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In the beginning God purposed to bring forth many sons to glory. God’s desire is that all of creation, visible and invisible, may witness the manifestation of the fullness of the Godhead bodily in His sons.
In the beginning God purposed to bring forth many sons to glory. God’s desire is that all of creation, visible and invisible, may witness the manifestation of the fullness of the Godhead bodily in His sons.
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In the beginning God purposed to bring forth many sons to glory. God’s desire is that all of creation, visible and invisible, may witness the manifestation of the fullness of the Godhead bodily in His sons.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Verfügbare Formate
Als DOC, PDF, TXT herunterladen oder online auf Scribd lesen
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren (Hebrews 2:10-11).
In the beginning God purposed to bring forth many
sons to glory. God’s desire is that all of creation, visible and invisible, may witness the manifestation of the fullness of the Godhead bodily in His sons. The manifestation of the sons of God is the manifestation of the Son of God in the sons of God to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The Father wants to be visible in His sons. The Father is the delight of His sons and His sons are the delight of the Father. It is not independent works and deeds that bring fulfillment to the Father’s heart but the substance you have become in your relationship with Him that minister joy and fulfillment.
Everything in heaven and on earth revolves around
God and His family. For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother (Matthew 12:50, emphasis added). The will of God is only being done in an intimate relationship with Him. When the will of God is being done on earth as it is in heaven the Father’s glory is revealed and His kingdom has come to men. The will of God being done in your life is when your faith in God gives substance to your hope to have a Father-son relationship with Him, which is the evidence of this unseen reality. Enoch and Elijah believed it to its full measure and they were transformed and they did not to see death.
As a result of God’s passion for sons, He created
Adam, His son (Luke 3:38), according to His image and likeness. Adam was God’s godly seed. God created him a living soul (Greek: psuchë; 1 Corinthians 15:45), which means he responded to God and all other things predominantly from his soul and not so much with his spirit. Adam’s spirit was alive to God and his soul was filled with the dazzling light of God’s presence and his body was immortal and incorruptible. God gave Adam dominion over all things in the psychic and material (mineral, plant and animal domains) realms because he was a living soul. Creation in the realm of spirit, where angels, cherubim, seraphim, etc. dwell, is under Christ’s domain because the Lord Jesus Christ is of a higher order, a life-giving Spirit. Adam is from the earth but the Lord Jesus Christ is from heaven. God blessed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and to multiply and to fill the earth with sons of God. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind [species]…” (Genesis 1:24a). If Adam had not sinned, he as son of God would have brought forth offspring after his own kind, sons of God (living souls).
Prior to sin Adam was alive to God in his spirit, soul
and body meaning that he was in Christ his Creator where he could sense God with his bodily, soulish and spiritual senses because he was created perfect in Christ totally alive to God. His triune nature was absolutely one even as the Holy Trinity is one.
Adam had no need to pray, meditating on the word,
waiting on God or practicing the presence of the 2 Lord. Adam’s heart was perpetually enlightened with Divine knowledge, wisdom and insight by the dazzling light of God’s glory abiding in his virtues soul. Faith or hope was foreign to him because his life was total fulfillment in God. Adam suffered no limitation or knew no lack. He was so full of life that he lived 930 years after sin entered him and the discord of sin entered his soul. Though he was perfect he considered his divine calling an ordinary thing through disobedience. He put on hold his destiny to grow up and change from a living soul into a quickening spirit in Christ, to become co-heir with Christ also of things in the Spirit. All life in creation lost its power when Adam ceased to abide in Christ, his Creator. Man had to wait 4 000 years until the Lord Jesus Christ came to redeem fallen creation and start to restore it according to Divine purpose.
When Adam sinned he died to God. Adam’s
immortal body put on mortality, meaning that his body died to God because of sin. “…the body is dead because of sin” (Romans 8:10, emphasis added). His soul (carnal mind, emotions and the human will) that lives in the blood of his body that once knew no darkness, but was filled with the light of God, became enmity against God. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it (Jeremiah 17:9). Death entered into his spirit because he founded himself outside of Christ his Creator. Adam’s light went out and he entered into death, darkness and deception because he was no longer in the Fountain of life, Source of all light; Beginning and End of all truth. God forsook Adam for his sin just as He forsook Christ because of our sin.
God’s original purpose for man was to grow up, in
Jesus Christ, from a living soul into a life-giving spirit that he may also become co-heir with Jesus Christ of creation in the Spirit. Because of sin man 3 chose the difficult road to become a life-giving spirit. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 17:33b, emphasis added). Adam made a thoughtless choice. He knew not that his commitment to sin would have caused millions to suffer the horrors of hell for all eternity. However, God so much loved the world that He charged His Son, Jesus Christ, with the sin of Adam and his seed that whosoever believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. God’s eternal life graciously empowers man to grow up into all aspects of the Son of God, who is a life-giving spirit.
Before the fall all realms existed in the one world of
Christ where God and all of His creation lived together in harmony. There was only one kingdom, the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. The number one, the one realm, denotes divine primacy. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Ephesians 4:4-6, emphasis added). The number one excludes all differences, for there was no second with which it could either harmonize or enter into conflict.
Through sin, Adam divided the one realm of the
universe into two realms, into the spiritual and the natural realms (psychic and material realms). The number two denotes there is a second who is in conflict with God’s holiness and righteousness. The Lord will not share his glorious dwelling with sinful flesh and blood, which is dead to Him and divorced from His person. Thus God casted Adam out of the garden to till the ground from which he was taken. God placed Adam and creation under his domain (psychic and material realms) into the lower realm of the natural, the sphere of conflict. God occupied supremely the upper sphere of His Spirit which is 4 filled with His joy, peace and righteousness. Adam took the psychic and material realms down with him into the pit of death and imperfection. Creation in the natural realm was no longer in God. The natural realm was independent from God, the Source of eternal life, and therefore subjected to futility which is death. With time, because of division, the earth was divided into the many kingdoms of men.
In Adam, we all died to God. We all came into the
world separated from God, dead to Him. We are born in sin and shaped in iniquity that is manifested in unrighteousness that rules the members of our body. Independence from God is death because the flow of eternal life has ceased when the branch was severed from the Vine. Adam, the godly seed, died to God because he and his seed were no longer in God. He cancelled the birthright of his offspring to have God as their Father and to relate to Him as His sons. Then God needed a new godly seed to perpetuate His dream for a harvest of sons. Only when Christ, the Seed of God, was made manifested in the flesh He revealed God as Father to man and in power demonstrated to the earth the truth about the Father-son relationship.
God will always shift life’s emphasis to His family,
which finds its expression in the Father-son relationship in Jesus Christ. The family of God, which is God’s kingdom and business, can only be found in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Godhead, creation’s one and only Creator, Maintainer, Redeemer and Restorer; the Lord of all the earth.
Because of man’s transgression the whole creation
started to groan and labor with birth pangs to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God that they once knew. Men began to call on the name of the 5 Lord as they remembered the promise God made to Eve that the Godly Seed will bruise Satan’s head and they within themselves, eagerly begin to wait for the adoption, the redemption of their body. Paul groan by saying, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Philippians 3:10-12, emphasis added). This is the message of the cross, to conform to His death and resurrection; the message that needs to be restored to the Church of Jesus Christ. I am convinced that if God did not willed for Paul (under grace) to die for his name sake he would have attained to the resurrection from the dead just like Enoch (without the law) and Elijah (under the law) because he manifested the same manner of faith in God as these two prophets. Paul was under a much better covenant, the covenant of grace, than these two Old Testament faith heroes. Enoch yearned for what Adam had lost in the garden. He discovered the Fountain of life and through faith walked with God and God took him to heaven. Enoch is a prophecy of glories to be revealed in the end time.
God never changed His original purpose to bring
forth many sons to glory. God, at first established a covenant of works with His people Israel. Through this covenant God established a certain relationship between Him and Israel. Through the works of the Law God’s people had to justify themselves. If Israel would diligently obey the voice of the Lord to observe carefully all His commandments then the Lord will bless them. If they do not keep all His commandments and statutes, curses will come upon them and overtake them because God is the Righteous Judge (Deuteronomy 28). But showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and 6 keep My commandments (Exodus 20:6). The responsibility was with Israel to fulfill the Law of Moses. This was a covenant between God and Israel. Those outside of Israel had no part in this covenant. Because the Law is spiritual, imperfect man could not fulfill its requirements in the flesh. Thus, the old covenant failed to produce sons of God.
Then God took away the first covenant, the
ministration of condemnation that He could established the second, which is the ministry of reconciliation of all people on the face of the earth, to Himself in His Son. Though the first covenant came in glory that even the skin of Moses’ face shone, the New Covenant was brought in much greater glory, even in the glory of God’s only begotten Son. It was only appropriate for the Creator and Maintainer of all things to become Redeemer and Restorer of His own creation.
The Father entered into a covenant with His Son, on
behalf of mankind, where He gave Him a people for His own possession. Jesus, for the Father’s sake, had to fulfill all the requirements of the Law and made it honorable and for the people’s sake borne the wrath of God against their transgressions. Then the Father will forgive, once and for all, their transgressions, change their natures by writing His laws in their hearts and sanctify and make them perfect. For them to be partakers of this covenant they have to believe in God and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Then they will be joined to Christ becoming one Spirit with Him and God will place them in the body of His Son. God will call them His people. The relationship between God and man has changed again, by God becoming Father to the believers, and the believers are becoming sons to God. It is not having your own relationship with the Father but sharing Christ’s relationship with the Father. Christ as purchased for you His relation with 7 the Father, and all other relationships and things, through His cross. All things from the flesh are dead to God including your “own fleshly” relationship with Him. What is born of the flesh is flesh and what is born of God is spirit and life. Those outside of Christ have no part in this covenant.
The Son of God fulfilled His part of the covenant on
the cross. Mercy and grace are granted to all that believe and those that will still come to the faith in God and Jesus Christ. This is a covenant of pure mercy and grace. The just shall live by faith. In Christ alone and nobody else is salvation. Christ alone is the way to bring forth many sons to glory. His vision was to see His seed (Isaiah 53:10). When Christ was made manifested in the flesh He revealed to the redeemed God as Father and in power was also demonstrating sonship by being God’s Son.
Christ has fulfilled His side of the covenant 2 000
years ago. As the covenant stands now, it is a one- sided covenant of pure grace and nothing else but grace. In terms of the New Covenant made in the blood of God’s Son the Father is under obligation to keep His side of the covenant of undeserved favor forever. Undeserved favor means grace. Favor manifested to the miserable is known as mercy; favor manifested to the poor is known as pity; favor manifested to the suffering is known as compassion; favor manifested to the obstinate is known as patience, and favor manifested to the unworthy is known as grace!
Christ’s redemption plan is a provision. In a
nutshell, Christ quickened your entire being (spirit, soul and body) to God according to the measure that you have appropriated the resurrected Jesus Christ. He had reconciled all things in Himself to God into the one and only kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. 8 Though Christ completed His work on the cross, you do not yet experience your whole person restored alive to God. What do you experience right now? When you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior you are joined to Him and you become one spirit with Him and God has placed you in the body of His Son. You are now alive in your spirit to God because of Christ’s righteousness in you. Salvation is your spirit made alive to God; the first step of God restoring you to perfection in Christ. However, your body is still mortal, void of perfection of immortality and is corruptible, meaning that it is dead to God because of sin (Romans 8:10). Your soul who is in the blood of your body is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be (Romans 8:7). The soul is part of your fleshly nature because it lives in the blood of your body of death. If you die now your body will turn to dust from which it was taken and your soul will sleep. Your spirit will go to God if your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life. If not, your spirit will depart to hell where you will suffer the torments of hell for all eternity. God’s righteous judgments will have been established and His justice being served as far as you are concerned - whatever your destiny.
Presently, as a born-again believer because your
soul is enmity against God it is still severed from the Vine. The members of your body of death are still the unrighteous slaves of your wicked soul.
Though your spirit is alive to God, restoration
(being made alive to God) will also come to your soul and body at the last trumpet because the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will quicken your mortal body and your soul that dwells in your blood will be made perfect as the light of God will displace all darkness in your wicked heart. We will be alive 9 to God as a whole man when the Spirit of God (Father) dwells in us (Romans 8:9). Christ’s bodily resurrection is the guarantee that we will be bodily clothed with immortality and incorruption and that our soul that lives in our blood will be made perfect. Then the groaning in our spirit will cease as we will experience total fulfillment in our entire being; we will experience in full measure what is Life, Light and Truth; what Jesus is experiencing right now. The corruptible body of those who died in Christ shall put on incorruptibility and those mortals who are alive when Christ appears will put on immortality. Then it will come to pass as it is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” It means those with glorified bodies will be alive to God in their spirit, soul and body. This is the first resurrection and the partakers thereof will reign with Christ for a thousand years. And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worship the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years (Revelation 20:4-6, emphasis added).
The universe is still divided into the higher realm of
God’s Spirit and the lower realms of the soul (psychic) and the material. Many lords still have dominion over the earth. Those kingdoms are not yet the one and only kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. These lower natural realms are not yet subjected to Christ into the one realm of His glory. 10 We still labor in the sweat of our brow to mainly satisfy the needs and desires of our body of death. The whole creation still groans and labors with birth pangs until now to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Creation will be fully restored into the liberty of the sons of God at the time of Christ’s Jubilee at the end of the age.
The above proves that God’s redemption plan and
restoration plan is not synonymous. Christ’s redemption plan is the provision and His restoration plan is the fulfillment of His promises through faith in God and Jesus Christ. The completion of God’s redemption plan was the setting in motion of His restoration plan.
If Christ’s redemption and restoration plans were
synonymous He would have brought all things into fulfillment when He died and was raised from the dead; it would have been the end of the world. Only the Old Testament saints and those who were Christ’s at His resurrection would have been saved and would have been taken into glory at the time when the graves were opened. The Holy Spirit would not have been poured out and the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ would not have been born. All the nations of the earth with their billions of people would not have been born and the gospel of the kingdom would not have reached the ends of the earth. God’s doing is marked by His wisdom. The manifestation of His kingdom can only come about as the body of Christ reaches into it through faith. When the Son of Man comes shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 8:18).
The restoration plan of Christ reveals another side
of God’s overwhelming love. The lack that we are still experiencing because of unfulfilled promises of restoration reveals another side of God’s overpowering love. God made us to be co-creators 11 in Christ Jesus that through a flow of hope and faith we may with Him restore all things. Firstly, we need to learn to trust Him that He will finish the work that He has started in us and creation; that He will bring to pass what He has promised. He could have restored the universe without our faith. But how does He restore our relationship with Him without involving our faith, without making us robots, which is not His image and likeness? A relationship comes from two sides. He will not restore creation that was under Adam’s domain without us. He is using our faith, hope and love to restore all things of which our relationship with Him eclipses in glory all other things put together. He will not restore anything apart from our relationship with Him.
One can only relate to God through faith, hope and
love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Thoughts, attitudes, words and deeds void of faith are sin. Without visions of hope people perish. Thoughts, attitudes, words and deeds without love counts for nothing even if you give your body up to be burned for Christ’s sake.
Our hope in Christ is that we will be alive to God, in
spirit (already alive if we are born-again), soul and body when the Spirit of Him (Father) who raised Jesus from the dead will quicken our mortal body (Romans 8:11). To be alive to God as a whole man is to experience what Jesus presently experience as the risen Son of God exalted to God’s right hand. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.