When was the last time that you heard the phrase, “born again”? How often do you hear that you “must be saved” or that someone “has been saved”? Did they skip the primary emphasis in scripture, namely, as Jesus said, “Marvel not: ye must be born again” (John 3:7). “Ye” means “you all” — You all must be born again to be saved!
KEY VERSES: And (Moses) said, “If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.” And He said, “Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee” (Exod 34:9-10)
God had just stood on the Holy Mount Sinai in a “cloud” and stood with Moses; and there, the LORD proclaimed His NAME. [i] Moses sensed that something substantial had happened to him. Moses had encountered the Holy Trinity; not God in three “persons” but the One Person of God in three substances.
The substance of the Father was His Will for Moses’ that Moses be His heir to the Promise Land. The substance of the Holy Spirit was the Cloud that essentially covered Moses, and the substance of the “Proclamation” was “The Name of the LORD.” The LORD GOD is called “Jesus” as the “Godhead” is without Name. [ii] The Voice of the Lord “proclaimed” Jesus. Does it make sense now that “The Word” was made Flesh and was called Jesus? [iii]
Jesus is the manifestation of the Godhead. [iv] “Godhead” seems to be a theological term, but it is in the Bible three times. The best of them is, “For in (Jesus) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9). Recall that the Holy Spirit entered Jesus at His baptism in “bodily shape”. [v] Jesus had “shape” before He received flesh. His shape was a Cloud to conceal His Body.
The noun “Godhead” is “theotes” in the Greek. “Theotes” is “the state of being God.” That is described by theologians as “homeostasis” — the stability between the three elements, or states or substances, of the Godhead.
With that said, the “Godhead” suffered death on the Holy Cross, but only the Flesh (Person) of God died. The father agonized and loved, the Holy Ghost went on to defeat Satan who had no place to go after the death of Judas, and the Person of God suffered death and “slept” for portions of three days.
The descriptive term, “Godhead”, is “The Deity” or the “Divine Presence”. “Godhead” is also translated from the Greek adjective, “theios” — the Divine “nature’ of God. The problem is that God is not “natural” but beyond the natural, or “supra-natural”!
All that to say that Moses saw God but did not see His Face. He did hear the Voice of Jesus. Jesus manifested Himself to Moses audibly and imbued Moses with His Presence. Moses marveled; “If now I have found grace!” The Voice (Jesus) replied: “Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels.” His “marvel” right then was that Moses, indeed, found grace, just as both Noah and Abraham had! That tells us that when Jesus appears to anyone, that experience is finding grace. No wonder the Greeks asked of Philip, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” [vi]
Nobody just stumbles across Jesus! Jesus comes to them, each for a purpose. God called for Moses, Moses came to Him, and then, Moses “saw” Jesus; not in the form of a man, but a Cloud with a Will and a Voice to share His Will for Moses. What was that “Will”?
Moses said, “Take us for thine inheritance.” To which “Jesus” replied: “I will do marvels.” Moses thought of the Promised Land of Abraham, but “Theotes” was promising to do marvels. The “Godhead” would do something marvelous! That was the Promise. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in homeostasis would suffer for certain “chosen” and “peculiar” people, not just the Hebrews but “whosoever”. [vii]
Have you wondered why Jesus said, “Marvel not; ye must be born again” (John 3:7). That was the Promise, not the land at all! All the Covenants were about an inheritance, but to those who love money; it was not property at all but eternal life in the Promised Realm of God.
Moses found grace, and as such, Moses was “born again.” God had called, and Moses responded. God had a gift to give, and Moses was there to claim it. The gift was not land at all, but God breathed life unto that murderous, sinful man! Moses sensed the change. He did marvel!
Moses referred to the Hebrews as “stiffnecked” people; they were obstinate and stubborn. It turns out that the obstinate Hebrews looked back and desired Egypt. They wanted nothing much to do with the Promised Land because they took the Promise too vainly. Perhaps, the Fifth Word (Commandment) that Jesus wrote on stone, addressed that; to wit: “Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD in vain.” (Exod 20:7). Moses was saying, “I will not!” but he feared that the Hebrews would take the Promise vainly because they were stubborn people.
Moses found grace; he knew the real Promise, but the Hebrews thought the land to which they were headed was not as great as Egypt. They chose the world over Paradise, and essentially Hades as well! Indeed, they all died in the desert land of the Dead Sea.
God had grace on Moses even in death because he would be buried in a cave at Machpelah to preserve his bones until the rapture… when those dead in Christ shall be caught up with Jesus. That was the real Promise!
Jesus took the time to tell of a “marvel” in the time of Moses. He (Moses) held up a lifeless image of the Serpent on a “tree”. [viii] Moses was showing his people what Jesus can and did do — and this time, Satan was in Judas, and it was Judas who hung from the “Tree of Death.” Judas was the “Beast” that Satan had used to ruin Jesus. Rather, when Jesus slept, Judas died and was buried in Gehenna. As the Ghost of Jesus left Him, undoubtedly to escort Satan to Hell!
Rebirth (born again) is finding grace. It is the release of the stiff neck, so to speak, and an end to stubbornness.
“Stubbornness” is basically defensiveness against persuasion. No wonder, Paul persuaded people to become Christians; to wit: “(Paul) reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks” (Acts 18:4) to become Christians — that Jesus is the Christ. [ix]
Without preaching on rebirth and skipping over to the Promise of Salvation and Eternal Life, the “marvel” is gone out of it. Whenever Paul persuaded — changed their obstinate minds — they believed, but not only that but those who first believed had to maintain fidelity to their newfound belief: “Many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
God made mankind in His Image. God had a Will; He Willed that mankind be like Him but not a fake image of Himself. As such, God gave mankind a will that was similar to His own. The human “will” is a rational faculty of the mind that makes decisions given multiple choices. God gave that will to make one distinct important decision — that Jesus is the Promised Messiah and as such is “The Christ.”
Choices require cognition. Smart mental “work” in the Greek scripture is “katergazomai” [x] whereas hard physical work is “ergon”. [xi] Persuasion requires katergazomai — mental work. Mental work is ergonomics… Do not work harder but smarter.
Evangelism consists of the following beliefs (Wikipedia;
“Evangelistic”):
- · Salvation by grace alone.
- · By faith in Jesus’s atonement.
- · The centrality of the conversion or "born again" experience in receiving salvation.
- · The authority of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity.
- ·
And spreading the Christian message.
Those metrics will be discussed in the next commentary.
(picture credit: CafeMom.com; "Babies Born in Water")
No comments:
Post a Comment