SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING

I encountered some material on deification in my studies, and I'm doubtful about the point an author appears to be making - that deification was made ontologically possible only because of Jesus' death and resurrection.  This suggests people were not sons and daughters of God until that moment, which I'm inclined to disagree with.  Instead, I'm inclined to believe the event was more about revealing a pre-existing reality that, up to that moment, we did not have the level of consciousness to receive or understand.  This seems to be the exact message Paul attempts to convey to Timothy in the following passage:

He has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. - 2 Timothy 1:9-10 [emphasis mine]

It's like a mirror-image bookend to the story of the Fall.  In the garden legend, primordial man and woman become aware of a pre-existing nakedness.  Through an act of disobedience - a rejection of what God required of them, through an act of independent autonomy - they suddenly recognize the implications of a reality that had always been there, right under their noses (literally!) but up to that point had been unseen.  Then there's Jesus who, through an act of obedience - a submission to what man required of God, through an act of loving solidarity - we, like the couple in the garden, become aware of a truth about God, about humanity, and about the unbreakable interplay of love and identity that has always flowed between us. 

I'm reminded of a thought from John Duns Scotus, that Jesus didn't come to change the mind of God about man, but to change the mind of man about God.  Perhaps he came because we needed an exemplar, a living, flesh and blood embodiment of a truth that otherwise would've been too wondrous to imagine.  Perhaps he came because, as Paul says in Colossians, we were enemies of God in our minds; not that we were enemies in God's mind, but that we were, in fact, holding ourselves hostage on account of the pervasive shame we first felt upon leaving the garden.   It's as if we finally came to a place where we were ready to at least entertain God's loving message, "you don't have to hide anymore, and you never really did."  Amazingly enough, it's still a message we're trying to come to grips with.

theperennialjourney