When we reckon ourselves dead to sin, just what does this mean to us? We know it has to do with taking inventory and marking it as a finished fact, but what is it to be truly dead to sin? Let us put it this way: If a person is physically dead, he is dead to the world. He cannot respond in any way to the world around him; for he is dead. The world can no longer inspire, encourage, tempt or entice the man whatsoever. It cannot hurt, depress, or cause anguish to the man in any way. There is no fragment of the world that is powerful enough to reach inside the man's body and cause it to respond. Beat the body, and there will be no grimacing of pain, tickle the feet and there will be no reflex or smile to break over the rigid face, blast a cannon over the head and it will not cause the slightest flutter of the eyelids. For he is dead to the world.
To be dead to sin is the same. If we are dead to sin, we cannot respond to it in any way; for we are dead. Sin can no longer inspire, depress, tempt or entice us whatsoever. There is no fragment of sin that is powerful enough to reach inside and cause us to respond. Bombard us with sin from every direction, and we will not submit to its force. Dangle a pretty piece of flesh before us and there will be no wanton smile to break over our face etched in Christ, and blast a cannon ball of lust, perversion, greed, power, and vanity over our heads will not cause the slightest flutter or blink from our single eye in Christ. For we are dead to sin!
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: AND HE CANNOT SIN, because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). Do we believe this? Indeed -- WE CANNOT SIN!
You disagree? Oh my, I can already hear the wailing drones and lamenting cries of dead men, saying -- "We are not dead! We are alive to the world! We have a nature to sin, and without self-control and the bridle and bit of the law holding us back -- we are sure we would quickly fall to the wiles of the devil and fill every lust our hearts could imagine! Therefore, we will set our minds to do good, abstain from evil, and put forth our hands to fulfill every law."
This, of course, does not fit every believer; but it is the covering for many. Oh foolish "Christians." Who hath bewitched you? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Let me ask -- Who are the "WE" which John said CANNOT SIN? They, of course, are the "WHOSOEVER ARE BORN OF GOD." Also, with whom do we identify? It is He of whom we were born; namely, GOD OUR FATHER! Our identity, our existence, our life, the person we are -- is all of God! And if we happen to miss the mark, it is as Paul said, "Now then it is no more I that do it, but SIN that dwelleth in me" (Rom 7:17). If we have a houseguest who lives below our standard, are we that houseguest merely because he resides with us? Of course not! Yet traduced minds believe the sin which dwells in our members, in our minds, is who we are. Let them embrace the lie and die; but I will not.
Now then, Reckon yourselves dead -- "For YE ARE DEAD, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col 3:3). "My Brethren, YOU ALSO WERE PUT TO DEATH by the LAW through the BODY of the ANOINTED one, in order that you may BELONG to another, -- to HIM who was RAISED from the Dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God" (Diaglott).
Monday, August 28, 2017
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Natures Parable
God has so beautifully provided a parable of this blessed truth in the world of nature about us. The lowly caterpillar which crawls along the ground, trod upon by the foot of man, is destined to flit on starry wings in a heavenly atmosphere no longer hampered by earth-bound things but transformed as though by God's Spirit from a creature of dust to one which has put on a somewhat heavenly tabernacle. There is planted within the very being of that worm a call to a higher life-form, and, driven by that hidden nature within (which exists as a SUBSTANCE), at the appointed time he begins to spin around himself a cocoon. Before the caterpillar ever crawled upon the earth the potential to become a butterfly lay within his being from the very moment of fertilization of the egg. When the larva had begun to form in the egg, certain little groups of cells, belonging NOT TO THE LARVA BUT TO THE EVENTUAL BUTTERFLY, had also formed, and these remained dormant, safely stored within the body of the caterpillar. At the appointed time these cells awaken to life and begin to grow and multiply. Their presence becomes dramatically evident during the six short minutes when the last larval skin is shed, and the cocoon is spun. Hanging there in his cocoon, the worm bides his time and acts out a living prophecy of the words of Job who said, "If a man die, will he live again? ALL THE DAYS OF MY APPOINTED TIME WILL I WAIT UNTIL MY CHANGE COMES!" (Job 14:4). One observing merely from the outside would never imagine the awesome work being performed within that little cocoon. On the surface, there is nothing to see, for the cocoon serves as a veil, a womb, to conceal the marvelous processes which change a caterpillar into a butterfly. As the butterfly cells grow, they completely CONSUME the form of the caterpillar, and when the process is complete the hour comes when the cocoon begins to yield to the pressure of the NEW BEING within and is burst asunder as the butterfly emerges. There is now an object of surpassing beauty which seems in no way related to the hairy worm of days before. In the process the caterpillar ceases to exist, the cocoon is discarded, laid aside, and THE NEW CREATION IS MANIFESTED TO THE WORLD!
Oh! my brother, my sister, may the Spirit of God quicken the truth of these things to your heart! As I have looked to the Lord about these precious truths, it has become increasingly clear to my spirit that Jesus did not receive the glorified body when he arose from the tomb – no more than the butterfly became a butterfly when it broke from the cocoon. The worm becomes a butterfly BEFORE it emerges from the cocoon. The thing the Spirit would teach us in this, then, is that a butterfly does not become a butterfly BECAUSE it escapes the cocoon. It, rather, escapes the cocoon BECAUSE IT HAS BECOME A BUTTERFLY! Even so, Jesus did not possess a glorified body BECAUSE He arose from the grave. He, instead, burst forth from the grave BECAUSE HE ALREADY POSSESSED A GLORIFIED BODY! What a difference! Because He was indwelt by the incorruptible life of His Father, that life being formed fully within Him. He could announce to His disciples before His death: "The third day I shall rise again." And indwelt by this resurrected, glorified Christ Paul could confidently declare: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle (cocoon of flesh) were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, ETERNAL IN THE HEAVENS" (II Cor. 5:1).
God would have all His holy sons to know of a certainty the incomprehensible treasure which lies within them – a house, a tabernacle, a clothing from heaven is within them – and we have the confidence that even this outward body of clay shall be exchanged for that heavenly body, thus fulfilling the glorious words of victory: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory?" (I Cor. 15:53-55). I do not hesitate to boldly proclaim to you, beloved, that we are even now receiving our spirit-body within our flesh-body, and as we continue to PUT ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST there is an increase of the celestial body within. Indeed, we are PUTTING ON OUR HOUSE WHICH IS FROM HEAVEN! Christ Himself is that house and He is our eternal covering.
Ah. as we allow this old Adam-nature, this outer-man-body of corruption and wickedness to be put to death, to die and get out of sight, then the inner-man body of the spirit is built up in his divine and substance. The blood of Christ (His Spirit-life) and the flesh of Christ (His celestial body) are first communicated to us through the implantation of the "incorruptible seed," which is THE WORD OF GOD; for seed, whether corruptible or incorruptible, is the very essence and substance of the blood and body. When we are babes it comes as "milk"; until we grow up in Christ it becomes "strong meat," and "flesh and blood," daily increasing our strength and growth and substance, as we can bear it.
- Preston Eby
Oh! my brother, my sister, may the Spirit of God quicken the truth of these things to your heart! As I have looked to the Lord about these precious truths, it has become increasingly clear to my spirit that Jesus did not receive the glorified body when he arose from the tomb – no more than the butterfly became a butterfly when it broke from the cocoon. The worm becomes a butterfly BEFORE it emerges from the cocoon. The thing the Spirit would teach us in this, then, is that a butterfly does not become a butterfly BECAUSE it escapes the cocoon. It, rather, escapes the cocoon BECAUSE IT HAS BECOME A BUTTERFLY! Even so, Jesus did not possess a glorified body BECAUSE He arose from the grave. He, instead, burst forth from the grave BECAUSE HE ALREADY POSSESSED A GLORIFIED BODY! What a difference! Because He was indwelt by the incorruptible life of His Father, that life being formed fully within Him. He could announce to His disciples before His death: "The third day I shall rise again." And indwelt by this resurrected, glorified Christ Paul could confidently declare: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle (cocoon of flesh) were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, ETERNAL IN THE HEAVENS" (II Cor. 5:1).
God would have all His holy sons to know of a certainty the incomprehensible treasure which lies within them – a house, a tabernacle, a clothing from heaven is within them – and we have the confidence that even this outward body of clay shall be exchanged for that heavenly body, thus fulfilling the glorious words of victory: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory?" (I Cor. 15:53-55). I do not hesitate to boldly proclaim to you, beloved, that we are even now receiving our spirit-body within our flesh-body, and as we continue to PUT ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST there is an increase of the celestial body within. Indeed, we are PUTTING ON OUR HOUSE WHICH IS FROM HEAVEN! Christ Himself is that house and He is our eternal covering.
Ah. as we allow this old Adam-nature, this outer-man-body of corruption and wickedness to be put to death, to die and get out of sight, then the inner-man body of the spirit is built up in his divine and substance. The blood of Christ (His Spirit-life) and the flesh of Christ (His celestial body) are first communicated to us through the implantation of the "incorruptible seed," which is THE WORD OF GOD; for seed, whether corruptible or incorruptible, is the very essence and substance of the blood and body. When we are babes it comes as "milk"; until we grow up in Christ it becomes "strong meat," and "flesh and blood," daily increasing our strength and growth and substance, as we can bear it.
- Preston Eby
Friday, August 25, 2017
BUT GOD MEANT IT
“Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. – So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God. – As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.” (Gen. 45:5,8; 50:20)
God wanted Joseph to get to Egypt, to be used to preserve life, and in the process of getting him there God causes his own brethren to sell him into servitude. But brothers, shall I say “why did you do it when it was God that told you to do it?” No, just look beyond all secondary causes, God chose the means to accomplish the sending, and ultimately it all worked into good, and to His glory and praise.
David was caused to flee his throne for a while, for his own son Absalom had conspired and risen against him. While going through a wilderness and deep valley, there was a man running along the hillside throwing down rocks and cursing David. One of those with David requested permission to take care of this evil man, but David answered, “So let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so? – Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him”,
(II Samuel 16:10-11).
Paul said, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,” (Gal. 6:17). Never the marks of the soldiers, of the persecutors, or of the Romans. It wasn’t the marks of the whips and scourges, but the marks of the Lord Jesus. Negative forces weren’t ruling over him. It was all the mark of the Lord, received as from the hand of God. He saw the sovereign hand of God in all that crossed his path. Bound with chains and delivered into the hands of the Romans, he said, “now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ”, (Philemon 9).
Good or evil, let it be,
Mine eyes are single, Lord, to Thee.
Ray Prinzing
God wanted Joseph to get to Egypt, to be used to preserve life, and in the process of getting him there God causes his own brethren to sell him into servitude. But brothers, shall I say “why did you do it when it was God that told you to do it?” No, just look beyond all secondary causes, God chose the means to accomplish the sending, and ultimately it all worked into good, and to His glory and praise.
David was caused to flee his throne for a while, for his own son Absalom had conspired and risen against him. While going through a wilderness and deep valley, there was a man running along the hillside throwing down rocks and cursing David. One of those with David requested permission to take care of this evil man, but David answered, “So let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so? – Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him”,
(II Samuel 16:10-11).
Paul said, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,” (Gal. 6:17). Never the marks of the soldiers, of the persecutors, or of the Romans. It wasn’t the marks of the whips and scourges, but the marks of the Lord Jesus. Negative forces weren’t ruling over him. It was all the mark of the Lord, received as from the hand of God. He saw the sovereign hand of God in all that crossed his path. Bound with chains and delivered into the hands of the Romans, he said, “now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ”, (Philemon 9).
Good or evil, let it be,
Mine eyes are single, Lord, to Thee.
Ray Prinzing
YE ARE THE TEMPLE
“For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (II Corinthians 6:16)
From the time that Jesus declared “Your house is left unto you desolate”, (Matt. 23:38), and “The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom”, (Matt. 27:51), since that time our “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands”, (Acts 17:24).
There are two Greek words, which have been translated as ‘temple’, they are: HIERON, meaning a building, and NAOS, referring to the inner sanctuary. When the veil was rent asunder, as far as God was concerned, that building ceased to be a temple, naos, and thereafter was just a building, hieron. Then Paul picks up this word ‘naos’ and uses it exclusively when speaking of THE TEMPLE, INNER SANCTUARY, which is the new, living dwelling place of God. He dwelleth no more in temples, naos, made with hands, such are only building, but He dwelleth in the inner sanctuary of your heart and mine.
“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building (making),” (Heb. 9:11). He is forming HIS TEMPLE with the “LIVING STONES” whom He is processing and preparing through the nitty-gritty of every day living. Renewed into the mind of Christ, for His dwelling shall be all of one mind, HIS! Brought to that place where from every avenue of our being we cry out, “not my will, but Thine be done”, His will is supreme in His entire house – supreme, yes, it is also the sole delight of all who are His temple. This living temple fulfills Haggai 2:9, “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace”.
From the time that Jesus declared “Your house is left unto you desolate”, (Matt. 23:38), and “The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom”, (Matt. 27:51), since that time our “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands”, (Acts 17:24).
There are two Greek words, which have been translated as ‘temple’, they are: HIERON, meaning a building, and NAOS, referring to the inner sanctuary. When the veil was rent asunder, as far as God was concerned, that building ceased to be a temple, naos, and thereafter was just a building, hieron. Then Paul picks up this word ‘naos’ and uses it exclusively when speaking of THE TEMPLE, INNER SANCTUARY, which is the new, living dwelling place of God. He dwelleth no more in temples, naos, made with hands, such are only building, but He dwelleth in the inner sanctuary of your heart and mine.
“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building (making),” (Heb. 9:11). He is forming HIS TEMPLE with the “LIVING STONES” whom He is processing and preparing through the nitty-gritty of every day living. Renewed into the mind of Christ, for His dwelling shall be all of one mind, HIS! Brought to that place where from every avenue of our being we cry out, “not my will, but Thine be done”, His will is supreme in His entire house – supreme, yes, it is also the sole delight of all who are His temple. This living temple fulfills Haggai 2:9, “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will I give peace”.
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Is Your Chooser Broken?
. . . choose for yourself this day whom you will serve . . . but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. --Joshua 24:15
Many believers act as though their choosers are broken, mistakenly feeling that their wills have been given over to the nearly robot-like control of the enemy. Conversely, they believe the remedy would be to have their wills given over to a robot-like response of obedience to God! In anger they shout, “God does not help me! I told Him to take over and He has not. I am giving up on God!” Either way they are acknowledging erroneously that they cannot choose and must therefore be under another’s authority. If they can choose to get out of bed, what to eat, what to wear, and whom to date; then they have the ability to choose to walk away from sin, bad habits, and all other things that simply do not suit believers. However, there is a beginning place, a first choice, which is accomplished by saying, “Father, I choose Your will. I am too weak to know it or to walk in it, but I trust You to lead me to it. Thank You!”
- Mike Wells
Many believers act as though their choosers are broken, mistakenly feeling that their wills have been given over to the nearly robot-like control of the enemy. Conversely, they believe the remedy would be to have their wills given over to a robot-like response of obedience to God! In anger they shout, “God does not help me! I told Him to take over and He has not. I am giving up on God!” Either way they are acknowledging erroneously that they cannot choose and must therefore be under another’s authority. If they can choose to get out of bed, what to eat, what to wear, and whom to date; then they have the ability to choose to walk away from sin, bad habits, and all other things that simply do not suit believers. However, there is a beginning place, a first choice, which is accomplished by saying, “Father, I choose Your will. I am too weak to know it or to walk in it, but I trust You to lead me to it. Thank You!”
- Mike Wells
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Radical Grace
“To give a short definition of a Christian: A Christian is not somebody who has no sin, but somebody against whom God no longer chalks sin, because of his faith in Christ. This doctrine brings comfort to consciences in serious trouble.”
~Martin Luther
~Martin Luther
No Matter What
When we sin, Jesus does not cut us off; we remain members of his body. This totally changes the way we look at sin.
“Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!” (1 Cor 6:15).
Under the old covenant we were restrained from sin through mortal terror but in the new we are restrained by love. Look again at Paul’s warning about prostitutes. Behind the warning—don’t do it—there is a surprising and reassuring affirmation of union. Paul is saying it is possible, though not advisable, to unite the members of Christ’s body with prostitutes.
Do you see it? Earthly marriages may break and fail, but your union with Christ is unbreakable. Sin cannot break it. Addiction cannot break it. The stupidest decisions you might ever make cannot break it.
This should not be taken as a challenge to see what you can get away with but as a stunning declaration of Christ’s absolute commitment to stick with you no matter what. This is what changes us—not the weak influence of the rule (there is no rule; all things are lawful) but the relentless and determined passion of his love.
God as LIFE
When I know GOD AS LIFE, then, as the SPIRIT OF LIFE WITHIN leads me to eat, I will eat. When the LIFE prompts me to drinks, I will drink. When the LIFE anoints me to fast, I will fast. When the LIFE quickens me to sing, I will sing. When the LIFE commands me to speak, I will speak. When the LIFE orders me to be silent, I will be silent. When the LIFE stirs me to go, I will go. When the LIFE tells me to stay, I will stay. When the LIFE directs me to work, I will work. When the LIFE guides me to rest, I will rest. When the LIFE impresses me to wait, I will wait. When the LIFE draws me aside for a season of separation, I will turn aside. When the LIFE speaks that I should go here or there, to this meeting or that gathering, I will go. When the LIFE reveals that I should give, I will give. You see, with Christ there are no regulations, no rules, only the indwelling rule of HIS LIFE. Today it is not a matter of the law, or ordinances, or observances, or tradition, or regulations, but wholly a matter of Christ. As long as the Christ life within directs, you are safe – for Christ today is the present, instant, up-to-date, indwelling LAWGIVER. Hallelujah!
"The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, LIKE UNTO ME; UNTO HIM SHALL YE HEARKEN" (Deut. 18:15). Christ is today's real Moses, and we are His followers. Christ is today's real Lawgiver, and we have Him WITHIN US and we are learning to do all things in His presence and by His life. There are no regulations today, but the real Moses. There are no external observances of ordinances, ceremonies etc., but the indwelling life. As long as I am following my Moses today, as long as I am ONE SPIRIT WITH MY CHRIST, whatever I do as a product of His indwelling life is both the will and the work of the Father. What ever I do of myself, or because I have always done it this way, or I feel some responsibility to do it, or it is traditional to do it, or my friends and family wouldn't understand if I didn't do it – I am decking myself out with naught but withering, rustling fig-leaves.
"The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, LIKE UNTO ME; UNTO HIM SHALL YE HEARKEN" (Deut. 18:15). Christ is today's real Moses, and we are His followers. Christ is today's real Lawgiver, and we have Him WITHIN US and we are learning to do all things in His presence and by His life. There are no regulations today, but the real Moses. There are no external observances of ordinances, ceremonies etc., but the indwelling life. As long as I am following my Moses today, as long as I am ONE SPIRIT WITH MY CHRIST, whatever I do as a product of His indwelling life is both the will and the work of the Father. What ever I do of myself, or because I have always done it this way, or I feel some responsibility to do it, or it is traditional to do it, or my friends and family wouldn't understand if I didn't do it – I am decking myself out with naught but withering, rustling fig-leaves.
Covering our Nakedness
The Bible says that there in Eden, God looking upon Adam and Eve’s fig leaves, made coats of skins and clothed them. The first thing God does is strip away all the artificial, man-made coverings, and presents His own glorious covering. "For Adam also and for his wife the Lord God made long coats (tunics) of skins, and clothed them" (Gen. 3:21, Amplified Bible). We would be totally void of understanding as to what kind of victim it was that provided this blessed covering for the sinning man and his wife, were it not that the Holy Spirit has shed precious light upon this wonder, revealing that Christ is “the LAMB slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8) who verily was “a LAMB without blemish and spot… foreordained before the foundation of the world” (I Pet. 1:19-20). In the symbolism of the Garden of Eden story Adam and Eve silently and sorrowfully watched as the Lord God selected a lamb and slew it there, fastening it to a tree before their wondering eyes, the victim then being made naked, stripped of its skin, that a covering might be provided for the naked ones. Thus, with this one wondrous act does the God of heaven introduce THE CROSS into Eden's lovely Garden.
I now invite you to meditate deeply upon my words. In the process of changing our garments and covering our nakedness God brings us to the CROSS, which has its base in the foundation of God before the world began. Interesting that the Lamb in Eden was slain not merely for the sinning man and woman, and not only for the naked man and woman, but for the man and woman CLOTHED IN FIG-LEAVES! The "skins" of covering from the Lamb were given to replace the fig-leaves of mans self-effort, and not only was the man himself brought to the cross but all his self-made religion of works as well! Ah, yes, the cross shall deal not only with sin and nakedness, it shall deal as well with our fig-leaves!
Hear now this remarkable statement by the apostle Paul as to what was nailed to the cross of Christ. "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us... and took it out of the way, NAILING IT TO HIS CROSS. Let no man THEREFORE judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but THE BODY IS OF CHRIST" (Col. 2:13-17). Yes, beloved, God took not only man's sin and man himself to the cross in Christ, but He took the fig-leaves of EXTERNAL ORDINANCES which stand in meats and drinks and holy days and divers washings (baptisms) and rituals and ceremonies and rules and regulations and (hallejujah!) NAILED THEM ALL TO HIS CROSS! In their place He now clothes us in the covering of the blessed Lamb, a righteousness which indeed is seen externally, but is the product of THE INDWELLING LIFE OF THE LAMB!
Fig-leaves righteousness is so shallow, limited to outward observances, appearances, works, regulations, do this, don't do that, go here, don't go there, etc. But for those who have become identified with the Lamb, having discovered HIS INDWELLING LIFE which produces HIS IMAGE, who now live in the wisdom and righteousness of His LIFE-FLOW, it is no longer a matter of regulations – do this, and do that, etc. It is not a matter today of so many do's and don'ts, but entirely a matter of THE LIFE OF THE LAMB.
I now invite you to meditate deeply upon my words. In the process of changing our garments and covering our nakedness God brings us to the CROSS, which has its base in the foundation of God before the world began. Interesting that the Lamb in Eden was slain not merely for the sinning man and woman, and not only for the naked man and woman, but for the man and woman CLOTHED IN FIG-LEAVES! The "skins" of covering from the Lamb were given to replace the fig-leaves of mans self-effort, and not only was the man himself brought to the cross but all his self-made religion of works as well! Ah, yes, the cross shall deal not only with sin and nakedness, it shall deal as well with our fig-leaves!
Hear now this remarkable statement by the apostle Paul as to what was nailed to the cross of Christ. "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us... and took it out of the way, NAILING IT TO HIS CROSS. Let no man THEREFORE judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but THE BODY IS OF CHRIST" (Col. 2:13-17). Yes, beloved, God took not only man's sin and man himself to the cross in Christ, but He took the fig-leaves of EXTERNAL ORDINANCES which stand in meats and drinks and holy days and divers washings (baptisms) and rituals and ceremonies and rules and regulations and (hallejujah!) NAILED THEM ALL TO HIS CROSS! In their place He now clothes us in the covering of the blessed Lamb, a righteousness which indeed is seen externally, but is the product of THE INDWELLING LIFE OF THE LAMB!
Fig-leaves righteousness is so shallow, limited to outward observances, appearances, works, regulations, do this, don't do that, go here, don't go there, etc. But for those who have become identified with the Lamb, having discovered HIS INDWELLING LIFE which produces HIS IMAGE, who now live in the wisdom and righteousness of His LIFE-FLOW, it is no longer a matter of regulations – do this, and do that, etc. It is not a matter today of so many do's and don'ts, but entirely a matter of THE LIFE OF THE LAMB.
Fig Leaves
One of the greatest truths to be gleaned from the Garden of Eden is the truth that Adam was first created in the very condition in which every son and daughter of Adam comes into the world – in a state of nakedness, coupled with innocence. The Lord God so ordered it, that in and by the fall man should get what previously had not, and that was, a conscience, the knowledge of good and evil. By means of the conscience "the eyes of them both were opened," but, alas! to what a sight! – it was only to discover their own nakedness. They opened their eyes upon their own condition, which was "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Rev. 3:17). Suddenly “they knew that they were naked” – they knew that their flesh lay bare and exposed, their carnal nature hanging out – sad fruit of the tree of knowledge. No sooner does a man discover his nakedness than this knowledge gives birth to the impulse to make an effort to COVER the nakedness. Thus, in the case of Adam and Eve, the discovery of their nakedness was immediately followed by an effort of their own to cover it, – "they sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves aprons" (Gen. 3:7).
Saturday, August 19, 2017
VICTORY IN OUR ‘NOW
“I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (II Corinthians 6:2)
To “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” (II Peter 3:18), means there is progression, and the vision steadily grows brighter in the midst of, and perhaps because of the many pressures of the day. While it is true that we wait for the totality of fulfillment, it is not all ‘in the future’ either, for we are finding that HE IS IN OUR NOW. The more there is yieldedness to the Holy Spirit, and He inworks the Divine Will, the more there is a daily victorious living.
Yet, there are many who are aptly described in a quote gleaned along the way. We habitually stand in our ‘now’ and look back by faith to see the past filled with God. “ We look forward and see Him inhabiting our future, but our ‘now’ is uninhabited except for ourselves. Thus, we are guilty of a kind of pro-tem atheism, which leaves us alone in the universe, while, for the time, God is not. We talk of Him much and loudly, but we secretly think of Him as being absent. We inhabit an interval between the God who was, and the God who will be.” Unquote.
Praise God! We find Him far more than some Historical Being who delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, or preserved Daniel in a lion’s den. He is more than the Future King of some great millennial reign, for “God is our refuge and strength, A VERY PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE. – THE lord of hosts is with us,” (Psalm 46:1, 11). Furthermore, Jesus constantly proclaimed a realm of “I AM”, not “I was”, nor “I will be”, but simply “I AM”. It is into this dimension that we desire to live, and move and have our being. Finding in Him a victorious NOW, knowing that “this is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” (Psalm 118:24).
Ray Prinzing
To “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” (II Peter 3:18), means there is progression, and the vision steadily grows brighter in the midst of, and perhaps because of the many pressures of the day. While it is true that we wait for the totality of fulfillment, it is not all ‘in the future’ either, for we are finding that HE IS IN OUR NOW. The more there is yieldedness to the Holy Spirit, and He inworks the Divine Will, the more there is a daily victorious living.
Yet, there are many who are aptly described in a quote gleaned along the way. We habitually stand in our ‘now’ and look back by faith to see the past filled with God. “ We look forward and see Him inhabiting our future, but our ‘now’ is uninhabited except for ourselves. Thus, we are guilty of a kind of pro-tem atheism, which leaves us alone in the universe, while, for the time, God is not. We talk of Him much and loudly, but we secretly think of Him as being absent. We inhabit an interval between the God who was, and the God who will be.” Unquote.
Praise God! We find Him far more than some Historical Being who delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, or preserved Daniel in a lion’s den. He is more than the Future King of some great millennial reign, for “God is our refuge and strength, A VERY PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE. – THE lord of hosts is with us,” (Psalm 46:1, 11). Furthermore, Jesus constantly proclaimed a realm of “I AM”, not “I was”, nor “I will be”, but simply “I AM”. It is into this dimension that we desire to live, and move and have our being. Finding in Him a victorious NOW, knowing that “this is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” (Psalm 118:24).
Ray Prinzing
A MIND RENEWED INTO CHRIST
“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:23)
The negative forces seek to control with all their propaganda and brainwashing. Many a battle is being fought and won in the mind, making it a vital necessity that we “put out of the way once for all everything that would impede the free action of your mind, be calm and collected in spirit, and set your hope perfectly, wholly, unchangeably, without doubt and despondency, upon the grace that is being brought to you upon the occasion of the revelation of Jesus Christ,” (I Peter 1:13, Wuest).
With the Lord’s dealings with our thinking, there also comes a stripping away of the façade and masquerade, which we have put forth because of our ‘thoughts’ of the past. We thought we ought to act a certain way to have an image of spirituality, which was not a true manifestation of what we really were, but super-imposed as a disguise of what we thought we should appear. Now we are challenged to “change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your minds,” (Romans 12:2 Wuest).
We rejoice in the truth, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Col. 1:27), because it is His Spirit dwelling within. Yet, because of the trappings of the carnal mind it has been difficult to give expression of this INNER LIFE OF CHRIST. Now, the more we are “renewed in the spirit of our mind”, the more we can LIVE OUT that which HE is BECOMING in us. This is more than just the mental gymnastics of our own self-efforts. It is the energizing of His Spirit upon our human spirit, which in turn takes dominion over our mind and brings our mind into subjection to the Spirit of Truth. May it become the ‘norm’ of our life to just be thinking HIS thoughts, that we might “shew forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light,” (I Peter 2:9).
Ray Prinzing
The negative forces seek to control with all their propaganda and brainwashing. Many a battle is being fought and won in the mind, making it a vital necessity that we “put out of the way once for all everything that would impede the free action of your mind, be calm and collected in spirit, and set your hope perfectly, wholly, unchangeably, without doubt and despondency, upon the grace that is being brought to you upon the occasion of the revelation of Jesus Christ,” (I Peter 1:13, Wuest).
With the Lord’s dealings with our thinking, there also comes a stripping away of the façade and masquerade, which we have put forth because of our ‘thoughts’ of the past. We thought we ought to act a certain way to have an image of spirituality, which was not a true manifestation of what we really were, but super-imposed as a disguise of what we thought we should appear. Now we are challenged to “change your outward expression to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being, by the renewing of your minds,” (Romans 12:2 Wuest).
We rejoice in the truth, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Col. 1:27), because it is His Spirit dwelling within. Yet, because of the trappings of the carnal mind it has been difficult to give expression of this INNER LIFE OF CHRIST. Now, the more we are “renewed in the spirit of our mind”, the more we can LIVE OUT that which HE is BECOMING in us. This is more than just the mental gymnastics of our own self-efforts. It is the energizing of His Spirit upon our human spirit, which in turn takes dominion over our mind and brings our mind into subjection to the Spirit of Truth. May it become the ‘norm’ of our life to just be thinking HIS thoughts, that we might “shew forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light,” (I Peter 2:9).
Ray Prinzing
CALLED FROM THE WOMB
“The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name.” (Isaiah 49:1)
Jeremiah knew this experience, and stated, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee,” (Jer. 1:5). What a glorious, marvelous understanding that all of our life is in the hand of God, known unto Him, and He alone can direct every step. We are fitted into His purpose of the ages in perfect timing because He knew us before ever we were brought forth from the womb. He set us apart to be apprehended and perfected, every part of this plan was fully known unto Him before we began our earthly sojourn.
Paul also repeats this same truth in Gal. 1:15-16, “It pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace to reveal His Son IN me…” But perhaps none saw it any clearer than the Psalmist, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days of my life were written, before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:16, Amplified). When we consider that the Lord has called us from the womb, set us apart unto Himself even then, and has absolutely ordered our pathway to this point, then we are able to view our entire past, mistakes and all, without any condemnation, because we realize that He has, and is, using it all for our development, to work in us the wonders of His grace.
....In the new creation realm we shall have a name. God knows that name, and is preparing us to qualify so that we shall bear it in joy and victory, and in all the nature and character that shall be to His praise.
Ray Prinzing
Jeremiah knew this experience, and stated, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee,” (Jer. 1:5). What a glorious, marvelous understanding that all of our life is in the hand of God, known unto Him, and He alone can direct every step. We are fitted into His purpose of the ages in perfect timing because He knew us before ever we were brought forth from the womb. He set us apart to be apprehended and perfected, every part of this plan was fully known unto Him before we began our earthly sojourn.
Paul also repeats this same truth in Gal. 1:15-16, “It pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace to reveal His Son IN me…” But perhaps none saw it any clearer than the Psalmist, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days of my life were written, before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:16, Amplified). When we consider that the Lord has called us from the womb, set us apart unto Himself even then, and has absolutely ordered our pathway to this point, then we are able to view our entire past, mistakes and all, without any condemnation, because we realize that He has, and is, using it all for our development, to work in us the wonders of His grace.
....In the new creation realm we shall have a name. God knows that name, and is preparing us to qualify so that we shall bear it in joy and victory, and in all the nature and character that shall be to His praise.
Ray Prinzing
Thursday, August 17, 2017
FROM THE WILDERNESS TO CANAAN
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief" (Heb. 4:1,9,11).
What is this rest? We have to look at a type in the Old Testament to discover its meaning. After the children of Israel were delivered and saved from the land of Egypt, they were brought into the wilderness with the intention that they should go on into the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan was their land of rest, a type of CHRIST. Christ Himself is the good land of Canaan, He is our rest. If we are going to enter into the rest, we must enter into Christ. The Israelites, who were delivered out of Egypt (typifying the body, or flesh realm), instead of going on into Canaan, wandered for many years in the wilderness. What does this typify? It means that many saints, after being saved are simply wandering about in the wilderness of the SOUL... in the barrenness and unfruitfulness of their OWN carnal thoughts, desires, emotions, affections and wills. The reason the book of Hebrews was written was that many believers were saved, but rather than entering in to possess for their entire being the divine reality God had placed in their quickened spirit, they were still wandering in the restlessness, variableness, confusion, and defeat of their soul life. They would not press on from the wilderness of the soul into the good land – that is, into CHRIST WHO DWELT IN THEIR SPIRIT, where there is righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost.
Even though we may have been saved for many years, we must now ask the Spirit of God to lift the veil that is upon our minds and reveal the truth of whether we are presently living in the realm of the body (Egypt: sensuality, sin), the soul (the Wilderness: carnality, self-will, intellect, emotions etc.), or in the spirit (Canaan: divine life, light, love, victory, peace, joy, righteousness, power, etc.). With reverent heart ask the Lord to search yourself in order to be clear where you are. Frankly, many of the Lord's people are wandering day after day in the wilderness of the soul! In the morning they may have joyful countenances, but ere long the pressures of the day take their toll and they become irritable, frustrated, upset, anxious, and dismayed. Yesterday, it seems they were in the heavens, but today they are making their bed in hell, discouraged, depressed, and defeated. Yesterday they were full of faith and courage, ready to believe God for exploits, but today they are disheartened with their walk in God and fearful about the future. In the meeting on Sunday they had an overflow of joy and victory, but today in the battle, under the pressure of the problems, their emotions are erupting, their minds are weary, and nerves frayed. They are continually wandering about in the soul, the wilderness, without rest, circling in the same rut day after day, getting nowhere. They may have been walking with God for forty years, but are still going around in the same vicious circles, just as the children of Israel, who wandered for forty years with no improvement and no progress. Why? Because they are living in the soul. The soul is barren and desolate, there is no life in it. When we are in the soul we are in the wilderness.
The Word of God must pierce us so that we may know how to press on from the soul into the good land of OUR SPIRIT, WHERE CHRIST DWELLS. We must know how to bring our body and soul into the Holy Place of the Spirit so that the whole man may find blessed rest. Only God can teach us this, and He does so as we sit at HIS FEET in adoring submission. Flee, my brother, my sister, from the desolate wilderness of your soul as you would from a bear in the forest and you shall find blessed refuge in the promised land of the spirit, for there is a realm there WITHIN YOU, as close to you as the very air you breathe, as near as the heart that beats faithfully within your breast, as continuously available as the blood coursing through your veins, a sacred place within your spirit where the things of earth do not rule, depress, upset, frustrate, agitate, anger, control, defeat nor AFFECT IN ANY WAY, for CHRIST DWELLS THERE AS LIFE! Dead reader, ponder if you will, this marvelous truth: CHRIST is not depressed, driven, anxious, upset, confused, fearful, frustrated, weary, defeated, nor weak, and CHRIST IN YOU IS NOT EITHER! And YOU IN CHRIST are not either!
All things that happened to Israel happened to them for ensamples to us upon whom the end of the age is come (I Cor. 10:11). Every man who is coming into the sonship God has ordained must recognize that with Israel, after its deliverance from Egypt, there were two stages. The one, the life in the wilderness, with its wanderings and its wants, its unbelief and its murmurings, its provocation of God and its exclusion from the promised rest. The other, the land of promise, with rest instead of the desert wanderings, with abundance instead of want, and the victory over every enemy instead of defeat. These are symbols of the two stages in the believer's life. The one in which we only know the Lord as Saviour from Egypt, in the pardon and forgiveness of our sins, and the other, where He is known and experienced as the INDWELLING LORD, who, in the power of an endless life, enters in and saves completely, writes God's laws in the heart, transforms into the image of the Son, and leads us to find our eternal abiding place in THE FULLNESS OF GOD.
Some think that the land of Canaan is a type of heaven. This cannot be, because the great mark of the Canaan life was that the land had to be conquered and that God gave such glorious victory over enemies – hear it! – VICTORY OVER ENEMIES, not a "rescue" from the enemies. The rest of Canaan was for victory and through victory. And so it is in the life of the sons of God, as we learn to trust God for victory over sin, victory over the flesh, victory over soulish emotions, victory over own wills, victory over sickness, and finally victory even over death, we possess, victory upon victory, the good land of Canaan! This is the territory of GOD'S REST which we enter, not through death, but through faith, the faith that lives in the promise and the power of God.
There is a people rising from the barren dust of the wilderness of the soul to sit together with Christ in the heavenly places of the Spirit. God dwells in your spirit, dear one, and God in your spirit is both infinite and eternal, and therefore in finding all that is available in God one must be prepared to go ever onward and upward into the vast expanses of the Spirit of God. If God is infinite, there is NO LIMIT to the experience which we might have in union with Him by the Spirit. And if God is eternal, there is NO END to the measure of grace and glory into which He would lead us by the Spirit. When our astronauts began their explorations to the moon, it was not sufficient that they should entered a rocket and pushed through the atmosphere for an hour or two. True, they were in space the hour they started. But space is vast – and they must go on, and on, and on, and on... even to the surface of the moon. If God permits, man will go on to Mars, and eventually from solar system to solar system, and from galaxy to galaxy, through the unbounded heavens!
Now, God has made us partakers of His Holy Spirit, and that simply means He has called us to explore the inexhaustible sphere of the DEEP THINGS OF GOD and the INFINITE SUMMITS of His glory, and power, and holiness. Our spirit has been quickened by His Spirit for this very purpose: "that we might know the things that are freely given us of God" (I Cor. 2:12). The natural mind cannot discover these things, hence the Spirit of God is sent into our spirit to reveal them unto us and to search out and explore "ALL THINGS, yea, the deep things in God" (I Cor. 2:10).
What is this rest? We have to look at a type in the Old Testament to discover its meaning. After the children of Israel were delivered and saved from the land of Egypt, they were brought into the wilderness with the intention that they should go on into the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan was their land of rest, a type of CHRIST. Christ Himself is the good land of Canaan, He is our rest. If we are going to enter into the rest, we must enter into Christ. The Israelites, who were delivered out of Egypt (typifying the body, or flesh realm), instead of going on into Canaan, wandered for many years in the wilderness. What does this typify? It means that many saints, after being saved are simply wandering about in the wilderness of the SOUL... in the barrenness and unfruitfulness of their OWN carnal thoughts, desires, emotions, affections and wills. The reason the book of Hebrews was written was that many believers were saved, but rather than entering in to possess for their entire being the divine reality God had placed in their quickened spirit, they were still wandering in the restlessness, variableness, confusion, and defeat of their soul life. They would not press on from the wilderness of the soul into the good land – that is, into CHRIST WHO DWELT IN THEIR SPIRIT, where there is righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost.
Even though we may have been saved for many years, we must now ask the Spirit of God to lift the veil that is upon our minds and reveal the truth of whether we are presently living in the realm of the body (Egypt: sensuality, sin), the soul (the Wilderness: carnality, self-will, intellect, emotions etc.), or in the spirit (Canaan: divine life, light, love, victory, peace, joy, righteousness, power, etc.). With reverent heart ask the Lord to search yourself in order to be clear where you are. Frankly, many of the Lord's people are wandering day after day in the wilderness of the soul! In the morning they may have joyful countenances, but ere long the pressures of the day take their toll and they become irritable, frustrated, upset, anxious, and dismayed. Yesterday, it seems they were in the heavens, but today they are making their bed in hell, discouraged, depressed, and defeated. Yesterday they were full of faith and courage, ready to believe God for exploits, but today they are disheartened with their walk in God and fearful about the future. In the meeting on Sunday they had an overflow of joy and victory, but today in the battle, under the pressure of the problems, their emotions are erupting, their minds are weary, and nerves frayed. They are continually wandering about in the soul, the wilderness, without rest, circling in the same rut day after day, getting nowhere. They may have been walking with God for forty years, but are still going around in the same vicious circles, just as the children of Israel, who wandered for forty years with no improvement and no progress. Why? Because they are living in the soul. The soul is barren and desolate, there is no life in it. When we are in the soul we are in the wilderness.
The Word of God must pierce us so that we may know how to press on from the soul into the good land of OUR SPIRIT, WHERE CHRIST DWELLS. We must know how to bring our body and soul into the Holy Place of the Spirit so that the whole man may find blessed rest. Only God can teach us this, and He does so as we sit at HIS FEET in adoring submission. Flee, my brother, my sister, from the desolate wilderness of your soul as you would from a bear in the forest and you shall find blessed refuge in the promised land of the spirit, for there is a realm there WITHIN YOU, as close to you as the very air you breathe, as near as the heart that beats faithfully within your breast, as continuously available as the blood coursing through your veins, a sacred place within your spirit where the things of earth do not rule, depress, upset, frustrate, agitate, anger, control, defeat nor AFFECT IN ANY WAY, for CHRIST DWELLS THERE AS LIFE! Dead reader, ponder if you will, this marvelous truth: CHRIST is not depressed, driven, anxious, upset, confused, fearful, frustrated, weary, defeated, nor weak, and CHRIST IN YOU IS NOT EITHER! And YOU IN CHRIST are not either!
All things that happened to Israel happened to them for ensamples to us upon whom the end of the age is come (I Cor. 10:11). Every man who is coming into the sonship God has ordained must recognize that with Israel, after its deliverance from Egypt, there were two stages. The one, the life in the wilderness, with its wanderings and its wants, its unbelief and its murmurings, its provocation of God and its exclusion from the promised rest. The other, the land of promise, with rest instead of the desert wanderings, with abundance instead of want, and the victory over every enemy instead of defeat. These are symbols of the two stages in the believer's life. The one in which we only know the Lord as Saviour from Egypt, in the pardon and forgiveness of our sins, and the other, where He is known and experienced as the INDWELLING LORD, who, in the power of an endless life, enters in and saves completely, writes God's laws in the heart, transforms into the image of the Son, and leads us to find our eternal abiding place in THE FULLNESS OF GOD.
Some think that the land of Canaan is a type of heaven. This cannot be, because the great mark of the Canaan life was that the land had to be conquered and that God gave such glorious victory over enemies – hear it! – VICTORY OVER ENEMIES, not a "rescue" from the enemies. The rest of Canaan was for victory and through victory. And so it is in the life of the sons of God, as we learn to trust God for victory over sin, victory over the flesh, victory over soulish emotions, victory over own wills, victory over sickness, and finally victory even over death, we possess, victory upon victory, the good land of Canaan! This is the territory of GOD'S REST which we enter, not through death, but through faith, the faith that lives in the promise and the power of God.
There is a people rising from the barren dust of the wilderness of the soul to sit together with Christ in the heavenly places of the Spirit. God dwells in your spirit, dear one, and God in your spirit is both infinite and eternal, and therefore in finding all that is available in God one must be prepared to go ever onward and upward into the vast expanses of the Spirit of God. If God is infinite, there is NO LIMIT to the experience which we might have in union with Him by the Spirit. And if God is eternal, there is NO END to the measure of grace and glory into which He would lead us by the Spirit. When our astronauts began their explorations to the moon, it was not sufficient that they should entered a rocket and pushed through the atmosphere for an hour or two. True, they were in space the hour they started. But space is vast – and they must go on, and on, and on, and on... even to the surface of the moon. If God permits, man will go on to Mars, and eventually from solar system to solar system, and from galaxy to galaxy, through the unbounded heavens!
Now, God has made us partakers of His Holy Spirit, and that simply means He has called us to explore the inexhaustible sphere of the DEEP THINGS OF GOD and the INFINITE SUMMITS of His glory, and power, and holiness. Our spirit has been quickened by His Spirit for this very purpose: "that we might know the things that are freely given us of God" (I Cor. 2:12). The natural mind cannot discover these things, hence the Spirit of God is sent into our spirit to reveal them unto us and to search out and explore "ALL THINGS, yea, the deep things in God" (I Cor. 2:10).
Who Are You?
Who are you? The church says you are a sinner, even if you are born again.
Who are you? The church says you are just a worm, deserving of hell.
Who are you? Jesus says you are a pearl of great price.
Who are you? Satan uses any lie to deny your true identity an a Christian.
Who are you? Knowing your true Christian identity is vital to your spiritual maturity.
You are not who organized religion says you are; you are not who the devil says you
are; you are who God says you are! To believe what organized religion and Satan
say is to be spiritually stagnant and guarantees that you will ever remain as a
spiritual baby. God wants mature sons, not spiritual dwarfs.
The following statements summarize your scriptural identity and position in Christ and form the
foundation for your freedom in Christ. You need to read these statements aloud each day until
they are ingrained into your spirit.
I am the salt of the earth. (Matt 5:13)
I am the light of the world.(Matt 5:14)
I am a child of God. (John 1:12)
I am part of the true vine, a channel of Christ's life. (John 15:1,5)
I am Christ's friend. (John 15:15)
I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit. (John 15:16)
I am a slave of righteousness. (Romans 6:18)
I am enslaved to God (Romans 6:22)
I am a son of God; God is spiritually my Father (Rom 8:14,15) (Gal 3:26, 4:6)
I am a joint heir with Christ, sharing his inheritance with Him (Rom 8:17)
I am a temple, a dwelling place of God. His Spirit and His life dwells in me. (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19)
I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him. (1 Cor 6:17)
I am a member of Christ's body (1 Cor 12:27; Eph 5:30)
I am a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)
I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:18,19)
I am a son of God and am one in Christ. (Gal 3:26,28)
I am an heir of God since I am a son of God. (Gal 4:6,7)
I am a saint. (Eph 1:1; 1 Cor 1:2; Phil 1:1; Col 1:2)
I am God's workmanship, His handiwork, born anew in Christ to do His work. (Eph 2:10)
I am a fellow citizen with the rest of God's family. (Eph 2:19)
I am a prisoner of Christ. (Col 3:3)
I am righteous and holy. (Eph 4:24)
I am a citizen of heaven, seated in heaven right now. (Phil 3:20; Eph 2:6)
I am an expression of the life of Christ because He is my life. (Col 3:4)
I am chosen of God, holy and dearly loved. (Col 3:12; 1 Thes 1:4)
I am a son of light and not of darkness (1 Thes 5:5)
I am a holy partaker of a heavenly calling. (Heb3:14)
I am a partaker of Christ; I share in His life. (Heb 3:14)
I am one of God's living stones, being built up in Christ as a spiritual house. (1 Pet 2:5)
I am a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God's own
possession. (2 Pet 2:9,10)
I am an alien and stranger to this world in which I temporarily live. (1 Pet 2:11)
I am an enemy of the devil. (1 Pet 5:8)
I am born of God and the evil one, the devil, cannot touch me. (1 John 5:18)
I am not the great I Am but by the grace of God, I am what I am. (1 Cor 15:10)
I have been justified, completely forgiven and made righteous (Rom 5:1)
Since I am in Christ, by the grace of God:
I have been justified, completely forgiven and made righteous (Rom 5:1)
I died with Christ and died to the power of sin's rule over my life. (Rom 6:1-6)
I am free forever from condemnation. (Rom 8:10)
I have been placed into Christ by God's doing. (1 Cor 1:30)
I have received the Spirit of God into my life that I might know the things freely given to me by God.
(1 Cor 2:12)
I have been given the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:16)
I have been bought with a price; I am not my own; I belong to God. (1 Cor 6:19,20)
I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God in Christ, and I have been given the Holy
Spirit as a pledge guaranteeing my inheritance to come. (2 Cor 1:21; Eph 1:13,14)
Since I have died, I no longer live for myself, but for Christ. (2 Cor 5:14,15)
I have been made righteous (2 Cor 5:21)
I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I am
now living is Christ's life. (Gal 2:20)
I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. (Eph 1:3)
I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him.
(Eph 1:4)
I was predestined, determined by God, to be adopted as God's son. (Eph 1:5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven, and I am recipient of His lavish grace.
I have been made alive together with Christ. (Eph 2:5)
I have been raised and seated with Christ in heaven. (Eph 2:6)
I have direct access to God through the Spirit. (Eph 2:18)
I may approach God with boldness, freedom, and confidence. (Eph 3:12)
I have been rescued from the domain of Satan's rule and transferred to the kingdom of Christ.
(Col 1:13)
I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins, The debt against me has been cancelled.
(Col 1:14)
Christ Himself is in me. (Col 1:27)
I am firmly rooted in Christ and now am being built in Him. (Col 2:7)
I have been spiritually circumcised. My old unregenerate nature has been removed. (Col 2:11)
I have been made complete in Christ. (Col 2:10)
I have been buried, raised, and made alive with Christ. (Col 2:12,13)
I have died with Christ and I have been raised up with Christ. My life is now hidden in Christ with
God. Christ is now my life. (Col 3:1-4)
I have been given a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. (2 Tim 1:7)
I have been saved and set apart according to God's doing. (2 Tim 1:9 Titus 3:5)
Because I am sanctified and am one with the sanctifier, He is not ashamed to call me brother.
(Heb 2:11)
I have the right to come boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in time of need.
(Heb 4:16)
I have been given exceedingly great and precious promises by God by which I am a partaker of
God's divine nature. (2 Pet 1:4)
Who are you? The church says you are just a worm, deserving of hell.
Who are you? Jesus says you are a pearl of great price.
Who are you? Satan uses any lie to deny your true identity an a Christian.
Who are you? Knowing your true Christian identity is vital to your spiritual maturity.
You are not who organized religion says you are; you are not who the devil says you
are; you are who God says you are! To believe what organized religion and Satan
say is to be spiritually stagnant and guarantees that you will ever remain as a
spiritual baby. God wants mature sons, not spiritual dwarfs.
The following statements summarize your scriptural identity and position in Christ and form the
foundation for your freedom in Christ. You need to read these statements aloud each day until
they are ingrained into your spirit.
I am the salt of the earth. (Matt 5:13)
I am the light of the world.(Matt 5:14)
I am a child of God. (John 1:12)
I am part of the true vine, a channel of Christ's life. (John 15:1,5)
I am Christ's friend. (John 15:15)
I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit. (John 15:16)
I am a slave of righteousness. (Romans 6:18)
I am enslaved to God (Romans 6:22)
I am a son of God; God is spiritually my Father (Rom 8:14,15) (Gal 3:26, 4:6)
I am a joint heir with Christ, sharing his inheritance with Him (Rom 8:17)
I am a temple, a dwelling place of God. His Spirit and His life dwells in me. (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19)
I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him. (1 Cor 6:17)
I am a member of Christ's body (1 Cor 12:27; Eph 5:30)
I am a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)
I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:18,19)
I am a son of God and am one in Christ. (Gal 3:26,28)
I am an heir of God since I am a son of God. (Gal 4:6,7)
I am a saint. (Eph 1:1; 1 Cor 1:2; Phil 1:1; Col 1:2)
I am God's workmanship, His handiwork, born anew in Christ to do His work. (Eph 2:10)
I am a fellow citizen with the rest of God's family. (Eph 2:19)
I am a prisoner of Christ. (Col 3:3)
I am righteous and holy. (Eph 4:24)
I am a citizen of heaven, seated in heaven right now. (Phil 3:20; Eph 2:6)
I am an expression of the life of Christ because He is my life. (Col 3:4)
I am chosen of God, holy and dearly loved. (Col 3:12; 1 Thes 1:4)
I am a son of light and not of darkness (1 Thes 5:5)
I am a holy partaker of a heavenly calling. (Heb3:14)
I am a partaker of Christ; I share in His life. (Heb 3:14)
I am one of God's living stones, being built up in Christ as a spiritual house. (1 Pet 2:5)
I am a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God's own
possession. (2 Pet 2:9,10)
I am an alien and stranger to this world in which I temporarily live. (1 Pet 2:11)
I am an enemy of the devil. (1 Pet 5:8)
I am born of God and the evil one, the devil, cannot touch me. (1 John 5:18)
I am not the great I Am but by the grace of God, I am what I am. (1 Cor 15:10)
I have been justified, completely forgiven and made righteous (Rom 5:1)
Since I am in Christ, by the grace of God:
I have been justified, completely forgiven and made righteous (Rom 5:1)
I died with Christ and died to the power of sin's rule over my life. (Rom 6:1-6)
I am free forever from condemnation. (Rom 8:10)
I have been placed into Christ by God's doing. (1 Cor 1:30)
I have received the Spirit of God into my life that I might know the things freely given to me by God.
(1 Cor 2:12)
I have been given the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:16)
I have been bought with a price; I am not my own; I belong to God. (1 Cor 6:19,20)
I have been established, anointed, and sealed by God in Christ, and I have been given the Holy
Spirit as a pledge guaranteeing my inheritance to come. (2 Cor 1:21; Eph 1:13,14)
Since I have died, I no longer live for myself, but for Christ. (2 Cor 5:14,15)
I have been made righteous (2 Cor 5:21)
I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I am
now living is Christ's life. (Gal 2:20)
I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. (Eph 1:3)
I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him.
(Eph 1:4)
I was predestined, determined by God, to be adopted as God's son. (Eph 1:5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven, and I am recipient of His lavish grace.
I have been made alive together with Christ. (Eph 2:5)
I have been raised and seated with Christ in heaven. (Eph 2:6)
I have direct access to God through the Spirit. (Eph 2:18)
I may approach God with boldness, freedom, and confidence. (Eph 3:12)
I have been rescued from the domain of Satan's rule and transferred to the kingdom of Christ.
(Col 1:13)
I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins, The debt against me has been cancelled.
(Col 1:14)
Christ Himself is in me. (Col 1:27)
I am firmly rooted in Christ and now am being built in Him. (Col 2:7)
I have been spiritually circumcised. My old unregenerate nature has been removed. (Col 2:11)
I have been made complete in Christ. (Col 2:10)
I have been buried, raised, and made alive with Christ. (Col 2:12,13)
I have died with Christ and I have been raised up with Christ. My life is now hidden in Christ with
God. Christ is now my life. (Col 3:1-4)
I have been given a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. (2 Tim 1:7)
I have been saved and set apart according to God's doing. (2 Tim 1:9 Titus 3:5)
Because I am sanctified and am one with the sanctifier, He is not ashamed to call me brother.
(Heb 2:11)
I have the right to come boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in time of need.
(Heb 4:16)
I have been given exceedingly great and precious promises by God by which I am a partaker of
God's divine nature. (2 Pet 1:4)
Sunday, August 13, 2017
OUT OF THE WILDERNESS
“Jesus…was led by the Spirit into the wilderness – And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit.” (Luke 4:1,14)
It was a complete operation of the Spirit unto victory, all of the trial and testing in the wilderness, and the return again in power. Nor is it an experience that is His alone, but all those who would be filled with His power, His life, His glory, share the wilderness experience as a part of the processings, and of them we also read, “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the powders of the merchant?” (Song of Solomon 3:6).
Well we know about the wilderness, with its dry, barren areas; or its tangled underbrush, which hems us in from all sides, or its wild and unknown expanses filled with wild beasts and terrifying noises. The purpose for all this? (Duet. 8:2), “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee…in the wilderness, to humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments, or no.”
Then we read of a company that returns, like pillars of smoke, perfumed, to be a sweet smelling savour, a life that has been touched with the bitter experiences, the crushings, and now HIS DIVINE FRAGRANCE shall permeate the whole. With myrrh – a very bitter gum resin used for perfume, and as part of the “anointing oil”. The wilderness processings will bring out the sweet fragrance of His nature, and remove the stench of our own self-righteousness. With frankincense – which, among other uses, was also for sacrificial fumigation. Dying to self is neither easy nor sweet, but He knows what to apply so there will be no lingering odours of the flesh. When the work is finished, there is a return of a people that shall “shew forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light,” (I Peter 2:9). “That we should be to the praise of His glory,” (Ephesians 1:12). The delights of the return are wonders unspeakable.
- Ray Prinzing
It was a complete operation of the Spirit unto victory, all of the trial and testing in the wilderness, and the return again in power. Nor is it an experience that is His alone, but all those who would be filled with His power, His life, His glory, share the wilderness experience as a part of the processings, and of them we also read, “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the powders of the merchant?” (Song of Solomon 3:6).
Well we know about the wilderness, with its dry, barren areas; or its tangled underbrush, which hems us in from all sides, or its wild and unknown expanses filled with wild beasts and terrifying noises. The purpose for all this? (Duet. 8:2), “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee…in the wilderness, to humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments, or no.”
Then we read of a company that returns, like pillars of smoke, perfumed, to be a sweet smelling savour, a life that has been touched with the bitter experiences, the crushings, and now HIS DIVINE FRAGRANCE shall permeate the whole. With myrrh – a very bitter gum resin used for perfume, and as part of the “anointing oil”. The wilderness processings will bring out the sweet fragrance of His nature, and remove the stench of our own self-righteousness. With frankincense – which, among other uses, was also for sacrificial fumigation. Dying to self is neither easy nor sweet, but He knows what to apply so there will be no lingering odours of the flesh. When the work is finished, there is a return of a people that shall “shew forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light,” (I Peter 2:9). “That we should be to the praise of His glory,” (Ephesians 1:12). The delights of the return are wonders unspeakable.
- Ray Prinzing
REAPING HIS SPIRIT- LIFE
“God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” (Galatians 6:7-8)
Man has taken this truth as a basis for his own carnal thought, ‘life is what you make it, for you reap what you sow’. That is only a half-truth. It is the Word that “as a man soweth, that shall He also reap”, but there is another truth involved, it is dealing more specifically with ‘which realm are we sowing into’, giving emphasis to the fact that you do not sow into the flesh, and out of the flesh reap spiritual life. Every seed bears after its own kind.
Natural man takes and makes it an iron-clad rule that leaves out the sovereignty of God, and the grace of God. How often have we even sowed into the flesh, and yet never reaped. Sowed an angry word, but only received a soft answer in return, because of the love and kindness of the one with whom we were angry. When God does not allow the seed sown to bear fruit, He has many ways of nullifying the reaping. If He sends a flood, the seed is washed away. If He sends a drought, it doesn’t germinate and grow. If even the birds come and devour the seed, no harvest, etc. But only what He purposes to ultimately use does He allow to happen, so if it happens, hard as it may seem to bear, somewhere down the road He purposes to cause it all to work together into our good, and for His praise. Thus the Psalmist declared, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain,” (Psalm 76:10).
But the challenge is, the more we sow into the Spirit, the more we shall out of the Spirit reap life, joy, and peace. The natural, however sweet it might appear for a time, never fully satisfies, but IN HIM there are pleasures ever more – enduring for all time.
- Ray Prinzing
Man has taken this truth as a basis for his own carnal thought, ‘life is what you make it, for you reap what you sow’. That is only a half-truth. It is the Word that “as a man soweth, that shall He also reap”, but there is another truth involved, it is dealing more specifically with ‘which realm are we sowing into’, giving emphasis to the fact that you do not sow into the flesh, and out of the flesh reap spiritual life. Every seed bears after its own kind.
Natural man takes and makes it an iron-clad rule that leaves out the sovereignty of God, and the grace of God. How often have we even sowed into the flesh, and yet never reaped. Sowed an angry word, but only received a soft answer in return, because of the love and kindness of the one with whom we were angry. When God does not allow the seed sown to bear fruit, He has many ways of nullifying the reaping. If He sends a flood, the seed is washed away. If He sends a drought, it doesn’t germinate and grow. If even the birds come and devour the seed, no harvest, etc. But only what He purposes to ultimately use does He allow to happen, so if it happens, hard as it may seem to bear, somewhere down the road He purposes to cause it all to work together into our good, and for His praise. Thus the Psalmist declared, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain,” (Psalm 76:10).
But the challenge is, the more we sow into the Spirit, the more we shall out of the Spirit reap life, joy, and peace. The natural, however sweet it might appear for a time, never fully satisfies, but IN HIM there are pleasures ever more – enduring for all time.
- Ray Prinzing
A Holy People?
Are Christians truly a holy people, or are we trying to become a holy people? As an oak sapling grows, it doesn’t get any ‘oakier.’ Oak is oak. It simply matures into what it is, a full-grown oak tree.
It’s not a ‘from-to’ situation with us. We are a holy people. Now let’s get on with acting like who we are.
~Bill Gillham, Lifetime Guarantee
It’s not a ‘from-to’ situation with us. We are a holy people. Now let’s get on with acting like who we are.
~Bill Gillham, Lifetime Guarantee
The Law Requires Much.....
The Law requires much, but offers no help in the carrying out of its requirements. The Lord Jesus requires just as much, yea even more (Matt. 5:21-48), but what he requires from us he himself carries out in us. The law makes demands and leaves us helpless to fulfill them; Christ makes demands, but he himself fulfills in us the very demands he makes.
~Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life
~Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life
Union
Union with Christ is the number one reason why we have it better than those who lived before the cross. Back then they wrote love songs about yearning and absence. “I looked for the one my heart loves but I could not find him” (Song of Songs 3:1–2). “I opened to my beloved, but my beloved was gone” (Song of Songs 5:6) “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for you, O God” (Psalms 42:1).
It breaks my heart to hear Christians singing songs of longing and calling it worship. I imagine it breaks Jesus’ heart too. Where are you Lord? I am right here. I am in you and you are in me. Where did you go? I didn’t go anywhere. I promised I would never leave you.
It breaks my heart to hear Christians singing songs of longing and calling it worship. I imagine it breaks Jesus’ heart too. Where are you Lord? I am right here. I am in you and you are in me. Where did you go? I didn’t go anywhere. I promised I would never leave you.
All of Grace
See then, dear friend, that the weakness of your faith will not destroy you. A trembling hand may receive a golden gift. The Lord’s salvation can come to us though we have only faith as a grain of mustard seed. The power lies in the grace of God, and not in our faith. Great messages can be sent along slender wires, and the peace-giving witness of the Holy Spirit can reach the hearts by means of a thread-like faith which seems almost unable to sustain its own weight. Think more of him to whom you look than of the look itself. You must look away even from your own looking, and see nothing but Jesus, and the grace of God revealed in Him.
~Charles Spurgeon,
~Charles Spurgeon,
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Grace Quote - 12 August 2017
To give a short definition of a Christian: A Christian is not somebody who has no sin, but somebody against whom God no longer chalks sin, because of his faith in Christ. This doctrine brings comfort to consciences in serious trouble.”
- Martin Luther
Grace is irrational to the thinker. It is unfair to the judge. Grace is foolishness to the achiever. It is a waste to the selfish. Grace is a mistake to the disciplinarian. It is shame to the religionist. But it is a stream of water to the thirsty. It’s freedom to the imprisoned. It is life to the dead. Grace is rest to the tired. It is another chance to the failed. It is hope to the despondent. It is a way out for the lost and a way in for those who can see the Door.
- Steve McVey
- Martin Luther
Grace is irrational to the thinker. It is unfair to the judge. Grace is foolishness to the achiever. It is a waste to the selfish. Grace is a mistake to the disciplinarian. It is shame to the religionist. But it is a stream of water to the thirsty. It’s freedom to the imprisoned. It is life to the dead. Grace is rest to the tired. It is another chance to the failed. It is hope to the despondent. It is a way out for the lost and a way in for those who can see the Door.
- Steve McVey
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Is He Always With Me?
And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. --Matthew 28:20
I often say that I am preaching my own funeral, and this article will be one such time! I am always confronted with my own unbelief and inability to get the first things right. There are so many passages that need believing before we go on asking for more and attempting to understand more. We obsess over our past. We remember the hurts. We are “dealing” with them. We are struggling. We wish for a different past. Millions are spent on various coping mechanisms for the aforementioned, but in all of it we are avoiding a fact of faith:“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” We do not believe we are new creations. We want the feeling of it, the absence of memory, and something special. We want the fact of it without faith! Again, all that a believer wants, he has already been given, for the Lord has given us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness. However, if we work for what we have by faith, we lose it. God is with us always, and yet often a busy mother, missing her quiet time, believes He is not with her. Many have not read their Bibles, attended church lately, or perhaps have fallen into the bad deeds of the flesh--or worse yet, the good deeds--and these all believe that He has left them. Is He with us always? Where do we stand in these things? So many spectacular meetings take place to convince us in the flesh of what only faith can assure us, that He is always with us!
“He is always with us” is not just a simple statement that has little relevancy…it is an astounding truth of great impact!!! Think about this: IF your earthly father could have completely lived inside you, gone with you everywhere you went, you possessed his soul (mind, will, emotions), and he had the power to impact every decision and action you ever had or took... Would life been different? Do you think he would have impacted your life? IF you as an earthly parent… Do you follow my thinking here???
Isn’t it amazing…God indwells every Believer. His Life is “there” wherever we are. And to live His Life through us is what God wants to do through our life. And there is no way He is not “there” wherever the “there” is.
But, how about being given “everything pertaining to life and godliness”!?! I have seen many who don’t believe this…don’t believe this? God has said it is SO. Christ’s indwelling has given us ALL this. It comes with possessing Him!
We need to quit working “for what we have by faith” (or, have been GIVEN!).
I often say that I am preaching my own funeral, and this article will be one such time! I am always confronted with my own unbelief and inability to get the first things right. There are so many passages that need believing before we go on asking for more and attempting to understand more. We obsess over our past. We remember the hurts. We are “dealing” with them. We are struggling. We wish for a different past. Millions are spent on various coping mechanisms for the aforementioned, but in all of it we are avoiding a fact of faith:“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” We do not believe we are new creations. We want the feeling of it, the absence of memory, and something special. We want the fact of it without faith! Again, all that a believer wants, he has already been given, for the Lord has given us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness. However, if we work for what we have by faith, we lose it. God is with us always, and yet often a busy mother, missing her quiet time, believes He is not with her. Many have not read their Bibles, attended church lately, or perhaps have fallen into the bad deeds of the flesh--or worse yet, the good deeds--and these all believe that He has left them. Is He with us always? Where do we stand in these things? So many spectacular meetings take place to convince us in the flesh of what only faith can assure us, that He is always with us!
“He is always with us” is not just a simple statement that has little relevancy…it is an astounding truth of great impact!!! Think about this: IF your earthly father could have completely lived inside you, gone with you everywhere you went, you possessed his soul (mind, will, emotions), and he had the power to impact every decision and action you ever had or took... Would life been different? Do you think he would have impacted your life? IF you as an earthly parent… Do you follow my thinking here???
Isn’t it amazing…God indwells every Believer. His Life is “there” wherever we are. And to live His Life through us is what God wants to do through our life. And there is no way He is not “there” wherever the “there” is.
But, how about being given “everything pertaining to life and godliness”!?! I have seen many who don’t believe this…don’t believe this? God has said it is SO. Christ’s indwelling has given us ALL this. It comes with possessing Him!
We need to quit working “for what we have by faith” (or, have been GIVEN!).
Did the Father Suffer on the Cross?
When I argue that the cross is a Trinitarian event (See post), some may suspect that I am espousing Patripassionism, which was a second and third century teaching that held that God the Father suffered on the cross. While this view was often expressed as a form of heretical Modalism, and while the Patristic fathers were right in denouncing this, I nevertheless concur with Moltmann, Jungel and others who hold that the advocates of Patripassionism were at least attempting to express an important truth.[1] There is no question but that the distinctness of the Father and Son, as well as the Spirit, must always be maintained. But the distinctness of the three divine Persons is a distinctness of shared love, which is why the triune God is one God. And the true aspect of what ancient advocates of Patripassionism were trying to express is that if the cross reveals the perfect loving character of the one true triune God, it does so only because the experience of the Son on the cross is shared, in their own distinct ways, by the other two members of the triune God. Yes, the Son alone suffered as the one who is afflicted by wicked humans and fallen powers. Yet, the Father suffered as the one who delivered his beloved Son up and the Spirit suffered as the one through whom Jesus offered up his Spirit (Heb 9:14).
Hence, as Moltmann has in particular brilliantly emphasized, the suffering that the Son endured when he experienced separation from the Father and Spirit on the cross was reciprocated by a corresponding suffering of the Father and the Spirit. “In the passion of the Son,” Moltmann writes, “the Father himself suffers the pains of abandonment. In the death of the Son, death comes upon God himself, and the Father suffers the death of his Son in his love for the forsaken man.”[2] And again,
The Son suffers dying, the Father suffers the death of the Son. The grief of the Father here is just as important as the death of the Son. The Fatherlessness of the Son is matched by the Sonlessness of the Father, and if God has constituted himself as the Father of Jesus Christ, then he also suffers the death of his Fatherhood in the death of the Son.[3]
While the distinct way the Son suffers involves suffering in a way we can see, his suffering in fact reveals the suffering of the entire Godhead. And this is simply the quintessential expression of the fact that the distinct way the Son loves reveals the love of the entire Godhead. It is the quintessential expression of the truth that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ in bodily form (Col 2:9). And it is the quintessential expression of the truth that we “see” and “know” the Father when “see” and “know” Christ (Jn 1:18; 14:7-9) and that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8).
Hence, while we certainly must never obfuscate the eternal distinctness of the three divine Persons, as modalism does, we also must never separate them, as though the Son could ever experience something that was not shared, in their own distinct ways, by the Father and Spirit.
For this reason, I contend that the love-motivated way Jesus bears the sin of the world, suffering as though he did what he in fact merely allowed, is also shared, in their own distinct ways, by the Father and Spirit. And the fact that the Son took responsibility for all the evil that he as Creator allowed to come to pass in his creation entails that the Father and Spirit, in their own unique ways, also took responsibility for all this evil, though they are no more morally culpable for any of it than is the Son.
The cruciform interpretation of Scripture’s dual way of speaking about God is grounded in this understanding of the Crucifixion as a Trinitarian event. For if the cross reveals what God has always been like, as we have repeatedly argued, it means we must read Scripture with the understanding that God has, out of his covenantal love and fidelity, always been willing to enter into solidarity with sinners and to assume responsibility for all that he allows. And it means that we must read Scripture with our eyes open to other ways we might find expressions of the Father and Spirit sharing in the Son’s identification with sinners and therefore in his taking on the semblance of one who is guilty—that is, as one who had done what he in fact merely allowed.
- Greg Boyd
Hence, as Moltmann has in particular brilliantly emphasized, the suffering that the Son endured when he experienced separation from the Father and Spirit on the cross was reciprocated by a corresponding suffering of the Father and the Spirit. “In the passion of the Son,” Moltmann writes, “the Father himself suffers the pains of abandonment. In the death of the Son, death comes upon God himself, and the Father suffers the death of his Son in his love for the forsaken man.”[2] And again,
The Son suffers dying, the Father suffers the death of the Son. The grief of the Father here is just as important as the death of the Son. The Fatherlessness of the Son is matched by the Sonlessness of the Father, and if God has constituted himself as the Father of Jesus Christ, then he also suffers the death of his Fatherhood in the death of the Son.[3]
While the distinct way the Son suffers involves suffering in a way we can see, his suffering in fact reveals the suffering of the entire Godhead. And this is simply the quintessential expression of the fact that the distinct way the Son loves reveals the love of the entire Godhead. It is the quintessential expression of the truth that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ in bodily form (Col 2:9). And it is the quintessential expression of the truth that we “see” and “know” the Father when “see” and “know” Christ (Jn 1:18; 14:7-9) and that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8).
Hence, while we certainly must never obfuscate the eternal distinctness of the three divine Persons, as modalism does, we also must never separate them, as though the Son could ever experience something that was not shared, in their own distinct ways, by the Father and Spirit.
For this reason, I contend that the love-motivated way Jesus bears the sin of the world, suffering as though he did what he in fact merely allowed, is also shared, in their own distinct ways, by the Father and Spirit. And the fact that the Son took responsibility for all the evil that he as Creator allowed to come to pass in his creation entails that the Father and Spirit, in their own unique ways, also took responsibility for all this evil, though they are no more morally culpable for any of it than is the Son.
The cruciform interpretation of Scripture’s dual way of speaking about God is grounded in this understanding of the Crucifixion as a Trinitarian event. For if the cross reveals what God has always been like, as we have repeatedly argued, it means we must read Scripture with the understanding that God has, out of his covenantal love and fidelity, always been willing to enter into solidarity with sinners and to assume responsibility for all that he allows. And it means that we must read Scripture with our eyes open to other ways we might find expressions of the Father and Spirit sharing in the Son’s identification with sinners and therefore in his taking on the semblance of one who is guilty—that is, as one who had done what he in fact merely allowed.
- Greg Boyd
The Mark of the Most Successful Worship Leaders
Every week a pastor or worship leader chooses the songs his church will sing the following Sunday. Every week he combs through the possibilities to select the five or six that will best fit within the service he is planning. How can he choose well? How can he best serve his congregation in their singing?
I have traveled a fair bit through the first half of this year, and just about everywhere I’ve gone I’ve had the privilege of attending church services. I’ve worshipped with little congregations in isolated places and I’ve worshipped with great big congregations in the heart of major cities. I’ve experienced worship at home and abroad, I’ve sung music accapella and with the accompaniment of top-quality bands, I’ve sung in English and done my best to follow along in foreign languages. And through it all, I have been quietly but deliberately observing. I have been thinking about how we worship best.
The service planner faces a few tough challenges. The first is the challenge of choice. The song possibilities are almost endless, and we have tens of thousands available to us. We have hymns that have endured the ages, we have modern worship written to suit our times, we have the trusty old Psalms, and we have a whole lot more besides. The second is the challenge of popularity. Through radio and Internet, Christians have immediate access to the latest and greatest songs and many people want to sing on Sunday what they first hear on Wednesday. Rare is the leader who can withstand the pressure of the CCLI top 100! The third is the challenge of ability. We are not a singing culture. We do not sing in public and rarely sing in private. Most have no sense of how to sing in a group and only the rarest few have any notion of parts and harmonies.
With those challenges in mind, here is my observation: The most successful worship leaders are the ones who want to hear their congregations sing—to really sing. The most successful worship leaders are the ones most attuned to the musical ability of their congregations and the ones most committed to choosing songs their people can sing. They prioritize these factors over a host of others.
The simple fact is, there are many songs that have solid content and catchy tunes, but are poorly suited to congregational singing. There are many songs that are a joy to sing along to in the car, but difficult to sing with a congregation. There are many songs that are written first for radio and only secondarily for corporate singing. “Forever” by Kari Jobe sure sounds nice when she sings it, but it isn’t going to sound so nice when your church tries. “Lead Me To the Cross” may have an inspiring message, but let’s hear your church attempt and master that bridge. Sometimes songs are pitched too high or too low, or they go in unexpected directions, or they demand too much vocal range, or the bridge is just too different from the rest of the song. Sometimes they just aren’t suited to a crowd of amateur singers. And that’s the thing about us—we are amateurs.
I’m convinced what’s happening in so many congregations is that the worship leader chooses songs that are either poorly-suited to congregational singing or beyond the skill of his church. He hears a new song, falls in love with it, and for the best of motives wants to sing it with the people he loves and leads. He practices and masters it, he rehearses it with the band, and it sounds great. But when he brings it to the service on Sunday, it’s well beyond the ability of his people. The church tries, but sings it poorly, sings it softly, or otherwise barely sings it at all. Because the singing is so poor, the sound guy cranks up the volume of the instruments and the lead vocalists. Congregational singing has morphed into performance. And it could all be fixed if the worship leader set as his goal to really hear his people sing.
Let me draw an analogy. I think of a dad who buys his six-year-old young son his first Lego kit. Dad’s excited that his son finally wants to play with Lego, so he splurges and buys one of those amazing kits with hundreds and hundreds of pieces. It’s an amazing toy that will look great when it’s done, but it’s well beyond his son’s ability. So dad steps in to “help.” He helps by doing pretty much all the work—he reads the manual, he snaps the pieces together, he takes it to completion while his son sits by and watches. At the end of it all the boy takes the finished kit to mom and says, “Look what I built!” But he hasn’t really built it at all, has he? I’m convinced this is what happens at many churches today. The band has a great time on stage. They sing well and worship freely. But the congregation doesn’t. It can’t. The music is beyond them and, to be frank, wasn’t truly prepared for them in the first place.
A worship leader serves his congregation best when he chooses songs they can sing and sing well. He is highly attuned to their ability. He prioritizes the singability of songs over their newness or oldness or author or theological density. He gauges his success not by his own worship, but by theirs. His question is not “how did the band feel?” but “how did the congregation sing?” When he steps back and hears his church singing—really singing—, his joy is complete.
I have traveled a fair bit through the first half of this year, and just about everywhere I’ve gone I’ve had the privilege of attending church services. I’ve worshipped with little congregations in isolated places and I’ve worshipped with great big congregations in the heart of major cities. I’ve experienced worship at home and abroad, I’ve sung music accapella and with the accompaniment of top-quality bands, I’ve sung in English and done my best to follow along in foreign languages. And through it all, I have been quietly but deliberately observing. I have been thinking about how we worship best.
The service planner faces a few tough challenges. The first is the challenge of choice. The song possibilities are almost endless, and we have tens of thousands available to us. We have hymns that have endured the ages, we have modern worship written to suit our times, we have the trusty old Psalms, and we have a whole lot more besides. The second is the challenge of popularity. Through radio and Internet, Christians have immediate access to the latest and greatest songs and many people want to sing on Sunday what they first hear on Wednesday. Rare is the leader who can withstand the pressure of the CCLI top 100! The third is the challenge of ability. We are not a singing culture. We do not sing in public and rarely sing in private. Most have no sense of how to sing in a group and only the rarest few have any notion of parts and harmonies.
With those challenges in mind, here is my observation: The most successful worship leaders are the ones who want to hear their congregations sing—to really sing. The most successful worship leaders are the ones most attuned to the musical ability of their congregations and the ones most committed to choosing songs their people can sing. They prioritize these factors over a host of others.
The simple fact is, there are many songs that have solid content and catchy tunes, but are poorly suited to congregational singing. There are many songs that are a joy to sing along to in the car, but difficult to sing with a congregation. There are many songs that are written first for radio and only secondarily for corporate singing. “Forever” by Kari Jobe sure sounds nice when she sings it, but it isn’t going to sound so nice when your church tries. “Lead Me To the Cross” may have an inspiring message, but let’s hear your church attempt and master that bridge. Sometimes songs are pitched too high or too low, or they go in unexpected directions, or they demand too much vocal range, or the bridge is just too different from the rest of the song. Sometimes they just aren’t suited to a crowd of amateur singers. And that’s the thing about us—we are amateurs.
I’m convinced what’s happening in so many congregations is that the worship leader chooses songs that are either poorly-suited to congregational singing or beyond the skill of his church. He hears a new song, falls in love with it, and for the best of motives wants to sing it with the people he loves and leads. He practices and masters it, he rehearses it with the band, and it sounds great. But when he brings it to the service on Sunday, it’s well beyond the ability of his people. The church tries, but sings it poorly, sings it softly, or otherwise barely sings it at all. Because the singing is so poor, the sound guy cranks up the volume of the instruments and the lead vocalists. Congregational singing has morphed into performance. And it could all be fixed if the worship leader set as his goal to really hear his people sing.
Let me draw an analogy. I think of a dad who buys his six-year-old young son his first Lego kit. Dad’s excited that his son finally wants to play with Lego, so he splurges and buys one of those amazing kits with hundreds and hundreds of pieces. It’s an amazing toy that will look great when it’s done, but it’s well beyond his son’s ability. So dad steps in to “help.” He helps by doing pretty much all the work—he reads the manual, he snaps the pieces together, he takes it to completion while his son sits by and watches. At the end of it all the boy takes the finished kit to mom and says, “Look what I built!” But he hasn’t really built it at all, has he? I’m convinced this is what happens at many churches today. The band has a great time on stage. They sing well and worship freely. But the congregation doesn’t. It can’t. The music is beyond them and, to be frank, wasn’t truly prepared for them in the first place.
A worship leader serves his congregation best when he chooses songs they can sing and sing well. He is highly attuned to their ability. He prioritizes the singability of songs over their newness or oldness or author or theological density. He gauges his success not by his own worship, but by theirs. His question is not “how did the band feel?” but “how did the congregation sing?” When he steps back and hears his church singing—really singing—, his joy is complete.
Our Better Covenant
by Peter Ditzel
A quote from luke 22:20: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
If the the cup of wine pictures the New Covenant and the wine pictures Jesus' blood and the life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11), what is the New Covenant?
The writer of Hebrews, after quoting from Jeremiah's announcement of the New Covenant that appears in Jeremiah 31, states, "In that he says, 'A new covenant,' he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away" (Hebrews 8:13). Despite this, most Dispensationalists assert that the New Covenant has not yet come into effect and is not for Gentile believers anyway. Covenant Theologians hold that the New Covenant is merely a new administration of the Old Covenant and, thus, the Old Covenant has never really ended. Others, who don't fall into either of these two camps, concede that believers are under the New Covenant, but maintain that what they call "the moral laws" of the Old Covenant still have authority over Christians. Who's right? Does it matter? Can a wrong understanding of the covenants actually be harmful?
Christ's Last Will and Testament
In Hebrews 8:6, the writer describes Jesus Christ as, "...Mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises" (Hebrews 8:6, Literal Translation of the Holy Bible). In the next chapter, the writer explains, "For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it" (Hebrews 9:15-16). In this translation, "covenant" and "will and testament" are translated from the same Greek word: diathēkē. The Old Covenant, which had been established with Israel centuries before with the death of animals (verses 13-14), ended when Jesus died, and—like a last will and testament—the New Covenant began with Jesus' death. This is why, in part, Jesus spoke of the cup of wine in the Lord's Supper in this way: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:25). We will see another reason later.
That the Old Covenant ended and the New Covenant (Jesus' Last Will and Testament) began with Jesus' death should really be very plain. (See "When Did the Old Covenant End and the New Covenant Begin?). Just as in everyday life, when someone dies, his contracts while he was alive end, and his last will and testament come into legal force. It is part of the "simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3). Yet, almost two millennia after Jesus' death, people who have been put in positions of trust continue to muddy the waters for God's flock (Ezekiel 34:18-19) by teaching that the Old Covenant never really ended, the New Covenant is just an extension or new administration of the Old Covenant, and the moral laws of the Old Covenant are still in force.
Why This Matter Is so Serious
This matter is serious because the New Testament writers rightly considered the Law of the Old Testament a curse: "For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who doesn't continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them'" (Galatians 3:10). They also knew that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Galatians 3:13). To teach the continuance of the Old Testament law, however many excuses and explanations the preacher attaches to his message, is contrary to the grace of God. Paul knew not to teach this graceless message: "I don't make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21).
Again, regardless of such plain Scriptures, writers and speakers typically make such Scripturally baseless claims as this one: "As the Ten Commandments were in force before the time of Moses, so too they remain in effect after the resurrection of Christ" (Gordon H. Clark, Sanctification, [Jefferson, MD.: The Trinity Foundation, 1992], 95). In contrast to Clark's legalist statement, notice the clear dichotomy that Paul taught: "But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which was passing away: won't service of the Spirit be with much more glory?" (2 Corinthians 3:7-8). The Ten Commandments—written and engraved on stones—although it had its glory, was nevertheless a service of death. Paul placed it in direct contrast to the greater glory of the service of the Spirit. There is no mixing of the two. The Old Covenant passes away, the glorious New Covenant remains: "For if that which passes away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory" (2 Corinthians 3:11).
Notice how this writer qualifies his assertion that we are to keep the law: "Jesus has given Christians the ability in salvation, because of His work as the sinless Savior, to make moral choices once again on behalf of the Law. He kept the Law so we could keep it as well. Jesus’ work enables us to run the race in a way worthy to win the prize. He does not invalidate the Law, but places it before us knowing that He will be working through us to keep it" ("What is the Difference between Legalism and Obedience?"). Scripture, however, leaves no room for qualifications. It tells us that sin has no mastery over us, not because we keep the law by having Christ keep it in us (or any other such reason), but because we are under grace: "For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).
Further, turning back to the law, whatever the excuse, is to abandon Christ and commit spiritual adultery. Notice Romans 7:1-4:
Or don't you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God.
When Christ died, we died with Him; and when He rose, we rose with him to a new life (Romans 6:3-5). The law is not a believer's husband, Jesus Christ is. If we say that we are not going to the law for salvation, what are we going to it for, a flirtation? It is still spiritual adultery!
Some will say that Paul is only talking about the so-called ceremonial law. Yet, these same people will then cite Romans 7:7 to support their reliance on law. They seem to have not noticed that Romans 7:7 is part of the context of the verses we've just looked at. Paul is citing the very law he has just said we have died to when he directly refers to the Tenth Commandment, a law that no one says is merely ceremonial.
Paul is not promoting law-keeping. He is saying that the law is a temptation to sin and a source of death: "But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Romans 7:8-9). Those who preach the law are preaching bad news, not good news, and are bringing a curse upon themselves (Galatians 1:8-9) and putting a yoke of bondage on their hearers (Galatians 5:1).
Looking in the Wrong Direction
When we look to the Old Covenant and its laws, we are looking in the wrong direction. Looking backward to the defunct covenant of law and works not only incites temptation to sin. Looking to the wrong covenant will also cause us to make wrong decisions based upon a worldview intended for the carnally minded nation of Israel. Those who want to justify the union of church and state, the participation of believers in wars, slavery, tithing, and so on, always look to the Old Covenant. But it is a dead covenant—fulfilled and finished (Matthew 5:17-18; John 19:30), and it was never intended for Christians in the first place. Looking to the Old Covenant laws denies the work of Jesus Christ who came to deliver us from the law, from the administration of death, from the obligation of the law, from the curse of the law. If knowing the truth of the Gospel sets us free (John 8:32), then turning from that truth enslaves us. In fact, the Bible tells us that the law was an unbearable yoke (Acts 15:10), a prison (Galatians 3:23), a blinding veil (2 Corinthians 3:14-15).
Unmixable
Can the New Covenant simply be an extension or new administration of the Old Covenant? The Bible absolutely contradicts such a notion: "For finding fault with them, he said, 'Behold, the days come,' says the Lord, 'that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn't continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,' says the Lord" (Hebrews 8:8-9). A new covenant that is "not according to" the previous covenant obviously cannot merely be an extension or new administration of that previous covenant. A covenant that is "not according to" the previous covenant is an entirely new, fresh, and unprecedented (as implied by the Greek word kainos translated "new") covenant.
The Old Testament is founded upon law. It is a covenant of works. The New Covenant, the covenant of Jesus Christ, is a covenant of grace. You cannot mix the two: "And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work" (Romans 11:6). You cannot put new wine into old wineskins, you cannot patch an old garment with new patches (Matthew 9:16-17), you cannot mix law and grace. As Paul explains, "the son of the servant will not inherit with the son of the free woman" (Galatians 4:30). If Christ saves, the law cannot.
Oh, but you say, I don't turn to the Old Covenant law for salvation but merely as a way of life. But Jesus Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" (John 14:6). The law cannot be a way of life because Jesus Christ claims to be the only way of life. The law is the way of death! (Romans 7:10).
"Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let's also walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:24-25). Whatever he may have written later, Melanchthon had it right in 1521 when he wrote, "Those who have been renewed by the Spirit of Christ now conform voluntarily even without the law to what the law used to command" (Loci Communes). And Jesus Christ has even taken care of on the Cross every one of our failures: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
To Choose Moses Is to Deny Christ
Earlier, I said Jesus' words concerning the cup of wine when He instituted the Lord's Supper indicated that the New Covenant was a last will and testament. That's true, but what he said also implies something else. Let's look as those words in Luke 22:20: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." The wine in the cup pictured Jesus' blood, which He was about to pour out for our salvation. The blood, in turn, stood for His life (Leviticus 17:11). Jesus poured out His life for us, and His life, of course, was Himself. Jesus gave Himself for us (Titus 2:14). Following this back to what Jesus said at the supper, we can interpret the meaning behind the symbols as this: The New Covenant is Jesus' life, which life He poured out for us. Jesus, then, is the New Covenant.
How obvious it should then be that when we turn to the Old Covenant for any aspect of our salvation (such as sanctification through law-keeping), or even merely as a way of life or moral guide, we are turning from Jesus Christ our New Covenant who is all-sufficient for us. We are polluting His work, His teachings, His sacrifice, and His covenant with elements of a covenant that have no place in the New Covenant.
Martin Luther put it like this:
We would rather not preach again for the rest of our life than to let Moses return and to let Christ be torn out of our hearts. We will not have Moses as ruler or lawgiver any longer. Indeed God himself will not have it either. Moses was an intermediary solely for the Jewish people. It was to them that he gave the law. We must therefore silence the mouths of those factious spirits who say, "Thus says Moses," etc. Here you simply reply: Moses has nothing to do with us. If I were to accept Moses in one commandment, I would have to accept the entire Moses.
"How Christians Should Regard Moses"
We believers are not of the house of Moses, the servant; we are of the house of Jesus, the Son: "Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus; who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house. For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God. Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end" (Hebrews 3:1-6).
Summary
When you read the Old Testament, look for Christ. Try to understand its types and shadows and symbols, all pointing to Christ: "Now all these things happened to them by way of example [tupos—types], and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11); "Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). But don't listen to those who discredit the Cross of Christ by telling you there is any way in which you are to obey the Old Covenant. These teachers deny the fullness of what Jesus became flesh to accomplish, and, thus, they teach the doctrines of antichrist (see "Are You Following the Doctrines of Antichrists?").
Again as Martin Luther wrote, "So, then, we will neither observe nor accept Moses. Moses is dead. His rule ended when Christ came. He is of no further service.... Many great and outstanding people have missed it, while even today many great preachers still stumble over it. They do not know how to preach Moses, nor how properly to regard his books. They are absurd as they rage and fume, chattering to people, 'God's word, God's word!' All the while they mislead the poor people and drive them to destruction" ("How Christians Should Regard Moses"). And many "great preachers" continue to drive the people to destruction as they point to Moses and the Old Covenant while they themselves stumble on that "stone of stumbling" and that "rock of offence" (1 Peter 2:8), Jesus Christ our New and One and Only Covenant.
A quote from luke 22:20: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
If the the cup of wine pictures the New Covenant and the wine pictures Jesus' blood and the life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11), what is the New Covenant?
The writer of Hebrews, after quoting from Jeremiah's announcement of the New Covenant that appears in Jeremiah 31, states, "In that he says, 'A new covenant,' he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away" (Hebrews 8:13). Despite this, most Dispensationalists assert that the New Covenant has not yet come into effect and is not for Gentile believers anyway. Covenant Theologians hold that the New Covenant is merely a new administration of the Old Covenant and, thus, the Old Covenant has never really ended. Others, who don't fall into either of these two camps, concede that believers are under the New Covenant, but maintain that what they call "the moral laws" of the Old Covenant still have authority over Christians. Who's right? Does it matter? Can a wrong understanding of the covenants actually be harmful?
Christ's Last Will and Testament
In Hebrews 8:6, the writer describes Jesus Christ as, "...Mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises" (Hebrews 8:6, Literal Translation of the Holy Bible). In the next chapter, the writer explains, "For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it" (Hebrews 9:15-16). In this translation, "covenant" and "will and testament" are translated from the same Greek word: diathēkē. The Old Covenant, which had been established with Israel centuries before with the death of animals (verses 13-14), ended when Jesus died, and—like a last will and testament—the New Covenant began with Jesus' death. This is why, in part, Jesus spoke of the cup of wine in the Lord's Supper in this way: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:25). We will see another reason later.
That the Old Covenant ended and the New Covenant (Jesus' Last Will and Testament) began with Jesus' death should really be very plain. (See "When Did the Old Covenant End and the New Covenant Begin?). Just as in everyday life, when someone dies, his contracts while he was alive end, and his last will and testament come into legal force. It is part of the "simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3). Yet, almost two millennia after Jesus' death, people who have been put in positions of trust continue to muddy the waters for God's flock (Ezekiel 34:18-19) by teaching that the Old Covenant never really ended, the New Covenant is just an extension or new administration of the Old Covenant, and the moral laws of the Old Covenant are still in force.
Why This Matter Is so Serious
This matter is serious because the New Testament writers rightly considered the Law of the Old Testament a curse: "For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who doesn't continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them'" (Galatians 3:10). They also knew that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Galatians 3:13). To teach the continuance of the Old Testament law, however many excuses and explanations the preacher attaches to his message, is contrary to the grace of God. Paul knew not to teach this graceless message: "I don't make void the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21).
Again, regardless of such plain Scriptures, writers and speakers typically make such Scripturally baseless claims as this one: "As the Ten Commandments were in force before the time of Moses, so too they remain in effect after the resurrection of Christ" (Gordon H. Clark, Sanctification, [Jefferson, MD.: The Trinity Foundation, 1992], 95). In contrast to Clark's legalist statement, notice the clear dichotomy that Paul taught: "But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which was passing away: won't service of the Spirit be with much more glory?" (2 Corinthians 3:7-8). The Ten Commandments—written and engraved on stones—although it had its glory, was nevertheless a service of death. Paul placed it in direct contrast to the greater glory of the service of the Spirit. There is no mixing of the two. The Old Covenant passes away, the glorious New Covenant remains: "For if that which passes away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory" (2 Corinthians 3:11).
Notice how this writer qualifies his assertion that we are to keep the law: "Jesus has given Christians the ability in salvation, because of His work as the sinless Savior, to make moral choices once again on behalf of the Law. He kept the Law so we could keep it as well. Jesus’ work enables us to run the race in a way worthy to win the prize. He does not invalidate the Law, but places it before us knowing that He will be working through us to keep it" ("What is the Difference between Legalism and Obedience?"). Scripture, however, leaves no room for qualifications. It tells us that sin has no mastery over us, not because we keep the law by having Christ keep it in us (or any other such reason), but because we are under grace: "For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).
Further, turning back to the law, whatever the excuse, is to abandon Christ and commit spiritual adultery. Notice Romans 7:1-4:
Or don't you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives? For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband. So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God.
When Christ died, we died with Him; and when He rose, we rose with him to a new life (Romans 6:3-5). The law is not a believer's husband, Jesus Christ is. If we say that we are not going to the law for salvation, what are we going to it for, a flirtation? It is still spiritual adultery!
Some will say that Paul is only talking about the so-called ceremonial law. Yet, these same people will then cite Romans 7:7 to support their reliance on law. They seem to have not noticed that Romans 7:7 is part of the context of the verses we've just looked at. Paul is citing the very law he has just said we have died to when he directly refers to the Tenth Commandment, a law that no one says is merely ceremonial.
Paul is not promoting law-keeping. He is saying that the law is a temptation to sin and a source of death: "But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died" (Romans 7:8-9). Those who preach the law are preaching bad news, not good news, and are bringing a curse upon themselves (Galatians 1:8-9) and putting a yoke of bondage on their hearers (Galatians 5:1).
Looking in the Wrong Direction
When we look to the Old Covenant and its laws, we are looking in the wrong direction. Looking backward to the defunct covenant of law and works not only incites temptation to sin. Looking to the wrong covenant will also cause us to make wrong decisions based upon a worldview intended for the carnally minded nation of Israel. Those who want to justify the union of church and state, the participation of believers in wars, slavery, tithing, and so on, always look to the Old Covenant. But it is a dead covenant—fulfilled and finished (Matthew 5:17-18; John 19:30), and it was never intended for Christians in the first place. Looking to the Old Covenant laws denies the work of Jesus Christ who came to deliver us from the law, from the administration of death, from the obligation of the law, from the curse of the law. If knowing the truth of the Gospel sets us free (John 8:32), then turning from that truth enslaves us. In fact, the Bible tells us that the law was an unbearable yoke (Acts 15:10), a prison (Galatians 3:23), a blinding veil (2 Corinthians 3:14-15).
Unmixable
Can the New Covenant simply be an extension or new administration of the Old Covenant? The Bible absolutely contradicts such a notion: "For finding fault with them, he said, 'Behold, the days come,' says the Lord, 'that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn't continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,' says the Lord" (Hebrews 8:8-9). A new covenant that is "not according to" the previous covenant obviously cannot merely be an extension or new administration of that previous covenant. A covenant that is "not according to" the previous covenant is an entirely new, fresh, and unprecedented (as implied by the Greek word kainos translated "new") covenant.
The Old Testament is founded upon law. It is a covenant of works. The New Covenant, the covenant of Jesus Christ, is a covenant of grace. You cannot mix the two: "And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work" (Romans 11:6). You cannot put new wine into old wineskins, you cannot patch an old garment with new patches (Matthew 9:16-17), you cannot mix law and grace. As Paul explains, "the son of the servant will not inherit with the son of the free woman" (Galatians 4:30). If Christ saves, the law cannot.
Oh, but you say, I don't turn to the Old Covenant law for salvation but merely as a way of life. But Jesus Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me" (John 14:6). The law cannot be a way of life because Jesus Christ claims to be the only way of life. The law is the way of death! (Romans 7:10).
"Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let's also walk by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:24-25). Whatever he may have written later, Melanchthon had it right in 1521 when he wrote, "Those who have been renewed by the Spirit of Christ now conform voluntarily even without the law to what the law used to command" (Loci Communes). And Jesus Christ has even taken care of on the Cross every one of our failures: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
To Choose Moses Is to Deny Christ
Earlier, I said Jesus' words concerning the cup of wine when He instituted the Lord's Supper indicated that the New Covenant was a last will and testament. That's true, but what he said also implies something else. Let's look as those words in Luke 22:20: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." The wine in the cup pictured Jesus' blood, which He was about to pour out for our salvation. The blood, in turn, stood for His life (Leviticus 17:11). Jesus poured out His life for us, and His life, of course, was Himself. Jesus gave Himself for us (Titus 2:14). Following this back to what Jesus said at the supper, we can interpret the meaning behind the symbols as this: The New Covenant is Jesus' life, which life He poured out for us. Jesus, then, is the New Covenant.
How obvious it should then be that when we turn to the Old Covenant for any aspect of our salvation (such as sanctification through law-keeping), or even merely as a way of life or moral guide, we are turning from Jesus Christ our New Covenant who is all-sufficient for us. We are polluting His work, His teachings, His sacrifice, and His covenant with elements of a covenant that have no place in the New Covenant.
Martin Luther put it like this:
We would rather not preach again for the rest of our life than to let Moses return and to let Christ be torn out of our hearts. We will not have Moses as ruler or lawgiver any longer. Indeed God himself will not have it either. Moses was an intermediary solely for the Jewish people. It was to them that he gave the law. We must therefore silence the mouths of those factious spirits who say, "Thus says Moses," etc. Here you simply reply: Moses has nothing to do with us. If I were to accept Moses in one commandment, I would have to accept the entire Moses.
"How Christians Should Regard Moses"
We believers are not of the house of Moses, the servant; we are of the house of Jesus, the Son: "Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus; who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house. For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God. Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end" (Hebrews 3:1-6).
Summary
When you read the Old Testament, look for Christ. Try to understand its types and shadows and symbols, all pointing to Christ: "Now all these things happened to them by way of example [tupos—types], and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11); "Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). But don't listen to those who discredit the Cross of Christ by telling you there is any way in which you are to obey the Old Covenant. These teachers deny the fullness of what Jesus became flesh to accomplish, and, thus, they teach the doctrines of antichrist (see "Are You Following the Doctrines of Antichrists?").
Again as Martin Luther wrote, "So, then, we will neither observe nor accept Moses. Moses is dead. His rule ended when Christ came. He is of no further service.... Many great and outstanding people have missed it, while even today many great preachers still stumble over it. They do not know how to preach Moses, nor how properly to regard his books. They are absurd as they rage and fume, chattering to people, 'God's word, God's word!' All the while they mislead the poor people and drive them to destruction" ("How Christians Should Regard Moses"). And many "great preachers" continue to drive the people to destruction as they point to Moses and the Old Covenant while they themselves stumble on that "stone of stumbling" and that "rock of offence" (1 Peter 2:8), Jesus Christ our New and One and Only Covenant.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
The Brook Dried Up...
Some time later the brook dried up because there had
been no rain in the land. (I Kings 17:7)
Week after week, with an unwavering and steadfast spirit,
Elijah watched the brook dwindle and finally dry up.
Often tempted to stumble into unbelief, he nevertheless
refused to allow his circumstances to come between
himself and his God. Unbelief looks at God through the
circumstances, just as we often see the sun dimmed by
clouds or smoke. But faith puts God between itself and
its circumstances, and looks at them through Him.
Elijah's brook dwindled to only a silver thread, which
formed pools at the base of the largest rocks. Then the
pool evaporated, the birds flew away, and the wild
animals of the field and forests no longer came to drink,
for the brook became completely dry. And, only then,
to Elijah's patient and faithful spirit, did the word of the
Lord come and say, 'Go at once to Zarephath.' verse 9
Most of us would have become anxious and tired, and
would have made other plans long before God spoke.
Our singing would have stopped as soon as the stream
flowed less musically over its rocky bed. We would have
hung our harps on the willows nearby and begun pacing
back and forth on the withering grass. And probably,
long before the brook actually dried up, we would have
devised a plan, asked God to bless it, and headed
elsewhere.
God will often extricate us from the mess we have made,
because 'his love endures forever.'Yet if we had only
been patient and waited to see the unfolding of His plan,
we would never have found ourselves in such an impos-
sible maze, seeing no way out. We would also never have
had to turn back and retrace our way, with wasted step
and so many tears of shame.
Wait for the Lord (Ps 27:4)
Patiently wait!
FB MEYER
been no rain in the land. (I Kings 17:7)
Week after week, with an unwavering and steadfast spirit,
Elijah watched the brook dwindle and finally dry up.
Often tempted to stumble into unbelief, he nevertheless
refused to allow his circumstances to come between
himself and his God. Unbelief looks at God through the
circumstances, just as we often see the sun dimmed by
clouds or smoke. But faith puts God between itself and
its circumstances, and looks at them through Him.
Elijah's brook dwindled to only a silver thread, which
formed pools at the base of the largest rocks. Then the
pool evaporated, the birds flew away, and the wild
animals of the field and forests no longer came to drink,
for the brook became completely dry. And, only then,
to Elijah's patient and faithful spirit, did the word of the
Lord come and say, 'Go at once to Zarephath.' verse 9
Most of us would have become anxious and tired, and
would have made other plans long before God spoke.
Our singing would have stopped as soon as the stream
flowed less musically over its rocky bed. We would have
hung our harps on the willows nearby and begun pacing
back and forth on the withering grass. And probably,
long before the brook actually dried up, we would have
devised a plan, asked God to bless it, and headed
elsewhere.
God will often extricate us from the mess we have made,
because 'his love endures forever.'Yet if we had only
been patient and waited to see the unfolding of His plan,
we would never have found ourselves in such an impos-
sible maze, seeing no way out. We would also never have
had to turn back and retrace our way, with wasted step
and so many tears of shame.
Wait for the Lord (Ps 27:4)
Patiently wait!
FB MEYER
Monday, August 7, 2017
What would I give as advice to a person in my present position?
What would I give as advice to a person in my present position?
(And consequently, physician heal thyself)
1. Just remember that God does love you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And when I say nothing I mean, nothing.
2. Also remember that God has not forsaken you. He has promised to never forsake or leave us.
Your circumstances, your mind, and your emotions may well tell you something different, but God’s word stands above and over all of those.
3. God is at work both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Even though you may be living out the consequences of poor behaviour and choices, it’s worth remembering that God has never stopped His redemptive work.
God disciplines those whom He loves. I like the phrase “corrective redemption”, for it helps me to make some sense out of life at the moment.
4. It’s important to understand that you are in a particular season of God’s ordering.
And so one must try not to resist the season, but invite the Holy Spirit to plunge the pruning knife deep within.
Yield and surrender to the season so that the work can be completed and you can move on into all that God has purposed for you.
- Roger
(And consequently, physician heal thyself)
1. Just remember that God does love you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And when I say nothing I mean, nothing.
2. Also remember that God has not forsaken you. He has promised to never forsake or leave us.
Your circumstances, your mind, and your emotions may well tell you something different, but God’s word stands above and over all of those.
3. God is at work both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Even though you may be living out the consequences of poor behaviour and choices, it’s worth remembering that God has never stopped His redemptive work.
God disciplines those whom He loves. I like the phrase “corrective redemption”, for it helps me to make some sense out of life at the moment.
4. It’s important to understand that you are in a particular season of God’s ordering.
And so one must try not to resist the season, but invite the Holy Spirit to plunge the pruning knife deep within.
Yield and surrender to the season so that the work can be completed and you can move on into all that God has purposed for you.
- Roger
Saturday, August 5, 2017
The Work of Conscience
Now, it is well to understand how the conscience works. Some students of scripture have divided the Bible into seven dispensations: the dispensations innocence, conscience, human government, promise, law, grace, and the kingdom. The first three dispensations are categorized according to the principle of government. In the dispensation of innocence we see the principle of GOD'S RULE; in the dispensation of conscience, the principle of SELF-RULE; and in the dispensation of human government, the principle of MAN'S RULE. Of the three kinds of government, the one which is under the rule of SELF is the one related to the CONSCIENCE. Before the fall, no sin barrier existed between God and man. This was the so-called dispensation of innocence, when man was ruled directly by God. He lived before God and was responsible to God. Man failed under God's rule in innocence and became sinful within and without: so the holy and righteous God drove man out from the realm of the Kingdom of God.
Consequently, from the time of Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden to the time of Noah's departure from the Ark, God established the conscience within man to represent Himself in ruling over man. This is the so-called dispensation of conscience. In this period man was ruled by his own conscience and was responsible to his own conscience. Before this God had been personally present with the primal pair in the Garden. He was no stranger to the Voice of God. Often he would be awakened by its tones calling him to fellowship; and climbing some verdant hill he would talk to God as a man talketh with his friend. When the evening shadows began to lengthen it was with deep, awful ecstasy that he repaired to some sweet glade, where he would ask his questions and received answers that guided him in his destiny. He was like a grown-up child, no memory, for there were no childhood experiences to look back on. No past experience to guide him – no books, no science – but all he needed came in converse with God from whom streamed all wisdom and knowledge. Thereafter this close fellowship and sustaining life-flow was broken. God withdrew. He gave no law to guide them. They and their offspring were left to themselves. All that they had was the knowledge of good and evil – the consciousness that the works of the flesh were displeasing to God – that is, conscience. This was the fragile link that connected them to God. It was the underlying principle of His dealings with them. Under this self-rule, man again failed. He ignored the rebuke and control of the conscience, and God judged this dispensation by the flood. Paul writes of this rule of the conscience in Rom. 2:14-15: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." The conscience represents God in ruling over man. Just as a nation governs its people through the police force, so also God governs the fallen man through the conscience. God set up the conscience within fallen man that man might govern himself according to the principles and laws of the knowledge of good and evil. If anyone acts contrary or is about to act contrary to this knowledge of good and evil, his conscience immediately condemns him and restrains him from going further astray and falling into corruption. Therefore, the major function of the conscience is to govern man.
Our conscience can really be compared to a judgment seat. A judgment seat never has legislative authority over men’s lives; it has judicial authority only, that is, it can only state whether the action of the accused is punishable according to the law of the land or not. Its duty is to examine the deed in relation to what the law says, and then decide whether the deed conforms with or violates the law. This is also what the conscience does. It compares our deeds or our words or thoughts or our nature with the law of the knowledge of good and evil and then pronounces judgment, deciding whether we are in conformity or in conflict with it. The conscience acts as both judge and jury, as well as the key witness in the case! In this realm of the knowledge of good and evil whatever a man does, as far as he does it from conscience, so far is it lawful, for his conscience is formed of all those things which he thinks to be true, and so thinks to be lawful.
Consequently, from the time of Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden to the time of Noah's departure from the Ark, God established the conscience within man to represent Himself in ruling over man. This is the so-called dispensation of conscience. In this period man was ruled by his own conscience and was responsible to his own conscience. Before this God had been personally present with the primal pair in the Garden. He was no stranger to the Voice of God. Often he would be awakened by its tones calling him to fellowship; and climbing some verdant hill he would talk to God as a man talketh with his friend. When the evening shadows began to lengthen it was with deep, awful ecstasy that he repaired to some sweet glade, where he would ask his questions and received answers that guided him in his destiny. He was like a grown-up child, no memory, for there were no childhood experiences to look back on. No past experience to guide him – no books, no science – but all he needed came in converse with God from whom streamed all wisdom and knowledge. Thereafter this close fellowship and sustaining life-flow was broken. God withdrew. He gave no law to guide them. They and their offspring were left to themselves. All that they had was the knowledge of good and evil – the consciousness that the works of the flesh were displeasing to God – that is, conscience. This was the fragile link that connected them to God. It was the underlying principle of His dealings with them. Under this self-rule, man again failed. He ignored the rebuke and control of the conscience, and God judged this dispensation by the flood. Paul writes of this rule of the conscience in Rom. 2:14-15: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." The conscience represents God in ruling over man. Just as a nation governs its people through the police force, so also God governs the fallen man through the conscience. God set up the conscience within fallen man that man might govern himself according to the principles and laws of the knowledge of good and evil. If anyone acts contrary or is about to act contrary to this knowledge of good and evil, his conscience immediately condemns him and restrains him from going further astray and falling into corruption. Therefore, the major function of the conscience is to govern man.
Our conscience can really be compared to a judgment seat. A judgment seat never has legislative authority over men’s lives; it has judicial authority only, that is, it can only state whether the action of the accused is punishable according to the law of the land or not. Its duty is to examine the deed in relation to what the law says, and then decide whether the deed conforms with or violates the law. This is also what the conscience does. It compares our deeds or our words or thoughts or our nature with the law of the knowledge of good and evil and then pronounces judgment, deciding whether we are in conformity or in conflict with it. The conscience acts as both judge and jury, as well as the key witness in the case! In this realm of the knowledge of good and evil whatever a man does, as far as he does it from conscience, so far is it lawful, for his conscience is formed of all those things which he thinks to be true, and so thinks to be lawful.
Friday, August 4, 2017
Conscience - Part 1
As soon as man fell by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we read, "And the EYES OF BOTH OF THEM WERE OPENED, and they KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED... and Adam and his wife HID THEMSELVES FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD GOD amongst the trees of the garden." There is bitter pathos in this scene. Two people, conscience striken, overwhelmed with a sense of sin and shame, furtively slink away into the shadows to hide from God! "The eyes of them both were opened," no doubt about it; but, alas! to what a sight! – it was only to discover their own nakedness and shame. They had gained knowledge but had lost peace of soul and mind. No human tongue could possibly describe the awful nightmare that must have scared their souls when they awoke to their nakedness, unclothed, nude, undraped, disrobed, bare – BEFORE GOD! It was not any fresh knowledge of heavenly excellency they had attained, no fresh beams of divine light from the pure and eternal fountain of life and glory – alas! no; the very first knowledge that came was the shocking discovery that they were naked – followed swiftly by a chilling fear!
Where conscience is permitted to speak, the pain of conscience will be experienced in all its gradations, from almost imperceptible restlessness to peacelessness, fear, anxiety, horror, and wildest despair. Suicides bear witness to the fact that the pangs of conscience can become greater than even the dread of death itself. It is these terrible and unending pangs of conscience also which compel the criminal to make confession of crimes, which the police have not been able to solve. He prefers any kind of punishment to the torments of his conscience, which he feels he can no longer endure. As every psychiatrist knows, people in our mental institutions are there primarily because of guilt. People have wrestled with the guilt they cannot bear up under, until finally their minds snap, and forms of mental illness develop. Nothing contributes so much to a negative self-image than a deep feeling of guilt. We read about it in literature: After committing murder Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth exclaims: “Oh, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!” All of us have had enough experience with unresolved guilt-feelings of our own to know what they do to our self-image: We begin to despise ourselves, to feel utterly worthless, and are likely to plunge into a nightmare of despair. Guilt is a function of the conscience.
It was the pangs of conscience – guilt – that sent Adam fleeing from God, hiding from Him. He did not insolently confront God, but when he heard God’s voice in the Garden he hid from Him. Adam’s reaction was not one whit different from man’s response today. How quickly the small boy who has stolen the tarts hides when he hears his father’s voice, not only for fear of punishment, but from shame of his own condition and at disobeying a loved one. What a strange delusion of Adam’s, both then and today, to think that he could hide from God, as though the world were opaque to God! But in the throes of conscience-pangs he could not flee fast enough. “Adam, where are you?” With this word God calls Adam forth out of his conscience. God speaks to him, He stops him in his flight. “Come out of your hiding-place, from your self-reproach, your self-covering, your secrecy, your self-torment, from your vain remorse, do not lose yourself in despair.” God calls Adam forth out of his conscience and presents to him the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to reveal the Creator’s forgiveness and His power to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
Do not forget for one moment, dear ones, that God, omnipotent, omniscient, PLANNED ALL THIS. Adam was intended by God, ere the morning stars sang, and the sons of God shouted for joy, to take part in his own development unto perfection by a series of moral choices, with ensuing failure, sorrow, redemption, and discipline, whereby He would transform him FROM INNOCENCE INTO HOLINESS!
Where conscience is permitted to speak, the pain of conscience will be experienced in all its gradations, from almost imperceptible restlessness to peacelessness, fear, anxiety, horror, and wildest despair. Suicides bear witness to the fact that the pangs of conscience can become greater than even the dread of death itself. It is these terrible and unending pangs of conscience also which compel the criminal to make confession of crimes, which the police have not been able to solve. He prefers any kind of punishment to the torments of his conscience, which he feels he can no longer endure. As every psychiatrist knows, people in our mental institutions are there primarily because of guilt. People have wrestled with the guilt they cannot bear up under, until finally their minds snap, and forms of mental illness develop. Nothing contributes so much to a negative self-image than a deep feeling of guilt. We read about it in literature: After committing murder Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth exclaims: “Oh, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!” All of us have had enough experience with unresolved guilt-feelings of our own to know what they do to our self-image: We begin to despise ourselves, to feel utterly worthless, and are likely to plunge into a nightmare of despair. Guilt is a function of the conscience.
It was the pangs of conscience – guilt – that sent Adam fleeing from God, hiding from Him. He did not insolently confront God, but when he heard God’s voice in the Garden he hid from Him. Adam’s reaction was not one whit different from man’s response today. How quickly the small boy who has stolen the tarts hides when he hears his father’s voice, not only for fear of punishment, but from shame of his own condition and at disobeying a loved one. What a strange delusion of Adam’s, both then and today, to think that he could hide from God, as though the world were opaque to God! But in the throes of conscience-pangs he could not flee fast enough. “Adam, where are you?” With this word God calls Adam forth out of his conscience. God speaks to him, He stops him in his flight. “Come out of your hiding-place, from your self-reproach, your self-covering, your secrecy, your self-torment, from your vain remorse, do not lose yourself in despair.” God calls Adam forth out of his conscience and presents to him the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to reveal the Creator’s forgiveness and His power to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
Do not forget for one moment, dear ones, that God, omnipotent, omniscient, PLANNED ALL THIS. Adam was intended by God, ere the morning stars sang, and the sons of God shouted for joy, to take part in his own development unto perfection by a series of moral choices, with ensuing failure, sorrow, redemption, and discipline, whereby He would transform him FROM INNOCENCE INTO HOLINESS!
Thursday, August 3, 2017
God's School of Dominion - Part Two
I have some good news for you, my friends! As soon as you conquer the situation you are in right now, God has a bigger mess arranged for you! Oh, yes, this is God's School of Dominion, remember? In this School we learn to rule by RULING. So God places us in His great Workshop and gives us the required circumstances in which to rule! He is a great Teacher. Ultimately we shall rule over all things. And how shall we learn to rule over all things? Simple. By learning to rule over A-L-L T-H-I-N-G-S! Each adversary must be faced – and conquered. There is no other way! Jesus did not conquer temptation by cloistering Himself in a monastery, shut up from those things that could temp Him. Jesus conquered temptation by being tempted in all points like as we are and putting each one under His feet! He overcome satan by facing satan. He triumphed over death by grappling with it in the faith and power of God. In short, He subdued all things by SUBDUING ALL THINGS. Glory!
The journey to the throne of the universe begins in that small and undistinguished place where you are. It is impossible to over-emphasize this foundational and fundamental truth: The Kingdom is within you. It is here, Oh child of the Most High, that the magnificence of the all-encompassing, all-enduring, everlasting Kingdom of God has its beginning. God Almighty, full of wisdom, longsuffering, and faithfulness is preparing a people in the lowly estates of this present evil world who will reign with Christ in His throne, first from sea to sea, then from planet to planet, and finally from universe to universe. Make no mistake about it, my beloved ones! These present hours of preparation in the lowest parts of the earth are fraught with infinite importance and eternal significance. It is HERE AND NOW that preparations are to be made! The enchristed who are to reign in glory with Him are being prepared. Think not in your heart, my friend, that you may pass your life here, careless, indifferent to the purposes of God, suddenly to awake one fine morning to find yourself sitting with Christ governing the universe, because such a thing will not be.
As I have previously pointed out, this present time is but a proving ground for those who through grace will reign with their Lord over the endless vastnesses of infinity. He is raising us up to sit with Him in the higher than heavenlies. And the place which He is preparing for each one is not only a world to come, and a Kingdom of life and light, but a place IN HIM, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, Spirit of His Spirit, nature of His nature, life of HIS LIFE!
The journey to the throne of the universe begins in that small and undistinguished place where you are. It is impossible to over-emphasize this foundational and fundamental truth: The Kingdom is within you. It is here, Oh child of the Most High, that the magnificence of the all-encompassing, all-enduring, everlasting Kingdom of God has its beginning. God Almighty, full of wisdom, longsuffering, and faithfulness is preparing a people in the lowly estates of this present evil world who will reign with Christ in His throne, first from sea to sea, then from planet to planet, and finally from universe to universe. Make no mistake about it, my beloved ones! These present hours of preparation in the lowest parts of the earth are fraught with infinite importance and eternal significance. It is HERE AND NOW that preparations are to be made! The enchristed who are to reign in glory with Him are being prepared. Think not in your heart, my friend, that you may pass your life here, careless, indifferent to the purposes of God, suddenly to awake one fine morning to find yourself sitting with Christ governing the universe, because such a thing will not be.
As I have previously pointed out, this present time is but a proving ground for those who through grace will reign with their Lord over the endless vastnesses of infinity. He is raising us up to sit with Him in the higher than heavenlies. And the place which He is preparing for each one is not only a world to come, and a Kingdom of life and light, but a place IN HIM, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, Spirit of His Spirit, nature of His nature, life of HIS LIFE!
God's School of Dominion - Part One
Learn this and you will know a great truth: Christ is not depressed, upset, anxious, frustrated, nor defeated. And CHRIST IN YOU is not either! And YOU IN CHRIST are not either! This is the first step in overcoming: To rise up above the problem in the CHRIST SPIRIT until the problem is no longer a problem to you by virtue of the indwelling of His love and joy and peace.
Man's first instinct under pressure is to run, to extricate himself from the situation. When we run from the problem we immediately FLUNK THE TEST. When we fail to overcome "in" the problem, our nature in that area is left weak, undisciplined, and undeveloped. Oft time, so they can appear "spiritual," men divorce their wives, wives divorce their husbands, parents abandon their children, people move from place to place, from job to job, from church to church. Often people pray like this: "Lord, deliver me from this job where everyone is so filthy and the boss so hateful; give me a job with the Full Gospel Business Men where everyone is spiritual and praise God and speaks in tongues!" Ah, we seek an "environment" that is "conducive" to our "spirituality," little realizing that in that environment where all is so beautiful and harmonious we only appear to be spiritual because there is nothing to cross us, nothing hostile, in short NOTHING TO OVERCOME! You can run from the problem, my brother, you can seek an environment where nothing is adverse to you, my sister, you can even have faith where God will just "solve" all your problems and pour down the healings, prosperity, and blessing; yes, you can do all this and be a Christian, even a good Spirit-filled Christian; but I do not hesitate to tell you that you cannot do this and BECOME A RULER!
There are steps to the throne. Your next step to the throne is before you, right where you are, in your present situation, problems and life circumstances. All the pressures upon you will either rule you, dominating your mind, attitudes, emotions and actions, causing you to be depressed, frustrated, upset, negative etc., or you can utilize the OVERCOMING SPIRIT OF SONSHIP WITHIN to soar up above the problems, putting them under your feet, transformed into STEPPING-STONES TO THE THRONE! Ah, beloved, a blessed secret I have discovered: The things I once saw as liabilities in my walk in Christ I have now begun to recognize as assets – glorious opportunities to LEARN HOW TO RULE, blessed provisions of God by which I may appropriate the triumph of the life of the Son of God within.
You can never rule anything until you first overcome it within yourself. To "overcome" means TO COME UP OVER THAT WHICH IS OVER YOU. The term implies the existence of obstacles in the pathway of the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God. When, within yourself, you rise up above the circumstance, the problem, so that it no longer controls or harasses you, you are then ready to begin to control it, to no longer be the victim of circumstances, but the master of them. Come up over what the religious systems have fed you. Come up over your own pride and inherent weaknesses. Come up over your desire to build a reputation for your name. Come up over the myriad pressures from within and without. Come up over the world of confusion and turmoil about you. You are called to be an OVER-COMER. Come over that wall! Come over into the Kingdom of God and a realm of complete victory. If we cannot come out victoriously over ourselves and over the little temptations and frustrations here, how can the Lord trust us to reign over that which is without? What kind of warriors would we make? How much could He depend upon us? He will give us the place for which we are prepared and qualified; we must set our faces to be overcomers if we are to sit with Him upon His throne and reign with Him.
Man's first instinct under pressure is to run, to extricate himself from the situation. When we run from the problem we immediately FLUNK THE TEST. When we fail to overcome "in" the problem, our nature in that area is left weak, undisciplined, and undeveloped. Oft time, so they can appear "spiritual," men divorce their wives, wives divorce their husbands, parents abandon their children, people move from place to place, from job to job, from church to church. Often people pray like this: "Lord, deliver me from this job where everyone is so filthy and the boss so hateful; give me a job with the Full Gospel Business Men where everyone is spiritual and praise God and speaks in tongues!" Ah, we seek an "environment" that is "conducive" to our "spirituality," little realizing that in that environment where all is so beautiful and harmonious we only appear to be spiritual because there is nothing to cross us, nothing hostile, in short NOTHING TO OVERCOME! You can run from the problem, my brother, you can seek an environment where nothing is adverse to you, my sister, you can even have faith where God will just "solve" all your problems and pour down the healings, prosperity, and blessing; yes, you can do all this and be a Christian, even a good Spirit-filled Christian; but I do not hesitate to tell you that you cannot do this and BECOME A RULER!
There are steps to the throne. Your next step to the throne is before you, right where you are, in your present situation, problems and life circumstances. All the pressures upon you will either rule you, dominating your mind, attitudes, emotions and actions, causing you to be depressed, frustrated, upset, negative etc., or you can utilize the OVERCOMING SPIRIT OF SONSHIP WITHIN to soar up above the problems, putting them under your feet, transformed into STEPPING-STONES TO THE THRONE! Ah, beloved, a blessed secret I have discovered: The things I once saw as liabilities in my walk in Christ I have now begun to recognize as assets – glorious opportunities to LEARN HOW TO RULE, blessed provisions of God by which I may appropriate the triumph of the life of the Son of God within.
You can never rule anything until you first overcome it within yourself. To "overcome" means TO COME UP OVER THAT WHICH IS OVER YOU. The term implies the existence of obstacles in the pathway of the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God. When, within yourself, you rise up above the circumstance, the problem, so that it no longer controls or harasses you, you are then ready to begin to control it, to no longer be the victim of circumstances, but the master of them. Come up over what the religious systems have fed you. Come up over your own pride and inherent weaknesses. Come up over your desire to build a reputation for your name. Come up over the myriad pressures from within and without. Come up over the world of confusion and turmoil about you. You are called to be an OVER-COMER. Come over that wall! Come over into the Kingdom of God and a realm of complete victory. If we cannot come out victoriously over ourselves and over the little temptations and frustrations here, how can the Lord trust us to reign over that which is without? What kind of warriors would we make? How much could He depend upon us? He will give us the place for which we are prepared and qualified; we must set our faces to be overcomers if we are to sit with Him upon His throne and reign with Him.
Preparation for Rulership
How can a man rule universe if he cannot RULE HIS OWN SPIRIT? "He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city" (Prov. 16:32). A fit preface; for in a universe, or in a world, or in a man the work is the same; and, indeed, man is himself a world, a universe, with realms within him vast and abundant. Darkness and light, and a great deep, and earth and heaven and hell, and principalities and powers, thrones and dominions, as in him. Passions move him as the storms, volcanic fires rage or smoulder in him, wars are fought, battles rage, kingdoms rise and fall – ALL WITHIN MAN. That we might understand this world, this universe, which lies within man, God has written the same design on the giant canvas of the outer world. This is man's proving ground. When he has learned to rule his INNER WORLD, he then qualifies for ruling the OUTER WORLD. The man who conquers himself is the greatest conqueror of all. He has the key of power and has gained the mastery when he is rescued from himself. From thenceforth, no power or tie of earth can hold him. Self is the devil man has to be released from.
So God, omniscient and omnipotent, has established here upon a School for the training of those destined to be the future rulers of the universe. This School is known as "the body of Christ." None shall ever rule who have not graduated from this School! Consider this. A college graduation exercise, at which students receive diplomas for work accomplished, is called a Commencement. The reason for this is that the graduating students are not really graduating – they are only commencing to put their studies into practice. Their graduation is in reality a beginning rather than an ending and a commencement rather than a termination. Graduation from God’s School of Dominion ushers into the commencement of the great ministry of ruling and reigning with Christ. And what a great Teacher we have! The educators of this world have discovered some vital principles in teaching. They have learned, for instance, that a student remembers far more of what he sees than he does of what he hears. That which falls upon the eye leaves a greater impression upon the mind than does that which strikes the ear. Therefore, the increased emphasis today on visual education. But there is another principle greater yet which declares that a person retains more of what he learns from experience than he does of what he learns by the seeing of the eye. This great fact lies behind the old adage: EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER!
I cannot overestimate the extreme value of experience. How do we know, really know, any emotions of any sort whatever? Only by experience. You may talk forever about feelings, and you teach nothing about them to those who have not experienced them. The poets of the world have been singing about love ever since the world began. But no heart has learned what love is from even the sweetest and deepest refrains. Who that is not a father can be taught paternal love by words, or can come to a perception of it by any effort of the mind? And so with all other things. Only the lips that have drunk the cup of sweetness or of bitterness can tell how sweet or how bitter it is, and even when they, made wise by experience, speak out of their deepest hearts, the listeners are but little wiser, unless they too have been scholars in the same school. Experience is our only teacher in matters of feeling and emotion, as in the lower regions of taste and appetite. A man must be hungry to know what hunger is; he must taste honey or wormwood, and in like manner he cannot know sorrow but by feeling its ache, and must love if he would know love. Yes, experience is the best teacher, and her school-fees are heavy!
So God, omniscient and omnipotent, has established here upon a School for the training of those destined to be the future rulers of the universe. This School is known as "the body of Christ." None shall ever rule who have not graduated from this School! Consider this. A college graduation exercise, at which students receive diplomas for work accomplished, is called a Commencement. The reason for this is that the graduating students are not really graduating – they are only commencing to put their studies into practice. Their graduation is in reality a beginning rather than an ending and a commencement rather than a termination. Graduation from God’s School of Dominion ushers into the commencement of the great ministry of ruling and reigning with Christ. And what a great Teacher we have! The educators of this world have discovered some vital principles in teaching. They have learned, for instance, that a student remembers far more of what he sees than he does of what he hears. That which falls upon the eye leaves a greater impression upon the mind than does that which strikes the ear. Therefore, the increased emphasis today on visual education. But there is another principle greater yet which declares that a person retains more of what he learns from experience than he does of what he learns by the seeing of the eye. This great fact lies behind the old adage: EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER!
I cannot overestimate the extreme value of experience. How do we know, really know, any emotions of any sort whatever? Only by experience. You may talk forever about feelings, and you teach nothing about them to those who have not experienced them. The poets of the world have been singing about love ever since the world began. But no heart has learned what love is from even the sweetest and deepest refrains. Who that is not a father can be taught paternal love by words, or can come to a perception of it by any effort of the mind? And so with all other things. Only the lips that have drunk the cup of sweetness or of bitterness can tell how sweet or how bitter it is, and even when they, made wise by experience, speak out of their deepest hearts, the listeners are but little wiser, unless they too have been scholars in the same school. Experience is our only teacher in matters of feeling and emotion, as in the lower regions of taste and appetite. A man must be hungry to know what hunger is; he must taste honey or wormwood, and in like manner he cannot know sorrow but by feeling its ache, and must love if he would know love. Yes, experience is the best teacher, and her school-fees are heavy!
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)