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Righteous

One night, several years ago, when we lived in Belleville, I woke up at 3 am. I was wide awake, so I got out of bed so I wouldn’t disturb Melanie. I went downstairs and read Leviticus. By the way, Leviticus is not the protagonist in To Kill a Mockingbird. It is the third book of the Pentateuch in the Bible; 3 am, reading Leviticus. Draw your own conclusions from that.

It quickly became clear that God had an agenda. As I read the descriptions of law and sacrifice and atonement, the Holy Spirit revealed the fulfillment of all of this by Jesus. “Read this”, God said, “as if it has been fulfilled.”  But the Holy Spirit did not stop there. Jesus did this through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that same Spirit dwells in me, empowering me to receive the life of Christ within me. This means that Leviticus is fulfilled by me because Jesus is in me. This means I am righteous. But the Holy Spirit didn’t stop there.

The Spirit reveals this about Jesus to people all over the world. It is God’s desire that the people of the earth not only know this but experience living as righteous people. This is possible because Jesus has fulfilled all of God’s righteousness which I read about in Leviticus and extends that to people in whom he dwells. But the Holy Spirit didn’t stop there.

The Spirit localizes these people. In other words, there is not one here and one there. God does this for people according to their local identity. We call these localized gatherings of righteousness churches. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t stop there. He also organizes these localized gatherings of righteousness so that they have a certain character. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t stop there. He also functionalizes these organized local gatherings so that they can do certain things. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t stop there. He also de-centralizes these local gatherings of righteousness so that this cycle is reproduced in other local places and peoples.

This was given to me one night while I read Leviticus. It is an example of revelation; God revealing truth. You can see that it is very raw and undeveloped, even clumsy, but this is what I was given and how. I do not think I should expand on it because it is perhaps an example of how God gives us broad descriptions of how he works that are also broadly applicable, even globally applicable. It is just enough to be reproducible to everyone, everywhere, sort of like DNA.


This philosophy is very precious to me because I believe that God gave this me so that I would understand his ways and experience it in my life. I have seen this over and over in many different contexts. It is wonderful as it happens.

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