The
What, the How, and the Who
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Gal. 6:15).
“But
brother, don’t you mean that the What is ‘righteousness by
faith’? Because, if you will connect the What with the How, and
your How will probably be ‘by faith’, then you get your answer.
‘Righteousness by faith.’”
No,
I mean righteousness because my confusion is not on righteousness,
but on righteousness by faith. I know that righteousness is obedience
to the Law of God. I know that righteousness is doing the will of God
out of the right motive. But, frankly I don’t understand
righteousness by faith in practice, and I think neither the
Seventh-day Adventist church nor any denomination, knows it by
experience. Just because people lay claim to understanding
righteousness by faith, just because they explain it, that doesn’t
mean they understand it. Just because they think they know the How,
it doesn’t mean they explain it right. Just because they claim to
have “a relationship with Jesus”, that doesn’t mean they have
one. We are repeating a two thousand year old history of the Jews, as
we were told we would. And we need to be wary of this because that
means many will fight the Spirit of Christ and the gospel, like the
Jews did, when it returns before He comes visibly in power and great
glory.
Righteousness
by faith has become a cliché, a misnomer in many minds. It is a
point of great confusion to such a degree that every man believes it
differently, just like anciently. “Every man did
that which was right in his own eyes.” (Jdg.
21:25). But, if righteousness by faith actually were
understood, then the special work of purification, which makes the
cleansing of the sanctuary literally possible, would be happening
among us. I’m not trying to be critical, but pragmatic. If
righteousness by faith were truly comprehended then the special work
of purification would be successfully finished, and there would be
144,000 Enochs walking around our churches. But instead we see 20
million doing what is right in his own mind. And no Enochs.
Enoch
walked perfectly with God for 300 years. During those three centuries
his new creation gift from God
never failed. Daily his youth was renewed like the eagle’s. Like
his Lord, the people could say, “Thou has the dew of thy youth.”
He raised up Methuselah in the perfect atmosphere of righteousness by
faith in Jesus. Methuselah did not depart from his upbringing. And
Enoch was taken once his son was perfectly grounded in righteousness,
so that he could maintain that rare possession in a perverse
generation.
We
know that the Who must be the great centerpiece in order for
righteousness to be had. But, where is the Who being preached? Where
is He made the single great centerpiece? Where, since Morris Venden
passed away, are pictures painted of Jesus presented in sermons
across the Adventist world?
That
leaves us the How. How do we really get righteousness? Question:
Shouldn’t the How be simple? We all know the answer has to be Yes.
Then, why haven’t we conquered the problem of mass confusion and
ignorance on the How? Book after book has been written about 1888,
yet the clarity has not been forthcoming. Why haven’t we obtained
the victory, as we know we must from Early Writings, p.
270-271?
“Said
the angel, “List ye!” Soon I heard a voice like many musical
instruments all sounding in perfect strains, sweet and harmonious. It
surpassed any music I had ever heard, seeming to be full of mercy,
compassion, and elevating, holy joy. It thrilled through my whole
being. Said the angel, “Look ye!” My attention was then turned to
the company I had seen, who were mightily shaken. I was shown those
whom I had before seen weeping and praying in agony of spirit. The
company of guardian angels around them had been doubled, and they
were clothed with an armor from their head to their feet. They moved
in exact order, like a company of soldiers. Their countenances
expressed the severe conflict which they had endured, the agonizing
struggle they had passed through. Yet their features, marked with
severe internal anguish, now shone with the light and glory of
heaven. They had obtained the victory, and it called forth from them
the deepest gratitude and holy, sacred joy.”
How
do we get from here to there? That’s a fair question. Just like the
Jews who were striving for the righteousness of God, we Adventists
have been at best half-heartedly striving to be among the 144,000 who
will agonize with “the straight testimony called forth by the
counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans”. But what happened
to ancient Israel instead? Did all their striving result in obtaining
victory over their sins? They murdered their own long sought for
Messiah. Then the Jews personally went after their Messiah’s
children. They murdered Him and His children because He, first in
person and later by His Spirit in His followers, had attained to
natural, happy righteousness, and the Jews hadn’t. And the Jewish
leadership were continually reminded of that every day. Jesus, and
the children He birthed, had the dew of His youth, His butter and
honey diet, and the Jewish leadership had only thorns and briers.
“What
shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after
righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness
which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the Law of
righteousness, hath not attained to the Law of righteousness.”
(Rom.
9:30,31).
The
believing Gentiles not only attained to righteousness, those Gentiles
were sealed.
“That
we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in
Christ. In
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye
were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which
is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the
purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.”
(Eph.
1:12-14).
How
are we Adventists doing on the victory and the sealing? Who are we
becoming more like, the Jewish nation or the believing Gentiles?
Aren’t we more like the ancient Jews than the Gentiles who were
humbled by their totalitarian dictator overlords? Are we going to
find non-Adventists succeed at what we have been
stressing over, maybe even some feigning to agonize over, for almost
two centuries now, and in the end we be left in the Gentile’s dust?
Will Romans 9:30, 31 be our death warrant? The saved children of God,
“them whom I reserve” (Jer. 50:20), “the people which were left
of the sword… Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love”
(Jer. 31:2,3), have always been a remnant, whether among the
professed people of God or outside of His professing movement. Paul
helps us see a little more clearly this issue.
“Wherefore
[or, Why did the Gentiles attain to righteousness but
Israel did not]? Because they [Israel] sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the Law. For they stumbled at
that Stumblingstone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a
stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on Him
shall not be ashamed.”
(Rom.
9:32,33).
Where
was the focus of either group? The Jews “followed
after the Law of righteousness”. The Greeks and Romans and
barbarians “followed not after righteousness”.
How
could, why did, focusing on the Law of righteousness
lead to such a severe penalty when Jesus told Ezekiel that eternal
life comes from them?
“Wherefore
I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them
into the wilderness.
And
I gave them My statutes, and shewed them My judgments, which
if a man do, he shall even live in them.
Moreover
also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that
they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.
But
the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness: they
walked not in My statutes, and they despised My judgments, which
if a man do, he shall even live in them;
and My sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out
My fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.” (Eze.
20:10-13).
Focusing
on the Laws of Jehovah lead to such a severe penalty because they did
not seek Jehovah in His scriptures and His sabbaths and His statutes.
This failure is made clear by His message from Jeremiah and from
Himself personally. “Let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD
which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the
earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.” (Jer.
9:24). “[You] search the scriptures; for
in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which
testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have
life.” (John 5:39, 40).
This
is why Paul, in Galatians 3:12, sounds like he is mocking Ezekiel
20:11, 13 by expecting the divine life to come from doing the laws of
God. They would not know the God of life by knowing His character by
His laws.
“But
that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God, it is
evident: for, The just shall live
by faith.
And
the Law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them
shall live in them.
Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for
us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
(Gal. 3:11-13).
And
Israel also went wrong by following after the Law of righteousness
that their fathers had corrupted and that they blessed.
“Ye
shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye
diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD
your God which I command you.” (Deut. 4:2).
But
they did illicitly add to and amend the Law.
“Wherefore
the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their
mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart
far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of
men.”
(Isa.
29:13).
Jesus
was bolder.
“Did
not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you keepeth the Law? Why
go ye about to kill Me?” (John 7:19).
“He [Jesus] saith
unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you
to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I
say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for
fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso
marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”
(Matt.
19:8,9).
“But
He answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the
commandment of God by your tradition?
For
God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that
curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
But
ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It [my
financial holdings] is a gift [to the temple], by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by [receive
support from] me;
And
honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye
made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Ye
hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This
people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with
their lips; but their heart is far from Me.
But
in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men.” (Matt. 15:3-9).
So
what caused the demise of the Jews? They changed the Law to suit
their own selfish natures. They added and diminished from it with
apparent impunity as if the Law was theirs to modify. But that sense
of impunity came as a result of pagan atheism that they brought into
the Hebrew religion during their pagan
captivities. It became known as, “holding
the tradition of the elders.”
Their
extra-biblical scriptures, which they most heavily depended on, were
not the word from God; they were not the inspired words from
prophets. It was rubbish, chaff and floor sweepings that Satan mixed
with the purity of rich divine truth. It was a tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. It was the devil’s foothold into God’s kingdom,
that would eventually become his strongholds of strife and debate,
forced compliance and murder, for Satan to divide the people and
conquer them for his kingdom of darkness. This Satan would repeat
later within Christianity. “But in his estate
shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew
not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones,
and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds
with a strange god, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with
glory: and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide
the land for gain.” (Dan. 11:38,39).
The
additions and diminutions of truth would end in an elaborate show of
papal-pagan sacraments to replace and to prove an inward piety that
didn’t exist. “For the Pharisees, and all the
Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, And when they come
from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other
things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of
cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.” (Mark
7:3,4).
“For
neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the Law; but desire
to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.”
(Gal.
6:13).
So,
back to Paul’s declaration that we began with, “For
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creature.” And what should we do
with our own modern traditions of the elders? Perhaps Jesus’
recommendation give us advice regarding this question.
“Ye
are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour,
wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but
to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
(Matt.
5:13).
What
to do with our own traditions of the elders? What to do with our
interpretations of Ellen White that have lost their
savour? Throw them out. When toxins have entered the body, what do we
do? We cause some form of ejection. The toxin must vacate. When a
toxin enters the digestive tract we use vomiting, or pump out the
stomach. If the toxin has passed the duodenum we give an enema to
cause a bowel movement. (I’m not a health professional, but these
are general principles.) Somehow the toxin must be removed from the
body, or disease and death will ensue.
What
should we do with toxic theology? What should we do with toxic
righteousness that are destroying all hopes for seeking Christ’s
face? Throw them out! And start all over again. Back to the Bible and
Spirit of Prophecy drawing boards. “Oh, but I’ve invested years
in my personal theology and rule of morality. I can’t just abruptly
toss them!” Yes, you can if you prefer the new creature from the
holy Spirit of Jesus. The humanism and traditions of men are good for
nothing. Worthless! They will kill you and your loved ones. Their
power of death will be your slow torture. The less than obvious the
mixture of poison the more insidious and slower, and more miserable
and ignominious, the sure death.
What
did Paul declare that determines the life-changing truth? “A
new creature.”
The new creature is the target. Get there or be lost forever.
Everything else, even theology, may be a contender for peace with
God that then adds to “the
care of this world” (Matt. 13:22),
and which leaves us with
only briers and no fruit when our course ends. “Neither
circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature.” Let
the new birth be your only target,
and the laws for right-doing be placed around the
new birth, to be used solely for the
new access with Jesus, to be helpers towards the
new life in the bosom of His Spirit.
Are
you conservative or liberal? In view of eternal life or eternal loss,
does either matter? No. Do you boast of your conservativeness, or
your liberalness? “Neither...availeth
any thing”; neither
matters in the
least. Do you wear a
suit and tie to church, or shorts and a t-shirt? Does God care? No,
according to Paul. To God,
if there is no new
creature both are filthy rags.
Is your religious life something to publish
the secrets of your success or has it been a huge exercise in
futility? The new creature is our salvation. Are you soaring in “the
Spirit”, or sullen in your reverential doldrums? Neither is
important; the new creature in Christ is all important. None of
these matters matter. Throw them all out, and go back to the Bible
and Spirit of Prophecy drawing boards, refinding the biblical truth
and the new creature. The one and only truth, according to Paul
and our Moses Ellen, is that the “new creature [availeth
everything]”. Will our new creature wear certain things and boast
of certain things and say certain things? Yes, of course. Enoch
in his new creature preached of Christ second advent and the
destruction of the wicked. Our new creature will do and say things
that are potentially dangerous. But those actions will be inspired by
the Spirit of Jesus who will be working in our new creature. And more
times than not our new creature will be in opposition to both
opposing “traditions
of the elders” who
“wash
their hands oft... And many other things there be, which they have
received to hold, as the washing of cups….”
etc., and “the
will of the Gentiles... lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine,
revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries”.
The new creature’s
portion in this world will be double persecution and ostracism. But a
double portion of Jesus the Comforter will be his perfect
compensation.
So,
let’s receive again the new creature. And let’s maintain the new
creature. And as we continuously examine ourselves to see if we are
in the faith, and, in all honesty, find that we’ve lost the new
creature and that our salt has lost its savour, then what do we do
with our theology and personal religious practices that have led to
our lost new creature? We throw them out and go back to Jesus in
deepest regret and repentance for following after the blind leaders
of the blind who have never had a new creature from Jesus. We seek
His face for mercy and fumble around in the dark until we, humbled,
find Him again.
We
haven’t yet committed the unpardonable sin, or we would not be
convicted of the great sin of losing our new creature. Miriam and
Joseph hadn’t committed the unpardonable sin when they lost their
new creature in Christ for days. But they suffered three long
eternities of self-recriminations until they found Him again in the
holy place. If they had been lackadaisical they would have lost Him
for weeks or months, and the work of regaining Him, and the
chastisement for being irresponsible, would have been much more
painful. It might have resulted in total rebellion and eternal loss
of their new creature in Christ.
So
when our table is piled high with the chaff and wood and hay
traditions that will not stand the day of judgment, and our new
creature from Jesus has languished, we must pull that whole mountain
of humanism off the table and onto the floor! Trample it underfoot!
And pay no heed to any investment we’ve made, or pride ourselves in
what we’ve garnered from that worthless, good-for-nothing,
waste-of-everyone’s-time, venture!
Call
the whole thing lost ventured capital. Down the drain, and never to
be seen again. If money was required and expended, let it be lost
forever. Let it go, and then go to Jesus with a heart full of
repentance for wasting His resources “and He will have mercy...;
and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isa. 55:7). If it
was much time, it is unrecoverable weeks, months, years, decades that
are wasted. If it was much energy, call it expended vitality, and go
get your new creature again, in all the agonizing and hopelessness
and unworthiness it takes to get the new creature. The lost money was
worse than lost, it funded the kingdom of Satan. The lost energy was
worse than lost, it built up Satan’s kingdom against your loved
ones, and we are born with only so much vitality. The lost time must
be docked from the end of your lifetime. No one can stave off death
by undoing past mistakes. We all only get a finite span of time, to
glorify God or Satan. Once used up, we must be finished with our
course, and lay in the dust or ashes awaiting our eternal reward. But
in the meantime before we pass away, we can return to the Lord and
seek to redeem what time is left.
And
let’s not forget that many find the new creature later in life.
Many find it earlier, but lose it and regain it later, like the lost
sheep and prodigal son. But their repentance brought rejoicing in
heaven. Although the prodigal had been a son before his “many
offences” (Rom. 5:16), afterward he was a son for real forever
afterward. He was the son his father always wanted. So, don’t let
lost time, money, vitality, stop you from turning your back on the
world once and for all, if only to have peace with God and “the
Spirit of His Son in your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. (Gal.
4:6).
I
don’t write about unrecoverable money and time and strength to get
anybody’s goat or because I like to get on your case. Who am I?
Just another sinner striving for the way to life—that is through
the elusive new creature from the bosom of Christ. I say these things
because they might minister to the deep repentance that is required
to regain the new creature. Read Daniel’s prayer for mercy in
chapter 9 of his book. It is filled to the brim with
self-recrimination, both personally and corporately. But without the
affliction of soul and self-blame and self-recriminations, it is
impossible to please God. Modern psychologists, secular and
religious, would get into an uproar over the Bible’s requirement
for self-abasement before self-improvement, or for the cross of
humiliation before the crown of peace with God. But because they can
neither see the new creature from Christ nor know it, the multitudes
of Babylon’s prophets today have never had the new creature,
without which no man shall see God. So who are they to advise in
these last days?
The
new creature from Christ must prevail, not the psychologist
associations of Baal. The newborn children of God, the born-again,
humbled and contrite, Spirit of Christ abiding in the heart, will win
the battle against the beast and his image, his number and name. The
“kings of the east” will cross the dammed up, flood stage river
symbolizing the final wicked
generation, and blow their trumpets against Babylon and Jericho, and
a great earthquake will make all high walls unto heaven, the
fortifications, and the strongholds fall, never to rise again.
The
new creature from the Lord, that took so much examination and
re-examination, so much repentance on top of repentance, a lifetime
of justification after justification, failure and
conviction and
humiliation to receive again the Creator’s new creature, warm
and without confidence in the flesh, will
finally be strong enough and sealed, that it will withstand all the
fury Satan can bring against it. And nothing else will finish the
course. With that new creature that grew into “a
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ: that we henceforth be no more children”
(Eph.
4:13, 14),
“a
deep sense of ... unworthiness and ... entire submission to the will
of God”
Early
Writings,
p. 272,
we will have the obedience that needs no repentance, unlike the
group’s self-exams that use low
human
standards instead of high
divine
standards. “For
we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with
some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by
themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”
(2Cor.
10:12).
Only the sealed new creature in Christ—and not those who seek
after only the
principles and descriptions of character deformations—will
ultimately utterly renounce and abandon Satan’s wicked world
forever. Everyone who evades the crosses of humiliation and
contrition of soul when facing so many certain rejections by their
great Friend, all of which make for the new creature—and the
ultimate sealed new
creature—will not succeed at the final agonizing.
Only
the daring, desperate searchers in the dark, seeking His mercy for
their failures, seemingly innumerable times, definitely too many
times, in the end will obtain the victory over the beast. The victory
will have a righteousness that is not made of self’s filthy rags by
self-made self-inspired agonizing and human traditions, but comes
fully from the Spirit of the Son by faith interceded for by heaven.
Then the character of Christ will be perfectly reproduced in His
children and He can come to reclaim them as His own. “In
His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and
this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS.” (Jer. 23:6).
Finally,
the Who.
“Wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become dead to the Law by the body of
Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.”
(Rom. 7:4). This introductory Romans 7:4 is Paul’s declaration
to his final discovery of
how to “serve the Law” and not the flesh, after
his
terrible struggle throughout the rest of Romans 7. Paul’s
preliminary Romans
7:4 statement
prepares the seeker of
righteousness to bridge the mystery
gap between Romans 7:24 and 25. Romans
7:4
explains Paul’s transition into the Romans 8 victory in Christ.
This is how the true agonizing will arise for the 144,000. The Law,
that is, the whole Spirit of Prophecy, the third angel’s message,
the straight testimony to the Laodiceans, will be the first force
that actuates the 144,000 to profoundly grieve over
their
need for God’s quickening. This
is not a force to be contended with. Now
is not the time to abrogate our Law,
which Jesus has given to His people through His last days’ prophet,
her message perfectly suited for the delusions that are pouring down
upon us from the spiritualistic, Spiritual Formation astral
planes. Until
the very last second prior to Christ’s
arrival, during this Day of Atonement pre-advent judgment, He will
use the whole library of His testimony to keep us honest with our new
creature.
But
the equal and opposite force of the knowledge of the infinite mercy
of Christ, which the 144,000 will have experience in because of their
many failings and convictions, His tender mercy that they have so
many times seen in Jesus’ limp body hanging between heaven and
earth, between the wrath of God toward man and the wrath of man
toward God, will empower those 144,000 warriors because they have
already been obtaining His justification and renewing His new
creation in them, and maintaining it. They alone will, in the end, be
able to manage the stretch and strain to press for the mark of
perfection in Christ.
The
superhuman conviction of their sinfulness, which the 144,000 could
never of themselves have even
desired to look
at, combined
with a superhuman
hope in mercy upon what seems to them unpardonable sins,
a hope that they could, of themselves, never have
produced, altogether brings them to the sealing victory over their
past sins, branch and root. The empty of all life and hope corpse
of their Lord, abused by heaven and earth, and
hanging for all of heaven and earth to behold, is the only means to
agonize, so sufficiently
deeply and whole-heartedly that God is glorified and satisfied, so to
give even the 144,000 the
victory over the corrupting power of Satan. All the immeasurable
Spirit of eternal life and hope that vacated the corpse of Christ on
the cross has been passing to
the new creatures in the
bosom of Christ, and
it will continue to pass to all who will keep their eyes on the new
creature instead of on the traditions of the elders. For
“the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15), is
the same God-sent “Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:6).
That
same Spirit of His Son
also helps their infirmities, for the 144,000 know not what they
should pray for as they ought. “The Spirit itself maketh
intercession for [the 144,000] with groanings which cannot be
uttered.” (Rom. 8:26). This Spirit of Christ intercedes in the
144,000 with
as much power as He did in the apostolic church, to give them the
necessary “strong faith and agonizing cries”, the “pleading
with God”,
“their countenances... pale and marked with deep anxiety” and
“expressive of their internal struggle”. The “supply of the
Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19) in them strengthens
them for
the “large
drops of perspiration” that “fell from their foreheads”, their
“solemn, earnest, anxious look”, their “firmness and great
earnestness”. Christ’s intercession by His presence and
power working in them provides
them the hope for “struggling
with all their power to resist the
evil angels” and for “trying to help themselves by calling upon
God with perseverance”. They
even need Jesus’ help to prize
“victory and salvation enough to perseveringly
plead and agonize for it”. All
of this could never have arisen in them had they not received and
kept from permanently losing, steadfastly to the
end, the
new creature gift of God to their soul.
“Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in His [the
Father’s] sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the
eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb. 4:13) “And He [the
Father] that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of
the Spirit [of His Son], because He [the Spirit of
Christ] maketh intercession for the saints according to the will
of God.”
(Rom.
8:27).
Not
the Roman co-opted Corpus Christi in the papal Eucharist to the
sun god, which is a paganized form of denying the new creation
offspring of Christ, the
devastated Mother of all living who
died in hard labor for us. But, the real Corpus Christi, the
utterly exhausted, limp carcase of the
incarnated God, the antitype of the Red
Heifer sacrifice that was burned to ashes is our single source of
hope for mercy and intercession in our deepest woes and
darkest hopelessness for mercy. Then
those purified ashes that were sprinkled on flowing
water for the typical purification
of the flesh, will pass His eternal Spirit, divested of all
personality of humanity, from His
non-existent, previously incarnated soul,
to antitypically wash
away our guilt and fears, and cleanse our stained life. His
Spirit is His real presence and power. His Spirit is Himself in the
realest sense, even as our spirit is essentially us, more that our
face or our body or our voice.
Since
the beginning, the Father would one day say to Christ, our
Propitiator, “Your
carcasesH6297 [H6297 peger From
H6296; a carcase (as limp), whether
of man or beast, a
corpse, dead body; H6296 pâgar to relax,
that is, become exhausted] shall
fall in this wilderness... which have murmured against Me.” (Num.
14:29).
It
was at Kadesh Barnea that Jesus shows us not only how His Father’s
mercy requires His Son to mediate for every human without any respect
of persons, (as Moses mediated before Him for his whole nation).
Moses pleaded that Christ’s mercy be as powerful as His justice.
This shows that Jesus’ powerful mercy for sinners is equal to His
greater Father’s powerful sense of justice against sin. And this
equality isn’t because the Son has been co-eternal and co-equal by
virtue of being a god who was identical to the god portraying “the
Father”, and to the god portraying “the Spirit”, as the papal
Trinity superstition glories in.
The
Son of God is equal to His Father in the sense that His infinite
mercy took all the infinite power of His Father’s justice all the
way down into eternal death. It was the Son’s infinite destruction,
His eternal loss of His beloved Father’s Spirit; it was His
total emptying Himself of His own will that so much desired to be
forever in the bosom of His Father, that satisfied His Father’s Law
of infinite righteousness. The only begotten Son’s infinite demise
was seen to be equal to the Father’s eternal self-existence. The
only begotten Son is equal with His Father because His Father made
Him equal by Their joint effort of giving and receiving the infinite
wrath of God. “Even Jesus, made an High
Priest for ever...” (Heb. 6:20). “Therefore will I divide Him a
portion with the great” (Isa. 53:12), Elohim being “the great”.
And the Son revealed His Father in a way that had never before been
known throughout the kingdom, or that could ever be surpassed by
another government and Law of another kingdom. Neither Satan, nor all
unlikely future potential Satans, could ever match such an eternal
power and demonstration of love.
No
other rebel could ever arise to attempt such a foolish venture. The
holy intelligent universe now had riveted in their hearts and minds
that God is eternally true, eternally the only faithful God of love.
None other could take His place. Revelation
5:12-14 shows
that forever,
throughout the illimitable realms of space and time, from one sabbath
to another and from
one
new moon to another, from the deepest realms of the universe, will
the rounds of worship of
ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands repeat
“with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory,
and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the
earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that
are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and
power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb
for ever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four
and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever
and ever.”
