The Fivefold Path of Reconciliation: A short review of the opening uses of allássō: From the engineered “change” of fallen man which works death to the obedience that gives life in death’s destruction

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Review

As our last word study on the root verb for reconciliation—allássō—was many months ago, we will briefly review what we discovered in our opening three installments in preparation for our fourth and final study.

The two-fold nature of “change”

The initial exploration centered on allássō’s first use in Acts 6 within the context of Stephen’s false accusation and eventual martyrdom. There we saw how change is manipulated by institutional religion to engineer a pre-determined outcome; yet in the pathway of such engineered change, two realities result:

First, in regard to fallen man, the pathway of control causes his own mind/heart/soul/nous to itself be changed. For in the very act of man’s triumphant manipulation of external events, his own personality is progressively given over to the inner working of Hell itself, becoming therein “foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (Rom 1:31).

Second—and at at the very same time—in the midst of this engineered control of events, another level of operation becomes apparent. Yet as this operates, we see it working on a completely different, higher level, far beyond the sphere of human power and control:

“And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel” (6:15).

As such, when the saints, as Stephen, are dwelling in the inner stillness of intercession, they open Heaven itself such that the realities of the eternal Kingdom break down into this fallen realm of manipulated control, bringing a change far more powerful.

It is a paradox of paradoxes:

That which destroys the life of a saint becomes, at the very same time, the engine for his glorious, eternal transformation into the image of His Suffering Savior.

From man’s manipulated “change” to God’s triumphant transformation: The paradoxes of the Gospel

The next uses in the resurrection chanter of I Corinthians 15 reveal how this level operates, thereby opening believers up to this higher path. When man’s relation to allássō is one, not of control, but of obedience; not of external religiosity, but of a hidden life of waiting upon God, the outcome is that which gives life even in the face of death.

The critical point here, however, is that it is not man that is working to produce the change; it is none other than God Himself.

Here, allássō operates on the level, not of the manipulative, fallen mind, but rather within the fourth dimensional level of the Kingdom of God, where it effects glorious transformation through and in Christ.

When the grace of God is working in the soul of man, the paradoxes of the Gospel begin to be worked out in our lives such that it can be declared,

“The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.

It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.

It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (I Cor 15:42-44).

In these great paradoxes that operate both on the physical and spiritual levels, both on the temporal and eternal planes, we are ushered into the reality that as we follow Christ in obedience, we will not control any change in ourselves or another;

But rather,

“we shall be changed (allássō)…and we shall be changed (allássō)” (I Cor 15:51-52).

From I Corinthians 15 to Hosea 13: Thánatos and Mâveth swallowed up in victory

This is the true way in which allássō operates, drawing us out of the sphere of man’s endless labor and manipulated control into the glorious transformation of the eternal Kingdom.

Yet this passageway can only be received.

It is given by God and received by man in the beautiful and powerful paradox of the God-man’s life-giving death—through which He defeats Death itself (Thánatos in the Greek; mâveth in the Hebrew).

“So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written:

“Death (Thánatos) is swallowed up in victory” (cf. Is 25:8).

O Death (Thánatos), where is your sting?

O Death, (Thánatos) where is your victory?” (cf. Hos 13:14)

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:54-57).

Death in the Ugaritic conception was personified as the god, Mot. In the Baal Cycles he was depicted as a powerful deity who ruled the underworld and opposed Baal, the “storm god,” whose power was alternatively associated with life and fertility.

Mot’s domain was the grave.

As such, these texts describe him as a devourer with an insatiable appetite, swallowing the living and the dead into his realm (cf. KTU 1.5 II).

In their portrayed of him, therefore, he is spoken of as having “a lip to the earth, a lip to the heavens…and a tongue to the stars” (b). That is to say, his mouth devours all that is in both heaven and earth.

A terrifying, literally world-consuming power—And it is precisely this insatiable force of Death that is confronted and overcome by JHWH.

He is, in short,

“swallowed up in victory.”

From Mot to Thánatos: A bee buzzing with no stinger

JHWH’s victory is not merely over Mot but extends into the later Greek mythological context where He “swallows up” the god, Thánatos.

And Thánatos, if our memory from Greek mythology is somewhat rusty, was depicted as a winged young man who carried either a sword or a butterfly, thereby symbolizing the fleeting nature of life.

He was the son of Nyx (that is, the night) and Erebus (the personification of darkness) with his twin brother being Hypnos (that is, sleep). And it should be further noted that his other siblings included Moros (doom) and Eris (strife).

All this communicated that he was a dark force, who executed the inevitable fate of mortals, ushered their eternal souls into the darkness of the underworld.

And now, the “sting,” both of the actively malevolent, devouring god, Mot, and the hidden-but-ever-present darkness of Thánatos, has been finally removed.

All this god of Death can do, so to speak, is buzz around us with no power to effect any real change.

For in Christ Jesus, who has “given us the victory,” we have already been

“changed (allássō)

in a way that conforms us more and more into His image.

And still further, as the Apostle then declares,

And we shall be changed (allássō).”

And this change shall eternally effect our life in Christ.

This is the true change of allássō that undergirds genuine reconciliation—a change that beings in us (not the other person whom we cannot control) and directs us into greater conformation into the glorious image of our Suffering, Dying and Resurrected Savior.

And to this, all we can say is,

Amen and so may it be!

In our next study, we will return to the final two uses of allássō in Galatians and Hebrews.