Just Who is Going to Be God? Part 6

I have often heard the appeal to sincerity. Will “feeing good” about a thing EVER be the safe way to determine if it is right or wrong? Those who are “lazy” about their search for the mind of God “feel” that if they FEEL it is alright then it MUST be alright. Is this safe in any field of endeavor? Isn’t the soul more valuable than to treat it with indignity and GAMBLE on something being right when you can be SURE?? How many times have you “felt” you had enough money in the Bank before the mail runs and there is a notice of ‘overdrawn’ sent on your account? How many men or women have “felt” their marriage was secure just to find out their mate had been roaming around like an old dog with some other person or persons? How many have “felt” their jobs to be secure the day BEFORE they were given their pink slips? “Feelings don’t put money in the Bank, bring mates back to their senses, give you your jobs back, or cause God to deny His Word??

The conversion of Cornelius, Acts 10:1-45, relates a man who was told to do “whatever HE saith unto you “. Cornelius did not “stay at home until the children were old enough to set still during a worship service” nor did he find “ peace” with himself staying at home because he was sick”. He had to obey God!!

Saul of Tarsus is our next example, Acts 26:1-9. Saul “lived in all good conscience, until that day.” What day? The day he met Jesus on the way to Damascus. Saul was trying to destroy what Christ had just brought into being. One of the fiercest antagonist ever to come against the Church of Christ, Saul was changed into the greatest evangelist ever to grace this planet.

People might reason like this: “well, he meant well”. Can sincerity take poison and turn it into aspirin?? Can meaning well be allowed to dethrone God?? When one changes the law of God by sincerity, does it make the offender any less guilty?? If the sincere can cause Christ to have died in vain, the apostles to have preached in vain, and you and I to have obeyed what was not convenient, sincerity becomes greater than God!! Was Satan not sincere in the Garden of Eden? Can anyone be lost if sincerity is the final test?? Judas Iscariot would be a saint IF this lie were to be accepted by God!!

All who are children of God will be judged by the “word that I have spoken unto you.” John 12:48, Acts 17:30 It cost Jesus Christ His own blood to bring this plan called “grace” into existence. Is there anyone alive, today who finds greater acceptance with God the Father than He?? Christ died for His Church to be a reality; can man ignore what Christ thought and prized so highly and STILL enter the ranks of the saved in eternity?? Again, why did Christ die?? The apostle Paul wrote to his son in the gospel, Timothy: “I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, preach the word, be instant in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine; but will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, seeking to draw away disciples after them.” 2 Timothy 4:1 If God can easily overlook the death of His Son, the sacrifices of the apostles of His Son, the lives of countless saints for 2,000 years, and the words left from the memoirs of the Apostles then sincerity can be allowed—judge for yourself!! He, who formulated this plan before time was ever in existence, covenanted with Christ to raise Him from the dead, foresaw death at Calvary as the only payment for sin. Could He be believed IF He changed His mind, now?? IF He could save man any other way than by THE plan revealed by His Holy Spirit, why did He not tell us of this plan?? He, who cannot lie, would be found a liar and would not be God!! Romans 3:4

Just Who is Going to Be God? Part 5

Jesus said: “Greater love hath no man than this, that He lay down His life for His friends-ye are My friends IF you do whatsoever I have commanded you.” John 15:13-14 Paul wrote: “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ephesians 3:9-11 Love paid the price! “God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 Christ ransomed us from the depths of Hell at the expense of His life—“no man ever loved us like Jesus.”

We can see love working for our benefit: “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him.” Luke 23:33 On the day of Pentecost, some 53 days later, we see love again intervening: “And they cried unto Peter and the rest of the apostles; Men and brethren, what shall we do? They Peter said unto them; Repent and be Baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:37-38 This plan, mystery, grace that was announced that day gave man what he never before had, a fire escape from Hell!! “We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip, For if the word spoken by angels (apostles) was steadfast (guaranteed, sure), and every transgression and disobedience (changing the apostles doctrine in the slightest manner) received a just recompense of reward (the immediate termination of the one who changes the plan of God); “ How shall we escape (the place called Hell), if we neglect (do not heed, pay it no mind) so great salvation (God’s grace, mystery, plan, gospel); which at first began to be spoken unto us by the Lord (Mark 16:16) and was confirmed unto us by them (the apostles by the working of miracles) that heard Him, God bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders (Sun into darkness and moon into blood), and with divers (many) gifts of the Holy Ghost (tongues, raising the dead, healing the blind, causing the agent of Satan to become dumb), according to His own will?” Hebrews 2:1-4 Finally, “Ye were the servants of sin, but God be thanked, you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine delivered unto you. Being THEN made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.” Romans 6:17-18 “God having provided something better for us.” Hebrews 11:40 To show the gracious Will of God, the first people He saved, were the people that crucified His only begotten Son!! Does not He who paid the price, the ransom have the right to stipulate the terms of forgiveness??

This could never describe a denominational body; church– for no denominational church has ever had a HEAD who laid down their lives to bring them into existence!! Which master will I serve?? The one who died for me or the one who deceives me?? “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matthew 24:24 You had better be sure: ”And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end (retribution) shall be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 Our Savior guarantees His plan as He is in Heaven interceding for all who obey Him—all denominational heads of state are still in their graves!!

Just Who is Going to Be God? Part 4

The foolish doctrine of Calvin which has been written into the creeds of several major denominations is the doctrine of inherent depravity. The doctrine goes, that man is inherently depraved from Adam and can do nothing about it himself, making him actually not responsible for his sin. They then reason and come up with the doctrine of election. Their doctrine of election teaches that man’s justification is wholly of grace. They define grace as “the un-merited favor of God to man” and infer it to be some “area of foamy congeniality to get by the commands of God”. They leave man with no responsibility for his condition. So, if anyone is lost it is because God provided nothing for them making Him a respecter of persons. This doctrine flatly contradicts the teaching of Romans 5:18: “even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life.” The grace of God is unconditional, instructing us, to the intent, that,” denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world”. Titus 2:11-12

We who have studied the Book know “grace” to be the plan by which man can be saved that was delivered by God! Everywhere we find the word “grace” if we would just define it as God’s plan revealed that allows man’s obedience ending in the salvation of the soul. The grace of God is the answer to man’s most urgent need. Sin has ruled and ruined all men as it brings death to all men. But God revealed His plan by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This “plan”, when obeyed, obligates God (since it is from His mind) to render every man free of sin by fulfilling God’s requirements. This plan MUST be the rule of our lives. “That, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:21 God didn’t stop with just telling man he was a sinner, He went on to show man HOW to get out of that vale of damnation into the favored spot called “in Christ”!!

Jesus Christ is our Savior, given to us, our redeemer, our instructor, the revelation or appearing of God’s means, used to deliver His grace! “For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:11-14 This sounds very much as if there is much expected for the “people of the Book” in denying, living, and working in order to share in God’s grace and its provisions.

Those who follow Calvin and Luther think that the Bible teaches that there is NOTHING we can or should do in order to be saved. They have miss-defined the word “grace”! A plan is NO good if it not WORKED!! They suppose Ephesians 2:8-9 helps their doctrinal position. IF they would just read that verse they would hide their head. Paul is writing about “grace” but it is God’s “grace”, His plan that is His FREE GIFT. He continues in the verse to tell us OUR FAITH, WORKS, OBEDIENCE to that plan SAVES US!! God provided the means; man provides the work, faith, obedience to that plan. This “plan, grace” was a gift from God (He did not owe us anything; He did not have to help us out of our mess). IN other words we did not earn, deserve, or merit salvation, furthermore, WE did NOTHING to earn, gain, cause God to give us the “way of escape”!! Grace, the plan is GOD’S PART; man could not help, work, merit, or devise this plan. The story of Abraham offering Isaac tells all—“GOD WILL PROVIDE”

Just Who is Going to Be God? Part 3

Ransomed by the blood of Christ, we are set free and become the property of the ransom-er!! In the days of yore, the custom was when a man saved another’s life, the man whose life was saved owed his life to the one who saved him. If this practice proves true today, all we who have been baptized into Christ owe our lives to our Master; for it was He who died in our stead!! Some never give this much thought, but Christ died in our stead!! The sins for which He gave His life’s blood were OUR sins, not His: “which of you can convince Me of sin?”, John 8:46. When Christ died He paid a price had we died for our sins we could not have paid!

“Greater love hath no man than this, that He lay down His life for His friends.” John 15:13-14 Most think Jesus died for the sins of the world. They do not read the rest of His statement: “Ye are My friends, IF ye do whatsoever I command you.”!! Jesus died for His Church, His friends belong to His Church, He added them to it when they repented and were baptized for the remission of sins. Acts 2:38-47 They are they whom He ransomed: “Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for “many.” Matthew 20:28 Many is not a word to go unnoticed. “As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as “many” as Thou hast given Him.” John 17:2 When the word “many” is an inclusive Semitic term as is used in Isaiah 53:12, Daniel 12:2, and Romans 5:19 it describes forever who is being named. Many becomes a code word for the chosen of Ephesians 1:4. “For as by one man’s disobedience the “many” were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall the “many” be made righteous.” Paul writes to the Corinthian brethren in 1 Corinthians 10: 17: “For we, the “many”, are one bread and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” The actual Greek in this passage is “because one loaf, one body the many we are; the for all of the one loaf we partake.” Most translate this passage “being many” which causes it to lose its power! We are the many!! It was this “many” that are “baptized into Christ to put on Christ”. Galatians 3:27 Remember, Simon Peter is quoted as saying; “For this promise is to you, to your children, and as “many” as the Lord our God shall call.” Acts 2:39 The “ransomed” are the “many” and the “many” are the “ransomed” and “many” is often used to denote the chosen!

Isaiah 53:10-11, Isaiah foresaw the Lord as the “atoning sacrifice”. Ransom, lutron in the Greek, comes from the language of the courts, Exodus 21:30, 30:12. Jesus offered His own ministry among them as an example of true servant hood. His entire purpose, His entire life, was shaped by His decision to serve. His ultimate act of service was the giving of His life on the cross. A ransom was paid to free a prisoner of war or to purchase freedom for a slave. Isaiah uses the Hebrew word asham which means an “atoning sacrifice” The payment had to be made to God, the Father. When used in reference to the Greek word apolutrosis (in our text), it excludes the possibility that the ransom is paid to Satan. With these words Jesus bore witness to His role as the Suffering Servant of the Lord prophesied in Isaiah.

We must not get the impression that God’s grace and free gift of justification and eternal life are unconditional. That is the foolish doctrine of Calvin which has been written into the creeds of several major denominations. Man cannot save himself, but he can accept, by obeying Christ commands and complying with the conditions, the salvation and eternal life which God has provided!!

Just Who is Going to Be God? Part 2

Nobody ever questions the fact that children of God are sinners. The vast difference between children of God and those who have not accepted the grace of God is relationship. Those of us who have “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, delivered” have established a family relationship with God the Father! Does this make us sin less? No, but it provides for us an avenue of means to eradicate that sin WHEN it occurs. When one is baptized into Christ for the remission of sins-Christ adds them to His body, the Church. This may not sound like much, but when you consider this affect in your physical body, this might mean a lot more to you.

In the physical body disease has a way of being attacked that is like the spiritual body. In the body, the blood flows throughout. When the flow of blood reaches the infection, the anti-bodies in the blood attack the diseased part, kills it, and it is then washed away-flushed out of the system. As a child of God, being added to the body of Christ, when sin is committed since the blood flows throughout the body, the blood washes the sin away. The sinner who has not established that relationship of kinship, brotherhood, obedience cannot expect such a blessing. We, children of God may not be better, but we are protected!! Blood relatives because we have met the blood of Christ, HAVE HOPE!!

When we are baptized into Christ for the remission of sin, Acts 2:38, we come in contact with the blood of God’s Son. We do this be meeting Him in that burial in water wherein He takes His blood and cuts loose the sin from the soul. “In whom you have been circumcised with a circumcision not make with hands through the putting off the body of sins by the circumcision of Christ. Buried with Him by baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” Colossians 2:11-13 You can’t miss this with help!! When one becomes a child of God, God adds them to His body. Acts 2:47 In His body, the church (Ephesians 5:23-25) His blood flows. The clarion call comes for help when His children cry the filial cry for help. Christ the established high priest because of the established relationship comes to our aid BEFORE we cry (having established this plan so we can continue in a saved relationship!!) Living in the Body of Christ gives each child what the sinner can never claim—HOPE. It was the Master who said: “if you die in your sin, whither I go you cannot come.” John 8:21 The child of God, then, is no less a sinner, he is a protected sinner because of the family relationship by “walking in the light”!! 1 John 1:7-9 For some man-made religion to spread a false religion denying the Word of God and God’s plan, nullifying the grace (plan) of God makes them ‘PLAY GOD’!!

We are ransomed! Matthew 20:28 The laws of ransom explain the salvation of God, completely. The person ransomed has NOTHING to do with negotiations, price paid, arrangements, when and where freedom comes, or what it takes to set them FREE!! The ransoming one makes all the negotiations, terms of release, when and where freedom is to occur and in what manner it is to come with the one who holds them in captivity. The captive is the sinner; the sinner has offended God, the Father, God, the Father HATES sin and will not overlook the sinner. Christ was given an opportunity to die for the sins of His Church. He died, took His blood in His resurrected body to the throne of God in Heaven, offered to the Father. The Father accepted Christ blood, Titus 3:5 tells us it is not by OUR WORKS, but by the WORK of Christ we are saved!!

Just Who is Going to Be God?

Appearances are deceiving. What appears to be not always true, sometimes is! Some religious people seem to be in love with the Lord. They have religious traits, they speak a religious language, their actions seem religious, and they appear to be in love with Jesus Christ. When told these people are lost, the young Christian is profoundly perplexed. Considering that we all are sinners (some of us have established a Father-son relationship with God by obedience to His Son), it seems contradictory, hypocritical, and illogical for the outsider to think these good, honest (or at least they seem to be) God-loving people to be told by us they are lost!! Yet, we must!!

Many view people who take a stand on such matters as hard, indifferent to the feelings of others, uncaring, vindictive, misunderstanding, and offensive. These would not dare themselves to be that narrow-minded and calloused of heart. To these-Christianity is a “feel-good” religion that cannot hurt anyone’s feelings. They have never considered they might hurt the heart of Him who died for them!! We can answer this dilemma by presenting another dilemma maybe never considered: just who is going to be God?

Can the kettle call the stove black? Since children of God are sinners, what makes us call others sinners? “Then said Jesus again unto them, I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins, whither I go, ye cannot come.” John 8:21 There is an eternal difference between “in sin” and “in Christ”!! Paul writes: ”Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having NO hope, and without God in the world: But now “in Christ Jesus”, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:11-13 Would you not imagine this kind of preaching would hurt the feelings of some of those in denominationalism, today!! What do we do to get “into Christ”? I though you would never ask! One is baptized “into Christ”!! Romans 6:3, Galatians 3:26-27 Those who think baptism un-important need to consider who made baptism important!! Just who is going to be God?

Again, the Jew had sinned as had the Gentile, BUT THEY (THE JEW) HAD HOPE—THE GENTILES DIDN’T!! The reason the Jews had hope was the covenant made between God and Abraham that Christ would come to this world, through the Jew, to save the Church!! Genesis 12, 15, 17; John 3:16; Luke 19:10; Acts 20:28 The prophets, wise men, and mothers had kept before them for 1500 years the Messiah was coming!! Because God had established a relationship with the Jew, they had hope “in Christ”!! Maybe you don’t agree to the significance of this covenant, but God did!! Paul wrote that “at that time ye were without Christ (the promise made to the Jew), being aliens to from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in this world”!! Now, friend it would take help to misunderstand this verse!! The Jewish male could PROVE his covenant relationship with God, he was circumcised, physically!! So, can the member of the Church of Christ, we are baptized into Christ!! “In whom ye have been circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands through the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ”. Colossians 2:11 HOW?, you might ask? Read on: “”buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God; who hath raised Him from the dead.” Colossians 2:12

Defining Christ Part 8

And now the purpose for creation becomes apparent, now the reason for God, the Word becoming a high priest is fulfilled (priest comes from the Hebrew word “cohen” which means bridge builder), now all that the Father ever intended is reality, for NOW the Church of Christ will come into existence!! “And to make all men see (understand, know, comprehend) what is the fellowship (all three who possess the nature called God working together—(what a wonderful plan it is which requires the entirety of Deity) to bring about the mystery (the plan of the Father become reality and really exist) so man who had sinned, who had no way to remedy that default in his character—could enter an institution, the “called out who had now been made citizens” that would entitle the damned, because of unforgiven sin, forgiveness and inheritance in what the Father had conceived millenniums before, in His new creation, which had been bought by the blood of His only begotten Son, His fellow Deity.

God, the Father had a plan, God, the Son—called the Word, volunteered to bring that plan into existence, and God, the Spirit would communicate this plan so “whosoever will” obey from their hearts that form of doctrine, they can be added to sinless humanity, reserved in Paradise. Until the Father has had enough of the unrepentant and ended the “scheme of redemption” without apology or needed explanation, bringing the end of “time” and the beginning of sinless glorification for the newly elected “heirs of righteousness” He has united the “family in Heaven and on Earth,” forever and ever!!

Before this revelation of “the mystery,” God, the Word, had been treated with unbelievable hatred, cursed, spit on, and taunted. Those to whom He came rejected Him in a terrible show of disrespect for One who had healed their sick, given sight to their blind, physically fed their sons and daughters, and on and on; yet without thought to any received kindness, men and women reviled, mocked His name and character, even showed no respect for His mother, nor care for untold kindnesses He had openly and freely given. On the day of Pentecost, when He rightfully could have repaid them for their insults, He joyously gave these same peoples the message that would save their souls and that of their children who were accountable.

Unfortunately, we who have been “invited” into His Kingdom, have treated Him and His authority worse. Yet every time if we are humble and repentant, we can go by Him to His Father, He takes us into the presence of a Being we do no even the right to be in the same room with—and ask Him the desires of our hearts without restraint!! This is the “eternal purpose” the Father had in Christ Jesus, His Son. He has told us the reason WHY! “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither My ways, your ways.” This makes it clear that God is just different, better, beyond our abilities to understand—while at the same time make us determined to be more like Him every day we are privileged to live so someday we can spend the rest of our existence with a Being of such majesty. Often, we never consider our blessings—we do not understand how to not be selfish!!

Finally, God, the Father has, through His Son, Christ given us the way to live “before Him in love.” The Old Testament Jew could never “touch the hem of His garment” because nothing was theirs that would allow them to change, to become like, to have the mind of God!! We do!! Again, He, the Holy Spirit, is blessing us with His great ability to understand the Father so we can express to Him what we need. When we cannot express this in the way the Father desires, He even over-rides our control mechanisms with our will and not against our will and never brags, foolishly!!

Defining Christ Part 7

There are many things we can write about our “big” Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. If sixty six books written by the inspiration we will never touch the hem of the garment, how could we do more?? “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” John 21:25 How, then, could it be expected that more be written that could or would be more definitive?? That is not our purpose—our purpose is/was to aid those who are disposed to read this effort to a greater appreciation of Him for whom the word ALL cannot begin to describe—either in power, wisdom, glory, love, commitment–here words begin to fail!! No might or power could ever begin to match His story which began before there was ever anything and will never end when He who was and is might end, which He cannot, because He is life.

The incomprehensible story of the love He had and has for Him who ignited a string of incidents that Christ made real and existent is beyond human reasoning. What a concept! What a plan! What a Savior!! That a Being so far removed from need or desire could possess such a “heart” that could include the creation and re-creation of all who will prove their love for Him and those whom He loved, and that another of His kind could be so humble to never even have His name known after writing 66 books about His Fellow with whom He was/is equal. Who, after finishing this work of communication, would take on the molding and re-making of that blood-bought humanity, for whom the world was made, Himself being the second of the nature called God to work, live, and fight with beings so inferior to His nature, being so much far greater, no comparison could ever be drawn that could express equity. This must be or should be impossible, seeing we recently came from sin, having left the comforts of “home with God” for a lesser being than ourselves, created-that had a beginning as we, who has done nothing since he went blind with hate for all that is good and holy, doing nothing but destroy what He, who10 from whom this began as thought, conceived!! Our damnation, which could NEVER affect His person, place, or being, became His agony. He spends the existence between two eternities in what is called time, fighting with we who do not even know we are our own worst enemies!! We have become His tireless passion, one that only a being with the nature called God would ever undertake, never daunted, dismayed, ready to quit, or deny “that which He began in us, He must finish,” which He WILL finish, unless we pull out of the race that has been set before us with an insult that can’t and won’t ever say—“Thanks”!! Working tirelessly without benefit to His person, His name is used mockingly in modern denominationalism. They even make a division among those in Christianity, stealing the hearts of those who would follow His beloved Christ, justifying their existence by claiming a power for their experiences and mumblings, from this Great Spirit who has never been anything but true to the cause, as their source.

This I AM that I AM, Oh! What a glorious Being!! and to think we would NEVER have known Him had it not been for the selfless, predetermined, predestined chief resident of Heaven who intends to share ALL that He has and is with the disgusting creation that began with such promise, who wound up killing His only begotten Son in a place in the Hebrew tongue called Armageddon, choosing a reprobate, drunk with blood, in His place!! Thinking this destroyed the “mystery,” man found out 53 days later how this WAS in fact the plan, mystery “hidden from the foundations of the world.”!! On that day, the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter UTTERED that that had been hidden!!

Defining Christ Part 6

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend (receive the fullness of what is promised, in Christ): that for which also I am apprehended (given, as promised and already in place) of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14 We are seeking to com-prehend the things done for us in the great Mystery. “Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us.” As such “not a bone of Him was broken.” There is no contradiction, yet, “He died for us.”

He has become our Prophet, as well as our High Priest; and has declared to us the will of God, the whole will of God concerning our estate, person, possibility, and value. He is our light, as well as our sin-offering. He has been made Lord for us. To make Christ Lord for us, as well as of us—was the last act of last secret of the mystery of Christ, which Peter announced on the day of Pentecost: “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ.” To make Him Lord for the “All”, was to invest Him with universal authority, that He might have it in His power to give eternal life to All His people. Jesus, in one of His prayers, in anticipation of His investiture, says, “Thou hast given Him power over ALL flesh that He might give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” As Father and Husband, He reigns as King and Benefactor to those who are His by the new birth, apart of His family, subject to His authority, and called by His Name. After His resurrection from the dead, and ascension into heaven, He was crowned Lord of angels, as well as Lord of men; and therefore He said, “All authority,” or lordship, “in heaven and on earth is given Me.” He is now the Lord of Hosts as well as the “Head of the Church, which is His body”. This appellation describes Him as “head”, the “commander-in-chief” of the Armed Forces on Earth—the Churches of Christ, and of the legions of angels in the heavens, the armies of the skies, given to Him;–for what, why were they given Him? That He might be able to do All for us that our condition requires (a subject we will someday discuss). It was for us He has been made Lord of Hosts, King of the universe, Judge and avenger (and in that order) of those called the “All”. He is Lord of life, Lord of the Spirit, Lord of the “All”!!

With these impressive credentials, He became a sacrifice—and following His sacrifice—He became our High Priest!! We need a Leader, a luminary, a Sun of Righteousness; and we want one who can always help us “in time of need,” when we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with the rulers of the darkness of this world; with the wicked spirits of the air (beings far out of our league with whom we must battle) — not seen by human eye, are under the watchful perception of our Liege. If Jesus Himself, in one of these conflicts, needed an angel to minister to Him, we more!

Three things are done for the ‘ALL’ by Him: a sin-offering is presented; a lamp of life is put into our hands; and all the active powers and energies in the wide universe are placed at the command of our King whenever He needs them. These are things already done!! The Holy Spirit, and all the angels of Heaven are now at the disposal of our Savior; for in Him all the promises of God are laid up; all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and all the fullness of the Deity, reside fully and truly in Him-which has culminated and is revealed in, what is called, “the Mystery of the Ages,” that we preach!!

Defining Christ Part 5

There is another God equal to and dependent on none, the name we have given us of Him is the Spirit. In the New Testament He is addressed as the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost. As there is man and the spirit of man, so there is God and the Spirit of God. They are capable of a separate and distinct existence. “What man knoweth the things of man,” says Paul, “but the spirit of man that is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.” There is in this case an image of God in man—not , indeed an exact image, but an image; for as Paul says of the law, so say we of man—“For the law had a shadow (a resemblance) of good things to come, and not the very (or exact) image of those things.” So man was made “an image” of God, though not the exact image. The active power of man is in his spirit. So John the Baptizer came in the power of Elijah, because he came in his spirit. The Spirit of God is therefore often used for His power; though it is not an impersonal power, but a living, energizing, active, personal existence. In all the works of God, the Spirit of God is the active operating agent. So, in the old creation, while ancient chaos yet remained—when ”the earth was without form and void, and darkness brooded on the bosom of the vast abyss,” the Spirit of God “moved (incubated and energized-brought order out of chaos or dis-organization) upon the face of the waters.” “The hand of the Lord has made me, and the Spirit of the Almighty has given me life.” “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” And so was chaos subdued, man vitalized, “the heavens garnished,” and the body of Jesus made by the Spirit of God.

There is the Spirit, as it is said, to do, and to have done, all that God does and all that God has done. He has all divine perfections and works; and in the New Testament He is designated as the immediate author and agent of the new creation, and of the holiness of Christians. It is therefore call the Holy Spirit. In the relation of the deity, or godhead, He stands next to the Incarnate Word. Before time, it was God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. But now, in the finality of redemption, it is “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”—one God, one Lord, one Spirit. To us Christians there is, then, but one God, even the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, even the Savior; and one Spirit, even the Advocate, the Sanctifier, and the Comforter of Christ’s body—the church. Jesus is the head, and the Spirit is the life and animating principle of that body.

Creation, providence, and redemption are founded upon these relations in the Deity. Destroy these, blend and confound these, and nature, providence, and grace are blended, confounded, and destroyed. The excellency of the Christian system is, that it fully opens to the vision of mortals the divinity—the whole godhead employed in the work of man’s regeneration and ultimate glorification. God was manifest in human flesh, and is justified and glorified by the Spirit, in accomplishing man’s deliverance from ruin. Each being of the sacred three has its own peculiar work and glory and neither interferes with the other’s work. We are, by divine authority, baptized into the name of the sacred three; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in coming into the kingdom of grace; and while in that kingdom the supreme benediction is, “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you!” In the old church, the moonlight period, the High Priest of Israel was commanded to put the name of the Lord upon the children of Israel, —“The Lord bless thee and keep thee—make His countenance shine upon thee, and give thee peace (the communion of the Spirit).