What Remains

The inspection is over. You have looked at the ground under the house. Some of what you found is not what you expected. Some of what you believed was load-bearing is furniture. Some of what was presented as Scripture is assumption.

So what remains?

More than you had before you looked. This is what I want you to hear clearly. The inspection does not empty the house. It clears the floor so you can see what the house is actually standing on. And what it is standing on has not moved.

The knowing of John 17:3 has not moved:

"Now this is eternal life – that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent." — John 17:3 (NET)

That sentence has not been touched by anything in the preceding chapters. The relational knowing available now — not after death, not after correct geology, not after the right eschatological timeline, not after the formula has been recited or the ledger has been cleared — now, to every person who comes with empty hands — that is untouched. That is the rock.

Matthew 5:3 has not moved:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them." — Matthew 5:3 (NET)

The Beatitude does not say blessed are those who have the correct view of the age of the earth. It does not say blessed are those who said the prayer with sufficient sincerity. It says blessed are the ptochos — the ones who came with nothing. And it says theirs is the Kingdom. Not will be. Is. Present tense. The Kingdom belongs to the poor in spirit now.

Romans 8 has not moved. No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. The Spirit bearing witness. The Abba cry from within. The Spirit interceding with inexpressible groanings for the one who cannot pray adequately. The conforming to Christ's image from glory to glory. And the sentence that ends the chapter, the sentence that no storm has ever refuted and no sinkhole has ever swallowed:

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." — Romans 8:38–39 (NET)

That is what remains. Everything that was piled on top of it can be set down, examined, held with appropriate humility rather than with the iron grip of someone whose standing before God depends on being right about it. And when it is set down, the rock is more visible, not less. The knowing is more accessible, not less. The poverty of spirit that receives the Kingdom is more clearly the point, not less.

The Barrier That Falls

When the traditions are relocated from the load-bearing position to their proper place as furniture that serves the room, something happens to the barrier.

The seeking person who was turned away from the table because their membership card was not in order — they are still seeking. The young person who was told the science had to be wrong because the tradition said so, who found the science was not wrong, who was told then that the whole faith package had to stand or fall together — they are still asking questions. The person exhausted by thirty years of the loop, who has confessed the same sins more times than they can count and has never been invited to consider whether the loop itself was the problem — they are still in the pew.

The rock is what they were looking for all along. They did not leave because the resurrection is false. They were turned away, or exhausted, or given a package that required defending the indefensible. The inspection is what makes it possible to say to them: what you were told was required is not required. What is actually required is simpler and more demanding and more beautiful than the tradition communicated. It requires empty hands. It requires honest speech in the presence of One who already knows. It requires the willingness to be known rather than the performance of knowing the right things.

That is not a smaller faith than the one packaged with the geology and the timeline and the formula and the payment and the membership card. It is a larger one. It is the faith that can look at the full weight of the world and say: nothing in all of this can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord. Not because I have defended every secondary position correctly. Because I know Him. And He holds me. And the Spirit bears witness.

The More Complete Knowing

There is one more thing the inspection produces that I did not fully name at the beginning. When the furniture that has been occupying the load-bearing position is moved, you do not just get access to the rock. You get access to the full weight of what the rock actually is. And the full weight is greater than most of the traditions communicated.

The fall was more catastrophic than the biological reading allowed. Adam lost relational knowing, not just biological immortality. The death was the severing of the connection to the only source of life there is. The loss was absolute.

The redemption is therefore larger. Christ did not come primarily to reverse biological mortality. He came to restore the knowing. To re-open the door that poverty of spirit presses open with empty hands. To send the Spirit who bears witness from within every person that they are children of God. To secure the knowing in a love from which nothing can separate.

That is a larger resurrection than the tradition that had Adam primarily losing his heartbeat communicated. It is a larger cross than the tradition that had Christ primarily satisfying a legal requirement communicated. It is a larger Spirit than the tradition that had the Christian primarily managing a ledger communicated.

This is not a smaller Christianity on the other side of the inspection. It is a larger one. The God who is known in John 17:3 is larger than the God who validates correct geology. The Kingdom that belongs to the poor in spirit is more available than the Kingdom that belongs to those who have checked all the doctrinal boxes. The love from which nothing can separate is more secure than the love that depends on the maintenance of the right performance.

♦

When did you last check the foundation of your house?

The question is an invitation. Not to lose what you have. To see what you are actually standing on. The rock has been there all along. It does not change. It does not shift. It does not swallow houses. The storm will come — for all of us — and when it does, the house built on the knowing, received in poverty of spirit, held by the Spirit who bears witness and intercedes and never lets go, will stand.

Great will not be its fall. It will not fall at all.

Epilogue