CAN WE DISASSOCIATE A MECHANISM OF SALVATION FROM THE ACTIVITY OF LOVE? [1735a]

Perhaps a strange title but maybe one which strikes at the heart of the salvation action itself? It appears that Jesus endured much suffering of internal conflict, the conflict of good versus evil within His own body, as those two elements fought within Him for survival, for dominance, with the good emerging victorious and the bad being defeated to the extent that death lost its power over the human creation, and He emerged complete in righteousness, now devoid of “flesh” and clothed in the physicality of divine glory.

So the plain ‘nuts and bolts’ of redemption amount to the giving and reception of the now returned living Spirit of Christ to us; “He became a life giving Spirit”.

But Jesus was in the form of the nature of God, which is LOVE. Everything that he was and did was to serve LOVE, and that love was towards mankind. So the suffering which He endured was as the nature of love on the one side, battling against, in opposition to, that nature that was NOT of love, on the other side. His love and righteousness overcame all that was not inherently righteous within Him (“flesh”), amongst the suffering in Him which this action of love versus non love, created. Good versus evil.

If we were to consider there being such a thing as a divine conscience, then love towards man would endure the suffering which man created, both for man himself as well as in Jesus body also. But love could be grieved and saddened simply by the issues of undeserved destiny which had befallen man, and although the subsequent gospel was to relieve man of that burden, it remained that the suffering caused by sin, existed because of the futility of the circumstances into which all men are thrust, and caused to experience.

We know that the nature of that suffering was similar to that which we have also known, caused by estrangement from God, from His love, concern, and facility of relieving that suffering by knowledge of His love for us. Jesus suffered estrangement from God His Father, on the cross calling Him only “God” and NOT “Father”. He endured the stress that we experience, and probably all the elements of depression and anxiety as He battled internally with the corrupted elements of man’s thinking, the internal “evil imagination” that this corruption had set up within the nature of all mankind. ALL were “of flesh”, even, and especially, Jesus Christ, He who had now “come in the flesh”.

When a parent sees their child going through mental stress, through anxiety and possibly depression; or when a parent sees their child in pain of any kind, there exists a stress which longs to bring relief to the situation, that the child might have that pain removed from them, that such is the nature of love that the parent would rather take the suffering upon themselves than experience the suffering of seeing their child go through it, would rather experience the pain themselves than see their child suffer it. And in this very process and situation, they DO experience that same pain, in the form of anguish for them.

So God Himself must feel this way towards His created children, and especially so for His only begotten one. And His only begotten was to take this burden of sin upon Himself, was to feel the pain that love feels for a lost child, was to experience it within himself by assuming the position and place of one such lost child within Himself, was to experience that place of being lost and alone and lonely, while at the same time having to find adequate righteousness within this situation which was the culmination of natural creation, to rid it of its deathly inevitability.

How could the bringing into being of such a fallen creation be justified? What elements were involved in such a struggle of reconciliation to bring good and evil together in a way which would result in ultimate peace? What such great suffering could bring about the non recognition of God, as His Father of love, and relegate Him only to the remoteness and separation of distantly calling Him “God”? And feeling so “forsaken” that He recognised only His ABANDONMENT.

“Love hurts” when the object of that love is experiencing suffering, until the elements causing that suffering are removed. The suffering which Jesus found within Himself as being a reflection of man’s lost condition, was equally met by the suffering of being IN that condition, He being “of” flesh, just as we, yet also being of the spiritual divine nature. And so His internal conflict continued until the elements of love and non love were melted and fused into the final product of the victorious culmination of it all, and corruption was no more, only righteousness remained; eternity was secure, once more the name “Father” was on His lips as he progressed to immortality, albeit on the other side of death.

So the “mechanism’ of the cross, of salvation, can be set out in logical form, but the COST of it, who can explain? Who can explain the nature of LOVE? – WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT? [or should we simply experience it?]

So should we really attempt to explain the cross as a MECHANISM? Or should it only be referred to in terms that attempt to describe how the action of LOVE, in bearing upon the nature of the suffering caused by sin and death, also bears that suffering within itself? The answer to that question, I must leave for another time.

CAN WE DISASSOCIATE A MECHANISM OF SALVATION FROM THE ACTIVITY OF LOVE? [1735]

Perhaps a strange title but maybe one which strikes at the heart of the salvation action itself? It appears that Jesus endured much suffering of internal conflict, the conflict of good versus evil within His own body, as those two elements fought within Him for survival, for dominance, with the good emerging victorious and the bad being defeated to the extent that death lost its power over the human creation, and He emerged complete in righteousness, now devoid of “flesh” and clothed in the physicality of divine glory.

So the plain ‘nuts and bolts’ of redemption amount to the giving and reception of the now returned living Spirit of Christ to us; “He became a life giving Spirit”.

But Jesus was in the form of the nature of God, which is LOVE. Everything that he was and did was to serve LOVE, and that love was towards mankind. So the suffering which He endured was as the nature of love on the one side, battling against, in opposition to, that nature that was NOT of love, on the other side. His love and righteousness overcame all that was not inherently righteous within Him (“flesh”), amongst the suffering in Him which this action of love versus non love, created. Good versus evil.

If we were to consider there being such a thing as a divine conscience, then love towards man would endure the suffering which man created, both for man himself as well as in Jesus body also. But love could be grieved and saddened simply by the issues of undeserved destiny which had befallen man, and although the subsequent gospel was to relieve man of that burden, it remained that the suffering caused by sin, existed because of the futility of the circumstances into which all men are thrust, and caused to experience.

We know that the nature of that suffering was similar to that which we have also known, caused by estrangement from God, from His love, concern, and facility of relieving that suffering by knowledge of His love for us. Jesus suffered estrangement from God His Father, on the cross calling Him only “God” and NOT “Father”. He endured the stress that we experience, and probably all the elements of depression and anxiety as He battled internally with the corrupted elements of man’s thinking, the internal “evil imagination” that this corruption had set up within the nature of all mankind. ALL were “of flesh”, even, and especially, Jesus Christ, He who had now “come in the flesh”.

When a parent sees their child going through mental stress, through anxiety and possibly depression; or when a parent sees their child in pain of any kind, there exists a stress which longs to bring relief to the situation, that the child might have that pain removed from them, that such is the nature of love that the parent would rather take the suffering upon themselves than experience the suffering of seeing their child go through it, would rather experience the pain themselves than see their child suffer it. And in this very process and situation, they DO experience that same pain, in the form of anguish for them.

So God Himself must feel this way towards His created children, and especially so for His only begotten one. And His only begotten was to take this burden of sin upon Himself, was to feel the pain that love feels for a lost child, was to experience it within himself by assuming the position and place of one such lost child within Himself, was to experience that place of being lost and alone and lonely, while at the same time having to find adequate righteousness within this situation which was the culmination of natural creation, to rid it of its deathly inevitability.

How could the bringing into being of such a fallen creation be justified? What elements were involved in such a struggle of reconciliation to bring good and evil together in a way which would result in ultimate peace? What such great suffering could bring about the non recognition of God, as His Father of love, and relegate Him only to the remoteness and separation of distantly calling Him “God”? And feeling so “forsaken” that He recognised only His ABANDONMENT.

“Love hurts” when the object of that love is experiencing suffering, until the elements causing that suffering are removed. The suffering which Jesus found within Himself as being a reflection of man’s lost condition, was equally met by the suffering of being IN that condition, He being “of” flesh, just as we, yet also being of the spiritual divine nature. And so His internal conflict continued until the elements of love and non love were melted and fused into the final product of the victorious culmination of it all, and corruption was no more, only righteousness remained; eternity was secure, once more the name “Father” was on His lips as he progressed to immortality, albeit on the other side of death.

So the “mechanism’ of the cross, of salvation, can be set out in logical form, but the COST of it, who can explain? Who can explain the nature of LOVE? – WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT? [or should we simply experience it?]

So should we really attempt to explain the cross as a MECHANISM? Or should it only be referred to in terms that attempt to describe how the action of LOVE, in bearing upon the nature of the suffering caused by sin and death, also bears that suffering within itself? The answer to that question, I must leave for another time.

LOVE IS THE PERFECT SACRIFICE [1494a]

Love bears all, loves accepts all, love is the perfect sacrifice to absorb the wrong doings and wrong beings of others.

Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

It is the one who loves me who will do as I require of him, which is, to love.

[Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. This is your true and proper worship] Rom 12:1 [Love forgives all ] [And see 1 Cor.13]

LOVE IS THE PERFECT SACRIFICE [1494]

Love bears all, loves accepts all, love is the perfect sacrifice to absorb the wrong doings and wrong beings of others.

Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

It is the one who loves me who will do as I require of him, which is, to love.

[Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. This is your true and proper worship] Rom 12:1 [Love forgives all ] [And see 1 Cor.13]

LOVE KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS [1286a]

Forgiveness is not just always available, it is the immediate reality of God, because He IS LOVE. Love cannot help itself, it [God] HAS to forgive, this is its [HIS] nature.

So the “atonement” never had to reconcile our sinning with God’s holiness, because He was always there to reveal to us that He keeps no records of wrongs, and that we always have had the opportunity to stop behaving unrighteously and to start behaving righteously.

The cross was this very revelation to us, that we might be able to understand Him and His love, and the fact that HE had to bring this message down to us in such a way as to cause His Son the pain of embracing our humanity and overcoming it Himself; just proves the case of our release by cleaving to Him as the one who released us BY OPENING THE EYES OF OUR HEARTS to bring us this understanding so that we might gain His Spirit of life, and by it, also join in His overcoming with Him.

Because love overcame in Him, it can also overcome in us: And it is not a matter of overcoming perfectly in that kind of sense, because we can never consider ourselves as perfect: But that by being in Him and of His Spirit, we are able to “perfectly” deal with that which He presents to us to deal with. And any and all imperfections have had their power to condemn us, removed.

By His Spirit we can “operate” in righteousness and be righteous as He is righteous. Why the cross? There was no other way to communicate life to us. He had to be the perfector of our faith because we could not; And His bodily resurrection and then the pouring out of His Spirit and the power it revealed was necessary to convince us of the need to change, to be changed. There was no other way to define love and then impart that information to us.

We had to be so effected by this that our heart would be impacted so as to cause us to want to accept Him and His salvation, to accept truth and love as being all that matters, sufficiently so as to cause a total change in the reason and motivation for our lives. There is really no way of proving that there was any sense of “our sin” being conveyed “into” Him so that He “bore” it in this way. Yes His love would have suffered the impact of us being estranged from Him, there is that about it; and it is the very nature of love that was suffering in His bodily anguish as He grappled with the sin nature we and He were of.

But the only other “laying our sins on Him” that occurred was only by the fact of Him being of the same human nature as ourselves, and He “bore our sin” by being the one true example of human nature that could possibly be perfected and then immortalised and resurrected. So it was the fact that He wore OUR mortal nature that He had to overcome, that was in effect the “bearing of OUR sin”. “One died for all, therefore all died”. And, “He tasted death for every man”. Of course, everything that either died or WAS to die, was of sinful mortal nature, the cross left us with total annihilation of the “first creation”. And that was how it had to be.

The “second creation” was a product of God’s seed by virtue of being a product of Christ’s Spirit, freely given and available to all, because “LOVE [God] keeps no record of wrongs”. The “debt” [accumulation] of sin is gone as we allow it to be gone, as we allow it to be dead with Him, and the new life we gain is by faith in Him. Our sin goes as we allow it to go. ‘As they went, they were healed”. As we come to Him, our sins are forgiven and removed from us, even as they already have been so removed. So let it go.

He has removed sins from His sight, we have to allow them to have been removed, FROM US, not from Him. What He has forgiven [and He has] He has also forgotten, sin and death to Him no longer exist. To Him, only LIFE now exists, that life as obtained through faith in Jesus who pioneered our salvation and presented it to us as fait accompli.

Salvation is brought about by the birth of His love in us, that we also might love as He does, that we might become “participants in the divine nature”.

[“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice”]

LOVE KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS [1286]

Forgiveness is not just always available, it is the immediate reality of God, because He IS LOVE. Love cannot help itself, it [God] HAS to forgive, this is its [HIS] nature.

So the “atonement” never had to reconcile our sinning with God’s holiness, because He was always there to reveal to us that He keeps no records of wrongs, and that we always have had the opportunity to stop behaving unrighteously and to start behaving righteously.

The cross was this very revelation to us, that we might be able to understand Him and His love, and the fact that HE had to bring this message down to us in such a way as to cause His Son the pain of embracing our humanity and overcoming it Himself; just proves the case of our release by cleaving to Him as the one who released us BY OPENING THE EYES OF OUR HEARTS to bring us this understanding so that we might gain His Spirit of life, and by it, also join in His overcoming with Him.

Because love overcame in Him, it can also overcome in us: And it is not a matter of overcoming perfectly in that kind of sense, because we can never consider ourselves as perfect: But that by being in Him and of His Spirit, we are able to “perfectly” deal with that which He presents to us to deal with. And any and all imperfections have had their power to condemn us, removed.

By His Spirit we can “operate” in righteousness and be righteous as He is righteous. Why the cross? There was no other way to communicate life to us. He had to be the perfector of our faith because we could not; And His bodily resurrection and then the pouring out of His Spirit and the power it revealed was necessary to convince us of the need to change, to be changed. There was no other way to define love and then impart that information to us.

We had to be so effected by this that our heart would be impacted so as to cause us to want to accept Him and His salvation, to accept truth and love as being all that matters, sufficiently so as to cause a total change in the reason and motivation for our lives. There is really no way of proving that there was any sense of “our sin” being conveyed “into” Him so that He “bore” it in this way. Yes His love would have suffered the impact of us being estranged from Him, there is that about it; and it is the very nature of love that was suffering in His bodily anguish as He grappled with the sin nature we and He were of.

But the only other “laying our sins on Him” that occurred was only by the fact of Him being of the same human nature as ourselves, and He “bore our sin” by being the one true example of human nature that could possibly be perfected and then immortalised and resurrected. So it was the fact that He wore OUR mortal nature that He had to overcome, that was in effect the “bearing of OUR sin”. “One died for all, therefore all died”. And, “He tasted death for every man”. Of course, everything that either died or WAS to die, was of sinful mortal nature, the cross left us with total annihilation of the “first creation”. And that was how it had to be.

The “second creation” was a product of God’s seed by virtue of being a product of Christ’s Spirit, freely given and available to all, because “LOVE [God] keeps no record of wrongs”. The “debt” [accumulation] of sin is gone as we allow it to be gone, as we allow it to be dead with Him, and the new life we gain is by faith in Him. Our sin goes as we allow it to go. ‘As they went, they were healed”. As we come to Him, our sins are forgiven and removed from us, even as they already have been so removed. So let it go.

He has removed sins from His sight, we have to allow them to have been removed, FROM US, not from Him. What He has forgiven [and He has] He has also forgotten, sin and death to Him no longer exist. To Him, only LIFE now exists, that life as obtained through faith in Jesus who pioneered our salvation and presented it to us as fait accompli.

Salvation is brought about by the birth of His love in us, that we also might love as He does, that we might become “participants in the divine nature”.

[“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice”]

THE LOSS OF THE ETERNAL PARENT [687d]

Is the problem of inner pain to do with the change from childhood to adulthood? Is independence the clue to our hurting, to do with the shift out of parental guidance? Does leaving our parents involve a similar scenario to leaving the divine guidance? And does this result in the prospect of future death. Is this why death is what holds us in a grip of hopelessness? Fear of death. Especially as we see our parents die.

There may be something intrinsically wrong with us because of the loss of childhood innocence. All of the correction which our parents supplied, for example, may have involved the concept of loving correction, to the point that correction itself then becomes a reflection of the love that drove it.

Do we automatically sense all those points of needed correction and recognise in them that love is guiding us away from our own folly? And do we then get the sense that the vacuum left in the wake of said correction, could be filled with the love that instigated it? And even if that correction from earthly parents was misguided, perhaps it delivers to us the concept of the heavenly parent from whom we are estranged?

Are we, as adults, simply still the child hiding from some sad reality which intrinsically dwells within us all? And is that inner sadness the result of a consciousness of having caused pain to those who loved us?? In this case  we would love to make amends, to say we are sorry, to apologise to those whom we offended. Do we desire love and cannot find it?

The fact that we hurt is an admission that we know what love is, and that we are missing its embrace from our lives. Unless we had bad parents, much of this could stem from our non-reciprocation of that love, or of being aware that love should have been shown when in fact it was not. Is it simply the absence of love that causes such pain, because, knowing it exists and yet not being in possession of it, not being at one with it and at peace in it, provides a vacuum or place within that is filled with a sense of loss.

Every time we acted unlovingly towards others, we left a trail for the future realisation of guilt. Anything of us that was unkind or hurtful to others was going to provide future material for the hurt of guilt to appear. No more so is this going to be the case than if the full nature of love is presented to us plainly. And this is actually the case. Piecemeal via the law (the statement of rights and wrongs) and in large chunks if presented around the gospel message, being the full application of the knowledge of love, all at once.

Hurt being able to be reciprocated, it is not just a case of love for love’s sake, but also a fear that accompanies the knowledge of both love and the knowledge of the non-love in which we have participated. We therefore seek approval because of fear of the unknown, yet we can only frame the reference of anything as it becomes known. Our heart reveals to us the truth of both the known and the unknown, in other words it makes them both known, through our earthly experiences with moral issues.

Yet the heart is concerned only with the issue of the present in terms of what it feels, but what it feels is also governed by the knowledge of past failures, and the guilt that is carried thereby. Sorrow, remorse, sadness and guilt. The gospel spotlights us and our lives, and its light can either permeate and penetrate with its revealing truth, or it can be reflected away or its intensity diluted by the cloud of sin that surrounds us. The gospel carries with it the impact of the immediate moment with its force of penetration of our defences, yet huge resistance is invariably encountered because we fear exposure as much as we fear retribution, the former seemingly being the agent of the latter.

Yet the good and honest heart will be penetrated by this shaft of eternal light, and be forced to admit its crimes against humanity and against itself, this heart that has known both innocence and guilt. The two magnify each other as they stand in opposition, in contradiction of their states of being, and the honesty of their contradicting poles brings crisis to the owner, to the identity of this stricken and afflicted heart, which suddenly assumes almost the full identity of the person concerned. Passion may be a consuming thing, and how could there be more passionate opposites than fear and love? Hate might be thought to be involved, but I feel that hate is simply a derivative of the absence of love and the product of fear, rather than a polar opposite to love itself.

At the root base of our problem then, lies the absence of the feeling of being right within ourselves. That there is a distinct feeling of being wrong, and that death is going to be something intensely connected with the end of our lives, and that the steam train carrying us at intense speed towards this inevitable situation is going to terminate at the end of the line with a catastrophic crash which will reveal to all the full content of our guilt, and attract a full measure of “wrath” to our account. While all the time knowing there is love, a place of complete safety and comfort, and that we are not a part of it; leaves us feeling vulnerable.

But the knowledge of love itself is sufficient to draw us to it and to its known source in a manner which confronts the “other elements” of non love and demands their demise. The gospel provides both the source of love and the demise of non love, just waiting for the open heart to absorb it. The desire for love then, is the discriminator of sheep and goats. The message of release from the power of non love and all it has created in our lives; into the arms of love, of the eternal lover, is the catalyst that enables a sweeping change to occur within that open heart.

Meditation then, on the guilt from which we are relieved, and what that really means to us, is beneficial to our inner change from death to life. “As you come to Him…” Confession of this guilt and thankfulness for its relief, and praise for the one who has so relieved us from our inner death, should result.

Reconciliation with God should be considered as something of great depth which cleanses us to the point of full confidence in Him and therefore before him. Our release from death should be contemplated and confessed, along with meditation on the resultant life, a life of love. Jesus took away our guilt and shame, it only now being shameful to ignore him and what he has done for us. Proclaim him with your life.

And what of Adam? The lie is that God is not a God of love and does not love us. The truth is that he IS a God of love and DOES love us. His only son DIED for us, so great was this love for us. This great love has suffered to free us from the condemnation of our inner selves, that we might live and live in a new way far removed from the old. The difference between an earthly life and a heavenly one. Be filled with the Spirit.

Does love have a future? Does hate (non-love) have a past? Present peace, present love, depends on the future hope of the permanent nature of love, as it establishes itself now, in preparation for the future. The past has been forgiven, so don’t bring the past into either the present or the future. Certainly feel sorrow over the past, but then extract yourself from it and dwell in a present which is of a past that has been forgiven, even forgotten, it is no more. Rejoice that His death means that ours has been removed, so that His love can fill our hearts to overflowing, that we might reveal Him also to others.

The knowledge of good and evil took a heavy toll on humanity. The ‘good’ only condemned them for their evil, so they had to hide from it. They could never again come to the ‘good’ until there was a solution to their evil, because to approach the light was to be exposed as evil. Only in being able to approach a special kind of light that both exposed the evil and destroyed it by its goodness at the same time, would they be able to respond to it. And only as the light revealed itself as the source of life itself, would they be drawn to the eternal flame, for the burning away of their evil, and the renewal of their own light.

Love (He) longs to love us, as we long to be loved by it (Him). Let your heart be cleansed by faith. (In Him). Our hearts have experienced the existence of good and evil within themselves. It is time to say goodbye to the cause of the evils of all things and to take up the cause of the good. It is time to give up the distress of our former lives and to embrace the peace of the new one, knowing that He has paid the terrible cost of it in His own body on our behalf.

Appreciating the fullness of the cross may take a lifetime. Parental guidance may have avoided various problems, but the loss of their guidance and in the vacuum of the eternal parent and His guidance it meant the establishment of our OWN guidance, and that was our downfall. Our ego substituted itself for his righteous guidance and our problems multiplied and compounded. “Without me you can do nothing”, well, nothing good anyway.

THE OLD MAN IS DEAD BUT HE WON’T LIE DOWN [1263a]

Critical teaching of the victory of a Christian over sin, concerns this issue. Many teach around this subject but never seem to pin down how the absoluteness of it all works. The teaching is that “the old man is dead”.

Now our “old man” was not put to death in a way that denies the use of our will in the matter, anymore than that Jesus literally removed our sin from us. And yet it WAS.

The cross was the revelation to us of life and death, it was a warning as to what will happen to us if we do not heed the message and change our ways. It shows the end of this body of flesh and blood, regardless of whether we believe or not.

The cross is meant to polarise us away from fear and into love. Away from the fear of death and into the love of God as evidenced by the sacrifice of His son on our behalf. To drive us from the fear of death into the arms of love.

If we do not heed the message of the cross then our lives will end in the same way, when our physical life ends, so will we, because we have allowed our identity to remain in “this body of death”.

The message of the cross is to show that if we rise above the physical, if we cleave to the spiritual and allow the “creation” within us of a new person based on the Spirit of God through the Spirit of Christ, then there will be produced, either from the old or from the new, a new body which lasts forever.

Death is inevitable, but it does not have to be permanent*.

ON THE CROSS WE WERE ALL PUT TO DEATH. Just like the flood, it is the destiny of all flesh.

THE POWER OF THE OLD MAN IS GONE BECAUSE HE HAS ALREADY BEEN KILLED ON THE CROSS, WHICH IS A DEMONSTRATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT ON SIN, WHICH CHRISTIANS HAVE TO ACCEPT. When they do, they have passed from death to life.

The cross is a sneak look at the end of all flesh. THE OLD MAN IS DEAD BECAUSE THIS IS TO BE HIS END. God calls things to be which have not yet come to pass. The old creation has been judged and found wanting, and has ALREADY been declared to be dead.

WE DIED WITH HIM, not because ‘we put our flesh to death’ but because HE DECLARED US DEAD WITH HIM. This body of sin has been declared dead and we better get out of it before it takes us down with it.

The way we do this is by recognising that in Jesus, God has provided the way out, not by putting down sin or flesh by ourselves, but by recognising that He is allowing us to leave this state of death and instead, to cleave to His state of life.

When we were under the power of sin we had no choice, no free will because we were captives of our sin environment. He has now given us the choice  to leave the sin/death state and connect with Himself, His Spirit, which is the outcome of HIS victory, of HIS overcoming on our behalf.

HE “tasted death for every man”. HE bore in His own body the consequences and outcome of being of flesh, [and overcame them] because WE had not the resources to do so. Now He gives us HIS resource, being HIS OWN SPIRIT OF LIFE as a GIFT to us to be taken freely by an appreciative heart. “That they might understand WITH THEIR HEART, and turn, and I will HEAL them”.

The OLD MAN is ALREADY pronounced dead and is doomed to wear the outcome, is doomed to death. That which is to LIVE is the NEW man, the new creation which is the man in Christ. This new man is built up as the fruits of the Spirit work their magic in the one born again in Him, having also died in Him as a willing acknowledgment of the death that we deserved having been experienced by Him in His body so we don’t have to experience it any longer in ours. [we can now experience life in this body].

The reality of the old creation being dead is seen by the fact that something dead can die no more, has no need to die further, because death is death**. The reality of the old creation being already dead, IS THE SAME REALITY OF THE OLD MAN BEING ALREADY DEAD. Remain in the dead old man and experience his death, or live in the new man and experience His life.

It was necessary for Jesus to come and reveal the truth of life and death to us, so we could choose His life, which is LOVE.

*[“He who believes in me will never die, he will never see death”.]**[The “second death” is where our ‘first death’ finally catches up with us, with its eternal consequences][The cross is the crisis of the heart][Jesus ’caused his old man to die on the cross’ by killing (healing) him with his love][It is the power of his love which also ‘puts to death’ the old man in us, as our will submits to His].

THE OLD MAN IS DEAD BUT HE WON’T LIE DOWN [1263]

Critical teaching of the victory of a Christian over sin, concerns this issue. Many teach around this subject but never seem to pin down how the absoluteness of it all works. The teaching is that “the old man is dead”.

Now our “old man” was not put to death in a way that denies the use of our will in the matter, anymore than that Jesus literally removed our sin from us. And yet it WAS.

The cross was the revelation to us of life and death, it was a warning as to what will happen to us if we do not heed the message and change our ways. It shows the end of this body of flesh and blood, regardless of whether we believe or not.

The cross is meant to polarise us away from fear and into love. Away from the fear of death and into the love of God as evidenced by the sacrifice of His son on our behalf. To drive us from the fear of death into the arms of love.

If we do not heed the message of the cross then our lives will end in the same way, when our physical life ends, so will we, because we have allowed our identity to remain in “this body of death”.

The message of the cross is to show that if we rise above the physical, if we cleave to the spiritual and allow the “creation” within us of a new person based on the Spirit of God through the Spirit of Christ, then there will be produced, either from the old or from the new, a new body which lasts forever.

Death is inevitable, but it does not have to be permanent*.

ON THE CROSS WE WERE ALL PUT TO DEATH. Just like the flood, it is the destiny of all flesh.

THE POWER OF THE OLD MAN IS GONE BECAUSE HE HAS ALREADY BEEN KILLED ON THE CROSS, WHICH IS A DEMONSTRATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT ON SIN, WHICH CHRISTIANS HAVE TO ACCEPT. When they do, they have passed from death to life.

The cross is a sneak look at the end of all flesh. THE OLD MAN IS DEAD BECAUSE THIS IS TO BE HIS END. God calls things to be which have not yet come to pass. The old creation has been judged and found wanting, and has ALREADY been declared to be dead.

WE DIED WITH HIM, not because ‘we put our flesh to death’ but because HE DECLARED US DEAD WITH HIM. This body of sin has been declared dead and we better get out of it before it takes us down with it.

The way we do this is by recognising that in Jesus, God has provided the way out, not by putting down sin or flesh by ourselves, but by recognising that He is allowing us to leave this state of death and instead, to cleave to His state of life.

When we were under the power of sin we had no choice, no free will because we were captives of our sin environment. He has now given us the choice  to leave the sin/death state and connect with Himself, His Spirit, which is the outcome of HIS victory, of HIS overcoming on our behalf.

HE “tasted death for every man”. HE bore in His own body the consequences and outcome of being of flesh, [and overcame them] because WE had not the resources to do so. Now He gives us HIS resource, being HIS OWN SPIRIT OF LIFE as a GIFT to us to be taken freely by an appreciative heart. “That they might understand WITH THEIR HEART, and turn, and I will HEAL them”.

The OLD MAN is ALREADY pronounced dead and is doomed to wear the outcome, is doomed to death. That which is to LIVE is the NEW man, the new creation which is the man in Christ. This new man is built up as the fruits of the Spirit work their magic in the one born again in Him, having also died in Him as a willing acknowledgment of the death that we deserved having been experienced by Him in His body so we don’t have to experience it any longer in ours. [we can now experience life in this body].

The reality of the old creation being dead is seen by the fact that something dead can die no more, has no need to die further, because death is death**. The reality of the old creation being already dead, IS THE SAME REALITY OF THE OLD MAN BEING ALREADY DEAD. Remain in the dead old man and experience his death, or live in the new man and experience His life.

It was necessary for Jesus to come and reveal the truth of life and death to us, so we could choose His life, which is LOVE.

*[“He who believes in me will never die, he will never see death”.]**[The “second death” is where our ‘first death’ finally catches up with us, with its eternal consequences][The cross is the crisis of the heart][Jesus ’caused his old man to die on the cross’ by killing (healing) him with his love][It is the power of his love which also ‘puts to death’ the old man in us, as our will submits to His].

OUR SIN IS FORGIVEN ON THE BASIS OF HIS LOVE [1227a]

So what happens to sin? Since sin is forgiven IN THE ACTION OF  the cross, of the “God-head” suffering, it is the suffering that our sin causes that is His suffering also, and it is this suffering we see on the cross as He prepares the healing Spirit, the Spirit of healing, which then comes to us to heal us in return.

This healing action being performed on the cross was open for all to see and perceive. It “attacked” our senses and relayed to us the intensity of love that was behind this action that He submitted to and then performed, and only He could do it because the Creator was behind it, and in it, and was it.

So the reality was that sin had registered and been dealt with at the highest of levels. Sin* outworked in Jesus body so that love could confront it and destroy it, change it and heal it in one action by the power of loving righteousness that He is.

This was His forgiveness of us, of humanity, but then at an individual level, of us as individuals also. This was the action of forgiveness, was the “work” that love does to heal and restore, to separate sin(flesh) from spirit and then by Spirit to combine them so as to overcome, overpower the unrighteousness of sin with righteousness.

It is as we personally accept His forgiveness encompassed in the suffering of His cross, that we enter into our own suffering, revisiting our past thoughts and actions and facing up to the painful realities in which we have been involved, and which he has now forgiven and wiped out by His love for us. It is “as we come to Him” that we are healed and restored, His life and His Spirit now permeates us and deals with the death we have built up over the years.

So forgiveness of our sins was costly, and only He could do it because only He was the power and authority behind all things, being the creator Himself, being LOVE Himself. It takes a purity of love to do all this, and He now passes that purity of love on to us, puts it IN us in the person, persona, of His “begotten” Son. The Spirit of overcoming life that HE is, the victorious  and all conquering Spirit, comes to live in us as “Pentecost” takes place within us by faith in Him, His life and death for us, and now His returned self to duplicate that victory, by faith, even as we continue in our own bodies and learn to subject them to His victory also.

Do not let sin reign in your mortal body. You are not in the flesh if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you; the body that is dead because of sin will be enlivened,  because the power that raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies by that same Spirit that dwells in you.

*[“sin in the flesh”][Rom Ch. 6 and 8.][Empathy]