"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
ECHOES FROM EDEN
Part III
IN THE MIDST OF THE GARDEN
(Continued)
And
the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had
formed. And out of the ground made the Lord
God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life
also IN THE MIDST OF THE GARDEN, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die (Gen. 2:8-9,16-17).
It needs
to be perfectly clear and forever settled in our minds that God makes no mistakes, because
He is omniscient. He is never taken
by surprise nor is He ever forced to alter His plan, for He is immutable. He never fails in His purposes, because He is omnipotent,
glorious in power, fearful in praises, doing wonders.
It is only foolish and ignorant men who picture God in heaven taken by
surprise at Adams sin, pacing up and down Hallelujah Boulevard wringing His hands,
hastily trying to concoct some new scheme by which to rectify an unforeseen an unfortunate
situation. I find nothing but pity for those
preachers who purport to be the ministers of Christ yet possess no more spiritual
understanding than to teach that Adams sin took God by surprise, upset His apple
cart, destroyed His wonderful conceived plan, and aborted His magnificent purpose. God didnt plan it that way, they say, but
thats how it turned out! If this be so,
then God is not omniscient, God is not omnipotent, and God is not
immutable.
Such
foolish prattle is repugnant to the spiritual mind, for it leaves us in the unenviable
position of having to believe that satan is wiser and more subtle than the Omniscient
Himself. It causes men to believe that lie
that God was tricked by a creature of inferior wisdom.
H.G. Wells portrayed it vividly for us when he said that the world is like a
great stage production produced and managed by God, and as the curtain goes up, all is
lovely to behold. It is fantastically
beautiful and the characters are a delight to both eye and ear. All goes well until the leading man steps on the
hem of the dress of the leading lady, who falls over a chair and knocks over a lamp, which
pushes over a table into the side wall, knocking this over into the back scenery, which
brings the whole thing down in chaos on the heads of the actors! Meanwhile, behind the scenes, God, the producer,
is running frantically to and fro, pulling strings and shouting orders, desperately trying
to restore order to the chaos, but
ah!
alas!
unable to do so! This is the God of the modern church, a very
little, very weak, very limited God. As one
unbeliever put it, Either God is not good, or He is not powerful; otherwise the
world could not be in the mess that it is in. And
since most people are unwilling to believe that God is not good, they conclude that He
therefore is not all-powerful; Hes doing the best He can in the face of satans
subtlety and mans rebellion, but the best He can is just not good
enough!
Many
people see this world as a world that is running loose, like a chariot which has thrown
off the driver, the horse running wild, the reigns flapping in the wind, knowing not
wither it goes, and about to plummet off the edge of the road into the abyss. But the scripture presents a God who has the
reigns of this world firmly in His hands
who is absolutely in control of all things
whatsoever shall come to pass
who is working out His perfect plan for the world, and
has been doing so from the very beginning. The
Lord God Almighty says, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure
yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, and I will also
do it. But as always, the preachers and
teachers are convinced that such an One as He could be outsmarted and outwitted by such an
one as satan. This childish nonsense has been
upheld as truth by the church systems for centuries and even today is shouted from
practically every pulpit and proclaimed over radio and television to untold millions of
impressionable listeners.
The
usual idea preached in this dark and confused hour is that redemption is Gods plan
for repairing the damage caused when satan slipped up on Gods blind side,
when He wasnt around and didnt know anything about it, and instigated the
tragic fall of man, causing Gods Kingdom to tumble down. God, so the world has been taught, had completed
His work of creation man was a finished creation spiritual, immortal,
perfect in character, wisdom and power. Then
along came satan, and by cunning wrecked Gods beautiful handiwork, thwarted
Gods purpose, caused man to fall into sin, darkness, and death, ruined Gods
perfect creation! Poor God! Then God is supposed to have looked down upon this
unforeseen and unfortunate smashup, and to have thereupon thought out THE PLAN OF
REDEMPTION as a means of repairing the damage.
But His success seems limited. He
brought forth a plan by which He would actually be able to salvage only a small part of
mankind from the fearful dilemma into which he was fallen.
The devil was destined to make off with the vast majority of Gods
creation and they would all end up in eternal hell and damnation, while an elect few would
make it to some beautiful Isle of Somewhere and find the golden streets. I do not hestitate to tell you that this
ridiculous story is a monstrous lie and a gross and blasphemous misrepresentation of the
character, purpose, wisdom and power of God almighty.
God was not found napping when man sinned. He was not taken by surprise by what the
serpent achieved in the Garden. He had
foreseen it all; yea, He had planned it all! Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world (Acts 15:18). Yes the serpent was successful in Eden. But his victory, foreseen and foreordained, was
already being woven into the pattern of the redemption of the Son of God. In the final consummation, it would be made to
serve the glorious purposes of the Most High God, out of which would come a family of
redeemed men fashioned after the likeness of Christ a New Race springing from the
second man, the last Adam, that should forever triumph over that old serpent the
devil, and fully vindicate and truly glorify the God of Heaven.
It
was the Mighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of ALL THINGS, who in the beginning
proclaimed, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion (Gen. 1:26). This wonderful
purpose of God to make man in His own image had been settled in the divine councils of God
from eternity. The blessed Lamb had, in the
determination of these councils, been slain before the foundation of the world
(Rev. 13:8); the names of all the redeemed of earth had been written in His book of life before
the foundation of the world (Rev. 17:8); and all blessed sons of God, predestinated
to be holy and without blame before Him in love, predestined to be CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE
OF THE SON OF GOD, were selected and chosen in Him before the foundation of the world
(Eph. 1:3-5). This is a profound and
mysterious truth, impossible to fully comprehend apart from the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation from God, but it does show us that God is omniscient, that nothing took Him by
surprise, that the fall of man was not an accident, that GOD PLANNED IT FROM ETERNITY
before the worlds and ages were ever framed.
Paul
speaks plainly of this predetermined purpose of God to bring forth sons in His own image,
saying, Blessing be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed
us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm! Even as He chose us actually picked us out
for Himself as His own in Christ before the foundation of the world; that we should
be holy and blameless in His sight
for He foreordained us (destined us,
planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with His good pleasure which He had PREVIOUSLY PURPOSED and set forth in
Him, He planned for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all
things and head them up and consummate them in Christ, both things in heaven and things on
earth
so that we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live
for the praise of His Glory! (Eph. 1:3-5,9-12, Amplified Bible).
It is
very essential that those who walk with God in this hour should keep this truth of
Gods ETERNAL PURPOSE ever uppermost in their thoughts. If we fail to comprehend the certainty of
Gods very first statement concerning mankind, Let us make man in our image:
and let them have dominion, we will undoubtedly lose our way in the frightful
nightmare of sin and darkness that has followed on the heels of that inspired
proclamation. The entrance of sin in
Edens fair garden neither destroyed nor aborted this, wondrous plan to bring forth
human-divine sons in the image and likenesss of God Himself. Did not God take to Himself all responsibility for
the fall of men when inspiration penned the words; For the creation was subjected to
frailty to futility, condemned to frustration not because of some
intentional fault on its part, but BY THE WILL OF HIM Who so subjected it. Yet with the hope that creation itself will be set
free from its bondange to decay and corruption and gain an entrance into the glorious
freedom of Gods children (Rom. 8:20-21).
God
has some great and magnificent plans for those who become His sons. He that overcometh shall INHERIT ALL THINGS;
and I will be His God, and he shall be My Son (Rev. 21:7). And if children, then HEIRS, HEIRS OF GOD,
and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also
glorified together (Rom. 8:17). It
has been solemnly and earnestly said in a certain place, What is man that You are mindful
of him, or the son of man that You graciously and hopefully care for and visit and look
after him? For some little time You have
ranked him lower than and inferior to the angels, for You have put EVERYTHING IN
SUBJECTION under his feet. Now, in putting
everything in subjection to man, He LEFT NOTHING OUTSIDE OF MANS CONTROL. But at present we do not yet see all things
subjected to man. But we are able to see
JESUS CROWNED WITH GLORY AND HONOR
(Heb. 2:6-9, Amplified Bible). To him that overcometh will I grant to sit
WITH ME IN MY THRONE, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His
throne (Rev. 3:21).
In
these verses we catch but a flickering glimmer of the glories the Spirit intended to
convey when he by inspiration guided Pauls hand to pen these sublime words:
For I consider that the suffereings of this present time are not worth being
compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us, and
conferred on us! (Rom. 8:18, Amplified Bible).
We see Gods purpose to bring many sons to glory, a family of Sons
brought to their highest conceivable destiny as co-sons and co-heirs of the universe with
His own Son. He had this in mind before the
creation, from before the foundation of the world, and this meant one thing that
the sons must be mature, capable sons, not a bunch of irresponsible little children, but
knowing who they are as sons, knowing how to function as sons, and thus knowing their
destiny and able to fulfill it. That means
training and development from innocent little children to sons, and this to sons who can
respresent their Father and share His business with Him.
And this is the history of the human family! Herein
lies the grand purpose in the fall and redemption of the race!
God
never meant that first Eden to be mans destiny.
He knew that Eden would never give Him an Abraham, a David, or a Paul. There are lessons that in order to learn man must
go into the wilderness of temptation, into the crucible of crisis and battle. There are graces which can only be obtained in the
midst of sore suffering. There is an
obedience which can be learned only by the things that we suffer. If man had always stayed in Eden, he must have
become a human jelly-fish, without muscles and fibre, and there would have been no room
for those deeds of heroism and faith which have brought out faculties otherwise unknown. Eden could only be a starting point, not a goal. Through the process of sin and redemption, and by
the mighty working of the Spirit of God, men have received a power which the first Adam,
in his innocence, never could know. If anyone
thinks that redemption is nothing but restoration of innocence, as was found in
that first paradise, then he is sadly mistaken. God
let satan rob man of this in order to give him His own righteousness instead. And if man was not to exalt himself in the high
estate to which he was called, he had first thoroughly to learn the misery and
wretchedness of any course other than the wisdom and righteousness of God.
There
is one facet of mature experience which is often missed, yet it lies at the roots of
capability on any level and none can be sure of himself and his proficiency in any
profession without it. Learn this one truth
and a great secret thou shalt surely know! Glorious
and perfect was Adam our father in Edens lovely garden, yet one thing was missing
from his glory and perfection without which no man could ever fulfill the wonders and
potentials inherent in being in the image and likeness of God. Adam for all his wisdom did not know good and
evil. For that very reason he fell prey
to the shattering calamity of his tempation. Because
he did not know evil, he did not know good either, for nothing in this
world is either big or small, beautiful or ugly, hot or cold, black or white, up or down,
alive or dead, good or evil, except as it stands in contrast to that which is opposite to
it. He who lacks the knowledge of both
good and evil will fall an easy prey to the devil and this vital knowledge, alas! can ONLY
BE GAINED BY THE EXPERIENCE OF GOOD AND EVIL. Innocence
is beautiful, indeed, but innocence, knowing nothing of experience, falls an easy prey to
every harm and danger before it. How we all
love the simple innocence of little children, but how swiftly do they in their innocence
stick their finger in a light socket, or dash out into the street in front of the speeding
traffic! Innocence is sweet but it is fraught
with all kinds of dangers. Because of this
very thing the beloved Paul wrote in wisdom that strong meat belongeth to them that
are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern
both good and evil (Heb. 5:14). Thus in
making man in the image of God, the first great step must be to bring him to the knowledge
of both good and evil. For this reason the
Spirit of the Almighty has recorded these significant words: And the Lord God said,
Behold, THE MAN HAS BECOME AS ONE OF US, to know how to distinguish between good and evil,
and blessing and calamity (Gen. 3:22).
The
business world is always looking for people who are proficient. Proficient means: Highly competent; skilled; an
expert. No one is born proficient in any
field. Proficiency is attained through
training and discipline, through experience that comes through trial and error. Proficiency does not come by ignoring that there
is a WRONG WAY of doing a thing, still less in denying that there is a wrong way. Proficiency comes by having known the wrong way,
having tried it out, having learned and proven once for all that that way doesnt
work at all. Then the RIGHT WAY can be established
AS BEING RIGHT when the wrong way has been proven to be wrong. An electrician, to be proficient, must know that
you dont connect the wires together that way, but this is the way it must be done. If he does not discern the good and evil in wiring
up a thing he may be electrocuted. No chemist
can be confident in his laboratory until he knows that you dont mix this chemical
with that chemical lest you create a poisonous gas or a destructive explosion. You must know the wrong way and have it proved
wrong, before you are secure and confident in the right.
There is no room for innocence here in proficiency!
And
here we have Gods perfect wisdom in the birth of the human race, and in the placing
of them in a garden, in a condition, in a state of being, in which BOTH LIFE AND DEATH,
good and evil were set IN THE MIDDLE. Through
this interplay of good and evil God would bring His vast company of sons to maturity. They must discover that to be in the image and
likeness of God they must be conscious that there are alternatives and make their choice
and ultimately their right choice through having first made the wrong one, and
having tasted the consequences. And the
wonder of our all-glorious God is that He knew this was the way His predestined family of
sons must take, from wrong first and then to right; and He knew the anguish and suffering
that entailed for them. He knew it, but He
could not turn from it, so we find our first parents in their garden, and placed in the
midst two trees, the one to give life and the other death.
Why did not the Father just put them there conveniently with only one tree? It doesnt seem very kind of Him to put the
two! Why could we have not just eaten of the
tree of life and lived forever in the incorruptible life and nature of God? Because we would have been holy without knowing
WHY we should be holy! God not only wants us
to know who we are but WHY WE ARE WHO WE ARE. God
could have left us in innocence protected from evil and sin, but we could never have
inherited ALL THINGS and reigned with Him upon His throne in that condition. Who would make an untrained, undisciplined man
pilot of a 747 jetliner? We would have been a
crowd of helpless babies who knew nothing and could do nothing! No, Adam and Eve must first discover themselves,
learn their potentialities for both good and evil, life and death, misuse themselves
and then they are ready to become reliable ones.
And
at that tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle, the deceptive voice of that
old serpent, the devil came to them, and what it did for them was to awaken
them to discover what it is to be a Self. Enormous
awakening with its vast potentialities. Through
those tempting suggestions to have what she would like, Eve discovered that she was a
SELF. Suppose there were just God and you in
the universe and you were good and, we know, God is good; how could there be two things to
choose? There certainly could be, and both of
them seem pretty good too. You could choose
yourself, and that usually seems good and might not seem so very bad before there was a
fall. When God originally created man he was
good; but mankind could not develop in wisdom and stature unless they had the power
of choice. The choice was simple: they could
choose God or themselves first. The instant
they chose themselves that was selfishness and self-will, because the highest good and
life was promoted by the choice of God and sin and death entered by the choice of Self. Selfishness is the root of all sin; it is in every
sin that there is. You cannot name one that
does not have selfishness as a root, and yet it looks so innocent to choose ones
Self! There can be a selfish and hence a
sinful ambition to attain even great spirituality. Evil
is always mixed with some element of good, and that is why it is so deceitful.
The whole world system today is the product and manifestation of SELF and SELFishness of man. As fire depends on fuel and as mans breath depends on air, so also does the whole sytem of this world live on the self-centeredness and carnal desires of men. I can truthfully say that every industry on earth, all the technology, every war that has been fought, and even the years of learning in schools and universities have in mind the ultimate benefit of Self. Frail man not only wants to gather things about himself for his own comfort and security, but he wants to be the center of his own little universe. The more things and power he possesses, be it on the job, in politics, or in the church, the greater his universe seems to be and the greater his desire to add to it. He never discovers that he has enough, but because he finds that what he does have does not bring him the satisfaction he thought it would, he seeks to add more and more to it, hoping the extra he adds will bring contentment and fulfillment. Why do men who possess millions in earthly possessions go on adding more and more millions and billions to them? Why do men who have power seek more and more power? Simply because there is NO LIFE IN SELF. Life is only in God and things possessed apart from God cannot ever satisfy. The wages of sin is death, says the Word. It could also be said that the wages of Self is death. A consciousness of Self apart from God is a mistaken identity. Man has made HIMSELF the center and there is death in the middle of the garden.
THE ECCENTRICITY OF SONSHIP
The
following is adapted from an article by an unknown author from the 1800s.
And
they (Jesus and His disciples) went into an house. And
the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. And when His friends heard of it, they went out to
lay hold on Him: for they said, He is beside Himself (Mk. 3:19-21).
From
the worlds standpoint the most pathetic life in the history of the world is the life
of the Lord Jesus. Those wo study it find
out, every day, a fresh sorrow. Before He
came it was already foretold that He would be despised and rejected of men; a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isa. 53:3), but no imagination had ever conceived
the darkness of reality.
It
began with one of the bitterest kinds of sorrow the sorrow of an enforced silence. For thirty years He saw, but dared not act. The horrible wrongs He came to correct were there. The hollowest religion ever known a mere
piece of acting was being palmed off around Him as the religion of the living God. He saw the poor trodden upon, the sick untended,
the widow unavenged, His fathers people backslidden and scattered, His truth
misrepresented, and the whole earth filled with hypocrisy and violence. He saw this, grew amongst it, knew how to cure it. Yet He was dumb, He opened not His mouth. How He held in His breaking spirit, till the slow
years dragged themselves out, it is all but impossible to comprehend. Then came the public life, the necessity to
breathe its atmosphere: the tempation, the contradiction of sinners, the insults of the
Pharisees, the attempts on His life, the dullness of His disciples, the Jews
rejection of Him, Gethsemane, Calvary. Yet
these were but the more marked shades in the darkness which blackened the whole path of
the Man of Sorrows.
But
in the Scripture already quoted from Mk. 3:19-21, wherein we read, He is beside
Himself, we are confronted with an episode in His life which is not included in any
of these; an episode which had a bitterness all its own, and such as has fallen to the lot
of few to know. It was not the way the world
treated Him; it was not the Pharisees; it was not something which came from this enemies;
it was something His friends did, yea, something His kinsmen, His very own family did. When He left the carpenters shop and went
out into His sonship ministry, His friends and family were watching Him. For some time back they had remarked about a
certain strangeness in His manner. He had
always been strange among His brothers, but now this was growing upon Him. He has said much stranger things of late, made
many strange plans, gone away on curious errands to strange places, has gathered around
Him a motley group of men, performed many strange miracles, and now, when He should be
eating and resting, he gives no thought to Himself, but turns to minister to the multitude
pressing into the house. What did it mean? Where was it to end? Were the family to be responsible for all this
eccentricity? This sad day it culminated. It was quite clear to them now. He was not responsible for what He was doing! It was His mind, alas! that had become affected. He was beside Himself. In plain English, He was mad! The Amplified Bible says, And when those who
belonged to Him, His kinsmen, heard it, they went out to take Him by force, for they kept
saying, He his out of His mind beside Himself, deranged!
An awful thing to say when it is true, a more awful thing when it is not; a more awful thing still when the accusation comes from those we love, from those who know us best. It was the voice of no enemy; it came from His own home. It was His own mother, perhaps, and His brethren, who pointed the terrible finger at Him He was beside Himself He was mad. There should have been one spot surely upon Gods earth for the Son of Man to lay His head one roof, at least, in Nazareth, with mothers ministering hand and sisters love for the weary Worker. But His very home is closed to Him. He has to endure the furtive glance of eyes which once loved Him, the household watching Him and whispering one to another, the cruel suspicion, the laying hands upon Him, and finally, the overwhelming announcement of the verdict of His family, He is beside Himself.
What
makes it seemly to dig out this harrowing memory today, and emphasize a thought which we
cannot but feel lies on the borderland of blasphemy?
Because the significance of that scene is still so intense. It has a peculiar lesson for us who profess
ourselves to be followers of Christ Sons of God a lesson in the counting of
the cost. Christs life, from first to
last, was a dramatized parable too short and too significant to allow even a scene
which well might speak to the younger Sons to pass by unexplored. When Jesus announced to His disciples that when
the blessed Spirit of truth should come He will show you things to come, He
did not mean simply that the Spirit would reveal to men that California will fall into the
ocean or that the oil in the middle East will be seized by the radical Muslim
Fundamentalists. He was patiently pointing
out to His disciples that when the Spirit of truth should come in blazing glory into their
lives He would TAKE THE THINGS OF CHRIST and show them unto them, for He
continued, He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto
you (Jn. 16:14). The things to
come would not be such earthly things as the rise and fall of empires, wars,
famines, earthquakes, pestilences, economic collapses and the like, but rather the glories
of the REALM OF SONSHIP in which Jesus Himself walked, of which His deisciples understood
so pitifully little.
As I
have walked with the Lord for many years and the ever increasing wonder of the glory of
Gods Christ has unfolded to my wondering spirit, I have come to realize that not
only did our Lord speak in parables, but His whole life from the time of
His birth in Bethlehem to His ascension into heaven was in itself a parable and a mighty
sign of wonders which were to come in the lives of those apprehended to live and walk in
that blessed realm of sonship to God. His
glorious life was a heavenly life and those who have been born of His Spirit and washed in
His blood are called upon to walk even as He walked all the way into the fullness of God. In the light of this truth I now declare that the
wonderful life of the first-born Son was in itself a parable, expressly prefiguring the
life and walk and eperience of all those Sons of God who should follow after Him.
In
this marvelous parable of parables, the life of the Son of God, is found this remarkable
story of how His own family seized upon him to take Him away by force because, said they,
He is mad! And I declare to you
that from the worlds standpoint, the charge is true. It is useless to denounce this as a libel, a
bitter, blashphemous slander. It is not so
it is true! There was no alternative. Either He was the Christ, the Son of the living
God, or He was beside Himself. A holy life is
always a phenomenon. A life which lives and
moves after the principles of the Kingdom of Heaven is always a wonder. The world knoweth it not. It
is either supernatural or morbid. For what is
being beside oneself? What is madness? It is eccentricity ec-centr-icity
having a different center from other people. Webster
defines eccentricity as: Not having the same center, as two circles; not having the axis
exactly in the center; out of the ordinary; deviating from the norm, as in conduct;
unconventional. Here is a man, for instance,
who devotes his life to collecting objects of antiquarian interest, old coins perhaps, or
old editions of books, or perhaps nothing more sensational than stray dogs or cats. His center is odd, his life revolves in an orbit
of his own, his center is different from those around him, therefore his friends say, he
is eccentric.
Ray
Prinzing once commented on this word, Some folk differ from the norm of society,
filling their life with numbers of cats, or dogs, their house is full in every room, their
yards are full of them, for they are centering their lives in animals. Some thus view them as being
eccentric, for their center is odd, different than those about them, their
life revolves in an orbit of its own.
Or
here is an engine with many moving wheels, large and small, cogged and plain, but each
revolving upon a central axis, each turning in a perfect circle. But at one side there is one small wheel which
does not turn in a circle. Its motion is
different from all the rest, and the changing curve of its motion is unlike any ordinary
line of the mathematician. The engineer will
tell you that this is called the eccentric, because it has a peculiar center.
Now
when Jesus Christ came among men, He found them nearly all revolving in one circle. There was but one center to human life
Self. Mattered not whether it was the
merchant peddling his wares, the king in the palace, the thief by the road, or the priest
in the temple. Mans chief end was to
glorify himself and enjoy himself forever. Then,
as now, by the all but unanimous consensus of the people, this present life and this
present world were sanctioned as the legitimate object of all mans effort and
energy. By the whole gravitation of society,
Jesus as a man must have been drawn to the very verge of this vast vortex of
self-indulgence, personal ease and pleasure, which had sucked in the populations of the
world since that fateful day in Eden. But He
stepped back. He refused absolutely to be
attracted. He put everything out of His life
that had even a temptation in it to the worlds center. He humbled Himself there is no place in the
worlds vortex for humbleness. He
emptied Himself gravitation cannot act on emptiness.
He became of no reputation there is no place in the world for
namelessness. So the prince of this world
came, but found nothing in Him. He found
nothing because the true center of Christs life was not to be seen. It was with God.
The unseen and the eternal moved Him. He
did not seek His own happiness or gain, but only THE WILL OF THE FATHER. He went about doing good. His object in going about was not gain, but to do
good.
Now
all this was very eccentric to this world system. It
was living on new lines altogether. He did
Gods will. He pleased not Himself. His center was to one side of Self. He was beside Himself. From the standpoint of the world and the flesh it
was simply madness. Think of this idea of
His, for instance, of starting out into life with so visionary an idea as that of doing
good with no price attached no offering plate, no books for sale, no
monthly news-letter telling about all the needs of the work, no gadgets offered to those
sending in an offering of $5.00 or more, no special blessings or prophecies pronounced on
those who obeyed God in contributing $20.00 to the Kingdom, no brochure on how
to make out your will and leave your estate to the Lords work. Jesus did not operate in worldly methods and
techniques. Man was not His center, money was
not His center, means and methods and programs were not His center, GOD was His center. His trust was not in Gods people, His trust
was in GOD. God was His source of life and
supply.
Yes,
Jesus was eccentric. He had a different
center from other people. From the world. From the worlds viewpoint He was beside
Himself, mad. Think of this absurd notion
that He had come into the world to usher in a Kingdom in which Gods will would be
done on earth as it is done in heaven and that Gods mind would direct all things and
bring every nation under the blessedness of heavens perfect order; the simplicity of
the expectation that the world would ever become good; this irrational talk about meat to
eat they knew not of, about living water; these extraordinary beatitudes, predicating
sources of happiness which had never been heard of Blessed are they that mourn,
the meek shall inherit the earth, blessed are they which are persecuted
for rightousness sake, if a man shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
other also, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, take no thought for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Madness! Then
these paradoxical utterances of which He was so fond, such as that the way to find life
was to lose it, and to lose life in this world was to keep it unto life eternal. What could these be but mere hallicination and
dreaming! It was inevitable that men should
laugh and sneer at Him. It was unusual.
He
wanted nothing of the religion of the Pharisees. He
held nothing but contempt for the religion of that day, for the blinding traditions of the
learned and prestigious Rabbis, the distorted and false doctrines of the Pharisees who
walked about with the most imposing and pretentious titles, clothed in elaborate and
gorgeous vestments, loving the chief seats in the Synagogue, and binding upon the people
heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, with all sorts of rules and regulations. Because he was a SON, Jesus center was in
nothing of earth, nothing of the physical world. Unlike
other religious teachers He gives us no detailed instructions about what we are to do or
not do; He does not tell us either to eat or drink, or to refrain from eating or drinking
certain things. He does not tell us to carry
out various ritual observances nor to keep certain days and seasons. He built no church buildings nor did He initiate
any building programs, but He did say, The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this
mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father
the hour cometh and now is when
the true worshipers shall worship the Father IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH (Jn. 4:21-23). He did not set up any form of ecclesiasticism, of
any hierarchy of officials or any organizational structure, but He did say, Be not
ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are BRETHREN. And call no man your father upon earth: for one is
your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be
ye called masters (leaders): for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your
servant (Mat. 23:8-10). The blessed
realm of Sonship is an UNSTRUCTURED REALM for it is not of earth, but of heaven; not of
physical things, but of the Spirit and the Truth.
Jesus
never concerned Himself with external structures of organization, hierarchy, buildings,
programs, ceremonies, nor any other carnal thing. He
ministered LIFE, REALITY, SPIRIT, AND TRUTH. Period. He was unusual.
He would not follow the methods and techniques of the world. He would not go with the multitude. And men were expected to go with the multitude. What the multitude thought, said, and did, were
the right things to have thought, said, and done. Anyone
who thought, said, or did differently, his folly be upon his head, he was beside himself,
he was mad! It never ceases to amaze me how
deep-seated and deep-rooted within the masses of Christendom are all the things which
Jesus denounced, and how scarce are the REALITIES which He spoke and manifested in the
world. Because the average Christian today
has been brought up with a CENTER OTHER THAN CHRIST he is totally unable to think except
in terms of established orders, sects, denominations, creeds, assemblies, doctrines,
meetings, communions, baptisms, programs, campaigns, pastors, choirs, rituals, ceremonies,
offerings, drives, conferences, elections, board meetings, committees, invasions, Sunday
Schools, Bible Schools, church buildings, fellowship halls, stained glass windows, robes,
special numbers, special speakers, and etc. etc. etc. etc
But after they have spent
a whole lifetime of this feverish church activity, how many people are there
who have ever taken time to wait on God long enough TO HEAR HIM SPEAK AND DIVULGE HIS WILL
TO THEIR SEEKING HEARTS? I declare to you of
a truth that any man or woman who will take the time to seek God and God alone, hungering
and thirsting after Gods mind and Gods eternal will that man will find
himself drifting away from all these aforementioned things and from there on THE MIND OF
CHRIST will be his program, his quest, his eternal joy.
I can
tell you of a certainty that every man who lives like Christ produces the same reaction
upon the world as did the first-born Son. This
is an inevitable consequence. What men
thought of Him, they will think of you and me. The
servant is not above his Master. If they
persecuted Him, they will persecute you. A
son is simply different from other people. Time
has not changed the essential difference between the spirit of the world of a people who
live out the very same LIFE OF CHRIST that Jesus lived.
The LIFE OF CHRIST is not the historical story of a man who walked the earth
two thousand years ago. The LIFE OF CHRIST is
the Spirit of Jesus lived out in those who are members of His body. This is what makes the sons of God eccentric. There is no sanctioned place in the world as yet
for a life with God as its goal, and self-denial as its principle.
Let
all who would be followers of the Lamb upon Zions holy hill know that sonship is no
milk-and-water experience. It is a fire. It is a sword.
It is a burning, consuming heat, which must radiate upon everything around. The change to the Christ Life is so remarkable
that when one really undergoes it, he cannot find words in common use by which he can
describe its revolutionary character. He has
to recall the very striking phrases of the New Testament: A new man, a new creature,
a new heart, a new birth. His
very life has been dissolved and re-crystallized round a new center!
Let a
man depart from iniquity, let him depart from the myriad traditions of religion and make
CHRIST AND CHRIST ALONE the center of his life and he will soon discover that the
impression his friends receive from him now is the impression of eccentricity. The change is bound to strike them, for it is
radical, central. They will call in unworthy
motives to account for the difference; they will say it is a mere temporary fit, and will
pass away. They will say he has shown a
weakness which they did not expect from him, and try to talk him out of his novel views
and curious life. This, in its mildest form,
is the modern equivalent of He is beside himself. And it cannot be helped. We have a different center.
LIVING BY THE TREE OF LIFE
These
are in the world. The world hath
hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world. They are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. Even
as He is, so are we in the world. (Jn. 17:11,14,16; I Jn. 4:17).
If
Jesus was not of the world, why was He in the world?
If there was no sympathy between Him and the world, why was it that He lived
in it, and did not remain in that high and holy and blessed world to which He belonged? The answer is, The Father had sent Him into the
world. In these two expressions, In the
world and Not of the world, we find the whole secret of His work as the
God-man, the Son of the Father.
He
was IN THE WORLD in human nature, because God would show that this nature belonged to HIM,
and not to the god of this world, that the human nature was created to receive the divine
and incorruptible life of God and in this divine life to reach its highest glory. He was IN
THE WORLD in fellowship with men, to enter into loving relationship with them, to be seen
and known of them, and thus to lead them back to the Father. He was IN THE WORLD to struggle with the demonic
and fleshly powers which rule the world, to overcome them and open up the way for those
who should follow to overcome; to learn obedience, and so perfect and sanctify human
nature.
He
was NOT OF THE WORLD, but of heaven, to manifest and bring nigh the life that is in God,
from which man had become alienated through wicked works, that men might see it and long
for it. He was NOT OF THE WORLD, founding a
Kingdom entirely heavenly in origin and nature, entirely independent of all that the world
holds desirable or necessary, with principles and laws and a spirit the very opposite of
those that rule in the world. He was NOT OF
THE WORLD, witnessing against its sin and departure from the Spirit of God, its impotence
to know and please God. He was NOT OF THE
WORLD in order to redeem all to Him, and to bring them into that new and heavenly Kingdom
which He revealed in His Sonship.
This
glorious life of Christ on earth, In the world but Not of the
world, is the very essence and reality of the TREE OF LIFE in the Paradise of God. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward
in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant
to the sight, and good for food; the TREE OF LIFE also in the midst of the garden, and the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:8-9).
This Tree of Life was in all reality In the world but Not
of the world. It was accessible to man
but had absolutely nothing to do with the realm of earthiness, for it was heavens
own divine life made available to man. In the
Tree of Life, God invited man to find Him as the source and center of life that in union
with Him, God would live, and move, and have his being.
In the Tree of Life, man would be full of light, abounding in heavenly
wisdom and knowledge, fearful in power and dominion, ethereal as a spirit and shining in
the image of God. The fruit of this wonderful
Tree would indeed make man radiant with the resplendent glory of God as was Jesus, the
second Adam, at the transfiguration, whose face shone as the sun and His raiment was as
the light. In this Tree of Life the effulgent
perfumes of the heavenly realm would be fragrance and life to mans nostrils. He would taste spiritual realities and touch
spiritual things. The wisdom and power of God
Himself would be wide open to him and he would walk in the presence and glory of celestial
realms. The gates of that realm
would never be shut by day or by night. Man
would need to eat of no other tree nor drink of any of the waters of earth. Man would have meat to eat that no
other creature in heaven or earth knew of and water to drink that none other
had ever tasted. The heavens would be opened
over his head and he would walk in the glory of the presence of God the Almighty.
THIS
was the glory of the Tree of Life in Eden! And
what was that glorious Tree? In the
beginning was the WORD, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God
in HIM
WAS LIFE; and THE LIFE was the light of men (Jn. 1:1,4). This life-giving Tree, THE LIVING WORD OF GOD,
Christ, was from the beginning In the world but yet Not of the
world. When Edens gates clanged
shut behind our banished foreparents, that blessed Tree of eternal life was never again
seen by the wondering eyes of mortal man until the day in which Jesus stood upon the earth
and declared: I am the LIVING BREAD which came down from heaven: if any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread which I will give is My flesh, which I
will give for the LIFE OF THE WORLD (Jn. 6:51).
The reason Jesus came forth as the visible expression of the Father, the Tree of
Life re-planted, was so that there might be a focusing, a manifestation which would become
a MEETING PLACE for us to come to know God, and become one with Him, as it was in the
beginning. It is IN CHRIST JESUS that GOD AND
CREATION MEET, COME TOGETHER, AND ARE MADE ONE. Christ
WHO IS OUR LIFE has come and has been planted in the garden of the Kingdom of Heaven on
earth, that all may come and eat and drink and have life.
There
is a most wonderful statement made concerning Christ in the Song of Solomon. The Shulamite proclaims of Him: As the apple
tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the Sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight,
and His fruit was sweet to my taste (S. of S. 2:3).
The word, apple, in this place, means orange, pomegranate,
citron, as well as apple, and is applied in the Hebrew to this entire family of fruit
trees. Though one searched through all the
forests of earth, he would not find one fruit tree; and though one searches through the
whole forest of unregenerated humanity, there is not one tree there that can bear any
fruit excepting that which is poisonous and bitter. Before
the Shulamite found that one fruitful Tree, Christ, she searched throughout the forest,
seeking life, seeking food, seeking fruit; but upon no tree did she find anything but
leaves.
With
intense desire she searched through the forest to find a tree that had fruit on it! With determination she looked here and there for a
tree that could give and sustain life. Weary
and exhausted, discouraged and hungry, she looked for peace, but she found it not; she
looked for fulfillment, but she found it not; she sought for a true husband
among the forest of men, but she found none. Neither
in mans creeds or doctrines, nor in their sacraments, programs, traditions, or
forms, did she find that which her soul longed for. Neither
in her own works nor in those of any other did she find contentment or spiritual
advancement. How she traveled and looked for
reality and could not find it!
At
last, by the guidance and purpose of God she came to Him who is the only Apple
Tree in the whole forest of humanity; the tree bearing the richest and most
nutritious of all the fruits of earth. She
came and tasted and found that in HIM there is life more abundant! She has partaken of Christ, the one and only Tree
of Life; she has found fruit, refreshing and sweet, both nourishing as food and
transforming in power. She has found the
tree with the most complete and energizing fruit, and fruit all the time. It is the fruit of eternal life and glory! There is righteousness, peace, joy, knowledge,
wisdom, and power!
Ah,
precious friend of mine, have you come to the one Apple Tree and partaken of His glorious
and eternal reality? Is your soul longing for
the full nourishment of His holy life and nature? Do
you want the love of God to be perfected within your life?
Do you desire above all else to put on His mind and to be conformed to His
glorious image a mature son of God? Then
come and feed upon this Tree, Christ. This is
the Tree that was planted on earth when Jesus came at Pentecost in the power of the
Spirit. God planted that Tree, the Tree is
Christ, and only by the spirit do we have access to it.
And we find that it is all that we need! With unutterable loathing we turn from every
bitter and poisonous tree, from every tree bearing naught but leaves. With haste we flee from every tree of mans
theories, philosophies, creeds, and religious works, for they are empty and powerless.
Many
precious brethren are perplexed that we no longer find any desire to fellowship with them
in their religious ceremonies and rituals, in their so-called holy days and
festive seasons, in their carnal ordinances and pitiful programs, in their static creeds
and petty doctrines, in their fleshly board meetings and organizations. They wonder why we dont run from meeting to
meeting, from seminar to seminar, from campaign to campaign, to hear every preacher, and
teacher, and prophet, and healer, and miracle worker who passes through town. I do not want to beat about the bush in what I am
saying, but I want to speak my earnest convictions with clarity and assurance. I find that even the Christian bookstores with
their endless shelves of books filled with spiritual Pablum, if not with spiritual
nonsense, have become a stench to my spirit. I
tell you of a truth that I find the vast majority of the Christian radio and television
stations, with their religious racketeers, showmanship, Jesus rock and confusion of
tongues to be nothing more nor less than ambassadors of the kingdom of Babylon. Those things satisfied once, but now I have tasted
of the fruit of a tree more delicious, satisfying, and life giving than all CHRIST
HIMSELF!
Paul
had revelations so great he could not even hint at what they were about, so startling and
glorious that he fell as dead before the wonder of them, but he still cried out with deep
desire, THAT I MAY KNOW HIM
(Phil. 3:10).
It is that FULL, inward revelation of HIMSELF that we follow after. This is an imperative MUST, and it is this very
thing that is causing us to turn from the chambers of Babylon, yea, and to lay down our
own lives also, that we might know HIS LIFE in fullest measure. It is this which, as the parable states, is
like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great
price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it (Mat. 13:45-46). Ah, yes, we gladly offer up all that we have, that
we might receive HIM, and all the fullness of redemption which is resident in Him, our
Tree of Life.
It is
not only to find the one Apple Tree, but it is to take up our abode under its shadow. It is not only to taste of its fruit, but it is to
eat and be filled with all the fruit that grows upon this divine Tree; it is to feed upon
Him continually until we are filled with all the fullness of Christ, until we are strong
in Him and in the power of His might. Oh
wonderful Tree that dwelt in the bosom of the Father from eternity! Oh marvelous Tree planted of old in Edens
lovely garden! Oh precious Tree planted among
men as the Son of the Father, planted by the power of the eternal Spirit, of whose fruit
millions have partaken, and whose fruit is ours as we partake of it through faith! Oh eternal fruit, gathered for the eternal
Kingdom, as He brings many sons to glory and brings them home to His Fathers house! How sweet is this fruit to our taste, how
satisfying is every morsel of which we partake! And
we can feed to the full for the fruit is ever growing, ever being revealed to us, always
perfect, and never passes away.
How
we rejoice that we have proven there is fruit upon Him; and by feeding upon Him and Him
alone, we too bear fruit to His glory. He is
our Storehouse, He is the only fruitful Tree, and we can get nothing outside of Him, but
we can get everything in Him. The more we
feed upon Him, the more we abide in Him. The
more He feeds and nourishes us, the more He becomes manifested in our lives to the glory
of God.
There
is none other like Him among all the sons of men, neither among the archangels in heaven. And we are made ONE IN HIM, blessed be His name!
To be continued J. PRESTON EBY
If you would like to receive these studies write to:
J. Preston Eby
P.O. Box 371240
El Paso TX 79937-1240
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