THE EPILOGUE
“And
he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the
holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must
shortly be done. Behold, I am coming
quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of this book” (Rev.
22:6-7).
God
fulfills His words of prophecy because His people are made the bearers of the
prophecies. Now, if those who are made heirs
of the promises in prophecies do not hold, fulfill, or keep the
prophecies, will God fulfill them anyway
and give them the promised blessing, power, and position? We have an unerring example of this in Israel’s
experience at Kadesh-barnea. They were
all ready to go over and take the kingdom.
God’s time for them to possess their land was “now.” God’s time had arrived. The vile nations in the land were ripe for
the judgment, and God was ready to give the land to His people, but they failed
to believe and trust His promise because of the negative testimony of the ten
spies, and the time was prolonged for forty years. What was the cause of this delay?
Nothing that we read of except the unbelief
on the part of the ten spies and of all those that were swayed by them. Even the righteous and faithful ones like
Joshua and Caleb had to suffer too because they had to wait until God dealt
with these issues and His time came again.
God
always has a time for His purposes!
But God also requires faith and obedience on the part of
His people to possess the promises! Let
every one who has ears to hear stop and take earnest heed, because the Spirit
of God now warns His called and chosen elect of the folly of not fully believing
and embracing His promises and purposes in this significant hour. “But Christ as a son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto
the end. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear His
voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation, in the day of temptation in the
wilderness: when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty
years. Wherefore I was grieved with that
generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known
my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They
shall not enter into my rest. Take
heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief…but
exhort one another daily , while it is called Today (the appointed
time)…for we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence
steadfast unto the end” (Heb. 3:6-14).
How unspeakably sad it is to find that in our day there are also those who hear the call
but do not give all diligence to make
their calling and election sure!
The
individual
believer as well as the entire company of God’s elect who does not keep these words of the prophecy is not
armed with God’s whole armor and therefore will meet with defeat in carrying
out the full will of God and to inherit the promise of sonship and the
kingdom. We are out of harmony with God’s
highest will if we do not keep these words of prophecy in the
Revelation! To “keep” them simply means
to believe them, yield to Father’s dealings, embrace all His processings, and
follow on to experience within ourselves all that is set forth in the
vision. That is what God is waiting on
in order to cause all these words to come to pass shortly, that is, speedily.
Every son and daughter of God will be experientially led through
every stage of growth, processing, and development laid out in this
prophecy. We must go through them! We are made heirs of these promises from God
through Christ. Israel was made the heir of Canaan
through Abraham; we are made the heirs through Christ. Our elder brother is to us what Abraham was
to Israel;
so we have received the promises from our heavenly Father through the faith and
obedience of His firstborn Son!
SEEING THESE THINGS
“And
I John saw these things, and heard them…”
(Rev. 22:8).
To
see is to understand. I saw, I understood these things after hearing
them as one who has an ear to hear what
the Spirit is saying. Sometimes when I
am driving around the city of El
Paso I see the
person in the car next to me moving their head or body in rhythmic response to
the music coming from their audio
speakers. I cannot respond in like
fashion because I don’t hear the
music — I’m not “tuned in” to the same thing!
John was tuned in to the Spirit — wisdom
and revelation flowed into him, and he responds by saying, “I John saw these
things, and heard them…” It is very
clear then that John is telling us in the plainest of language that he experienced
these things! It was not a
vague, mysterious, inscrutable, undecipherable vision that he beheld in wonder
and with curiosity — and not some set of external world events reserved for a time many
centuries in the future — but he truly heard with anointed ears and saw with
the deep comprehension of its reality within himself. This was John’s experience, and it is ours
too! May we each be able to say, “I
John, I Richard, I Sally, I Preston SAW THESE THINGS, AND HEARD THEM!
WORSHIP NOT THE ANGEL
“And
when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel
(messenger) which showed me these things.
Then saith he unto me, See thou do
it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of
them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God” (Rev. 22:8-9).
Let
us now look at another particular — the effect that these revelations and
experiences had upon the apostle John at that time. So wonderful were the visions, and so glorious
was the knowledge, understanding, and experience which the messenger
communicated unto him, that John was overwhelmed with rapture. Twice he fell prostrate before the messenger
to worship before him. The blessed apostle certainly meant no idolatry — he was
far too mature in the spirit for such a thing; but so wonderful in wisdom, intelligence, and glory was this
heavenly messenger, and so transcendent were the things he was shown, that he
could not but think it was the Christ Himself.
The beauty and depth of the revelations were so powerfully communicated
as to make it hard to distinguish whether it was the Lord Himself speaking, or
whether it was through an anointed messenger.
And in this instance particularly, it certainly was the very words of
the Lord Jesus he heard saying, “Behold, I come quickly…” And not distinguishing between Him who spoke,
and the messenger through whom He spoke, John fell down before the feet of the
messenger. Promptly came the word: “See thou do it not! for I am thy
fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the
sayings of this book! Worship God.” The misapprehension being dispelled, the
apostle of course desisted. The incident
speaks powerfully to us that we must never
worship the messenger! It is easy to become so esteeming of
those who minister the things of God until we become more centered in them than in the Lord. It is distressing to see those who cherish
the deep things of God and His wonderful purposes in sonship and the kingdom
fall into the same old Babylonian
error of becoming FOLLOWERS OF
MEN! See thou do it not! Honor them, but do not so reverence
them that they, rather than the anointing within you, dominate your life,
becoming as a little god unto you.
SEAL NOT THE BOOK — THE TIME IS AT HAND
“And
he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of
the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand” (Rev. 22:10).
In the case of Daniel’s prophecy
he was told to “seal the book, till the
time of the end” (Dan. 12:4). There
was to be a long period before the time of the end. But now, “the time is at hand,” that is,
presently available and accessible, able to be appropriated and experienced,
therefore the words are not to be sealed.
I have heard people say this is a sealed book, but they contradict the
word of God and that is just what it is not. The
title of the book shows that it is an
unveiling, an opening up of things that are to be seen, understood, and
participated in. “Unveiling” and
“sealed” are contradictory terms! It is
impossible for both to be true. “Seal
not” means you can’t stop the purpose of God!
The Lord intended the things revealed to be an ever-present and on-going
experience within His people, the church to
whom the prophecy is sent. There is
nothing to suggest a prolonged interval before these things would begin to be fulfilled in the Lord’s people, and the
word “blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book” clearly proclaims that it is
FULFILLED WITHIN GOD’S PEOPLE — not in Israel, China, Russia, Iran, or any
other worldly power!
The vast majority of believers
today hold to the time-worn notion that the Revelation is about world events — the
activities of nations and empires, the appearance of antichrist, great
tribulation, apocalyptic war in Israel,
pestilences, earthquakes, economic collapse, famines, tsunamis, and various
other cataclysmic events all heralding the “end time.” A Christian lady in the Midwest
wrote to a friend in the summer of 1936: “Flood — forest fires — earthquakes —
famine — depression! I wish I understood exactly what our Father is
saying by all this unprecedented disaster, but the end must be near.” Now —
think of what has happened since then! A world war of unparalleled ferocity
unleashing unprecedented suffering and untold millions slaughtered; disasters
in the natural world around the globe; crimes and atrocities by ruthless
dictators that make the blood run cold and hearts fail; the reign of terrorism
that strikes fear into men’s hearts world-wide, and war after war. Does it all mean that we are living in the “end times”? People
in previous centuries all through
the church age have seen world troubles and distress of nations and thought
these were the “signs” of the end of the age and the coming of God’s kingdom.
Time and space prohibit us from enumerating them, but believe me they
are numerous and notable! But are there
really any such “signs of the times,” and if there are is it safe or right for
us to attempt to interpret them? Ah, men are forever looking for outward signs pointing to the “end
time.” My dear brother and sister, I
believe it is my duty before God to tell you that in the whole book of
Revelation there are only three signs
given (Rev. 12:1; 12:3; 15:1), and all three are signs “in heaven,” that is, in the realm of the Spirit, having to do with heavenly,
spiritual realities, and therefore SPIRITUAL SIGNS. Not one of them is the kind of sign that
millions of Christians, who are still babes at the breast, are looking for! Only in the Spirit and by the Spirit can one
see the true signs which reveal the
purposes of God for our day or any other day!
“The time is at hand” can signify either that which is drawing near or
has already arrived. It is not
inconsistent to translate it as “the time is near” or “the time has come.” Our Lord, here, however, is not using the
word “time” in the sense of hours, days, weeks, months, and years. If He were, the word for “time” which He
would have used would be chronos from which we get our English word “chronometer,”
which is any instrument that measures time,
such as a clock, watch, or dial. Instead, He uses the word kairos, which has to do with the proper time, the opportune moment,
the correct season. Thus what He is
saying to us is that now the prophetic truth is to be unsealed; God’s people
are to be made aware of it; now is the time for it to be fulfilled and the
things here foretold, are actually occurring; and knowing this we can enter
into the experiencing of it with trust and confidence!
“The time is at hand” signifies
that wherever you are in your journey, your progression into God, you are right
on target and God will see you through.
You may feel like you’re a failure, that you’ve missed God, and can never attain, but even
all this is part of the process and God’s trumpets will keep right on sounding
in your life until the work is complete.
The truth is, you have changed! You have
grown! You have gained victories! And
you SHALL! The word and work are “not
sealed,” but are active, operative, powerful, certain, and unstoppable! Aren’t you glad!
FILTHY STILL…RIGHTEOUS STILL…
“He that is unjust, let him be unjust
still: and he which is filthy, let
him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still” (Rev. 22:11).
These words have been variously
interpreted. Some explain them as
referring to the confirmed and irrevocable state of the wicked and the
righteous after the final judgment. But
there is nothing in the context to suggest this. Neither the final judgment, nor the eternal
state of the righteous in the kingdom
of God,
nor the supposed eternal state of the damned in hell are under consideration in
the verses surrounding this one, nor indeed in the entire chapter. The meaning, however, is quite clear if we
see these words in their close connection with
the statement in verse ten that the time is at hand and that therefore
the book must not be sealed. In order
for the process of redemption and transformation to be completed in each of the
Lord’s redeemed people, the root-sin of Adam
and the righteousness of Christ must both be revealed in our lives. The one is the revelation of the Christ
within, the other is the exposure of the man of sin who sits in our
flesh-life. In this light we can
understand the words of verse eleven, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is
with me to give to every man according as his work shall be.” The work of God in us will draw the
lines. It will strengthen and emphasize
the great difference between the Adamic
man and the Christ man, between the natural man and the spiritual man. It will make us conscious of this one
incontrovertible fact: Adam
cannot be reformed nor transformed, and Christ cannot be defiled, contaminated,
or polluted! The “he” in “he that is filthy,”
is old Adam. The “he” in “he that is holy” is Christ! That is the mystery.
I shall not hesitate to explain to
you, my brethren, that this passage reveals to us the deep mystery of life and
the way to victory in Christ. It would
be a most beautiful thing if all the saints of the Lord could have an open
vision that would enable them to see and understand this one simple yet exalted
truth — that the nature of the natural man is incorrigibly corrupt and the
nature of Christ is unchangeably holy. This
is an eternal fact. Matters not how hard you try you cannot
make the nature of the Adamic
man holy, nor can the nature of Christ ever or in any wise be corrupted. The nature of the first is of the earth,
earthy, and will always be fleshly, whereas the nature of the second man is
heavenly and will always be pure and divine.
Neither can ever be changed! And when we thoroughly learn this single
blessed truth we will be able to let he that is filthy be filthy still, and he
that is righteous be righteous still, for it is impossible as long as we are
struggling with the man of sin, trying somehow to reform or transform him, and
constantly being defeated in our efforts, for us to be purged, obtain the victory, go on to perfection, and grow up unto the full stature of Christ!
Adam gave us no choice in bringing his
progeny under the workings of iniquity.
When Adam
went into sin, he did not consult with any one of us as to our desire
concerning anything he did. None of us
had any power or any choice in the condition in which we entered this
world. WE WERE NOT SINNERS BY CHOICE, as
we have erroneously been told. We are
“born in sin, and shapened in iniquity,” with the carnal nature and the earthly
human consciousness in us from the moment we leave the womb. Being “dead in trespasses and sins,” dead to
God, dead to truth, dead to purity, dead to reality, the Adamic race was no longer capable of making a
choice or decision for salvation or righteousness. How truly Paul wrote, “And you…were dead in trespasses
and sins: wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children (offspring) of disobedience; among whom also we all had
our conversation (lifestyle) in times past in
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind; and WERE BY NATURE THE
CHILDREN OF WRATH, even as others” (Eph. 2:2-3).
The message is clear — we were not sinners by choice. We were sinners by NATURE! We were born into this condition, simply
because the first man, Adam, put us all into slavery to sin. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am
a creature of the flesh, having been SOLD INTO SLAVERY UNDER THE CONTROL OF
SIN” (Rom.
7:14, Amplified). The unregenerate man
is a slave to sin. He is a slave of the
devil. He is a slave of his own carnal
mind and deceitfully wicked heart. He is
a slave of his own vile passions. And
none of us had anything to say about it!
We did not in any way will it, consent to it, or choose it, for we were
born into it. We were born slaves!
And believe me, it didn’t take long after our birth for the truth to begin to be manifest! Should
this not teach us the truth that the natural man is completely incapable of
discerning Truth. In fact, unregenerate
man thinks of the things of God as being ridiculous! “The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are
foolishness unto him. Neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor.
2:14). Again, “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7). Consider now how absolute this statement is:
“Let him that is filthy, be filthy
still.” That is the incontrovertible
truth about the natural man! The
persistent, perverse, unholy disposition in the natural man and the carnal mind
does not change itself. Refinement will
not change it. Education will not change
it. Social and rehabilitation programs
will not change it. Prison will not
change it. Evolution will not change it. “Deliverance
meetings” will not change it. The
perfidious hearts and lives of unregenerated men can no more be changed by
these means than an Ethiopian
can change his skin or a leopard his spots.
The only way a change can be brought about is by being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth forever (I Pet. 1:23). A new man, a higher life, a new creation must
be raised up within us “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Eph. 2:10).
Gary Sigler stated it so
well when he wrote: “You see, those who are ruling from the earth are still
trying to take this earthly image of themselves, and make it more acceptable to
God. I tried that way for years. I prayed every day. I read ten chapters in the Bible each day. I prayed in the spirit for at least an hour a
day. I did all those things that I was
supposed to do to take this image of myself that was so alienated from God, and
make it acceptable, make it more godly, make it presentable unto God. That is the spirit of antichrist. It is a hard concept to accept, but if you
are taking a human image of yourself and trying to make it into God, that is the
abomination of desolation! That image of
yourself will never
become God! Oh, you can make it
better. You can dress it up. You can quit smoking and chasing women. You can go to church, sing and dance, clap,
be all you want to be. You can make it
better. But it will still be what it
is. When you finally realize that all of
the old creation Jesus took to the cross and raised us all up as the new
creation, then there is nothing you need but the unveiling of who God is in you. In this new creation you are not a human
being; you are a spiritual being. You are God manifesting in the flesh. Now if you say that out of your ego or
your carnal mind, that is the abomination of desolation the scriptures talk
about. But if the ego or the carnal mind
is removed, what else can you be but the
manifestation of God?” — end quote.
Once we truly understand the
condition of the natural man and the condition of the spiritual man we come to
the place where we have no confidence in the flesh! We are able to let Adam
be Adam, let
flesh be flesh, let the bad tree be the bad tree, let the corrupt seed be the
corrupt seed and cease trying to make it behave. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and
that which is born of the spirit is spirit, Jesus explained to
Nicodemus. “Whosoever is born of God
doth not commit sin; for his (God’s) seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (I
Jn. 3:9). Therefore you can only let the
spirit be spirit, for it can never
be flesh; let him that is righteous be righteous still, because the seed of God
can never be filthy; let the new man be the new man, let the new creation be
the new creation, let the divine seed be the divine seed, and cease trying to
mix these. Let each receive their
reward! The wages (reward) of sin is death!
When the Lord says, “Let him that is filthy be filthy still,” and then
directly follows the statement with, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my
reward is with me to give to every (each) man according as his works shall be,”
there should be no difficulty for even the most sluggish and unspiritual mind
to see that the promise here is DEATH TO ADAM!
That is Adam’s
reward! Not reformation, not
transformation, but death. And the
reward to the new man, the spiritual man, the Christ man is every promise made to the overcomer in the book of Revelation
including the CROWN OF LIFE.
The
cross has declared the death of the old Adamic
man of sin, yet that death must be “wrought out” in our experience just as the
life of Christ must also be wrought out in us experientially. We do not fully live out the life of Christ
in us the moment we become aware that we are a new creation in Christ
Jesus. A human baby does not live out
the fullness of human life the moment it is born into the world. That life must progressively unfold, being
appropriated, strengthened, and matured day by day, month
by month, and
year by year. The sentence of death is
on the Adamic
nature, therefore, in thought and deed leave the old carcass behind and enter
with boldness in your spirit into the
presence of God. There is no sin at all
in your regenerated spirit! Your
regenerated spirit has never sinned!
And that is who you now really are!
As a new creation you haven’t done anything wrong! This new creation man is the righteousness of God in Christ! There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus!
Someone
says, “But my flesh still wants to sin.
My flesh still flies off the handle, cusses, thinks evil thoughts, makes
bad choices, criticizes, is fearful, deceitful, selfish, lustful, and
hurtful. Sure it does — for “that which
is born of the flesh is flesh.” That’s how flesh is! Flesh can’t act any other way! You can’t make flesh holy! It’s
born of the wrong seed! Somewhere
along the line you are going to have to
realize the bitter truth and simply “let him that is filthy, be filthy still.” But there is a further truth. “That which is born of the spirit is spirit.”
Oh, yes! That which is born of the spirit is your
regenerated spirit and it is like
Christ. You don’t have to make it
like Christ. It is! And that’s the real you! That’s the new man
that you are! That’s the spiritual man, the heavenly
man, the divine man, the holy man —
Christ. And somewhere along the line you
are going to recognize the beautiful
truth and simply “let him that is holy, be holy still!” Embrace the new man that you are and
turn from the old man of flesh — leave him on death row and begin to walk out
of his prison house.
Paul describes the distress that is characteristic of
many believer’s lives as they vacillate back and forth between FLESH and
SPIRIT. “For I do not understand my own
actions — I am baffled, bewildered. I do
not practice or accomplish what I wish,
but I do the very thing that I loathe.
Now if I do habitually what is contrary to my desire, that means that I acknowledge
and agree that the Law is good and morally excellent and that I take sides with
it. However, it is no longer I that do the deed,
but sin which is at home in me and has possession of me. For I know that nothing good dwells within
me, that is, in my flesh. I can will
what is right, but I cannot perform it.
I have the intention and urge
to do what is right, but no power to carry it out; for I fail to practice the
good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds I do not desire to do are what I
am doing. Now if I do what I do not
desire to do, it is no longer I doing it — it is not myself that acts, but the
sin (flesh) which dwells within me. So I
find it to be a law of my being that when I want to do what is right and good,
evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands. For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my
inmost self — with my new nature. But
I discern in my bodily members — in the sensitive appetites and wills of
the flesh — a different law at war against the law of my (new) mind and
making me a prisoner to the law
of sin that dwells in my bodily organs — in the sensitive appetites and
wills of the flesh” (Rom. 7:15-23, Amplified).
Our
experience in this physical realm is certainly no different than the apostle Paul’s. “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh (outer man), dwelleth no good thing.” The question follows — If there is nothing good in the flesh, how could one
ever make the flesh holy! Paul divorces “HIMSELF”
from his flesh man. He speaks of “sin in
my members.” Sin in my members is simply
a euphemism for “the desires of the flesh” or “the carnal mind.” And don’t tell me you don’t have them! Many of
the Lord’s people are in denial, claiming
that since their old man is dead, the fear, anger, covetousness, lust,
deceitfulness, and other carnal and ungodly emotions they feel are just an illusion, a habit, a hang over, a mistaken identity from their former old
man who is now really dead, gone, and non-existent. Let me tell you the truth! Yes, the sentence of death is on that old
nature, but if he was non-existent the
war would be over! Perhaps for you it is, and I rejoice for you if it
is, but I seem to still get involved in a skirmish now and then!
If
the flesh man were non-existent, we should all be perfect, sinless, pure,
undefiled, and overcomers in every sense of the word. We should not need to mortify, or put off, or put away, or cleanse ourselves from, or overcome
anything because all those things would be non-existent! Dead men don’t
lie, dead men don’t deceive, dead men don’t cheat, dead men don’t fly off the
handle, dead men don’t gossip, dead men don’t fight, dead men don’t covet,
criticize, lust, make mistakes, get depressed, or struggle with anything! If uncle Charlie has died and is lying in his
coffin, I can walk up to him, tell him what a splendid fellow he is, flatter him, and heap
praise upon praise on him, and he will never smile, appear pleased, puff up
with pride, or say, “Thank you!” He’s dead!
On the other hand I can stand there and swear at him, abuse him,
slap his face, rant and rave about what a scoundrel he is, and he will not
swear back, strike me, or jump out of his coffin and grab me and wrestle me
down. There will be absolutely no
response — for he is dead! Dead men don’t do anything!
Dead
men don’t keep on doing fleshly and evil things and then excuse it by saying
that they just didn’t know they were
dead, it was just such a habit that
they must remind themselves that they are dead so they can learn to act like dead men! What
drivel! Yet, I have heard great
preachers proclaiming such foolishness, in an effort to rationalize why believers
have fleshly, ungodly emotions and desires, and do bad things, when their old
man is dead! It should be clear to any spiritual mind
that there is some inconsistency and confusion here. Paul
actually makes four different statements relative to sin, the flesh, and the
old man. First he says, “Knowing this,
that our old man is (Greek: was) crucified
with Him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom. 6:6). It is evident that in a symbolic and mystical
sense we were crucified with Christ
upon His cross. I say symbolic and
mystical, because we all know that we, literally and physically, as we exist today
in this flesh body, were not hanging
with Christ on His cross! Furthermore, it is evident
that, in this present life, before we were converted, there was no sense in
which our old man had literally been crucified with Him! If everybody’s old man perished with Jesus on
the cross two thousand years ago, then nobody today, saint or sinner, would even have an
old man! You see, beloved, we need to
think spiritual sense about these
things. Let all God’s people know and
thoroughly understand that the answer to every spiritual question lies in the
correct understanding of ALL
that the Holy Spirit has to say — not just in one isolated passage of
scripture.
Now,
the next thing Paul says that we must take into
account in order to understand the deep mystery of our crucifixion with Christ
is this: “Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11). The question is just this: If the old body of
sin is
dead, then why are we called upon
to “reckon” ourselves to be dead?
Does a dead man in the morgue have to “reckon” himself to be dead to the
world? The man who is actually dead
doesn’t have the power to “reckon” anything!
Furthermore, the fact that sin is still alive in us is stated in the
plainest of words in the very next
verse! “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye
should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Rom. 6:12). Can we not see by this that the
lusts of the old nature are still very much alive and remarkably active? Now consider the next thing Paul has to say about this old man. “That ye put off concerning the former conversation
(lifestyle) the old man which IS corrupt according to the deceitful lusts…and
that ye put on the new man…” (Eph. 4:22). Does this not teach us that the “putting off”
of the old man of sin and the “putting on” of the new man of the spirit is an on-going, progressive work? And yet many call it the “finished work”
of Calvary! It may come as a great and startling surprise
to many to learn that the scriptures do
not teach that kind of
“finished work.”
So
now we have these three remarkable truths.
First, our old man “was crucified”
with Christ. Secondly, we are to
“reckon” ourselves to be dead unto sin and alive unto God. Thirdly, we are admonished to “put off” the
old man who is corrupt, and “put on” the new man. And now we come to the fourth thing Paul teaches us about this
process. “Mortify (put to death) therefore
your
members which are upon the earth (that is, earthy); fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry…” (Col.
3:5). The Spirit of God alone can “take
the things of God and show them unto you” (Jn. 16:13-16). Let us then pause in our path, abandon all
human theology and philosophy, and there in utter abandonment to God and the
spirit of truth cry as David cried, “Lord, open
my eyes” (Ps. 119:18). Our human
theories concerning the things of God count for nothing. Truth unfolds
in our hearts only as we wait upon the Lord for the understanding that
the Spirit brings.
It
seems incongruous to the natural mind
that we are instructed to put to death the very thing we
assumed was already put to death on the cross of Christ! The secret, I believe, lies in the words of
the first statement of Paul
that we considered. But we looked only
at the first part of it! This is what he
says: “Knowing this, that our old man was
crucified with Him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Now consider this, my beloved. Our mystical crucifixion with Christ upon His
cross was unto an end: THAT THE BODY (OUR BODY) OF SIN MIGHT BE
DESTROYED, THAT HENCEFORTH (FROM
THIS TIME FORWARD) WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN.”
Oh, yes! We were, in God’s view,
crucified with Christ, but the reality of that, the wonder of that, the power
of that, must now be worked out in us experientially in our walk in the kingdom of God. “That the body of sin might be
destroyed.” When? Two thousand years ago on His cross? It cannot be, for if that had happened there
would now be no “body of sin” to be dealt with. The death of that old man of sin would
already be a blessed, accomplished fact.
The truth is, the body of sin is destroyed IN THE HERE AND NOW BY THE
PRESENT OUTWORKING OF HIS CROSS WITHIN US!
And how is this accomplished? In
three ways! Reckon ye yourselves to be
dead. Put off the old man with
his deeds. Mortify, put to death your
members which are upon the earth, that is, the flesh man. This precise process alone can accomplish
within us the reality and power of that which was pre-figured upon Christ’s
cross two millenniums ago! Great is
the mystery!
As
this process of overcoming begins every child of God must know that God’s love
and acceptance of them in the Beloved is unconditional. Until we know that, we have underestimated His love! How many times can the prodigal return
home? Only as many times as the Father’s
love will accommodate! You say, “But I
sinned!” Yes you did. You say, “But I miserably failed God!” Yes, you did.
You say, “But this is the one-hundredth time I have flunked the same test!” That is
true. To which your heavenly
Father responds, “My grace is sufficient.”
Nobody taught or manifested the all-sufficient grace and the
all-encompassing and totally unconditional love of our heavenly Father more
than Jesus. He came, made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and He knew as much as any man what is in man and
where the battle lies. He also knows
what we also must know — Only His life within us can overcome! If He
withdraws His life because we fail — even if we
fail four hundred and ninety
times in one day — then we are hopeless!
But He doesn’t! He freely
forgives every time and continuously
floods us with His love and His life in the expectation that eventually His
life within us will become strong enough in us to conquer all! He knows the power of His life, and He knows
that He has begun a good work in you and that HE is able to perfect it unto the day of Christ. That is
His way! And it is the only way it can
be if we are to be completely saved, matured, and perfected. What a plan!
What a Saviour!
Then
what are you supposed to do? The
greatest thing you can do, precious friend of mine, is to expose yourself to
the abiding presence of God. The more deeply we fall in love with Jesus,
the more time spent in His presence, the more we fellowship with Him and eat at
His table, the more empowered we
become to subject ourselves to Christ and let the Spirit lead us. As we commune with the Lord and listen to His
voice, this teaching is life; this
teaching gives us spiritual food; it gives us spiritual drink; it raises
up within us spiritual substance so that
we can grow up into the nature of the new man.
The more the new man is raised up within us the easier and more natural
it becomes to “reckon,” to “put off,” and to “mortify” the man of flesh. A lifetime of experience has taught me that
victory over sin and the flesh is not our own doing! We cannot produce it! But Christ raised up in our lives will lead
us to it.
Jesus
overcame all things, lived out the
nature of God, and manifested the power and glory of God. But even He did not do it Himself! He said, “I can do nothing of myself” (Jn.
5:19,30). His complete victory came
through His fellowship with, and subjection to, the Father. “The words that I speak unto you I speak not
of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works” (Jn. 14:10).
And that is also where our power and victory are! Christ in us must do the work! And we cannot make Him do it; we can only let
Him do it. And He will do it as we live in His presence! Come, come, my friend, into the Holiest by
the blood of Jesus, in the power of His life within your inner man, come right
on in and experience His abundance! All
weakness of the flesh and sin will then, in due time, take care of itself.
Paul, at one time in his
experience, felt what we all feel in our struggle with the flesh. In desperation he cried out, “O unhappy and
pitiable man that I am! Who will release
and deliver
me from the shackles of this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). And then came the revelation of the glorious
solution! “O thank God — HE WILL!
through Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25). And
right on the heels of this the explanation of how the mighty Christ within deals with, and gains the victory over, that old man of
flesh. “For the law of the Spirit of
Life in Christ Jesus has freed me from
the law of sin and death. For God has
done what the law (commandment, self-effort) could not do, its power being
weakened by the flesh. Sending His own
Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, God condemned sin
in the flesh — subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power. So that the righteous and just requirement of
the law might be fully met in us, who
live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the spirit
— our lives governed not by the
standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit. For if you live by the dictates of the flesh
you will surely die. But if through the power of the spirit (within)
you are habitually putting to death — making extinct, deadening — the deeds prompted by the body, you shall really and
genuinely live…” (Rom. 8:2-4,13,
Amplified).
Oh,
yes! The overcoming One is within us, and as we walk in His presence,
soaking up His life, yielding to His spirit, communing with His mind, drawing
from His power, submitting to His leading, the flesh nature is trapped,
starved, neutralized, rendered ineffective and powerless. Only the mighty, living presence of Christ
raised up within as life can subdue this old man of flesh! This is what is happening in the life of
every son of God! Much depends on our
entering into the glory of our sonship to God.
The fullness of God is at hand!
The sons of God in this very hour are experiencing the finishing touches
of God’s great redemption in preparation for the outflowing of His glory unto
creation!
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY