The commentary thus far leads to original sin as catalyst for the transformation of Adam’s and God’s kind into a slightly different kind, and by that it is meant “partitioning” of the species. Eve and her seed remained what is called, “human” and were still somewhat “humane” but they were also “inhumane” at the same time. “Hu” in human has no meaning, but humane is the behavior of the man.
God made Adam, par excellence, because all things in the
Garden were glorious. He, like God, was full of goodness. After the sin of Adam,
only God is “good” (Mat 19:17). As the Person of God, Jesus is the only human
and humane type of person, and He is the role model of the rest of the inhumane
beings:
22 …With regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephes 4:22-24)
Only God in the Person of a Man is without sin, and only He is to be the model. All worldly behavior is modeled by the Adversary, and mankind chooses in whom they follow.
Lucifer is the “old self” in that inhumane man is remolded in his nature and “born again” is essentially remolded with the supra-nature of Christ. With the supra-nature of Christ, the former inhumane person is “in Christ” as is written in the key verse: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).
In Christ is not so much walking in the steps of Christ (1 Pet 2:21) but thinking as Jesus would think: “to be made new in the attitude of your minds,” as is written.
Rebirth is not how the new creature walks but how he thinks. Before, “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord” (Isa 55:8), so the new person has the thoughts and ways of God. Thus, the path to the Tree of Life is not a physical one, but attitudinal. It is thinking as Christ all the Way to the end of life. That indeed is “in Christ.”
The mantra for the Christian of the 1990’s was accurate, when given a choice, ask oneself, “What would Jesus do?” Those who do that have the attitude of Christ, and are in Christ in that they are willing to do what Jesus would do!
One young Christian lady, years ago, was an art student. She was faced with the choice on whether to paint nudes or not for credit. She sought the will of God, and her answer was to proceed. She did seek God’s Will for her, but everyone must test the message to scripture (1 John 4:1).
There are deceiving spirits in the world, so whose message it is must be discerned. She was affirmed that painting a nude was acceptable to God. For myself, I knew the answer if it had been me… before I even sought the Will of God. Right and wrong is ingrained in every cell of my flesh, and the flesh is weak. It would be foolish of me to enter unto temptation, but each day, even as a Christian I fall into temptation, albeit the Christ in me is willing (Mat 26:41).
Only Jesus could walk unto temptation and come out unscathed as He did with His temptations by the Devil. Even after fasting forty days without food, Jesus overcame the wiles of Satan. Christians are not Jesus, and as such, they are never to enter unto temptation (ibid). They must exercise their God-given new wills and make right choices. That is in Christ.
Entering unto temptation is not an activity but where the thoughts go. The flesh is so weak because the mind is not your mind when one sins, but they are thoughts borrowed from the Wicked One for pleasure. Not only does your body belong to God but your spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20). In other words, the spirit in you is not yours but the Christ in you, and you in Christ. Because your flesh is weak and seeks pleasure, the human will directs the way you shall go.
Thus, the human will is at fault. Satan does not mandate that you do anything; he only suggests pleasure, but the choice is yours alone. Therefore, the mind that was designed to be good, does evil because Satan has a grip-hold on the flesh. There is some thing in the flesh that is a roadblock to right thought. That roadblock is called “free thought” in the religion of humanism.
Free thought is having no boundaries. The mind is free to go wherever it wills to go. That is the “whole law” of Satanism. The bondage that sinners are in is that there are no boundaries.
For the Christian, for their safety, boundaries are established; the Christian is foolish to go where Jesus could go but does not go.
There must be a good reason to go where anyone goes. Jesus went to the sinners in taverns to model good behavior to them, but Jesus did not drink while there. The natural man in the wrong company will do what the world does. In that case, following Jesus into taverns would be wrong and to walk in his steps would be wrong unless the person is there for right reasons. And what would that be? To deliver those inside from sin.
A Christian need never to walk nor step unto temptation, even when following Jesus. Refraining from sin is doing nothing! It is accomplishing (katergamazai) a task with only thought “works.” It is self-control of thoughts; never allowing the mind to wander unto sin.
Cain was cursed and sent off to the land of Nod. Cain, “the Wanderer” was sent off to the land of “Wander” (Nod). It was not a place at all, but a mental venture. Nod was everywhere in the world that Cain willed to go against the Will of God. Those not in Christ are in Cain who is of the Wicked One (1 John 3:12) and whose own works are evil.
“Evil” therein is a work (ergon). Working out salvation is an accomplishment (katergazmai) with no physical work (ergon) involved (Phil 2:12). It is more ergonomic to work smarter, not harder. Evil is “works” and goodness are kind thoughts. That is why love (agape) is not emotional but goodwill (Strong’s Dictionary). Goodwill is not work but thoughts.
Thus, the new creature retains old flesh for the world, but should have a new mind with new thoughts. The mind can be altered by non-vigilance and insobriety.
But speaking to those who were in Christ, they were advised, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). Christians were and can still be devoured by the lions. Jesus is the good “lion of Judah” but Satan the evil “lion of Judas.” Each must know the difference and before whom to stand and walk.
The flesh is not in Christ, but the sacrifice to Christ. Paul wrote, “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). Your flesh is at the disposal of Christ, but your mind is in Him. Ironically, the old flesh, like Abraham long before, must be sacrificed to appease the Will of God.
Most worry about the soul but the mind is the arbitrator of the soul. It guides and directs what is allowed in the invisible vessel that translators call the “cup.” Why is Calvary the “cranium”? Because it protects the mind from destroying the soul. The soul is safe from Satan but in danger from a depraved mind such as Judas had when he murdered himself. Judas killed his flesh. but the Spirit of Jesus vicariously killed the depraved being in his soul. Again, did the works of Jesus save Judas’s soul or was his soul destroyed with Satan. Nobody knows.
In that case, depravity was thinking that one’s own works are saving (soterial). Satan did not hang Judas. He did and Satan went along for the joy ride. He could have found a swine or something in which to dwell, but he wanted to mock Jesus as he did below what Jesus was doing on Calvary. Satan was essentially taking a mocking knee to Jesus alongside the soldiers.
Regarding Abraham, he was willing to do the sacrifice and that was enough. If he had put a lance to Isaac, then that would have been work.
“In Christ” is ergonomic to the extent that no work is required. Those who trust the baptismal waters for salvation essentially worship the god of water, Poseidon, and embark, not on the Ark of the Cross, nor even Noah’s Ark, but the “Poseidon adventure”!
“In Christ” is not in the water, but through the water and remaining dry, just as Noah (as the Husbandman), Moses (as Water; i.e., Poseidon) and Joshua (as Jesus) would do to inherit the Promise Land. (Moses, not God, made the water from the rock, so he became as the god, Poseidon.)
“In Christ” is dry all the Way to the Cross until coming to the water and blood of Jesus, and when His Holy Ghost infuses a new nature and a new purpose. Therefore, the baptism of John is conditioning for the baptism of the Holy Ghost of Jesus.
It is for the repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and preparation for the water and blood of Jesus, to wit: “I (John) indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Mat 3:11).
There are not two baptisms but one, and that is in Christ — the very Spirit of God that was transformed from a Spirit to a Ghost when the Man Jesus died (John 7:39; KJV only).
Man (Adam) died on the Cross. Jesus represented the first Adam and all his kind. He was the “second Adam” because unlike the first, Jesus accomplished (“It is finished,” He said) the work of salvation without Him even working. Jesus “stood” there and allowed His adversaries to present His Body as the living sacrifice in lieu of their own flesh which would be their reasonable service!
Adam was to literally to serve and preserve his seed (dress and keep the Garden of Living Souls) but he failed because sin interfered. His flesh impeded his role for pleasure of the mind. Adam, after sin, theretofore in the Messiah, was in Lucifer. With the sacrifice of Christ’s Flesh for man’s (adams), it was Jesus who served and preserved the people of the world right there in the midst of the Garden!
Joshua had found the Way to be in Christ. The Way was past the evil cherubim — the Egyptians, the Sodomites, the Anakim, and such people — to find the Way to the Tree of Life with God waiting patiently on them from the “tree” of the Cross (Acts 5:30).
Thus, “in Christ” is not part way there, but all the way! “He that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Mat 10:22). “In Christ” is not just to the Cross but longsuffering the tribulations of the world.
Paul did that. He accomplished the way, not by his three journeys, but when he bore his own type of “cross” as the swift blade separated his head from his neck. Paul had walked the steps of Christ, but the accomplishment was not the walk, but the thought. By submitting himself to his own Cross was him in Christ. Paul’s thoughts were cut off because the “thought police” considered him a danger to their empire!
Paul surely saw his end. Jesus even revealed how Peter would
die for having the same thoughts:
18 …”When thou (Peter) shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.” 19 This spake He, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, “Follow me.” (John 21:18-19)
That could have applied to Paul as well, and the rest of the apostles.
Paul and Peter would suffer their own “crosses.” What applied to Peter would apply to Paul and applies to each Christian who all must take up their crosses and follow Him (Mat 16:24). That is in Christ but it is simpler for Christians, and is essentially denying themselves. (ibid).
Denial is not denying Jesus but denying your own claim to fame; that you cannot save yourself but only Jesus by His works. Just what did Jesus do since He was the “sacrificial Lamb of God”? While on the Cross, down in Gehenna, Judas hung himself to redeem his wrong. His work was insufficient, so apparently the first “work” done by the Ghost of Jesus was to cut Judas down from his tree where he spilled his guts of Satan. That was the “work” that Jesus did.
Then after “cutting wood,” the Ghost of Jesus escorted Satan and sin to Hell! That was the message that Jesus was delivering about rebirth in John 3:14.
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1). Where translated “created” in that verse, it is literally “cutting wood” (Strong’s Dictionary). In re-creating Adam and his kind, God again cut wood and He used His carpenter Son to do that work! Jesus cut the wood from the hanging tree to free Judas from Satan and deliver Satan to Hell. In Jesus, is crediting Him for that work, and denying that you have done any work to deserve redemption.
Jesus dying to cut that limb off was the only work that would ever be required to be in Christ. Therefore, in Christ is self-denial; that you did nothing for eternal life.
Living is in Christ with his thoughts always in mind. Conversely, death is without Christ with no thoughts of Him in mind. Blaspheming the Holy Ghost is damning because that denies the purpose of Jesus, which was to what? Save the soul of Judas by killing his flesh to save him from Satan.
Whether Judas was saved or not is ambiguous. What would be the deal-breaker? Whether Judas could see Jesus from his tree or not, and what Jesus did to save him as one of the “whosoever” in John 3:16.
Did Judas see himself as the worker for his guilt or did he credit Jesus? That shall remain unknown. Perhaps Judas saw the bodily shape of the Ghost of Jesus, and saw Jesus cut that limb. If he did, he saw what the Hebrews saw when Moses held up the “tree” with the Serpent, Satan, on it.
Judas did not release and bind Satan. Jesus did that, and if Judas credited Jesus, then perhaps, as some claim, he is “Saint Judas.” I will not be the judge of whether Judas is in Hell or not, but it is implied that Jesus saved Judas from the Wicked One!
Satan was in Judas until he was hanged, but was Judas in Christ at death? If so, then his death was gain as well!
It is not finished yet, with this commentary nor is Jesus all the way finished. More on this tomorrow.
(picture credit: Alamy; "Judas Hanging High")
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