The Psychology of Salvation, Part 4: The Magnificent Little Factory

Found at "The Animation Factory" http://www.brianlemay.com/ 

This blog, “The Walk,” is devoted to the active life of the Christian. Our walk is what makes a difference in the world around us. So why deal with the musty old concept of the Hebrew sanctuary? The answer: Because the sanctuary is a beautiful psychological model of the regenerated life and how we get there! It is a magnificent little factory that remanufactures us, taking the salvageable stuff of who we are and putting it to exciting new uses.

Here’s the logic: 1) Our physical actions (our “walk”) are the only way we make a difference in this world. The most sublime thinking, the most earnest hoping does not make one gnat’s wing of impact in the flesh-and-blood or brick-and-mortar world. 2) Our walk is often a matter of habit, but it can be changed when it is propelled by what we think. 3) Impulse is that thin bridge from thought into action. 4) When we think new thoughts, they begin to color our subconscious and create new impulses. 5) We can trust, and act on, our impulses to the degree that we trust the thinking that created them. 6) In the sanctuary we meet salvation’s Designer and we begin to see that we are inside the model of His plan for winning us back and recreating us. 7) As we spend thoughtful time there, our thinking is realigned according to His healthier psychology, and our behavioral life picks up its color.

In case I lost you, here’s a short recap: When our thoughts are compatible with God’s plan of salvation, He can use them to propel us into the actions that will improve our little corner of the world.

Adventists have studied the sanctuary service to discover clues about the future of the world. But when I explore it to discover clues about the future of me, I get really excited and filled with inexpressible confidence and joy. God showed us the few necessary steps across the huge gulf between us and Him. Though the journey takes a lifetime the basic steps are few: 1) We come. 2) We collapse under the crushing weight of reality: our present condition and the price God paid to save us. 3) We are cleansed and soothed by the assurance of His irrational, unshakable love for us. 4) We enter the Holy Place where the light of His Spirit transforms our minds, 5) informs our behaviors, and 6) conforms our wills to His. 7) We eagerly dwell on the energizing paradox of His holiness vs. His compassion, His law vs. His love, His seemingly unattainable perfection that orders the universe vs. His compassionate assistance while we are still chaotic and riddled with rebellion.

In the glow of His grace which we have not earned, and with faces pointed towards the perfect restoration which He promises, we worship Him. And as we long for His work to be completed in us we willingly lift the situations that surround us. Because of His love and generosity towards us we find the inspiration and the perspiration to do anything and everything that lines up with His beauty and majesty.

When the seven steps of the sanctuary become our reality, then we can commit to following the smallest impulse to do good. We can live by these impulses because we have studied their Source and can trust in their destination. Viola! A healthy human psychology that moves seamlessly from thought to action. Without divine intervention, our study of ourselves only makes us more like we currently are. When we consider who we are within the structure of the sanctuary, we find that divine presence which begins to lift us up to what we were intended to be. The power of the gospel is that Christ’s external self-sacrificing work, strikes a responsive chord in us that the Spirit fans into a living flame. That flame illuminates not only our own life, it also sheds light on the paths of our neighbors.

Viewed in this way, the ancient Hebrew sanctuary appears as a magnificent little factory sitting squarely in the desert of our lives. It welcomes us in, crushes us under the wheels of reality, collects and cleanses the salvageable parts, and in the light of all that is Good it begins to reassemble us into something that conforms to the original design. Our hope is that one day the work will be completed so that we will be the perfection He envisioned. But the miraculous part is this! The instant we enter the factory, we immediately begin to function more like the person He blueprinted.

Hallelujahs to God for that!