THE PURPOSE OF JESUS

  Why was it necessary for Jesus to die? Because the spirit of Satan is in us… everyone, for all have sinned (Rom 3:23). How did the spirit of Satan get in God’s children? Adam and Eve had “intercourse” with the Serpent, not sexual, but verbal intercourse.

  Satan conceived a way for them to enter into temptation, then sin was born. Then he delivered them unto evil as implied in Matthew:6-13. By eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree, Adam and Eve ate the “seed” of the Devil and Satan became their “father” (John 8:44).

  Both Adam and Eve were created by God, but they were born “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5) unto the world. Their birth was not as God generated them, but as Satan deceived them. Satan’s words were not as deceptive as his disguise as the mild-mannered Serpent who encouraged them to try new things.

  Jesus said, “Marvel not; ye must be born again” (John 3:7). Sinners must deny the genealogy of Satan and start the regeneration process again, not in the image of Lucifer, but God. Rebirth is not in the womb as Nicodemus queried, but reborn in the Garden “womb” in the image of God and given life by the breath of God — His Holy Spirit.

  The purpose of Jesus is to enable sinners to be born again. Why marvel at that when that is the very reason that God put on flesh, and that is to provide new flesh for mankind, to wit:

For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil… And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us. (1 John 3:8, 24)

 “The works of the Devil” is easy to understand. He encouraged both people on Earth to do his will and disregard the will of God. Adam and Eve exalted Lucifer and themselves, and diminished God. They were “had” by the Serpent because they diminished themselves without realizing it. They had been children and heirs of God but gave up that genealogy and legacy by deception.  They were more than eating great tasting fruit, but they were being “impregnated” by Lucifer’s seed. They did not recognize the cunning angel because he was cleverly disguised as the harmless Serpent.

  The Devil convinced them that they were “as God” (Gen 3:5), but all the time, they were as Lucifer who only pretended to the throne of God (Isa 14:13-14). Thinking that they were promoted, they were demoted, although they still esteemed themselves highly.

  All that is “the Devil’s work.” Lucifer shaped them in iniquity. That is what David was saying in Psalm 51. They were born in iniquity and Jesus came to “reborn” them in righteousness and truth. Their old nature is as Satan’s and their new nature as a copy of God.

  I wrote recently about rebirth. God’s Light illumines sinners as they are born again. The Greek for that illumination is photizo. Rebirth is a “photo” of Christ. When sinners are born their photos of themselves are in the darkroom of Satan’s laboratory. When they are born again, Light shines in that “darkroom” and what develops should be a picture of Jesus, not an image of Lucifer who lurks unseen in the darkness.

  Adam was created in the image of God. He was stillborn in the image of Satan. Adam’s soul was aborted when he ate contaminated fruit, but it survived as a mutated “birth” in the image of Lucifer. Sin damaged two things: Adam’s soul and his flesh. His mind was willing to do as it pleased.

  Adam was created with glorified flesh in the very image of Jesus. However, original sin was that “first” birth that Nicodemus wondered about. Sin despoiled Adam’s flesh and through Eve, the mother of mankind, all flesh was spoiled. Rebirth is a process beginning with the photo. This is what we should look like. That “photo” bears an image of Jesus, and Christians begin to look more like Jesus with rebirth.

  The first to go is the old mind. As the key verse indicates, “We know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”

  The soul is the “cup” that holds the Living Water of the Spirit. Looking at that photo of Jesus and desiring to be like Him, empties that “cup” of its contents. The spirit of Satan is miscarried, and the enlightened person is imbued with a new Spirit — the very Ghost of Jesus!

  God shines Light into the darkroom of Satan and Lucifer is exposed as the liar that he is. When Satan is exposed, God is revealed. That original image of God is still in the picture, but when the darkness is removed, it can be clearly seen. The beginning of regeneration is revealing the image that God created. It was there all the time but living in darkness. No longer the child of Satan the person born again, again becomes a child of God. (No, we are not all God’s children, as some claim!)

  Not only did Satan instill his own spirit in Adam and Eve but his mind as well. The first thing that Jesus does is to save the mind of the sinner from the devil. He demonstrated that power by the Temptations in the wilderness. Those with the mind of God can overcome Satan and at the same time overcome the world. The Temptations of Jesus was about Jesus overcoming Satan and the world using the Mind of God!

  What Christians call “salvation” is that the “spirit” is safe from Satan and his wiles. Since Jesus propitiated His blood for remission of “sins that are past” (Rom 3:25), it is safe to say that rebirth is salvation of the mind in that the mind of converts grow in harmony with the Mind of God.

  Christians, according to John, should begin to pattern themselves to the picture of Jesus, and do things according to His image. With illuminated people walking in a new Light, rather than the false light of Lucifer, they have a new nature. Those who are reborn walk, talk, and think like Jesus. If they do not, they surely maintain their old nature given to them by Satan when he intercourse with our antecedents.

  Of course, for converts, life is not in Paradise when the regeneration process begins. They still abide in the world, but God provides a coat of flesh to keep converts safe from Satan and to aid in overcoming the world.

  When Adam sinned, not only did his soul die, but his and Eve’s flesh changed. They gave up their incorruptible flesh for corrupted. They were unglorified, and that is why God provided them protection with “coats of skin” (Gen 3:25). Those coats were temporary until they obtain new flesh which “fits” their new mind. The Spirit of God provides a new nature. With bright eyes, they now see that they need to please God rather than force themselves to obey!

  Conversion is saved from sin and that Satan cannot abort those who are reborn. He can still, however, encourage Christians to abort themselves, just as he tried with Job. After all, they perceive themselves as God, why could they not kill their own soul?

  Faith keeps Christians alive until he or she overcomes the world, just as Jesus did. To do that requires thinking and doing as Jesus taught and modeled. He left a picture to model after in the Word. When you see Jesus, you should see God and the new you. Jesus is the image of God and we are to be as well! That is the “Spirit that He (God) has given you” from the key verses.

  Conversion is saved from Satan “killing” you again. He can touch your flesh, but never your spirit. Only you can expel the Spirit of God and inflate it again with the breath of Lucifer. That coat of safety is to aid in preventing the Serpent from killing you again — making him flee from you through the Word of God (Jas 4:7).

  That helps things! Your mind does not linger so much on the things of the world as the things of God. Your mind in Christ until you die, makes it, “to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). Because your new image is a photo of Christ that remained intact, then at death, in addition to the mind, the soul is saved and is in the image of Christ whose Holy Ghost left Him after His Purpose was finished. Like Jesus, death finished our purposes here on Earth, and our souls are rewarded in the invisible realm of heaven.

  Two images of God are preserved at death: You might say that your mind and soul have been saved from the wiles of Satan, but there is one other substance that you will need for Paradise. In “Glory Land” you well be blessed with glorified flesh. Satan’s corruptible flesh that he birthed you with will be returned to the elements from which it came, and finally Jesus, when the time comes, will snatch up those elemental substances and will generate new glorified flesh like Adam had in the Garden. It will be incorruptible, and then the resurrected (regenerated) person will have immortal flesh to match the immortal soul. Hence, “regeneration” is not a one-time event for a short mind-changing conversion, but a long process from the moment that your mind gets the picture, it develops, your mind gradually changes, you have a new Spirit, your soul is saved, and lastly, your flesh.

  Only then, is the Christian reborn entirely in the image of God — in Mind, Spirit, and Flesh. That regenerated image will no longer be a “photo” but the real thing — an image of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. That is why Christians are baptized in their new image (Mat 28:19), not baptizing them in water per se, but in the Spirit of God and the image of Jesus unto the Mind of God.

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