25-0514wc Transcript

Teacher: Scott Reynolds

(0:04) We’re in the Truth Project. We’ve covered seven lessons. The first six dealt with the setting up (0:13) of things that the Word is based on truth.

God is truth. His Word is truth. And the warnings (0:24) about philosophies.

Beware of philosophies that were not overtaken by the philosophies of the (0:31) world and become enslaved to Satan to do his works. So there is a battle going on in philosophies, (0:41) and we see that especially today. It’s very obvious today that’s going on.

And then also (0:49) who is man, sociology and theology with God and the study of God we did. And we did two sessions (0:59) on science, what is true. So the second part of the series from 7 to 12 deal with sociology, (1:11) which is our God is a social being.

He’s not a loner. Our God is one, but of course there’s (1:22) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He’s triune.

So in the unity of God, there is a diversity (1:33) in that he is a three-person God. One God in three persons. In lesson seven, (1:42) Del Tackett calls that the divine imprint.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is triune nature. (1:50) We see in the social institutions. Man also is a social being.

(2:00) We have, and social is in essence relationships. We have relationships. We have a father, (2:10) we have mother, we have child, we have bosses, we have governors.

There’s all kinds of relationships. (2:19) We have friends, we have ministers, we got church. Del identified six spheres of sociology, (2:28) of social spheres that we have.

And in lesson seven, introducing the divine imprint, and he (2:39) also talked about two of the six spheres the last time we were together. In part two (2:48) of lesson seven, we talked about the family and the church. And Ephesians 5 kind of sums that up.

(2:59) In Ephesians 5, 22 and following, Paul talks about as Christ is the head of the church, (3:08) the husband is the head of the wife. And as the wife submits to her husband, the church submits (3:16) to Christ. So Paul made a link between two social systems, two social spheres, the church (3:26) and the family.

And also made a third link to God and those two spheres. So you have the husband, (3:40) the trio of husband, wife, child, and the Christ, the head of the church, and the church body, (3:50) and then the Christians, the little Christ, those members. Tonight, we’re going to be looking at (4:00) what Del had mentioned, the intimate three.

Three of the six social spheres are intimately linked. (4:10) Now, two of them we’ve already talked about, the family and the church, and we saw how closely (4:15) related they were. Now, one of the six besides the two that we’ve talked about, church and family, (4:27) Del calls the relationship between God and man, which he uses the Latin phrase.

Actually, (4:34) I think it’s a religious term that he picked up on, and that’s unio mystica, or the mysterious (4:41) or mystical union. And I want to read a short excerpt here for our tour. And then next week, (4:51) we’ll look at what Del calls pathologies of this relationship, the unio mystica relationship, (4:58) what keeps us from having a thriving relationship.

So, the wonder of unio mystica, (5:09) God and man, and the subtitle would be Intimacy with God. In lesson eight of the Truth Project, (5:17) Del Tackett explores the profound concept of unio mystica, the mythical union between God (5:25) and humanity, the sacred bond described by Del as the heart of Christianity transcends (5:32) mere salvation. This is an interesting point that Del brings up, inviting believers into an intimate (5:40) relationship with the Creator.

Through Christ’s sacrifice, we are not only saved from hell, (5:47) but welcomed into the very life of the Godhead, experiencing oneness with God both personally (5:56) and corporately, individually, and as a group. Del Tackett illustrates this mystery (6:03) using vivid biblical imagery corporately. Jesus' teaching on the vine and branches in John 15.5 (6:11) emphasizes the necessity of abiding in him, while his high priestly prayer of John 17 (6:19) underscores the unity between father, son, and believers.

Paul’s writings further (6:28) highlight the church as a unified body where mutual edification and one another commands in (6:34) John 13, 34, and 35 foster communal love. On a personal level, scriptures like John 3.7, (6:44) being born again, and Galatians 2.20, Christ lives in me, reveal the indwelling spirit, (6:52) making each believer a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5.17. This intimate union (6:59) is the essence of eternal life, knowing God as deeply as a spouse knows their partner. (7:07) Yet this relationship is not without challenges.

Dr. Tackett warns against blurring the spheres, (7:13) such as assuming individual worship can replace corporate fellowship, or the church attendance (7:19) alone fulfills the unio mystica. He also addresses the human hunger for significance, (7:26) which when misdirected leads to spiritual dysfunction, and that’s what we’ll talk (7:31) about next week. So the blurring of spheres, you’ll understand a little more as we get into (7:37) that.

There are six spheres when he talks about spheres. Those are the social institutions, (7:44) the church, the state, the family, and blurring those leads to dysfunction, is the idea. (7:52) So with that in mind, let’s watch the video.

Okay, we’ll stop there because he’s going to (8:04) talk about what he calls pathologies, the problems that develop. But I particularly liked (8:11) the whole idea there, that he was coming up with this idea that we’re not saved just to be saved, (8:20) but to actually have an intimate relationship with God and with the Godhead to the extent. (8:27) I don’t know if that was accurate in the portrayal, but it was pretty impressive (8:32) to see his diagramming and coming up with this relationship that God wants to have with us.

(8:41) I thought that was excellent. So that’s all I have for tonight. So let’s close with a prayer.