Visigoth Theology

So my contention is that Luke 7:47 is the secret to Luke 10:21. That is why God made us sinners. It’s because grace is the only way one can truly understand how much God loves them. As long as it’s built on merit, it is limited by what you do. Once you understand that there is nothing you can ever do to earn His love, you can then fully grasp the immeasurability of it.

The process of walking that out is found in Romans 8. God wants us to conform to His Son. He has given everyone a destiny. We receive it as a calling. We walk out that calling, and God justifies us (sanctification). At the end of this process, like Abraham, Peter, Paul, Moses, and Elijah, we will be perfected. That is the whole reason why God created the world. That is the purpose—to conform to His likeness.

I want to be glorified. I don’t really care as much about the calling. I don’t really care as much about whether I succeed on earth. What I care about is being conformed to His likeness forever—getting my glorified body, hearing Him say “well done,” living forever with the love and pride of my Father and Brother lavished on me for eternity.

Sanctification is a process that God views like a couple expecting a baby. Even though the child is not fully birthed, they love that child as if it already is. They know what is growing inside it. As long as nothing happens, they treat that fetus as if it has already been born and is alive. In the same way, God looks at those on the road to sanctification. As long as nothing happens to the spiritual growth inside of you, God sees you as if you are already birthed into perfection. That’s why God credits living by faith as righteousness—you are pursuing the path that is right.

Abraham laughed in the face of God when God told him he would have Isaac. But once he had Isaac, he was so sure of God’s love for him that he could sacrifice his son because he knew the heart of God would not break His promise. As he said, “We are going up, and WE are coming back down.” He expected God to raise Isaac from the dead.

That’s why the children of Israel failed. They obeyed all 614 laws. How do we know that? Because someone was caught picking up sticks on the Sabbath, and they stoned him.

Why did Moses have faith? Because God was going to kill him but spared him. From then on, Moses moved in grace. God called Moses as a shepherd and trusted him to fulfill an 800-year promise indispensable to the salvation of the world as the ethnos Jesus would come from. 

How did Joshua? Because he was Moses' aide—he saw, heard, and was taught about the God Moses knew. 

Why Caleb? The only distinguishing factor in him is that he was with Joshua. It is implied that Joshua shared all his experiences with Caleb about his adventures with Moses, which made Caleb believe. 

The children of Israel were punished for their behavior, so why would they trust that God would come through for them when they didn’t think He loved them? 

Love is the secret to righteousness because if I am 1000 percent sure that God is real, that He loves me, and that His promises are true, I would never sin. I would never be afraid. Everything I want in life and every motivation for those acts is found in the fruits of the Spirit. I fornicate to have love, self-worth, and joy. Not only is there not much of those things in fornication (and even if there were, God would inevitably destroy it—at least for me—like killing me while the quail was still in my teeth), but God offers love, joy, and self-worth in such a way that, like wine, is far better. It overflows out of you and lasts forever. Choosing that pleasure over the world's pleasure is not religiosity or morality—it’s hedonism.

You discover this through grace and sanctification. Because I have pursued destiny since I was 18, God sees me as fully formed. Hundreds of times, He speaks of His beloved who find Paul’s way.

The problem is those who claim God’s name but do not seek Him, who worship the white Jesus and quote bumper-sticker theology, claim the love of God as well. Not because I am special—everyone in the world can find the path I have found toward perfection. I have written books about it. I would have shared them with anyone who wanted them, but no one does.

BUT I WANT IT!!! It is the purpose of life. That makes me like Caleb—one in a billion. And if God is searching to and fro for someone who understands, then I am one whom He has found, and He is overwhelmingly invested in me to the point that I should be sure—because of His love for me and the fact that I am obeying Him—that He will never betray me. He more than loves me. I am perpetually making Him proud as long as I am pursuing His sanctification on route to the Promised Land. 

I am a Visigoth. I have the Caleb Spirit. I pray that I will always remember that.