It seems to me, that to be seriously devoted to a person one must become well acquainted with them! Speaking for myself; I now realize I went 36 years with only a superficial acquaintanceship with the Saviour of my spirit, my life, Jesus Christ. This my friends is to my great shame. I am responsible for my own self awareness, and the need to show my devotion to the one in Whom I live my Christian life. The gift of my former humble condition thru lack of knowledge however is, it brought me to a place of great need, which made me pliable for the potter in shaping me into a growing image of His Son. The gift of need-fullness was given, to obtain a true devotion to Him.
Please bear with me my friends as I repeat the story of the One in Whom our devotedness is to be centered, so we may become better acquainted with Him: Long ago in a beautiful place called earth a man was created by the living God of the universe. His name would become known as Adam, which means man in Hebrew. Adam was made Innocent free to openly communicate with his Creator, no question asked and no explanation needed! Then he, by his own volition, became self aware, and thereby self centered turning away from intimacy with His Creator, a rejection; which according to the Creators perfect will and ability to accept, was a impossibility; we call Adams turning to himself for answers, sin nature. Since this first man was by Gods command and intent the representative of all of mankind who would follow, and in whom would be found the same capacity for sin, mankind became doomed to suffering the death of their God consciousness; what we now know as eternal spiritual death. This, mans choice, also placed man under spiritual judgement, as God is perfect, sin could in no way enter into His presence. The result, a sentence must be carried out, which was death, both physical and spiritual, in other words the results of mans actions must result in the consequence, i.e. death! But God loved His creation beyond measure and purposed in His sovereign will to carry out His perfect justice in a way to afford a new life for man, therefore by His mercy He took on mans death sentence in a Representative, Substitution form Himself and was fully satisfied, by His own sovereign design, accomplishing mans redemption by that act! As we all know, He entered the world as a perfect sin free incarnation, a God-man, lived the life of a man, suffered and died on the Cross for us, unto our sin nature. Thereby fulfilling Gods Judaical right and accomplishing a open door to salvation, or redemption for all of mankind; which if this act were received by belief in the incarnated Son Jesus Christ and by that belief one received the gift of faith that Christ was indeed the Saviour of him, man would regain his original innocence and a present eternal fellowship in the view and economy [His sovereign will in fellowship] of God. This all was accomplished in the Household of God by Him in His Sons act, creating for us in His Son a new spirit in His Son, by God's design, to replace the old which was now judged dead; which we can now partake of in newness by a representation in the federal sense, by faith in The person of Jesus Christ, who again by God's design is all that we will or can become, our life. He ascended into heaven and in spiritual representation, we became a new creation, or us in God's mind seen in the presence before Him in His Son. The old being now by Representation completely dead, shown by His Son's death in the flesh, and we now also are proved recreated new spiritual men and women, by His Son's Resurrection, in that same Representative form. We, here and now, by faith only, which is the only way we can please God, are as He is in The Fathers eye's in Heaven, and we may know that by His Gift of His Holy Spirit reveling our new creation in the object, Jesus Christ, who ever lives in us [our mind of faith] to proclaim Himself. A faith based position, occupied only by faith, established in The Son. Never reveled by a work, action or feeling!
"Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us...sanctification" 1 Cor. 1:30. Embracing the Christian life in true devotion is nothing short of us fully being immersed, in the life of the Lord Jesus. His life reproduced in us by faith; sanctification here being seen as the fruit of holiness in His Son separating us in spirit and forming us in spirit in and by The Son. I often wonder how many in the pews have any concept of this total truth? I know I did not, through 36 years of Christian struggle. A example of this hit home when a friend of mine was reading me the biography of his classmate of a very highly acknowledged fundamentalist bible college, submitted by the former students on the occasion of their 50 year class reunion. These men and women came from the cream of the christian crop, children of pastors, missionaries and highly committed traditional christian family's. Sadly, by their own words, many of them, had not only left the faith of Christianity they denied it true, renounced it as judgmental, cruel, confining. They had embraced the world philosophy turning in there once enthusiastic traditional fundamental stand for good works and wealth. By this example I can only assume they were never saved at all, never truly believed; but of course God will be the judge of that. I again wonder how many reading this, and siting in my church will one day stand before God in denial of devotion, never having formed a concept of their personal presence in Christ, because they were kept busy by works and remained placated in contemporary comfort, satisfied with their own natural humanistic approach to the truth.
To be seriously devoted, for me, brings a most profound hope and joy, which I pray might be found by all my Christian friends. How can one partake of and enjoy this gift from The Father? First I believe rest must be entered into. This really is faith in all that God has accomplished in His Son. This would not be merely looking to receive from Him, for then I would be my own self-centered object of interest; but finding that He sees me as His object is primary; In other words seeing that He has made me His, and that He has made Himself my life! This would be a devotedness from intimacy, not to obtain intimacy. I am afraid that much of my Christian life was spent in seeking good results, affirmation of works, and praying for help, and not in the approving presences of Christ as my life; Him as my position found in devotion. By striving to seek to enter service with a mindset of Him exclusively as the object I may find His mind and thoughts for me.
If we learn to rest in the reality that it is The Father through His Son, who entirely controls the outcome of our life, it will open the way to find the devoted heart He desires of us, and His will for us will be brought to light. Our personal devotedness must come first and then His direction in service will follow, and then we may satisfy His thought in His heart for us. In the beginning of this blog I stressed becoming acquainted with the object of our devotion. In applying this to the Living God of salvation who died in the flesh so that we could be, upon belief, a immediate citizen of Heaven and in Whom your life is hidden; this would call for our hearts to be exclusively occupied with Him, therefore a requirement is to know Him, Who He is, and our position and identification in Him, nothing less will do if we wish to be seriously devoted to the one in whom we dwell.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Saturday, October 19, 2013
THE STANDARD UPON WHICH WE STAND
One's standards are based on principals to which one is committed, and determines one's capacity to understand and assimilate knowledge which thereby give significance to ones actions. One's answers to questions asked are limited to preconceptions of the questioner, marked by his standards. The concepts we hold which are influenced by our personal standards will limit, or expand, our ability to process information to a logical and fact based conclusion.
Taking on the Mind of Christ as a standard is not just conforming to a pattern of behavior. Taking on the Mind of Christ is not merely a set of beliefs. It is revelation and enlightenment, attunement to God. It is seeing God, as God actively present in our mind and at work in all circumstances. Taking on the Heart of Jesus Christ is not simply a matter of conscious conviction; it is experiencing and responding to the world and our human nature with a faith that we are included in all that is the Son Himself. We thereby partake of God's will for us and enter into the spirit centered self, the economy of God. By this incite we will gain entrance to a solid standard upon which to stand.
Today in church we had a guest speaker a likable man known well to the community. His message was one of restoration. He spoke of the need for believers to take action, and thereby receive what God had ready to give in the way of recovery from our ills. His primary overt method of getting the message to his audience was a sort of cheer leading; having the flock repeat out loud affirmative mantras. Then we were encouraged to be positive in having received, while going on our way. Most encouraging for the moment. Afterward I wondered how many of those troubled souls would still have anything to hold onto in a hour after this feel good well meaning performance? There was no mention of how one might receive a specific biblical incite to insure victory and receive revelation of God's Word; which is necessary to stand on a platform which would supply a solid standard for the faith needed to have a lasting recovery, to triumph over the human condition. This kind of approach, is in my view, a institutional inherent weakness built into much of contemporary christian culture.
Well then you may ask: What is it specifically that will give us a standard of understanding which will honor what God has given to us in His Son? My fellow seekers, the answer is found very clearly in His Word. "If therefore you have been raised with Christ, seek the thing which are above" Col.3:2. For now lets just think of being raised with Christ, as our born again experience. If we are to by God's command, seek that which is above, He must mean heaven, where Jesus is; this standard if held, will be indicated by our acts, and the occupation of our heart, and that by a knowledge of truth. Evidently it is not here, or by the worlds natural standards, even; "so called good ones" we will find our place of relief, nor by a church which encourages us to by our own feelings and power to grab by our own bootstraps a self effort determination of accomplishment. The Lord is not here, He passed into Glory touched by our weakness, He knew of our infirmities, He was a man, but without sin. This, His condition, gave Him the power to supply from Himself the grace we need to set a new standard of a life here in our body which enables us to walk as He walked, not in duty or religious works or mere feelings, but one with The Father and that by His Holy Spirit. In other words by us in realization of so great a work we may be transformed into His image. For a Christian to act down here with the mind of Christ he must come to a place of great need, and then form a desire to engage in Him above, this will open the door to our souls rejection of defining our self by a natural standard. All will be determined by the direction we allow our heart to take. The robber of our godly standard is the ignorance of biblical facts and our choosing to remain clouded by a institution which often obscures the truth out of their own opaque understanding or even worse by providing a selfish worldly church experience, however well meaning, so that the weak flock will remain in donation mode on their comfortable nests.
I think a problem, and hence the unfortunate lack of understanding by the church, is the assumption that most in attendance at services are members of the Organic Body of Christ. This may or may not be true; God knows! In my observance the overseeing powers have simply designed a system whose primary goal is to make all the audience comfortable and happy more our less aping the world and falling into a pattern or ritualized presentation where most will not be offended, this is marketing 101, and yes I know there are exception, thank God! There is no presentation of the need for conviction of our sin nature, no encounter with the heavenly nature of the believer, no challenge to discover identification of ourselves in Christ death, and no positional teaching leading to a challenge to live or find a deeper existence in the Body of Christ. Yes they might teach some biblical truths and even offer some challenge to the seekers present, but I have yet to encounter a mainline church which teaches the fundamental need to understand that the standard of the believer is to know by biblical revelation of his very presence in the Holy Son of God and by this understanding be called to a radical unworldly self perception, which is made ardently clear simply by reading the Word of God, and then believing what it says!
The concept which has invaded my heart these past two years, is the transitive property of Christ in us; which was never taught in all my active 38 years of Church attendance. Oh yes I was told Jesus was a friend next to me, even in me, but the biblical revelation of that truth was not hammered into my souls understanding by a substantial positional teaching that we were to count ourselves as dead, and understand what that meant, and alive in Christ understanding myself as a new creation in Him with all of my mind and souls personality. I never was challenged to gain a concept of the truth that God's entrance into humanity gave me power to be a completely new man and the old Adam is entirely dead in the economy of my God and Father, and in that I was completely spiritually free from the world, in it but NOT of it, and knew the difference!
Just what does the new man look like? What is the standard that God has commanded by His perfect will? Mr Stoney had much to say on the subject. I will use his inspirational writing to make the following commentary: "Consistency is being true to a given standard". It seems however the lower standard is often taught and preferred, making the law, performance, religious duty, feelings, accomplishments, the rule of christian life. Admittedly this procedure will show a obvious and consistent pattern and make a more reverend appearance than one who chooses to make Christ in their life everything, a humble lowly approach. We must remember that the law of performance addresses the man in the flesh; Whereas the Lord is only know by His own Spirit. If we mark our standard by works etc. we cultivate the old and the dead. But if we count ourselves as dead truly, by seeing and defining our life as in Christ we will fulfill the Bibles mandate to "Walk in the Spirit, and then you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" Gal. 5:16.
The difference in these two standards is vastly different as to effect and demand. In the first we are required to exalt men to a power or divine elevation. In the second we must see ourselves as dead men and accept another as our life-- Christ Jesus, bless His name forever! The difference is immeasurable! On the surface the one who shows his works is seen and respected by the world and the church and seems to be the most consistent in his standard. Whereas the one who has set aside his Adam-life, in respect to his self conscious understanding, walking outside of his flesh, in the Spirit of Christ will go unnoticed. He is a heavenly man, not of this world. There is no doubt the second man surpasses the former when he is consistent with his standard, but this can only be in proportion as he is held in the power which transfers him from his old nature into Christ. He has no place to fall back to, as the man of performance, and hence would appear worse off in that event, because the man in Christ must live outside himself; where as the other finds a safety net in the law, church attendance, programs and traditions etc. as he is living for and in himself.
It is plane to see, if we wish to make our self appear with a observable purpose we will study to exhibit a pleasing appearance. The whole legal church religious system has been set up from the beginning to honor the carnal, first Adam. But if we seek to live in the Lord Jesus Christ which is the new system set up in His Blood, as our life, we might not appear as pristine, and if we fall from so great a elevation as a heavenly life we will be far worse off than the man who is comfortable with his patterns and self centered platform. The new nature is a infinitely higher calling and requires a diligence as to being positioned in Christ and a deep inward humble self assessment. The example being the lowly position Jesus took upon Himself, in coming to save us.
To quote Mr Stoney directly sums up the battle for a standard, which will please God and honor our Christian commitment, not to mention if his advise is followed will provide exceeding joy and freedom in its message: "The man who cultivates himself obtains commendation from men in a measure that the one who cultivates life in the Lord Jesus Christ will never receive or elicit. The one cultivate what exults man, and therefore what suits man; the other, that which ignores man and which rises above him. We must not forget that, that which is highly esteemed among men is a abomination in the sight of God". My friends it only remains for us to choose the standard upon which we will stand before the living God!
Taking on the Mind of Christ as a standard is not just conforming to a pattern of behavior. Taking on the Mind of Christ is not merely a set of beliefs. It is revelation and enlightenment, attunement to God. It is seeing God, as God actively present in our mind and at work in all circumstances. Taking on the Heart of Jesus Christ is not simply a matter of conscious conviction; it is experiencing and responding to the world and our human nature with a faith that we are included in all that is the Son Himself. We thereby partake of God's will for us and enter into the spirit centered self, the economy of God. By this incite we will gain entrance to a solid standard upon which to stand.
Today in church we had a guest speaker a likable man known well to the community. His message was one of restoration. He spoke of the need for believers to take action, and thereby receive what God had ready to give in the way of recovery from our ills. His primary overt method of getting the message to his audience was a sort of cheer leading; having the flock repeat out loud affirmative mantras. Then we were encouraged to be positive in having received, while going on our way. Most encouraging for the moment. Afterward I wondered how many of those troubled souls would still have anything to hold onto in a hour after this feel good well meaning performance? There was no mention of how one might receive a specific biblical incite to insure victory and receive revelation of God's Word; which is necessary to stand on a platform which would supply a solid standard for the faith needed to have a lasting recovery, to triumph over the human condition. This kind of approach, is in my view, a institutional inherent weakness built into much of contemporary christian culture.
Well then you may ask: What is it specifically that will give us a standard of understanding which will honor what God has given to us in His Son? My fellow seekers, the answer is found very clearly in His Word. "If therefore you have been raised with Christ, seek the thing which are above" Col.3:2. For now lets just think of being raised with Christ, as our born again experience. If we are to by God's command, seek that which is above, He must mean heaven, where Jesus is; this standard if held, will be indicated by our acts, and the occupation of our heart, and that by a knowledge of truth. Evidently it is not here, or by the worlds natural standards, even; "so called good ones" we will find our place of relief, nor by a church which encourages us to by our own feelings and power to grab by our own bootstraps a self effort determination of accomplishment. The Lord is not here, He passed into Glory touched by our weakness, He knew of our infirmities, He was a man, but without sin. This, His condition, gave Him the power to supply from Himself the grace we need to set a new standard of a life here in our body which enables us to walk as He walked, not in duty or religious works or mere feelings, but one with The Father and that by His Holy Spirit. In other words by us in realization of so great a work we may be transformed into His image. For a Christian to act down here with the mind of Christ he must come to a place of great need, and then form a desire to engage in Him above, this will open the door to our souls rejection of defining our self by a natural standard. All will be determined by the direction we allow our heart to take. The robber of our godly standard is the ignorance of biblical facts and our choosing to remain clouded by a institution which often obscures the truth out of their own opaque understanding or even worse by providing a selfish worldly church experience, however well meaning, so that the weak flock will remain in donation mode on their comfortable nests.
I think a problem, and hence the unfortunate lack of understanding by the church, is the assumption that most in attendance at services are members of the Organic Body of Christ. This may or may not be true; God knows! In my observance the overseeing powers have simply designed a system whose primary goal is to make all the audience comfortable and happy more our less aping the world and falling into a pattern or ritualized presentation where most will not be offended, this is marketing 101, and yes I know there are exception, thank God! There is no presentation of the need for conviction of our sin nature, no encounter with the heavenly nature of the believer, no challenge to discover identification of ourselves in Christ death, and no positional teaching leading to a challenge to live or find a deeper existence in the Body of Christ. Yes they might teach some biblical truths and even offer some challenge to the seekers present, but I have yet to encounter a mainline church which teaches the fundamental need to understand that the standard of the believer is to know by biblical revelation of his very presence in the Holy Son of God and by this understanding be called to a radical unworldly self perception, which is made ardently clear simply by reading the Word of God, and then believing what it says!
The concept which has invaded my heart these past two years, is the transitive property of Christ in us; which was never taught in all my active 38 years of Church attendance. Oh yes I was told Jesus was a friend next to me, even in me, but the biblical revelation of that truth was not hammered into my souls understanding by a substantial positional teaching that we were to count ourselves as dead, and understand what that meant, and alive in Christ understanding myself as a new creation in Him with all of my mind and souls personality. I never was challenged to gain a concept of the truth that God's entrance into humanity gave me power to be a completely new man and the old Adam is entirely dead in the economy of my God and Father, and in that I was completely spiritually free from the world, in it but NOT of it, and knew the difference!
Just what does the new man look like? What is the standard that God has commanded by His perfect will? Mr Stoney had much to say on the subject. I will use his inspirational writing to make the following commentary: "Consistency is being true to a given standard". It seems however the lower standard is often taught and preferred, making the law, performance, religious duty, feelings, accomplishments, the rule of christian life. Admittedly this procedure will show a obvious and consistent pattern and make a more reverend appearance than one who chooses to make Christ in their life everything, a humble lowly approach. We must remember that the law of performance addresses the man in the flesh; Whereas the Lord is only know by His own Spirit. If we mark our standard by works etc. we cultivate the old and the dead. But if we count ourselves as dead truly, by seeing and defining our life as in Christ we will fulfill the Bibles mandate to "Walk in the Spirit, and then you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" Gal. 5:16.
The difference in these two standards is vastly different as to effect and demand. In the first we are required to exalt men to a power or divine elevation. In the second we must see ourselves as dead men and accept another as our life-- Christ Jesus, bless His name forever! The difference is immeasurable! On the surface the one who shows his works is seen and respected by the world and the church and seems to be the most consistent in his standard. Whereas the one who has set aside his Adam-life, in respect to his self conscious understanding, walking outside of his flesh, in the Spirit of Christ will go unnoticed. He is a heavenly man, not of this world. There is no doubt the second man surpasses the former when he is consistent with his standard, but this can only be in proportion as he is held in the power which transfers him from his old nature into Christ. He has no place to fall back to, as the man of performance, and hence would appear worse off in that event, because the man in Christ must live outside himself; where as the other finds a safety net in the law, church attendance, programs and traditions etc. as he is living for and in himself.
It is plane to see, if we wish to make our self appear with a observable purpose we will study to exhibit a pleasing appearance. The whole legal church religious system has been set up from the beginning to honor the carnal, first Adam. But if we seek to live in the Lord Jesus Christ which is the new system set up in His Blood, as our life, we might not appear as pristine, and if we fall from so great a elevation as a heavenly life we will be far worse off than the man who is comfortable with his patterns and self centered platform. The new nature is a infinitely higher calling and requires a diligence as to being positioned in Christ and a deep inward humble self assessment. The example being the lowly position Jesus took upon Himself, in coming to save us.
To quote Mr Stoney directly sums up the battle for a standard, which will please God and honor our Christian commitment, not to mention if his advise is followed will provide exceeding joy and freedom in its message: "The man who cultivates himself obtains commendation from men in a measure that the one who cultivates life in the Lord Jesus Christ will never receive or elicit. The one cultivate what exults man, and therefore what suits man; the other, that which ignores man and which rises above him. We must not forget that, that which is highly esteemed among men is a abomination in the sight of God". My friends it only remains for us to choose the standard upon which we will stand before the living God!
Saturday, October 12, 2013
MYSTERY BOLDNESS AND FAITH
The worldly costume I wore did not satisfy, and no amount of aping around inside it would do, and besides from behind the mask I could not see my way with clarity; for the suit I wore was cumbersome and confining. I needed to shed these old clothes to release the new man inside. After suffering much anguish I learned that my freedom would be reveled by a mystery, which required an answer for release from the costume in which I was captured. Solving this mystery required my taking a bold step and thereby donning a new uniform clothed in faith.
I am very grateful to Mr William Newell for his inspiration on this subject, he is a most valuable assistant to have on this Sherlock mission I have been on, and I hope you will use his magnifying glass of Romans Verse by verse to give you glues along the way also, it was a great help to me, on the trail of the truth, where there was a revelation, of a mystery. First I discovered that The Father had a sovereign purpose in the sharing of something never before reveled, and that was His own Glory and wisdom in fullness. Think of this, all the heavenly creation had never known The Father's hidden plan which he chose to accomplish by His Son, in the Church Body and then to unveil this mystery in Love to His Children. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" Eph. 3:10. In other words His mystery would be show to all creation by His accomplishment in us, the Body of Christ. And "now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel [that is Paul's special revelation to us], and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began" Rom. 16:25. There is a good hint in this verse, we are established according to the revelation of the mystery. Lets get out our pipe and lens put on our Sherlock hat and find more glues.
It was the Fathers Mercy in Love which prompted this newly manifested part of His being. "But God rich in His mercy, because of His Great Love with which He loves us" Eph. 2:5. Mercy here must first be considered. If we need mercy it is because we were in a most pitiful situation.Yes God Loved us, He showed that in selecting us for salvation, but we needed mercy first. In the fall we became dead in our offense's and sins, and this is our body and nature by the first Adam's representation, our inheritance, and we all still have in our human nature, that Adam personality. Hence the need for continued mercy, just as His Love is on going; shown by God in taking us from a wretched condition and placing us in a new position acceptable to Him which He eternally holds us in, in His Resurrected Son. But it is the full realization of that Divine position that will make the on going Mercy and Love experiential for us and the mystery reveled.
I have always felt that John 17 was perhaps the most significant chapter of the bible in opening the door of the mystery, as it is a prayer of Jesus to His Father for us, and therefore will be answered! As I read it the veil begins to be lifted on my inheritance found in The second Adam, as a Christian. I learned four things of great importance. [1] We are to be kept in the Fathers name from the evil one. [2] We are to be sanctified as not of the world, by truth and by identification with Christ " for their sakes I sanctify myself". It was His death on the cross unto our human flesh nature, and unto our sin. [3]That we may be one, a union which embodies the mystery, as He prayed " father, you in me and I in You, that they may be one in us". [4]That we may be with Him forever, where he is, a eternal position, which starts in this body in this place we live now. His prayer was for the Apostles, as well as us, and they of course were on the earth. He then said "the glory which you have given Me I have given them".This my friends is the foundation of the reveled mystery. That we Christians have entered into a glory, a identification, a position in the very God of creation never before shown to any of His heavenly host! I hope you will soon go to the Word and slowly read His prayer and then contemplate the place you hold in heaven by its answer, by the Father, in us the body of Christ.
The answer to the mystery is based on solid facts with a chain of evidence stretching from the beginning to the end of the bible! Therefore as a good detective I followed the trail, which led to the eventual solving of the mystery. I learned that we the Church are a heavenly people, a company who to the awe of the heavenly creation would enter into glory and be glorified by a glorious Man we are seated there in spirit with Him. We are so identified with His Son in that glorious place that we are considered and loved and accepted just like Him by The Father. By that God showed that we were foreordained to be "conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the First-born among many brethren". The many brethren is the church, us Christians, and if He was the first to be born and we are His brethren then we must be like Him, in the view of the Father. What a blessing to realize! Also I found we have been made alive in Him, for we were once dead in our sin. We sit together with Him in heaven in spirit by faith-thus passing out of our earthly connection, and becoming citizens of heaven. The very riches of the glory of Christ dwells in our hearts [read soul/personalty] by the Holy Spirit in our minds! And that we function as a reflection in a mirror, in which we behold the glory of The Lord and are thus transformed into His image here and now on the planet we dwell, set aside, body, soul and spirit for that purpose! All this could not be accomplished by works or feelings but by faith in the scriptural reality and fact.
Well my fellow sleuths; we have gathered the evidence, we have shown our case to be solid, now we must present it to be judged. This requires a boldness, the world, the jury panel, they are watching us closely and it is our faith which will prove to them we stand on solid ground. How then do we prepare to face their probing gaze?
The facts are all gathered, and the truth can only lead to one conclusion. We the Church are bound up in The Man in Heaven Jesus Christ, where God has placed us spiritually. This is God's sovereign desire, that we be placed into the Body of Christ or as repeated over 150 times in the Word, in Christ. This is a supernatural uniting of the believer with the glorified Christ and His Body. We are wholly identified with the Lord Jesus. When your whole understanding of who you are as a Christian revolves around this fact it will be life-transforming, as the Word says; "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" Phil,3:12. And as Stoney says: "To know our position in the Lord Jesus is necessary so that we may understand His ways and rest in His means". First we believe and are justified, a most wonderful thing. Then we must make His acquaintance. We must see Him in Heaven and know of our association with Him there. Then we can see the mystery of being joined with His Body, and by that rejoice in the knowledge of Himself. Eternal life is received by the result of the Cross, a victorious incorruptible, indestructible life. But the believer has to come by faith to prove it, to live by it, to learn its principals and then be conformed to the position where he has been placed by the Father. The course of our spiritual experience is to grow in all that is represented by The Lord in the identification and position we hold. Stoney said it like this: "Truth is received in the mind,[spirit] assimilated in the heart,[soul/personality] and manifested in the walk". So my friends lets go forward with boldness, the mystery is solved and our faith will insure victory before the judge and jury.
I am very grateful to Mr William Newell for his inspiration on this subject, he is a most valuable assistant to have on this Sherlock mission I have been on, and I hope you will use his magnifying glass of Romans Verse by verse to give you glues along the way also, it was a great help to me, on the trail of the truth, where there was a revelation, of a mystery. First I discovered that The Father had a sovereign purpose in the sharing of something never before reveled, and that was His own Glory and wisdom in fullness. Think of this, all the heavenly creation had never known The Father's hidden plan which he chose to accomplish by His Son, in the Church Body and then to unveil this mystery in Love to His Children. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" Eph. 3:10. In other words His mystery would be show to all creation by His accomplishment in us, the Body of Christ. And "now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel [that is Paul's special revelation to us], and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began" Rom. 16:25. There is a good hint in this verse, we are established according to the revelation of the mystery. Lets get out our pipe and lens put on our Sherlock hat and find more glues.
It was the Fathers Mercy in Love which prompted this newly manifested part of His being. "But God rich in His mercy, because of His Great Love with which He loves us" Eph. 2:5. Mercy here must first be considered. If we need mercy it is because we were in a most pitiful situation.Yes God Loved us, He showed that in selecting us for salvation, but we needed mercy first. In the fall we became dead in our offense's and sins, and this is our body and nature by the first Adam's representation, our inheritance, and we all still have in our human nature, that Adam personality. Hence the need for continued mercy, just as His Love is on going; shown by God in taking us from a wretched condition and placing us in a new position acceptable to Him which He eternally holds us in, in His Resurrected Son. But it is the full realization of that Divine position that will make the on going Mercy and Love experiential for us and the mystery reveled.
I have always felt that John 17 was perhaps the most significant chapter of the bible in opening the door of the mystery, as it is a prayer of Jesus to His Father for us, and therefore will be answered! As I read it the veil begins to be lifted on my inheritance found in The second Adam, as a Christian. I learned four things of great importance. [1] We are to be kept in the Fathers name from the evil one. [2] We are to be sanctified as not of the world, by truth and by identification with Christ " for their sakes I sanctify myself". It was His death on the cross unto our human flesh nature, and unto our sin. [3]That we may be one, a union which embodies the mystery, as He prayed " father, you in me and I in You, that they may be one in us". [4]That we may be with Him forever, where he is, a eternal position, which starts in this body in this place we live now. His prayer was for the Apostles, as well as us, and they of course were on the earth. He then said "the glory which you have given Me I have given them".This my friends is the foundation of the reveled mystery. That we Christians have entered into a glory, a identification, a position in the very God of creation never before shown to any of His heavenly host! I hope you will soon go to the Word and slowly read His prayer and then contemplate the place you hold in heaven by its answer, by the Father, in us the body of Christ.
The answer to the mystery is based on solid facts with a chain of evidence stretching from the beginning to the end of the bible! Therefore as a good detective I followed the trail, which led to the eventual solving of the mystery. I learned that we the Church are a heavenly people, a company who to the awe of the heavenly creation would enter into glory and be glorified by a glorious Man we are seated there in spirit with Him. We are so identified with His Son in that glorious place that we are considered and loved and accepted just like Him by The Father. By that God showed that we were foreordained to be "conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the First-born among many brethren". The many brethren is the church, us Christians, and if He was the first to be born and we are His brethren then we must be like Him, in the view of the Father. What a blessing to realize! Also I found we have been made alive in Him, for we were once dead in our sin. We sit together with Him in heaven in spirit by faith-thus passing out of our earthly connection, and becoming citizens of heaven. The very riches of the glory of Christ dwells in our hearts [read soul/personalty] by the Holy Spirit in our minds! And that we function as a reflection in a mirror, in which we behold the glory of The Lord and are thus transformed into His image here and now on the planet we dwell, set aside, body, soul and spirit for that purpose! All this could not be accomplished by works or feelings but by faith in the scriptural reality and fact.
Well my fellow sleuths; we have gathered the evidence, we have shown our case to be solid, now we must present it to be judged. This requires a boldness, the world, the jury panel, they are watching us closely and it is our faith which will prove to them we stand on solid ground. How then do we prepare to face their probing gaze?
The facts are all gathered, and the truth can only lead to one conclusion. We the Church are bound up in The Man in Heaven Jesus Christ, where God has placed us spiritually. This is God's sovereign desire, that we be placed into the Body of Christ or as repeated over 150 times in the Word, in Christ. This is a supernatural uniting of the believer with the glorified Christ and His Body. We are wholly identified with the Lord Jesus. When your whole understanding of who you are as a Christian revolves around this fact it will be life-transforming, as the Word says; "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" Phil,3:12. And as Stoney says: "To know our position in the Lord Jesus is necessary so that we may understand His ways and rest in His means". First we believe and are justified, a most wonderful thing. Then we must make His acquaintance. We must see Him in Heaven and know of our association with Him there. Then we can see the mystery of being joined with His Body, and by that rejoice in the knowledge of Himself. Eternal life is received by the result of the Cross, a victorious incorruptible, indestructible life. But the believer has to come by faith to prove it, to live by it, to learn its principals and then be conformed to the position where he has been placed by the Father. The course of our spiritual experience is to grow in all that is represented by The Lord in the identification and position we hold. Stoney said it like this: "Truth is received in the mind,[spirit] assimilated in the heart,[soul/personality] and manifested in the walk". So my friends lets go forward with boldness, the mystery is solved and our faith will insure victory before the judge and jury.
Saturday, October 5, 2013
SIN BLOOD AND DEATH
Lately I've become very excited by the direction my blog is taking me. My writing has allowed a entrance to the person I always secretly wished to be, namely a rebel an adventure a risk taker, but was constrained by my own self centered prison, held in by a weakness inherent in my natural man, captured by my own natural demons and sin, with which I had become comfortable sharing my spiritual space; only to remain voluntarily captured. Thank you Lord for giving me a frustration, followed by a great need to break away from a carnal Christianity! And, thank you, my blog victims, for your most kind and tolerant attention in my venting this to you and sticking with me. I am realizing that we live in a age where knowledge has become trivia, and one can say almost anything and get a approving audience. In this modern world our lives are like trash cans, filled with information to overflowing, and therefore knowledge has been marginalized. I now see that to really be a Christian things must be said and thought that carry coast, the radical path. The soothing contemporary journey will no longer satisfy. My life must now be conducted in a manner where a price is expected to be paid and a loss of a worldly manner is cast aside. Millions have died in proclaiming their faith in Christ, so whats a little risk and maybe some humiliation to me. His is a Gospel of the non-natural if looked upon in its profound depth, in what it calls us to be. A worldly well informed comfortable contemporary flock has been victimized by a cheap grace so easily available in our environment of ease and feel good christian culture. Well one mans radical is an others hero. So my friends lets take a great adventure down the highway of sin, blood and death and see where it leads. Perhaps we will discover a hero along the way!
Sin must be dealt with this we know for the bible tells us so! We all know, are at least should, that we were justified by Jesus death on the cross. Most of modern Christianity simply rests in comfort there. This position we were placed in was accomplished entirely by someone else; like if your classmate in college did your term paper, you got an A and then your degree, well you have the diploma, but the true credit lies elsewhere. The gift we received in this justification is reconciliation, which brings us back to the place God desires man to live, in spiritual innocence with Him in His Glory. Even though this all was accomplished and is a done deal we still carry the sense of sin, and the church has done a mighty fine job of soothing this feeling. The problem with feelings they go away then we are again left locked in a room with a sinner. Is this a revolving door the Christian must continually go around and around in? The whole trouble, in my observation is,we are encouraged by christian culture and our worldly nature to try to sense the gift of salvation. Much of the problem I believe is in that we are reckoning [counting it true] with out knowing it. Knowledge must come before any truth can be relied upon. Reckoning must be recognized by a divinely reveled fact; if not faith has no Strong foundation upon which to stand. Knowing the purpose of the blood of Christ shed for you, will help to hold up and expand the platform of justification on which we rest.
"But with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ" 1 Peter 19. Just prior to this statement Peter talks of the redemption the Christian Jews received from a vain way of life [church tradition] handed down from their fathers. This vain manner of life also applies to us, yes we were relieved by the blood of Christ, but as the ancient Christian Jew was we are prone to return to vanity despite salvation and the presence of the Holy Spirit; so we are weak in that area also, even though we have been called now by so much more available knowledge, to a holy life. Now what do we do? I have heard in church for years the term washed in the blood, and we even drink it symbolically at the Lords Table, so understanding just how this image can be applied to our growth must be important to the Father; as He has so strongly indicated in His Word. So how are we to see our Saviours blood washing over us, and then grow from this knowledge?
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the alter to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul" Lev. 17:11. Life then is in the blood, this is the symbol, and physical reality God choose to use to convey the importance of its value in atoning for our sins. It's interesting to note the above verse refers to the soul, mans personality or his self conscious which will be relieved from quilt by this atonement. The people first introduced to Christianity knew the symbolic nature of using blood to receive atonement by sacrifice.This was Gods way for His people to sooth their souls, or guilt in their human personality and in His deeming this atonement by shedding of blood they could carry on in relationship and approach The Father. Should it be any less for us? God became a man with blood flowing through Him for a reason. Just as it was in the Temple Sacrifice the blood of another, and thereby opening the way to worship the Living God In Christ"s shedding His blood for us; we now, as the ancients, can approach God, not on our merit are any attainment we have accomplished; it is only by the way of the blood shed for us by Jesus Christ and this for the remission of sin just as in the old world animal sacrifice only then it was temporary. It's the sin principle contained in our souls that God has chosen by His Son's blood to be dealt with in this sacrifice, now a permanent Representative act. However while clearing our conscious of condemnation of sin and thereby we see justification and a boldness to approach God, it does not eliminate the old man, the flesh- Adam personality in us as human creatures; which is in no way acceptable to The Father. Remember the bible tells us flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God, it is only in spirit by faith in who we are in His Son! Therefore only death can deal with this man who still sins.
And so be it, by the choice of the sovereign God the Creator of all things, sin is dealt with by the loss of His Son's blood. By that same sovereign choice He did away with our old nature in the death of Jesus Christ His only beloved Son. "For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might manifest in our mortal flesh" 2 Cor. 4:11. This verse puts us up against the wall, as we are told by God to manifest the life of His Son in the here and now and the tool or key is our own conscious awareness of death. Who's death? Jesus death. How can we get this done? The answer is in finding the position we are placed in by God by this sacrifice to deal with sinful mankind. We are forgiven by the blood only to discover we are left in the body of a sinner, that is our nature. Therefore we need deliverance. Again our sins are dealt with by the blood but we ourselves are dealt with by death on the Cross.
In the death of Jesus on the Cross the bible tells us we all died. Without seeing this position by faith in God's word which tells us this, we cannot grow spiritually; we will simply remain carnal, the sanctification process is cut short right where we live. This knowledge when reckoned upon, a command to count this fact as true, produces a understanding of our identification with the Holy Son of God in His death, which resulted in a position we find ourselves in before God. In that identification by faith in the Son's death we gain power to live in spiritual maturity. It really is a revelation from God. It is not that we reckon ourselves to be dead and therefore we are dead; that would be coming from the natural mans reasoning. It is because we have died, because we see by faith and knowledge in the declared biblical facts what God has done for us in His Son is finished. It is from the realization of our own death having been accomplished in Jesus Christ as the Federal Representative of us to The Father that identification/position and spiritual growth is acquired Standing upon this grounded fact by faith we will be able to live in victory because we will find that what is true of Him becomes our own experience " as He is so are we in this world". In contrast if we look to what we are in ourselves we are destined to live in the old carnal man. We arrive to the goal of glory in Christ only by faith in this revelation knowledge. Then we become aware that we are; "alive unto God in Christ Jesus".
We have all heard of the Old Covenant, made to the ancient Jewish tribe, which promised them the land and more.Then there was the New Covenant which also was to the Jews establishing God's plan for a future for them in the kingdom promised here on earth; but there is little talk of the Eternal Covenant. " Now the God of peace, He who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepperd of the sheep, in the blood of the eternal covenant" Heb. 13:20. And also shown when Jesus declared at the last supper "This cup is the New [eternal] Covenant in My blood" This promise or covenant was made between God and His Son, but includes us, and involved blood and death. Jesus by His obedience of faith in Gods promise that He would be Resurrected allowed Himself to be sacrificed. As a man on the cross He felt the same emotions we might and even asked His Father why had He been forsaken, that had to be the ultimate suffering for a man who walked the earth in oneness with The Father. The Eternal Covenant which Christ relied on carried with it in His Resurrection our inclusion. Jesus acted in the roll of a High Priest in conveyance of all the promises inclusive in His promise from The Father to Him and His Church body by the Eternal Covenant in His Blood. This is where eternal life dwells my friends. Everything for us as Christians starts with, and is found in all that Jesus Christ was in his Life on earth as a man, to His representing us to God on the Cross, and the promises of the Eternal Covenant fulfilled in His Resurrection. My friends we no longer need settle for a sinful old Adamic existence a carnal, milk feed Christianity; if by faith in the great promise from the Father to the Son we seek understanding in His blood shed for us, and His death as ours. By His obedience, we are now positioned in Him in Heaven for ever, and now have the power by His Holy Spirit to live as new men with total reliance on the promises given to our New Adam, Jesus Christ! This is now our nature, this is now our new life of liberty and freedom. The road we travel is from sin, to blood, to death. A hero will be found on this path.
Sin must be dealt with this we know for the bible tells us so! We all know, are at least should, that we were justified by Jesus death on the cross. Most of modern Christianity simply rests in comfort there. This position we were placed in was accomplished entirely by someone else; like if your classmate in college did your term paper, you got an A and then your degree, well you have the diploma, but the true credit lies elsewhere. The gift we received in this justification is reconciliation, which brings us back to the place God desires man to live, in spiritual innocence with Him in His Glory. Even though this all was accomplished and is a done deal we still carry the sense of sin, and the church has done a mighty fine job of soothing this feeling. The problem with feelings they go away then we are again left locked in a room with a sinner. Is this a revolving door the Christian must continually go around and around in? The whole trouble, in my observation is,we are encouraged by christian culture and our worldly nature to try to sense the gift of salvation. Much of the problem I believe is in that we are reckoning [counting it true] with out knowing it. Knowledge must come before any truth can be relied upon. Reckoning must be recognized by a divinely reveled fact; if not faith has no Strong foundation upon which to stand. Knowing the purpose of the blood of Christ shed for you, will help to hold up and expand the platform of justification on which we rest.
"But with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ" 1 Peter 19. Just prior to this statement Peter talks of the redemption the Christian Jews received from a vain way of life [church tradition] handed down from their fathers. This vain manner of life also applies to us, yes we were relieved by the blood of Christ, but as the ancient Christian Jew was we are prone to return to vanity despite salvation and the presence of the Holy Spirit; so we are weak in that area also, even though we have been called now by so much more available knowledge, to a holy life. Now what do we do? I have heard in church for years the term washed in the blood, and we even drink it symbolically at the Lords Table, so understanding just how this image can be applied to our growth must be important to the Father; as He has so strongly indicated in His Word. So how are we to see our Saviours blood washing over us, and then grow from this knowledge?
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the alter to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul" Lev. 17:11. Life then is in the blood, this is the symbol, and physical reality God choose to use to convey the importance of its value in atoning for our sins. It's interesting to note the above verse refers to the soul, mans personality or his self conscious which will be relieved from quilt by this atonement. The people first introduced to Christianity knew the symbolic nature of using blood to receive atonement by sacrifice.This was Gods way for His people to sooth their souls, or guilt in their human personality and in His deeming this atonement by shedding of blood they could carry on in relationship and approach The Father. Should it be any less for us? God became a man with blood flowing through Him for a reason. Just as it was in the Temple Sacrifice the blood of another, and thereby opening the way to worship the Living God In Christ"s shedding His blood for us; we now, as the ancients, can approach God, not on our merit are any attainment we have accomplished; it is only by the way of the blood shed for us by Jesus Christ and this for the remission of sin just as in the old world animal sacrifice only then it was temporary. It's the sin principle contained in our souls that God has chosen by His Son's blood to be dealt with in this sacrifice, now a permanent Representative act. However while clearing our conscious of condemnation of sin and thereby we see justification and a boldness to approach God, it does not eliminate the old man, the flesh- Adam personality in us as human creatures; which is in no way acceptable to The Father. Remember the bible tells us flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God, it is only in spirit by faith in who we are in His Son! Therefore only death can deal with this man who still sins.
And so be it, by the choice of the sovereign God the Creator of all things, sin is dealt with by the loss of His Son's blood. By that same sovereign choice He did away with our old nature in the death of Jesus Christ His only beloved Son. "For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might manifest in our mortal flesh" 2 Cor. 4:11. This verse puts us up against the wall, as we are told by God to manifest the life of His Son in the here and now and the tool or key is our own conscious awareness of death. Who's death? Jesus death. How can we get this done? The answer is in finding the position we are placed in by God by this sacrifice to deal with sinful mankind. We are forgiven by the blood only to discover we are left in the body of a sinner, that is our nature. Therefore we need deliverance. Again our sins are dealt with by the blood but we ourselves are dealt with by death on the Cross.
In the death of Jesus on the Cross the bible tells us we all died. Without seeing this position by faith in God's word which tells us this, we cannot grow spiritually; we will simply remain carnal, the sanctification process is cut short right where we live. This knowledge when reckoned upon, a command to count this fact as true, produces a understanding of our identification with the Holy Son of God in His death, which resulted in a position we find ourselves in before God. In that identification by faith in the Son's death we gain power to live in spiritual maturity. It really is a revelation from God. It is not that we reckon ourselves to be dead and therefore we are dead; that would be coming from the natural mans reasoning. It is because we have died, because we see by faith and knowledge in the declared biblical facts what God has done for us in His Son is finished. It is from the realization of our own death having been accomplished in Jesus Christ as the Federal Representative of us to The Father that identification/position and spiritual growth is acquired Standing upon this grounded fact by faith we will be able to live in victory because we will find that what is true of Him becomes our own experience " as He is so are we in this world". In contrast if we look to what we are in ourselves we are destined to live in the old carnal man. We arrive to the goal of glory in Christ only by faith in this revelation knowledge. Then we become aware that we are; "alive unto God in Christ Jesus".
We have all heard of the Old Covenant, made to the ancient Jewish tribe, which promised them the land and more.Then there was the New Covenant which also was to the Jews establishing God's plan for a future for them in the kingdom promised here on earth; but there is little talk of the Eternal Covenant. " Now the God of peace, He who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepperd of the sheep, in the blood of the eternal covenant" Heb. 13:20. And also shown when Jesus declared at the last supper "This cup is the New [eternal] Covenant in My blood" This promise or covenant was made between God and His Son, but includes us, and involved blood and death. Jesus by His obedience of faith in Gods promise that He would be Resurrected allowed Himself to be sacrificed. As a man on the cross He felt the same emotions we might and even asked His Father why had He been forsaken, that had to be the ultimate suffering for a man who walked the earth in oneness with The Father. The Eternal Covenant which Christ relied on carried with it in His Resurrection our inclusion. Jesus acted in the roll of a High Priest in conveyance of all the promises inclusive in His promise from The Father to Him and His Church body by the Eternal Covenant in His Blood. This is where eternal life dwells my friends. Everything for us as Christians starts with, and is found in all that Jesus Christ was in his Life on earth as a man, to His representing us to God on the Cross, and the promises of the Eternal Covenant fulfilled in His Resurrection. My friends we no longer need settle for a sinful old Adamic existence a carnal, milk feed Christianity; if by faith in the great promise from the Father to the Son we seek understanding in His blood shed for us, and His death as ours. By His obedience, we are now positioned in Him in Heaven for ever, and now have the power by His Holy Spirit to live as new men with total reliance on the promises given to our New Adam, Jesus Christ! This is now our nature, this is now our new life of liberty and freedom. The road we travel is from sin, to blood, to death. A hero will be found on this path.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)