I have written and spoken much about unborn awareness. And a little about uncreated grace. It is time to clarify further what I mean by “unborn” and how that differs from being “uncreated.” In other words, to be unborn is not necessarily to be uncreated. In fact, unborn awareness IS created. Let me explain.
Unborn awareness is not born with the birth of the human infant. It is not even born at the conception of the human embryo. Awareness which is spirit is breathed by its Creator and our Father—God—such that the sliver of God’s breath becomes the basis of our entire experience of life. The material and conscious dimensions of our lives both find their source and ground in the triune God who is Spirit: eternal unborn uncreated supreme awareness par excellence. In this sense, our awareness is unborn but still created.
Also, our unborn awareness shares in the nature and character of God’s supreme awareness, imaging or mirroring His pristine unconditioned timeless nature. Our awareness or spirit cannot be destroyed or stained or assailed or reduced but it can be ruptured from its source through rebellion: sinful clinging and grasping to autonomy and separation apart from God our Creator. We desire to be our own God, worshipping ourselves as the ultimate end of all things. This often hidden desire pulsates in the fabric of our being, subtle and crafty, usually imperceptible and camouflaged in varied ways. The primordial innocence and freedom of our spirit opens it to seduction and temptation into stand-alone autonomy: being like God rather than worshipping God and relying on Him alone. Thus, the fall from grace and inception of brokenness in life.
In spite of this, God pursues us to bring us home to Himself. We conjure many ideologies of spirituality and systems of morality; we fashion philosophies of dualism and nondualism, and indulge in fantasies of pantheism and panentheism thinking we are God; and we design complex rituals and practices for awakening and returning to God. But alas, none of them could fully and finally bring us home from exile to God, our source and ground and desideratum of being.
The grace of God is uncreated, eternal, counter-conditional. God has loved us with an everlasting love. 1 John 4:10 says: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He has loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Bridging the chasm and healing the rupture which we have initiated and maintained is not merely a feat of overlooking the separation. Cosmic and divine justice had been abrogated. Our rebellion tore apart the original seamless fabric of cosmic and personal union with God. This damage cannot be simply waived aside without recompense that makes things right again with God. Justice without justification and recompense is no justice at all. The foundation of righteousness with a holy God can never be broken. A price has to be paid. But are we able to pay that price? No. We are not.
That is why God in His sovereign grace freely chose to bear the cost and pay the price of our rebellion—our cosmic treason—by becoming one of us in the flesh. He freely condescended into our condition of brokenness and sinfulness without Himself sinning in any way. He became us yet remaining fully God so He could bear all that we deserve and give us all that He is. On the cross. Grace became flesh. Love came down. Sin of treason and its penalty dealt with. Judgement for transgressions executed. Punishment exacted. All this fully effected on God’s own body—the body of Jesus, God the Son and Son of Man. We are redeemed and rescued, our spirits regenerated into wholeness with Himself: unborn awareness reunited with God in Christ.
This is uncreated grace coming into our created history to make us one with God, the living source of all grace which is unearned, unmerited, undeserved, and counter-conditional (saving us despite our sinful rejection and rebellion). God’s relationship to us has now been restored. When we say yes to His gift of restoration, we are immediately drawn into His ambit of intimate communion love.
Unborn awareness. Uncreated grace. Our spirits may be unborn but they are created. Our uncreated God whose uncreated grace breaks into our complacency comes to save us from eternal separation from Himself. In saying yes to this, we are born from above. We truly come alive. In Christ alone.
Shall we?
