Sugar Sticks for 8-01

Divine Sugar Sticks for August 2001

Need a quick spiritual energy boost? Here's just what you need ... Divine Sugar Sticks. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

What's the background behind Sugar Sticks? Click here to find out.

Wednesday, August 1, 2001

“Who Did Not Spare His Own Son But Delivered Him up for Us All, How Shall He Not With Him Freely Give Us All Things,” Romans 8:32

Here is Divine encouragement. Here is also Christian motivation.

There is hope despite our present ignorance, despite our old sin natures, despite living in the devil’s world. This is a good reason for striving for the goal. Rom 8:32 reiterates this clear line of thinking, which we find also in Rom 5:12-17.

Not only are fear and panic put aside, but the objective, Grace prosperity, is made dramatically clear, encouraging us to face the pressure situation with the Word of God and to keep moving in the Plan of God.

Look at Rom 8:32 once again. Do you see what is there? The character of God is written all over this verse.

The verb “PARADIDOMAI” means to “deliver over” as a judge delivers over a condemned criminal to the executioner. This is the thinking of the Judge, which is the righteousness and justice of God.

When sudden disaster or unexpected pressure stings us into a status of non-thinking, the recovery technique jogs our memory, reminding us of another “crisis.”

“Who Delivered Him up for us All,” Romans 8:32

There was a moment in which God, in His absolute, eternal, infinite, and perfect essence, had to make a crucial decision. What He chose is, for us, the ultimate encouragement.

The Father had to decide whether or not to judge His Beloved Son. It was an awesome, far-reaching decision. But in eternity past, God made up His mind not to spare His own unique Son and in A. D. 30 He carried out that decision.

The Cross has always been a fact in the Divine decrees, and for the past 2,000 years it has also been a fact of history.

Justice before love! The justice of God always takes precedence over the love of God. In eternity past, in past history, now, and forever.

“God Spared Not His Own Unique Son But Delivered Him up for us All,” Romans 8:32

God could not love us for ourselves. The only human being He could love was the only sinless Man who ever lived.

We deserve judgment, but God desired to demonstrate His own glory through blessing us, not through judging us. The genius of Divine essence went to work. The Father chose to impute every human sin to the Lord Jesus Christ for judgment.

“On behalf of us all.” The preposition is “HUPER.” And the Son chose to take our place, submitting to utter humiliation and indescribable torture.

We are left speechless by what has been accomplished for us. But judgment and humiliation are not the final goal. If God did the most difficult thing in judging His Son for sins that were not His own, then with greater reason, when that same relentless justice turns upon us, it will not stop short of blessing those who have accepted the completed work of the Cross.

In the dramatically understated words of Romans 8:32, “How shall He not with Him freely (graciously) give us the all things?”

**“Freely (Graciously) Give us the All Things”**

The verb “CHARIZONAI” means “to give graciously, to give beneficially, to give in Grace. We might even translate it to Grace out.

From the moment of salvation, God surrounds us in Grace. And what is Grace? Have we suddenly switched from justice to love? Has sentimentality taken over? Certainly not!

Grace is the policy of Divine justice in blessing us. Because of justice, specifically because justice Graced us out by imputing God’s righteousness to us, God can and does now love us with perfect love.

But, justice remains our point of contact with God. And we would want it no other way. Justice handled our worst. Justice can now hand us God’s best without skipping a beat.

But what are “the all things” that God has promised us? We look back as far as Rom 8:28 to find the answer. The justice of God carries out the plan of God, which moves on inexorably, it behooves us to move in the same direction. God works all things together for good for the one who is moving in the direction of the plan of God.

In time of crisis, the believer stabilizes his mind with Rom 8:28, then through Rom 8:29, 30 he calls upon the resources of the Word of God which have been stored in his soul. The general conclusion is that Rom 8:31 is that the justice of God is for us, nothing and no one can be against us.

And more specifically in Rom 8:32, if the justice of God is proved to be “for us” in the most difficult situation of the Cross, then the same justice is working on our behalf in the “minor” crisis of the moment.

Infinite Energy and Power Belong to God, Psalm 8:3

He does not sleep. He never gets tired. After billions of years, He is still not worn out and He never will be. And we need to adjust to that.

God is compassionate, but He is not absurd. So don’t expect Him to sympathize with our lame excuse that we are too tired to take in the Word of God and fulfill our responsibilities in life. When you need energy for doing His will, He provides the energy.

By applying what we know of the infinity of God, we can see that God will always provide and that we must therefore carry on no matter what we feel. God never condones “give-up-itis.”

When we start making excuses, we develop maladjustments to God and the Grace of God. God’s promises and resting in His promises are all related to His infinity. He has no limitations and we can rest in that fact.

When we recognize His infinity, we can understand that He works all things together for the good, and we can draw out from our souls the principles of God’s Plan and Grace. We can reach Doctrinal conclusions and take control of any situation we meet.

When we recognize the infinity of His energy and resources, we never construe the actions we take or the human energy we exert as a result of resting in the promises of God, to be a means of gaining God’s approbation.

“All Things Exist for the Glory of God”

Exodus 33:18; Psa 19:1; Isa 6:3; Matt 6:13; Acts 7:2; Rom 1:23, 9:23; Heb 1:3; 1 Pet 4:14

Apart from this fact, they would not exist. Because of it they do. This is not to say that sinful, evil, self-righteous creatures glorify God. The only thing that impresses God and glorifies God is what God Himself does.

He cannot gain from us because His perfect character is infinite with no room for improvement or gain.

Because we are creatures with free will, when we are positive toward the Word of God, to the point of spiritual maturity, God is free to do things for us that glorify Him in a fantastic way as we go along for the ride.

There is no contradiction in even the fact that the wrath of man or any creature will praise God. Rom 3:5-23 and Psalm 76:10.

We are born with old sin natures. We are spiritually dead the moment we became physically alive. Not merely dead to God, but antagonistic to Him, in total violation of His character.

But from His character, God found a way to save us by judging our sins in Christ on the Cross, and in His essence, Christ presides as the Chief Justice of the supreme court of Heaven, John 5:22, 27, the other two Justices being the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Christ’s infinity demands His glory in His decisions regarding human beings and human history. Judgments are constantly being handed down from the supreme court of Heaven and whenever Christ renders a judgment, whether for blessing or for cursing, whether it be to an individual, a group, or a nation, He Himself is glorified in providing that judgment.

God’s glory was before all creation, John 17:5, and it will exist after history as it has before.

“Therefore Having Been Justified by Faith, Let us Have Peace With God Through Our Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:1

God’s purpose for our lives has been stated in some detail – blessing, blessing, and more blessing. The hortatory subjunctive mood in the Greek in this verse expresses a command which encourages and enjoins voluntary compliance.

”Let us have prosperity.”

This is not a simple statement in the indicative mood, as the King James translation suggests, nor is the noun “EIRENE” correctly rendered “peace.” Like the Hebrew word “SHALOM,” the Greek word of the greeting means “prosperity.”

Every human being is beneficiary at birth of two imputations – human life in the soul and Adam’s original sin to the old sin nature. Then when anyone believes in Christ, he personally appropriates his personal sins to Christ on the Cross, and he receives God’s righteousness and eternal life.

Every believer who has ever lived has been benefited by these actions from the Divine justice at his point of contact with God. But just as salvation carries the plan of God a stage beyond human birth and spiritual death, there is yet a stage beyond salvation. This is the realm of maximum blessing from the justice of God.

For the unbeliever, salvation is merely a potential. Likewise special blessings are merely a potential for the negative believer. You are alive forever as a human being. You are saved forever as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. But you may or may not see the justice of God pouring out blessings through the Grace of God to the righteousness of God in the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is given only to the believer, who through the intake of the Word of God, possesses capacity for blessings. By believing in Christ, we, as it were, exchanged our sins for God’s righteousness, so that we actually possess half of the essence of God. Only when we have His righteousness is there a target in us which God can pour out blessings as we reach spiritual maturity.

This is the difference in growth from babes, adolescents, and fathers.

”God loves righteousness.” God loves the righteousness of God in you.

“For is by the transgression of one (Adam’s original sin), the death ruled that one (Adam), much more they who receive in this life the righteousness of God, much more they shall rule through the One, Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:17

In one sentence Paul spans the entire function of Divine justice as God’s point of contact with us. The complete plan of God is summarized from the fall of man – reiterated in every human birth, where the old sin nature rules by spiritual death – all the way to eternity future, where members of the royal family will rule with Christ forever.

In the Greek text of Romans 5:13-17 is a parenthesis. In it, the apostle stock piles Doctrine until it reaches verse 17, where he puts it all together. In the King James rendering of Rom 5:17, a critical prepositional phrase has been linked to the wrong verb. It is amazing how one translator’s error can completely obscure a passage.

But this mistake is especially troublesome because it occurs at the very climax of Paul’s argument. In the Greek, the phrase “in life” does not go with the verb “to rule,” but with the very “to receive.”

Believers do not rule in this life. That is Satan’s kingdom. Instead we receive in life the imputed righteousness of God plus subsequent blessings of spiritual maturity.

“Abraham Believed in God and it Was Counted Unto Him for Righteousness,” Genesis 15:6

Abraham said yes to the Gospel while residing in the city of Ur, before he moved to Haran and then into the land. Over 500 years after Abraham’s death, Moses wrote the book of Genesis and under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, explained Abraham’s salvation in context with a later event in his life.

In Genesis 15, Abraham was over 80 years old. He had been a believer for over 50 years. The account, is, therefore, not chronological. Instead it describes something that occurred half a century earlier when Abraham, a Semitic, Akkadian Gentile, lived under the third dynasty of Ur.

The Hebrew verb “AMEN” for “believed” in the perfect tense, describes Abraham’s non-meritorious positive volition toward Gospel information that God provided for him. The perfect tense indicates an action completed in the past with results that continue in the present. In this case, the results will continue throughout eternity. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ secures salvation forever.

When Paul quotes this verse in Romans 4:3, the perfect tense of “AMEN” is translated by the Greek constantive aorist tense of “PISTEUO,” again meaning “to believe.” The constantive aorist gathers into one single whole the entire account of the verb, the instantaneous act of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Abraham Believed in God and it Was Counted Unto Him for Righteousness,” Gen 15:6

We all enter salvation in exactly the same way, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham knew Him as “ADONAI.” Moses wrote that Abraham believed in “JEHOVAH” because that was the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses.

In each case, the revealed Member of the Godhead is the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1:18, John 6:46, 1 Tim 6:16, 1 John 4:12.

Whether “IESOUS CHRISTOS” as the name Jesus Christ reads in the Greek, “JEHOVAH,” the Second Person of the Trinity, or, “ADONAI,” Jesus Christ is the only Object of faith for salvation.

Genesis 15:6, “Abraham Believed in God and it was Counted Unto Him for Righteousness”

The Hebrew verb “CHASHHAB,” translated “counted,” means to impute or to credit something to someone. The meaning is underscored by Paul using the Greek verb, “LOGIZOMAI,” which was used as an accounting term meaning “to impute or credit something to someone’s account.

This time we have a culminative aorist tense. That is, the entire action of the verb is again considered, but now the emphasis is not on the action itself, but on the existing results.

Abraham eternally possessed the righteousness of God. What God credited to Abraham’s account 4,000 years ago is the same thing that He credits to each of us today.

”TSEDEQAH,” the Hebrew word for “righteousness,” is the same as the Greek word “DIKAIOSUNE” for righteousness, the principle of God’s character.

”He made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Cor 5:21.

“Being Found in Him Not Having Our Own Righteousness, But the Righteousness of God Which is by Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” Philippians 3:9

You may have noticed that God did not take you to Heaven the moment you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 16:31.

Why didn’t He? You were just as saved in the first instant as you ever will be. You were fully qualified. You possessed His righteousness, 2 Cor 5:21, and you were pronounced justified.

So, why the delay? Why are you left in the devil’s world? God has a purpose for your life. He imputed His righteousness into you with a particular goal in mind. The ultimate objective is God’s own pleasure and glory. But the immediate object is your blessing.

You are alive to be blessed. Indeed, both objectives are one. God is glorified by blessing you. Imputed righteousness is the believer’s first blessing from the justice of God, because it is the basis for all subsequent blessing. It is the foundation for the superabundance, over riches, and advantages beyond imagination, Matt 6:33.

When God pronounced you justified, He meant among other things, qualified for blessing. Thus in giving you His righteousness, He constructed a Grace pipeline through which to bless you. Its origin is His justice. Its terminus, is His righteousness in you. The giving and receiving ends of the pipeline are both a part of His essence.

“The Grace of God That Bringeth Salvation Has Appeared to All Men,” Titus 2:11-12

The Grace pipeline is insulated completely by the essence of God. Even though you live in the devil’s world and have the old sin nature resident in your body, the Grace pipeline runs through friendly territory all the way. God’s justice does all the work, and Divine righteousness has all the merit.

You never earn or deserve anything that God pours through the Grace pipeline. All Divine blessing is a matter of Grace. God does not need your help. You cannot lend Him a hand. No human being, no angel, no system, no organization can ever break through the Grace pipeline and take credit for what God does. The devil and all the forces of evil cannot penetrate the screen, nor can the lusts and trends of your old sin nature.

God blesses you only because His perfect standards are met, only because you possess Divine righteousness. He never blesses you for what you do. He does not bless you because of your scintillating personality, your talent, or your human energy. He does not bless you because you tithe or memorize Scripture, or witness to 10 people every day, or speak in tongues, or give up for the Lord’s sake something that you enjoy.

To do so, He would have to throw away His absolute justice and righteousness, and lower Himself to the level of mankind and stop being God. For anyone to expect Divine blessing in consideration for such things would be humorous were it no so blasphemous.

“For Which I am an Ambassador in Bonds, That Therein I Might Speak Boldly as I Ought to Speak,” Ephesians 6:20

The function of the ambassador follows only after the function of the priest. Advance in the Word of God means eventual advance in production, and maximum production comes only in spiritual maturity.

The ambassadorship is evidently related to the confidence in the communication of the Word of God, Eph 6:20. Once we know the Word, we can steadfastly declare God’s Plan both in word and in deed, assured that our purpose in life is upheld by the power of God. Our vocation is not jeopardized even by the most concerted satanic attacks or by the most adverse circumstances. “I am an ambassador in bonds.”

Historical disaster, slavery, imprisonment, these things do not terminate the Lord’s purpose for the lives of those who represent Him. We serve confidently as ambassadors, but since the private operation of the priest always precedes and accompanies the overt, public operation of the ambassador, the true emphasis is always on the inculcation of the Word of God and resultant spiritual growth. Neither are the priorities reversed, neither are the two categories to be confused.

Thursday, August 2, 2001

“Your Father is the Devil,” John 8:44. “He is a Murderer From the Beginning.”

Satan does not always appear as an “angel of light.” The dark side of his strategy calls for terror, violence, confusion. If he cannot control mankind by one tactic, he always has another.

No depravity or treachery is beneath him. The rules of the angelic conflict call for each man to exercise his self determination on the Earth till God removes him. But Satan never plays by the rules unless doing so happens to further his own ends.

He is the original murderer, determined to destroy man’s volition if unable to control it. John 8:44. The Justice of God must restrain him. 2 Thes 2:7. And periodically God judges the accumulated results of his varied activities. Gen 6:1-7, 15:16, Lev 26:14-31.

Satan’s antithetical methods of operation are employed not only by his human emissaries, 2 Cor 11:13-15, but also by his vast, highly-organized, well-led army of angelic subordinates, known as demons. Eph 6:10-12.

Satan does not lead a mob. He understands authority. In fact, he is a tyrant who wants to superimpose his authority over God’s. Satan orders some of the demons operating on the Earth to be eloquent and magnetic in order to deceive people of culture and enlightenment.

Many smart Germans who were not impressed, who were even repelled, by the emotionalism of Hitler’s national socialist party were nevertheless drawn in by his demonic charisma.

Satan the Deceiver

Other demon organizations are charged with confusing and enslaving the simple, the emotional, the ignorant. Such people are impressed by weird, extranatural phenomena of telepathy, mind reading, and disembodied spirits associated with certain Hindu sects.

By the voodoo victim’s ritual sacrifices of himself without any symptoms of pain, by the Sudanese dervishes, who with bullets in their heads and in their hearts continued to charge the British formations. By the human sacrifices of children in the phallic cult and by the ecstatic manipulation of the vocal cords among some modern holy rollers, demons can unlawfully violate the dormant faculties of those unbelievers who permit the mentality to lapse into disuse and who are therefore ruled by emotions.

Only unbelievers can be demon possessed, in which case the demon enters and controls the body. But believers in certain categories of negative volition can come under the demon influence or demon obsession in which the demon controls the soul.

Satan has ruled the world since the fall of man, but he has never yet succeeded in controlling his own domain, whether through the drawing-room-type of demon activity or through the more startling types, Satan’s ultimate objective is to conquer, to control.

“Stop Placing Your Members as Weapons of Wickedness, Under Order to Sin, But Place Yourselves Under Order to God as Those Who Are Alive From the Dead, and Your Members as Weapons of Righteousness to God,” Romans 6:13

Placing the members of your physical bodies under orders to God, includes reprogramming your mind. At the new birth, the power of your old sin nature was broken, through the imputation of God's righteousness and eternal life.

Add to this the simultaneous baptism of the Holy Spirit, and for the first time your soul is in a position to break free from the influence of the corrupted physical computer. By the intake of the "Word of God" new information is fed into your brain so that it is programmed in accordance with the Plan of God for your life. Only the Word of God in the soul can fulfill experientially what was accomplished positionally at the moment of salvation.

Through perception of the Word of God, you can be free from both rulers under which you were born. The Word of God makes all the difference.

Works will not reprogram the brain. Witnessing, prayer, giving money to a church, none of these things will do the job. “The renewing of the mind.” They are legitimate. Indeed they are commanded, under the right circumstances, with the proper motivation, at the right time. Eph 2:10.

But they do not change the computer. There is only one way to change the computer so that it becomes a weapon of righteousness to God. And that is by feeding it something greater than Satan’s policy and the sin nature’s modus operandi. You must constantly feed it new information, the Word of God.

“For I am Not Ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; For it is the Power of God Unto Salvation to Everyone that Believeth, to the Jew First and also to the Greek, for Therein is the Righteousness of God Revealed,” Romans 1:16-17

Paul was the greatest Jew who ever lived, with the possible exception of Moses, and of course not considering the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without a doubt, Paul was the greatest Roman. Both during his lifetime and century upon century thereafter, down to this present moment, his influence far exceeds any other citizen of SPQR. Some secular scholars consider him to be the last greatest intellect in history.

Through his intake of the Word of God he exploited the Grace of God to the maximum and God blessed him with the most complete knowledge of the Word of God that any believer has ever possessed.

His incisive mentality, his occupation with Christ, his vigorous capacity for life as a mature believer in the Lord Jesus Christ made him objective, enthusiastic, and eminently prepared to tackle any situation life could offer.

When a genius of Paul’s stature begins to explain why he is so strongly motivated, we are compelled to sit up and take notice, An aspect of his motivation is brought to light as he, the foremost Apostle, reveals the mental attitude of a communicator of the Word of God.

His attitude should be shared today by ever pastor-teacher, and likewise, by every believer regardless of his spiritual gift.

“I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ!”

“I am Not Ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,” Romans 1:16

The Greek compound verb EPAISCHUNOMAI, combines the preposition EPI (over and above), with the verb AISCHUNO, to be ashamed. With the negative, the compound literally means to not be ashamed, to be above being ashamed.

In other words, Paul never hung his head regarding anything or anyone with whom or with which he was associated. Lack of such embarrassment means freedom from subjectivity, and can indicate that negative volition is absent as well.

When a person is so subjective, weak, or cowardly that he worries about the opinion of others, afraid they might ridicule him, or think him a little strange, he does not know enough of the Word of God to come out of the rain.

Children who are ashamed of their parents, and parents who are ashamed of their children, fall into this category, as does the person who is ashamed of his background, occupation, and lack of education.

We all have something of which we could be ashamed, yet our lives are to be free from shame and guilt. The Grace of God cures these cancers of the soul through confession of sin and the constant function of growing in Grace.

Paul is therefore not describing an immature believer. Anyone with a guilt complex can work himself up emotionally to overcome his natural reticence and do great things for God.

But only the mature believer knows what it means to be supremely blessed of God and only he who has the poise from spiritual growth to know that the opinions of people are insignificant and inconsequential compared to God’s thinking expressed in the Word of God.

He knows furthermore, that He does not have to prove anything to anyone, but he is designed to live his life as unto the Lord.

“I am Not Ashamed of the Gospel of Christ," Romans 1:16

The word Gospel is the Greek word EUAGGELION, which is often misunderstood. We think of the Gospel as being the salvation message of Jesus Christ and His work on the Cross. That is the technical meaning of the word. But that is only a part of its overall connotation.

EUAGGELION means Good News, news of victory, or good fortune, referring to something of intrinsic value.

The Good News includes the entire Word of God, only a small part of which applies to the unbeliever. Which aspect of the Word of God is in view will be indicated by the context.

Paul is not ashamed of any Doctrine, but in Rom 1:16 he narrows down the field to that information which is necessary to bring an unbeliever to the point of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know this from the explanatory clause that follows. The phrase “of Christ” in the King James version is not in the original text.

Paul explains why he is not merely unashamed of the Good News, but is proud of it and even boastful. 1 Cor 1:31, 2 Cor 12:5, Gal 6:14.

“For it is the power of God to everyone who believeth.”

Paul asserts dogmatically and unqualified fact that there is a certain portion of the Word of God that results in eternal salvation for those who believe it.

The Gospel is therefore called, “the power of God.”

“I am Not Ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the Power of God Unto Salvation, to Everyone Who Believeth,” Romans 1:16

When you communicate the Good News to an unbeliever, you explain the simple message of salvation. You are actually declaring God’s ability to bless, God’s ability to provide. The meaning of DUNAMIS, power, throws salvation back on the actual capacity and character of God Himself.

This is actually what Jesus Christ was doing as He spoke in John 3:16 to Nicodemus. Our Lord was explaining the Gospel. But in reality He was talking about the ability of God, God’s capacity, God’s essence.

Could He come right out with an enthralling discourse on His own Divine attributes, which were the same as those of the Father and the Holy Spirit? Could He go into detail with this uninformed unbeliever about motivation within the Godhead? That might have been a feast for a mature believer, but it would have left poor Nicodemus starving!

If the Pharisee was to be saved, simple language was needed, thus the Lord Jesus Christ used the anthropopathism of love. He compared God’s thinking to love and left it at that.

“God so loved the world.”

Both John 3:16 and Romans 1:16 Teach the Same Subject – the Good News of Salvation

The Gospel is “the Power of God,” the ability and the capacity of Divine essence to guarantee that believers, Rom 1:16, “that believers should not perish but have everlasting life,” John 3:16.

Paul comes out and identifies which attribute of Divine essence is involved – love, whereas Christ merely represented this Divine attribute in language of accommodation when evangelizing a religious unbeliever.

And what does Jesus Christ’s statement, “For God so loved the world,” point to in the actual essence of God? Which Divine attribute produces the action in saving us?

After assuring that both Jews and Gentiles of Divine impartiality, “to the Jew first and also to the Greek,” Paul gives us the answer.

Friday, August 3, 2001

“But as it is Written, Eye Hath Not Seen, Nor Ear Heard, Neither Hath Entered Into the Mind of Man, the Things Which God Hath Prepared for Them That Love Him,” 1 Corinthians 2:9

We are spiritually blind. We cannot discover God’s character or personality. But into our darkness shone the Grace of God.

He has revealed Himself. When we respond positively to God consciousness, God is responsible to provide Gospel information whereby we can believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thus enter into an eternal relationship with God.

God has revealed Himself in the Bible, the Mind of Christ, 1 Cor 2:16. The Gospel is one category of the Word of God. Toward us, God has “magnified His Word above His Name,” Psa 138:2.

The Doctrines of the Word of God resident in our souls are the only means by which we can know Who and What God is and thus come to respect and love Him. Only through learning the Mind of Christ, the Word of God, can we accord Him the recognition and honor and glory that He deserves.

“The Things Which God Has Prepared for Them That Love Him”

How does God enable us to understand what is normally beyond our comprehension? How does He accomplish the seemingly impossible task of communicating His Spirit, infinite, perfect essence to our temporal, finite, imperfect minds? How does He give us the capacity to receive “the things which God has prepared for them that love Him?”

Our darkness is perhaps darker than you realize. The unbeliever, called “the natural man,” lacks a human spirit. 1 Cor 2:13-16. Spiritually dead, he is simply not equipped to understand spiritual phenomena.

Even the simple Truth of the Gospel would elude him were it not for the convincing or convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The Third Person of the Trinity must stand as a Substitute for the missing human spirit in order to make the Gospel clear and understandable. Gen 6:3, John 6:44, 16:7-11, 2 Pet 2:21.

Only then can the unbeliever make a decision to accept or reject the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour.

The Believer Has a Spirit, Soul, and Body, 1 Thessalonians 5:23

At the moment of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the new believer acquires a human spirit as part of the Grace apparatus for perception. 1 Thes 5:23. The Grace apparatus for perception is the nonmeritorious system by which every believer can learn the whole realm of Doctrine and grow spiritually regardless of his education, background or I.Q.

In growing in Grace, God provides every step, from the Word of God resident in His own mind to the Word of God resident in the believer's soul. He furnishes the Bible Itself, the spiritual gift of a pastor-teacher, the local Church as the classroom where the Word of God is taught, the privacy of each believer's priesthood, which allows him to be objective as he learns the Word of God.

The human spirit in conjunction with the soul, completes the “inner equipment” which is needed to convert the Word of God from something merely comprehended into something thoroughly understood and useable for both spiritual advance and application to life.

Even Acquiring a Human Spirit Does Not Enable Us to Understand God

God the Holy Spirit, Who takes an active role leading up to our salvation, and Who provides certain blessings connected with salvation itself, must continue after salvation in His imperceptible, behind-the-scenes work of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. John 16:12-15.

At salvation, the Third Person of the Trinity personally takes up residence in our bodies, 1 Cor 6:19-20. From His permanent headquarters in our bodies, the indwelling Spirit seeks to control the soul.

The Bible describes the believer under the Holy Spirit's silent, energizing control as being “spiritual,” Gal 5:16; “filled with the Spirit,” Eph 5:18; “walking in the Spirit,” Gal 5:16.

Growing in Grace can only function under the filling of God the Holy Spirit. The filling of God the Holy Spirit is therefore the link between salvation and the eventual understanding of the Word of God. That constitutes spiritual maturity.

The filling of the Holy Spirit is mandatory for both the intake and the application of the Word of God to your personal experience.

God Has Provided Remarkable Assets so That we Might Learn the Truth About Him

But even with all of these, we are yet not out of the dark. God had to design in the Scriptures Themselves a very simple approach to a complex and advanced Doctrines of the Word.

For the sake of clarity therefore, when describing the character and the function of infinite God, the Bible often resorts to language of accommodation. In other words, to make certain that thoughts, policies, decisions, and actions are lucidly explained, God takes into account our inherent limitations and basic ignorance.

He graciously describes Himself as having human feelings, human passions, human thoughts, human anatomy, even human sins, in order to communicate things to us for which otherwise we would have no frame of reference.

Of course, God possesses none of these characteristics. He uses them as teaching aids, known as anthropomorphism and anthropopathisms. Derived from the Greek word “ANTROPOS” – “man” plus “pathos” – a function of the soul with an outward manifestation. An “anthropopathism” credits to God some human emotions, thoughts, or mental attitude sin. From “MORPHOS” – “body,” an “anthropomorphism” depicts God as having some physical characteristic of man.

Both categories are figures of speech, not descriptions of God's true nature or essence.

Proverbs 6:23, “But Whosoever Committeh Adultery With a Woman Lacketh Understanding; He That Doeth it Destroyeth His Own Soul”

Have you ever looked at this verse, not in a general sense, but in a specific sense, and that is to those in leadership in our country who fall under this condemnation? In the last 50 years that I am aware of, I have seen a long list of members in the Senate and House of Representatives and even in the White House, who have destroyed their souls, which would eliminate them as being worthy of leadership in our country.

Here is the Biblical description of leadership as it should exist. “I will sing of the mercy and judgment unto Thee, O Lord, I sing.” This is recognition of the Lord first.

Then a personal application based on recognition of the Lord. “I will behave myself wisely, in a perfect way. O when will Thou come unto me?” “I will walk within my house with a perfect mind.” “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me.”

And then David decides who he will appoint as members of his cabinet. “A froward mind shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person.” “Whoso prively slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off. Him that hath a high look and a proud mind will not I suffer.”

Here is the cabinet he will choose. “Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.”

Those he will not appoint. “He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house; he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.”

What will he do with these evil leaders? “I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord,” Psa 101:1-8.

P.S. “He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.” This seems to be up to date.

In 1917 Theodore Roosevelt warned about this very thing.

God Loves Himself! Love is Internal!

God needs no object to love, because He is the Object. “He is the Rock. His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of Truth without iniquity, just and right is He,” Deut 32:4.

“He loves righteousness and justice,” Psa 33:5. “For the Lord loves justice,” Psa 37:28. “For I the Lord love justice,” Isa 61:8.

God's self-love should not surprise you. In His infinite knowledge, He knows Himself to be totally beyond comparison, to be totally worthy of admiration to an infinite degree in every possible sense. He claims all glory for Himself simply in the interest of absolute Truth.

If He did not recognize His own incomparable greatness and demand all glory, something would be wrong. He would either have to be ignorant of His own attributes or unimpressed with the most tremendous of all Truths, the fact of His infinite glory.

If He did not love Himself, there would be no reason for us to love Him. But He does love Himself, and through the accumulation of the Word of God in our souls, we must follow suit. In fact, He commands us to learn what He already knows and has always known about His own essence.

“For who hath come to know the Lord's mind, who shall instruct Him? We keep on having the Mind of Christ,” the Word of God, 1 Cor 2:16.

“Grace be Multiplied Unto Thee”

“We have received His Grace heaped upon Grace.”

The Grace of God is often defined as “unmerited favor” – not an inaccurate definition, but an oversimplified one and one which permits believers to easily confuse Grace with sentimentality.

Far from being sentimental, God's Grace toward mankind is rooted in His essence. Since His attributes are perfect, nothing He does for us in Grace is ever less than perfect, nor does it ever compromise His Divine nature.

Let us point out this characteristic in every category of Grace. “Saving Grace” removes the condemnation of spiritual death under which we are born and places us into a permanent blessing relationship with God. The Doctrine of propitiation explains how the work of Christ on the Cross satisfied the uncompromising justice of God on our behalf and shows how God provides salvation without compromising His essence.

“Grace be Multiplied Unto You”

“Logistical Grace” keeps us alive and enables us to grow spiritually, even though we live in the devil's world. Based on Who and What He is, God has established certain objectives for us in the angelic conflict. In general, He keeps us on Earth after salvation to learn the Word of God. This gives us the capacity to possess and enjoy fantastic Divine prosperity. Blessing is the objective.

If we are to seize this objective, this tactical victory in the spiritual combat of life, we require a great deal of provision and support – Bible teaching, the air we breathe, food, shelter, clothing, transportation, friends.

Logistical Grace is indispensable in fulfilling the Plan of God. Thus, it is totally consistent with the essence of God.

Saturday, August 4, 2001

The Essence of God!

God's essence might manifest certain characteristics in one situation but others in a different situation.

The Lord Jesus Christ displays His awesome omnipotence as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. John 1:3, Heb 1:2, 10.

Omniscience and sovereignty come into prominence when we study the Doctrine of Divine Decrees. Rom 8:28-30, Eph 1:4-6.

The existence of the Canon of Scripture emphasizes yet other attributes, especially His veracity. Psa 138:2.

And when He sustains us through all the uncertainties and instabilities of life, His “immutability” stands out. Deut 31:6, Heb 13:5, 8.

In every case, no matter which attribute is reflected, God's total, indivisible Person is completely involved.

The Essence of God!

No Divine attribute can be bypassed, overlooked, or violated in anything God does. His right hand always knows what His left hand is doing.

God does not put aside His sovereignty when He manifests His veracity. He does not switch back and forth between omnipotence and omniscience. He does not ignore His righteousness and justice in order to deal with us strictly out of love.

God never has the slightest trouble keeping His attributes straight. One never compromises another, even when He deals with us imperfect, sinful, fallen man, and especially when He bless us. He is not lowering Himself to our imperfect level thus destroying His own perfection. The reason He can bless us is because one of His attributes stands guard, as it were, over all the rest.

The justice of God is the guardian of God's essence in all that He does toward imperfect creatures.

Sunday, August 5, 2001

“And He Shall Judge the World in Righteousness. He Shall Minister Judgment to the People in Uprightness,” Psalm 9:8

Divine justice can never be corrupted because it always functions according to the standard of fairness found in God's perfect righteousness. Justice is the watchdog over God's entire essence and righteousness is the watchdog over His justice. Absolute righteousness is the key to the character of God. All else depends on it.

If He did not have absolute righteousness, God would not be God. But He does have it. He has always existed as God, and there never was a time when He did not exist as God. Righteousness is at the very core of His being. God cannot tolerate less than His own perfection. What the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God must perform.

If righteousness rejects something, justice condemns it. If righteousness approves, justice blesses. Righteousness rejects sin, therefore justice condemns sin.

Righteousness rejects human good because, being relative, it falls short of the absolute standard of Divine good, therefore justice condemns all our legalism, religiosity, human works, and self righteousness.

Righteousness likewise rejects evil and justice totally condemns it.

	“God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.”
	“We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
	“All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in His sight.”

God's Righteousness!

God's righteousness approves of the perfect God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness also approves of His perfect work on the Cross in payment for our sins. Therefore, justice blesses anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. Justice accomplishes this.

It is the fairness of God that bestows upon every believer the amazing blessings associated with what we call our “eternal salvation” – the many things we receive at the point of salvation.

Here is a definition to note and to remember.

Grace is the policy of the justice of God for blessing mankind.

“Therefore the Lord waits to be Gracious unto you, and He is on high to have compassion on you, for the Lord is a God of blessing and justice. How blessed are those who wait for Him,” Isa 30:18.

“God waits,” literally, is tapping His foot, waiting for you to trust Him.

Human Volition is the Spoiler

When Eve was tempted, she failed to resist the subtleties of Satan because sometime between her creation and her fall she had lost respect for authority. She had rejected all authority but her own.

Instead of responding, she had begun to react. And having turned her back on Adam's leadership and protection, she demonstrated a complete lack of common sense. She started talking to a stranger, Satan, as though he was an old friend. She should have recognized Satan's cynical innuendoes as being anti-Biblical and immediately told Adam.

But no, she rejected her husband's authority. Adam was not the only authority over her, however. The authority designed to protect her was the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God that He communicated.

Even though she had been attending Bible class every morning in the garden, she had stopped concentrating. She apparently resented the Lord's teaching, especially His prohibition of the tree.

“Your desire, Eve, shall be towards him and he shall rule over you.”

“But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Thou Shall Not Eat of it, for in the Day That Thou Eatest Thereof, Thou Shall Surely Die,” Genesis 2:17

The Hebrew verb “MUTH,” “to die,” is doubled so that a literal translation would read., “dying you will die.” As an idiom, it actually indicated the intensity of death. Spiritual death is in view.

“The wages of sin is death,” Rom 6:23.

The subsistence pay of sin, which includes total condemnation from the justice of God.

The woman's rejection of the Lord's authority was clearly demonstrated in her conversation with Satan. She leapt at the prospect of becoming as smart as God.

Furthermore, given an opportunity to comment on a principle found in the Word of God, Satan flattered her by asking, and she gave the wrong interpretation. Christ had taught her, “Thou shalt not eat of it.” But in her vanity, she added to the Word of God.

“But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die,” Gen 3:6.

... “Neither Shall Ye Touch it,” Genesis 3:6

She distorted the Lord's Words when she said, “I cannot eat or touch the forbidden fruit.” She added to the Truth by suggesting that the tree was somewhat poisonous, which it was not. She evidently believed that it was, however. For after eating, she carried around the fruit as if to mock the Lord.

If her soul had been saturated with the Word of God, she would have been impervious to flattery. But instead, her soul was filled with vanity, which actually drew in Satan's false compliments. She was deceived by being flattered.

Her vanity was not sinful because the only sin possible in the garden was disobedience to the Divine prohibition. But she set herself up for the fall by rejecting every authority designed to protect her. She cast aside the awe and respect that hold together true love.

Wanting to be a “free spirit,” she ended up spiritually dead.

“His banner over me was love.”

“I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.”

“My desire is toward him.”

“Whom the Lord Loveth He Chasteneth and Scourgeth Every Son Whom He Receiveth,” Hebrews 12:6

Throughout Eve's temptation by the serpent, the woman's point of contact with God was His attribute of love. Why could not love sustain her in her crisis? The answer to the question points out the justice of God.

Love can only do one thing and that is to bless. It has no dynamics in a negative situation Love provided the Word of God in the garden. But where negative volition rejected the authority of the Word of God, love was helpless.

But justice is a different story. The justice of God is free to bless or punish. Justice is a much stronger motivator to resist temptation than is the love of God.

Love requires Adam's and the woman's positive volition. Justice can function equally well toward positive or negative volition, toward believer or unbeliever, for blessing or for cursing. The Bible frequently communicates this dual function of Divine justice.

“For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and skins alive with a whip ever son that He receiveth,” Heb 12:6.

“Whom the Lord Loveth He Chasteneth”

Love is in view here.

The parent-child relationship attributed to God is an anthropopathism, which illustrates the functions of the justice of God. Both the discipline and the security are involved in belonging to the royal family of God.

The human parent’s integrity overrules his natural love so that he does not spare his child of the pain of discipline and proper training. Divine integrity also takes precedent over Divine love. Indeed, we see that because of what justice has done for us, in both cursing and in blessing.

We are much better off even though we live in the devil’s world than were our original parents under love in the garden.

”Spare the rod and you spoil the child.”

The Fall of Man and the Grace of God!

Eve rejected love as her point of reference with God. She disregarded every system of authority that God had designed to protect her from her own vanity. She succumbed to flattery.

She was deceived by Satan. She ate from the forbidden tree, and immediately she became spiritually dead. The warning “dying you will die” came true. Her personal sin had two instantaneous results:

	“Dying” meant that she acquired a sin nature.
	“You will die” signified her spiritual death.

Her condemnation from the justice of God.

The Fall of Man and the Grace of God

Eve was the first spiritually dead person in the human race. She naturally wanted to share her new-found situation with her husband. So she took the fruit to Adam.

There Adam stood, the ruler of the world, the original perfect man, the man of genius intellect, the man whose soul was saturated with the Word of God. He faced the choice of perfection with God in the garden versus spiritual death with the woman outside the garden. In full knowledge of what he was doing, he took the fruit of her hand and deliberately sinned.

His wife may have been deceived by Satan into disobeying God, but not so Adam. Just like her, however, when he ate of the fruit, he too, immediately acquired a depraved nature, which we call the old sin nature, and became spiritually dead.

Choice: Fallen woman out of the garden or the Unique Member of the human race, the God-man, in the garden. How many times has that choice been made?

The Fall of Man and the Grace of God!

At the fall, Adam and the woman came under a new system. No longer perfect, their new, depraved condition demanded something greater – the justice of God. Justice was called for, and justice immediately went into action.

Justice always takes action in one of two ways. It is either blessing or cursing. The policy of Divine essence is quite simple. The righteousness of God demands, and justice executes. Under the policy, righteousness demanded something at the fall of man.

“What shall we say then, shall we continue in slavery to the old sin nature that Grace may increase? Definitely not,” Rom 6:1-2.

Let us stop and think this over for a moment. The garden was characterized by perfection. And the period after the garden is characterized by Grace. Under perfection, Grace was impossible, but under imperfection, Grace becomes imperative.

Now what was it that carried man over the line from perfection to Grace? You might quickly answer that sin brings us to the point of needing Grace. This is absolutely false. Sin never advances the plan of God in any way. Sin brings man to the point where he needs condemnation and judgment, not Grace.

God's righteousness sees sin and demands that man be condemned. Justice immediately condemns us. This is the action that qualifies us for Grace, an action performed not by us at all but by the justice of God.

The Fall of Man and the Grace of God!

Grace is designed for the undeserving. And once condemned by the justice of God, we are totally undeserving. That is how we come into line for Grace. This becomes a principle of God's justice. Cursing always precedes blessing. Condemnation precedes justification.

God offers saving Grace only to those who need saving. He would never waste Grace on those who were not condemned. He could never send His Son to the Cross unnecessarily.

Therefore, at the fall, God immediately condemned Adam. He did so by imputing Adam's original sin to his newly-acquired sin nature, resulting in his spiritual death.

This is what we call a real imputation. “In Adam all die, in Christ all are made alive.”

“Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” Rom 5:12.

“For Adam was First Formed, Then Eve. And Adam Was Not Deceived, but the Woman Being Deceived Was in the Transgression,” 1 Timothy 2:13-14

These verses come from a context describing authority. The statement that Adam was created first refers to his position of responsibility as the federal head of the human race. But he is further responsible for our condemnation because when he sinned, he knew exactly what he was doing.

The woman was taken in completely by the smooth line that Satan handed her. She did not know what she was doing. Of course, ignorance is no excuse. Before God, she was just as guilty and just as spiritually dead as Adam.

But the only sin that can be imputed to mankind for condemnation is a sin of cognizance. Therefore, even though Adam was not the first sinner in the human race, his sin, not the woman's, is imputed to us for condemnation.

“As by one man's sin, sin entered into the world,” Rom 5:12.

This is the principle of imputation. Adam's sin. Also holds true of the old sin nature. Adam's old sin nature, not the woman's, becomes our old sin nature because he was the head of the human race and because he sinned in cognizance.

The sin nature, however, is not transmitted to us by imputation. It is transmitted genetically.

Monday, August 6, 2001

Genesis 2:7, “God Breathed Into His Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man Became a Living Soul”

The first imputation at physical birth, like all imputations from God, is a permanent arrangement. The breath of life resides in the soul forever. Even when your soul leaves the body in physical death, your life is still in your soul.

Your life is never separated from your soul. Do not confuse the immaterial with the material. If your body were destroyed as part of your death, even you, as a soldier, took a direct hit square in the middle of your forehead from an enemy shell, your soul would still be uninjured and your life would remain intact in your soul.

There is no such thing as soul death or soul sleep.

You have no choice as to whether or not you remain alive forever. You will! Your choice lies in where you will spend eternity. If you refuse to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, your soul will depart from your body into the fire of torments when you die. Luke 16:23-25. You will be resurrected with a body of damnation. John 5:28-29. You will stand trial before the Great White Throne Judgment of the last judgment and you will be cast into the Lake of Fire where you will live forever in terrible, indescribable, hopeless suffering. Matt 25:41, Rev 20:11-15.

If, on the other hand, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, the moment your soul departs from your body you will be “absent from the body and face to face with the Lord,” 2 Cor 5:8.

What you do with the human life which God permanently imputed to your soul is strictly up to you. “The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a change of mind (about the Lord Jesus Christ),” 2 Pet 3:9.

”Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

The Imputation of Adam’s Sin, Romans 5:12

In the same manner that human life is imputed to the soul, the second real imputation occurs as a result of Adam’s deliberate sin in the garden.

Adam’s original sin is imputed to its home, the old sin nature. This is a real imputation because there is an affinity between Adam’s sin and Adam’s trend, or sin nature, between his act of disobedience and the corruption that it caused in him. The result of this imputation is that we are born physically alive but spiritually dead.

”But what does Adam’s sin have to do with me? I have hardly ever heard of it. I am certainly not responsible for what he did. How is it fair that I am born condemned? I am not even given a chance. What kind of justice is this?”

The kind of justice this is, is that this is the most brilliant stroke of justice possible. While fulfilling to the letter the total condemnation demanded by the righteousness of God, the imputation of Adam’s sin lays the foundation for every advantage you will ever enjoy in time or in eternity. It makes the Cross possible. It makes your salvation possible.

Were the justice of God to treat you in any other way, you would go straight to hell.

”In Adam all die, in Christ all are made alive.”

Born Physically Alive and Spiritually Dead

Adam’s original sin plus Adam’s sinful trend equals spiritual death. But these two factors come to us in different ways.

Adam’s sin is directly imputed by the justice of God at the moment of physical birth. Adam’s trend is passed down genetically through the male in copulation. The genetically formed old sin nature is the home for the imputation of Adam’s sin and the result of this affinity is spiritual death.

Spiritual death has been defined as separation from God, or a total lack of relationship with God. But that is an oversimplification. Spiritual death is not separation from God. God is present indeed. God is thoroughly involved, but He is involved in condemning us.

The first function of the justice of God toward fallen man is condemnation. Therefore, our initial relationship with the justice of God is spiritual death because justice must condemn before it blesses.

”He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not on the Son, hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

“Blessed is the Man Unto Whom the Lord Imputeth Not Iniquity,” Psalm 32:2

David, who lived in the age of Israel, after the Mosaic Law had been given, rejoices in knowing that personal sins are not imputed to anyone but Jesus Christ. This is the Doctrine of unlimited atonement from the standpoint of personal sin.

When Paul quotes this verse, he doubles the negative to deny both the fact and the idea. The Greek double negatives are intensive negatives, not positives and with the verb in the subjunctive mood, this denial becomes emphatic.

”Happy is the man to whom the Lord, not never imputes sin,” Rom 4:8.

Apart from Adam’s one original sin imputed to Adam himself, sins are never charged to the one who commits them. Does that sound as though people were getting away scot free? Don’t worry! This is not a miscarriage of justice. It is proof of God’s justice. In His omniscience, God found a way to save men without compromising His own character.

Although we deserve the full fury of His wrath, His plan demands that we not be charged for our own sins. If we were, we would go immediately to hell with never a hope of salvation.

We Can’t Sin Like Adam Sinned!

Adam’s first sin falls into two categories:

It is an original sin because it was committed by a previously sinless and perfect man.
It is also a personal sin, committed only by Adam himself as an act of his own negative volition.

We cannot commit a sin like Adam’s. That is strictly impossible. Our own personal sins were not original sins because we were not perfect when we committed them. We are born with old sin natures. We can commit only personal sins.

Our sins fall into only one category and the justice of God handles all of them in one way. But because of the uniqueness of Adam’s first sin, the justice of God could handle it in two ways – a different way in each category, without violating Divine essence.

	As an original sin, Adam’s transgression was imputed to his newly-acquired sin nature. In this way God brought spiritual death upon the human race, which consisted then of only Adam and his already-fallen wife. As their progeny, we are born facsimiles of Adam. We immediately have the total condemnation necessary for our salvation.
	As a personal sin, however, Adam’s first sin is treated like all other personal sins. It was imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross and judged. Were it not, Adam could never have been saved.

If Adam’s sin as a personal sin had been imputed to Adam, he would have gone directly to the Lake of Fire – the end of the human race. If our personal sins were imputed to us, we would go to the Lake of Fire. We cannot bear our own personal sins and survive.

Impeccability!

Only the impeccable Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, totally acceptable to the righteousness of God, totally undeserving of judgment Himself, could pay the penalty for personal sins. Only the Lord Jesus Christ could rescue us from the brink of Divine eternal judgment.

The genius and perfect character of God is revealed in the way He handled Adam’s original sin. By relating it to us, and our sins to Christ, God condemns us, yet preserves us alive to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour. In this way, God gives us the potential to enter with Him into a relationship of eternal blessing.

All the personal sins of mankind were set aside for the greatest of all moments in history. Those three hours on the afternoon of the Passover in A.D. 30, when the Lord Jesus Christ bore the sins of the whole world and was judged in our place. That was the imputation that turned cursing into blessing and condemnation into salvation.

Only One Sin of Mention!

One sin, and one sin only, therefore, condemns the whole human race. If you think God condemns you for your own sins, you have listened too long to the legalist who is shocked by a half a dozen kind of overt sins.

You are not that important. No human being is capable of committing a sin with repercussions, even in his own life, that can come close to matching the effects of Adam’s sin. “By one man sin entered into the world.”

Your condemnation before God came at the moment you were born. God did not ask your opinion. He did not wait around for you to personally violate some Divine norm. He did not offer you a chance to get into the act. He took the initiative and condemned you when you were a completely unremarkable infant.

This raises all the magnificent colors of God’s wisdom. Observe His colors. All glory belongs to God. In His plan, He does all the work, He had all the merit. He receives all the credit.

Grace as the policy of His justice can only be extended to the undeserving, to the totally hopeless, and hopelessly condemned.

	Condemnation must precede salvation.
	Grace always precedes judgment.
	Righteousness always precedes peace.

“For All Have Sinned and Come Short of the Glory of God”

God condemns all of us alike for Adam’s one sin, and transferred all our sins to Christ on the Cross. To anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, God imputed His righteousness and eternal life.

Thus, the futility of legalism is exposed. We can do nothing to earn salvation. Just as we did nothing to earn condemnation.

Keeping the law cannot bring spiritual life anymore than breaking the law brought spiritual death. These are antithetical functions, but both condemnation and salvation are handled in the same way. God does all the work. The justice of God is the source of both cursing and blessing. Consequently, anything we might add to simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to gain salvation is blasphemy beyond description.

The issue in condemnation is Adam’s original sin. The issue in salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our personal sins do not count in either area.

But that does not mean that God overlooks our sins. They were an issue on the Cross, a terrible, agonizing issue to our perfect Saviour who paid the penalty for them.

“In Adam All Die,” 1 Corinthians 15:22

We can only thank God that in His matchless Grace of His justice He condemned us for Adam’s first sin. We can only stand in awe of Him for His magnificent action on our behalf. Far from being unfair to us, God’s imputation of Adam’s sin to our sin natures at birth is totally to our advantage.

We are qualified for Grace from the start. Condemnation that must precede Grace is brought down on us with our first breath. We were in Adam when he sinned.

In His absolute wisdom, God found a way to totally condemn us as fallen, depraved mankind, and yet avoid condemning us for our own sins. He has condemned us for a sin that has already been judged on the Cross. He has thus put us in the clear to decide our own destinies for or against the Lord Jesus Christ, without leaving any room for arrogance.

By imputing Adam’s sin to its genetically-formed home in our bodies, God preserves us alive and gives us a chance to be saved. Thus, the Cross could have no significance apart from the Doctrine of the imputation of Adam’s sin.

Tuesday, August 7, 2001

Two Rulers!

“Nevertheless death ruled from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s transgression, who is a type of Him who was destined to come,” Romans 5:14.

The epoch from Adam to Moses is Paul’s illustration to legalistic Jewish believers of a principle that applies equally to all ages, spiritual death rules in every generation of human history. Actually, we are born under two rulers who came to power when Adam sinned.

Satan is the “God of this world,” ruling through a policy of good and evil. 2 Cor 4:4, 11:14, 1 Tim 4:1. The old sin nature is the sovereign of human life, ruling through spiritual death.

Under both of these tyrannies, “good and evil” is the order of the day. It is the policy of Satan. It is the function of the old sin nature. Satan’s powerful multifaceted strategy has been detailed everywhere, and it is only necessary to draw a thumbnail sketch of his plans.

The Rule of Satan as the “God of This World”

Satan’s arrogant ambition is to become, by his own efforts and great intellect, “like the Most High God,” Isa 14:12-14.

He promotes the improvement of his kingdom, the Earth. He seeks to displace God and to create a counterfeit Millennium before Christ returns. Were Satan to succeed, he would force God to welsh on His promises regarding the true Millennium, proving God a liar with no integrity. Satan would thus win the angelic conflict by default, and would avoid serving his just sentence, eternity in the Lake of Fire. Matt 25:41, “Hell is prepared for Satan and his angels.”

We are not surprised to discover in the Bible that a revolutionist such as Satan, whose world policy is both good and evil, talks out of both sides of his mouth. Satan is a brilliant chameleon, an ingenious counterfeiter, able to present himself as all things to all men.

On one hand, he favors sweetness and light and prosperity for all – a chicken in every pot. Personally he is the most beautiful creature ever created. He is eloquent, smart, entertaining, personable, persuasive – just the kind of company you would enjoy.

Satan the God of This World!

Satan’s attacks often come in the guise of a calm, engaging, drawing-room-type of attractiveness. He knows that life depends on how people think. He sponsors “good” anti-God thought, Isa 47:10-11, Micah 1:12, Col 2:8, 2 Thes 2:7-11, “He blinds the minds.”

The misery and depravity in the world is not all Satan’s design. Much is blamed on him that is not his doing. More often than not, even sin is an embarrassment to him. Many categories of sin only set back his utopian objectives.

He spends a great deal of time in the courtroom of Heaven accusing believers of sin, even though he knows that the Lord Jesus Christ already paid for it. Job 6:1-11, Zech 3:1-4, 2 Cor 2:11, Rev 3:9-10.

Satan wants to make sure he doesn’t get the blame. And he wants to use God, trying to force him to discipline believers so severely that they will be distracted from taking in the Word of God.

Man is truly a free agent. Human volition and the old sin nature can prove to be just as unruly to Satan as to God.

Satan as an Angel of Light!

Serious question??

The system which Satan has constructed includes all the good which he can incorporate into it, and be consistent with the things he aims to accomplish.

A serious question arises whether the presence of gross evil in the world is due to Satan’s intention to have it so. Or whether it indicates Satan’s inability to execute all he has designed. The probability is great that Satan’s ambition has led him to undertake more than any creature could ever administer.

But Satan does not always appear as “an angel of light.” The dark side of his strategy calls for terror, violence, confusion. If he cannot control mankind by one tactic, he always has another. No depravity or treachery is beneath him. The rules of the angelic conflict call for each man to exercise his self-determination on Earth until God removes him.

But Satan never plays by the rules, unless doing so happens to further his own ends. He is the original murderer, determined to destroy man’s volition if unable to control it, John 8:44.

The justice of God must restrain him, 2 Thes 2:7, and periodically God judges the accumulated results of all his varied activities. Gen 6:1-7, Gen 15:16, Lev 26:14-31.

**Galatians 4:4, “But When the Fullness of Time Was Come God Sent Forth is Son Made of a Woman”**

Like all members of the human race, however, the mother of Christ’s humanity, the virgin Mary, was born spiritually dead. She was not immaculate, sinless, or perfect. Nor was she, in the most ludicrous blasphemy of all, “the mother of God.” Eternal God has no source, no origin, and no mother.

Mary was a sinner in need of a Saviour. Her body was a body of corruption. Her genes and her chromosomes carried the old sin nature, as do everyone’s.

Personally she had her good and bad points, and like all of us, she committed many sins. But because fornication was definitely not among her sins, she was truly a virgin.

She and her betrothed husband were descendants from the two branches of the royal family of David. She through Nathan, Luke 3:31; Joseph through Solomon, Matt 1:6.

Both were Jewish aristocrats and both exhibited their nobility of character in the way they handled this surprising pregnancy which undoubtedly raised many eyebrows.

Genesis 3:15, “The Seed of a Woman”

Through the centuries religion has abused Mary, elevating her far above her rightful position. She is often overrated and even worshipped as the embodiment of ideally pure womanhood, in contrast to Ishtar, Aphrodite, Venus, and others who are also worshipped, but as ideally sensuous womanhood. Just because religion has abused her is no reason to overlook this woman’s noble character and personal integrity.

True, the Lord Jesus Christ had to reprimand her on several occasions (Luke 2:48-50, John 2:3-5) and He de-emphasized her role in His incarnation, Luke 11:27-28. But in many ways she was an admirable woman.

Even the finest people are condemned from birth and Mary entered into the world as a carrier of the old sin nature, but as a woman she could not transmit it to her progeny.

After Christ was born, she bore at least six other children by Joseph through normal procreation. Matt 13:55-56. All were born spiritually dead, but not because of their mother’s sin nature. They received the old sin nature from their father.

The Sign of a Virgin

The prophet Isaiah prophesied that the virgin would be a sign, a miraculous event, Isa 7:14.

But Mary herself was not the miracle. The miracle was that God the Holy Spirit provided 23 perfect chromosomes to fertilize her normal, pure ovum. She conceived apart from the contamination carried by the male sperm.

Her pregnancy was, therefore, a virgin pregnancy. “PARTHENOGENIS” and the “BLASTOCYST,” Embryo, and Fetus that developed within her was totally free from the corruption of Adam’s sinful trend.

Even to focus on the virgin birth puts Mary too much in the spotlight. The virgin pregnancy is the true issue. And as beneficial as virginity is, even her virginity fades in importance when compared to the miraculous work of God the Holy Spirit, which is the true emphasis in Christ’s conception.

Both the Hebrew word, “ALMAH” and the Greek word, “PARTHENOS” call Mary simply a young woman, recognizing the fact that every ovum in every woman is pure by the Divine design of the human physiology.

Mankind gets no credit at any point in the plan of God. If God had so chosen, as He did not, He could have brought our Saviour into the world as Mary’s fourth or fifth son, as easily as her first.

Even though virginity was her actual status, God did not depend on Mary. Needless to say, this principle of Grace has gone unnoticed in the glare of “Maryolatry.”

“By One Man (Adam) Sin Entered Into the World”

At the instant when the justice of God would normally impute Adam’s original sin to the newly born infant, Christ, no such imputation was possible.

Christ had no genetically formed old sin nature. Adam’s sin had no home in him. There was no antecedence or affinity between Christ and Adam’s original sin because, through the virgin pregnancy, Christ was not seminally in Adam.

Unique, Jesus Christ was born both physically and spiritually alive. The Greek word “MONOGENES” in John 3:16 is not “only begotten,” but “only born” or “uniquely born” Son.

The only other perfect human beings had been created perfect. But the unique Person of the universe was born perfect in the midst of a totally depraved mankind.

Christ was the only free Man ever to enter Satan’s world. He was free from the devil’s rulership. He was free from the sovereignty of the old sin nature. He was free from the imputation of Adam’s sin. He was free from the condemnation of spiritual death.

Wednesday, August 8, 2001

“He Made Him to be Sin For Us, Who Knew No Sin, That We Might be Made the Righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Corinthians 5:21

When the sins of mankind where charged to the impeccable humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the justice of God had to take action. He judged the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s judgment of our sins in Jesus Christ, including Adam’s first sin, wiped our slate clean. We need only to accept this Divine action in our behalf through nonmeritorious faith in the One who took our place.

God the Father loved the Son on the Cross with a love beyond anything we can imagine. Since eternity past, Their love (rapport), never diminished. For our sakes, God forsook Christ on the Cross.

God did not hesitate to do the just thing in condemning Adam and the entire human race in the Lord Jesus Christ, nor did He stop short of total justice in judging His Son on the Cross. If God did the most for us while we were yet sinners, He can only do much more than the most now that we are His sons.

If God did the most difficult in providing our so great salvation for us, it stands to reason that He can do what is far less difficult, namely, to bless us in time.

“If God be For Us, Who Can be Against Us?” Romans 8:31

No imperfection in us escapes ultimate judgment. No blessing comes to us apart from the Grace of God.

In Grace, the justice of God does all the work carrying out the dictates of perfect righteousness. God receives all the credit while we reap the benefits in a totally nonmeritorious way.

What righteousness accepts, justice blesses. But what righteousness rejects, justice condemns. Both cursing and blessing therefore come from the same justice. And the inevitable final result of every function of the character of God is the glorification of God.

When we face the reality of God’s essence, we can only say with Paul, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

“If God be For Us, Who Can be Against Us?” Romans 8:31

There is only one way in which God can be “for us.” Avoiding inconsistency, and compromise, He acts according to the principle of Grace. That becomes an axiom. Divine justice can only bless Divine righteousness.

God’s standards are so infinitely high that no one can meet them but God Himself. Only what God does reflects absolute righteousness. He cannot approve or accept less than His own righteousness. Certainly He cannot bless less. That is the meaning of righteousness demands righteousness.

God designed man to be prospered and blessed, and to share God’s own happiness. He wants to bless us but He cannot. From His point of view, we are totally condemned. He cannot prosper us no matter what we do.

But where any opportunity remains of fulfilling His objective, God will exploit it to the last. He stops at nothing except what would compromise His essence.

His genius is limitless. He never overlooks a chance to bless us. And in His genius, God found a way. His essence demands that He must bless His own righteousness. So He decided in eternity past to credit (to impute) His righteousness to us the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour.

”He made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,” 2 Cor 5:21.

“Being Found in Him, Not Having Our Own Righteousness, But the Righteousness of God Which is by Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,” Philippians 3:9

As this fact sinks in, it becomes an astounding revelation. The righteousness of God in you! God loves righteousness and He loves His righteousness in you. And His righteousness in you qualifies you for Heaven.

The righteousness of God is the very root and center of God’s essence. It is the principle behind every action God has taken toward every human being since the fall of Adam.

We now discover that we have the very righteousness of God. This principle helps us to understand that there must be fantastic implications. The most striking implication:

At salvation you were suddenly dropped in the middle of the most exclusive relationship in the universe – the relationship with the Godhead, between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Partakers of the Divine Nature

Each member of the Trinity infinitely esteems His own incomparable Person and totally loves the other two Persons of the Godhead. The love in God’s essence loves God’s essence.

This is how we enter the picture, as far as love is concerned. We cannot work our way in or force our way in or ever deserve entry. But once we possess God’s righteousness, He had made us the eternal objects of His love.

God loves His essence. We have the principle of His essence. God loves us. We are amazed and comforted to know that God actually loves us. We never earn or deserve what God’s justice gives us in Grace. There is no affinity whatever between the righteousness of God and our status of total depravity.

Where then is the home for the imputation? Where can it go? There is no home!

As with the imputation of personal sins to Christ, Divine righteousness is credited where it does not rightfully belong. Man’s sins go to Christ, and the righteousness of God goes to man.

Romans 5:16, “And Not as it Was by One That Sinned, so the Gift: For the Judgment Was by One to Condemnation, But the Free Gift is of Many Offences Unto Justification.”

Here Paul gives us a short comparative clause to reiterate the contrast between the first and Last Adam. Then Paul expands on this contrast, stockpiling information to be used next which comes up in a conditional clause in the next verse.

Because of our total condemnation at birth for Adam’s one sin, plus the blotting out of our many personal sins at the Cross, the justice of God is now free to bless every member of the human race who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first blessing we receive, the factor that turns everything around, is the imputation of the righteousness of God.

Rom 5:16, “Resulting in a judicial act of justification” is the preposition “EIS” plus the accusative singular of “DIKAIOMA” in the plural, which refers to statutes, ordinances, commandments.

But by using the singular, Paul emphasizes to both Jew and Gentile believers in Rome, many of whom had distorted the Mosaic Law into a system legalism, that Christianity is not a series of commandments. Instead, Christianity is a relationship with God based on one Divine pronouncement. One order from God, is the basis for the entire relationship with the believer.

Romans 5:16, “Justification”

In the singular, “DIKAIOMA” means a right act in the fulfillment of a legal requirement, a sentence or pronouncement of justification. From the judgment of many sins at the Cross comes this one act of justification. At birth justice acts against us to pronounce us condemned. At salvation justice acts on our behalf to appoint us righteous. Rom 5:19.

This one judicial verdict gives us the potential for all other Divine blessings. God does not call us righteous because we obey a set of commandments, or adhere to a system of taboos that supposedly honor Him. He never evaluates us righteous because of our self-righteousness.

He justifies us because we possess His righteousness. This is justification in its legal sense. The Judge who possesses perfect righteousness acknowledges His own righteousness wherever He finds it, even in so unlikely a spot as a human being.

Thought for the Day!

Whenever you are afraid of the dark, or your children are afraid of the dark, remember what the Lord Jesus Christ did when it was dark!
He died for your sins so that you could have eternal life.

”There was darkness over the whole Earth.”

Genesis 15:6, “Abraham Believed in God and it Was Counted Unto Him for Righteousness”

Abraham is the model of justification. His vindication not only demonstrates the mechanics of salvation, but proves as well that salvation follows the same pattern in both the Old and New Testaments – both before and after the giving of the Mosaic Law.

We in the Church Age receive the righteousness of God at the point of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But so did Abraham in the age of Israel! So does every believer from Adam after the fall to the last believer in the Millennium.

In the Tribulation, the worst time in history, and the Millennium, the best time of history, salvation is always the same, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.”

The Baptism of the Spirit

In reality with no fanfare or emotional folderol, God the Holy Spirit places each Church Age believer into union with Christ at the moment of salvation. Gal 3:26-28, 1 Cor 12:13. This is an actual, as opposed to a ritual, identification and we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Eph 5:30.

The baptism of the Spirit is the permanent identification that distinguishes Christianity from religion. Christianity is our relationship with God by virtue of being in union with the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Cor 5:16.

Religion is always some system of futile attempts to gain the approbation of God. 1 Cor 15:23.

The baptism of the Spirit forms the royal family of God. It is therefore unique in the Church Age. Spirit baptism first occurred on the Day of Pentecost, A.D. 30. Acts 1:5, 11:15-17, and will never again take place after the royal family is completed at the Rapture of the Church.

The Royal Family of God

Many lines of nobility and many titled families have existed in human history. But the ultimate system of royalty is unique. Established by God Himself, its members are united with the King of kings and Lord of lords.

We are spiritual royalty through union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We share His battlefield royalty, which the Father awarded Him for defeating Satan in the angelic conflict. Jesus Christ won the strategic victory through His spiritual death, physical death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God the Father. Col 2:9-15.

In Christ, the royal family of God is set apart from the rest of the family of God. Church Age believers are given a higher spiritual position than are the believers of all other dispensations.

We are being taught today that all people are equal, that the poor are inherently virtuous, and that being a peasant is honorable, that any kind of real superiority should arouse a sense of guilt, that the successful owe a debt to the unsuccessful.

We are born unequal. And from birth on, the longer we live, the more unequal we become, in complete disdain for the current Marxist, socialist “equality,” and for the many other evil guises to which it appears.

God the Holy Spirit, at the moment of salvation, made you superior in position to all believers of all other dispensations.

The Royal Family of God

The list is awesome

Enoch, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, John the baptist, the great Jewish generals of the Tribulation, the spiritual giants of the Millennium.

Yet these men, past and future, with far less spiritual capital to work with than we have, attain spiritual maturity and receive phenomenal blessings.

Never let the peasantish thinking of today cause you to feel guilty about the superiority that God has given you. You are a spiritual aristocrat. God has furnished vast resources so that you can think and act and live like the royalty you are.

But remember “noblesse oblige” (nobility obligates). From the one to whom much is given much is expected. God expects you to grow up.

At the Moment of Salvation God the Holy Spirit Places us in Union With the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 12:13

As He is currently seated at the right hand of God the Father, and retroactively, as He was on the Cross. This is called current positional truth and retroactive positional truth.

We are therefore identified with Christ in His spiritual death, physical death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session. Our position in Christ is best understood in the light of the analogy Paul draws in Rom 7:1-4. The believer is like a wife who divorces her first husband and marries another man. Romans 6 and 7 are not a treatise on marriage. Other passages address that subject. Paul is neither advocating nor condemning divorce. He is merely using this for an illustration of a familiar procedure that commonly occurred, in order to clearly explain this subject.

The first husband is the old sin nature. We are enslaved to its tyranny from the moment of birth when Adam’s sin was imputed to it. According to the analogy, when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we divorce the old sin nature, your old man, and marry the Lord Jesus Christ. The divorce involves Christ’s spiritual death, physical death, and burial. The remarriage is based on His resurrection, ascension, and session.

Thursday, August 9, 2001

“Who Convinceth Me of Sin?”

Christ was impeccable when He came to the Cross. He had no old sin nature, which means not only that He had never sinned, but also that He had never committed a thought, word, or deed of human good or evil. Throughout His life He totally rejected the policy of Satan and totally adhered to the Plan of God.

When Christ hung on the Cross and suffered spiritual death, He continued to reject good and evil. Everything He did including His work of salvation was Divine Good.

”In union with Christ” – we too have rejected good and evil, positionally, even if we experientially produce them, even if we zealously crusade for the arch enemy’s millennium. As far as our position in Christ is concerned, we have rejected good and evil, both as functions of the old sin nature and as the policy of Satan.

“Not of Works” “Dead Works” “Wicked Works”

Rejected, but not judged, good and evil remain at large in the angelic conflict. But never think for a moment they will not be judged. No production of the old sin nature ever escapes Divine judgment.

Good and evil will receive final judgment when the angelic conflict is brought to a final conclusion at the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of human history.

There unbelievers will be indicted for their human good works. Rev 20:12-15. Sins will not be mentioned at the last judgment. Sins have been judged once and for all in Christ, 1 John 2:2. There is no double jeopardy.

Sin is not the issue. Christ died for our sins. Christ is the issue.

“He That Believeth Not Shall Not See Life But the Wrath of God Abideth on Him,” John 3:36

A person who rejects Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour says in effect he prefers to stand in God’s final judgment courtroom with human righteousness rather than with the Judge’s own righteousness imputed to him. What a tragic spectacle!

Here is a genetically corrupt, totally condemned individual depending something he or she does. He expects some paltry system of human works and human merit to meet the incomparable standards of perfect God.

When God examines “the books according to their works,” Rev 20:12, 14, and measures the unbeliever’s deeds against the standard of Divine righteousness, His righteousness can only reject them. What righteousness rejects, justice condemns.

The justice of God can only sentence the unbeliever to join Satan in the Lake of Fire. Matt 25:41. “Hell is prepared for Satan and his angels.”

“There is no Condemnation to Them That Are in Christ Jesus Our Lord,” Romans 8:1

In contrast to the unbeliever, the believer will not stand before the Great White Throne. Only rejection of Jesus Christ as personal Saviour puts a person on the docket of that tribunal.

Still, the believer’s good and evil are no more exempt from Divine judgment than is the unbeliever’s. At the judgment seat of Christ, the believer’s human good will be cast aside and burned while he himself shall be saved. 1 Cor 3:15.

Our Lord’s spiritual death both paid the penalty for sin and rejected human good and evil. But we are in union with Him, not in His spiritual death alone, but in His physical death and burial as well.

“Therefore We Have Been Buried Together With Him Through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, Unto His Physical Death,” Romans 6:4

Christ’s physical death is analogous to separation from the old sin nature, and the finality of His burial is like divorce. Similar to a woman who breaks free from the tyranny of a bad marriage, believers reject (separate) from and divorce the old sin nature, the old man.

The pattern of our divorce thus clarifies our retroactive position in Christ, which breaks the sovereignty of the old sin nature over human life.

In describing divorce, Paul depicts the former husband and wife as being dead to each other. Rom 7:2, 3. All relationship, authority, responsibility, and privilege have ceased to exist. Even though both parties are still alive, neither has a claim on the other.

In the same way “we are dead and buried” to the old sin nature, Rom 6:5-7. Though experientially “our ex” is very much alive with his trends toward sin, good, and evil, he still resides in every cell of our bodies. His program of good and evil still controls the computer.

Like an ex-husband with no personal integrity, he keeps hanging around, continually calling us up, inviting us to come over for a little social life, just for old time's sake.

“The Old Man” – “The Ex-Husband”

We are constantly faced with his advances, to which we can say yes or no. Rom 6:11-13. Whenever we sin or perform acts of human good or evil, we have submitted.

Our lives will never be free from personal sins as long as we live. God provides instantaneous recovery through confession of sin, 1 John 1:8-10, but we can be completely free from human good and evil.

This is protection from the tyranny of Satan and the old sin nature. It becomes a consistent, experiential reality only through the advance to maturity through the intake of the Word of God.

Freedom from human good and evil is the subject of current positional truth – our identification with Christ in His resurrection, ascension, and session.