Security of a Loving Relational Kingdom ('The Wisdom of God' Review)
I don't know where I would be if I ignored some essential things I came across in life. Recently, I just finished reading the book "Wisdom of God" by Adrian Ebens, who has worked hard for years to put this together proving that the word of God can be understood if followed in the right mindset.
I found this book to be very well thought out and well written. Most people would assume that this book was written with the intention of defending a certain belief or being against anyone who has a different opinion on the Sonship of Jesus Christ. I however, do not believe this is true. The way that the author speaks about the Father-Son relationship before and after Satan challenged it and then fell shows that the Father, who is the Source of Life, cares about the lives of the people. Ebens made it clear that God creating everything through His Son meant that the universe was founded on relationship principles, and in challenging the wisdom of this Satan was attacking the very essence of God’s kingdom and governance.
This book arose at a point where I struggled to find out the true real identity of God, the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I was really in doubt somehow on the sonship of Jesus Christ. This was as a result of how Jesus is known differently: Muslims would know Him as a prophet, Indians as one of many gods they have, Jehovah Witnesses’ as the highest of the created angels, Unitarians as just a man, Catholics as the second god of Trinity etc. However, I learnt that to know the true identity of God and His Son, I cannot by myself find out God, I should allow Him tell me who He is. And this is due to our carnal mind nature (Rom 8:7). God is not what I think He is, but what He says He is (1Cor 8:6).
The book has helped me to discover that, first, God is a rational being who cares deeply about all of His creation and He is interested in our every aspect of our lives. He is always present with us everywhere by His Spirit. He is termed as Our Father since His kingdom is based on family connection.
The powerful lesson I learnt that I never heard of before was that God is all powerful and all knowing in that all life, power and wisdom come from Him. It is in His great Wisdom that He brought forth a Son from Himself in His exact image, meaning that everything needed for the universe resided in His Son who became the channel to all that God the Father would do (John 5:26, Col 2:8-10). I would hear people trying to say this but the wording couldn't be understood fully. Thank God he blessed Adrian to put this together.
He implemented an amazing Divine pattern of life that I personally learnt and realized it's in every aspect of our lives, in that there is a Source - Channel principle. It is in this sense that Jesus is called the wisdom of God since He was brought forth from God, and Jesus’s love and devotion to His Father is given to the rest of creation and holds their bond in place to God, the source of life. And in following the same pattern, it is the wisdom of Christ that comes into our hearts through His Spirit that teaches us how to love, be good and obey the Father.
This brilliant system truly impacted my life since I realized the principles of God's kingdom are based on love and freedom of choice. Before I thought that it is power that makes all powerful. This book makes a clear difference between authority and power. Glory to Our Father that He gave His authority to His Son to be equal with Himself and thus the Son had a right to say they are one.
This is where I was not getting it right – now, realizing the relationship between the Father and the Son, it became clear to me as to why one should go through the Son to the Father. Wow! This struck me with joy. It was not out of fear like before or that the Father hates sinners that He cannot bear to see a sinner before Him. There was absolute wisdom in the system He made and He made it manifest through the creation of Adam and Eve. The fear faded away and the answer to my question got answered. In real life it made me understand that what we worship is a loving relationship between Father and Son rather than power.
This is the concept the devil hid from me since he tampered with the pattern given by God by doing the opposite (no dependence, no submission, no willingness to accept receiving of blessing from others). Satan chose to question the Divine pattern (Father-Son; Source-Channel) and also influenced us through our first parents to believe a lie about God. Satan told me how "I can be blessed in disobedience" and that I have life in myself and had no need to depend on the Life Source. I was in a strange bondage by what I couldn't see. Praise to God He came to my rescue and now I enjoy the True freedom in His worship.
We are created in a way we can exercise our will power. We are given choices and it's up to us to decide. When we choose God, we choose life; but when we follow our own way it leads to destruction. Our Father in His great Mercy respects our decisions even though it hurts Him when we are heading to destruction. When we reject the Son of God, we kill Him in our minds just like how Adam and Eve did when they believed a lie from Satan, and this is a sort of yearning for death since when our souls separate from the life Source, it yearns for death.
In Chapter 9, paragraph 2, it says: "Jesus had a constant sense of blessing through a continual submission of His will to the will of the Father. The gift of the will produces many other blessings beyond. When God created Adam and Eve, He had to provide a means for them to exercise their will. He had to provide a choice for them. Without the ability to choose to displease God, there is no ability to receive the blessing of pleasing Him". This lesson made me to understand the principle of cause and effect. That in every decision, there is an equal and opposite reactions, so I have to seek for guidance before doing anything.
The Son will always be submissive to the Father and gets the blessing of the Father. So, if we cherish Him by cherishing His Spirit of submission to the Father, more blessing flows to us. It is thus we are recipient of His blessings.
This book definitely held my interest. I feel the purpose Adrian Ebens had in writing this book to expound on the truth about the Father-Son relationship. I would recommend it to everyone with an open mind and would love to come to the reality of the full joy in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father in a simple and well designed structure anyone can read and understand.
