The squiggles are labeled “wavering” and indicate instability. Temptation emanating from evil spirits seduce unstable Christians and may very well topple them.
Assuming the babe in Christ grows spiritually, after some length of time,
the babe matures if he or she remains in Christ. The problem with
children is that they believe about anything and test their limits.
Mom, for instance, controlled me as a child by telling me that the Devil
came out after dark and that I am safe only of I stayed inside with her. I believed
Mom because I trusted her, but her “doctrine” was made up. I was safe neither
during the day nor during the night because the Devil is real all the time!
Liberal doctrine is that the Devil is not real for two reasons: (1) He cannot be seen, and (2) weak Christians do not want him to be real. As such, liberal Christians become the gods that have destroyed the Devil and not God. One theologian on Brad Meltzer’s program destroyed Satan in the eyes of the world when he declared that Lucifer is not Satan and Satan is not Lucifer. That priest became the “god” because for many he killed the idea that Lucifer is the Devil, “Satan.”
Weak Christians do not remain in Christ because they have nothing to fear. For them the Devil is no more than a fictitious creature imagined on Halloween. They do not fear the Devil because he cannot be seen and seems to be nothing more than a myth.
Science purveys the notion that the supernatural is not real because, by definition, they focus on the seen and testable. Thus, science has also killed Satan and Jesus is diminished. When people believe the science, they are wavering in Christ. Their pre-eminent “god” has become the invisible demiurge of Gnosticism. A demiurge in Gnosticism is a “subordinate deity who is the creator of the material world” (Merriam-Webster 2021). Gnosticism is “the conviction that matter is evil, and that emancipation comes through “gnosis,” or esoteric knowledge.
Science and scientology depend on knowledge of a material God who is the “Existence” and Gnostics are convicted that there is an unseen God that is a Higher Knowledge, not Spirit, that is Supreme. The god of science, the demiurge, is subservient to the god of Gnosis. The One True God is both the unseen God, Yahweh, and the seen God, Jesus.
Most Christians have taken the triune divine Substances of God in “homeostasis” (together in unison) and created separate gods. How many times have you heard “God and Jesus” or “Jesus and the Holy Ghost?” Christians remain babes and wavering because they do not understand the supra-nature of God.
God is not just matter; He is not just spirit, and as the Hindus believe, He is not just mind; God is all three in one. With that said, just who wrote the Ten Words of God? Jesus did because God’s “Finger” burned the Words from His Mind onto stone for perpetuity (Exod 31:18). Moses saw the real backside of the real God whose face was hidden from him (Exod 33:23)!
Because Christians do no know who God IS; they waver. Because they do not understand that Jesus IS God; they waver.
Jesus was crucified because of unbelief; even those who knew Him never really thought that Jesus IS God in the Flesh.
Pilate believed that: “Pilate saith unto him, ‘What is truth?’ And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, ‘I find in him no fault at all’” (John 18:38). Pilate did not waver in the face of Jesus’s adversaries. Pilate believed that Jesus IS the Living God! So many Christians may profess to that, but all the while their wavering can be detected. Their voices call Jesus, “God” but their minds call Him separate Beings. The “God” of so many Christians are three independent substances on whose substances they depend for different things.
That is why many Calvinistic Christians reject the Ten Commandments; they are not the very Words from the Mind of Jesus that were written by His fiery Spirit, but just another demiurge creating havoc on stone.
With that said, Paul was in Christ! “Christ” is the Latin for
Messiah. Paul was in the Messiah. His God was always there, and not just born “yesterday.”
He soon realized that his Jewish Messiah is the Gentile Christ.
Ironically, in the key verse, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” wherein “Is Christ” is at odds with “for me,” Whereas, is Christ is functioning in Christ, “for me” is the will of Paul but it harmonizes Paul’s will with the Will of God!
The Will of God is that Paul should not perish, and Paul’s will is also that he wants to never perish. God wants that he should not die and Paul desires eternal life. That should be the relationship between all Christians and God. Whether it is in Christ or into yourselves is the question.
Paul was surely Christ focused and he, by writing “for me,” surely understood that the only way to eternal life “is Christ.” Paul was believing Jesus. He recognized the intense meaning of John 3:15; “That whosoever believeth in (Jesus) should not perish, but have eternal life”
Believing seems so easy. Few would deny that Jesus’s existed, but how many truly believe that Jesus still exists; that He overcame the world and still exists in another realm? How many truly even believe that there is another realm? With the mention of angels, people express joy, but even hinting that demons exist is laughable to the same people. Just as there are righteous men and evil ones, there are angels of good and angels of evil; the latter of which are demonic in character.
People, especially now, believe in extraterrestrial life and UFO’s but hardly any believe in supranatural life and that it is real? People seem to welcome other beings but deny the Supreme Being!
“For me,” as Paul said, points toward self-preservation, raising the question, Is the relationship about the individual or about Jesus? Is it self-estimation or Christ-exultation? Ask yourself the question, Is Christianity all about me (your name here), or is it all about Christ?
“For me” indicates that Paul surely wondered why he was spreading the gospel. Was it for him or for Christ? Throughout, although the context is “is Christ,” sub-consciously, that was taken to be “in Christ.”
Care must be taken in reading scripture. It is not exactly “for me” but “for to me.”
Even I, heretofore, have glossed over the exact words and never even realized it. It is “for to me.” The word “for” in that context is giving a reason. To find what for, the preceding verse must be examined: “Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or death.”
Paul was defining the relationship between him and Christ. It is not for him at all, but the reason for him to exist is to magnify Christ with himself. That takes the focus off Paul and places it on Jesus!
That Christ shall be magnified is the reason for Paul to live.
“To me” in the Greek is one word, emoi. It is the “self” that Freud calls the “ego,” and comes from the Greek word ego, for the “I.”
The “I” (ego) is always between us and God. Paul was lessening the “I” by making it all about Jesus. Frankly, a Christian should always question, Is Christianity about oneself or is it about Jesus? Everyone, perhaps even the suicidal, desire to live eternally and be as God. That is a severe stronghold! Ironically, to self-preserve means that Christ is the one who does the preserving. Hence, the body (the self) is not your own, but it is Christ’s just as scripture says: “…know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Cor 6:19).
Paul was pointing that out. “For to me” is the reason that his body belongs to Christ. Hence, eimi is not “I” focused but Christ-focused. Paul was not exalting himself but Christ. He was not his own, but his body belonged to Christ whether in life or in death. He “is Christ” in the sense that the Holy Ghost of the Christ is in him. That does not make him God but that he is the willing vessel of God just as Jesus was.
About the two brothers, Jesus told their mother, “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Mat 10:22). The two apostles answered that they were able. The “cup” of which Jesus spoke was His vessel. The Holy Ghost was in Him and would they be able to hold the “Living Water” of the Holy Ghost?
Paul was able as well, and because of that, Paul too was accepted as an apostle. His body was the vessel that held the Holy Ghost of Jesus. Just as the apostles had been filled with the Holy Ghost in Jerusalem (Acts 2), Paul (then Saul) was filled with the Holy Ghost on the Damascus Road.
The Holy Ghost had come on those at Jerusalem, “there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire” (Acts 2:3) and “they all were filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4).
What had happened with Paul? “Suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven” (Acts 9:3). The Holy Ghost came to Saul in the same substance as to the other apostles. Blind Saul was led by those with him to a man named Ananias who, directed by the Spirit, ministered to Paul and told him, “Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:17).
With the apostles in Jerusalem, the process in time was immediate, but with Paul it was three days in darkness before he received the same Holy Ghost. It was the same process but of different duration. For Paul, the Word came to him before the Holy Ghost.
Now think on that! The apostles really had longer processes.
Jesus had delivered the Word to them for about three years before they received
the Holy Ghost! Paul was converted and filled faster because Jesus had an immediate
use, or function, for him to accomplish.
On a personal note, I wrestled with Jesus for many weeks before
He allowed me to win! Others hardly wrestled at all. Each Christian obtains
Christ in them but not necessarily with the same immediacy.
The vision of Jesus said to Ananias, “(Paul) is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles” (Gen 9:15). Jesus chose Paul as a “vessel” in which he would dwell. Paul would be the “cup” of Jesus to whom Jesus asked His Father to pass the cup (Mat 26:39).
The “cup,” after Jesus ascended, was rinsed out and passed to Paul to be “the Christ” to the Gentiles.
Paul had the Holy Ghost of Christ in his body and for the Gentiles, Paul would bring the Living Water to them. Paul was to them, the Christ, not that he IS God but that he “is Christ” because he bore Christ in his body! Outwardly, he was still Saul but inwardly he was Christ because the Ghost of Christ was in him.
That explains how Paul “is Christ” but how was he the “Word” that he would deliver? To be Christ requires three substances: Mind, Body, and Spirit.
Well, Paul’s body represented the body of Christ as he was humbled and renamed “Paul.” Next, Jesus put the Word in Paul! “Where did that occur?” You ask. Jesus said to Ananias, “For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake” (Acts 9:16). Perhaps during the three days, Christ began to show him the Word for which he would suffer.
Paul may have been blind for three days, but it was a process as well. He was filled. not only with the Spirit of Jesus. but the Word. “Is Christ” was God reimaging Saul unto Paul who would be as Christ was on Earth.
Jesus was the Christ, and as was Adam, Saul had been made into an image of Christ. That is surely what is meant by “is Christ” in the key verse!
But what about Saul having the Mind of Christ? Jesus persuaded Saul to become a Christian by enlightening that chief sinner, Saul.
After Saul saw the Light, he traveled his journeys sharing the Light that Jesus had shared with him. Did he not do the same function as Adam with Eve, who received Life from God and then shared it with Eve? Thus, the function of all adami (plural for “man” in the Hebrew), is to share the Light that they are given.
The function of Paul was to enlighten the world about Christ, and his gain was eternal life.
The process for Saul to become spiritually functional was this; Jesus called him, Jesus enlightened him, Jesus informed him of His Purpose, Jesus healed his blindness and made him whole, and then Jesus came unto him.
All those things changed Paul within, but he was still dirty “Saul” on the outside, so lastly, the outward flesh of Paul was washed clean. Paul was made ceremonially clean so that in the Presence and Spirit of God he was presentable.
Baptism did not commence with John the Baptist; it was very Jewish!
According to God’s Plan in building the Temple, Hiram was the technician who would build it. One of the furniture was a “Molten Sea” (1 Kings 7:23; 2 Chr 4:2). The purpose of that huge pool (2000 baths with pouring water) was for the priests to wash their flesh clean to present themselves ceremonially clean to the Presence of God.
Paul was Jewish inwardly after getting Jesus (Rom 2:29) in that his heart had been circumcised as he was humbled by the Presence of God. With that accomplished, Paul was ceremonially washed in water so that his flesh was “Jewish” as well. Of course, Saul was already Jewish genetically, but he was made Jewish spiritually as well. Likewise, all Christians, as scripture says, are Jews inwardly.
“Baptism” does not appear on the graph in figure #2 because it is non-functional and is a ceremonial ritual, and as much a testimony to all who witness it that the inside has changed as seen by the change in the outward appearance.
Saul was born again as Paul before he was ever baptized, and even if he had not been in the water, Saul was still made into the image of Christ and became Paul. The water had nothing to do with his rebirth and was no more than the cleansing of an infant after crawling the birth canal. In fact, Paul’s emergence into Jerusalem through the “Straight Gate” was as if emerging from the world from the birth canal. Hence, the rebirth of Paul was much like a natural birth, and the same process occurred in a different time and on a different “road.” In each case, the water was no more than to cleanse the newborn person from the voyage!
Books could be written about rebirth, but water was not for rebirthing. The real “water” was the immersion that Paul received with the aspiration of the Holy Ghost; what scripture calls the “Living Water” from the belly (cup) of Jesus (John 7:38).
The baptism of Paul was an afterthought as if it was insignificant, and as far as “born again” is concerned; it happened subsequently to rebirth. Water baptism is for what? “Repentance for remission of sins” (Mark 1:4). Saul had not theretofore repented of his sins, so logically, to have his sins remitted, baptism was required to clean him up.
Before Jesus, sinners repented for remission of sins before they received Jesus. After Jesus, they repented after the Holy Ghost convicted them. Since Jesus had not died before the baptism of John, none of them would receive the Holy Ghost as is implied John 1:33, as explained previously.
Following the graph, then, the next threshold is “now” — right this instant wherever you are and whatever time zone that the reader is in. What is your function this instant? Are you in Christ as Christ or you outside of Christ and in Satan.
Just as Paul “is Christ” in Spirit, Judas at his last supper, is Satan in spirit (Luke 22:3). Satan was not in Judas physically but in spirit just as Christ was not in Paul physically but in Spirit, specifically by then the “Ghost” of Jesus (John 7:39; KJV).
Christians “are Christ” just as Paul because the Holy Ghost of Jesus is in them. For some, He must be smothering to get out because of sin, but by grace the sin remaining in the flesh has been made non-existent. It is the faculty of the will that must be clean rather than the flesh, so again, baptism does nothing to cleanse the will of man but Christ in them does it all!
So why does “now” matter? Because now is dynamic. “Now” moves with time. Each moment is a new now, and what was yesterday is insignificant. Scripture compares both rebirth and death to now: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11).
Salvation is the “gain” at death of which Paul wrote. If not, what is?
When “first believed” is pisteuo in the Greek, meaning “persuaded” (BLB Institute 2021) to become a Christian. Scripture also calls that “conversion” just as Saul was converted to be Paul and as Christ.
Paul was so much as Christ that for them he is Christ in heart, soul, and mind (Mat 22:36). Jesus in Spirit persuaded Saul to become a Christian. Saul was born again as Paul and was like Christ in heart (the faculty of the will), the soul (in the filling of the Holy Ghost), and in mind, since he was persuaded by the Light that Christ had shown him.
When Paul wrote to the Romans, it was after that time. Even when he wrote the key verse, then was his “now.” Paul was nearer the time of salvation than when he first believed. He was not saved but approaching it as his purpose was fulfilled. His “reasonable service” was the function of his enlightenment, and as he told others, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1).
Paul’s “reasonable service” would come when he presented his body to the Romans to be beheaded. The Christ in him was drained and the Spirit of Christ in him went to Paradise that day. The day that he died was his “salvation” just as he had told the Romans back then.
If the graph is examined, what Paul wrote was so true! The time between “born again” and “mortal death” was much longer than from the “now” when he wrote that to “death.”
Each moment passed is approaching salvation, and Paul referred to that increment of time between “now” and “death” when he wrote, “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thes 5:8).
All that faith from a “little faith” to “steadfast faith” is the “breastplate” preceding salvation in the end. The “helmet” is what? Safety until that time!
The hope of salvation was not a new thing. That was the hope of all the prophets and patriarchs, to wit: “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord” (Lam 3:26), as the lamenting Jeremiah hoped.
A “good man” (a Godly man) is not “saved” but hope and quietly wait for salvation. A good man is one in Christ, and to be with Christ for gain requires a quiet waiting period… in safety until that time arrives.
Thus, from “now” to “mortal death” on the chart is the “hope of salvation.”
Assurance is a measure of faith (Acts 17:31; Col 2:2; 1 Thes 1:5; Heb 10:22). Faith is shown as the degree of assurance that Jesus was resurrected, and the Christian can be as well (Acts 17:31). As the increment between your faith and the “faith” of God is doubt, faith is not absolute but “assurance.” That Christ was raised from the dead provides assurance that those in Christ shall be as well.
Nowhere does scripture say that there is “assurance of salvation.” Assurance is operationalized by faith. The more the faith the more assured. Obviously, if there is no faith, there is no assurance of salvation whether before rebirth or after spiritual death. So long as there is faith, there is hope, and with that a perception, salvation is assured.
Paul did write, “riches of the full assurance” (Col 2:2). Full assurance is experiencing reality. Anything less is hope. Thus the “full assurance of salvation” are the “riches” (gain) of which Paul wrote in the key verse. Death is fully assured and functioning in the world is so less assured that it is called “hope of assurance,” meaning absolute assurance when it is finally experienced.
Just what is assured? “full assurance of hope unto the end.” (Heb 6:11). Hope is assured. Hope is not as in wish it to be true but seeing the reward even in another realm. The “prize” that Paul saw while running the race of life in Christ was eternal life and salvation from perishing.
Early on in this commentary, it was explained that “knowing” is not literal. Where it is used in the context of salvation is perception. Because a Christian believes the Word, trusts God, understands that God sacrificed His only Son for his sins, and that God has power over life and death; that is faith. If the Christian believes that is true, then he can rightly perceive salvation is as if in hand.
To say, “I am saved” is a positive outlook, or perception, on the Word. It is true, that “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). The defining word there for salvation is “faith.” Just how long is faith to last? Faith must endure from the time of “born again,” and enduring to the end… “he that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Mat 10:32).
“Shall be” is a qualifier. It is some time in the future. It is not necessarily “now” but someplace between “now” and “mortal death.”
It should be clear by now that “saved” is a future event that can happen and happen only one time because if someone is “saved” then that’s it! The word “unsaved” is irrational and is a fabrication of Calvinists to refer to those who have not been born again.
They are not unsaved, but “wandering” just like Cain. They may know where they are in the world but have not found God as Noah found grace (Gen 8:6). Hence, they are spiritually “lost” and have not and could not experience something as irrational as being “unsaved.”
Compare a car wreck wherein the automobile burst in flames. “Saved” would be removed from the auto never to perish in the flames thereafter. It would be irrational to call it unsaved even if the person died in the fire. They would have “perished” not become “unsaved” because if they had been clear of the fire, then nothing else could rationally happen. Only an insane person would “unsave” him but that could not happen or then he would never be saved from the fire.
Hence, irrational theological terms like “unsaved” and such do not make sense. Neither does those whose doctrine is Armenian make sense when they call born again, “saved.” They say that they believe in apostasy (forgetting Christ; and away from Christ), so how can they be both saved and lost?
People disregard the doctrines of General Baptists because they do not seem to believe their own doctrine! Either someone is saved or in apostasy and lost but he cannot be both. It is irrational and such preaching is irrational unless the Preacher is Christ who knows the future.
You do not know if you are saved, but only the Father. Speaking of the salvation of the flesh for the dead, and both the flesh and soul of those in Christ, Jesus said, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Mat 24:36).
Those that are dead in Christ know nothing. Those that are living in Christ do not either. Only the Father knows the Day of the Lord when the general resurrection occurs — and that is the person made whole again when both the body and soul is saved. Thus, to declare that you know makes you the “Father” and diminishes God. You may expect it to happen and have hope that it will but that is trust. Trust over time is faith. You do perceive the “prize” before it is in hand, and that is rational.
The ”gain” of death is when the soul is saved. Paul has experienced that already because he was beheaded. So far, if that is all there is to it, then the key verse would be fulfilled entirely because salvation is twofold: both the body and the soul. Paul’s flesh — his body — the vessel for his soul will be saved when Jesus comes again.
Just as generation is a process in time, so is regeneration. The idea that rebirth is regeneration is a Calvinistic theological doctrine.
Churches of Christ believe regeneration is a process culminating in baptism, but baptism with water has little to do with salvation, as has been shown. The process begins at rebirth and is finished when both the soul and body are saved and safe in glory; that is glorification.”
Just as birth can be aborted so can rebirth. In both cases it is the spirit of the Wicked One who aborts.
The key verse is about exhausted. Next the commentary will be summarized as what it means to you. Remember one thing from the story of Adam and Eve — Lucifer wanted them to feel secure in their life, and he wants you to feel secure in yours.
(picture credit: dailyactive,info; "man drowning at baptism")
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