From the last post we are working towards a notion of prime reality for the Spiritual Mindset - that is, what or who is the bottom line of our understanding of what things in life are real?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer made this proposal in relation to reality:

In Christ the offer meets us, to receive a share in the reality of God and hte reality of the world, together, not one without the other. The reality of God opens itself in the same way that it pus me completely in the reality of the world. However, I find the reality of the world always, already borne, adopted and reconciled in the reality of God. (Ethics, DBW 2, 40)

Bonhoeffer’s point is that a person discovers the reality of God and the reality of the world at the same time, in the same place (or person). The true reality of God, as opposed to false idols can only be found in the person and work of the Lord Messiah Jesus. Yet because Christ Jesus is God’s royal AND eternal Son, then the reality of the world in relationship to God is also discovered when we meet Jesus. Paul puts it slightly differently in Romans 1:

“…concerning God’s Son, whose existence in terms of humanity comes from the line of David and who through the Holy Spirit was designated Son of God in power through resurrection from the dead, Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The eternal Son enters the history of the world most prominently in the body of God’s royal son, the Messiah son of David. This is a work of God’s Spirit as we are told in Luke 1. The same Spirit reveals the Lordly or eternal nature of the royal Son by raising him from the dead. Now the reality of God is that he is the Father of our Lord Christ Jesus. The reality of the world - in the fullest not merely material sense - in relationship to God is perfected in the person of the royal and eternal Son, Christ Jesus.