The Universe
Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on the earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive others. Keep us from temptation and rescue us from all evil swiftly. For yours alone is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.
I believe that the argument can be made for the Lord’s prayer being more well known than John 3:16 around the world. Millions of faithful pray it daily.
Some for deliverance; others for honor; some to center their hearts in a world made mad from the waves of doubt, and/or the normality of becoming normal with the abnormal.
In the first visitation of the Adversary, the enemy tried to seduce Christ by means of his stomach; for how great is the appetite of man? In this instance it was merely hunger, since he didn’t eat for 40 days. Yet, there is a deep type here.
In the Old Testament, Esau sold his birthright for a damn bowl of lentils so easily, and he was nowhere close to being nearly as famished as the one who fasted for 40 days.
This man Esau was the firstborn of Isaac. He was to have the seat of his Father’s estate by default. Yet, when his brother Jacob (in Hebrew meaning something akin to deceiver) offered him a bowl of beans in exchange for his birthright, he so swiftly threw it away. Impulsive at best, careless at worst.
I write none of this to fault this ancient man, only to make light of the type in focus here.
With Jesus of Nazareth, the Jacob against humanity failed. Christ countered in principle.
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the Father.”
Here, our precious Emmanuel identified with us. Man included in him, and in this, he who is our eternal high priest once more interceded for us.
We shall not live by bread alone, for by the bread of life we live, move, and have all of our being.
Christ… Power personified.
After this, the adversary took our Lord to a high place above the temple, and said to him, “If you are truly the Son of the Most High, throw yourself from here. For it is written that he will command his angels for your sake, to lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Ergo, taunting the salvation of the Savior himself.
Our Lord countered and said “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” True, he has set his angels over us in more than a merely protective capacity, yet we are not to abuse the mercies of God. We do well even among mortals not to take advantage of them.
After this, the adversary took our Lord to a high place, far above the known heights of the ancient wonders of the old world.
I can hear the smooth tone of the serpent, hiding a hideous rasp from having nothing but ashes for his parched soul saying, “If you bow to me, I will give you all the Kingdoms of the world, and all of the accolades that accompany them.”
“Get away Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”
This story is one that many people know. It has been taught on many times I reckon, and now I will tell of a beautiful thing I have realized. It occurred to me amid a mind battle so to speak.
Jesus the Incarnate One was tempted with three main things that still drive us today; more than just being necessary for our physical and psychological well-being, they also drive endeavor in the plane of future consideration and plans.
They are: substance/sustenance, protection, and power (authority over community, time and space, and the acknowledgement of men.)
Succinctly put… power, kingdom, and glory.
It is no wonder he was able to defeat these temptations for from his Father came all of these things, freely shared with him before the world began.
We see this clearly being faithfully held to by him by what he revealed in the Lord’s Prayer.
“For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
The line “For yours is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever” has an interesting history.
It is thought that it was liturgically added to the prayer in later copies of the New Testament since in the earliest copies we know of the phrase is not present.
Even if that is true it is yet still fitting. Our Lord, the Son of the Most High, resisted the temptation that fells so many a cedar on earth. Many stalwart men and strong women buckle in times of weakness to the power that the promise of these things given instantly can have.
One need only read John 17 to see that he was aware and steadfast to the fact that all of these things came from his Father. One with him for all time, never forsaken.
And in the same way, as in Psalm 22:24 when the psalmist writes “For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard,” so it is with us… his children.
For they who are friends with the indwelling Holy Spirit. God suffers all that we suffer with us. He not only delivers the faithful, but endures faithfully with the faithful whom endure the marathon of the righteous life.
This victory that our King won, in being raised incorruptible, thus giving the middle finger to death, being the very reversal of entropy itself — is proof that he came to give us life far more than just abundantly.
For a little while, he was made lower than the angels, yet upon completing his task by the father, he now sits enthroned beside him with all substance/sustenance, protection, and power (authority over community, time and space, and the acknowledgement of men.)
His storehouses are full of the treasures of wisdom, riches beyond our comprehension, and creative genius and ability. He is not only the great author of our faith, but now wholly one in God, all that is made rests in him….
He is the universe.
While there remains a distinction between the universe as a product of his will, that which isn’t yet fully manifested and healed in the original glory it once had, along with the wills of the beings of the universe not being always in alignment with his one of freedom, and he as the creator of the universe, seen and unseen — he remains the sum, the destiny, and the literal universe.
The transcendent one above, beyond, and within. Moving through, not commanded by, yet intimately connected to all substance that he has made for it adores the life breath that flows through it when he says “go”, or “stay.”
Here is my point. The universe does not exist apart from him. It exists because even now with sin in effect — it is intimately married to his soul, his life and his power.
In a way it is his bride. It is married to him, and the fate of God himself determines the fate of the existence and path of the cosmos.
The deepest fears and concerns we have with filling needs and dreams are filled in him, for every holy yes and amen is in him per the scriptures.
He is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, and by his death and resurrection, marrying all the cosmos unto himself, back to the Father….
He is the Universe.
To him be blessing and glory forever, for by the Word of the Father our universe is held, by the action and hand of the Father, the Holy Ghost herself.
All souls are his, and by his command all that exists and remains. He is the universe, and eventually, when he is in all, and all wills submit to his goodness, he as the first fruit of the Glory of the Father will be able to say fully, “I am the universe.”
For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him; and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:16–20, WEB
Peace.
