The subject of the book is "Mack" or"Mackenzie".
He is having a conversation with the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit - referred to in the book as Papa, Jesus, and
Sarayu. The changing of the names/pronouns was simply
another way of dealing with the natural hang-ups that "Mack"
had (and so many of us have or have had) and to keep the
focus where it should be (explained well in the book).
P 202. Again Mack had his fork halfway to his
mouth, but took the bite anyway while he thought of how to
answer Sarayu [Holy Spirit].
"I suppose, at least I have been taught, that it's a set
of rules that you expected humans to obey in order to live
righteously in your good graces."
"If that were true, which it is not," Sarayu countered,
"then how many do you think lived righteously enough to
enter our good graces?"
"Not very many, if people are like me," Mack observed.
"Actually, only one succeeded - Jesus. He not only
obeyed the letter of the law but fulfilled the spirit of it
completely. But understand this, Mackenzie - to do
that he had to rest fully and dependently upon me."
"Then why did you give us those commandments?" asked
Mack.
"Actually we wanted you to give up trying to be righteous
on your own. It was a mirror to reveal just how filthy
your face gets when you live independently."
. . .
"But I'm sure you know there are many," responded Mack,
"who think they are made righteous by following the rules."
"But can you clean your face with the same mirror
that shows you how dirty you are? There is no mercy or
grace in rules, not even for one mistake. That's why
Jesus fulfilled all of it for you - so that it no longer has
jurisdiction over you. And the Law that once contained
impossible demands - Thou Shall Not . .
. - actually becomes a promise we fulfill in you."
. . .
[Sarayu continues] "But keep in mind that if you
live your life alone and independently, the promise is
empty. Jesus laid the demand of the law to rest:
it no longer has any power to accuse or command. Jesus
is both the promise and its fulfillment."
"Are you saying I don't have to follow the rules?"
Mack had now completely stopped eating and was concentrating
on the conversation.
"Yes, in Jesus you are not under any law. All
things are lawful."
"You can't be serious! You're messing with me
again," moaned Mack.
"Mackenzie," Sarayu continued, "those who are
afraid of freedom are those who cannot trust us to live in
them. Trying to keep the law is actually a
declaration of independence, a way of keeping control."
Is that why we like the law so much - to give us some
control?" asked Mack.
"It is much worse than that," resumed Sarayu. "It
grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to
them. You believe you are living to a higher standard
than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in
its more subtle expressions like responsibility and
expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of
uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I
have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules
cannot bring freedom, they only have the power to accuse."
"Whoa!" Mack suddenly realized what Sarayu had
said. Are you telling me that responsibility and
expectation are just another form of rules we are no longer
under? Did I hear you right? "
. . .
[Sarayu] . . . "I am
a verb. I am that I am. I will be who I will
be. I am a verb! I am alive, dynamic, ever
active, and moving. I am a being verb" .
. . "And as my very essence is a verb, she
continued, "I am more attuned to verbs than
nouns. Verbs such as confessing, repenting,
living, loving, responding, growing, reaping, changing,
sowing, running, dancing, singing, and so on and on. Humans,
on the other hand, have a knack for taking a verb that is
alive and full of grace and turning it into a dead noun or
principle that reeks of rules: something growing and
alive dies, Nouns exist because there is a
created universe and physical reality, but if the universe
is only a mass of nouns, it is dead. Unless "I am",
there are no verbs, and verbs are what makes the
universe alive" . . .
"For something to move from death to life you must
introduce something living and moving into the mix. To
move from something that is only a noun to something dynamic
and unpredictable, to something living and present, is
to move from law to grace" .
. .
From P 205: [Sarayu] "Religion must use law
to empower itself and control the people who they need in
order to survive. I give you an ability to respond and
your response is to be free to love and serve in every
situation, and therefore each moment is different and unique
and wonderful. Because I am your ability to respond, I
have to be present in you. If I simply gave
you a responsibility, I would not have to be with you at
all. It would now be a task to perform, an obligation
to be met, something to fail."
P 207: Papa [name for God] interrupted
. . . "You see,
Mackenzie, I don't just want a piece of you and a piece of
your life. Even if you were able, which you are not,
to give me the biggest piece, that is not what I want.
I want all of you and all of every part of you and
your day."
Jesus now spoke again. "Mack, I don't want to be
first among a list of values; I want to be at the
center of everything. When I live in you, then
together we can live through everything that happens to
you. Rather than a pyramid, I want to be the center of
a mobile, where everything in your life - your friends,
family, occupation, thoughts, activities - is connected to
me but moves with the wind, in and out and back and forth,
in an incredible dance of being."
"And I," concluded Sarayu [Holy Spirit], "I am the wind."
If we are living now by the Holy Spirit's power, let us
follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our
lives. (Gal 5:25)