Greetings, in the Name of the Lord, Jesus. A continual bump in the road of life, for fellowship in love is the hammerings of some at everyone else as to "what they must do". We have a section of believers who say do nothing, and another section that says get to work, still yet another that......whew! I guess you get my meaning, by now. I, very much, believe our misunderstandings are not disagreements and that we have been sorely impressed by religion to think of all Bible thought activity to relate to a time and place far off yonder. It is sad, that many do not see Now, and value or know what and who they are. The main reason for this note, is the study I have been involved in, for a while, on duality (some call it mixture). The coat tails of this has uncovered a lot, a new way of seeing and hearing. We all, sure do contradict ourselves a lot. Preachers, among the worse, because of the polish and skill of delivery, even without intent, these phrases are just taken, not questioned. This seems harmless, If it can't be picked out, what harm can it do? Simply, It blocks rest.
Speaking of the finished work of Jesus, on the cross, not everyone sees this the same. It isn't necessary to. Even the Apostle, tiptoed around the details by saying, I claim nothing among you, except Jesus, Him crucified, buried and resurrected. The main theme is us contradicting our self in what we say. "You must be born again", is a topic that has come up, as of late, and to make certain I am not mistaken, I'd like to prime on this example, throughout this note.
So we could, very well, subtitle this, "The finished work of Jesus, what is there left for us to do?"
Let us start by giving some foundation to the finished work, for those who may not yet be on the same page. God, our creator and creator of all things, came to earth, in the form of man. Just exactly like you and I, in every way, but one. His seed was from his heavenly Father, planted in Mary, a virgin. Yes, the WORD, became flesh and walked among men as man.
It is at this time, some, would interject, that we are the seed of Adam, so full of fallen man and his sin nature, corrupt and awful, in need, in desperate need of forgiveness and acceptance of God, being constantly opposed in life by ignorance and the devil, so unloved, that God can scarcely look at us. Why, we are so awful, we need a preacher to speak to Him, on our behalf. And if we work it just right and say the sinners prayer and do everything the preacher says, we may just squeak into heaven, some day, by the skin of our teeth. But keep doing good, at all cost, cause one day, we stand before God and He's gonna judge us! If we didn't do enough good or we forgot to get forgiven for any secret sin, well we just gonna burn......forever. So you MUST REPENT, be sorry, feel bad, be beat down and broken and confess your sin, Tell Jesus, you don't want to burn, you want to live with Him, forever. You've got to get on your face and get right with God! If you'll do this....He will do that>>>>> God won't look on a sinner, He can't stand sin! You have to kill the old man of sin! Oh you have to come and give it all!...... Bless God, so you won't burn! Alright......now you're born again.......go and live like Jesus. Glory......one more SAVED!! hagh! AayMa'un! HAUgh! Praise God, He is good and He is JUST. Whoooo, what a great God, If we do like He says, He let's us live, if we don't He tortures us forever. Maybe we should parent like this...Our kids can get love and provision from us, if they agree and obey, but if they don't...........I'm afraid it's got to be punishment.....cause we have to be just.... Everyone needs a good dungeon in their basement, so we can get our children to love us and obey us...it's for their own good.
Perhaps the above paragraph, got a bit off topic, but I don't think so. It is near exact, how I learned. Better stated, it is nearly everything I had to UNLEARN. Oh it gets much worse, if you happened into a spirit filled church. "You Gott-taH" is the creed, I think. You gottah this and gottah that and if you'll this, He'll that. You have to....... It is all about you and what you do. You don't have the Holy Spirit if you ain't got the evidence, Hagh!.......... OMG! No this is SO wrong....ALL OF IT!
Hopefully, you are still with me, and the above, familiar or not, hasn't caused you alarm. The good part is coming.
Now, acknowledging, the above as a list of rules we must follow to be born again, we may hopefully start to see that this is something we truly need to be freed from and that Jesus took care of that too. Galatians 5:1-4 MSG
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this. The moment any of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: the person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the salve life of the law. I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace.
We do know, Grace is how we are saved?
Let us sow a bit of truth, here, for a minute. The Law was given to Moses, for Israel, that they may be found righteous, in the sight of God. They lived by a set of rules and each year(the High Priest) had to atone for their sins(coming short of the law). I think every Bible story ever taught me growing up in church was Old covenant. Think about it. Adam Eve, Sin, Noah, Jonah, The fiery furnace, Moses, Joseph, Abraham, Isaac ....everything, law based and how we must be good to be accepted. And, of course, the swift mighty discipline of God on His people. Never anything relevant to life and especially to life, this side of the cross. It was always about how bad we are and how Jesus died for us. yet we even missed that great sacrifice and it's purpose and meaning. The Law was never afforded to the non Jew. How is it we picked up on trying to keep all the rules that were never given us to follow anyway? How is it we think we can be obedient to the word of God and no one else has.....ever. If this were possible, we would not have needed the cross.
I am going to move on, before this article becomes a book.
The work of Jesus, where he became the son of man, so we may become the sons of God, is the good news(gospel). He did everything as man, because we were unable to, in our own power. Even Jesus would have been unable, without the Holy Spirit. He had the Holy Spirit, without measure. Through His death, burial, and resurrection, we NOW do too. He became sin, everything mankind were and had become, since Adam harnessed all men with this disease and ALL diseases. A true separation of God and us, in our minds(souls). God, through this finished work, reconciled man back to Himself. We do not do any of the reconciling. We do not do anything to be reborn, we do not do anything to become righteous, holy, good, acceptable, etc. God did it ALL for us, through Jesus. When Jesus became us on the cross, He died and all the disease, separation, and opposition to God died with and as what He became. When Jesus arose, He was totally healed, with out any of the sin, death or disease, no separation, whatsoever, and this is our resurrection also. See Romans 6:5-11 His death is ours and His resurrection is ours. We are made one with Him. We are MADE. He did it. We do not do it......we wake up to the truth of it. Gal 2:20 We have been crucified with Him. John, in his first epistle, tells us we are just as He is. This victory and state of mind, is the mind of Christ, we are intended to walk in. Now, continually. How Jesus was reborn is exactly how and WHEN we were. For He was crucified, buried and raised as mankind. Oh My! Glory to God!
It would be remiss, if we didn't touch on "free will", a bit. This has been taken way outside truth, so let us attempt some repair to the issue, briefly, yet fully acknowledgment, that this is a topic, in itself. We did not chose when the world was formed, nor any part of creation of the father. We did not chose when Adam brought sin into the world, nor that it would be imposed on all mankind. We did not chose when it was taken out of the world, by Jesus and the finished work, nor may we apply it as we wish to whomever we wish. This work is applied to All man, just as the original sin was. There were once, TWO natures, the nature of Adam and the Nature of God. Now as the death, burial and resurrection have passed, the One nature is all that got up! Adam is dead and gone. We didn't choose that either. None of us chose, when we were born, or to whom we were born. None of us get to choose when we are (more correctly) WERE, reborn either!
Let's touch on "born again". This is possibly among the most spoken and cherished phrases in all Christendom. Born again believer. Makes us something.....possibly something of our own choosing(invention). Let me tell you, we choose, in life only. In life, where we are given a crown and dominion. This does not extend, beyond this life, nor can it change what God has said or done, on our behalf. Religion and tradition says we are born or reborn when we say....and when we do. Is this not ludicrous? When has any.....been able to say when they would be born. Even our Lord, Jesus, was told by Father....3 days after the death. The phrase "born again" is, in original language, spoken as BORN FROM ABOVE. So when we say born again, we are really speaking, born from above. Born again is written in the bible 3 times, each may do the word research and see it is, born from above. Further, each time it is mentioned, the phrase refers to the Jewish people, who had an "old covenant" of law, to be reborn from. Paul is not recorded, as teaching this to Gentiles, nor is there any instruction to the church in this regard. What is this? Born from God...born from the Spirit, born from other than the dust, possibly, born from the resurrection! Consider, nothing a man does, dictates the workings or thoughts of God Almighty. We do not drive Him, nor may we negate His work and Will.
When Jesus was on the cross, after He died, there are events that are recorded. The sky grew dark, the earth and rocks shook, the Vail in the Most Holy place, was rent in two. The declaration that came from All this; BEHOLD< I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW! Yes, the old has passed away. Adam, the prince of the world is dead and his very nature too. We now, are born the seed of Father God, with His Divine nature. Did you hear? There is only One nature and it is His, made in us. Finished work preaching says this often. Do we believe it? Not if we are prompting everyone to be born again(born from above). Who can, on their own, be born from above? None! None were worthy to break the seals. None in heaven, none in the earth, Nay, none, under the earth......But the Lamb of God, Jesus! Mankind were born from above, by the work of the cross. His word is written in our hearts, we read in scripture. How may this be, if we are not born from above, born from God, His seed? Yes we are the Word that will not return to Him void. Paul called it a mystery, Christ in you!, the hope of glory. Well let us call the mystery solved! Christ is in you....ALL. This must be because of God, and evidence that we are born from above. selah Some shoutn is in order, for this is worthy and true.
Now I am not trying to change all Christianity, but maybe God is. We speak mixture all too often. Grace preachers, telling us there is nothing we can do....then telling us what we must do. Finished work preachers, telling us it is finished and ministering from what is not finished. Being born from above was so very imperative, that God seen it done! He did it for us. We must needs to wake up to the truth of our Father and live! There can be NO need of ours that God has not met, or else He is a liar. We know He is no liar. Let every man be a liar and God be found True.
To close this up, I have, as we all do, a testimony. This testimony includes an experience of being born again. I would that none let go of this, yet they see it for what it truly is.....a spiritual awakening. I further as a man have often spoke that I felt as if I had been born again....again. Truly, this is more spiritual growth. We get more light to see as we become more light to be. Allow me to encourage all to grow. I believe this is a direction/instruction of Father, GROW! He desires mature sons and religion would have us become babies, knowing only what that system feeds them. Do we really think there is a NEED, that hasn't been met by our Father? See we must become disconnected with truth to believe a lie. We do not need to do this, or need to do that, for acceptance by Father. It's Done.
What we have before us, is Life. Live it! We have been given all things pertaining to life and godliness. The way has been shown, the truth about that way and the very life that comes from the truth about that way. Jesus is the savior of the world. Salvation is for life and must be lived out. Acceptance is accomplished and promised, by He Who can not lie, our Father, God. Salvation is for life, in this house. Acceptance(by Father) is forever, without regard to house. We never should have been religiously impressed to think, born again, was salvation, or a one time act, on our part. I am certain we shall look at salvation, another time.
I hope this writ is enjoyed and nourished, by all who read. Bless you all
Eph 4:13
until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
Gregg Wilson
