It would be great if there was no loss of function but if there was not the possibility of loss of function, then there would be no need for Satan to test Christians to lose their spiritual functioning.
Functioning is most certainly in Christ. The sinful person gains respect for God and His Authority. Not only is God sovereign to the repentant but becomes their friend who is there to befriend and comfort them. Perhaps that is why the Holy Ghost is called the “Comforter” in scripture (John 14:16). What are friends for? To be there for you and comfort you when there is a need.
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Prov 17:17). Jonathan was a true friend of David, for instance. He was closer to David than his own father. Jonathan loved David as a friend to the end. But what has that to do with loss of function?
Functioning rightfully is befriending Jesus, others, and even enemies. A true friend loves without ceasing, even in hard times.
Judas was a friend of Jesus and followed his friend faithfully until, somehow, he lowered his standards and Satan entered unto him (Luke 22:3). Judas did some thing wrong; what was it? He sopped the “body” of Jesus in the “blood” of Jesus, of course symbolically. He took the Name of God in vain and disregarded one of the commandments, and by breaking one of them, it was as if breaking them all. He ate the body and blood of Jesus improperly and unworthily. Rather than remember Jesus by taking the elements, he diminished Jesus.
But had Judas been a friend of Jesus? Jesus knew that he was,
or he would not have been selected as an apostle. He knew that Judas would
follow Him. Within the psalms is much prophecy. Of special interest is the
following lamentation:
8 An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. 9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. 10 But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. (Psalm 41:8-10)
Of all of “them” the Word was speaking of one of them. That one person was a friend “who would rise no more.” That one person was the friend of God, Judas Iscariot, who would kill himself to rise no more. Rising no more has a deeper meaning than one would think; it is absolute truth and certainly means that His friend would never be resurrected.
Jesus had trusted Judas. God is able to disregard the future as well as the past (as in forgetting sins that are past). Judas “lifted up his heel against Me,” referring to Jesus. Jesus knew that all along but chose not to remember it. He had told Adam of that very thing: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15).
Judas was of the “seed” of the Serpent. Satan was the serpentine one that entered Judas. It was Judas who would lift his heel against Jesus and “bruise His head.” Judas stepped on Jesus figuratively by betraying Him. Judas’s betrayal of Jesus was the Word — the very thoughts of God from the Mind of Jesus… Hence, the “place of the cranium” at Golgotha.
Judas betrayed his friend, Jesus (Mat 10:4). He once had affection for Jesus, and the love of money was the cause of his defection from his friend. Defection, as written before, is apostasia. “Betrayal” (paradidomi) means that Judas delivered Jesus to His death. He murdered his friend, and scripture equates murder with hatred: “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). Once the friend of Jesus, as well as the follower of Jesus, Judas lost his function. There was no gain for him with death!
God is no respecter of persons. If Judas can defect from his affection for Jesus, anyone can!
Much later, even Simon the Sorcerer defected. As he heard Philip preach the gospel, “Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done” (Acts 8:13). After being baptized with the baptism of John for repentance, Simon, along with the others, was baptized with the Holy Ghost (Acts 8:17).
Simon was in Christ. Then Simon repeated the sin of Judas for the love of money; to sell God out. Then Peter said to Judas, “Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee” (Acts 8:22). So soon after, this babe in Christ, fell to the Wicked One.
If it can happen to Simon; it can happen to anyone. Thereafter, perhaps it was Simon, who created the false religion of Gnosticism, and was the one of which Paul spoke was given to him, “the messenger of Satan to buffet me” (2 Cor 12:7). Later, according to historians, Simon claimed to be the Christ, and as many believed Simon to be the Christ as Jesus.
Rebirth is a decision, and the immediate “gain” is the Holy Ghost, or in Christ. Rebirth is functioning as Christ.
Conversely, dysfunction is out of Christ, and as quickly as
Simon was in Christ, he was out of Christ. He was easy pickings
for the Wicked One! Likewise, babes in Christ (1 Cor 3:1) are easy pickings for
the Wicked One. No sooner does a sinner befriend Jesus than his Adversary
begins to unpersuaded the friends of Jesus to defect from Jesus. Steadfast
faith from the Word is how to remain in Christ when confronted by iniquity, to
wit:
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (Jas 4:7-8)
Submit to God and never sin. Sinning, therefore, leads to dysfunction and apostasy.
James wrote to “resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.” You, as a Christian, to remain true and functional in Christ must resist the Devil by resisting sin. Christians must have self-control, or temperance (Gal 5:23). The Holy Ghost “Comforts” the Christian, but the Christian must put up some resistance to the law of sin.
Functional Christians resist the Devil by resisting what he offers — by entering not unto temptation.
Jesus had self-control. When the Devil tempted Jesus, He could have defected from His Father. Jesus was tempted! He demonstrated self-control. Temperance has to do with resisting what is offered. In Christ is doing what Jesus would do. He resisted the Devil; what are you to do?
Paul was in Christ because he resisted the one that buffeted him. They buffeted him just as Jesus was buffeted (Mat 26:67). Like Jesus, they struck Paul in the face (buffeted). He was in Christ because he took the beatings that Christ took, and for His Name sake.
Christianity is not easy. Being in Christ means tribulation and persecution. The buffeting is to turn Christians away from Jesus.
During the apocalypse, there will be a Great Buffeting that John saw in his vision: “I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads…” (Rev 20:4). Those who are then in Christ will be buffeted most severely if they do not defect from Christ and worship the Beast.
So, you think you are already saved? Put yourself there in John’s vision. Will you withstand the mandates from the wicked ones? Will you remain true to Christ and remain in Him, or will you cease your affection for Him for yourself? Will you defect from your friendship with Jesus as Judas did?
That Christians shall be snatched up (raptured) before the Great Tribulation is very Calvinistic. How can anyone be eternally secure if they could deny Jesus and defect (apostasia) from Him?
Most want to believe in the pre-tribulation rapture because the perception of eternal security is encouraging. The faith of so many is so shallow that even a buffet would turn them away from Christ. Just think of standing before a bloody chopping block. As a Christian, are you any match for the Devil? If you are willing to defect from Him, there will be no mercy!
I have spent much time on apostasy. Most churches preach eternal security. Indeed, the “gain” of Paul was eternally security but because he remained in Christ. You are eternally secure as well if you remain in Christ. He wrote that for a purpose.
The qualification for the gain was “in Christ.” Faith to the end, is remaining in Christ. Defecting from him is dropping the “gift” even at the “gate” to Paradise and turning from the Way. A Christian can not walk part of the Way or even the easy Way, but the hard Way and all the Way in Christ with Christ.
That is steadfast faith and is the path least followed. The gain is at death, not when the soul dies, but when the person gives up the Ghost of Jesus as so many in the Bible have done. In Christ is retaining the Ghost of Jesus and Jesus’s Spiritual Substance cannot remain in sin, or it would be a mockery! Spiritual death is not so much giving up the Ghost but rejecting, or blaspheming, the Holy Ghost.
Giving up the Ghost when remaining in Christ is the gain. Like the repentant thief, that day, if in Christ, the dead shall be in Paradise with Jesus. Of course, the body of Jesus rested in the grave, but the Ghost of Jesus was in Paradise. The immediate gain of Paul, at death, would be that his soul with Christ in it will be with Jesus in Paradise the very day that he dies.
At the point on the timeline labeled “mortal death,” the faith of Paul (and any Christian) will abruptly maximize. Why so? The soul of those dead in Christ will be whisked away to Paradise, just like Dismus’s (the repentant thief). No longer will Paul have faith but evidence in the Presence of Jesus on the throne and revealed as God. He will finally see God face to face, one small step for mankind, but a great leap from faith to reality. That day will be the hope of salvation fulfilled because Paul would no longer be in Christ but with Christ.
The graph shows a giant leap in faith, from the faith of a humble Christian (Paul, meaning “humbled”) to the faith of God because God is not just a Ghost but three substances.
All doubt will be removed because Paul will experience all the substances of Existence, not just the “Shadow” of Jesus. Paul, upon death and in Paradise, will not just be in Christ, but experience Christ. Death, when in Christ, as shown on the graph is “glorification.” For Jesus that occurred at His death (John 7:39) and is when he revealed to the world that He IS indeed God.
Surely Longinus, the centurion, saw the Ghost of Jesus departing from the flesh of the Lord. As with Luke, Longinus would have seen the “bodily shape” of the Ghost of Jesus (Luke 3:22) as His Image of Flesh.
Paul was glorified when that was revealed to him upon death. He was glorified when he saw the glory of Jesus, much as Moses was when he saw the backside of the Lord (Exod 34:29-35).
Sure, his gain was eternal life, but his gain of function was not only in Christ but with Christ and in the same image as Christ. His faith had been revealed; Paul’s gain would be the same as in the beginning. He would retain his living soul until he gained even more.
When Christ returns, those dead in Christ, such as Paul,
will receive new incorruptible flesh that will never perish. Those who die in
Christ shall be raised with Christ so that their soul and flesh can be made
whole again, as is written:
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)
The “General Resurrection” is when Christians who died in Christ will receive their tangible gain. Before, their soul was saved by dying to the world, and when Jesus comes again, their flesh will be saved. Hence, just as the original generation was a process in time, regeneration is a process beyond time. Nobody but the Father knows when the flesh of those who remained in Christ shall be saved.
There is a clue in scripture that is often missed: “And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, ‘Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost’” (John 1:33).
There is one baptism and that is the baptism of Jesus (Eph 4:5). Water “baptism” — the baptism of John — is for repentance. The Holy Ghost “visits” the sinner for repentance, and it is more appropriate to be baptized before becoming in Christ. When believers were baptized something different happened with Jesus. His was not a baptism of repentance because he had no sins of which to repent.
Thus, the Holy Ghost remained on Him. His spiritual substance joined His material substance, and the Holy Ghost that looked like Him “remained on Him”!
That implies that the Holy Ghost did not remain on any of the others who were baptized. They would have the Holy Ghost on them in a process in time after baptism, and that would happen on the day of Pentecost after the Body of Jesus ascended. The Holy Ghost was not available for any to be in Christ until the Holy Ghost of Jesus descended and remained with Adam’s kind.
Speaking in tongues was evidence of that because Jews require a sign (1 Cor 1:22), They needed to sense the Spirit of Jesus and Jesus complied. God always gave Jews a sign, but for Gentiles (Greeks) in the same verse, they required wisdom.
Paul persuaded the Greeks that Jesus is God and there were no signs given in Paul’s ministry. Although the Jew, Saul, was given a sign, the Greeks understood logic. Therefore, for Gentile Christians, they believe that Jesus is God because it is the Truth. “What is truth” is Platonian, and even Pilate asked that of Jesus (John 18:38).
Pilate responded to his own question: “I find in him no fault at all.” What was Jesus claim? That He IS God in the Flesh. Pilate believed in Jesus. Then he “baptized” his own flesh (his hands) perhaps to repent of what he was about to do.
The Truth is finding no fault in Jesus. To be in Christ is realizing that Jesus IS who He claims to be and that is God in the Flesh.
And what can gods do? They generate things and regenerate them according to their own Will. And if truly a “god” then only one God is necessary. Jesus IS that God – Yahweh.
In Christ, is not an emotional event or a feeling. It is confidence, and confidence is measured by faith over time, not just one time. It does not matter how long the duration of time but any time before death.
In the Parable of the Workers, Jesus made a point with one worker: “Saying, ‘These last have wrought but one hour, and Thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day’” (Mat 20:12). Jesus replied to that complaint: “Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee” (Mat 20:14). His point: “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Mat 20:16).
It is for God to chose when and who will be rewarded. For some, the process of time of functioning righteously will be a long duration; they will need to endure a long time to the end. For others, such as Dismus, the time will be the very day that they are in Christ.
“He that endureth (hatred, tribulation, temptation, and a sinful world) to the end shall be saved” (Mat 10:22). That “endurance” is time dependent and is measured by faith. The graph could as well have been made for “endurance over time,” and the function would be enduring in Christ. The loss of function (dysfunction) would be slothing away from Christ.
“Saved” in that context is correct. Salvation is not just safety at the present but no longer vulnerable to Satan. When the soul is saved upon dying, then Satan can no longer influence the Christian because the gain is with Christ to whom the Adversary can never approach again because Jesus already overcame his wiles one time once and for all time!
The will of man is essential in Christianity. The entire Bible, as the “Last Will and Testament of God” is His Will for whosoever. The “conditions” of His Will are the Ten Commandments. Those are His Wills that must be done, of course not by ergon work but willingness to accomplish them (ketergazmai). Faith is a willingness to please God. The Commandments are not mandates as such but what the righteous should be willing to do.
Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, but because he was willing, he was not required to do so. Paul wrote what scripture said about Abraham: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom 4:3). Because Abraham was willing that was what was right. Faith is the willingness to do what is right to please God. Therefore, the graph also expresses willingness for the duration of time.
Why obey God and do right things? Because He is your friend to whom there is affection. Why the affection for God? Because he died for your guilt. He was the sacrifice for your sins.
Would you not have affection for anyone that paid your fine? Jesus did that although we all are guilty. When a Christian takes that redemption flippantly or apathetically, then that is defection from God. The “Third Word” of God, is not to take His Name (Jesus) in vain, certainly meaning the sacrifice of Himself for you.
The “gain of function” is God’s Plan and a future for you as a Christian. The Book of Revelation describes that Plan and Future. To understand the gain of which Paul wrote, then read the revealing of that gain in that book.
Next, the “world” in which Christians must function will be examined.
(picture credit: Wordpress.com; :His face was radiant")
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