Month: December 2021

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BEYOND TRANSACTIONAL PRAYER: DEEP REFLECTIONS ON THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT IN CHRISTIAN NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS – By Pst Dele A Ilesanmi-Bamigbade, PhD

TRANSACTIONAL PRAYER

The current move in our religious life seems to be incongruous to, a sharp detour from, the divine instructions. Our current tilting towards or rather tripping into the transactional theology has downplayed the relational theology. This, in no small measure, has devastating effects on the spiritual life of the church.

Click here for more 👉  https://www.deleilesanmi.com/blog/home/news_description/110/BEYOND-TRANSACTIONAL-PRAYER-DEEP-REFLECTIONS-ON-THE-BIRTH-OF-JESUS-CHRIST-AND-THE-NEED-FOR-A-PARADIGM-SHIFT-IN-CHRISTIAN-NEW-YEARS-RESOLUTIONS-By-Pastor-Dele-A-Ilesanmi-Bamigbade, PhD
The current move in our religious life seems to be incongruous to, a sharp detour from, the divine instructions. Our current tilting towards or rather tripping into the transactional theology has downplayed the relational theology. This, in no small measure, has devastating effects on the spiritual life of the church.


At the beginning of every year, people tend to make some resolutions that they hope to spark positive change. Churches organize prayer programmes that will usher in better life for members and the nations of the world. Nations, communities, groups, associations, families, and individuals are not left out in their move to make some resolutions at the outset of every year. It will interest you to know that 90% of these resolutions are transactional in nature while 10% are relational. It will also interest you to know that some of the church programmes we organize towards the end and at the beginning of every year are transactional in nature.


Today, we live in a highly consumer-driven and on-demand culture society. Hence, our prayer time is spent focusing more on what we want, or what we think we need, or what we want to get from God than simply resting in God’s presence. We spent hours praying to God without knowing Him, without personal relationship with Him – it is highly paradoxical. The Gospel goes beyond transactional. It is dangerous to reduce the presence of God to mere transactions. The present rising cliché of “name it and claim it” theology has had devastating effects on spiritual depth and understanding. When we pray, we expect immediate answer. When we do something good, we expect God to compensate us immediately. This new theology is antithetical to biblical instructions.


In God’s creation, the passage of time is marked by days, months, seasons, and years. We experience each interval, whether it is twenty-four hours of a day, thirty days of a month, or several months of a season, or twelve months of a year without interruption. Yet, when the year begins to wind down, we often feel surprised and wonder where the days went. We lead busy lives, and it can be easy to simply let the year come to an end without much thought or feeling, especially, we the Christians we organize series of programmes such as moment of miracles, eleventh hour miracles, last minutes miracles, etc without given thought to how these miracles will be handled. No adequate time given to members to set aside special time for personal prayer and quiet time with the Lord that will help us conclude the year in a meaningful way and prepare ourselves for the New Year. No wonder New Year Resolutions are made out of emotion without the depth of thought.
It is very important we take enough time to reflect on the year we’ve just passed through whether it is worthwhile or not to make necessary adjustment or improve on the current conditions of our lives. If we take time to consider the many ways the Lord had cared for us, physically, materially and spiritually, in the last one year, a sense of thankfulness will arise in our hearts. This will, again, engender miracle or blessings in the New Year. We’ll realize that in both our difficult circumstances and joyous occasions, the Lord has been constantly caring for us. It is because of His mercy that we have not been consumed (Lamentation 3:22-23).


Prayer can be transactional, relational and transformational. Transactional prayer or religion centres on contract or economic deal-making. For example, when a pastor says to his congregational members, if you can give so and so amount of money, you will see the hand of God or God will do want you are asking Him to do (even though you are a sinner). You must give to get or you must give to receive (Luke 6:38). It is what I call the Principle of Transactional theology. If this kind of theology is not carefully handled, it will be devastating to the spiritual health of man. There is nothing wrong with transactional prayer but the Gospel of Christ, our prayer, and dealing with God must not be reduced to transaction. The danger here is that the unsaved or unbeliever will say: “so if I can give to the work of God (even though the source of the money is not clean), I will be saved and/or blessed”. This is purely transactional. This will be discussed extensively in our next article by God’s grace. Given this analogy, we have reduced God to an ATM machine: when we need Him, we go to Him for transaction. For example, during the eve of every New Year, people come to church to seek His hands (and not His face). This is not good for our spiritual life.


The current move of God is that He’s transitioning us from knowing His works to knowing His ways. Therefore, let us move from transactional prayer to relational one. And when we do make this transition, everything changes—our prayers, our worship, and our lives. We will no longer treat God like an ATM machine, or even see ourselves by what we do for God, but by what He’s doing in and through us as we walk with Him. Thus, God wants relationship more than transacting business with Him. Relational prayer is very important at this end-time period. Our relationship with God must be cordial first. When we seek His face, His hands will be released to us. God wants Relational Prayer first. The Transactional Prayer is imbedded in Relational Prayer that will give birth to Transformation. Thus, both Transactional and Transformational Theologies are subset of Relational Theology. Hence, God said in 2Chronicles 7:14-15 that:


If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attend unto the prayer that is made in this place.

There are three realms associated to this kind of theologies: transactional, transformational, and relational. These realms area earthly realm, supernatural realm, and heavenly realm. All these realms will be explained in great details in my next article. But to get to the relational level, we need to get to the heavenly realm. Hear what Mel Wild says here:


In the lowest, earthly realm, we might see the works of God. In the second realm, or supernatural realm, we do the works of God: the focus on miracles, healing, and trying to figure out how to do the “stuff.” But in the highest, heavenly realm, the focus is on knowing His ways. Living from heaven to earth always starts and ends with God. It’s never based on needs, learning how to get prayers answered, or even about ministry. Every problem we face here on earth is seen as an opportunity to deepen the relationship in heaven. Prayer becomes communing with and learning the Father’s heart, and the fruit of this relational exchange is that we’re a little more like Christ in our experience.


This is how God fathers us in all things. This is how our souls are trained to walk in rest. And from this place of rest, God determines what we need, what we’re to learn, what we’re to do, and He makes provision for all of it. It must be emphasized here that this is the very opposite of doing things from a transactional understanding of God, even our trying to enter into the rest in God with this paradigm. We’ll still be praying prayers that have already been answered and trying to attain things we’ve already been given as a free gift. Whatever we need is found in the relationship, God will provide everything. This sounds strange and scary to people who have a transactional view of God! It did to the children in the wilderness, too. The truth is, it locates our heart. We also cannot live this way if we’re living from the first two realms. Because it’s more than just saying we believe it, and you can’t hype your faith up enough to make it work. Only by total surrender, learning to live in the heavenly realm (rather poorly at first!), can our hearts be transformed so that as we learn God’s ways, we’re also learning to trust Him in all things.

Still on the birth of our lord Jesus Christ, when we ask questions: why Christmas? Or, why did God send Jesus to the earth? Many answers that are transactional in nature are given. Some say: to save us from the hands of the devil; to take away our sins; to redeem mankind; to remove our shame; to heal all of our diseases; to conquer death so that we could go to heaven; etc. All these answers are true. But sincerely, this is barely scratching the surface of the Gospel. All these are the TRANSACTIONAL elements of the Gospel message. But, according to Kevan Grinwis, to say that Jesus came to redeem us implies that He came to purchase us back FROM something which further implies that He is ultimately restoring us TO something. He is restoring humanity to holiness, honor health, life, and many more. But, Bible says, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Let us here this again from the Book of John 10:7-10:

7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

We can see that the Gospel is beyond TRANSACTIONAL. Jesus is the Eternal Life, through Him salvation came to man without transacting any business with anyone. Jesus said in John 10:17 that “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father”.

Kevan Grinwis elucidates further thus:
The Gospel is a story of broken relationship. It is a story of furious longing and violent love in which our Father stopped at nothing to purchase back His sons who had foolishly sold themselves into bondage and chosen a life of sin and shame. It is a story of restoration to the relationship for which we were eternally created.


Think about it, when we read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, we would miss out horribly if we stopped at the fact that the father gave his lost son a new ring, a new robe, and new sandals for his feet. There’s so much more to the story. There’s the fact that he was waiting and watching. There’s the running. The embrace. The father profusely kissing his son who, very likely smelled like pig dung. Then, there’s the party. I can imagine the prodigal son sitting at the table, next to his father. I can’t imagine that he was all that focused on the ring, the robe, and the sandals at that moment. But, I imagine that he just sat in wonder and amazement at this father that still was willing to call him son and still wanted to be in relationship with him after where he’d been and all that he’d done.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrews used a word commonly translated in English “to know”. It is the ancient word “Yada” and it means to know intimately. It’s not an academic knowledge or a cerebral attainment to a truth. It’s not the ability to rightly disseminate fact from fiction or the strict adherence to right doctrine. In fact, it’s the word that Moses chose when he first wrote down the historical account of Adam and Eve. In the NASB translation of Genesis 4.1, we read that Adam “had relations” with his wife Eve, and she conceived. The KJV says, “Adam knew his wife…”. While, the NIV says, “Adam made love to his wife…”. The word here in the Hebrew text is the word “Yada“. It is the word that is used to describe Moses relationship with God when the Scriptures say that Moses knew God, face-to-face, as a man knows his friend. It is the word that Solomon chose to use in Proverbs 3 when he instructed us to acknowlege God in all of our ways.
This, my friends, is the concept that Jesus had in mind in John 17.3 when He said…
“‘This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent’.” – John 17.3 NASB

Today, I encourage you to see Jesus as the door that He described Himself to be, to see that the Gospel is a story of restored relationship first. There are transactional elements, yes. But, when we make them paramount, we miss the main point. We begin to believe that Jesus came to give us something, which essentially is true – but the “something” is Himself. Let us rather seek His face rather than His hands. For, it is in the light of His face that we behold the glory of the Gospel, and thereby reflect the reckless, extravagant love of the Father which transforms us, and re-images us to our eternal purpose in Christ – sons, stewards, and ambassadors

WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW?
The answer is very simple. We need to offer a fresh consecration to the Lord. Before anything else, we need to understand that sins can negatively affect our relationship or walk with our Maker in the New Year if we don’t confess them before crossing over so that they will not be carry over. In 1 John 1:9-10, the Bible says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” After confessing our sins, the intimate fellowship with the Lord should begin immediately without wasting time. This time of intimacy with God is also when we can offer a new consecration to Him. With a new year before us, we can give every aspect of ourselves and our lives to Him. By consecrating ourselves to the Lord, we can be kept walking in the Lord’s way, grow in His life, allow God to work in us, and be brought into the enjoyment of the riches of God’s salvation. We can consecrate ourselves to the Lord by praying something simple like this:


Lord Jesus, thank you for all you have done for me over the past years. Thank you for your faithfulness, mercy and love. Lord, I love you. I offer myself to you again. I give the New Year to you. I want to grow in you each day. Keep me in your way. Lord, I allow you to work in me throughout this year and beyond in Jesus’ name.

It is very inimical to Christianity when we reduce the Gospel to a mere transaction, we sell it tragically short of its majesty, beauty, and incomprehensible glory (apology to Kevan Grinwis). It is therefore imperative to make a paradigm shift from transactional Gospel to Relational Gospel.

HAPPY NEW YEAR
You can send your comments to:
info@deleilesanmi.com or pstdeleilesanmi3@gmail.com
or WhatsApp: 08062197040
www.deleilesanmi.com

Posted on

BEYOND TRANSACTIONAL PRAYER: DEEP REFLECTIONS ON THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT IN CHRISTIAN NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS. By Pastor D.A Ilesanmi-Bamigbade, Ph.D

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TRANSACTIONAL GOSPEL

The current move in our religious life seems to be incongruous to, a sharp detour from, the divine instructions. Our current tilting towards or rather tripping into the transactional theology has downplayed the relational theology. This, in no small measure, has devastating effects on the spiritual life of the church

At the beginning of every year, people tend to make some resolutions that they hope to spark positive change. Churches organize prayer programmes that will usher in a better life for members and the nations of the world. Nations, communities, groups, associations, families, and individuals are not left out in their move to make some resolutions at the outset of every year. It will interest you to know that 90% of these resolutions are transactional in nature while 10% are relational. It will also interest you to know that some of the church programmes we organize towards the end and at the beginning of every year are transactional in nature.

Today, we live in a highly consumer-driven and on-demand culture society. Hence, our prayer time is spent focusing more on what we want, or what we think we need, or what we want to get from God than simply resting in God’s presence. We spent hours praying to God without knowing Him, without a personal relationship with Him – it is highly paradoxical. The Gospel goes beyond transactional. It is dangerous to reduce the presence of God to mere transactions. The present rising cliché of “name it and claim it” theology has had devastating effects on spiritual depth and understanding. When we pray, we expect an immediate answer. When we do something good, we expect God to compensate us immediately. This new theology is antithetical to biblical instructions.

In God’s creation, the passage of time is marked by days, months, seasons, and years. We experience each interval, whether it is twenty-four hours of a day, thirty days of a month, or several months of a season, or twelve months of a year without interruption. Yet, when the year begins to wind down, we often feel surprised and wonder where the days went. We lead busy lives, and it can be easy to simply let the year come to an end without much thought or feeling, especially, we the Christians we organize a series of programmes such as the moment of miracles, eleventh-hour miracles, last minutes miracles, etc without given thought to how these miracles will be handled. No adequate time is given to members to set aside special time for personal prayer and quiet time with the Lord that will help us conclude the year in a meaningful way and prepare ourselves for the New Year. No wonder New Year Resolutions are made out of emotion without depth of thought.

It is very important we take enough time to reflect on the year we’ve just passed through whether it is worthwhile or not to make the necessary adjustments or improve on the current conditions of our lives.  If we take time to consider the many ways the Lord had cared for us, physically, materially, and spiritually, in the last oneyear, a sense of thankfulness will arise in our hearts. This will, again, engender miracle or blessings in the New Year. We’ll realize that in both our difficult circumstances and joyous occasions, the Lord has been constantly caring for us. It is because of His mercy that we have not been consumed (Lamentation 3:22-23).

Prayer can be transactional, relational and transformational. Transactional prayer or religion centres on contract or economic deal-making. For example, when a pastor says to his congregational members, if you can give so and so amount of money, you will see the hand of God or God will do want you are asking Him to do (even though you are a sinner). You must give to get or you must give to receive (Luke 6:38). It is what I call the Principle of Transactional theology. If this kind of theology is not carefully handled, it will be devastating to the spiritual health of man. There is nothing wrong with transactional prayer but the Gospel of Christ, our prayer, and dealing with God must not be reduced to a transaction. The danger here is that the unsaved or unbeliever will say: “so if I can give to the work of God (even though the source of the money is not clean), I will be saved and/or blessed”. This is purely transactional. This will be discussed extensively in our next article by God’s grace. Given this analogy, we have reduced God to an ATM machine: when we need Him, we go to Him for transactions. For example, during the eve of every New Year, people come to church to seek His hands (and not His face). This is not good for our spiritual life.

The current move of God is that He’s transitioning us from knowing His works to knowing His ways. Therefore, let us move from transactional prayer to relational one. And when we do make this transition, everythingchanges—our prayers, our worship, and our lives. We will no longer treat God like an ATM machine, or even see ourselves by what we do for God, but by what He’s doing in and through us as we walk with Him. Thus, God wants relationship more than transacting business with Him. Relational prayer is very important at this end-time period. Our relationship with God must be cordial first. When we seek His face, His hands will be released to us. God wants Relational Prayer first. The Transactional Prayer is embedded in Relational Prayer that will give birth to Transformation. Thus, both Transactional and Transformational Theologies are subsets of Relational Theology. Hence, God said in 2Chronicles 7:14-15 that:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attend unto the prayer that is made in this place.

There are three realms associated with this kind of theologies: transactional, transformational, and relational. These realms are the earthly realm, supernatural realm, and heavenly realm. All these realms will be explained in great detail in my next article. But to get to the relational level, we need to get to the heavenly realm. Hear what Mel Wild says here:

In the lowest, earthly realm, we might see the works of God. In the second realm, or supernatural realm, we do the works of God: the focus on miracles, healing, and trying to figure out how to do the “stuff.” But in the highest, heavenly realm, the focus is on knowing His ways. Living from heaven to earth always starts and ends with God. It’s never based on needs, learning how to get prayers answered, or even about ministry. Every problem we face here on earth is seen as an opportunity to deepen the relationship in heaven. Prayer becomes communing with and learning the Father’s heart, and the fruit of this relational exchange is that we’re a little more like Christ in our experience.

This is how God fathers us in all things. This is how our souls are trained to walk in rest. And from this place of rest, God determines what we need, what we’re to learn, what we’re to do, and He makes provision for all of it. It must be emphasized here that this is the very opposite of doing things from a transactional understanding of God, even our trying to enter into the rest in God with this paradigm. We’ll still be praying prayers that have already been answered and trying to attain things we’ve already been given as a free gift. Whatever we need is found in the relationship, God will provide everything. This sounds strange and scary to people who have a transactional view of God! It did to the children in the wilderness, too. The truth is, it locates our heart. We also cannot live this way if we’re living from the first two realms. Because it’s more than just saying we believe it, and you can’t hype your faith up enough to make it work. Only by total surrender, learning to live in the heavenly realm (rather poorly at first!), can our hearts be transformed so that as we learn God’s ways, we’re also learning to trust Him in all things.

Still on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we ask questions: why Christmas? Or, why did God send Jesus to the earth? Many answers that are transactional in nature are given. Some say: to save us from the hands of the devil; to take away our sins; to redeem mankind; to remove our shame; to heal all of our diseases; to conquer death so that we could go to heaven; etc.  All these answers are true. But sincerely, this is barely scratching the surface of the Gospel.  All these are the TRANSACTIONAL elements of the Gospel message.  But, according to Kevan Grinwis, to say that Jesus came to redeem us implies that He came to purchase us back FROM something which further implies that He is ultimately restoring us TO something. He is restoring humanity to holiness, honor health, life, and many more. But, Bible says, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Let us hear this again from the Book of John 10:7-10:

“7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

We can see that the Gospel is beyond TRANSACTIONAL. Jesus is the Eternal Life, through Him salvation came to man without transacting any business with anyone. Jesus said in John 10:17 that “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father”.

Kevan Grinwis elucidates further thus:

The Gospel is a story of broken relationship.  It is a story of furious longing and violent love in which our Father stopped at nothing to purchase back His sons who had foolishly sold themselves into bondage and chosen a life of sin and shame.  It is a story of restoration to the relationship for which we were eternally created.

Think about it, when we read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, we would miss out horribly if we stopped at the fact that the father gave his lost son a new ring, a new robe, and new sandals for his feet.  There’s so much more to the story.  There’s the fact that he was waiting and watching.  There’s the running.  The embrace.  The father profusely kissing his son who, very likely smelled like pig dung.  Then, there’s the party.  I can imagine the prodigal son sitting at the table, next to his father.  I can’t imagine that he was all that focused on the ring, the robe, and the sandals at that moment.  But, I imagine that he just sat in wonder and amazement at this father that still was willing to call him son and still wanted to be in relationship with him after where he’d been and all that he’d done.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrews used a word commonly translated in English “to know”.  It is the ancient word “Yada” and it means to know intimately.  It’s not an academic knowledge or a cerebral attainment to a truth.  It’s not the ability to rightly disseminate fact from fiction or the strict adherence to right doctrine.  In fact, it’s the word that Moses chose when he first wrote down the historical account of Adam and Eve.  In the NASB translation of Genesis 4.1, we read that Adam “had relations” with his wife Eve, and she conceived.  The KJV says, “Adam knew his wife…”.  While, the NIV says, “Adam made love to his wife…”.  The word here in the Hebrew text is the word “Yada“.  It is the word that is used to describe Moses relationship with God when the Scriptures say that Moses knew God, face-to-face, as a man knows his friend.  It is the word that Solomon chose to use in Proverbs 3 when he instructed us to acknowlege God in all of our ways.

This, my friends, is the concept that Jesus had in mind in John 17.3 when He said…

“‘This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent’.” – John 17.3 NASB

Today, I encourage you to see Jesus as the door that He described Himself to be, to see that the Gospel is a story of restored relationship first.  There are transactional elements, yes.  But, when we make them paramount, we miss the main point.  We begin to believe that Jesus came to give us something, which essentially is true – but the “something” is Himself.  Let us rather seek His face rather than His hands.  For, it is in the light of His face that we behold the glory of the Gospel, and thereby reflect the reckless, extravagant love of the Father which transforms us, and re-images us to our eternal purpose in Christ – sons, stewards, and ambassadors

WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW?

The answer is very simple. We need to offer a fresh consecration to the Lord. Before anything else, we need to understand that sins can negatively affect our relationship or walk with our Maker in the New Year if we don’t confess them before crossing over so that they will not be carryover sins. In 1 John 1:9-10, the Bible says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” After confessing our sins, the intimate fellowship with the Lord should begin immediately without wasting time. This time of intimacy with God is also when we can offer a new consecration to Him. With a new year before us, we can give every aspect of ourselves and our lives to Him. By consecrating ourselves to the Lord, we can be kept walking in the Lord’s way, grow in His life, allow God to work in us, and be brought into the enjoyment of the riches of God’s salvation. We can consecrate ourselves to the Lord by praying something simple like this:

Lord Jesus, thank you for all you have done for me over the past years. Thank you for your faithfulness, mercy, and love. Lord, I love you. I offer myself to you again. I give the New Year to you. I want to grow in you each day. Keep me in your way. Lord, I allow you to work in me throughout this year and beyond in Jesus’ name.

It is very inimical to Christianity when we reduce the Gospel to a mere transaction, we sell it tragically short of its majesty, beauty, and incomprehensible glory (apology to Kevan Grinwis). It is therefore imperative to make a paradigm shift from transactional Gospel to Relational Gospel.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

You can send your comments to:

info@deleilesanmi.com  or pstdeleilesanmi3@gmail.com

or WhatsApp: 08062197040

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BEYOND TRANSACTIONAL PRAYER: DEEP REFLECTIONS ON THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT IN CHRISTIAN NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS. By Pst D.A Ilesanmi-Bamigbade, Ph.D

BEYOND TRANSACTIONAL PRAYER: DEEP REFLECTIONS ON THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT IN CHRISTIAN NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS – By Pst Dele A Ilesanmi-Bamigbade, PhD

TRANSACTIONAL PRAYER

The current move in our religious life seems to be incongruous to, a sharp detour from, the divine instructions. Our current tilting towards or rather tripping into the transactional theology has downplayed the relational theology. This, in no small measure, has devastating effects on the spiritual life of the church.

Click here for more 👉  https://www.deleilesanmi.com/blog/home/news_description/110/BEYOND-TRANSACTIONAL-PRAYER-DEEP-REFLECTIONS-ON-THE-BIRTH-OF-JESUS-CHRIST-AND-THE-NEED-FOR-A-PARADIGM-SHIFT-IN-CHRISTIAN-NEW-YEARS-RESOLUTIONS-By-Pastor-Dele-A-Ilesanmi-Bamigbade

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BEYOND TRANSACTIONAL PRAYER: DEEP REFLECTIONS ON THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST AND THE NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT IN CHRISTIAN NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS By Pastor Dele A Ilesanmi-Bamigbade, Ph.D

TRANSACTIONAL GOSPEL

The current move in our religious life seems to be incongruous to, a sharp detour from, the divine instructions. Our current tilting towards or rather tripping into the transactional theology has downplayed the relational theology. This, in no small measure, has devastating effects on the spiritual life of the church

At the beginning of every year, people tend to make some resolutions that they hope to spark positive change. Churches organize prayer programmes that will usher in a better life for members and the nations of the world. Nations, communities, groups, associations, families, and individuals are not left out in their move to make some resolutions at the outset of every year. It will interest you to know that 90% of these resolutions are transactional in nature while 10% are relational. It will also interest you to know that some of the church programmes we organize towards the end and at the beginning of every year are transactional in nature.

Today, we live in a highly consumer-driven and on-demand culture society. Hence, our prayer time is spent focusing more on what we want, or what we think we need, or what we want to get from God than simply resting in God’s presence. We spent hours praying to God without knowing Him, without a personal relationship with Him – it is highly paradoxical. The Gospel goes beyond transactional. It is dangerous to reduce the presence of God to mere transactions. The present rising cliché of “name it and claim it” theology has had devastating effects on spiritual depth and understanding. When we pray, we expect an immediate answer. When we do something good, we expect God to compensate us immediately. This new theology is antithetical to biblical instructions.

In God’s creation, the passage of time is marked by days, months, seasons, and years. We experience each interval, whether it is twenty-four hours of a day, thirty days of a month, or several months of a season, or twelve months of a year without interruption. Yet, when the year begins to wind down, we often feel surprised and wonder where the days went. We lead busy lives, and it can be easy to simply let the year come to an end without much thought or feeling, especially, we the Christians we organize a series of programmes such as the moment of miracles, eleventh-hour miracles, last minutes miracles, etc without given thought to how these miracles will be handled. No adequate time is given to members to set aside special time for personal prayer and quiet time with the Lord that will help us conclude the year in a meaningful way and prepare ourselves for the New Year. No wonder New Year Resolutions are made out of emotion without depth of thought.

It is very important we take enough time to reflect on the year we’ve just passed through whether it is worthwhile or not to make the necessary adjustments or improve on the current conditions of our lives.  If we take time to consider the many ways the Lord had cared for us, physically, materially, and spiritually, in the last oneyear, a sense of thankfulness will arise in our hearts. This will, again, engender miracle or blessings in the New Year. We’ll realize that in both our difficult circumstances and joyous occasions, the Lord has been constantly caring for us. It is because of His mercy that we have not been consumed (Lamentation 3:22-23).

Prayer can be transactional, relational and transformational. Transactional prayer or religion centres on contract or economic deal-making. For example, when a pastor says to his congregational members, if you can give so and so amount of money, you will see the hand of God or God will do want you are asking Him to do (even though you are a sinner). You must give to get or you must give to receive (Luke 6:38). It is what I call the Principle of Transactional theology. If this kind of theology is not carefully handled, it will be devastating to the spiritual health of man. There is nothing wrong with transactional prayer but the Gospel of Christ, our prayer, and dealing with God must not be reduced to a transaction. The danger here is that the unsaved or unbeliever will say: “so if I can give to the work of God (even though the source of the money is not clean), I will be saved and/or blessed”. This is purely transactional. This will be discussed extensively in our next article by God’s grace. Given this analogy, we have reduced God to an ATM machine: when we need Him, we go to Him for transactions. For example, during the eve of every New Year, people come to church to seek His hands (and not His face). This is not good for our spiritual life.

The current move of God is that He’s transitioning us from knowing His works to knowing His ways. Therefore, let us move from transactional prayer to relational one. And when we do make this transition, everythingchanges—our prayers, our worship, and our lives. We will no longer treat God like an ATM machine, or even see ourselves by what we do for God, but by what He’s doing in and through us as we walk with Him. Thus, God wants relationship more than transacting business with Him. Relational prayer is very important at this end-time period. Our relationship with God must be cordial first. When we seek His face, His hands will be released to us. God wants Relational Prayer first. The Transactional Prayer is embedded in Relational Prayer that will give birth to Transformation. Thus, both Transactional and Transformational Theologies are subsets of Relational Theology. Hence, God said in 2Chronicles 7:14-15 that:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attend unto the prayer that is made in this place.

There are three realms associated with this kind of theologies: transactional, transformational, and relational. These realms are the earthly realm, supernatural realm, and heavenly realm. All these realms will be explained in great detail in my next article. But to get to the relational level, we need to get to the heavenly realm. Hear what Mel Wild says here:

In the lowest, earthly realm, we might see the works of God. In the second realm, or supernatural realm, we do the works of God: the focus on miracles, healing, and trying to figure out how to do the “stuff.” But in the highest, heavenly realm, the focus is on knowing His ways. Living from heaven to earth always starts and ends with God. It’s never based on needs, learning how to get prayers answered, or even about ministry. Every problem we face here on earth is seen as an opportunity to deepen the relationship in heaven. Prayer becomes communing with and learning the Father’s heart, and the fruit of this relational exchange is that we’re a little more like Christ in our experience.

This is how God fathers us in all things. This is how our souls are trained to walk in rest. And from this place of rest, God determines what we need, what we’re to learn, what we’re to do, and He makes provision for all of it. It must be emphasized here that this is the very opposite of doing things from a transactional understanding of God, even our trying to enter into the rest in God with this paradigm. We’ll still be praying prayers that have already been answered and trying to attain things we’ve already been given as a free gift. Whatever we need is found in the relationship, God will provide everything. This sounds strange and scary to people who have a transactional view of God! It did to the children in the wilderness, too. The truth is, it locates our heart. We also cannot live this way if we’re living from the first two realms. Because it’s more than just saying we believe it, and you can’t hype your faith up enough to make it work. Only by total surrender, learning to live in the heavenly realm (rather poorly at first!), can our hearts be transformed so that as we learn God’s ways, we’re also learning to trust Him in all things.

Still on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we ask questions: why Christmas? Or, why did God send Jesus to the earth? Many answers that are transactional in nature are given. Some say: to save us from the hands of the devil; to take away our sins; to redeem mankind; to remove our shame; to heal all of our diseases; to conquer death so that we could go to heaven; etc.  All these answers are true. But sincerely, this is barely scratching the surface of the Gospel.  All these are the TRANSACTIONAL elements of the Gospel message.  But, according to Kevan Grinwis, to say that Jesus came to redeem us implies that He came to purchase us back FROM something which further implies that He is ultimately restoring us TO something. He is restoring humanity to holiness, honor health, life, and many more. But, Bible says, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Let us hear this again from the Book of John 10:7-10:

“7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

We can see that the Gospel is beyond TRANSACTIONAL. Jesus is the Eternal Life, through Him salvation came to man without transacting any business with anyone. Jesus said in John 10:17 that “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father”.

Kevan Grinwis elucidates further thus:

The Gospel is a story of broken relationship.  It is a story of furious longing and violent love in which our Father stopped at nothing to purchase back His sons who had foolishly sold themselves into bondage and chosen a life of sin and shame.  It is a story of restoration to the relationship for which we were eternally created.

Think about it, when we read the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15, we would miss out horribly if we stopped at the fact that the father gave his lost son a new ring, a new robe, and new sandals for his feet.  There’s so much more to the story.  There’s the fact that he was waiting and watching.  There’s the running.  The embrace.  The father profusely kissing his son who, very likely smelled like pig dung.  Then, there’s the party.  I can imagine the prodigal son sitting at the table, next to his father.  I can’t imagine that he was all that focused on the ring, the robe, and the sandals at that moment.  But, I imagine that he just sat in wonder and amazement at this father that still was willing to call him son and still wanted to be in relationship with him after where he’d been and all that he’d done.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrews used a word commonly translated in English “to know”.  It is the ancient word “Yada” and it means to know intimately.  It’s not an academic knowledge or a cerebral attainment to a truth.  It’s not the ability to rightly disseminate fact from fiction or the strict adherence to right doctrine.  In fact, it’s the word that Moses chose when he first wrote down the historical account of Adam and Eve.  In the NASB translation of Genesis 4.1, we read that Adam “had relations” with his wife Eve, and she conceived.  The KJV says, “Adam knew his wife…”.  While, the NIV says, “Adam made love to his wife…”.  The word here in the Hebrew text is the word “Yada“.  It is the word that is used to describe Moses relationship with God when the Scriptures say that Moses knew God, face-to-face, as a man knows his friend.  It is the word that Solomon chose to use in Proverbs 3 when he instructed us to acknowlege God in all of our ways.

This, my friends, is the concept that Jesus had in mind in John 17.3 when He said…

“‘This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent’.” – John 17.3 NASB

Today, I encourage you to see Jesus as the door that He described Himself to be, to see that the Gospel is a story of restored relationship first.  There are transactional elements, yes.  But, when we make them paramount, we miss the main point.  We begin to believe that Jesus came to give us something, which essentially is true – but the “something” is Himself.  Let us rather seek His face rather than His hands.  For, it is in the light of His face that we behold the glory of the Gospel, and thereby reflect the reckless, extravagant love of the Father which transforms us, and re-images us to our eternal purpose in Christ – sons, stewards, and ambassadors

WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW?

The answer is very simple. We need to offer a fresh consecration to the Lord. Before anything else, we need to understand that sins can negatively affect our relationship or walk with our Maker in the New Year if we don’t confess them before crossing over so that they will not be carryover sins. In 1 John 1:9-10, the Bible says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” After confessing our sins, the intimate fellowship with the Lord should begin immediately without wasting time. This time of intimacy with God is also when we can offer a new consecration to Him. With a new year before us, we can give every aspect of ourselves and our lives to Him. By consecrating ourselves to the Lord, we can be kept walking in the Lord’s way, grow in His life, allow God to work in us, and be brought into the enjoyment of the riches of God’s salvation. We can consecrate ourselves to the Lord by praying something simple like this:

Lord Jesus, thank you for all you have done for me over the past years. Thank you for your faithfulness, mercy, and love. Lord, I love you. I offer myself to you again. I give the New Year to you. I want to grow in you each day. Keep me in your way. Lord, I allow you to work in me throughout this year and beyond in Jesus’ name.

It is very inimical to Christianity when we reduce the Gospel to a mere transaction, we sell it tragically short of its majesty, beauty, and incomprehensible glory (apology to Kevan Grinwis). It is therefore imperative to make a paradigm shift from transactional Gospel to Relational Gospel.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

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JESUS’ BIRTH (2): REFLECTIONS ON CHRISTMAS, NEW YEAR PROGRAMMES By Dele Ilesanmi, Ph.D

The first article on the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ encapsulates the essence of Christmas and the personality behind it. In the article, this author demystified and demythologized the deity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and God-incarnate by employing what he calls “Functional and Ontological Models” to elucidate his position.  However, in this second article, the author mirrors the practice of the contemporary African Christian churches during the yuletide vis-à-vis the epiphany of the African church attitude towards the Great Commission which the season hinges on. The author discovers that the aura that churches create during this period is antithetical to the great mystery of the epiphany or theophany – the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The main purpose of the birth of Jesus Christ is the salvation of humanity (Mtt.1:21). He came to fulfill this divine purpose. He (Jesus) also commanded us, as His disciples, to do the same through Him by making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). Our call to discipleship has taken the backseat to skepticism, and it causes others to doubt or discredit the importance of salvation. The pictures of our churches today are indubitably condensed below:  

      We have become a church that focuses on theatrics and choreography rather than theology and Christology; we have become a church that’s more concerned about democracy than theocracy and theology; we have become a church that’s more concerned about position than consecration; we have become a church that is more conscious about the title than the mantle; we have become a church that is more concerned about certification or degrees than anointing and the grace of God; we have more concerns about how much money we’ve raised as opposed to how many souls are being saved; we have become a church that is concerned about fundraising rather than soul-winning; preachers have replaced altar calls for salvation with fundraising for competition: for example, the first twenty people who can give so and so amount; our altars have become  rostrums for political campaigns and beauty pageant; a lot of preachers are more profit-driven than focus on soul winning.  

Today, our attention has been completely shifted from the primary purpose of our calling as Christians – the Great Commission (Matt.28:19-20). Our focus as a Church at large has watered down our responsibilities to help fulfill this godly mission—the Great Commission. As a church, the called-out ones, the believers in Christ Jesus, we are commanded by Jesus Christ to engage in discipleship with a strong focus to bring the nations of the world to Christ. Jesus commanded:

Go ye therefore, and teach (make disciples of) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt.28:19-20)

 In fact, in the words of Ramon L. Jones, ‘we have lost some of the fundamentals of our core values, and we are marching to a different cadence that’s diametrically opposed to winning the least, lost, left out, and the overlooked’. Without mincing words, we are in a perilous time. At the moment, the church is practicing what is diametrically antithetical to the urgent need of God. Indeed, the church has lost some of her core values of love, soul-winning, holiness, faithfulness, cares, etc. All this is a church disease that must be addressed and treated urgently. The present church is focusing on one thing: prosperity, which God had ab initio made available for His children (3John 2). In Matthew 6:33, Jesus says ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’ We can glaringly see that we are putting cart before the horse.  It is a big problem. The contemporary preachers do not have other messages than that of prosperity, no altar call than that of fundraising. This is a big problem in the church today. It should be noted here that there is nothing wrong with fundraising. We need money in the church – no doubt about that – but that should not be our major message all the time or whenever we organise programmes. Some preachers have no other message than fundraising again. One may ask: how do we know that this is a big problem or disease? Ramon L. Jones has an answer to this:

One of the ways you know you’re making progress is you stop having the same discussion over and over again. If you’re discussing the same issues on your team or at home year after year, you’re probably stuck.

The kind of salvific experience that people are getting today is a watered-down version: there is no transformation because the truth has been compromised on the altar of salvation for the sake of our pockets. Christmas messages and programmes should centre on the person of Christ who, out of love and humility, surrendered His life for the salvation of humanity(John 10:17-10; 15:13; Phil. 2:8) But we focus our messages and programmes on how to have a better life in the New Year without connecting people to the person who will give them a better life. In this case, prayer becomes ineffective and the people’s life remains unchanged, or rather worse in the New Year after siphoning their pockets.

 I think every Christian desires a barcode that heaven can scan once he/she has expired from this life. Definitely, everyone carries an invisible barcode, and indeed, there is a barcode scanner in heaven. This will show our daily, monthly, quarterly, or annual profile that gives evidence of our contribution to making disciples and helping to build the kingdom of God as expected of us.  

Today, it seems the Great Commission has been demoted to the very least position of conviction. Our teaching or making of disciples or soul-winning programmes has become otiose. The present church embarks on monthly, quarterly, or yearly evangelism, crusade, in a perfunctory manner with no deep conviction for soul-winning but with much concern for the pockets of the people. From December 15 to January 15 of every year, different Christian programmes are organised to keep people ‘busy or active spiritually’ without spiritual transformation. Some of these programmes have been turned to avenues to raise money, not to win souls. The DCC Superintendent of Christ Apostolic Church, Ikorodu Districts Coordinating Council, Nigeria, Pastor Lawrence Oladele Akinloye’s statements encapsulate the current reality and practices of the contemporary African churches:

“Soul winning should be the main reason for organizing programmes. Programmes should be organized in order for people to move closer to God, particular early in the year like we are. What is in the mind of God is to draw men to Himself and that is why Jesus Christ said come to me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. What should be the desire of ministers who organize programmes should be to make the heavy load of people light, but rather they are raising money. Self-glorification and advertisement for the purpose of fund raising is what is everywhere today. It is very bad when you invite different kinds of people to a programme and instead of dishing them the undiluted raw word of God, you are extorting them. It simply means what you need from them is not for them to repent from their sins and be saved, but their monies.

He explains further that:

According to what we read and heard about the founding fathers of our church, it is Jesus that comes first in every of their decision or programme they organized, not money. They never glorified themselves and they didn’t organize programmes for the purpose of fund raising. They showed Jesus Christ to the sinners, not themselves and as a result of that people repented and surrendered their idols and fetish powers to follow Jesus Christ. In how many programmes today do idol worshippers repent and come with their idols? We need to learn that there is a need for us to show Jesus Christ to the sinners

Most of the churches do not centre their messages on the salvific purpose of Jesus’ birth but on the prosperity of the people which, of course, is imbedded in the salvifical nature of Jesus’ birth and death. This starts with us as Christian leaders. But, in his view, Ramon L. Jones concludes thus:

Because preacher/pastor messages are not designed to make disciples, we don’t see disciples being made. Furthermore, the members are not living their life well enough that they might duplicate who they are. I often say, “If you cannot duplicate who you are, you are not who you think or say you are.”

If the congregation can admire our skills through the text, can they also admire our skills in the streets or to the unsaved around us?

Effective discipleship is not about a curriculum; it’s about one person learning from another person what it looks like to follow Jesus. If you know how to love and walk with Jesus, you can disciple someone else—even if your life is far from perfect. Any sincere believer can teach another how to seek God, repent, read the Bible, pray, and share with others.

All of us need to heed the Scripture; God employs all that will sign their name on the dotted line. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will use those who give themselves to ministry. You’re never lacking when you are promoting kingdom work and making disciples. 

Dele A Ilesanmi observes thus:

What I observe now is that the “Five-Fold Ministry” of the church has now become “Five-Fold Mystery” of the church. Some Pastors are hirelings: they teach and preach things that are in their financial favour or they device a means of siphoning money from their poor congregation. The Teachers of the Word are heretical in their teaching to the advantage of the devil. The Evangelists are not more concerned about the perishing souls but craving for popularity and pleasure. The Prophets are sanctimonious and prophetically fallacious to their innocent clients in order to deplete their pockets to their advantage. The Apostles are now the advocates of secular governments for popularity and financial gain. Teaching of morality has now become anachronistic in some Christian environments and gatherings world over, whereas religion without morality is ungodliness. Since the “milky” members of the congregation could not differentiate between ministry and mystery, they prefer magic to miracle; mountain to God’s house (church); “fired prayers” to salvation messages. Now, pastors turned motivational speakers are more in the church today than the true holiness preachers. They send people from pulpits to hell. They preach what people want not what God wants for His people. The world is gradually folding up!

                Again, let us have a sober reflection on the essence of Christmas and devote more time to discipleship, soul-winning, and love to draw more people to God than other things that draw them away from Him.

 HAPPY CHRISMAS CELEBRATION

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JESUS’ BIRTH (1): DEMYSTIFYING THE GREAT MYSTERY OF A GREAT GOD By Dele Ilesanmi, PhD

Pastor Dele Ilesanmi, Ph.D

“12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him, all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.” (Col. 1:12-21, KJV; Emphasis mine)

 “5 Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.

6 Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God.

7 He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.

8 And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.”(Phil.2:5-8, NLT, cf. John 1:1, 14; Emphasis mine).

It is quite appalling and poignant to see people celebrating Christmas boisterously without knowing the mystery behind the festival. Christmas goes beyond commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, the very God of all. It is a reminder to us that our God is with us (Matt.1:23), He has come to save us from our sins (Matt.1:21), and that He has come to give us life more abundantly (John 10:10b), He is the Eternal Life that gives eternal life (1John 1:2; cf Rom.6:23), inter alia.

There is nothing bad in celebrating our Maker. Certainly, only the living can praise Him (Isa.38:19). But we must understand the personality of a “Child” that is born, who is a “Son” that is given unto us who is God but God in human flesh (Isa.9:6; John 1:1, 14). This is a great mystery that needs to be demystified and demythologised considering His deity as God the Son and God-incarnate (John 1:14).  This will be done by employing what this writer calls “Functional and Ontological Models” in this piece.

 It should be noted here that “mystery” is a religious truth that cannot be understandable by the application of human reason alone without divine help. So, when we talk about “mystery” here, we mean a religious truth that goes beyond human reasoning until there is divine aid. Thus, when we say Jesus is the Son of God and yet He is God – this is a great mystery – a religious truth that can only be understood by a spiritual man. It takes the spiritual man to understand the spiritual things: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”(1Cor.2:14).

The question, ‘who is Jesus?’ is again asked. Right from the New Testament days to the present day, the question of who Jesus is generates conflicting views. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were confused about the personality and deity of Jesus Christ. The church and the people outside the church, the heathens, are differed in their views. Having given the benefit of hindsight about His identity, Jesus asked His disciple a theological question, “Who do men say that I am?” (Mark 8:27; cf, Matt.16:13; Lk.9:18). The answers given by His disciples show that there is a great variety of opinions among the people: for example, “some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the Prophets.” Then, Jesus went on in His theological enquiry whether His own disciples who have been with Him for some time know Him or not. He asked them this question: “But whom say ye that I am?” (Lk.9:20; Mark 8:29; Mat.16:15). Indeed, this is the heart of the matter. At least everyone has to give his own personal answer and make his own personal confession.

In recent years, this question forms the epicentre of theological discussion, which has culminated in Christological debate. Although the substance of this piece is not to join in this Christological debate, it is to demystify and demythologise the deity of Jesus Christ through functional and ontological models. To save time and space, “The central statement of the Christology of the Ancient Church is that God becomes one with man: Jesus Christ “Very God and very man”.’ For those who care to know, the Council of Nicaea (AD325) states:

 I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance(homoousion) with the Father, by whom all things were made.

The debate about who Jesus is, lies mainly on the suggestion of Oscar Cullman in his classic book, “The Christology of the New Testament”, that ‘while the Greeks were more interested in nature or an ontological Christology, the Jewish people were more interested in a functional Christology. Similarly, today some people place a greater emphasis on the “deeds” or “action” of Jesus Christ than His nature or being and vice versa.

Jesus is functionally equivalent to God; He has the same power and authority as the God of Israel. For example, power to heal the sick (Mark 1:32-34; Acts3:6; 10:38); power to teach authoritatively (Mark1:21-22; 13:31); to forgive sins(Mark 2:1-12; Lk 24:47; Acts.5:31; Col.1:14; 3:13; Heb.8:12); He has the power to save, to give eternal life (Acts 4:12; Rom.10:12-14; 6:23b; phil.3:20; Jude 1:25; 1John 5:11-12); to raise the dead (Lk.7:11-17; John 5:21; 6:40); power to exercise judgment(Mat.25:31-46; John 5:19-29; Acts 10:42; 1Cor.4:4-5; 2Tim.4:1), just to mention a few.

On the ontological dimension, Jesus is God. The incarnational theology of John is a clear revelation that Jesus is God (John 1:1-18). Time does not permit me to dwell extensively on this here. To know that only God (Jesus) is mighty to save, the name JESUS means SAVIOUR (Mat.1:21). Jesus is also called God (Mat.1:23). Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, called Him (Jesus) “My Lord and my God” when he confirmed that the same Jesus (God) that was killed, crucified, and buried was resurrected (John 20:28). The resurrection of Christ stands in a class of its own that Jesus is mighty to save. Apart from “countless” miracles He performed, He, Jesus, the very God that was crucified, still performed one other miracle after His resurrection to demonstrate His divine nature and /or deity.  This is the miracle of the GREAT CATCH OF FISH (John 21:4-14). When He resurrected, He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Mat.28:18). He is talking about the power to save, to deliver, to judge, and power to do all things as God who will never die – the Great “I AM”.

Jesus may be called a Prophet and a good Teacher; His utterances lend more credence to His divinity or deity as the very God of all. For example, in His role as a Prophet, He did not use the trademark formula: “Thus saith the Lord”. Instead, He spoke authoritatively. Jesus went beyond the function and moves to the ontological plane when He used the seven ego eimi (“I am”) utterances:

          “I AM the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51);

          “I AM the Light of the world” (John 8:12);

          “I AM the Door of the sheep” (John 10:7, 9);

          “I AM the Good Shepherd” (John 11:25);

          “I AM the Resurrection and the Life” (John 11:25);

          “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6); and

          “I AM the True Vine” (John 15:1, 5).

For the avoidance of doubt, Jesus declared Himself emphatically in John 8:58 as the “I AM” of the Old Testament, who had been before Abraham – a more direct claim to His deity. Hear Him: “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” In other words, He has been before the formation of the world and through Him all things were created, or rather He is the Creator of all things (John 1:1-4; Col.1:12-21).  All this lends credence to ontological Christology.

What is more, for those who have accepted the gift of faith, Jesus is much more than a mere historical figure, a prophet, and a good teacher. He is the Christ, the Savour, the Son of God, and the very God of all that was crucified. He is God-incarnate. He came to the people He created on earth to save them from their sins, to establish the (His) spiritual Kingdom of God on earth, and to offer the promise of eternal life to all those who believe in Him. But the greatest surprise is that He came to His own but His own recognizes Him not as God (John1:10-11). The books of Colossians, Philippians and John early cited chronologically above at the beginning of this piece give a graphic picture of a God the Father who is a God-incarnate the Son, with an “ontological equality but economic subordination”.

In the air of finality, Christ Jesus is the Ultimate Reality, the Ultimate Revelation of God, the Ontological and Absolute Reality. His deity is the bedrock of Christianity and the fulcrum on which the entire cosmos revolves (John 1:1-14; Col. 1:12-21; Phil.2:5-8,). This makes Christianity the only religion that portrays the very nature of God Himself. Thus, Christianity as a religion is teleological. This essentially distinguishes it from all other faiths or monotheistic faiths. Jesus is the True God and the true God is eternal life and that eternal life is Christ Jesus (1John 1:2; 5:11, 12, 20). Therefore, the real God, our Saviour, the indescribable Gift, the very Voice of Hope, the very Hope of the entire world (1 Tim.1:1), as announced by the angel of God, is born this today:

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11).

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” (1Tim.3:16)

HALLELUYAH!

HAPPY CHRISMAS CELEBRATION

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