RECONCILIATION: TWO COMING TO TERMS

Reconciliation is an accounting process. It is accounting for something, and the records must be accurate and verified as true and complete.

Payment at the end of the workday, week, month, or year must be finished. Once a year, the sins of the Israelites were reconciled. The ‘spreadsheet” must balance for the year, using modern vernacular. Sins performed must be paid in full.

Jesus reconciled our account with God. He was the Executor of the Estate of God, and each trespass was recorded in a book and at the end of the day, or even an age, the trespasses must be paid. God somehow keeps a journal of what are owed Him because his heirs and want-to-be heirs owe Him for their trespasses. The allegation is that they received something that was not due to them.

The infraction of mankind is glory theft — stealing the glory of God. What is stealing glory? 

·         Taking credit for someone else's work/achievements: This is a straightforward way to describe the act.

·         Passing off someone else's work as your own: This emphasizes the dishonest nature of the act.

·         Appropriating someone else's success: This highlights the act of taking something that doesn't belong to you.

·         "Stealing someone's thunder": This idiom specifically refers to grabbing attention from another, often by anticipating their idea or action.

·         Glory stealing: A more direct term that highlights the act of taking glory or recognition from someone else. (AI Overview) 

The original sin was the woman, later called “Eve,” crediting herself for creating the first natural born man: “Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, ‘I have gotten a man from the Lord’” (Gen 4:1)

Eve never created anything. She stole the glory of the Lord. The first sin included stolen glory. That had to be reconciled. God had revealed to her in advance, the payment for that sin, He said, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in sorrow you shall bring forth children; and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen 3:16).

That “sorrow” is birthing pains. Because of the pain of delivering Cain, it was not God who created, but by her own labor that Cain came into the world. Eve would have felt like she paid for her own carnal sins. Eve stole the glory of God. Therefore pain was how God reconciled her sin by grace.

What is glory? Is God real? The Israelites doubted for they had never seen the God of Moses. Moses and Aaron said, “In the morning, you shall see the glory of the LORD” (Exod 16:7). As Aaron spoke the next morning, “the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud” (Exod 16:10). As it turned out, manna from heaven appeared for them to eat. Manna is “the bread of life” and represents the body of God, Jesus.

What is manna? First off, it came from God when He appeared in a cloud. The Glory of God appeared as a divine substance that had miraculous powers to save the Israelites.

The manna appeared as “a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground” (Exod 16:14). Moses explained to the curious people, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat” (Exod 16:15).

Each one that gathered the manna; “they gathered every man according to his eating” (Exod 16:18). Nothing was measured. All were free to eat, and manna was a gift of God for which they did nothing to deserve. In fact, God gave them bread to eat even though they complained. Some even found complaint with the free stuff from God.

Some failed to gather manna for their own needs, and it rotted. However, something else happened to those who gathered: “every man (gathered) according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted” (Exod 16:21). If they did their part, they were filled with the glory of God, and the excess just disappeared; however, if they gathered not, the manna rotted.

What therefore was the glory of God? Virtue and even faith. The manna was a product of His unlimited grace. They could take all the grace they wanted, but some wanted none. If the grace was not partaken, then it would perish.

There was abundant grace for all, all could eat as much as they pleased, and what was eaten was just right in the manner of the baby bear of the story of the three bears.

The manna was not the glory of God, so what was? That is explained:

Even when we were dead in sins, has (God) quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved); and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of His grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. (Ephes 2:5-8)

The Israelites murmured against God. They were dead in sins. God quickened them with the provision of manna to save them. The abundant riches of God come from those who sit with Christ Jesus. And just like the manna from heaven, for by grace you are saved by faith. Those who ate had faith that the mysterious substance would sustain them and it did. And it was not by the work of their own hands but was a gift from God.

The manna from heaven was them tasting the body of Christ. They communed with Jesus when they ate just like the apostles at the Last Supper.

The manna was not the glory of God because it rotted. Glory is perfection. The Glory of God was the grace of God, and as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, God provided His only Son as t perfect sacrifice. The glory of God is neither the manna from heaven nor the Body of Christ, but God in Him revealed to mankind. The Glory of God is His Power that appeared to Moses in a cloud, and as the manna from Heaven. The glory of God is the grace in saving mankind.

That must be verified. Jesus said:

“He that believes on Me,” as the scripture has said, “out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) (John 7:38-39)

“Glorification” is having the Spirit of God within. What glorified Jesus? When He was crucified and people saw that God had been in His Person all along. Jesus was essentially torn apart at the crucifixion to reveal that God was within His flesh. When He was raised from the dead, that was the final act of glorification and was when God was literally assembled back into the Body of Jesus. Glorification is both God in Christ and Christ in you.

Adam was glorified by God when God breathed life unto him, and he became a living soul (Gen 2:7). The Breath of God — His Living Spirt — was the medium of glorification and the putting on of flesh reconciliation by grace. Adam did nothing for that and neither do Christians to be glorified.

What happened subsequent to the glorification of Jesus?

Jesus saiD unto her, “Mary.” She turned herself, and said unto Him, “Rabboni;” which is to say, “Master.” Jesus said unto her, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father” (John 20:6-7)

Again, as you can see, glorification is a process wherein something excellent happens. The manna from heaven was God glorifying the Israelites, literally providing life to them, and glorification was in Jesus as “the Quickening Spirit” (1 Cor 15:45).

The manna was the “bread of life” as was Jesus (John 6:35) but the bread of life in both cases provided life by grace. The glory was the Power of God in both cases, and the “glorification” is revealing that Power.

God glorified the Israelites when He provided manna by grace, and God glorified all mankind when He provided Jesus as the Bread of Life. In each case, God was glorified, or revealed, and the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus revealed that He is God.

So much for glorification, albeit glorification is reconciliation. For those who see the glory of God, they too shall be glorified when the “God” in them is revealed.

Glorification is the final reconciliation and occurs at the rapture:

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; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thes 4:16-17)

Those that are dead in Christ shall be forever with the Lord. First, their remains from the grave will be reunited with their souls and by grace, they shall be saved.

That too is reconciliation; God collects there remains and makes them whole again as a last just act of reconciliation. For what? Believing that the Body of Jesus has Power enough in it to keep them alive forever. The grace is the glorification process, and the rapture is those in Christ glorified by the Power of God.

The wages of sin is death, but read further: 

now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom 6:22-23)

There is the accounting again! Sin are the wages that must be paid. Like manna from heaven, life must balance at the end of the other book — the book in which sins are recorded:

I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Rev 20:12)

Our “works” are sins that we do. As I have written before, the Law is not works but “gratitude’s” The other book is the journal with a balance sheet that shows our works and at the end of the day, they must be reconciled.

Our sins are on the debit side and are what must be paid. On the credit side of the journal, for a Christian, is “paid in full.” By whom? Jesus who paid the price. He paid for it whether it is recognized or not! Like the manna, people must partake of the grace. God took on all the sins of the world for all time and paid with them with the ultimate sacrifice — God died for your sins, “your” being everybody’s.

Like the manna from heaven, you must eat to obtain life. Again, nobody is forced to eat. Like the manna, those who consume what they need for survival is enough, albeit there is enough for everyone. Like the manna from heaven, so it is Jesus — “The Bread of Life” from God in heaven. Just as with manna from heaven, any amount can be eaten for survival, but to live all must eat. The same applies for the Body and Blood of Jesus. We all can eat and drink what we need because it is free because of grace, but some will partake because they would rather die (forever) rather than eat any part of the Body of Christ. Our supping with Christ is payment enough if it is done worthily

In a sense, the taking of communion is reconciling with God, giving Him the glory for the things that He has done… like sacrificing Himself as the “quail” or “dove,” whichever it may be, but the bird whatever is the Power of God.

(To be continued)

(continued)

So far, the first infraction (from part 1) that necessitates reconciliation is someone taking credit for someone else’s achievements. Eve did that. She stole the glory of God. That needs to be made right. Making it right requires reconciliation. James had the solution, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” (Jas 4:10).

Glory theft is also “Passing off someone else's work as your own.”  If your own work can save, then the gift of God is a lie. We are not to have confidence in our own works but confidence in God. That God did the work for us to live forever, then us doing good works would steal the glory of God, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephes 2:8).

Faith is the confidence that you shall be saved. It is for the duration of your own life, so it is time dependent. Faith is not for a moment in time, but for all time. However, faith is a gift, and for gifts to have utility, they must be used.

God provided the faith as a gift. The gift was not because of your potential but because God loves you so much. That you work hard to please God for salvation would make you the “god” and steal the glory from God.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6), not you. You are an obstacle in the Way for eternal life, but trusting God, He will remove the obstacle of your flesh. Your flesh is just a weighty burden for you to carry, and when God saves your soul (1 Pet 1:9), it is without the physical you in it.

Next comes “highlight(ing) the act of taking something that doesn't belong to you.” The Power of God does not belong to you; you are helpless in an overpowering world. Jesus said, “Marvel not; you must be born again” (John 3:7). Jesus meant that you must be engendered from (God) above. You cannot rebirth yourselves; it takes the labor of either a mother or God, and Jesus indicated that only God is capable of rebirthing you.

Saying, “I am saved” does not make you saved. God must lift you up, up, and away for you to be saved.

Take the phrase “humble yourselves and let the Lord lift you up” literally. The rapture is just that. You, however hard you try, cannot be good because you come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Salvation is for those who endure to the end (Mat 10:22). It is not you who endures but Christ in you. Salvation does not belong to you. You cannot elevate yourself for if you do, you will fall (Heb 6:6). Adam’s kind, in the beginning, failed God and lost their genetic makeup from the Image of God and became “beasts” in the jungle of a world.

The male Adam and his woman took something that did not belong to them, and they trespassed to obtain it; God had said, “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it for in the day that you do eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). They trespassed to get to God’s tree and then stole whatever fruit that they took. Original sin had multiple occasions of stealing the glory of God.

Stealing the thunder of someone else is an idiom that makes sense. “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Your own opinions are not light and are most often “darkness” because the world shades truth and most people misunderstand truth. “Grabbing attention from another, often by anticipating their idea or action” defines stealing the “thunder” of God.

We are to humble ourselves; and to do so is understanding that despite our knowledge and abilities, we are still not God nor even gods.

Lucifer — the Devil, Serpent was a liar from the beginning, but by his cunning, he prefaced lies with truth. Lucifer spoke truth to the man and the woman: “God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5).

God is God. The so-called Serpent knew that Adam and Eve would steal the thunder of God; with a new body of knowledge, they would be omniscient and omnipotent.

Over the years, that body of knowledge has become the downfall of mankind. Only God has the authority and righteousness for people improvement, but now mankind, led by Bill Gates and his companions, have discovered the secret to gene editing. Mankind, because of knowledge, have become the gods.

Biogenetics steals the thunder (power) of God and relegates it to mankind.

Literally, stealing the thunder of God is splitting the atom that God generated. Tampering with atomic energy with either fission or fusion steals the glory of God.

Not only that, but transpeople steal the thunder and glory of God. Adam was meant to be the kind that could be reduced no further, to wit: “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the Earth (Gen 1:26). “Dominion” therein is a “crumbling off” from the Image of God. Man was made in the Image of God, not God, but a particle of Him.

Cain was a trans-being, being half Selem and half nahas, using the Hebrew words for the Image of God and the image of the Serpent, respectively.

Cain was neither human nor beast, but a trans-kind called ‘Is. He was just another extant being, neither human nor animal. The tranny, Cain, was of the Devil, to wit: “Cain was of the Wicked One” (1 John 3:12).

Transhumanism steals the thunder of God and diminishes Him. Why? Because trans-anything makes the individual the “god;” they can be anything they want to be without actually being what they really are.

God Imaged mankind, and mankind are continually reimagining themselves. Unrealistic thinking gives you powers that you don’t have, and you are what you are unless you are “born again” by God above. You cannot imagine yourself a saint and be a saint because that is alchemy. Only God can make you a saint. However, the Devil is within your genetics (John 8:44. So reimage yourselves all your lives, but you will remain what you are!

Another facet of glory stealing is “taking glory or recognition from someone else.” The someone else is Jesus. The Bible makes that clear: 

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:21)

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. (Rom 10:13) 

Walking another way is stealing the glory of God. Deny Jesus and He will deny you the right to the Tree of Life (Gen 3:24). He is the Beacon that is at the end of the time-tunnel. If you see yourself as the “way,” then you are in for a bad trip and an unexpected surprise — without the help of Jesus you cannot get in, and without the Power of God’s hand, you cannot crossover from Earth to Paradise in Heaven.

Sure, Jesus wants you to go to His Place, but its His Place, not yours. You cannot get there without following the Way all the way without looking back as Lot’s wife discovered.

Some call me a “man of God.” That does not make me a “son of God” any more than I can by calling myself that. Calling yourselves “sons” or “daughters” of God are good intentions, but He is the judge of that. Nobody else nor ourselves can engender us with the Image of God; it must come from God Himself. Indeed, that indeed is us humbling ourselves.

Self-esteem is not enlightenment but darkness. We are not who we think we are and feeling otherwise is a farce. What are common men and women? Lost! They do not know who or what they are. Scripture tells what you can be’ a new creature in Christ: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17).

The “old creature” is not one kind but many. The old creature is whatever Satan wants you to be.

Some want to be animals and act like animals... inseminating whoever. whenever they please. Some now wear doggy apparel and act like canines; that does not make them dogs, but either insane, depraved, or both.

Others just do what they want to do outside the norm for human beings. They diminish the particle, or spark, of God that might remain in them, and explode to another beastly kind, all the while expecting us to accept them as they are.

When will this occur? It began with original sin. When will it end, when the Devil sifts mankind out, revealing who is his and who is not. The Devil does serve a purpose; he sifts, and God metes out justice.

Stealing the glory of God is mankind’s problem. Reconciliation is God’s solution. He comes to us to make us whole again to kill the “beast” in us and regen us with Himself.

All those facets of “glory stealing” are still us who come short of the glory of God as is written:

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Rom 3:23-24) 

“Justification” is what makes the lost reconcile to God. “Justification” is not as if we have not sinned, lest we forget our previous nature, but that Jesus became sin for us: “He (God) has made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21)

Reconciliation is mankind (the “crumble”) restored to the whole Image of God, and for God to have dominion over us. Mankind broke off from the Image of God, and only by the Hand of God (Jesus) can the broken piece be re-assembled. How could you do that? You cannot but Jesus can, as you can read next:

All things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:18:20)

God, because of the Cross, already has reconciled you to Him, but reconciliation is a two-way street — you must reconcile with Him, and all that means is that your thoughts become the Thoughts of God. It is not what you do, but what you think. It is not emotional but cognitive, hence Calvary is “the place of the cranium.” Emotion comes with gratitude for what God has done. What has He done? He redeemed you and paid the price for your sins by bearing them Himself.

Judas found out that redeeming his own sins was to no avail — he still went to Gehenna and Hell. Judas tried to steal the glory of God and failed, so Hell was his “reconciliation.”