Nectarivore ~ Craving the Flower: The New State of Humanity

 

“Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” --Romans 12v2

 

People sometimes ask me: “If Satan rebelled in Heaven, how do we know we won’t do the same thing when we get there?” It’s a valid question! Jesus describes how He saw Satan fall like lightning (Luke 10v18). Similarly, Ezekiel 28v13-17 describes the fall of Satan who was once the “signet of perfection” (v12) and an “anointed guardian cherub” (v14, v16) placed high above other angels. God declares, “Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your beauty” (v17). Similarly, in Isaiah 14 we read of the beauty and power of Satan, who is described as a “Day Star” (v12) that was “cut down to the ground” because of his pride (v12). We even have some suggestions that when Satan was cast out of heaven, one third of the angels went with him (Revelation 12v4)[1]. How could Satan, who was called a signet of perfection, have rebelled against God? If angels can turn their backs on God in heaven, what’s to say that you and I won’t so the same thing when we get there? There are two places we can go for an answer: the renewal of heaven and the renewal of humanity.

 

HEAVEN MADE NEW

            One thing to keep in mind is that the Bible describes the new creation as “A new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21v1). Heaven itself will be changed. It will not be the same heaven it was when Satan rebelled, or when the saints cried out in anguish before the throne asking “how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6v10). It will not be the heaven where lying spirits stand before God’s throne to speak with Him (2 Chronicles 18v18-22), or where angels are full of grief and must be comforted by God (Zechariah 1v13). The new creation does not only extend to earth, but to the entire created order, included heaven itself. Revelation 21 is clear that the first heaven and the first earth will pass away. This is deeply mysterious and I haven’t found any literature on the mechanism of this concept (aside from a very creative theory posited by a PhD candidate in optics!) Yet we can read plainly what the text says: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband…He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21v1-4) We can take hope and courage from this passage—the brokenness that causes sin and rebellion will be gone. Heaven will be renewed.

 

            HUMANS MADE NEW

            Another thing to consider is how we ourselves will be changed. The Bible describes us being conformed to the image of Christ (Philippians 3v10, Romans 8v29). Romans 12v2 offers a particularly helpful tidbit: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” When Paul wrote this passage he used a Greek word for ‘transformed’ that bears a striking resemblance the English ‘metamorphosis.’ This picture communicates not only a morphological change, but a complete change in state of being. This is perhaps why Paul specifically mentions the mind. Thus, it is not just our bodies that will be renewed by God, but also our way of thinking. Indeed, we meet people who exhibit incredible transformations of thoughts and desires after beginning their journey with Christ. They no longer desire what they craved before but have a thirst for something higher. A.W. Tozer explains, “The great saints have all had thirsting hearts. Their cry has been, ‘My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? Their longing after God all but consumed them; it propelled them onward and upward.”[2] As a dragonfly cannot go back to being a nymph, nor a frog return to its polliwog state, a human being does not revert to his or her old ways after being renewed by Christ. This irreversible metamorphosis of the mind and will begins even now, but it will be brought to completion when everything is made new.  St. Teresa of Avila likened this to a butterfly that dies and, after it has been reborn, craves only pure nectar. No longer satisfied with rotting leaves, its entire appetite has changed along with its morphology. She writes, “As soon as…the soul has become entirely dead to the world, it comes forth like a lovely little white butterfly…How beautiful is the soul after having been immersed in God’s grandeur and united closely to Him…Truly the spirit does not recognize itself, being as different from what it was as is the white butterfly from the repulsive caterpillar…it despises the work it did while yet a caterpillar…its wings have grown and it can fly; could it be content to crawl?”[3]

            In Teresa of Avila’s view, a soul that is being transformed craves the presence of God above all other desires. It will go here and there looking for Him, seeking Him, satisfied by Him alone. We will be like the man who found a hidden treasure and sold all he had to obtain it, or like the merchant who found the greatest pearl on earth [4]. We will have eyes to see what we have discovered, and a mind to understand it. At last we will know that there is nothing more precious than the living God. We will no longer crave sin or the rebellion. In fact, we will be repulsed by it. In the new creation we transition from spiritually coprophagous to spiritually nectarivorous, from craving garbage to craving purity. We can no longer consume what we consumed before or operate how we operated before. We will be renewed.

 

            This is where Christians get so much of their hope. When we read Jesus’ words, “heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away”, we take it to be true [5]. We followers of Christ believe that heaven and earth will truly pass away to make room for a new order where shame, sorrow, defeat, loneliness and avarice have no place. These parts of the old reality will be blotted out of existence in the same way darkness in a room disappears the moment the lamp is switched on. As Paul describes so poetically in 1 Corinthians 15v52: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet…the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

 

 


 

[1] People differ on this interpretation.

[2] Boa, K. (2020). Conformed to His image: Biblical, practical approaches to spiritual formation. Page 135. From Tozer’s work The Root of the Righteous.

[3] Avila, S. T. (2019). The Interior Castle. La Vergne: Neeland Media LLC. Pages 58-59

[4] See Matthew 13v44-46

[5] From Matthew 24v35

 

 

The image is a Chinese hoya (Hoya carnosa), a variety I used to grow in my bedroom as a young girl because I loved the long fuzzy tendrils and the delicious smell of the flowers.

Image retrieved from Dave’s garden: davesgarden.com

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