As the song goes, God is “He Who Began a Good Work in You.” Indeed, persuasion is the beginning of a good work in you!
Paul’s modus operandi was
to persuade unbelievers to become Christians. With Herod Agrippa, Paul “almost
persuaded him” to become a Christian (Acts 26:28). Therefore, becoming a
Christian is by persuasion. To persuade is, “to move by argument, entreaty, or
expostulation to a belief, position, or course of action”
In the case of Jesus, it is a
change in belief. That is the beginning of becoming a Christian. Converts
believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, and that is a great start, and for God
to be God, there must be a believe that He did what a God would do… create. And
if a God can create, or generate all things from nothing, then He can take a
humble “no thing” and make him or her some thing.
The no thing is against God and
the new thing is a new creature — a new creation — whose nature is
different than the “old creature” made depraved with original sin.
Therefore, a Christian is a person
converted from an old nature to a new nature. The nature of the old creature
was like the “Beast” in the beginning, and the new creature is restored to the
glory in which Adam and Eve were generated in the first place.
Belief is the beginning of the process of conversion. In the end, at the rapture when Jesus comes again, the conversion process is finished, to wit:
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)
Persuasion is of the mind. Believing
that Jesus is God is a good beginning. However, even demons believe that (Jas
2:19), so belief is only the beginning of a process in time. For
some, the metamorphosis from egg to larvae is of short duration and for others,
it is lengthy.
Even with full persuasion the process
is just from one stage to the other; the mind alone has been transformed.
With conversion, again as Paul
wrote, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mat 26:41). The
spirit is the desire to please God. It is working out your salvation in your
mind; again, as Paul wrote, “Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling” (Phil 2:12). Fear and trembling because you just might get stuck in
the beginning stage. Why else to fear and tremble? Because the flesh is still weak
to sin but strong against change.
So many Christians get stuck in
the “larvae” stage. They have partially converted but are not yet a glorious “butterfly.”
To be transfigured (morphed) from larvae to butterfly requires that the larvae,
not the inner organism, but the flesh of the creature, be changed. For the
butterfly to emerge the flesh must be shed and comforted for some time in the “pupa”
of sorts.
The problem with those who have
converted to become a Christian is that the transformation is not complete;
they want to be a “butterfly” without shedding their “skin” so to speak.
Of course, butterflies shed their
flesh or die. So will we! Many Christians just cannot shed their flesh because
the organism inside is so strong because original sin is genetic. The creature
has grown to love the flesh that he or she has been accustomed to since birth.
They think that they welcome rebirth, but the flesh is so powerful that
they hold fast to whatever stronghold they can grab onto.
Paul was thorough in his
persuasion. He even names the strongholds that retain Christians in the larvae
stage that Paul called “babes in Christ” (1 Cor 3:21).
Circumcision was cutting off the
flesh of the foreskin, but that was often not done. But even with that, God was
not talking about the genitalia but the “foreskin of the heart.” Moses knew
that long ago when he wrote, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart,
and be no more stiff-necked” (Deut 10:16).
The Israelites were always confused! Circumcision of the foreskin was merely symbolic of cutting off the lusts of the flesh, many of which Paul listed to make it clear what the flesh contains in its nature:
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like… (Gal 5:19-21)
Today, the most prevalent is
idolatry as it was in the beginning. It is the reason for the other defects. The
flesh of any natural-born person is their idol, and the other metrics are ways
in which the flesh-idol is appeased. For men, adultery and fornication are generally
their strongholds. For women, perhaps something else; even variance (strife.)
Of course, the pudenda are the reasons
for lusts and strife. No wonder Adam and Eve covered their genitalia out of
shame for what they had done! No wonder the foreskin was to be circumcised!
However, the most effective circumcision is to cut off the desires of the
heart.
The “heart” in scripture is the “inner
man” or “inner woman.” It is what goes on in the mind. The flesh is merely antennae
for pleasure but the mind processes things of the mind to be either pleasurable
or stressful. To cut off the flesh is not circumcision of the flesh per se
but cutting off thoughts of the mind that results in pleasure or anxiety.
Paul said something else of interest about himself: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). Death circumcises the flesh and releases the “butterfly” from the larvae. In spirit, the dead Christian is as a butterfly, but at the General Resurrection, God makes him or her a real glorious “glorify” in spirit and flesh, and the transformation process is completed! (The “pupa” stage of the Christian would be asleep in Christ until the “butterfly” emerges.)
Paul was just full of persuasive arguments! Look at these ideas:
4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. 5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. (Gal 5:4-5)
What happens if the Law is kept only
for the Law’s sake? The potential “butterfly” falls from the grace that keeps
him or her aloft.
Love is not emotional but is goodwill,
or good thoughts. God’s love, or Good Thoughts for you, are the to keep you
afloat even when you fail. That is grace!
Your love for Him is to have goodwill
for Him, or whoever drags you down, even as you are falling and failing.
Paul said that that if you depend on
the Law to keep you, then “Ye are fallen from grace.” Your mind is not staying
afloat and not even realizing that you are falling. Calvinism puts the notion
in you that as a Christian, you are beyond falling! For them, you are already a
“butterfly” so do not worry about the flesh that can drag you down!
Grace is God keeping your larvae
crawling on the right path until the butterfly stage is eminent at death.
Falling from grace is deviating from the Way. The Law is not the Way; Jesus is!
For those who stay the Way because of
goodwill toward God are kept from falling. However, those who cling to the way by
obedience to Moses and His Law, may fall without being caught.
“Fallen from grace” is ekpipto
charis in the Greek; literally to fall powerless from the Goodwill of God. You cannot emerge a Christian on your own, and
God sees that it is of “no effect” for you (ekpipto) (ibid).
Implied therein is that God keeps you
from falling and not yourselves. You must depend on Him and His Goodwill. The Law
is just that — the boundaries for safe arrival, but with the eye on the strictly
on the limitations, falling off the Way is made easier, just like driving a car
with the eyes on the hood distracts from the real destination — home safely.
Not falling off begins with belief, but
it must be trusting belief; you know that Jesus is God and only He can
save you.
Thus, your eyes are always on God and
His Goodwill for your safe arrival. The Law still keeps the course straight but
the Light at the end is Jesus. So, your eyes remain on Him to avoid the fall,
and the subsequent abortion of the potential “butterfly” that you once saw as
possible, but now has no significance because of the pleasure of the moment.
Many Christians remain stuck in the
larvae caterpillar stage in that they still seek to keep their flesh while they
see God as the true way.
The flesh must be shed, like it or not.
For the larvae, shedding the flesh is natural, but for mankind, keeping the
flesh is the desire of the natural man or woman!
Serpents shed their skin annually, but
God’s kind need only do so one time once and for all. Knowing that we cannot do
that, Jesus shed His flesh once for all, and since He did that, we can as well,
with His pull.
God sheds your flesh for you. He turns you from a “caterpillar” to a “butterfly,” but you must be there on the Way for Him to do that. Paul became even more persuasive:
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. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Rom 12:1-2)
He does not make you do it
nor shed it Himself, but that is for you to do as a service to Him — Goodwill
toward God, and that is love!
The caterpillar is conformed to
the world. It is the second stage of the butterfly. It cannot fly but must remain
below, and as such is conformed to its surroundings.
Caterpillars can fall. I have
made them fall!
Butterflies can escape the confines
of the world. They do not conform to the world but the sky is their natural
comfort zone. Like the butterfly, if we depend on God above, the world should
have little effect on our lives!
Of course, we cannot transform
our flesh. We are stuck with it and must endure it to the end, so the
reasonable service, according to Paul, is “be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind.” Our minds must be on things good and acceptable, perfect Will of
God. The desire of our minds should be to please God, not to see Him as a Dictator
that we must obey.
With that background on rebirth
and struggling the course in the world, then we must be careful of two things:
not to have the butterfly aborted, nor to have it stagnate in the early stage
as it may fall.
It appears that so many Christians
have stagnated. False doctrine says they will never fall, but Paul disagreed with
that idea. We cannot do as we please and have goodwill toward God at the same time.
Satisfying the desires of the flesh, makes our flesh our “god” just as the
Serpent warned (Gen 3:5).
The Church is full of “Christians”
now who fornicate with impunity and even commit adultery, not to mention all
the other metrics of which Paul wrote.
America used to be the “Prozac Nation”
but now the globe is a drug-induced world wherein any mind-altering concoction
is acceptable.
When the mind is altered, nobody
can be persuaded. Drugs are to remove inhibitions and stress, and indeed
conviction is stressful, so stressful that clear-mined people need closure and
turn to God to fill what is missing with the Comforter, rather than Southern Comfort®
or Dilaudid.®
Fornication is made easy by dulling
the flesh against conviction by alcohol, marijuana, or harder drugs.
In the book, Brave New World,
Aldous Huxley called inebriants “soma” surely because “soma” is the body, or
flesh, of the human organism. Drugs calm the flesh so that people are satisfied
as they are and who they are. Rather than follow God, they “follow their hearts”
and fall off the Way.
Persuasion should be easy but somatic
substances interfere. So long as people are consoled by “Mary Jane” and her kin,
people defy change without even knowing that they have been had by the purveyors
of mind-clogging substances.
To be fully persuaded is in pursuit of
the knowledge of truth; that Jesus is the Way and only Way to salvation, and
that salvation is a journey that cannot be taken alone.
You must depend on Somebody, and He is
Jesus. Apathy to others is a sign of having fallen off the Way. Non-caring
attitudes belong to the fallen because butterflies radiate life!
God’s will is that you change from a alien
“worm” to a beautiful, glorious “butterfly.” Lucifer is the pestilent that
poisons the new creature, even as it transforms from one nature to another. Only
Jesus can stamp out that awful pest!
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