Complimentary Story
Christ is God, but many do not accept Him as God. He is spoken of as God all through the Bible. I will cite the most common reference of Christ being God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us...” John 1:1,14.The disciples thought of Jesus only as a man, a political leader for the first three years in following Him. They did not receive Him as God in Christ until after He rose from the dead. Today many follow preachers as though they possess some sort of deity, and the preacher becomes their god. Others accept Jesus in this same way — an elated man status. Paul said, “Do not bow down to me I am a man like you are.”
There is a hiatus or lacuna in the life of every person, and that hiatus must be and only can be filled by God in Christ. I want us to examine the word “hiatus,” and hopefully we will see the idea I am trying to convey through it.
According to Webster, “Hiatus” and “Lacuna” are both synonymous with each other, that is, they both have the same meaning: “A space from which something is missing.” My illustration is as follows. We each have a space or void within our lives wherein we are born with something missing. This space has something missing although it is wanting, and it has to be filled before the hiatus can reveal what is missing. Once the Hiatus is filled the want of the void and the reason of it comes into knowledge. The Presence filling the Hiatus and the revelation come or enter the space at the same moment in time. In order for revelation to be revealed, we must have the missing something filling the space. When we receive the Something, “God in Christ,” into the Hiatus all things are made clear. We know that we know because we are born spiritually by God in Christ filling the space. It is a no-brainer, we must be born physically before we can know anything, and the spiritual birth is no different, we must be born again.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.’” John 3:3,6,7.
“Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, ‘How can these things be?’” John 3:9. Nicodemus was a very learned man, and yet he questioned, “How can these things be?” We all must ask that same question, and then we must get the answer of how Christ can enter right into our body and give us new birth, new life, His Life.
Let us begin this journey by looking at the lives of the disciples. They did not understand or comprehend Who Christ was until He rose from the dead.
Read the story of the two men on the Emmaus Road. (Luke 24:15-32). Here we see that the disciples only thought of Jesus in terms of a human leader who would guide them into a worldly victory; when He was crucified all their man-made dreams and plans were ruined!
There was also a Hiatus between the state of life in the disciples in the pre-resurrected time and their state of being in the post-resurrection time which must be explained or accounted for.
What finally dominated, controlled, and created the dynamic force that changed these fearful men who cowered in the Upper Room into a fearless movement for Christ? Before the crucifixion they only knew Jesus as like you and I know each other, just a man. After the resurrection they came to know and receive Him as God in Christ. When the revelation of “God in Christ” came this filled the Hiatus missing in their lives.
Only when the nature of the Hiatus between the pre-resurrection time and the post-resurrection time is critically assessed does it become possible to discern the outlines of the reality that must lie between or hidden. “We hoped that He was the one to redeem...” (Luke 24:19). Now all hope was lost. Then, the resurrection brought hope, but with a different viewpoint. The resurrection authenticated Who Christ was and is. Herein the resurrection interpreted why He was crucified, and gave reason to all that transpired before.
Let us be sure Who we are looking for, and Who we intend to receive. The disciples walked and talked with Jesus for three years but did not come to know Him until the revelation came via His resurrection. Let us continue to vision what brought this about. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
“Spiritual things must be Spiritually discerned,” and God in Christ by and through His resurrection presents us with spiritual things or evidences that are outside the realm of the natural, and by discernment we can learn and venture into that realm. In order to know God in Christ, it is necessary to have an actual experience, not just an intellectual idea of Him. Just as it is essential to be born in the flesh, we must be born in the Spirit.
Let us look at some more of the proofs given in Scripture wherein God in Christ is able, invisibly, to enter right into our body, our life, and we will know that the Hiatus in our life has received Him.
When Peter and John entered the tomb, the Scriptures record, “They believed.” (John 20:5-8). What was it that they observed causing them to believe now? “All that was ‘the man’ Jesus Who suffered and died had vanished; the grave clothes, spices and napkin, things of earth remained. The clothes were undisturbed, the spices were still enclosed, no human hand came near them, God in Christ Rose right through them, disappeared out of His attire as if passing through air.” This is one illustration that explains how God in Christ can enter or pass right into our life when we receive Him according to His plan. Many have no clue of God in Christ residing in them. It’s no more than a ritual that they go through. If they had Him, “In Him they would live, move, and have their being.”
The disciples did not recognize the spiritual mode of God in Christ when they walked with Him. The Divine operation of rising from the dead, vanishing through the grave clothes in thin air, and appearing in another form (Mark 16:12) were just some of the many accounts and appearances that God in Christ performed. Take note again, nothing during the three day Hiatus from the crucifixion could give the broken, fearful disciples any hope; Then, “The doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them...” (John 20:26).
Here again, as easy as God in Christ can enter through closed doors, He can enter into the Hiatus within the lives of lost men. With God in Christ nothing is impossible.
This same God in Christ, “Ascended into Heaven...” (Mark 16:19). Does not this give us hope and assurance that when we have God in Christ we will also travel through the air an ascend into Heaven and ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17, 1 John 5:13).
“And there are many other things which Jesus did...” (John 21:25). One has to be amazed and overwhelmed when he receives God in Christ. “For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
The revelation that God in Christ changed more than the perspectives of the disciples, it changed their lives. Our lives must be transformed in the same way; we must be born of God in Christ; He must pass into our lives thereby making us a new creation. (See John 1:12, 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27). “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20).
The Apostle Paul revealed the unknown God to the lost, not the unknown man. There were many “man-gods” during the time of Paul, and there are many today. And “There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end is death.” You might say, “I went to the Altar; I performed the ritual,” but have you filled the space in your life, the Hiatus, where God in Christ is waiting to occupy? He is standing at the door of your heart and knocking to come in (Revelation 3:20).
Lord, my prayer for this message is that this seldom used word “Hiatus” will reverberate in the minds of all those who read it, and cause them to look deep inside their lives, and confirm or fill the space that has something missing with Your Presence. Amen.
Send questions or comments to:
John E. Burt
The Upper Room Ministry
6854 N Zett Rd
Draper, WI 54896
