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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 89
BREAKING THE SEALS
(continued)
And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard
the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come! And
I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name
that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him
(Rev. 6:7-8).
There is a special significance to be attached to the description of the fourth
horseman he whose name is Death and Hell followed with him. Death and Hell are specially linked in the
Revelation. And since Christ came and abolished death (II Tim. 1:10) and destroyed him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil (Heb. 2:14), He now boldly proclaims, I am He that liveth, and was dead;
and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the KEYS OF HELL AND OF DEATH
(Rev. 1:18). And since the Christ now
possesses both hell and death, for He has conquered them and taken them unto Himself,
neither of them ride anywhere except by His authority!
This fourth horse is identified in the King James Bible as a pale horse. The
translators had a difficult time with this word pale because its simple
meaning is green. They
couldnt understand green in relation to death and hell, so they used the word
pale. Other translators
rendered it ashy pale, sickly green, livid,
color of ashes, etc., in an effort to come up with something that would
portray that which is sickly, hellish, or dead. One
writer says, The translation pale does
not do justice to the horrible word used there! It
is pallid or literally a greenish-yellow horse. But, I ask is that true?
Strongs Concordance gives the meaning of the root word in Greek as simply
green. The actual form of the
word used in our text is kloros. The best key to discovering the meaning of any
word is usage.
This Greek word appears in only three other places in the New Testament. Let us look at how the word is translated there,
and what its obvious meaning is by its usage. When
Jesus was preparing to multiply the loaves and the fishes to feed the five thousand, we
read, And He commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green (kloros) grass (Mk. 6:39). Do you suppose Jesus was talking about pale grass,
ashy pale grass, sickly green grass, livid grass, pallid grass, or ash-colored grass? I dont
think so! Everyone knows that grass is
known for its green color. The next two
references are in the book of Revelation, the same book where the word is translated pale. Notice now how it is translated in the other two
places! The first angel sounded, and
there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and
the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green
(kloros) grass was burnt up (Rev. 8:7). And
it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green (kloros) thing, neither any tree
(Rev. 9:4). If this is such a
horrible word, with such a horrible meaning, as the commentator
above characterized it, why is all grass, trees, and vegetation of all kinds defined as
being this color? Obviously, the word
means green!
We meet the color green under another symbol in chapter four of the Revelation. Caught up into heaven, beholding the throne of God
and Him that sat upon it, John said, And there was a rainbow round about the throne,
in sight like unto an emerald (Rev. 4:3). Webster defines emerald as: (1) a green transparent variety of beryl used as a
gemstone. (2) a clear deep green color.
Ireland is called The Emerald Isle because of the abundance of
lush dark green vegetation. The rainbow
around the throne reveals the great truth that the throne is not a power of destruction,
but the very power
of life! While most rainbows
have more than one color, this rainbow was in appearance like unto an emerald
accentuating only the color green. Green in scripture is the supreme color of LIFE! Yes, there is death to the old, but in the throne
we ascend to the highest dimension of life divine, incorruptible, immortal Life! John fell as dead before the face of the One
sitting on the throne his old Adamic life, identity, nature, and mind slain by the
fiery glory of God! But let your heart
consider the words of this glorious One when He says to John, Fear not. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am
alive for evermore! In other words,
Dont be afraid to give up your will,
John, your ways, your desires, your emotions, your plans, your
hopes, your dreams, your thoughts, your carnal, human identity. Dont be afraid, says the Lord Jesus,
for I had to give them all up when I walked in the flesh. I died! BUT
BEHOLD, I AM ALIVE FOR EVERMORE! Therein
is the power of both death and life! The
consuming fire of God will absolutely destroy every vestige of the carnal mind and the
flesh life. And then the rainbow of promise
establishes within the covenant of divine, heavenly life and reality. Adam dies and Christ arises within us! This is the glory of sonship! We die to
the old that we may live in the new! Thus, both death and life are wrought in us by the
mighty Christ of God! Oh, the mystery
of it!
Consider the scene! The green horse
speaks of LIFE.
Yet he who rides on him is DEATH! What a paradox!
The purpose of the green horses Rider is to kill. Death
is riding on life! What can it mean? Ah, the answer is so very plain and simple. Death comes by life!
Many of us in our spiritual walk have been trying to die in order to
live. Weve had the idea that if we
could overcome and conquer the death in us we would be able to live the life of Christ. But that is a contradiction of the law of life! Paul said it this way, For the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom.
8:2). The law of the spirit of life in
Christ is the law of our spiritual life and it supersedes the law of sin and death! You see, my beloved, you dont die in order
to live you live in order to die! It is the law
of the spirit of LIFE that makes us free from
the law of sin and DEATH. In fact, if you
dont live before you die, you had better not die!
If you dont have life before you die, there will be nothing left
not even a hope of resurrection, for it is the seed of life that guarantees
resurrection. Do you know why Jesus was
willing to die? He was willing to die
because He could say, No man taketh my life from me I lay it down; I have
power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again. The one who lays down his life must have power to
take it up again. If you have not the power
to lay your life down, and take it back up, then may God help you not to die! You must live in order to die, so that when you
die you can still live!
Christs life was secure in death because He had life before He died, and by
that life He arose. Someone says, But,
Im not going to die! Well, do
you know what the proof of me having life would be? The
proof would be for me to say, Go ahead, kill me
pull the trigger, man, because
I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again. A lesser degree of life is required to live and
not die, than to die and still live, and bring yourself back again. When I have a quality of life that IS, then I can
lay it down and take it up. So the law of the
spirit of life makes me free from the law of sin and death! Life makes me free from death, not the other way
around. It is not getting rid of death that
enables me to live. Oh, no! Only life can get rid of death! You dont destroy the death in someone to
make him live, you give him life to swallow up the death!
It is Christ in me that causes Adam to be brought to death, yet I live. I live and then die, and still I live. Im not going to conquer something so I can
have the victory I must get the victory so I can conquer something! It is not victory that gives you power, it is
power that gives you victory. GET LIFE,
precious friend of mine, and all the death in you will take care of itself. Increase in life and you will decrease in death. These are divine laws, the laws of the kingdom of
God!
While it is gloriously true that Christ has given His life to all men, to the whole
world (Jn. 6:51), yet it is evident that there must be a progression in the development of
that life in the experience of every man until every vestige of the death realm has been
swallowed up, spirit, soul, and body. To
those who walk in Christ there is an ever-increasing consciousness, growth, increase,
unfoldment, maturation, and triumph of that life within.
The mighty working of His power in us is followed by this very precious and
understandable result: If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
(makes Himself at home) in you, He that raised up Christ shall also quicken (make alive) your mortal bodies by His Spirit which dwelleth in you (Rom. 8:11). I believe I now see more clearly than I have ever
done why it was that Paul, who, as you and I do, still dwelt in the hellish bondage of a
mortal body, cried out, For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality. So when this corruptible
shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall
be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin
is the law. But thanks be to God who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (I Cor. 15:53-57).
We are, indeed, terribly and horribly in bondage to the body of this death, and with us the whole creation is groaning, waiting for the day
when the sons of God will deliver them from the bondage of corruption. I do not need to argue with any man to prove our
present mortality in the flesh. If you must sleep to live, you are mortal. If you must eat
to live, you are obviously mortal. If you
must breathe to live, you are unquestionably
mortal. If an eighteen-wheeler were to hit
you on the freeway at seventy miles per hour and you would splatter all over the road, you
are definitely mortal. We are all aware of
our constant and unremitting decay as the aging process etches its marks upon us. Our present mortality is naught but death,
although we live in the spirit. Think of it! Meditate deeply upon it and cling to this realm
of death no more. Reach up, dear one, with
the blessed arm of faith and embrace that bright realm above where that which is true in
our spirit reaches down and takes hold upon our
outer man, where this mortal puts on
immortality, where death in all its aspects is swallowed
up of life, where in that final victory of His life within, the sons of God will upon
this earth shout in triumph over both death and the grave!
Truly we yearn for this change, for our desire is not to be unclothed, but to be
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life (II Cor. 5:1-5). Yes, we groan inwardly for this transformation to
take place! I continually meet up with
brethren who confess that they have already put
on physical immortality and incorruption, and that they have already by-passed the grave and cannot and will not
die. I must be very honest and frank with
you, my beloved brothers and sisters. I have
not one whit of a desire to live forever IN THIS BODY OF HUMILIATION. When this mortal puts on immortality there will be
a mighty change!
When Jesus was transfigured (metamorphosed) on the holy mount, and when He came out
of the tomb in the power of resurrection there was
a mighty change! There is no more
frightening thought, no more repugnant possibility, than the idea that I might live
forever in this present body of humiliation! Thank
God, there is to be a change! Who will transform and fashion anew the body
of our humiliation to conform and be like the body
of His glory and majesty, by exerting that power which enables Him even to subject
everything to Himself (Phil. 3:21, Amplified).
The thought of merely adding deathlessness to this body of humiliation, with no
substantial change, the very suggestion of such limitation, that I might have to daily
bathe, use the bathroom, anoint my body with deodorant, brush my teeth, and rinse with
Listerine throughout eternity the hint that I might retain this base form, that I
might remain as I am unendingly, falls as far
short of what I conceive of a body transformed and
fashioned like unto His body of glory and majesty as hell falls short of heaven! The body of incorruption shall resemble this vile
body no more than does the oak tree resemble the chemical elements of the earth which were
raised up into the substance of the tree by the mighty working of the subtle and
mysterious life-force sown in the earth as a seed. The
bottom line is just this if you think you have an immortal body in your present
form FORGET IT!
Sons of God! If we would be fashioned like unto Him, co-sharers of His glory and
power and wisdom as God-men, we must not simply rest content with the faith that trusts in
the cross and its pardon; we must follow on to
know the fullness of the New Life, the life of glory and power in human nature, injected
into mankind through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, of which the Spirit
of the glorified Jesus is the witness and the source.
Now, practically everything in relation to our sonship depends upon the clearness
with which this great truth that I have stated is recognized. The Holy Spirit of God inspired the message of
these words, Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through Him. For if, when we were
enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, WE SHALL
BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE (Rom. 5:9-11).
The double provision of Christ is
here clearly set forth: reconciled by His death
saved
by His life! Christs death is
the atonement, reconciling men to God, granting a full and free admittance back into
Edens lovely Garden from which our disobedient foreparents were once banished. But Christs life is
the tree of
life in that Garden, the source of the life which shall work in us the complete
transformation into the divine nature.
Sin, sickness, sorrow, fear, and death are all part of a power in our life; let us fully understand that it
can only be met by another higher power! The power of sin and death works all through our
life. The death of Christ, which is the
atonement, reconciles us to God; but only the life of Christ can come against the power of
sin and death and deliver our life from destruction.
Reconciliation places us, in Gods eyes, back in Edens garden;
but the tree of life is the power that delivers our life from the dominion of sin and
death! Remember sin began in the Garden!
Death began in the Garden! So just getting back into the Garden
(reconciliation) is not enough! You can sin
there and you can die there! We must eat from
the tree of life! He redeemeth my life, by
His life, from death! So Christs life,
not His death, living in our life, absorbing it, impregnating it, transforming it, causes us to live!
This is the meaning of that profound sentence in which Paul records the
first work of salvation and pointedly distinguishes it from the second great work of
salvation, saying, If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life! Arent you
glad!
Can we not see by this that the Rider on the green horse whose name is Death is,
like all the other Riders, our Lord Jesus Christ. The
Death is HIS DEATH! And His death rides upon
LIFE! That is, His death reconciles us, but
only His Life can swallow up the death in us! Death
and Life! Death riding upon life is not the
picture of some grotesque, hideous, morbid, ghoulish, macabre event to come upon mankind
in the outer world during the great tribulation. Oh,
no! Death and life are spiritual
issues and they revolve around the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. DEATH COMES BY LIFE that is the message!
We cannot die to live we must live in order to die!
THE FOURTH PART OF MEN
KILLED
And I looked, and behold a green horse: and His name that sat on him was
Death, and Hell followed with him. And power
was given unto Him over the fourth part of the
earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the
earth (Rev. 6:8).
As the Lord, by the raising up of His life within us, brings death to our flesh
man, we note that under this fourth seal, with it green horse and Rider, power is given to
Him over the fourth part of the earth and the
purpose of this power is to kill. Since this is the fourth and final
horse, and seeing that after this fourth seal the symbols change abruptly, and there are
no more horses, it becomes clear that this fourth horse is the concluding blow by which
the Lord finishes His work in us to bring death to the carnal, natural man of flesh. The Rider of this horse is given power over the
fourth part of the earth-realm, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death,
and with the beasts of the earth. How many
horses are there? Four! Whats
being revealed here is that the first three horses have dealt with three aspects of our
natural life, but theres a fourth part of our earth that still must be
worked upon by the Lord. Now He comes into
our experience to deal with the whole fleshly man, and when all four horses have completed
their purpose in us a particular work within us is brought to consummation.
This fourth part of
the earth is clearly that portion of earthiness not already dealt with by the
preceding three horses. It bespeaks the
conclusion, consummation, and termination of the process!
It means the final subjugation of our soulical selfhood and everything
within us that is contrary to the life of the spirit.
And all the instruments necessary to accomplish this are in His hands and at
His command! This is further confirmed when
the fifth seal is opened, for there we see the finished product of this death! And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw
under the altar the souls of them that had been slain
(Rev. 6:9). The souls of them
that had been slain the soulical life done away, symbolically under the
altar where the blood and ashes of the burnt offering are found! We are being killed as to our
earth-life as these horses run through our mind, earth, and experience, but we are also
being made alive unto God as the Lord breaks
the seals off of the Christ in our spirit so that the life of the Lamb be revealed out of
this book which we are. Though shrouded in
symbols hard to be understood by the natural mind, these are all beautiful spiritual realities wonderfully fulfilled in each
and every life of Gods elect!
There are four instruments by which Christ brings the demise of our natural, human,
Adamic identity. First, to kill with
the sword.
Here we do not read to
slaughter as in the second seal, but to kill. Also the term translated sword is
different. It is not the machaira but the rhomphaia. It
is not the sacrificial knife or short sword but the long and heavy great sword, like the
one with which David cut off Goliaths head. So
how were those souls under the altar slain?
Ah, the answer is found later on in the Revelation: And I saw thrones,
and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded
for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast,
neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands;
and they lived and reigned with Christ a
thousand years (Rev. 20:4). BEHEADED! Their carnal mind, their human consciousness,
their Adamic identity, like the giants head, was cut off! That is spiritually what God is doing in all of
His sons! By this action He raises up
within us another head, even the mind of Christ! It is indeed wonderful!
Secondly, to kill with hunger. It means that one of the Lords methods in
dealing with the desires, passions, and lusts of the flesh is to starve them to
death. We think we cannot overcome,
that our own will is too strong, but as His life is raised up in us we find ourselves
abstaining more and more from those things which are of the flesh, for they are
overwhelmed by a greater desire and passion only for HIM.
The more the presence and glory of God fill our lives the less the Adamic
nature is fed and fueled by the influences of the world, until the desires of the flesh
simply burn themselves out and now we hunger and thirst only after Him, and such, He said,
shall be filled.
To walk both after the flesh and after the spirit is morally impossible. No man, as Christ so often
emphasized, can serve two masters. And
yet, as a matter of fact, here is the child of God being in relation to both worlds
flesh and spirit. With sin and purity, with
light and darkness, with the carnal mind and the spiritual mind, with God and the devil,
the confused and undecided soul is now in relation.
What is to be done in such an emergency? How
can the New Life find deliverance from the ever-persistent call of the flesh? The ready solution to the difficulty is TO
DIE! Not for our old man to die,
for he is already crucified with Christ, but for us to die to sin,
or to kill
the evil desire lurking in our bodily members.
To die to any reality is to withdraw correspondence with it, to be cut off from all
communication with it. If I cut my arm off
from my body, so that it has no correspondence with it, nor receives anything from it, it
will die. The solution to the problem is just
this for the spiritual life to reverse continually the processes of the
fleshly life! The spiritual man having passed
from death unto life the fleshly man must
next proceed to pass from life unto death. Regeneration of the spirit in short must be
accompanied by degeneration of the flesh, the carnal mind.
Listen to the words of the apostle Paul as he presses this beautiful truth home to
the hearts of the understanding saints in Colosse: If then you have been raised with
Christ to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead, aim at and seek the
rich, eternal treasures that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. And set your minds and keep them set on what is
above the higher things not on the things that are on the earth. For as far as this world is concerned you have
died, and your new real life is hid with Christ in God.
SO KILL (DEADEN, DEPRIVE OF POWER) the evil desire lurking in your members
those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin:
sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness,
for that is idolatry
but now PUT AWAY AND RID YOURSELVES COMPLETELY OF ALL THESE
THINGS
for you have stripped off the old unregenerate self with its evil practices,
and have clothed yourselves with the new spiritual self, which is ever in the process of
being renewed and remolded into the fuller and more perfect knowledge upon knowledge,
after the image of Him who created it (Col. 3:1-10, Amplified).
Can we not see by this that as we nurture the new spiritual life, seeking those
things which are above, setting our minds upon those higher things, the desires of the
flesh are truly starved to death, they burn themselves out as they are overwhelmed by our
greater desire and passion for our new heavenly life.
Oh, yes, they are killed by hunger! Yet this is only one of the four instruments the
Lord has in His arsenal to totally destroy the man of sin in our temple!
Thirdly, to kill with death. To kill
with DEATH! How does one kill with death? What can this cryptic statement mean? It sounds contrary to the principle I shared
earlier concerning living to die, instead of trying to die in order to live! Yet
it is not contrary, but complementary. Both
are true in their own order the same truth from different facets, or the other side
of the same coin. The simple truth is that if
you are trying to die in order to live, then you
are trying to commit suicide! That is the difference. We cannot kill ourselves, or bring our flesh
nature to death by any self-effort. This work
is wholly the work of God! HE is the only one
who can do it.
And what an ingenious process He has! To
kill with death means a death by death. Later on in the book of Revelation the same great
truth is presented thus: Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second
death (Rev. 20:14). Now let us
turn this around for clarity. The
second death IS death and hell cast into the lake of fire. Therefore we have exactly the same meaning either
way it is stated. What is the second death? It is the first death and hell cast into the lake
of fire! Our God is a consuming
fire. This fact is extremely important! The
second death is not merely the lake of fire. Nor
is the second death men being forever tortured in the lake of fire. Oh, no! The
Holy Spirit has made it very simple and exceedingly plain.
The second death is the first death and hell CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE. That is the Holy Spirits definition, not
mine!
Can we now open the eyes of our understanding to see that everything cast into the lake of fire pertains to DEATH? Death itself is cast into the lake of fire. Hell, the realm of the dead, is cast into the
lake of fire. And those whose names are not
written in the Book of Life, that is, those who
are dead in trespasses and in sins, who also
inhabit hell, are cast into the lake of fire. I
am not talking about the dead out in the cemetery, or the spirits of the departed, but
those who are dead to God, dead to truth, dead to reality, dead to purity, dead to the
life of the spirit ah, that is every man who is living and walking after the flesh,
indeed, it is the natural man, the carnal man, it is ADAM!
It is my lower self, the first man who is of the earth earthy. This man is dead!
When death and hell and the dead are cast into the lake of fire, that is the
end
of death and hell and sin and sinners, for God shall destroy the whole realm of death in
the lake of fire. He shall burn up hell in
the lake of fire, He shall destroy death in the lake of fire, He shall consume sin in the
lake of fire, and He shall get rid of old Adam in the lake of fire! Our God is that consuming fire, and the fire is the second death!
It is the death of death! Oh,
the mystery of it! Therefore the Lord Himself
is the one named Death riding the green horse, for He is the consuming fire which is the second
death which forever destroys the realm of death! That is the mystery.
How I long to see the end of sin and sinners and death and hell! The time is coming, praise His name! Gods kingdom shall rule over all and God
Himself shall be All-in-all. There shall be
neither sin, nor sinners, nor death, nor hell. There
shall not be one man abiding in a death realm, nor even one foothold of death in the life
of any man. It is clear that God does not destroy men in the lake of fire, nowhere does it
say that, for that would be a contradiction of terms.
How can you destroy death by creating death?
How can you abolish death by bringing men under the power of eternal death
from which there is no escape? Oh, no, it is
not men who are destroyed in the lake of fire it is sin and death
and hell and the dead Adamic nature that are destroyed. Oh, how wonderful that is! And the last enemy that shall be destroyed
is death (I Cor. 15:26). And there shall be no more death: for the former things are passed
away (Rev. 21:4). Thus, the lake of
fire is nothing more nor less than THE DEATH OF DEATH!
And power was given unto Him to kill
with
death.
The following words by Ray Prinzing give precious insight into this beautiful
truth. The first Adam died to God and
righteousness, and became alive unto sin. The
last Adam died unto sin (Rom. 6:19), and liveth unto God, and so fulfilleth all
righteousness. The first made all men
sinners, the last makes all men righteous. The
lives and the deaths of the two Adams are thus greatly contrasting the one to the other. The FIRST DEATH was a transition from life to
death, the SECOND DEATH is a transition from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to
immortality. Transformed from the carnal mind
to the spiritual mind, which is life and peace, which transformation is wrought by a dying
out to the one realm, to come alive to the higher realm.
Because the second death is prepared to purge out and burn away sin
and its results, and so doing cleanse all of Gods universe.
Death came minding self and flesh. Now
God makes death overcome itself. It is by
death that death is rendered powerless, and there arises an upspringing, a new life. It takes death to destroy death, and thus Christ
did taste death for every man that through death He might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2:9,14-15). Since we are all under the effects of the first
death, it is appointed unto us to die once more not physical death, we are already
in a state of mortality but now a dying out to this present death state. We conquer this death of the carnal mind (for to
be carnally minded is death) by dying to it
only God could use such a process bringing victory, but praise God, He is
destroying the first death with the second death
end quote.
When the process is complete, and the last soul has emerged from the warfare of the
Four Horsemen, fully yielding to the Lordship of our Saviour, then at last shall be
fulfilled the wonderful promise: And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold, 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. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be NO MORE DEATH, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain: for the former things are passed away. And
He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make ALL THINGS NEW. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful (Rev. 21:3-5).
There are a couple other aspects of death killing death that I would mention in
closing. The first is the DEATH OF THE CROSS. Paul tells us something very striking about the
cross. He says that the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God (I Cor. 1:18). How can the cross, which is an instrument of
death, be the very power of God unto salvation? The
death of the cross is in some mysterious and
divine way the gateway to the life of the cross. The cross which is the power of God is
certainly not the old rugged cross Jesus hung upon on mount Calvary. Only if we possessed an actual piece of the wood
from that cross, and that wood possessed some magical, quickening powers, could we say
that the wooden Roman cross upon which Jesus was crucified is the power of God!
That wooden cross no longer exists, having decayed back into the dust long
centuries ago. And yet, all the handwriting
of the ordinances of the law were nailed to His
cross, the scripture says; but should you have been there on Golgothas hill that
day when Jesus was hung between heaven and earth you would not have seen the first five
books of the Bible nailed to His cross! By His cross the world is crucified to us, and us to
the world, but the whole world is not hanging somewhere today upon that cross, being
crucified to us. Such literal thoughts are
absurdities. The whole world is reconciled by
the blood of that cross, yet not one of us has seen any literal blood by which we were
brought into fellowship with God. That is the
mystery. We are talking about things that
exist in the
spirit. Ah, the cross of Christ is
something deeper, higher, grander, more transcendental than pieces of wood upon which
Jesus hung!
When God brings the cross into our lives to deal with the death in us, He
doesnt bring it to us out of two millenniums ago He brings it out of the
living reality of the dimension of spirit right
now! When by the quickening of the Spirit
you saw Christ dying, you did not see Him dying twenty centuries ago, but in spirit
you beheld Him. God brought Him out of that
long ago into your NOW. God brought Him into
your present. And you saw Him bleeding and
dying, not two thousand years ago, but right now in this moment you beheld Him by spirit. And in spirit Paul exults with unspeakable joy, I AM crucified with
Christ! Not then NOW! Not I was
I AM! It is neither history nor a
future event. The cross did not begin at
Calvary, nor did it end at Calvary! Its
an accomplished fact in the eternal NOW.
It is a great and glorious fact that our spirit has not been crucified. If our spirit were crucified we could not say,
I AM crucified, and I LIVE. When
we speak of death and resurrection we speak of two corresponding principles in the
present. I AM crucified, and I AM alive. That is how Paul stated the case. Those are dual, present, and continuous realities. I am and I am!
I AM crucified, and I AM living. But
what is crucified? Not my inward man
but my outward man! Paul put it this way,
Though our outward man is perishing, yet
our inward man is being renewed day by day
(II Cor. 6:16). The outer man, the sensual
man, the soulical man, the carnal mind, the flesh is perishing.
He is not perishing because he is getting old and getting ready to go to the
cemetery. Oh, no! He is perishing because of the work of the cross in us! This is a spiritual work!
I am being crucified is an
alternate rendering of the Greek. The cross
has very practical applications in our everyday lives.
You see, my beloved, the Lord faithfully prepares the places, situations,
circumstances, and experiences whereby our self-life is brought to the futility of itself
and laid down. The cross is painful! This is no mystical, glorious experience by faith. The cross is the power of God working as death by
actual crisis in our lives whereby, like the prodigal son, we come to the end of our self, and we arise and go to the Father. When we forsake trust in the flesh and the way of
the flesh, that the spirit might rule, death has been worked in us, releasing His life to
be expressed as our life.
Now Gods called and chosen elect have come to the place in consciousness in
this great process of salvation where we understand that the mystery of self is the mystery of death.
The way we can rid ourselves of the last enemy, and overcome the last enemy, which
is death, is by ridding ourselves of self, denying our self, taking up our cross unto the
perishing of the outer man with his desires and demands, by gaining the victory over our
self nature. When this is accomplished
completely, we will have victory over death, the last enemy! Someone says, But, brother Eby, I thought
you said we dont die in order to live, but we live in order to die. That
is true! But the mystery is in the cross
the cross that kills the flesh IS THE POWER OF GOD!
The power of God is the life of God, the Spirit of God. Can you not see the mystery? The cross is not the old rugged cross, it is the
cross in the heart of God, the eternal cross in the realm of the spirit, and that cross
comes into our lives as HIS DEATH IN HIS LIFE
WORKING DEATH AND LIFE IN US BY HIS DEATH IN HIS LIFE, HIS CROSS IN THE SPIRIT! Understand that, my beloved, and you will
understand a great mystery!
This grand truth is further portrayed for us in Moses and Aarons mighty
acts before Pharaoh in the land of Egypt. Did
not Moses and Aaron and the magicians of Egypt employ the very same signs and perform the same feats? Aaron
threw down his rod and it was turned into a serpent.
But then the magicians of Egypt were called in and they all threw down their rods,
and their rods became serpents also. But
Aarons rod, in the form of a serpent, ran after them and swallowed them all; and
then it became a rod again in Aarons hand. It was a serpent destroying the serpents! Serpents destroyed by a serpent that is the mystery.
Did not the Lord Jesus say, And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of man be lifted up
and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL MEN
UNTO ME (Jn. 3:14; 12:32). The Lord was
referring to the time when Israel murmured against Moses in the wilderness, complaining
that there was no food nor water, and they were tired of the same old diet of manna every
day. The Lord sent judgment into their midst
in the form of fiery (burning) serpents and they bit the people, and many Israelites died. The people then repented and asked Moses to pray
that the Lord would take away the serpents. So
Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord
instructed Moses to make a fiery serpent of bronze
and raise it up on a pole; and everyone that was bitten, when they looked at the bronze
serpent attentively, expectantly, with a steady and absorbing gaze, were healed from their
bites and lived. The Lord Jesus used this
experience as a type of Himself being raised up
upon the cross all who have been bitten by the serpent that brings sin, sorrow,
limitation and death that ancient serpent which is the devil and Satan by
simply looking unto Him all are healed and
given life!
Can we not see by this that the devil who lurks in the carnal mind of man is a serpent and the Christ became a serpent to deliver us from him that had
the power of death, that is, the devil. The
serpent is destroyed by a serpent! Can there
be any greater mystery than this? The message
is clear Christ swallows up all the serpents of the adversary! Christ heals, restores, and gives life to all who
have been injected with the venom of the serpent in the carnal mind, the human
consciousness, nature, and identity. How do
we overcome the devil who goes forth as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour? We send forth the Lords powerful lion of the
tribe of Judah to destroy it! How do we
overcome the bellowing bulls of Bashan? We
send the Lords wild ox (unicorn) against them!
How do we overcome the weakness of Adams flesh in us? By the very indwelling power of Him who the Father
sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, who overcame sin in the flesh, and sent
the spirit of His victory into us, that we now may also fulfill all righteousness! You see, my beloved, we have not received the
Spirit of the eternal God who can overcome all
things. Oh, no! Rather, we have received the Spirit of God who
came in the flesh of Jesus Christ and did
overcome all things in the flesh! We have received within us the Spirit of the One
who has overcome the flesh, the world, and the
devil in a human body just like ours! It was
by flesh that
flesh was conquered! By the spirit in Jesus the flesh of Jesus was
sanctified, separated unto God, and proved greater and more powerful and of more value
than the flesh of Adam, so much that Jesus could say, Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye have no life in you. Can you now see the mystery? The Christ rides into our earth upon the green
horse and kills the death of Adams mind and nature through the life poured out by
the death of Himself upon Calvary. He kills
with death!
Yet that death is truly a poured out life!
Now finally, we read that the Rider on
the green horse was given power
to
kill
with the beasts of the earth
(Rev. 6:8). The beasts of the
earth are figures of the various aspects of the bestial (fleshly) nature within
mankind! Ray Prinzing has pointed out that in
a way unique, mysterious, and amazing the Lord is able to marshal the bestial nature of
men about us, so that they are His instruments to bring to death in us things that are not
pleasing to Him. These are all part of the
testings, trials, temptations, and troubles that come to each of us as challenges by which
we learn to draw upon the life of the Christ within to become more than conquerors in all
things.
One of the fundamental laws of creation is that an opposing force
is necessary for growth, and to produce strength, stamina, and endurance. Any
living thing that grows up without any opposition is weak and powerless. Gods new creation man must be strong and
powerful, and any one or any thing that desires to be powerful must wrestle with some
contrary force. Any man who wants to develop
muscular power to be strong, must spend weeks and months and years in vigorous training
doing heavy exercises, lifting heavy weights, using the opposing force of gravity to develop his strength. A man who wants to be a great wrestler,
doesnt just wrestle when he is in the ring. At
his training center he has his wrestling partners with whom he wrestles by the hour. They are adversaries but they are what
makes him strong! If he didnt have them
he would be weak and powerless in the ring.
A boxer has his punching bags and sparring partners, with whom he spends hours
every day. Those opposing forces are indispensable to develop
strength. A plant that grows in a greenhouse
sheltered from the winds and rains, pampered day after day, may grow large, but it is
inherently weak, and if suddenly exposed to the elements will wither and die. But a plant that is constantly exposed to the
fierce winds and pounding rains, burning heat and chilling cold, is strong and not easily
destroyed.
One who grows up in a sheltered environment, who is pampered all his life, grows up
a weak, spineless individual. Adversity
builds strength of character! If we were
never exposed to trials and tribulations, to temptations and testings, to the conniving
and evil and buffetings of men around us, we would spiritually grow up weak indeed! In church is not where one truly
learns to live the Christ life! The more we
are exposed to adverse circumstances, the more we have to wrestle with the allurements,
enchantments, and hostilities of the world, the more we are challenged by the sin and
death around us, the stronger we become. ALL
THE SONS OF THE MOST HIGH MUST BE STRONG IN THE
LORD AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT! Our
Father wants us to be strong, so He has wisely given us wrestling partners to wrestle
with, so we will become strong. These are the
beasts of the earth by which the fleshly mind and nature within us is killed! These
beasts of the earth represent men with bestial
natures who are adversaries to us. How
they tear in pieces and devour the flesh!
The Psalmist summed it up in these inspired words: For Thou, O God, hath
proved us: Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. Thou
broughtest us into the net; Thou laidest affliction upon our loins. THOU CAUSED MEN TO RIDE OVER OUR HEADS; we went
through the fire and through water: but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place
(Ps. 66:10-12).
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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