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Knowing Jesus (Consummation)

Entering Covenant

It is true, that the restored relationship between God and the sinner is best understood as that of a Father and son (or daughter) through the agency of adoption.

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  Ephesians 1:5-6

However, the mechanism of how that happens is revealed more accurately through the relationship of husband and wife.  Allow me to explain.

The first thing a man must do to enter into a relationship with God is to acknowledge his own sinfulness. There is no point talking to a man about being clean if he is still perfectly comfortable with his filthiness. A man cannot claim to love God if he still loves his sin, too.  He first has to become quite repulsed by his own state of being, otherwise it is all lip-service and a self-gratifying desire to escape the consequences of his own choices.  But when a man finally comes to a place of honest self-realization, he also comes knowing that he is not worthy of the God he seeks.  This is true repentance. 

A wretched, sinful man cannot approach a Holy and Just God in his own merit.  The corrupt man would be annihilated simply by the very Presence and Power of God the same way a dry autumn leaf would be incinerated by the flame of a fire.  Man needs a mediator; One who would intercede before God on his behalf. This is who Christ Jesus is.  He came as the Son of Man and the Son of God to fill this precise role. 

 The only way a corrupt, guilty man can be accepted before a holy and just God is to be IN CHRIST. And CHRIST must be IN THE MAN.  And how this happens is best illustrated through the agency of holy matrimony. 

When a man comes to Jesus Christ for the purpose of salvation he must first come BELIEVING.  (John 3:16 & 36, 5:24, 6:40, 11:25-25).  He enters into the covenantal relationship by the act of his will. He must come humbly, submitting himself to God. He comes acknowledging Christ’s person and position as the Son of God.  And he comes recognizing Him as the only One able to do what he is unable to do for himself.  This is the “I Will take Thee” of the ceremony (Romans 10:9-10). 

At this point, the man RECEIVES Christ.  He is inviting Christ, through the Holy Spirit, into himself (Acts 2:38). This is the act of consummation.  The very Spirit of Christ enters into the man’s spirit and becomes one with him.  The spirit within the man, that was once dead, is granted new and eternal life through the Spirit of Christ.  Christ is in the man, and the man is now in Christ. The two have become one. (John 14:17).

The man is a now a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).  He is not the being he was before.  Now, also as an act of his will, he surrenders all rights to himself and his previous identity. He chooses to forsake the desires and nature of the old man in order to yield to the new nature being cultivated within him.  And this is, in every sense, a cultivation.  It is a process that occurs over time with patience, attention, and care.

In Christ, he has a new name, a new family, and a new home. Everything that is found in Christ, is now his.  In Christ, he has protection and provision from the Father. With Christ, he is granted the inheritance of the kingdom of Heaven. He has power and authority that is in His name (John 16:23, 17:11).

Now, when God looks upon the man, He sees not the corrupt and sinful man, but instead His perfect, sinless Son. As one would exchange one garment for another, Christ takes the sin of the man upon Himself and exchanges it for His own righteousness. The man’s own life does not speak for him any longer.  Christ’s life speaks for him because his life is covered, or hidden, IN CHRIST (Colossians 3:3, Galatians 3:26-27).  The man has, in a sense, been washed clean by the blood of Jesus, because the His Blood represents His life (Revelation 7:14). He is clothed in His righteousness.

The holy union that has just taken place is what the bible means by the word “knowing” Jesus.    Just as a woman would not enter into the covenant of marriage with a man without first carefully weighing all the ramifications associated with such a union, neither should one enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ without understanding what it means to do so. In fact, I believe this is a more accurate explanation of what the commandment “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” means.  Do not take His name in covenant if you have no intention of living your life as though you were one with Him.  When you take His name, you represent Him in the world (2Corinthians 5:20).  You are a vessel for the Glory of God (John 17:22).  The world looks unto you as a reflection of the nature and character of God. If it hates you, it is because it hated Him first. “And these things they will do unto you because they have not known the Father, nor me.” John 16:3

In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. John 14:20

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not; neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you.  John 14:17

Do you know Him?

Knowing Jesus (Entering into Covenant)

Understanding Covenant

So far, I think we have done a pretty decent job of explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His kingdom.  Now our aim must be to understand exactly how all this works, and how we can apply this fundamental knowledge to our lives.

If you have been following me in our gospel story, then you have heard me emphasize the difference between knowing Jesus verses knowing about Jesus.  Let me assure you, there is a vast difference between the two, especially where your salvation is concerned.

Why is this important?  Because knowing about Jesus will not grant you entry into His kingdom.  

When we come to Jesus Christ for salvation, we enter into a covenant relationship with Him remarkably similar to that of a marriage.  In fact, I believe the relationship between a man and a woman through the covenant of marriage was given to us to beautifully illustrate this concept.  

Most people today, even bible believing Christians, do not know what a covenant is, let alone what it means to enter into one.  So, for clarity sake, let’s start there.

A covenant is a kind of ancient term for what we would refer to today as a contract.  It is a legal instrument that acts as a binding agent between two parties.   It would be an agreement that would hold up in a court of law. There would be legal ramifications for breaking it. Examples of a modern-day covenant would be a will, a lending agreement, or a business trust.  By far, the most common form of covenant that we are familiar with today is that of a marriage. 

In ancient times, a covenant was created to unite the two parties into one entity.  This would have been done, for example, when two tribes created an alliance against a common enemy.  It would have been done to create property boundaries and to protect water and grazing rights.

The two parties would come together to perform an act that was called “cutting” a covenant.  In this ceremony, various rites would be performed that would enact the legal union.  These elements usually included such things as:

  1. Defining the terms, or the responsibilities and expectations of the involved parties.
  2. A garment or personal item that represented each party would be exchanged as a symbol.
  3. Sometimes, parts of their names would be exchanged or incorporated into their own.
  4. Witnesses were present.
  5. Blood was shed whereby an animal would be killed and separated into two halves.  The two equal parts would be laid opposite of each other.  The two parties, or their designated representatives, would pass between the two halves.  This was done as a symbol of what would happen if either party failed to uphold the terms of the covenant; the “one” entity that was being created would be separated, or “cut” into two, thereby breaking the covenant.
  6. Typically, afterwards the two parties would sit at a common table and share a meal.

From this, you can see where many of our wedding ceremony traditions come from.  The terms are established through the repeating of the vows.   Rings are exchanged as a sign.  Witnesses are required, and customarily, some type of celebratory meal is shared. The bride then relinquishes part of her own name and takes the name of her new husband.   She then dwells in his house and lives under the protection and provision of her new identity.  Any children she bears, any fruit of her womb, will be born under the name of her husband.

One of the aspects of the wedding ceremony that has lost its significance in recent decades is the symbolic act of “consummating” the marriage.  I am speaking, of course, of the physical union that occurs between the husband and wife through sexual intercourse, the “two becoming one”.  In many cultures, the marriage was not considered legally binding until this union had been established.  And if it had not, the marriage contract could be legally revoked without severe ramifications.

This act provided the “shedding of blood” that was necessary for the covenant to be binding.  The virginal blood that ruptured during the first physical encounter was proof that the bride had not before entered into a marital relationship with any other man.   It could be done only once. The physical union was the act that completed or fulfilled the covenant.  

By now you may be asking yourself just how all of this has anything to do with knowing Jesus.  Well, bear with me because I am about to get to that.

It all boils down to the biblical meaning of the word “knowing”.  At its core, that word, in certain biblical contexts, is a sexual word indicating the intimate physical relationship between a husband and a wife.   It is first used this way in Genesis 4:1 where it states, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived…”.   Matthew 1:25 says, speaking of Joseph taking Mary as his wife, that he “knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son...”  This means that Joseph refrained from having a sexual relationship with his wife until after giving birth to Jesus.  It indicates the physical union that occurs between a man and a woman, when the two become one.

When you come to Christ for salvation, you are entering into a covenant relationship with Him whereby you become “one” with Him.  I am going to leave you with a few verses from the gospel of John.  In my next post, we will unpack all of this a little further and you will begin to see how the gospel is applied to you and your life through a covenantal relationship that strikingly parallels that of a marriage.

I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.  While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;  that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.    

John 17:11,12,21

Restored In Christ

Let’s go over the basics one more time. 

Mankind is in a terrible fix.  But God has not left him without hope and a future. He has a plan, and that plan is the gospel.   

So again, what exactly is the gospel?

The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ has come to restore ALL THINGS that were lost in Adam.  Christ did all the things that Adam failed to do.

Remember that Adam was…

… created as the first son of God, and that he surrendered this position through a willful act of disobedience.  Because of his sin, he has suffered the loss of the eternal life of the Spirit and as a result, his access to and inheritance of the kingdom of heaven.  He has relinquished his authority over the realm of the earth and has subjected it to the curse of death and decay.  Adam’s sin has separated him from his relationship with his Father.

In light of all the things that Adam forfeited as a result of his disobedience, we can begin to understand why Jesus Christ had to come in the manner in which He did.   Christ came to right Adams wrongs.  Because of the gospel of Jesus, the status of sonship is returned, the curse is reversed, the relationship reconciled, the inheritance restored and the eternal life renewed.

The true gospel of Jesus has six main components; none can be eliminated, and they cannot be reordered.  To do so would be to distort or malign the fullness and power of its message.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is this:

Christ came as the Son of God, conceived in the womb of a virgin by the Spirit of God (Luke 1:31,35).  He was not the son of Adam; therefore, He had no inherited sin from an earthly father.  Because He was born of the seed of a woman (Gen.3:15) He is also the Son of Man, meaning, He was born into the earthly realm with a body of flesh and blood.   

While on earth, He lived a life of complete and utter obedience to His heavenly Father (John 5:30). Not once did He deviate from the perfect will of God.  Therefore, He committed no act of sin.  Had He departed once from the will of the Father, the cross would have meant nothing and there would have been no resurrection.  Mankind would have remained in its lost and dying state for all eternity.

When Christ died on the cross, He paid the penalty of death for the sins of all mankind (Rom 5:8).  The blood of any other creature other than that of a man was insufficient as a payment for the sins of men (Heb 10:4).  God had provided for temporary atonement through the Law and the sacrificial system until such time that His own begotten Son would be born into the earth. He had no sin of His own, but rather the sin of mankind was placed upon Him (2Cor 5:21).   In obedience to His heavenly Father, He willingly laid down His life as the final and sufficient payment for the sins of men. 

Because of Christ’s own sinlessness, death had no power over Him.  The grave had no legal right to hold Him.  Three days after His death, the stone that covered His burial site was rolled away, Christ has been resurrected to live forevermore! (1Cor 5:20,21).

Christ spent 40 more days on the earth in His resurrected body.  Afterwards, He was bodily received up into Heaven (Acts 1:9).  His ascension signaled something especially important in that He, as the Son of Man, now had the ability to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  He inherited the Kingdom on behalf of mankind.  And finally, Christ ascended to His rightful position of authority at the right hand of the Father. 

And the final element of the gospel of Jesus is one that is often overlooked, but is no less important than the others, and that is the promise of His return.  This is one aspect that has yet to be fulfilled but is vital to the final consummation of the kingdoms of heaven and earth.  We often get discouraged when we see the effect that sin has had on our world, but this one promise reminds us that it will not always be this way.  We can look forward to the promise of the day when “the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” (Rev. 21:3)

Christ came to do for us what no other earthly man could do.  He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. 

So now you may ask the question, “how does this work?  How does this apply to me?”

The first step that you must take to appropriate the finished work of Jesus Christ for yourself is to acknowledge your position as a fallen son or daughter of Adam.  You must understand the depravity of your condition.  Everything that Adam was, you are.   You are dead in your sins, separated from God, and prone in your corrupt nature to willful disobedience.  You are void of the eternal Life of God that would reckon you as a son or daughter of God.  Also because of this, you are revoked of your place in His Kingdom.  You must come to this conclusion first. If you do not, you will not fully appreciate everything that Christ has secured for your eternity.  Any other approach to Christ diminishes the price He paid on your behalf.

Christ did not come so that you could merely have fire insurance against the flames of hell.  He did not come to be an embellishment to your image, a compliment to your social resume, or a a tasty side dish in the grand buffet of your self-ordered life.  

He came to rescue you from yourself and from the effects of Adam’s sin. He came to bring you to into His glory and into all that is His as the Son of God.  He came to secure for you His name, His authority, His position, and His inheritance for all eternity.  He came to bring you home.

He came to be your Lord and Savior. 

“Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

A Cure for a Fatal Diagnosis

Let’s say you develop a painful lump somewhere on your body.  You go to the doctor and after a thorough examination he determines that it is very suspicious and recommends a biopsy. He doesn’t want to alarm you, but he tells you that he has seen this type of lump before and the odds are high it could be malignant.  And worse, these types of malignancies, if not treated in time, are almost always fatal.

He isn’t trying to frighten you; he simply wants to prepare you for the worst.  The biopsy is taken and now you are to go home and wait.  In that time, you prepare yourself and your family for the real possibility that the news could be very bad.   

Imagine now, how relieved you are when the results come back negative!  Would that be just “ok” news, or would it be the best kind of good news ever, worthy of a real celebration?  Of course, it would be wonderful!  A huge burden has just been lifted from you and your whole family.  Relief doesn’t come close to describing how you feel!  You have just been granted a new lease on life!

You could say that, metaphorically speaking, in Adam, each one of us has inherited a fatal malignant tumor. Simply put, we are born with it and left untreated, it will kill us. That is the sad, sober news.

But we are not left to despair. We are not without hope.  In fact, there is a cure with a 100% recovery rate! 

You see, we didn’t have to do anything wrong, per se, to inherit this condition, right?  I mean, all we did was to simply be born.  What if I told you that the answer to situation was to simply, be born again?  

That sounds impossible.  What exactly does it mean to be “born again”?  Thankfully, you weren’t the first person to ask, and we can go directly to our bibles for an answer.  A guy by the name of Nicodemus asked Jesus the very same question. 

We pick up this story in the third chapter of the gospel of John .  Here we learn that Nicodemus is a “man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews”.  In short, he was kind of a big deal in the Jewish culture at the time.  A Pharisee was someone who had studied the Law of Moses quite extensively.  The name itself means “separate ones” and they saw themselves as a cut above the average Jewish person.  They believed in and taught a strict adherence to Jewish traditions and religious practices.  This particular Pharisee comes to Jesus one night for a rather covert meeting.  He opens the discussion in a benign way, acknowledging Jesus as “Rabbi” and says,

“We know you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

 Jesus is going to take the opportunity to reveal to Nicodemus that God is not merely “with Him”.    Jesus dispenses with the pleasantries and straight away makes a pointed statement.

“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”

Jesus answers a question Nicodemus hasn’t even asked yet.

This, of course, was the real reason he came to Jesus in the first place, but now he is rather perplexed. 

Nicodemus is old.  Too old and too big to “enter into his mother’s womb a second time and be born again.”  This, to him, is ridiculous.

But Jesus continues,

“…unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Jesus is saying that when you are born into this world, into the kingdom of the earth as a son or daughter of Adam, you are born of the flesh, with a body and a soul only.  Flesh is the life of earth.

In order to have the ability to enter and dwell in the kingdom of God (aka the kingdom of Heaven), you must have the life of heaven, which is the life of the Spirit.   Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15:50).

 And Jesus goes on to tell Nicodemus that being born of the Spirit not like being born physically but is more like experiencing the wind.  You cannot touch it or see it, yet you can perceive it; you can discern its effects. And just as you were born of the flesh, receiving earthly life from your earthly father, you must be born of the Spirit and receive heavenly life from your Heavenly Father.

And then Jesus kind of chastises Nicodemus.  He is saying, look, you regard yourself as an expert in spiritual matters and you don’t even know this?  Even if I tell you of earthly things you don’t believe me, how are you going to believe me if I tell you of heavenly things?  No one has gone up into heaven, Nicodemus, but there is One has actually come down from there.   

And then Jesus drives the point entirely home when He says, 

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18

Jesus is revealing to Nicodemus that He is not just a teacher, He is not just a rabbi, and God is not merely “with Him”.  He is declaring that He Himself is this Son of God that has come down from heaven, that He now possesses the Spirit and life of heaven. And to receive it from Him, you must believe in Him.

He is stating that all one must do to be born again is to merely believe in Him. 

Now you may be asking, “Is it really as simple as all that?”  And the honest answer would be yes… and no.  Yes, in that there is absolutely nothing you can do for yourself to gain this eternal life, except to receive it by faith.  And no, because it is more than just believing that Jesus is, you have to know Him personally.

As we progress along in our gospel story, I will explain exactly what I mean by this.  We will journey together into all the aspects of Who Christ is as the Son of God and how everything He did, He did to secure our eternal home in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

 I do hope you will come back for the next post because we are only just beginning to get to the most amazing part of the story.  When we are all finished, you will appreciate the gospel in a way you never have before.

Where we are so far…

Before we go any further in our teaching, I want to make sure we fully understand what we have covered up to now. So, a little review.

Number one, remember that the story of the gospel is present from Genesis to Revelation, and already in the first three chapters of Genesis, we begin to see the gospel being revealed.

Thus far we see that God has created the earth, its solar system, and the plant and animal kingdoms. He has also created man and given him dominion over the entire earthly creation.  Through an act of willful disobedience, the man has now fallen into sin, and the dominion of his earthly kingdom has been forfeited to the devil, who at some point in eternity past has been cast to the earth for a similar sin.   The bible calls the devil “the god of this world” (2Corinthians 4:4),or the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31,14:30, 16:11).  1 John 5:19 tells us that “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” .

The kingdoms of heaven and earth are now separated.  No longer is the Creator able to walk with His creation in intimate fellowship.  God’s holiness is incompatible with the nature of the fallen world.  God Himself has driven the man out of the Garden of Eden, barring him forever from the Tree of Life (Genesis 3:22-24).   

When God gave Adam the commandment, He specifically stated that the consequence for disobedience would be death (Genesis 2:17).   As a result of their sin, Adam and his wife did die spiritually that day, when the Spirit of God separated from them (remember that death is separation). The absence of the Spirit of God revokes their access to the Kingdom of God.

But that is not all.  Their physical lives were also required of them as payment for their sin.  But that day God revealed an aspect of His character that had not been previously disclosed.  When the LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife in order to clothe them (Genesis 3:21), the first blood was shed on planet earth. That animal, whatever it was, died in their place.  It gave its life as a substitute or a sacrifice for theirs. God allowed this to happen by reason of His Grace and Mercy.

(I took the liberty in my previous post to illustrate this animal as a lamb even though the bible does not specifically say so.  I did this because this is a type and shadow of Jesus Christ, He who would come in the future as the Lamb of God, to die a substitutionary death for the sins of mankind.)  

And also as a review, let us define again what we mean when we use the word sin.

This is one of those tricky words that can be used as a noun as well as a verb, so it is true that one can possess sin as well as commit a sin.  The Hebrew word used as a verb is chata’ (pronounced khaw-taw) and it means to miss, to forfeit, or to lack.  Chatta’ah (khat-taw-aw) is the noun version of the word that means an offence or an offender. 

Adam and Eve committed an offense against the LORD God and as a result, they now lack the perfection of their original creation.  They have forfeited the Spirit of God that once made them whole and complete and reflective of His image.  The bible states that the consequence of sin is death (Romans 6:23). 

Not only are they in this state, but every child that they produce into the world will have the same condition.  Adam cannot pass to his children a Life that he does not possess.  Therefore, we can say that mankind is born in sin, even before a child is able to say his first word, take his first step or act out in any sinful manner.  They are born in the state of sin regardless of whether or not they act sinfully.

Every one of us as descendants of Adam are born with in this condition.  There is nothing we can do of ourselves to change this.  No amount of good behavior, rule following or law keeping can restore unto us the Spirit of God that was lost when our first earthly parents sinned.  

As human beings, we are now severely flawed.  We are corrupted by sin, destined to live and die on earth with our souls forever separated from God. 

But none of this took Our Heavenly Father by surprise.  From eternity past, God had a wonderful plan to restore and repair all that was broken and lost in Adam.

God’s redemptive plan provided a way to remove sin from us completely, to restore to us the Eternal Spirit of God and thereby grant us access once again into the Kingdom of Heaven. That is why the Gospel is the Good News!  It is more than that, it is wonderful news! 

As we continue in our story, we shall learn exactly who Jesus Christ is, and why everything He did was very purposeful for our salvation.  We will begin to see how it was that He had to come as a man, die for our sins, and then be resurrected unto eternal life.  And we can learn how all of that can apply to us if we just come to Him with believing faith. 

… so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.  This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,  in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

Ephesians 3:10-11

The Dawn of Grace

Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.  The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Genesis 3:20-21

From behind them comes the gentle sound of a bleating lamb.  He is led before them bound by a scarlet cord.  He stood before them so innocent and white, that is until the blood began to pour from the wound suddenly struck at his throat.  It happened so quickly they did not have time to fully comprehend what was happening.  In the next moment, his spindly knees buckled beneath him as he fell, lifeless into the pooling red around him. 

Adam and the woman felt their own breath escape; their own legs threaten to betray them.   Burdened by their remorse they watched this innocent one suffer the fate they knew they deserved.  Slowly they began to understand what was happening. God had provided a substitute.  

Death.

Horrible, wretched and final.   They wept as they watched the LORD God fashion garments for them from the lamb’s delicate skin; the scent of his essence lingered on the wool, still warm.   Their nakedness was covered once again.  It was not completely sufficient in God’s economy, but atonement had been made and it was sufficient for now.  That is, until the time the final, ultimate Sacrifice would come.  

Today, death will not visit Adam and his wife.  Today, another took their place.

Suddenly, the vision of God’s masterful plan begins to dawn in the recesses of Adam’s mind.

Adam looks to his wife, who from the time she had been fashioned from his side has been called “Ishshah”, which simply means woman.  But now, he looks to her and calls her by a new name.  

“Eve”.

The Serpent takes a step back.  He stares in utter disbelief at the two humans who stand living and breathing before him!  He too, is trying to process and calculate what he is witnessing.  The man has just been given the curse of death, a curse that is attached to him and his seed, and yet has the audacity to give his wife a name that means life!?

 He had sorely underestimated the depth of God’s Love for the creatures made in His image.  His plan had been wrecked by God’s Grace toward them, a concept altogether foreign to him.  And the whole substitutionary sacrifice thing was something he could not have divined had he tried for a millennium.  And now THIS!  He could feel his rage building. His claws dug nervously into the dust beneath him.

Adam understands that in a spiritual sense, the Serpent has become his “father”.  He has fallen, his spirit darkened, the curse of sin and death had been placed upon him, and consequently, to the sons and daughters that would come after him.  In this way, Adam’s seed had become “the seed of the serpent”.  

But as the light begins to dawn upon Adam, he realizes that none of this is true of Eve.    

It is true that Eve herself will face the consequence of death because she partook of the fruit of the forbidden tree, for disobeying the direct command of God and purposefully leading her husband into the same folly.  Yes, for this, she will one day suffer physical death as Adam will.

But the curse of sin and death are not attached to her seed!

Her seed holds the hope of man’s Redemption.  Her seed carries the promised reckoning for the Serpent. Adam looks to her and calls her by her new name, Eve, which means life, because she will be the mother of all the living.  No, the curse of death is not attached to her seed nor to the seed of the daughters that come after her.

This can only mean one thing, for there is only one way a child of Eve could live forever.  He could not be the son of Adam…

He would have to be the Son of God.

And Adam starts to see God’s perfect plan of Reconciliation unfold in his mind’s eye.  One day, a daughter of Eve will produce another heir for the Kingdom of God, another Son of God who will do what he has failed to do.  God Himself will provide the substitute who, with His own human blood, will cover their sins once and for all, who will come to die the death he should have died, who will pay the price he should have paid.  A Son of Man and a Son of God who will deliver the crushing blow of vengeance to the Serpent, and who will deliver mankind from sin and death to eternal life once and for all.

“So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.  For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:18-19

Consequences

“I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; So I hid myself.”  Genesis 3:10

Everyone involved in this situation knew there would be grave consequences to face, including the Serpent himself.   But he reckoned whatever judgement lay before him would be worth the pleasure of watching God suffer the loss of the vile objects of whom He has placed so much of His love and affection.

 The devil has wagered heavily. But he knows his old Master well; he knows what His holiness and His righteousness demands.  And he too heard the mandate set before the man in which was stated “in the day you eat of it you will surely die”. 

 Yes, the devil eagerly anticipated the judgement of death upon these soulful image-bearers, to finally be rid of them and their kind once and for all.  He banked that the fallen kingdom of the earth would thereby default back to him and he could get busy doing what his corrupted heart so desperately desired; to return the realm of his confinement back to chaos.

The offending parties are summoned from the shadows of the trees to stand before the Holy Judge.

“Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

 Meager attempts at blame shifting eventually produce humble confessions. But the man and his wife know the command.  They know the sentence for what they have done is the death penalty.  

The Deceiver is first addressed.  “Because you have done this…”

His sentence initially appears light; to be cursed more and above all cattle and beasts, and the relegating to the lowest of the low (this was especially humiliating given his initial aspiration was to be most high).  But the thing that was peculiarly disturbing to him was this business about his seed being at enmity with the seed of the woman, and that it would one day wield a crushing blow to his head.  It was indeed a mystery most perplexing given, he assumed, that the woman would in a moment be met with her demise!  

Next, attention is turned to the woman, who had been listening intently to the previous exchange.  

“Pain and travail will be greatly multiplied in the bringing forth of your seed.  The husband of your desire will be your master, even now in this fallen state that you have led him in to.”

Lastly, God calls upon Adam.  So far, this has not gone at all the way he has expected.

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I  commanded, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it;’

 …the ground is cursed because of you.  Where before all goodness was provided from My hand, now you must work and sweat to provide for yourself.  The ground will also produce thorns and thistles, and you will eat of the plants of the field, not of the garden that was once your home…”. 

There is a dramatic pause.  

“Death is upon you Adam, and will one day come for you, and when it does, you will return to the dust from which you were taken.”

We have to realize that what happened to Adam all those years ago, happened to us as well, because of our position in him.  All of mankind was yet within Adam in the form of his seed.  When Adam sinned, in him, we all sinned.

“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Romans 5:12

Remember, that up until the time of Adam’s “fall”, the kingdoms of heaven and earth are intrinsically connected in the Garden of Eden.  Because of Adam’s transgression, this can no longer be so.  Heaven must now be separated from the death and decay that will now come upon the earth because of his curse.

Adam has lost his position as the crown Prince of the earthly realm.  His title and position was contingent upon his acting in accord with the will and commands of God.

Adam also experienced spiritual death when the Spirit of God departed from him.  With it, Adam lost his eternal access to the Kingdom of Heaven.  He lost his status as the son of God.  God would forever be his Creator, He could be his Lord, but without the His Spirit dwelling within him, the father-son relationship was broken.

In his sin and darkness, Adam now bore the image of another.  In his seed, Adam would pass death on to all mankind.  Yes, death would indeed come for Adam, and for all his children after him.

But not today.

All at once, the devil’s scheme has collapsed on itself.  He shakes his head in utter disbelief.  He looks frantically about him wondering “what did I just miss?!”  His diabolical plan has just been undone by one characteristic of God that he had not factored in, something he had not previously encountered.

Grace.

Falling Short

Between mission trips and the world’s health crisis, it seems as though our Glory Road has taken a bit of a detour over the last few months.  I’ll be the first to admit, life has been a little distracting, but now more than ever, we must “recalibrate” and keep our gospel direction!

The last time we had our bibles opened together, we were peering into the events recorded for us in Genesis 3, and we had discovered that life has taken a drastic turn for our earthly parents in the Garden of Eden. 

They had had a rather unfortunate encounter with a master Deceiver and had been ensnared by the same lustful temptation that he himself had been ensnared by; the desire to be like God.  They too, have experienced a dramatic and painful shift in their being. 

Even at this point in the story, they have no understanding of the full implications of what has just happened to them. 

They know one thing only, and that is, they are not what they were only moments before.

And they are naked.

At the very instant of their rebellion, even as they plunged to the ground, the weight of the glory of God has been replaced by the crushing weight of their sin.  Frantic and afraid, Adam opens his eyes in time to see this vestment of glory lifted up and away from him.   His hand reaches toward the sky, as though this desperate act could somehow retrieve it.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

Suddenly, the serpents hissing turns into a hideous, heinous laughter. Their devious enemy watches the Glory depart the freshly, demoted rulers with a deep satisfaction.  Stepping upon a rock to make himself appear a little taller, he straightens himself upright, raises his flinty face toward heaven and with defiance declares,

“If I can’t have it, neither can they.”

We talk of sin.  Intuitively, we know what it is.  Of course we do, we feel it. It has a weight of its own, a presence, if you will, that is undeniable.  And yet, by some strange paradox, it at the same time creates a deep, penetrating void within us.  It is a vacuum we were never meant to have.  And the more we attempt to fill it on our own, the more it gnaws away.  That space was created for one thing and one thing only, the Spirit and Glory of God. 

When Adam and his wife rebelled against the will of God, and trespassing, took what did not belong to them, the Spirit of God was separated from them.  In this way, Adam and his wife experienced a spiritual death (refer to “Understanding Adam and the Realm Within/ Nov. 2019).  It was the judgement of God established for Adam from the beginning.

“But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

It is this way because God cannot dwell in the presence of sin.  God is righteous and holy and just and anything that is not of this same holy nature is destroyed by His very Presence.  I know this will sound strange, but it was a loving and merciful act that God did by removing this part of Himself from Adam.  Had he not done this, Adam would have been physically annihilated completely and immediately, and forever separated from Him with no chance of redemption.

It is not the last act of mercy that Adam will experience before the day is over. However, in spite of this, one thing remains true for Adam.

His very constitution is changed.

The two are now keenly aware of their nakedness and in anguish they seek a way to cover themselves.  

Fig leaves…it’s pathetic and they know it.  It is not enough.  It too falls short.  What, after all, can replace what they have lost?

Mankind has been attempting to cover himself in similar ways ever since.  Neither is it enough, and hidden away in the dark and murky crevices of our consciousness…we know it, too.

Adam and his wife have partaken of the tree of death and have traded their intimacy with the goodness of God for the knowledge of evil.  

Another encounter awaits the man and his woman.  A familiar voice calls unto them,

“Where are you?”

I can imagine the paralyzing terror that Adam felt in that moment, his own blood running cold and furious through his fearful heart.  He knew he deserved God’s condemnation and wrath.  He knew he had yet to stand before the Righteous Judge to receive his sentence and conviction.

What Adam did not know was the depths of God’s love for him.  He did not know of grace and redemption.

He is about to learn some things even the devil didn’t know!

Stick around friend, maybe you will learn some things you didn’t know as well!

Until next time, stay smart and stay safe! God bless you!

The Least of These

Well, friends, it has been a while. 

And I am anxious to get back into our gospel story.

But before we do, I want to take a moment and tell you how much I appreciated all the prayers so many of you petitioned to the Throne of Grace on our behalf.  Those prayers were needed and felt, and they made a real difference in the work we did a half a continent away.

As I know is usually the case when one goes on a journey such as the one I have recently embarked upon, where the intention is to be a minister unto others less fortunate than yourself, I have discovered that in fact, I was the one ministered to.  I thought that I was the one with much making an offering to those with little, and in the process discovered a paradox. My “much” was not necessarily more.  In fact, I have learned that sometimes our material plenty often proves to be a hindrance, a distraction, and in a way, less.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. What we had to give was definitely a blessing to those on the receiving end.  But what I was not prepared for was what I got in return.  I did not anticipate the way the people we helped would respond with such love and humility.  The physical needs we were able to meet were temporary, to be sure.  I pray that the real gift they received from us was merely a physical expression of the eternal love of Jesus Christ.  I know that was what they gave to me.

I found another paradox.

In going to the Belize Central Prison, I expected to encounter a very dark place.  I was surprised to find that that was not the case at all.

I realized that the darkest place was the cities.   The cities where gang membership provides masculine role models in families where the fathers are largely absent.  Cities where their position and loyalty to the gang is made secure by their willingness to kill a rival gang member.  Where money comes easy in a poverty inflicted society for anyone willing to traffic in drugs or sex.  The city breeds the crime that feeds the prison population. 

 For some of these young men, finding their way to the BCP was the luckiest break they could get. And maybe, luck had nothing to do with it, but rather the Providence of God.

I went to a place where I expected to find tangible darkness and instead found penetrating Light. I went to a facility that houses over 1,000 prisoners, most of them convicted murderers, and I saw that some had found real hope there.  I saw men who, while in prison had been introduced to the message of the gospel and because of it, experienced true freedom for the first time in their lives.  The prison offers real reform to its inmates if they choose to accept it.  It is truly a correctional facility in every sense of the word, and it offers that correction through a life changing relationship with Jesus.

I asked God to take me on this journey to teach and train me how to share the gospel. 

He did so much more.  

 I got to actually see the gospel at work.  The gospel of Jesus is the story of redemption, restoration and reconciliation.  It is the story of forgiveness and grace.  It is healing and hope and promise in places you least expect it.  It is finding abundance where most see scarcity. It is experiencing the joy of giving to those who cannot reciprocate.  It is about knowing your hope is in a Kingdom other than the one of this earth, no matter how desperate or glorious it may be.  

And most of all, it is about discovering that “least of these” are not the least at all.  They are instead beautiful, courageous and resilient.  They have found strength in their weakness, riches in their poverty and freedom in their captivity.  

And I saw that we loved the same God, worshiped the same Savior and surrendered to the same Spirit, and we did this without respect to the color of our skin, social position, or nationality.  We did it as children who honored our Father in Heaven simply by loving each other in whatever way we could.

So again, from the depths of my soul I say “thank you” for the prayers and encouragement I received.  I know without a doubt they played a crucial role in opening hearts and doors for us to do what we went there to do.

Please continue to remember Belize in your prayers. Remember the pastors and congregations there who remain faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ . Remember those who call the BCP home, and for those who work hard there to make a difference in the quality of their lives and their rehabilitation. Remember the people who struggle against every day challenges that most of us here in the US know very little about. Your prayers truly do make a difference in profound ways!

God bless you!

Boots on The Ground

Please pardon the interruption from our regularly scheduled gospel story for a post of a more personal nature. 

This post is, ultimately, a prayer request. 

First, a bit of a back story.

Last summer I attended a conference put on by a local pastor in my community.  He and his wife network with other likeminded pastors, leaders and teachers who address some of the more “messy” aspects of our culture.

Thank God they do.  Somebody has to.

 By messy, I mean dark issues like satanic ritual abuse, pagan and cult activities, sex trafficking, abortion, and the deep state underbelly of our political system, just to name a few (and they connect most of these issues to each other in a disturbing way).  They are a hard-hitting bunch of warriors who aren’t afraid to lay it all out on the line for the sake of those who can’t necessarily hold the line for themselves.  This was not a pleasant conference. I spent two days learning about the devilish things these men research, expose and confront on a daily basis. I did not walk away with warm and fuzzy feelings, and I was exhausted. 

I was also deeply convicted.

I drove home and just tried to process it all.  I started to realize how self-centered and shielded my existence was.  I had no idea that MOST of those things went on at all, let alone in my country, my state, or worse, in my own community.  I didn’t know because, to be honest, I go to great lengths to protect myself from the messier side of life.  I like my world predictable and… safe.  I keep darkness at a distance on purpose. 

But now all of a sudden, my tidy, safe life felt… benign.  Impotent.  Cowardly even.

I knew that God had used that conference to open my eyes to the sinister workings in the world around me, and that I was not doing enough to oppose it.  Not even close.

So, I did what I have learned to do before I do anything else.  I prayed and asked God to show me what He would have me do.

First, I needed to repent for living my day to day purposely with blinders on.  I repented for being content with a life that was unaffected by the lost and dying, the molested and abused, and the deceived and betrayed.  And I repented for being distracted and satisfied with the things of this world that had absolutely no eternal value at all. 

Next, He revealed to me that my understanding of the true gospel and its power to transform lives for His kingdom was shallow.  This is not easy to admit. I am not a young Christian. But it is true none the less. 

Through the gracious teaching of the Holy Spirit and diligent study in the Word, I learned the depth, the breadth and the beautiful intricacies of the whole gospel message as it is revealed from Genesis to Revelation.  He taught me about the nature of the kingdoms of heaven and earth and His plan for the ages in ways that I had never before understood.

It took root in me.  It changed me, and it changed the way I looked at the world.

 Much of what I learned I am sharing through this blog.

And now it was time for the roots to produce fruit.  I needed to step out of my safe, sterile and calculated world and actually share with others what I had learned.  I had to be brave in a whole new way.

I say all of that to get to the real reason for this post, the part where I need your help.

A few months after I began this journey, I realized how little experience I had actually sharing the gospel on my own. I had witnessed to others in group situations or in organizational settings, but I had done little to proactively, purposefully and directly approach someone with the sole purpose of sharing the gospel.  I didn’t even know how. And I was scared.   So, I asked the Lord to teach me.

Only a few weeks after praying that prayer, a divine opportunity presented itself.

As a profession, I work as a dental assistant. A coworker and good friend of mine had just been approached by a dentist she knew from another state about going to Belize on a mission trip.  It seemed they needed assistants and wondered if she would be interested. Unfortunately, conflicts in her schedule prohibited her from being able to go, so she asked me if I would be interested.  Immediately, I knew I was!

I had a gut feeling this was the answer I was waiting for.

 I learned that this doctor had many years of experience organizing dental and medical mission trips all over the world and that he used it as an opportunity to spread the gospel.   God put a man right in my path who could teach me exactly what I wanted to know and put me in a situation specifically suited to my skill set.

On this particular trip, we will be treating prisoners in the Central Belize Prison.  (Talk about going in a dark place!) and through another effort to share the gospel, we will also be reaching out with food and basic necessities to some local needy families. I am so grateful and humbled that God has opened this door for me.  I pray that He uses it as a type of “basic training” and that I too, will be developed into a “boots on the ground” warrior for Him and His kingdom.

I share all of this with you to ask you to pray for me and our mission team as we travel to Belize in a few weeks.  I am traveling by myself to a place I have never been to work with people I have never met. Pray that we work cohesively as a team and pray for our safety and protection.  And most of all, pray that God will work in the hearts of those to whom we go to minister.  If we do not first appeal to the realm of heaven, what we do on earth, we do in vain.  

Thank you for your help and for your faithfulness to His Kingdom!