Matthew 25: Understanding the Sheep and Goats Judgment

The famous “sheep and goats” judgment in Matthew 25 is often assumed to describe the final judgment of all people. But when read alongside the surrounding parables and Jesus’s teaching about false disciples, a different picture emerges: a warning that not everyone within the visible community of Christ truly belongs to him.

Consider the text…

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, ³³and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. ³⁴Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, ³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ ³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’ ⁴¹Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, ⁴²for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ ⁴⁴Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ ⁴⁵Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ ⁴⁶And these will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life.”
This, and all following scripture references are from the NRSV

This passage is often seen as Christ’s judgement of all humanity at the end of days. But, I disagree. To me this is a judgement of those who claim to be followers of Christ.

First, read the two parables that come before this judgement passage: The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids (Matt. 25:1-13) and The Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30). Not going into the details about what those parables mean, notice who the characters are in the parables. The three servants who are given the talents all serve the same master, and the ten maids are all waiting for the same bridegroom. These parables are not about unbelieving outsiders vs. believing insiders. These parables are about true disciples vs. false disciples within the group.

Next, read what Jesus says in Matthew 7…

¹⁵“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns or figs from thistles? ¹⁷In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰Thus you will know them by their fruits.
²¹“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²²On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’
Matthew 7:15-23

Here we see something similar to Matthew 25. There are people claiming to be prophets of God, who call Jesus “Lord,” just as the goats do in Matthew 25. They are not rejected because they are outside of the Jesus group, but because they are false disciples within the Jesus group.

Next, consider Matthew 10. Here, Jesus sends out the twelve, his closest disciples…

¹⁶“I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. ¹⁷Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the gentiles. ¹⁹When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you at that time, ²⁰for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ²¹Sibling will betray sibling to death and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, ²²and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ²³When they persecute you in this town, flee to the next, for truly I tell you, you will not have finished going through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

²⁴“A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; ²⁵it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

²⁶“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. ²⁷What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. ²⁸Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna]. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰And even the hairs of your head are all counted. ³¹So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

³²“Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, ³³but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

This passage contains one of the five times the word Gehenna (Hell) is used in Mathew, and it’s directed at Jesus’s closest twelve disciples.

Paul also explains in Romans 9 that within the covenant group of Israel there is the true Israel and the false Israel…

⁶It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites, ⁷and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants, but “it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.” ⁸This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.

When the judgment scene of Matthew 25:31–46 is considered within the broader literary context of the Gospel of Matthew, it appears less likely that the passage is intended primarily as a description of the judgment of all humanity in general. Rather, the surrounding parables and Jesus’s earlier warnings about false disciples suggest that Matthew is addressing a persistent concern within the covenant community itself: the distinction between those who genuinely belong to Christ and those whose allegiance is only outward.

Refining Paul’s Theology

The following is an AI generated essay. However, the ideas influencing the essay are my own. To save time I will often use AI to compress my ideas into essay form, which I can then refer to later. In my opinion that is one of the ways to correctly use AI. And this blog is as good a place as any to post it.

Paul, Israel, Adam, and the Nations

A Second Temple Jewish Logic of Election, Atonement, and New Creation

Introduction

The apostle Paul is often portrayed as the architect of a new, universal religion that abandoned Israel’s particular story in favor of a generalized theology of salvation. Historically, this portrayal is misleading. Paul understood himself not as departing from Israel’s scriptures, but as re-reading them under the pressure of a single, destabilizing event: the resurrection of Jesus.

This essay argues that Paul’s theology is best understood as a carefully balanced synthesis of three narrative layers already present in Second Temple Judaism:

Creation (Adam and humanity)
Covenant (Israel and Torah)
Eschatology (Messiah and resurrection)

Paul’s inclusion of Gentiles does not bypass Israel, nor does it flatten Jewish categories into abstraction. Instead, it follows a coherent internal logic in which Israel remains central, Adam explains humanity’s universal plight, and Jesus stands at the intersection of both stories.

1. Temple Judaism and the Limits of Atonement

In the First and Second Temple periods, Israelites did not believe their sacrifices directly atoned for the sins of the nations. Temple sacrifice was:

Covenantal (for Israel)
Geographically and cultically located (land, sanctuary, priesthood)
Purificatory, especially for Israel’s sin and the sanctuary polluted by it

Gentiles could offer sacrifices, and the Temple was seen as the cosmic center sustaining order for the whole world, but this benefit was indirect. The nations were not cleansed of sin simply because Israel offered sacrifice.

This distinction is crucial. Later Christian claims of universal atonement represent a genuine theological shift, not a straightforward continuation of Temple belief.

2. Paul’s Scriptural Justification: Not Innovation, but Re-reading

Paul knew his claims were radical. He therefore grounded them explicitly in Israel’s scriptures.

Abraham before Torah

Paul emphasizes that Abraham was declared righteous before circumcision and before the Law (Genesis 15:6). This allowed Paul to argue that:

Covenant faithfulness could precede Torah
Gentile inclusion was not an afterthought, but anticipated from the beginning

Deuteronomy’s Curse Logic

Paul reads Deuteronomy’s warnings seriously. Israel’s failure under Torah places her under covenant curse (exile). Jesus’ crucifixion—“hanging on a tree”—forces a re-reading of Deuteronomy 21:23. For Paul:

The Messiah bears the curse on behalf of Israel
The Law is not evil; sin exploits it
The curse must be lifted before Abraham’s blessing can flow outward

Resurrection as the Turning Point

Paul’s theology does not pivot on Jesus’ death alone, but on resurrection. Resurrection signals:

The beginning of the age to come
The defeat of death
The vindication of Jesus as Messiah

Without resurrection, Paul explicitly says his gospel collapses.

3. Why Gentiles Needed Justification

Gentiles were not under the Mosaic Law. So why, according to Paul, did they need salvation?

The Adamic Problem (Romans 5)

Paul’s answer is Adam.

Sin and death enter the world through Adam
Death reigns over all humanity before the Law
The Law intensifies sin but does not create it

This allows Paul to distinguish:

Israel’s problem: covenantal failure under Torah
Humanity’s problem: enslavement to sin and death through Adam

Gentiles are condemned not as Torah-breakers, but as creatures who have misused creation and fallen under the power of death.

4. Adam and Israel: Parallel Stories

Second Temple Jews already recognized parallels between Adam and Israel:

Adam	Israel
Placed in Eden	Placed in the land
Given a command	Given Torah
Warned of death	Warned of exile
Exiled eastward	Exiled among nations

Paul does not reduce Adam to Israel, nor Israel to Adam. Instead:

Adam is the prototype
Israel is the recapitulation
Christ is the resolution of both

Jesus succeeds where both Adam and Israel fail—not by abandoning Israel’s story, but by embodying it faithfully.

5. Two Problems, One Messiah

Paul’s theology can be summarized as addressing two distinct curses:

The curse of the Law (Israel’s covenantal failure)
The curse of Adam (humanity’s enslavement to death)

Jesus’ death and resurrection deal with both, but not in the same way.

As Israel’s Messiah, Jesus bears the Law’s curse
As representative human, Jesus undoes Adam’s reign of death

The order matters: Adam is resolved through Israel’s Messiah.

6. Paul’s Chiasmic Logic of Election

Paul’s theology of election can be expressed as a dynamic narrowing and widening:

Out of the world God chose Israel
…Out of Israel God chose a remnant
……Out of the remnant God brought forth the Messiah
……In the Messiah God formed a faithful remnant
…Through this remnant God remains faithful to Israel
In Israel God brings blessing to the world

This structure preserves:

Israel’s priority
Gentile inclusion
The Messiah as the hinge of history
Election as vocation, not favoritism

Paul explicitly rejects the idea that the remnant replaces Israel. Instead, the remnant is the means by which God remains faithful to Israel, and Israel is the means by which God blesses the nations.

7. Where Later Christianity Breaks with Paul

Paul’s logic often breaks down in later Christianity due to simplification:

Adam Absorbs Everything

Adam becomes the sole explanatory category, while Israel’s covenantal role fades. This flattens Paul’s careful distinction between creation-failure and covenant-failure.

The Law Becomes the Villain

Torah is reinterpreted as legalism rather than gift. This distorts Paul’s claim that the Law is “holy and good.”

Resurrection Loses Centrality

Atonement becomes focused almost entirely on the cross as payment for guilt, rather than resurrection as the defeat of death and the beginning of new creation.

Israel Is Explained Away

Romans 9–11 is sidelined. The church becomes the endpoint rather than the participant in an unfinished story.

These shifts were historically understandable—especially in a Gentile-majority, post-Temple world—but they are not faithful to Paul’s own architecture.

Conclusion

Paul did not abandon Israel, mythologize Adam away, or invent a new religion detached from Jewish scripture. He was a Second Temple Jew who believed that God had acted decisively within Israel’s story to resolve a problem that reached back to Adam and outward to the nations.

For Paul:

Israel remains chosen
Adam explains universal need
Christ stands at the center
Resurrection signals new creation
History is still unfolding

Gentile inclusion is not a detour from Israel’s vocation—it is the goal toward which that vocation always pointed.

Understanding Paul this way does not require agreeing with him. But it does require taking him seriously on his own terms.

***

From Elephantine to Galatia: Understanding Diaspora Judaism and Paul’s Mission

The history of Jewish communities outside Jerusalem reveals a rich diversity of religious practice long before Torah law became universally binding. One of the clearest examples is the Jewish community at Elephantine, a military colony in southern Egypt during the 5th century BCE. Studying Elephantine not only illuminates early diaspora Judaism but also helps us understand the audiences that Paul encountered on his missionary journeys centuries later.

1. The Elephantine Community

Elephantine was a Judahite military colony, stationed on Egypt’s southern frontier before the Persian conquest (c. 525 BCE). Its members were likely Judean soldiers or mercenaries who migrated to Egypt before the major Deuteronomic reforms of the late 7th century BCE. Consequently, their religious practice reflects a pre-exilic, ritual-focused Yahwism:

They had their own temple devoted to YHWH, where priests oversaw sacrifices.
Their daily life and legal documents show partial adherence to Torah traditions, but not full Torah law enforcement.
They interacted with local Egyptians and other peoples, suggesting a degree of cultural flexibility and syncretism.
Notably, their petitions to the Jerusalem priesthood for temple support did not receive clear approval, showing the limits of central authority at the time.

In short, Elephantine Jews were religiously Jewish but socially flexible, practicing a form of Judaism that was ritual-centered rather than text-centered.

2. Why Elephantine Was Eventually Forgotten

By the 2nd century BCE, Judaism had begun a process of centralization and textualization that made communities like Elephantine historically obsolete:

Centralization of worship in Jerusalem made autonomous temples theologically problematic.
Torah law became the definitive marker of Jewish identity, replacing older ritual customs.
Diaspora communities like Elephantine lacked scribal and institutional power, meaning their traditions were not preserved.
As Jerusalem-centered Judaism solidified, communities outside its influence were quietly ignored or absorbed, leading Elephantine to fade from memory.

Elephantine, therefore, provides a snapshot of Judaism before Torah law became normative, illustrating how Jewish identity and practice evolved over centuries.

3. The Emergence of Normative Torah

The transformation from Elephantine-style Judaism to Torah-centered Judaism was largely complete by the 2nd century BCE, driven by historical pressures:

Hellenistic Rule and Seleucid Oppression: Greek culture and political control threatened Jewish religious practices, culminating in Antiochus IV’s desecration of the Jerusalem Temple.
Priestly Corruption and Internal Crisis: Disputes over legitimate leadership and proper observance highlighted the need for a standardized legal framework.
The Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE) established Hasmonean rule, making Torah observance state-enforced, not optional.
Diaspora Pressures: Torah law became a marker of identity, distinguishing Jews from surrounding Gentiles.

The result: Torah became binding and normative, defining Jewish identity for the first time in a widespread, enforceable way.

4. Diaspora Jews in Paul’s Time

By the 1st century CE, diaspora Jewish communities still exhibited considerable diversity in Torah observance and cultural assimilation:

Elephantine-type Jews: Highly ritual-centered, partially Torah-observant, integrated into local culture.
Hellenized diaspora Jews (“Greeks” in the NT sense): Some Torah knowledge, varying observance, Greek names and customs, partially assimilated.
Jerusalem-centered Jews: Fully Torah-observant, resistant to Hellenistic influence, centralized around Temple and priesthood.
Gentiles: Non-Jews with no obligation under Torah, often converts to Judaism via proselytism.

This spectrum helps us understand Paul’s ministry: many Jews outside Jerusalem were culturally and religiously flexible, making them receptive to his message of faith in Christ over strict law observance.

5. Paul and the Galatian Audience

In Galatians 3:13, Paul writes:

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…”

Here, he addresses an audience that includes diaspora Jews and Gentile converts who were under pressure from “Judaizers” to adopt Torah practices like circumcision. These Jews:

Likely resembled Elephantine-type or Hellenized diaspora Jews, partially observant but culturally integrated.
Faced choices between ritual identity and faith in Christ.
Needed reassurance that salvation did not require full Torah compliance, particularly circumcision, the visible marker of law.

Paul’s argument is historically consistent: he appeals to the flexible, diaspora identity that existed in Jewish communities long before Torah law was universally enforced.

6. Conclusion

The Elephantine community shows us that early Jewish diaspora life was diverse and adaptable. Ritual practice, local temple worship, and flexible law observance were the norm outside Jerusalem. Over centuries, historical pressures—imperial rule, Hellenization, and the Hasmonean consolidation—made Torah law binding and central to Jewish identity. By Paul’s time, many diaspora Jews still embodied the Elephantine-type flexibility, explaining why his gospel could resonate with Jews and Gentiles who were devout but not fully Torah-bound.

Understanding this continuum—from Elephantine to Galatia—illuminates both the historical development of Judaism and the social context of Paul’s missionary work, highlighting how faith and law interacted in a changing world.

***

Jesus is Not Coming Down From the Sky

There is No Santa

Imagine a young boy who believes in Santa Claus. He believes that the presents he finds under the tree each Christmas morning were placed there by a magical man who came down the chimney, and who afterward hopped on his sleigh pulled by flying reindeer.

But, one Christmas Eve, the boy decides he wants to see Santa for real and so he sneaks out of his room late at night hoping to catch Santa in action. What he does see, however, is his own parents carefully laying out presents, one by one, around the base of the tree. And so, he knows the truth. It is in fact his own parents who are delivering the goods.

Now, with this knowledge, would it be proper for the boy to then believe that it is his own parents who slid down the chimney? And it his own parents who will fly off into the night on the sleigh? No, of course not. The boy must disregard the entire Santa narrative. There’s no one coming down the chimney. It’s all his parents buying the presents from the store, wrapping them out of sight, and placing them under the tree. Once the boy discovers the truth about one thing, he must apply that truth to everything else.

First Century Cosmology

First century Christians did not have telescopes. They believed the realm above them was a series of layers transcending the dome of the sky. They believed that angels and God literally resided in and above the layers containing the sun, moon, and stars. God’s throne room was a literal place up in what we would call “outer space.” When Jesus ascended up to the Father, to sit at His right hand, Jesus literally went up to sit on a literal throne in a literal throne room.

Since Jesus was up in outer space, of course when He returns, he will return from outer space. Where else would He come from?

21st Century Cosmology

Today we have telescopes. We know that we live in one galaxy among billions, and that each galaxy contains billions, if not trillions, of stars. The universe is so vast, it is beyond comprehension. In fact, the universe is likely infinite. We know this now.

We know that there is no Santa. Therefore, is it proper for us to continue to believe that one day the world will see Jesus descending down to the earth through the layers of the heavens as they believed He would in the 1st century? Should we combine their cosmology with our own? No, of course not. Ask any Christian today where heaven is, and unless he’s a flat-earther, he will likely say that heaven is located in the spiritual realm, someplace beyond the material realm that we do not have access to.

New Testament Eschatological Language

New Testament (NT) eschatology is primarily Israel’s eschatology. The Church’s eschatology builds upon it, but then transcends it. The cosmos coming under judgement for the NT authors was the Israelite cosmos. The end was near, at hand, at the door, soon, and about to happen. Every NT author believed he was living in the last days. And he was, to the degree that the old order of things was coming to an end. The apocalyptic language of the NT reflects this.

Israel’s eschatology is not the Church’s eschatology. The Church’s eschatology is this: Just as a dragnet draws all the fish into the boat, so is all creation being drawn to the Father by the redemptive work of Christ. We don’t know when this work will be complete, and we don’t know what it will finally look like. For now it is beyond our comprehension, beyond our reach.

It’s okay to be somewhat agnostic when it comes to eschatology. Embrace the mystery. Whatever you do, don’t go on believing that your dad has a pack of flying reindeer hidden away in a barn somewhere.

We Are Not Israel

Israel is gone. Our faith is not “Judeo/Christian.” We are just Christian. Yes, Jesus was the Messiah Israel was waiting for, but He was not the Messiah they were expecting. Jesus was not the blood soaked Davidic warrior coming to destroy Rome and establish a powerful Israelite theocracy the 1st century Jews were hoping for. This is why He was rejected.

Jesus subverted all Messianic expectations. His kingdom is not of this world. He came to conquer a higher enemy. He came to do the will of the Father, not Israel. The Father’s will is to redeem His creation. This is what Christianity is: The redemption of creation through Christ.

For Christians, Israel has become allegory. The Old Testament scriptures are transformed to types and shadows. It’s not our literal history. It’s our mythology.

Most Christians live like this even if not fully aware of it. They may say the stories are literal history, but they always apply the stories allegorically to their own life’s journey. It doesn’t matter if the stories are literal history or not; anything to do with Israel we allegorize.

Jesus is not coming down from the sky. Israelite cosmology is not true. That’s okay, because we are Christians. We know more. We’ve seen more. We know what is mythology and what is reality. We know the truth, and what we know is true; we must apply it to everything else.

Deification from Nothing

And only by this primordial assent does humanity in its eternal “multi-hypostatic” reality— as the eternal Adam of the first creation— freely receive its being from its creator: and this even though that assent becomes, on the threshold between the heavenly Aeon and time, a recapitulation of the Fall, an individuating acceptance of entry into the world under the burden of sin, such that every soul is answerable for and somehow always remembers that original transgression. In that moment, the spiritual creature concurs in its own creation, and God hands the creature over to its own free self-determination. Here, naturally, the language of past and future can devolve all too easily into a mythology of individual guilt historically “prior” to any person’s actual life; but, of course, there was no fall “back then” in historical time, either for the race or for the individual. Rather, the Fall “happened” only as belonging to the temporal unfolding of that eternal assent. It “happened”— or, rather, is happening— only as the lingering resistance of nothingness to that final joyous confession, the diminishing residue of the creature’s emergence ex nihilo. For no creature can exist as spirit in God except under the condition of having arisen from nothingness in order to grow into his or her last end. That passage from nothingness into the infinite, which is always a free intentionality toward a final cause, is the very structure of created spiritual beings. They could not be spirit otherwise.
David Bentley Hart, You Are Gods (Kindle Locations 2269-2281). University of Notre Dame Press. Kindle Edition.

The above quote is dense. I had ChatGPT break it down for me…

1. Humanity’s “primordial assent”

All of humanity, seen as one great reality (called here the “eternal Adam”), says “yes” to God in a timeless, original way — that’s what allows us to receive our existence.
This assent is not something we’re forced into; it’s freely given.

2. Entry into the world as a re-enactment of the Fall

When each soul crosses from God’s eternal realm into time, that assent gets played out again.
This entry into earthly life also means accepting a world where sin and brokenness exist — a “burden” every soul bears.
Somehow, each person participates in and “remembers” the original turning away from God (the Fall), even though it’s not a literal memory of a past historical event.

3. Individual freedom at creation

In this moment of entering existence, the soul agrees to be created and is entrusted by God to its own freedom.
God hands each creature over to its own self-determination — we’re not puppets; we live by our own will.

4. The caution against misreading the Fall

It’s easy to turn this idea into a story of “individual guilt” for something that happened before we were born.
But the author says that’s a misunderstanding — the Fall wasn’t a single event in history, for either humanity as a whole or for each person individually.

5. The Fall as an ongoing reality

The Fall “happens” as part of the unfolding of that original assent in time.
It’s the ongoing resistance of nothingness — the fact that we came from nothing — to fully and joyfully uniting with God.
This resistance gradually diminishes as we grow toward God.

6. Why this resistance exists

A creature can only exist as a spiritual being in God if it has come from nothingness.
That means we must grow from nothingness toward our ultimate purpose — union with God — in a free, intentional way.
That journey from nothing to infinite life in God is the very structure of what it means to be a spiritual creature.

In short:
We each freely agree to exist, but entering the world means stepping into a condition where sin already burdens us — not as guilt for a past event, but as part of our starting point in nothingness. The Fall is not “back then,” but is the ongoing process of wrestling with the pull of nothingness as we freely move toward God, which is exactly what it means to be a spiritual being.

***

The Climb from the Hollow

In the beginning, there was no beginning.
Ermias opened his eyes in a vast, dim hollow. No sun, no stars; only a faint glow far above, like the hint of a dawn. He did not remember falling here; he simply found himself at the bottom, his feet in the dust.

He stood. Something inside him whispered: Up there is your home.
Not a command, but an invitation.

The climb was hard. The walls were steep in some places, treacherous in others, and the dust clung to him, weighing him down. It whispered, You come from me. Stay. It pulled at his ankles, reminding him how easy it would be to stop.

Ermias kept climbing.
Not because he was told to, not because he feared punishment, but because the faint light above called to him. The higher he climbed, the stronger the light, and the lighter his steps.

Still, the dust never let go. Even when he could see the edge of the hollow, its pull was there, a quiet ache in his legs and longing in his chest. It was part of him, just as much as the light.

He understood:
He had not been pushed into the hollow long ago. He had always been here, and his life was the climb — the slow, free, deliberate rising from the nothingness of the dust toward the fullness of the light.

***

If we view the fall in this way, how does the life of Jesus guide us from nothingness to God?

Complete Surrender to God’s Purpose and Freedom from Nothingness:
- Jesus embodies complete surrender to God’s purpose, demonstrating the free intentionality required to move from nothingness toward divine union. His prayer in Gethsemane, “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42), illustrates this active, free choice to embrace his divine end.
- Unlike every other human being, Jesus’ freedom was never bent inward toward self-assertion. Every choice He made aligned perfectly with the will of the Father, overcoming the pull of nothingness.
Incarnation as the Bridge from Nothingness to Infinity:
- The doctrine of the Incarnation (God becoming human in Jesus – John 1:14) illustrates the journey from nothingness to divine fullness. As fully human, Jesus shares in the creaturely condition of originating ex nihilo, yet as fully divine, he embodies the infinite end toward which all creatures are called.
- Jesus entered the same condition we inhabit—born into the finitude and vulnerability of human life, subject to temptation, pain, and mortality. By living our condition without turning inward, He shows that the journey from nothingness to God can be completed within human limits.
Overcoming Temptation as Resistance to Nothingness:
- The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4:1-13) symbolizes the rejection of the “residue of nothingness.” Satan’s temptations—material gain, power, and self-preservation—represent ways the creature might cling to autonomy or finite desires, resisting divine intentionality. Jesus’ refusal of these temptations demonstrates how to prioritize God’s will over the allure of nothingness.
- His temptations in the wilderness are the archetypal moment where the pull of “nothingness” tries to assert itself—through comfort, power, and self-display. Jesus answers each one with trust in the Father, refusing the shortcuts that would anchor Him in self-will.
Teachings as a Guide for Intentionality:
- Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels, such as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), outline a way of life that orients the soul toward God. His emphasis on love, humility, forgiveness, and trust in God offers a roadmap for aligning one’s intentions with divine purpose.
- Jesus describes His very sustenance as obedience to God’s purpose—“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34), showcasing the opposite of clinging to self-sufficiency.
Crucifixion as the Ultimate Surrender:
- Jesus’ death on the cross (Mark 15:33-39, John 19:30) represents the ultimate act of self-emptying (kenosis), where he freely embraces the finitude and suffering inherent in creaturely existence. By accepting death, Jesus confronts the nothingness at the heart of human mortality and transforms it through his trust in God’s redemptive power.
- On the cross, Jesus fully experiences the consequence of our condition: mortality, weakness, and even the feeling of God’s absence. But instead of yielding to despair, He entrusts Himself entirely into the Father’s hands, reversing the “Fall” by freely surrendering to Him in suffering.
Resurrection as the Fulfillment of Divine End:
- The resurrection (Matthew 28:1-10, John 20:1-18) is the definitive triumph over nothingness, demonstrating that the journey from ex nihilo to God culminates in eternal life. Jesus’ risen life shows that the creature’s free assent to God’s purpose leads to transformation beyond the limits of finitude.
- The resurrection is not just a miracle to prove divinity—it’s the completion of the passage from nothingness into the infinite. In Him, human life is lifted fully into God, body and soul, showing the destiny that awaits every spirit that freely assents.
Example for Practical Imitation:
- Jesus’ life provides concrete practices for moving toward God: prayer (e.g., the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:9-13), service to others (John 13:1-17), and sacrificial love (John 15:13). These actions reflect a life oriented toward divine intentionality, showing how everyday choices can resist nothingness and grow toward God.
- Jesus’ whole life shows what it looks like when created spirit fully grows into its “last end”—unbroken union with God, serving as the pattern and pioneer of what it means for created spirit to complete the climb from the Hollow to the Summit.

God Beyond Religion

Religions are man-made attempts to know God. God is God, and is not defined by religion. But, we can believe God is the Father who knows and understands all things

The Old Testament is not a document dictated by God to give us a perfect picture of God. The Old Testament is the story of one group of people trying to understand God–not just who God is, but what God is–and they got a lot wrong. God is both beyond our understanding, and our good Father. If that’s true, His plan for humanity is just beginning.

We get most things wrong about God, even now after 2000 years of Christianity. The diversity of Christianity makes this clear.

Religions are man-made attempts to know God, but we are learning.

If we believe in God, and that God is a loving Father, then we must believe in the incarnation. But, we cannot fully understand the incarnation since it ties together two things we’ve never experienced: 1) a pre-fallen state; 2) life after death.