Usually commentary is topical; a topic is selected, and scripture is searched to enlarge upon the thought. Today’s commentary will be expositional; each word will be scrutinized and expanded upon. Few understand the impact of imperative scriptures because they are not fully explored for doctrine.
Today’s key verse is from Paul: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). That verse does not stand alone; it has context. Just what is the topic of which Paul was speaking? For that, Paul must be understood and that is from his teaching. However, first look at the immediate context of that chapter.
First off in scripture, words mean things, or they would not be in scripture. What Paul wrote was inspired by God or it would have remained unsaid. Because it is in scripture, therefore, it must have merit.
Since the entire thread of scripture is amplified by, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16), then “gain” in the key verse most certainly has something to do with immortality, and at first glance, the “gain” would have something to do with perishing or not. Paul explained that as well, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor 15:52). That change would come in stages, the last stage being the general resurrection.
Looking at “gain,” then, should be the change — then corruptible, after death, incorruptible. Neither the flesh nor the spirit will no longer be corrupt. That is the “shall not perish” part of John 3:16.
Peter wrote about that as well: Speaking of the resurrection, “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet 1:4).
Incorruptibility comes at the resurrection. Resurrection is more than the flesh raised from the dead but a regeneration in the same manner as the generation in the beginning — in the same process that Adam was generated: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7).
The resurrection entails the same thing — speaking of those dead in Christ, Paul wrote, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the Voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thes 4:16).
The “gain” of death is what? The resurrection, or the completion of regeneration of mankind. God will again take dust from the ground just as in the beginning, and breath life unto the soul again. In the beginning, the bodily shape of the Spirit of God (Luke 3:22) breathed life unto man’s kind (Adam), and in the end the “second Adam” will come again in Body and Spirit to breath life unto the dust again.
In effect, God planted man in the Garden of Eden, and asked that it multiply, surely for a good “crop” where none would perish in the perfect Garden. However, the Garden was corrupted, its nutrients depleted, and part burned off with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and no longer would it produce as much good crops as tares. In the end, from the Book of Revelation, God will prepare new ground for those who are resurrected.
Had you missed the part about the Garden as a “Garden of Living Souls?” It is written, after Adam was planted in the Garden, “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed” (Gen 2:8). Adam was the first “Tree” that was planted, and just what was his “seed?” His living soul.
Living can be summarized by one word and that is growing. Adam was to grow and to multiply. The Garden was to produce a crop of living souls and not a garden of corruptible tares!
Jesus, as Matthew wrote, validated that it was a Garden all along. It was meant that none of the “crop” should perish, but much of it would: “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, ‘Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Mat 13:30).
The “gain” of which Paul wrote was what the “Husbandman” (God) would do with the harvest. He would thresh the tares from the wheat, put the tares in bundles and burn them. However, the Husbandman would gather the wheat into His barn. His desire, however, was that none should perish and to prevent that, he would supply the perfect nourishment — His Body and Blood.
The tares represent the unrepentant and the wheat those who repented of their wickedness and not only replanted as new seeds, but those that would grow to fruition in the dirty soil of the world, despite the lack of nourishment in the soil.
The Husbandman had produced a Son from the original “Vine” in the Garden (John 15:1), and the Vine grew to be a mature “Husbandman” like His Father.
Life is like a crop to be harvested, and it was to begin in the Garden. With the Garden contaminated by sin, then the vines spread unto the world with both Adam and Cain (the “Wonderer” as his name means). The “gain” of Paul points toward the harvesting of the crop.
Just when was Paul planted? “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephes 1:4). Paul was chosen back before the Garden was even planted. But not only was he chosen but also even Cain! They both were selected to be living souls; and that was God’s intent for all those that He chose for His Garden.
The fact that anyone lives in the world means that God chose their souls to have flesh to enclose their spirits. Paul was planted in the Garden of Eden as one of the symbolic “trees” of the Garden. As an immature “plant,” his name was Saul but at maturity and ready for the harvest, Saul grew into Paul, as Jesus spread His “Vine” and made the “tare” Saul “holy and without blame” as he wrote in the passage above.
It is time to review the short key verse: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Paul was speaking of himself — “For me.” He was not speaking of the tares — those who had not been replanted in the world, so to speak. He was speaking of himself but not what he did himself. Jesus had made Saul holy and without blame — Jesus had covered Saul’s unholy disposition. Rather than a murderer of Christ through the killing of Christians, Saul, as Paul, would become a priest to preserve God’s “crop” that Jesus was tending.
“For me” indicated Paul was the prototype for everyone else. You too can say that if you have been born again and remain under the “dome” of the Garden wherein there is safety.
Jesus, responding to the inquirer Nicodemus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’” (John 3:3), and for him to “Marvel not; ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
The “birth” was not biological but spiritual. God first bore Saul and planted his soul in the Garden. You have probably not thought of this before, but your soul was made on “day one” before the firmament. As such, you were planted in the Garden along with Adam. His soul blossomed then and yours when you were “planted” in the womb of your mother and was reset just as Adam was in the beginning after he sinned (Gen 3:23). As such, you like David and Saul (Paul), were “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5), and the Husbandman came to reshape the “plant.”
After 930 years the “plant” (Adam) withered until “it” died. But God was not through with the first of the crop. It had multiplied and many of his “shoots” might make it, or they should anyway (John 3:16). Adam was finished, not when he was created but when he matured, was replanted, and then regenerated. Jesus said, “It is finished” as He gave up the Ghost (John 19:30) when He died for Adam and His kind. Jesus died to save His Garden!
Calvary was the place of Adam’s cranium. Jesus shed his blood on the earth below. He “fertilized” the Garden so that the crop would grow and grow it did! The first to be harvested was surely Adam: “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Mat 27:52-53).
Those “saints” would refer to, “the dead shall be raised incorruptible,” as Paul wrote — the firstfruits of the crop — were as was usual, when harvesting the crop.
Those firstfruits were always given to God. Where are those who arose with Jesus today? They are in the many mansions in God’s house in Paradise! (John 14:2). That was the “gain” that Paul wrote about! That is where the harvest of living souls is taken.
Peter explained rebirth as a replanting of the seed: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Pet 1:23).
When a garden is planted under poor conditions, some fail to grow and the vacancy must be replanted. With Adam and Eve, the entire crop failed. God replanted Adam outside the corrupted Garden and there he lived (grew) until the penalty was more obvious.
Adam was condemned to die, and as he withered, so did the whole crop until the deluge overwatered the seedlings until all, but eight “plants,” were reset in new clean soil. Immediately one of those plants was revealed as a “tare” …Ham by name.
So far, the message is that you and I are one of those “plants” that was seeded in the Garden of God. Plants that did not take root until we were seedlings, and as soon as we matured, “fertilization” would be required.
“Born again” is when sinners finally recognize that the Blood of Jesus doomed Satan in Judas and also the demons in us. His Blood was to overcome the world (John 16:33). With that, those reborn are grown on the good soil that the Blood of Jesus watered with Living Waters from His belly (John 7:38).
Christians are watered by the Holy Ghost of Jesus whose Living Water, not flowing waters, keeps us safe from the tribulations of the world. The “One Baptism” of the “One Christ” is the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Adam and Eve were shielded from the Devil and the world by coats of lambs’ skins. Christians are shielded from the Wicked One and the world from the “Coat” of the Lamb of God. Just as their coats were removed for intercourse in the world, so can our coats be hung up as we intercourse in our daily lives.
Noah apparently removed his coat of flesh that he put on when he found grace (Gen 8:6). Ham, it is said in sacred literature, stole the Garment of Adam that Noah usually wore, and then Noah was left alone in the world, unsafe from the Wicked One. Christians must always wear their “coats” that scripture reveals as the whole armor of God for us to stand against the wiles of the Devil (Ephes 6:11).
Had you not seen before that Adam’s Garment was not just an apron to protect his seed but the whole armor of God to protect himself as well? Adam and his seed would be protected, not just the seed that he would plant!
Understand this... you are part of the crop that God is growing!
(To be continued tomorrow)
(picture credit: The Telegraph; "Garden of Weeds")
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