked that out as well.
Starting point is 00:37:46 Thanks for being a part of this with us. you

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