A Religious Relationship by Rote 

Early in my walk with Christ, I had a very intellectual relationship with him. He was very much my Rabbi; I read His word and willed myself into obedience. He is gracious and merciful so I am sure those acts of obedience mattered to him because in my heart I know I wanted to please him and yet my vision of Christ was limited. The manner in which I beheld Him in my mind and in my heart was deeply flawed for I didn’t understand, perceive, or comprehend Him as my personal God; I understood Him as a man who walked this earth 2,000 years ago whose example I was striving to implement and follow as a way of self-betterment and self-discipline. Essentially, Jesus was not my savior, but my self-help guide and guru. 

For a time, I didn’t have the vocabulary to describe this experience until I happened upon this excerpt from Classic Christianity: “In other words, Stan, did you accept Jesus the man? Or did you accept Jesus Christ the God who became a man, who was raised again from the dead? He who is Lord and is alive today? The Lord Jesus Christ who offers to come and live inside of you and give His very life to you?”When I read the words, I was reclined on my sage love-seat. Tears rolled down my face as I prayed to this Jesus for I had never accepted him until that day in 2023. I won’t go into nuances about whether or not I was truly a Christian. That’s not the purpose of my writing. Yet, my life was not an embodiment of Romans 14:17 or Galatians 5:6 though I desperately desired it to be. 

Romans 14:17 utters, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” If the kingdom of God was a matter of experiencing and emanating righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit that didn’t define my experience because in all my self-effort and bible study, I couldn’t muster up these qualities.  Galatians 5:6 utters, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” What was meant by “in Christ?” and what was this business about “faith working through love”? How was one to measure and manufacture these phenomena? The spiritual realities, meaning the actual happenings, actions, events, that occur in the unseen parts of Christianity were not only a mystery to me, they were completely foreign. 

My Jesus was relegated to the pages of the bible. He was essentially a voice imprisoned on paper, like a recipe or a rule to follow. He was not living, breathing, speaking, or walking with me in reality. I couldn’t see him and could barely hear him. 

Intellectually, I knew that Jesus was alive and well but my life was not an outpouring of this truth. Instead, I mused over my own problems. They were idols that I had hewn with my own hands and my ruminations were the back and forth movements of an adze, carving the idol’s eyes, mouth, arms, and limbs. Essentially, my problems became the graven images I worshipped. I was led by emotions of fear and the desire to control more than by the indwelling inspiration of the Spirit. This was partially due to the fact that there was very little of a supernatural element to my religion. My religion was following instructions, advice, and fearful emotions. I had become convinced that my walk with The Most High-Invisible-Spirit-God, who created all things through simply speaking, through simply existing and emanating forth the creative, good, pure life that was in Him–should exist by rote!

A Revelation of Theophany 

The unseen spiritual qualities of God, the corporeal manifestations of Him, and the spiritual disciplines given to the believer are meant to exist and work in tandem. When one of these elements is lacking, the spiritual life is dull, unfulfilling, and has no impact nor transformation on the soul. I lacked a balance between the ethereal, divine, even mystic aspects of Christianity, the physical manifestation of Christ as a Man, and my responsibilities of reading the Word, confession, fellowship, evangelism, and the other spiritual disciplines. I majored in the spiritual disciplines but I minored in my understanding of this Great God and Christ who became man.  Yet, now, God in His grace is bringing balance by giving me a growing understanding of this Great God and Christ through the revelation of Theophany.  

In His article, Theophany, Vern Poythress asserts, “A theophany is an appearance of God. Alternatively, we may say that it is an intense manifestation of the presence of God, accompanied by an extraordinary visual display. ” Theophany reveals the beautiful tension between the Holy otherness of Yahweh and His great desire to be amongst His creation. How does a Holy God exist among his lowly, sinful creation?

An Example From Lord of the Rings

When I ponder this, I am reminded of Gandalf the Gray when he approaches Theoden of Rohan while he is still under the spell of Wormtongue. Gandalf endeavors to release Theoden from Wormtongue’s spell while he is still cloaked under the greyness of his…well, the greyness of his grey cloak. Then, out of Theoden’s mouth rolls an insulting laugh and he says, “you have no power here.” Suddenly Gandalf uncloaks himself and the luminosity of all his white glory is beholden. The wearing of his grey cloak was an act of humility, for the benefit of the weak eyes of the lower creatures, namely, man. He cloaked himself in order to be seen by them in a way that would neither harm, nor overwhelm them, yet he remained himself: pure, wise, and a servant of the sacred fire. 

This is theophany at work, albeit in a smaller, meaner manner.

Theophany with Moses

 It astounds me that a God, so great in Holiness, Might, and Power would take on a lesser form, like that of an angel in a flame in order to be perceived by His fallen creation. This is what He does when He appears to Moses in the flames of that famous burning, yet unconsumed, bush. 

[Exo 3:2 NLT] 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up.
In my imagination and through the influence of Michael Heiser, this is what I see in my mind when I read this scripture: a glorious form in the shape of a man with flames around him emanating from the center of a bush. I used to think it was simply a voice coming from a bush that was on fire and yet, the scripture says “appeared to him in a blazing fire” not “appeared to him as a blazing fire”. Does it matter? Essentially, yes.  If God appeared to Moses as a blazing fire, that’s cool and miraculous. But, if God appeared to him inside of a blazing fire in a form akin to man, a form that is burning because it is too divine for a sinful man to touch but in a form akin to man, so he can be perceived with a sinful eye–does that not invoke awe, reverence, and the desire for connection? If it was simply a burning bush, surely Moses would want to gaze upon it in wonder, much like we may want to gaze at a blazing sunset, but if there was a human-like form within the fire, wouldn’t that pull him into divine encounter and divine conversation, leaving him not just awed, but also personally touched? Perhaps with a desire whispering thus, can I too burn like this without being consumed?

The Gospel of Theophany

Humans need both awe, connection, and dreams that go beyond ourselves. I need to be wowed, wooed, and filled with wonder. We are designed for connection, destined for greatness, but in desperate need of humility. Theophany meets these needs and creates a model for how to be holy, humble, and held which is good news since our Heavenly Father is holy and humble and holds all things together.  Holy because that is Who He Is and Who He Will Always Be. There is no need for theological discourse into why God is Holy. That’s His business. And yet, He chooses humility out of His love for us. He needs not cloak himself, but does so for our benefit.  He cloaks himself to change and embrace us. 

This is why Christ came. 

Before, when my religion was by rote it was because I lacked real relationship. Now, I am learning to understand this Jesus this pure, blazing, Christ who exists “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto” yet who “gave up his divine privileges” and “took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being” who “humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” Why? Because He loved me, wanted to be with me, and wanted to show me who I am destined to be in Him. 

There are some things that are too beautiful for words, too beautiful to exist only in sound, utterance, or impressions of ink on paper. It’s these things that must sink into the very fibers of our being, to become us–for the beauty and glory of their impression and their effect lies only in being personally experienced, lived out, and fully manifested in a living form. A living, breathing image. 

This is why Christ came and why he came cloaked so that he could be beheld and experienced. This  is also why Christ still extends his hand, still knocks on the doors of our hearts, so that He, himself, can again come in and be cloaked with our broken flesh for our benefit. When we accept Him, He burns within our hearts and because of His blood, we are not consumed.  For even as He lives within our fallen forms He clothes us in the flames of His glorious one through His righteousness and His blood.