KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
KINGDOM
BIBLE STUDIES
“Teaching
the things concerning the Kingdom of God. . . "
THE
HEAVENS DECLARE
Part
29
CAPRICORNUS—THE
GOAT
(continued)
We continue in our study of the Sign of CAPRICORNUS — THE GOAT.
The goat in the scriptures is a sacrificial animal.
And while the Sign is known as the goat, it is a very strange creature
indeed. On the old star charts the
front half is pictured as a goat and the rear half as a fish.
It is a goat with a fishes' tail; it is half-goat and half-fish.
This Sign has a strange appearance on the old star charts because it
shows a wounded goat, with its head bowed and its knee bent under, fallen down
in the posture of dying. On the
other hand, the tail of the fish is wiggling, vigorous and living!
Note that from the dying goat comes a living fish — the living fish
thus takes its being out of the dying goat and derives all its life and vigor
from thence. The living fish
emerging from the dying goat therefore has an important meaning.
In addition to the falling and dying of the goat, Capricornus is the Sign
of a mystical procreation and bringing forth.
It speaks of life that springs forth from the death of the sacrifice.
That which dies is a goat;
that which is brought forth is a fish,
the familiar and well understood symbol of the spiritual body brought out of the
dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
could better symbolize this than the Sign before us?
The goat and fish are one — one being, the life of the dying reproduced
and continued in a spiritual product which is part of the one and the same body.
The goat of sacrifice is projected into a new creation, which is yet an
organic part of itself.
LIFE
OUT OF DEATH
Some of the brightest stars in the constellation of Capricornus are AL
GEDI, which means "the Kid”; DENEB AL GEDI meaning "the Sacrifice
cometh"; and MA’ASAD, "the Slaying."
God commanded the children of Israel, saying, "Take ye a kid of the
goats for a sin-offering" (Lev.
9:31). So Aaron "took the
goat, which was the sin-offering for the people, and slew it, and offered it for
sin" (Lev. 9:15). And of the
goat of the sin-offering Moses said, "It is most holy, and God hath given
it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them
before the Lord" (Lev. 10:16-17). We
see here a picture of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, for truly He
became our sin-offering, being
"wounded for our transgressions:” and "bruised for our
iniquities," He was "cut out of the land of the living; for the
transgression of my people was He stricken."
Each and every son of Adam is born in sin and shapen in iniquity and,
because we have sinful natures and dwell in a world where every filthy sin and
foul evil abounds on every hand, we accept our environment of corruption as
normal and tolerable, never remembering anything better.
A man who is born amid poverty, squalor, disease and crime often pays
little heed to his condition since he knows nothing better, but a man born to
wealth, fame and power, reduced to poverty and misery, is cast into an agonizing
hell. No man on earth can properly
understand the terror, the horror, the abject dismay of the death Christ
suffered when He took upon Himself the form of a man and became obedient unto
death, because no man remembers the
excellence and glory and exaltation of that world of life he enjoyed with the
Father before the ages began. Paul
tried to express the extent of the Christ's impoverishment and the depth of His
humiliation with these word of inspiration:
“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He
was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His
poverty might be rich" (II Cor 8-9).
And again, with the use of words that, though inspired, are yet feeble,
he exhorted us to let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus:
“Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God: but made Himself of no
reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:5-8).
We will never grasp the enormity of Christ's sacrifice until the Holy
Spirit somehow gives us the ability to see the death of Christ in all its
lifetime scope and experience — not as six hours on a cross but as
thirty-three and a half years, fully participating in the death
realm in all its aspects, man as we are man, flesh as we are flesh, weak as
we are weak, limited as we are limited, tempted in all points as we are,
suffering in all ways as we do, grappling with all the forces within and without
that we struggle with, that through His suffering He might become the very first
man to overcome it all, the first
perfect man, the first man to break
out of the dungeon of sin and the prison house of death — righteous,
victorious and living! The Word of
God, through His incarnation, became the son
of man that we who were born sons of
men might through Him become sons of
God, yea, perfect sons of men and
incorruptible sons of God. What
a sacrifice that was and what a death He died!
A brother shared the following experience which graphically portrays to
our understanding the magnitude of Christ's sacrifice.
"Years ago, when I was still at home on the farm, we had a manure
pile in the field, the former owners had been cleaning out the barn and piling
the manure there for years. There
was a colony of snakes living in this manure pile, and on a sunny day one could
see several of them lying on the sunny south side, sunning themselves.
One day I was emptying a load of manure on the north side, and I sneaked
up over the pile to get a look at the snakes.
There were several lying there; and as I stood looking at them, the Lord
seemed to say to me, How would you like to become one of those creatures and
live among them in this manure pile! I
shuddered at the thought of it. I
just couldn't comprehend how terrible it would be.
To lower myself to that extent was unthinkable.
Then the Lord said to me, For my Son to leave His home in the glory
above, to become a man in the likeness of sinful flesh, for your sake and your
salvation, was much than that. I
have never forgotten that experience. It
made me appreciate much more the sacrifice He made for me."
George Hawtin ably wrote of this death-realm:
"Now it naturally follows that, if our blessed Lord spent all the
days of His earthly existence in death, we also are doing the same, and I shall
advance many infallible proofs to show that the very thing men have called life
is not life at all, but death.
Indeed we may claim that three score and ten years are the years of our
life and, of course, we all understand what is meant by that statement, but the
real truth is that the three score and ten years during which we dwell in this
corruptible body are not the years of our life,
but the years of our death. When
we mortals put a man in a coffin and bury him in the dark, cold earth, we say
the man is dead, and indeed he is; but have you heard what Jesus answered when
one or His disciples said to Him, ‘Suffer me first to go and bury my
father?’ The strange reply He
gave was this 'Follow Me: and let the
dead bury their dead' (Mat. 8:21-22). How
strange that statement sounds to us who do not understand what death is, but the
Lord was really telling them that the able bodied men who were carrying the
coffin to the cemetery were just as dead
as the man who was lying breathless within it.
In other words, the very thing we insist is life God says is death.
The sooner we learn that lesson
the sooner we will release as useless all things that pertain to this realm of
death that we might be enabled to firmly lay
hold on life, even the life which Jesus gives, aionian life, or the life
of the ages. When the truth of
this dawned upon my soul, I found many earthly things slipping away from me in a
manner I had nor known hitherto. Who
among us could ever desire to lay fast hold upon that which he discovers to be
naught but death? The things that
are dead we bury out of our sight, and I think I am right in saying that the
lusts and temptations that belong to this death lose their grip upon us when we
know that they are naught but death and that the flesh life to which these
temptations cling is but a vapor that the wind driveth away.
I cannot see myself slaving to lay up great wealth in store for that
which I know is dead. What an
abominable lie has gripped our hearts, deceiving us into endless labor and
travail until on every side men and women are dying of heart attacks in their
worry to provide worthless goods for this body of death. — end quote.
In order that the Christ could become a ransom (release) for our sins, He
had to shed His blond and die on the cross; and in order to die He had to become
mortal — subjected to this whole dreadful realm of sin and death.
He had to surrender Himself to the condition, circumstances, powers and
state of being of the death-realm. He
became a man, a mortal like the rest of us.
When He was still a babe in His mother's arms, when King Herod discovered
that the Magi, instead of coming to tell him where the baby could be found, had
tricked him and returned to their country by another route, the wicked Herod was
exceedingly wroth. He had found out
that this babe was to be the king of the Jews, and this endangered his position
as king. So he wanted the baby
destroyed, and sent soldiers to kill every male child under two years old in
that vicinity. Joseph was warned by
God in a dream about this plot to destroy the child and instructed to flee into
Egypt. Why did He flee?
here was a miracle child, the Son of God!
Could anything happen to Him? Yes,
if Herod's men had gotten their hands on Him He could have been killed like all
the others; for you see He was just like them.
He was mortal and could have been killed. He
was born to die, but not yet; it was too soon, He had a work to do first,
and when that was accomplished, then He was ready to die.
"But we see Jesus, made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death." This was
part of God’s purpose, so He humbled Himself and became obedient even unto
death, the death of the cross. The
writer of Hebrews tells us just how human He was, “It was right and proper
that in bringing many sons to glory, God should make the leader of their
salvation a perfect leader through the fact that He suffered.
For the One who makes men holy and the men who are made holy share a
COMMON HUMANITY. So He is not
ashamed to call them brethren, for He says, I will declare thy name unto my
brothers in the midst of the congregation will I sing Thy praise.
And again, speaking as a man, He says, I will put my trust in Him.
And one more instance, in these words, Behold I and the children God has
given me. Since then, ‘the
children’ have a common physical nature as human beings, He also became a
human being, so that by going through death AS A MAN, He might destroy him who
had the power of death, that is the devil” (Heb. 2:10-14), Phillips
Translation).
Sharing our humanity, being made in the likeness of sinful flesh, He had
the same sinful nature we have. Now
do not mistake what I say! I do not
say that Jesus had the same fallen condition of Adam — I say that He
had the same sinful nature Adam has
and had from the beginning. The
question is just this — when did Adam receive his sinful nature — before
he sinned, or only after he sinned!
A sinful nature is simply a nature
that sins or that is liable to sin. If
Adam had not been created with a nature capable of sinning, how, I ask, could he
have ever been tempted.?
How could he have sinned? The
correct answer to these questions reveals to our spiritual understanding the
amazing fact that the sinful nature had to precede
the first sin, not follow it.
Can we not see the simple truth that it was not the act of sinning
that gave Adam the sinful nature — rather, it was the sinful nature that caused
him to sin! It was therefore
necessary for Christ Jesus to come in exactly the same state as the first Adam
was in before he sinned and plunged the race into death.
He could not have been tempted otherwise, but He was subject to all the
temptations man is subject to. "He
was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.”
The suffering was not suffering surrounding the cross.
In order to be a perfect sacrifice He had to be perfected before He went
to the cross. It was through the
years that He lived as a man, that He suffered through temptation.
You and I haven't suffered much this way, because when the temptation
gets too severe we just yield to it and sin!
He couldn't sin, for if He had, He could not have been our Capricornus,
our goat, our perfect sin-offering required to redeem the race.
So he had to resist and overcome all temptation, and this must have been
excruciatingly difficult for Him to do many times, for He had all the desires
and inclinations of the human, sinful nature to battle with.
I would draw your reverent attention to these significant words of
inspiration which we quoted earlier, but now I will share them as they are
beautifully translated in the Amplified Bible.
"Let this same attitude and purpose and mind be in you which was in
Christ Jesus — Who, although being. . . one with God and in the form of God,
possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God, did not think this
equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained; but stripped
Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity so as to assume the guise of a
servant, in that He became like men and was born a human being.
And after He had appeared in human form He abased and humbled Himself
still further and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death
of the cross! Therefore God has
highly exalted Him . . ." In
this wonderful passage we have the summary of all the most precious truths that
cluster about the person of the Son of God.
There is first His wonderful divinity:
"in the form of God," "equal with God."
Then comes the mystery of Him laying aside that glory in that phrase of
deep and inexhaustible meaning: "He stripped Himself," "He
emptied Himself." The
humiliation follows: "The form of a servant," "Made in the
likeness of men,' "found in fashion as a man."
Then comes the crushing and mortification of suffering and death: “He
humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross." And all is crowned by
His glorious exaltation: "God
hath highly exalted Himself!” Christ
as God. Christ becoming man, Christ
as man in humiliation revealing the glory of the Father in a body of flesh, and
Christ in glory as Lord of all: such are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
this passage contains.
The great truth we want to grasp here is that Christ (the Word) dwell
from eternity in the form, the essence, the nature and the being of God.
In that divine nature He was eternal, untemptable and incorruptible.
But when He laid aside that glory, emptying Himself of it, taking upon
Him the form and nature of man, He, the ETERNAL ONE, subjected Himself to the
dread power of death, becoming
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
When the Christ laid aside His eternal heavenly glory, the UNTEMPTABLE
ONE took upon Himself all the frailties and weaknesses of human nature so that
the One who cannot be tempted was
found in a nature that could be tempted and indeed He was in all points tempted
like as we are. The inspired
apostle James says that "every man
is tempted, when he is drawn away of his
own lust, and enticed. Then
when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin" (James 1:14-15).
Was Jesus truly tempted in all points like as we are, or did He have some
mystical advantage over us, some inherent quality of divinity, some unique
spiritual power which enabled Him to be oblivious to the cravings and demands of
the flesh? Anything, to be a
temptation for us, must excite something within us that responds to the
temptation. That for which we have
no desire, can never tempt us. I
used to think, as many do, that Jesus was so high and holy that He could not
affected by the base things that allure us.
He was indeed high and holy, but not to the extent that He could not be
touched by the same infirmities, weaknesses, and feelings that touch us.
While some may still find it hard to believe, because of our
superstitious religious view of Christ, He knows exactly how the person feels
who is tempted to lie, cheat, curse, steal, murder, or commit adultery.
There had to be the desire in His flesh, the inclination in His nature to
answer the temptation, but, blessed by God!
HE OVERCAME IT ALL! He was
tempted in every point as we are, YET WITHOUT SIN.
As we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, so He had the indwelling Father
and by that overcame all temptation and in the one instance of His intense
desire to go His own way, He resisted even unto blood.
He was the first to do this and HE ENTERED INTO IMMORTALITY AND
INCORRUPTION.
There is something diabolical about temptation, something satanically
bewitching and bewildering. It
stirs up our senses and excites our emotions and passions.
For the time being the forbidden thing seems more important than anything
else in the world. It weakens our
powers of judgment, both moral and spiritual.
People who are otherwise very intelligent and self-controlled will in a
brief season of temptation commit wholly unthinkable follies — which they
often live to regret a whole lifetime afterwards.
It paralyzes our will. Our
many good resolutions melt like wax in the hour of temptation.
All this temptation frequently does simply by being permitted to press in
upon us. It is like chloroform.
If it gets too close to us, it will deprive us of the very possibility of
offering resistance. But, praise
God, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you in be tempted above that ye
are able; but will with the temptation make a way of escape, that ye may be able
to hear it" (I Cor. 10:13). May
God in His great mercy give us a true insight into the glory of what is offered
us in this truth — that our great HIGH PRIEST, whom we have in the heavenlies,
is One who is able to sympathize with us in each and every circumstance, because
He knows, from personal experience, exactly what we feel and face.
Yes, that God might give us courage to draw nigh unto Him, He has placed
upon the throne of heaven One out of our midst, of whom we can be certain that,
because He Himself lived on earth as a man, He understands us perfectly, is
prepared to have patience with our weakness, and give us just the help we need
to overcome and enter into His glory. May
God give us eyes to see and hearts to understand the depth of the mystery of
which I now write. Had the Logos,
the Word of God remained in that bright glory world above, in that spiritual
dimension detached from this realm of flesh and corruptibility, He might have
been ever so desirous to help us and lift us up to godhood: but, if He had never
tasted death, how could He allay our fears as we tread the verge of Jordan?
If He had never been tempted, how could He succor those who are tempted?
If He had never wept, how could He dry our tears?
If He had never suffered, hungered, wearied on the hill of difficulty, or
threaded His way through the quagmires of weakness and grief, how could He have
been a merciful and faithful High Priest, having compassion
on the ignorant and wayward? But,
thank God, our High Priest is a perfect one!
He is perfectly adapted to His task, and is able to lead each and every
member of God's elect out of this valley of the shadow of death over into the
victory and glory of perfection and incorruptibility!
He who alone is life, having never touched death, humbled Himself for our
sakes and became obedient unto death.
He stooped to die and lived thirty-three and one half years in it.
Then at the end He went to the cross.
Earth's voices must fall silent here, for they will never be able to tell
the story of how it is that
life comes out of death.
I would have said that such a thing would be impossible had He not said
of His life, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up
again” (Jn 10:118). When He
expired on the cross, He passed into the totality of death, and on the
resurrection side of the tomb He proved that there is NO FINALITY TO DEATH, that
even in death He was wondrously alive, for, said He, "I have power to lay
it down, and I have power to take it
up again." It was not
simply that He had faith that GOD would raise Him from the dead.
NO! The power He possessed
was the power to take His own life up again and this power is a power He both
had and executed WHILE HE WAS DEAD! There
can be no other explanation. A
child of five should be able to understand that one cannot lay his life down and
take it up again unless he has life even
in death. In the power of that
life which the Christ still possessed, being dead, He passed back from the realm
of death to the realm of life, and on the resurrection side of the tomb He cried
in triumph, "Behold, I am alive forever more (Rev. 1:18).
And now He is alive in the flesh, praise God, triumphantly holding in His
incorruptible hands the keys of both death and hell, and is abundantly able to
offer life eternal to dead men who believe in Him.
"The hour is coming, and now
is," He has proclaimed, "when the dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they
that hear shall live" (Jn.
5:25). Our blessed Lord Jesus
Christ, by partaking of death during the days of His flesh and ending all death
by the power of His resurrection, has brought
to light both life and immortality. Notice,
precious friend of mine, it is not said that He has created
life and immortality — He has brought
it to light, turned His searchlight upon it, disclosed it, revealed it,
opened it up, proclaimed it and made it known.
Christ is life.
In Him is life. In Him alone
is life. And the man or woman who
has been quickened by Christ HAS LIFE, is passed
from death unto life, and shall never
die. "I AM (not I will
be) the resurrection and the life," says Jesus, “he that believeth in
Me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall
never die. Believest thou
this?” (Jn. 11:25-26). Sad to
say, even some who profess to be teachers of God's elect and sons of God do not
believe that simple truth which Martha embraced that day when the Christ brought
life and immortality to light in her awakened consciousness.
Our Lord Jesus plainly told us, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know
them, and they follow Me: and I give into
them eternal life, and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.
My Father which gave them Me is greater than all; and no man is able to
pluck them out of My Father's hands.” (Jn. 10:27-29).
The moment any man hears the voice of the Son of God and becomes a sheep
following Him, at that moment, the gift of God, which is eternal life, is
given to that believing man and the life of God begins to live
and dwell and abide
in that man as a well of water springing up unto eternal life.
Christ is the Tree of Life, and all who partake of Him receive
life, not in some future age, not in some distant resurrection, but here and
now, for He gives them eternal life.
Apart from Him there is naught but darkness and death.
"Whoso drinketh of this water shall thirst again," were the
words He spoke to the troubled woman at the well of Samaria, "But whoso
drinketh of the water that I shall give shall never thirst; but the water that I
shall give Him shall become a fountain within him, springing up unto
eternal life” (Jn. 4:14) Christ
is the fountain of life. He alone
is the fountain of eternal youth, of eternal consciousness, of eternal being.
This is the wonderful message of the NEW COVENANT, the covenant
of life.
Again I would quote briefly from the inspired writings of George Hawtin.
"Sweet mystery of life, at last we’ve found Thee!
And we have found that Thou, O Christ, art life — not that life which
flourishes as grass in the field today and tomorrow the wind passes over it and
it is gone, nor life like ours, which is as a mist which the wind driveth away,
but life aionian, life everlasting, life eternal, life evermore, the life of the
ages. Well spoke our beloved Lord
when He said, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and
believeth on Him that sent Me, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE, and shall not come into
condemnation, but IS PASSED FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE,’ or as Rotherham has
translated it, 'hath passed over out of
death into Iife' (Jn. 5:24). It
is a wonderful hour in the experience of any man when he passes from death ‘across
to life,' and that is exactly what happens when
we believe on Christ. As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given
to the Son to have life in Himself, and to all who believe on Him life is given,
even that eternal life which God Himself is and which abounds like rivers of
living water within us when Jesus Christ comes in to abide.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is every man that trusteth in Him!
With this wonderful realization firmly abiding in our hearts; we are
better prepared to grasp the truth Christ clearly gave us when He said, 'Verily,
verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and
now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God: and
they that hear shall live' (Jn
5:25). Think on that statement,
child of God. Was not Jesus telling
us that we are dead as dead can be?
And did He not make two remarkable statements — first, the hour is coming,
and, second, the hour now is when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live?
Have not we who have believed proven the truth of this in our very spirit
and in our experience? The
greatest proof in the universe that Jesus Christ is alive forevermore is the
fact that, when we believed, He came to dwell within us.
He came to live His life in us. He
came to deliver us from our sin and our habits and make us to know that death
would never more hold our spirits in its vice-like grip.
Do we not know that He who lives and was dead, and, behold, He is alive
forevermore, has come to us that we might live also and has
raised us up together with Himself to share with Him the
life of the ages” — end quote.
Yet some tell us that the dead are dead — that there is no life or consciousness
or being for the child of God apart
from or beyond or
above
physical existence — should
you lay this tabernacle aside
there is nothing — you cease to
exist — you are gone!
I do not hesitate to tell you that it is a wicked lie, a monstrous
deceit, and a dreadful denial of the life
we have now been given in Christ
Jesus. Let's get right down to
brass tacks here. Do you want to
hear the truth beyond all the superstitions you've heard, beyond all the
emptiness and hopelessness of Old Testament economy?
Eternal life is first and foremost spiritual,
not physical. To hear some
preachers teach it one would think that a man cannot possess eternal life except
it be manifest on the physical level
— in an immortal body.
I think that no man understands the first thing about life out of death
who misses the clear and unmistakable understanding given by Paul in his words
to the Romans: “And if Christ be
in you, the body is dead because of
sin; but the spirit is life because
of righteousness” (Rom. 8:10). The
body is dead, just as God told Adam
it would be. So for the man who has
received Christ his body is still dead
because of sin but his spirit is alive
because of righteousness — Christ’s righteousness, of course, for there is
none other, the righteousness that comes with Him when we believe into Him and
He gives us Himself and with and by Himself His life.
This life which even now is reality within us is that life and
immortality which has been BROUGHT TO LIGHT through the gospel.
Hear and believe the wonderful news, precious friend of mine, YOUR SPIRIT
I-S A-L-I-V-E BECAUSE OF THE INDWELLING CHRIST!
Those who minister the finality of death — when your body dies you’re
dead and gone, non-existent — minister under the blindness of the OLD
COVENANT, the ministration of death.
They know not that the Christ has come and given us life, they understand
not that Christ IS NOW the resurrection and the life, they comprehend not the
glad truth that eternal life is even now a glorious and eternal reality in "the
inner man” which is
renewed day by day,” they, like the patriarchs and the prophets under the Old
Testament, and like the Jews to this very day, are still
awaiting the Saviour and looking to some future
day for the resurrection,
totally oblivious to the wonderful fact that “If ye then BE RISEN with Christ,
seek those things which are above (in the higher realm of the spirit; where your
eternal life is), where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”
(Col. 3:1). I am here to
tell you that CHRIST IS COME! I
proclaim to you today the glad tidings of the NEW TESTAMENT, the ministration of
life.
God has anointed me to declare the RESURRECTION WHICH I-S, not one that shall
be! Those who minister the
finality of death minister the Old Covenant and know nothing as they ought to
know and have seen nothing — the heavens have never been opened to them.
Their ministry is not one of faith and hope and present
reality, but of fear
of death and a sense of foreboding and depression.
They know not the life that transcends the body,
the life that is first of all realized spiritually
rather than soulishly or physcially. Death
is emphasized, dramatized, its power glorified by men who minister, not out of
the power of life, but out of the fear of
death. It is the fear of death
that drives many in this hour to seek the immortality of the body.
And make no mistake! “If
the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that
raised up Christ from the dead SHALL ALSO QUICKEN (MAKE ALIVE) YOUR M-0-R-T-A-L
B-O-D-I-E-S by His Spirit that dwelleth in you”
(Rom. 8:11). That is the
hope yet to be fulfilled in and through the manifested sons of God.
But I say to all who have not the consciousness of that eternal life
which is already yours, that resurrection in which you are already raised, that
eternal consciousness, existence and being you already are, I say to those who
are striving for physical immortality because of the fear
of the finality of death — Christ has already come and Himself partook of
flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy death, and might DELIVER
THEM WHO THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH ARE ALL THEIR LIFETIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE.
Under the Old Testament life and immortality had not yet been fully
brought to light. No wonder the old
saints often lived and spoke as those subject to bondage.
No wonder they emphasized the power of death, the hopelessness of death,
the finality of death! But how sad
that the redeemed of Jesus Christ, His brethren, so often prove that they know
so little of the deliverance and life He has given and the song of joy:
"Death is swallowed up in victory. Thanks
be to God who giveth us the victory, through Christ our Lord!”
My brother! art thou living in the full experience of this blessed truth?
He delivers from the fear of death and the bondage it brings, changing it
into the joy of knowing that “we have
passed from death unto life!
Since then, we have been made alive because of our spirit being quickened
by His Spirit, Paul leads us on to another marvelous truth which I fear
multitudes of earnest believers are failing to see, including some elect saints
of God. "Who hath
saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, but a now made
manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who HATH ABOLISHED
DEATH, and HATH BROUGHT life and immortality to light through the gospel"
(II Tim. 1:9-10). The Word of God
is true. It is not a silly fairy
tale or a superstitious myth. It is
not a lie. Men are liars.
God is true. And when God
says, “Christ who hath abolished
death,” we poor puny worms of
the dust had better believe it, and cease calling God a liar by telling Him He
is wrong. For "he that
believeth not God hath made Him a liar" (I Jn. 5:10).
Oh, read it and re-read it and rejoice in it with joy unspeakable and
full of glory! Through His
thirty-three years of death Christ hath abolished death and through the power of
His glorious resurrection He has brought that resurrection life into
us so that it is wonderfully true that "when we were
dead . . . He hath quickened us
together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:5-6).
Christ on Calvary bore every sin of every sinner.
He was made a sin-offering (Capricornus—the
goat) for us, He who knew no sin. And
since He became our sin-offering, therefore when He died, our sin died.
Calvary atoned. And then and
there the total and unending death that fallen on Adam and his race fell
on another. “The bread that I
will give is my flesh, which I will give FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD” (Jn.
6:51). Oh, the victory of Calvary
means so much more than any of us ever realized in the past.
It was such a pathetically ineffectual work, according to the way it was
once taught us. It was weak and so
limited in scope, so incomplete! Christ
came to save the world (Jn, 12:47); God sent His Son “that THE WORLD through
Him might be saved” (Jn. 3:17). But
it was all in vain. He wasn't able
to do what He came for. That’s
what the preachers say. Thank God,
that long night of darkness is passing! Thank
God, a fuller, deeper message now goes forth, which does not limit the God of
Israel, which does not belittle and besmear the atonement, the all-inclusive
work of our Saviour Jesus Christ! He
did not die in vain! He was not a
failure! Calvary was not a defeat,
but an exultant victory. And there
He, the spotless sinless Lamb of God actually gave His life for the life “OF
THE WORLD.” Let us never again
forget that fact.
The world was lost. All
had sinned. And the wages of sin is
death. Oh, let us grasp this
one great spiritual truth! Babylon
has lied to us. Let us forsake her
shame and deceptions and evil imaginings! She
has led us to believe that the wages of sin is anything and everything else but
what God says it is. What a
fraud! What a
fiend she has made of the God of love and mercy and grace!
And it made her the richest earthly institution which ever did exist or
ever will. But no: the wages of sin
is actually death. And Jesus died.
Therefore the world goes free.
It doesn't take a Doctorate in mathematics or physics to figure that out.
The equation is very simple. Yes,
friend, Christ actually gave His life "for the life "OF THE WORLD:”
not for one half of it, not for just a few Christians who are “not of this
world.” He actually paid the full
penalty for the sins “OF THE WORLD”—A-L-L
OF IT. Jesus actually paid
it all! All men, because of sin,
had come under the curse and were dead.
They were lost, bound for eternal night.
But Jesus, the only Man who was born to die, the last Man who ever did actually
die, became the sin-offering for every sinner, and bore those sins to dark
Calvary. Listen to this!
I did not write it. It is
the Word of the eternal God which all of us in the past have loudly proclaimed
to be inspired; yet not one of us believed a word of it, except the little
scraps here and there which suited our fancy, tickled our vanity, or appeared to
support our superstitions. Here is
what God says: “Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came UPON A-L-L
MEN to condemnation; even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift
came UPON A-L-L MEN unto justification of life” (Rom. 5:18).
Oh, if we could but get all the poor victims of pope and popery to read
and believe that one verse of scripture, then all their bowing and scraping and
paying would stop immediately. And
if we could get all the Christians in the churches to somehow believe it, what a
transformation it would bring. And
if all who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship could somehow believe it, how
it would hasten the day of manifestation! Jesus
gave His life for the life of the world. That
ends the matter for all time and eternity.
So Paul could write, “The wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
Because of this John the beloved could write, “He is the propitiation
(mercy-seat, sin-offering) for our sins: and
NOT FOR OURS ONLY, BUT ALSO FOR THE SINS OF THE W-H-O-L-E
W-O-R-L-D” (1 Jn. 2:2).
And because of this Paul could affirm, “Christ.... HATH ABOLISHED
DEATH.” He could also write,
“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death... that He by the grace of God SHOULD TASTE DEATH F-O-R
E-V-E-R-Y M-A-N” (Heb. 2:9). Certainly
“every man” includes Adolf Hitler, Nero, Cain, and every other son of Adam
from the dawn of history to the end of the last age that will ever come.
And because of this we, like the woman at the well, "KNOW that this
is indeed the Christ, the Saviour OF THE W-O-R-L-D.
That is the free gift to every son of Adam who was ever born or ever will
be. Let God be true, and every man
a liar! For death is actually
abolished, there is no longer any such thing.
When Jesus died, sin died. When
He arose, death died. The
abolishment of death became an actuality in very fact on the resurrection morn,
when the triumphant proclamation went forth, "He is not here: for He is
risen" (Mat. 28:6). It was
effective even from the day that God closed Eden's gates, though not manifested.
But now someone is going to question the foregoing statements and ask us
why it is that, if death is abolished, men continue to die.
The answer is, of course, men do not continue to die.
Oh, we know their bodies go to the grave.
And we call this death. It
is not death. God does not call it
death. Those who equate death with
a body in a coffin know absolutely nothing about death.
Ye who were dead hath He
quickened! I was lying neither in a
coffin at the funeral parlor nor in a dark hole in the ground when I was
quickened and made alive in Christ. Death
was not my body in a coffin, and the life I have received is not an immortal
flesh-body. Don't you see?
What men call death is not death,
and what men call life is not Iife.
Only when the Holy Spirit enables us to see the true nature of all things
can we understand a mystery so deep. One
man came and by the grace of God tasted death "FOR E-V-E-R-Y
M-A-N." Mark carefully,
He only tasted it. He remained in
death for thirty-three and one half years culminating in the death of the cross.
He merely sampled it. But He
sampled it in the place of every son of Adam.
He actually tasted death "FOR E-V-E-R-Y
M-A-N.” Do you believe it?
Dare you believe it? The
mystery is just this. Jesus died
for the whole race of men. When He
arose He injected He injected life
into the stream of humanity, so that there is a spiritual
quality in man that transcends the body realm.
It is a dimension of being
that even the grave cannot hold. It
is that "light" which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world, and that light is
Christ (Jn. 1:4,9-10). No life
beyond the grave? Then Christ did not
die and rise again, He did not taste
death for every man, He did not give
His life for the life of the world, He did not
abolish death and bring life and immortality to light!
That light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world is the spiritual
sense of being, that in man which is eternal
and deathless, which God will
pursue until it is brought to the image and likeness of God that He may become
"All-in-all." This free
gift came (has already come) upon ALL MEN unto justification of Iife
(Rom. 5:18). Can anything be
plainer! Any other doctrine is OLD
TESTAMENT doctrine, not the gospel of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who hath
abolished death.
Hearken to the Word! One day
a poor man, a heartbroken father, came to the Master.
His little daughter had passed on. He
said, "My daughter is dead” (Mat.
9:18). He thought she was dead.
Little did he comprehend that the One who stood before him is the
resurrection and the life. But what
did the Master say? A strange word
for Old Testament saints, for sure. "And
when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people
making a noise, He said unto them, Give place: for
the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And
they laughed Him to scorn." What
did He say on another occasion! "Our
friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awaken him out of sleep" (Jn.
11:11). Oh yes, a little farther
on, because the disciples misunderstood Him, He also said that Lazarus was dead.
This which we call physical death is the nearest thing to death that we
know. But the New Testament
everywhere draws a clear and sharp distinction between death
and sleep.
What is the difference? you ask. There
is a great difference, indeed! A
dead man has no life, consciousness
or being.
But a sleeping man IS STILL ALIVE THOUGH UNCONSCIOUS TO THE WORLD AROUND
HIM. And he is STILL CONSCIOUS ON
ANOTHER PLANE. Thus, the martyr
Stephen "fell asleep" while beholding the heavens opened, and the Son
of man standing on the right hand of God, and crying with a loud voice into that
bright world beyond the mortal, "Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit! (Acts 6:54-60).
As to the earth realm he was asleep;
as to Christ in His glory at the right hand of the Father he was wondrously alive
in the spirit. As Paul wrote to
the Thessalonians, "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren,
concerning them which are asleep, that
ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which
sleep in Jesus will God bring with
Him" (I Thes. 4:13-14). This
passage contains a two-dimensional truth. From
the earthly aspect those who have gone by way of the grave sleep; from the
heavenly aspect they come with Jesus
when He comes, out of the heavenly and spiritual dimension of consciousness and
being. Since Jesus came and brought
life to men this thing we call physical death is merely a sleep, merely a divine
provision on the way to the fullness of life whereby we lay aside this
sin-cursed house of clay, to live in the spirit unto God.
Paul understood this mystery and wrote of his own destiny: "For me,
to live is Christ—His life in me; and to die is gain.
If, however, it is to be life in the flesh and I am to live on here, that
means fruitful service for me; so I can say nothing as to my personal
preference—I cannot choose, but I am hard pressed between the two.
My yearning desire is to depart
— be free of this world, to set forth — and be with
Christ, for that is far, far better; but to remain in my body is more
needful and essential for your sake" (Phil 1:21-24, Amplified).
Peter, too, knew that he had apprehended a life that transcends this
physical, for he wrote: "Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in
this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that
shortly I must put off this my
tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.
Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have
these things always in remembrance" (II Pet. 1:13-15).
No morbid tale here of the finality of death, of unconscious
non-existence, of darkness and nothingness!
Ah Peter knew that the body was merely a tabernacle,
a tent, a house, a covering for the incorruptible life of God in his inner man,
the new creation born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God which liveth
and abideth forever.
Hallelujah!
While it is gloriously true that Christ has given His life to all men, to
the whole world, yet it is evident that there must be a progression in the
development of that life in the experience of every man until every vestige of
the death realm has been swallowed up, spirit, soul and body.
To those who walk with Christ there is an ever-increasing consciousness,
growth, increase, unfoldment, maturation and triumph of that life.
The mighty working of His
power within is followed by this very precious and understandable result:
"If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He
that raised up Christ shall also quicken (make alive) your mortal bodies by His
Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Rom 8:11).
I believe I now see more clearly than I have ever done why it was that
Paul, who, as you and I do, still dwelt in the hellish bondage of a mortal body
cried out, "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? The sting of death
is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to
God
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Cor.
15:53-57). We are, indeed, terribly
and horribly in bondage to the body of
this death, and with us the whole
creation is groaning, waiting for the day when the sons of God will deliver
them from the bondage of corruption. I
do not need to argue with any man to prove our present mortality in the flesh.
If you must sleep to live, you
are mortal. If you must eat to live,
you are obviously mortal. If you
must breathe to
live, you are unquestionably mortal. We
are all aware of our constant and unremitting decay as the aging process etches
its marks upon us.
Our present mortality is naught but death, although we live in the
spirit. Think of it!
Meditate deeply upon it and cling to this realm of death no more.
Reach up, my beloved, with the blessed arm of faith and embrace that
bright realm above where that which is true in our spirit reaches down and takes
hold upon our outer man, where this mortal puts
on immortality, where death in all its aspects is swallowed
up of life, where in that final victory of His life within the sons of God
will upon this earth shout in triumph over both death and the grave.
Truly we yearn for this change, for our desire is not to be unclothed,
but to be clothed upon that mortality may be swallowed up of life (II Cor.
5:1-5). Yea, we groan inwardly for
this transformation to take place. I
continually meet up with brethren who confess that they have already put
on physical immortality and incorruption, that they have already passed over the
grave and cannot and will not die. I
must be very honest and frank with you, my beloved brothers I have not one whit
of a desire to live forever IN THIS BODY OF HUMILIATION.
There is no more frightening thought, no more repugnant possibility, than
the idea that I might live forever in this body of humiliation!
Thank God, there is to be a change!
"Who will transform and fashion anew the body of our humiliation to conform
and to be like the body of His glory and majesty, by exerting that power which
enables Him even to subject everything to Himself” (Phil. 3:21, Amplified).
The thought of merely adding immortality to this body of humiliation,
with no other change, the suggestion of such limitation, that I might have to
bathe, anoint my body with deodorant, brush my teeth, and use Scope throughout
eternity, the hint that I might retain this base form, that I might remain as
I am unendingly, falls as far short of what I conceive of a body transformed
and fashioned like unto the body of His glory and majesty as hell falls short of
heaven! The body of incorruption
shall resemble this vile body no more than does the oak tree resemble the
chemical elements of the earth which were raised up into the substance of the
tree by the mighty working of the subtle and mysterious life force sown in the
earth as a seed.
Son of God! If we would be
fashioned like unto Him, co-sharers of His glory and power and wisdom as the
God-man, we must not simply rest content with the faith that trusts in the cross
and its pardon; we must follow on
to know the fullness of the New Life, the life of glory and power in human
nature, injected into man through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, of
which the spirit of the glorified
Jesus
is the witness and the source. Now,
practically everything in relationship to our sonship depends upon the clearness
with which this great truth that I have stated is recognized.
The Holy Spirit of God inspired the message of these words in Rom 5:9-11,
"Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him. For
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more, being now justified by His
blood, we SHALL BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE... and... we joy.... in our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom we have received the atonement."
The double provision of Christ is here
clearly set forth: reconciled
by His death; saved by His life.
Christ’s death is the atonement, reconciling men to God, granting a
full and free admittance back into Eden’s lovely garden from which our
disobedient foreparents were once banished.
But Christ’s life is the
Tree of Life in the garden, the source of the life which shall work in us the
complete transformation into the divine
nature. Sin, sickness, sorrow,
fear and death are all part of a power
in our life; let us fully understand that it can only be met by another higher
power. The power of sin and death
works all through our life. The
death of Christ, which is the atonement, reconciles us to God, but only the life
of Christ can come against the power of sin and death and deliver our life from
destruction. Reconciliation places
us, in God’s eyes, back in Eden’s garden; but the Tree of Life is the power
that delivers my life from the dominion of sin and death.
He redeemeth my life, by His life, from death!
Christ's life, not His death, living in our life, absorbing it,
impregnating it, transforming it causes us to live.
This is the meaning of that profound sentence in which Paul records the
first great work of salvation and pointedly distinguishes it from the second
great work of salvation, saying, "if when we were enemies we were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son, much
more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. The first is the
dying goat; the second is the living fish!
"We shall be saved by His LIFE," says Paul.
Paul meant no disrespect to the atonement when he said, "We shall be
saved by His life. He was bringing
out one of the great facts of salvation. If
God gives atoning power with one hand, and power to save the life from
destruction with the other hand, there is no conflict between these.
Both are from God. If you
call the one justification and the other glorification, God is the author of
them both. If Paul seems to take
something from the one work and add it to the other, he takes nothing from God.
Atonement is from God! Reconciliation is from God!
Power to conquer sin and death is from God. Christ is all in all, the
beginning and the end. When the
thing we want is deliverance from the guilt of sin, condemnation, let us
appropriate the gift God has given us to remove our guilt—the DEATH of Christ.
"In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of our sins" (Col. 1:14). When
the thing we want is power to redeem our life from sin, corruption and death,
then let us apply the gift which God has given us for our life, the LIFE of the
Son of God. "He that hath the
Son hath life.”
When an Israelite was bitten by flaming serpents in the wilderness, he
never thought of applying manna to
the wound. The manna was for his life.
But he did think of applying the brazen serpent.
The manna would never have
cured his snake bite; nor would the brazen serpent have kept him from starving!
Suppose he had said, now I am healed by this serpent, I feel cured, and I
need not eat this manna anymore. The
serpent has done it all, and I am
well." The result would have
been, or course, that he would have died.
The man, to be sure, was cured, delivered from the judgment of his
rebellion against God, but he has to LIVE, and if he eats no manna his
life must languish, go to destruction, die.
Without going to any trouble about it, simply by the inevitable process
of nature, he would have died. The
manna was God's provision to redeem his
life from destruction, after the serpent has redeemed it from
judgment. And if he did nothing
to stop the natural progress of corruption, in the natural course of things, he
must die. Now there is no
contradiction between these two things—the manna is from God and the serpent
is from God. But they are different
gifts for different things. The serpent removed the judgment, but could not
sustain life; the manna gave life, but could not deal with the sentence.
To apply this to the case in hand. The
death of Christ, on the one hand, is the brazen serpent.
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of man be lifted up (on the cross)” (Jn 3:14).
Christ's life on the other
hand, is the manna—the bread of life. “This
is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not
die. I am the living bread
which came down from heaven: if any man eat
of this bread, he shall live forever;
and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of
the world” (Jn 6:50-51). In the
light of these remarkable words we can reach only one of two conclusions.
Either all who have believed on Christ since that blessed day when these
wonderful words poured from His divine lips have partaken of Him, eaten of His
living flesh and have not died but
have begun to live forever, or, else,
NO ONE HAS EVER EATEN OF HIM FROM THAT DAY TO THIS, for all have continued to go
by way of the grave. Either Jesus has
given eternal life to all who eat of Him, and there is
a life, consciousness and being that transcends the grave, or He lied and did
not give His flesh for the life of the world, so that none has ever sat at His
table and received the life of which He spake.
Do you really believe that God is that wicked that He would send forth
redemption and then withhold it for another two thousand years?
Let me ask you a question, my friend.
If you had the power of immortality in your hand right now, would you
wait another two thousand years to use it while billions of mankind continued to
go out into endless nothingness? Wake
up! my beloved.
Let us get beyond the fantasy of a merely carnal and earthly and physical
understanding of truth! “He that
hath the Son HATH LIFE,” saith the Lord.
“And we know that we HAVE
PASSED FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE,” add all who know and love the truth.
Of all the wealth of scripture truth nothing is more certain or clear
than the fact that our sins are not forgiven by bread, nor are our lives
nourished and supported by death. Our
life is not made incorruptible and eternal by Christ's death, nor transformed
from day to day from the power of sin and death by the atonement.
Our life is not redeemed from destruction by the crucifixion of Christ,
nor is it brought to perfection from day to day by the death of Christ.
But we are saved, as the Holy Ghost saith, "by HIS LIFE.”
We cannot live upon death.
And after, by the atonement, we are forgiven, and have entered by faith
through the gateway into Eden's fair garden, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth,
having acceptance before God, we shall then be saved, delivered, changed,
transformed, perfected and fully glorified BY HIS LIFE.
The atonement gives us the right to enter back into Eden but only the
tree of life can make us live! To,
sum up, therefore, it is one thing to be reconciled by the death of Christ, and
quite another to be saved by His life. If
reconciliation and justification could make men be CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF THE
SON OF GOD then all the baby Christians in all of Babylon's harlot religious
systems would be well on their way to sonship.
The death of Christ can make one a justified believer, bringing him to life,
but only the mighty working of the indwelling life of God's Christ can enable us
to put on the mind of Christ and be
transformed in thought, desire, emotion, nature and body into His likeness.
He redeemeth my life from destruction.
How? By His life.
This is the power of a full and complete salvation!
Unspeakable are the blessings of the high and heavenly realm of God's
incorruptible life which flow to the soul from the union with Jesus in His
glorified life. Blessed Tree of
Life! It
is ours, for Jesus is ours. Blessed
life of the ages! We have the
possession within our earth of its hidden power, and we have the prospect before
us of its fullest glory. May our
daily lives, in all we think and say and do, be bright and blessed proof that
the hidden power dwells within, daily preparing us for the glory to be revealed.
May the eternal and incorruptible fruit of our redeemed life within be
our power to live to the glory of the Father, our fitness to share the glory of
the Son.
Beyond the fact of the revelation of the wonderful law of life
out of death as wrought out in Jesus Christ, there is also the mighty
operation of this principle in our own life and experience as sons of God.
A dear friend of many years penned some precious and enlightening
insights to the outworking of life from death in us which I am moved to share
with my readers at this point. She
wrote: "The carnal mind would have us to believe that the way Up is Up.
Thus we have pressed our way into ministry, pressed our way into the
things we have desired, 'stood on the promises,' demanded of God our 'rights,'
sought to have our own way in both spiritual and physical things—forgetting
that which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets saying, “My ways are
NOT your ways neither are My thoughts your thoughts.’
It is true, children of God, that God wants to take us UP — high into
the realms of God — UP to Jerusalem — but God would have us to know that the
way UP is always DOWN! If we would
go up; we must first go down, for God is operating by the principle of death and
resurrection. He has plainly stated
that nothing is quickened (made
alive) except it first die. In this
walk, you do not gain by keeping — for you are able only to keep that which
you are first willing to lose. In
this walk you do not live by living — you live by dying.
The laws of the Kingdom of God are in reverse to the laws of this natural
realm. The way to life is death,
the way to victory is defeat, the way to glory is shame, and the way up is down!
"We have all been
soulish — viewing the things of God through the intellect of soul, through the
emotionalism of soul, through the beclouding of the appetites of the flesh —
and our concepts of heaven, of the Kingdom
of God, of salvation, and of the purposes of God have long been contaminated
with self’s desire for comfort and
blessing. God is changing all that,
praise His name, and we are beginning to learn to give up some of our childish
things that we might grow to the maturity of the Christ, the most
outstanding characteristic of whom is utter SELFLESSNESS.
We have hitherto been possessed of that old 'do-good-to-me' concept of
the Kingdom of God. We were
expecting great liberty — something that would, no doubt, gratify our senses
and promote our ego — something, perhaps that would, no doubt, gratify our
senses and promote us in the sight of men.
And if you will be honest, saint, you will have to admit that such has
been your concept of sonship, or Kingdom, or eternal life, or heaven, or
whatever doctrine has been uppermost in your mind in recent years.
The old concepts of heaven — with its streets of gold and pearly gales
— surely we are able to see that there is nothing in that that would appeal to
the spirit of a man.
It is the flesh that is
interested in gold, and pearls, and precious stones.
God chose these things which are so highly esteemed among men to depict
the far greater riches of a realm we cannot see with the natural eye.
We interpreted them literally because we were so flesh-minded that we
could not see beyond the symbol to the reality it represented.
The riches typified by these precious things are far greater in value to
the spirit of a man than the literal could ever be.
As one said not long ago, ‘Those things are too cheep.’
What does' the spirit care about such things?
Does it really matter to the spirit what kind of a street it walks on?
If we have not come to an understanding of this before, let us now ask
God to elevate our thoughts and see with the spiritual eye the glory that is
portrayed in these cheap earthly materials.
Streets of gold? Jesus said, ‘I am the way (the street).'
Gates of pearl? We
are that pearl of great price for which Jesus sold all that He had.
Precious stones? ‘They
(God’s people) shall be mine, saith the Lord, in the day that I come to make
up My jewels!
Some will, no doubt, say, ‘I passed those ideas by a long time ago.
I have come to a knowledge of sonship!'
Ah! But how soulish we have
been in our understanding of sonship. Sons
of God! Glorious thought!
And in it we have seen great glorious ministry, miracle working power,
people falling at our feet in awe of the presence of God manifested in our
lives. Can you not see that that,
too, is a desire of the flesh — EGO panting for recognition — SELF waiting
to come into its own! If we have
been thinking along those lines, we have never yet heard
the Word of God — for he who hears knows
that one does not come to glory through glory:
one comes to glory through shame. Joseph
became a mighty prince of Egypt — but do consider the pathway that brought him
there: DOWN into the pit, DOWN into
slavery, DOWN into the dungeon. He
was on his way up, but the way up was down!
Oh, that the saints of God in this hour might come to the recognition and
understanding of the ways of God! 'That
I might know Him,’ Paul cried, 'in the fellowship of His sufferings, BEING
MADE CONFORMABLE TO HIS DEATH, that I may (also) know Him in the power of His
resurrection.’
"There was a time when the apostle Peter was faced with this
dilemma, even as we are. It all
began with a simple question: ‘Peter,
lovest thou Me?’ Peter's reply
was, ‘Yes, Lord.' Then, ‘Feed
My lambs.’ Again the
question came, 'Peter? Do you love
Me?’ Peter was cautious as he
answered, 'Yes, Lord. I love you.'
Another command: ‘Feed My
sheep.' One last time,
'Peter? Do you love Me?’
It was a frustrated Peter who replied this time, ‘Lord, you know
I love you!' And a patient Jesus
who answered, 'Feed My sheep!' It
was not insignificant that the Lord addressed Peter three times.
There is something beneath the surface here.
In the first realm, the realm of the flesh, the realm of the outer court
ministry or the first heaven, the Lord asks, 'Do you love Me?’
And the Christian answers, 'Yes, Lord.'
Because the Lord knows the immaturity of one at that level, He gives only
the instruction to feed the young ones, the lambs,
the babies.
That is all that is required of the first level of Christian experience.
It was, however, a higher level to which the Lord referred in the second
question, and with the question, He was bringing Peter's thoughts higher:
‘Peter, do you love Me in the second heaven, in the holy place, in the
Spirit filled level?' What else
could Peter do but say, 'Yes, Lord. I
love you here, too.' The lambs are
beginning to mature in that realm, and the Lord, therefore, says to Peter, 'Feed
My sheep.’
There is yet a higher realm, and we dare not stop before we reach it.
This is the realm of the holiest
of all, the third heaven of which
Paul spoke, and now the Lord is asking Peter, 'Do you love Me here, Peter?
Do you love Me in the HOLIEST OF ALL?’
Can we not feel Peter's emotions when he answers, 'Oh, yes, Lord I love
you here, too!' Do we not also
sense the cry of the Saviour's heart in saying, ‘Then, feed My sheep.'
He didn't stop there, however, for the Lord went on to say, 'When thou
wast young, thou girdest thyself and walkedst whither thou wouldst: but when
thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird
thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not.'
These were the Lord's instructions to Peter as to HOW he would feed the
sheep in the third realm, for the word continues in saying, 'This spake He
signifying by what death he should die!'
"Because these words were spoken not only to Peter but unto us as
well, there are some things that we must not fail to grasp.
First, this event transpired on the THIRD occasion of Jesus’ appearing
to His disciples after His resurrection (Jn. 21:14), offering the clue that
Jesus was giving insight into the condition of the THIRD REALM experience, the
entry into, the Holiest of all, or Kingdom life manifestation.
It must be remembered that that realm is seen in the tabernacle of Moses
as containing only one piece of furniture: the ark of the covenant.
The Hebrew tells us that the ark was a COFFIN — a wooden coffin
overlaid with gold. To enter into
that realm, then, is to enter into such a state of bondage that it is a
condition of death. It was to this
death that Jesus was referring when He said, 'When you were young
(immature), you went where you wanted to go — you did what you wanted to do
— you, in effect, did your own thing.
But when you are old (mature) you will stretch forth your hands and
another shall gird thee and carry you where you would not want to go.'
This was the description of Peter's death — not a physical death that
would plant his human body six feet under the ground — but a death to his own
will, to his own way, to his own opinions and thoughts; and this, saint of God!
is the only way that we shall ever, obey His command to FEED HIS SHEEP who are
seeking pasture in that third realm experience.
Those who have come to the door of that holy place will not hear a word
that is contaminated with the will of men
or the ways of the flesh.
The sheep of that third realm pasture desire the ESSENCE, the FRAGRANCE
of His knowledge, and will settle for no less than the SWEETNESS of the perfume
of HIS NATURE and HIS LIVING PRESENCE upon us!
"It was pure LOVE who was hanging on the cross two thousand years
ago — and it was as His own belly was ripped open by a Roman spear that the
New Wine of the Kingdom of God began to flow.
He was bound — not by nails
— but in the spirit to a wooden
cross, pouring out His life's blood that you and I might live through Him.
In the words, then, that Jesus spoke to Peter was an invitation:
an invitation to share His cross, partake of His sufferings, to come out
of the liberty of self and into the
bondage of love — that bread might
be taken from the inner man and dealt out, broken and bruised, to the
multitudes! Jesus says, also,
to us as to those who walked with Him so many centuries ago:
‘Give ye them to eat' (Lk.
9:13).
“Broken
bread—a love dealt out
To
Adam’s hungry soul
Torn
from the riven sides of those
Whom
Jesus Christ makes whole.
A
nature—binding deep within
A
man to other men
That
pours out life to share with them
Its
liberty from sin.
Wounded
hands—that serve e’en those
Who
drive in them the nails
Living
out the spirit’s truth
Of
love that never fails.
A
bondage—binding sons of God
To
the Tree of Life, you see,
The
living out of God’s great love
Thus
setting mankind free.”
—Connie Asbill
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