Monthly Archives: November 2020

THE COSMIC CHRIST

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THE COSMIC CHRIST

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In Him and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory (Eph. 3: 10-13).

God’s plan, it seems, is even bigger than bringing Jew and Gentile together under the Lordship of Christ, as powerful as that is. Through the church, that is, Jew and Gentile bonded together as a new family under the headship of Jesus, God will reveal His many-coloured or variegated wisdom to the powers and authorities that have defied and opposed Him since the rebellion of Satan at the beginning of creation.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan lied to the woman and lured the first pair into blatant rebellion and disobedience by calling in question the character of God. Through this one act of defiance, the entire human race was barred from enjoying the presence of God, from access to Him as their Father, and from experiencing the blessings of fellowship with Him and receiving His favour as His children.

Through His life, death and resurrection, Jesus took the punishment for man’s rebellion, reversed the curse of sin on the human race and reinstated all those who believe in Him as children of God, with the right of access to the Father restored. With the penalty of sin removed and the threat of punishment no longer hanging over us, we have the freedom and confidence to approach the Father because He has stretched out the golden sceptre to receive us.

Why do we call Jesus “the cosmic Christ”? He is not just an insignificant Jewish deity but the Son of the living God, the Creator of the ends of the earth and the sustainer of all things. Satan deceived the representatives of humankind, in full view and with the support of the rebellious angels and lured them into believing his lie. Paul called them “rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms”. They are the powerful and influential spirit beings who have led the whole world astray.

God has chosen, through the church – which is the body of Christ and the visible evidence of the wisdom and power of God – to vindicate His name by justifying and reinstating His children to sonship through the death of His Son. Satan believed that, by manipulating the religious and political powers to kill His Son, he would get rid of the one person who could expose him and bring about his downfall. Fool that he was, he did not understand that he had played right into God’s hands!

By getting Jesus killed for no sin of His own, Satan proved that he was the liar, not God, and sealed his own doom and the doom of all those who side with him, both human and angelic. He insinuated to Eve that God was lying when He said they would die if they disobeyed His instruction. The devil promised them god-like knowledge of good and evil. He suggested that they could call the shots and get away with it. They did not need to submit to God’s authority. They could set up their own, not realising that Satan’s ploy was to get them to submit to his authority until it was too late.

Paul wrote to the church at Rome about the eager expectation of the cosmos, waiting for God to pull back the curtain and reveal, once and for all, His masterpiece, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, sons and daughters of God who have been redeemed and perfected through the sacrifice of His Son. In that instant, the effects of the death of Jesus will be felt in the entire universe. God will restore everything to its original perfection that was disrupted by sin. The revelation of God’s sons and daughters will trigger this cosmic event.

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creations was subject to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Rom. 8: 19-21).

Yes, Jesus is indeed the cosmic Christ – redeeming and restoring all of creation from the devil’s grasp and influence to reset God plan to His original intention, the entire universe of animate and inanimate creation functioning together in perfect unity and harmony to reveal, once and for all to the rebellious angelic hosts that God is one, and that He is in fact, in charge. Satan and his minions will be banished and destroyed in the place prepared for them and we shall reign with Jesus forever and ever.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

ADMINISTRATOR OF THE MYSTERY

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ADMINISTRATOR OF THE MYSTERY

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of His power. Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery which for ages past was kept hidden in God who created all things (Eph. 3: 7-9).

How easy it would be to get lost in Paul’s long sentences and profound declarations. To understand what he was saying, we must go back to the basics of the gospel.

The mystery he was exposing was the simple fact that God’s intention was always to include the whole world in His offer of mercy. He began with the nation of Israel because He was preparing them to receive the Messiah through whom Hiss mercy would reach the world.

It was never God’s intention to exclude those who did not belong to Israel. He wanted His people to remain separate from the pagan nations so that He could nurture them in His ways. When He sent His Son into the world, He wanted His people to understand sin, sacrifice, covenant, mercy and grace through the types and shadows of the Old Covenant so that they would recognise Him and receive Him as their Messiah.

As Paul has already explained, the death of Jesus opened the door for the Gentiles to be reconciled to God and to be united with the Jews into one family of believers, with no barriers of colour, culture or language to separate them. Faith in Jesus as Lord overrode all other loyalties and created a new race of people who were citizens of God’s heavenly kingdom.

Paul saw himself as a custodian of this good news. While the other apostles took the message of Jesus to their own people, God assigned the task of preaching to the Gentiles to Paul. It was a costly commission. Paul suffered persecution at the hands of Jews and Gentiles but there was no price too high for obedience. Not only did he carry the message of Jesus to the Roman world at the risk of his life, but he also made it plain in his letters to the churches. Without these, we would still flounder in our understanding of the purpose and ramifications of the cross.

On the strength of His identity as the Son of God and in full view of the disgusting worship of the pagans at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus entrusted the responsibility of interpreting His yoke – His interpretation and application of the Torah (in which is the seed truths of the whole Bible)  to His disciples (Matt. 1619). Under the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they would understand and explain the implications of His death to the people of the world. They would invite both Jew and Gentile into fellowship with the Father because of the forgiveness of sins He provided through the sacrifice of His Son.

Paul was well aware that his part in this commission was an act of God’s grace. Before he met Jesus on the Damascus road, he was an ardent supporter of Judaism, going as far as trying to eradicate the message of Jesus by eliminating His followers. It took a personal encounter with the risen Christ to change his mind and set his feet on this way – the way of Jesus to the Father.

He could do no other but obey this call and go to the ends of the earth with the message of grace that had rescued him from his fanatical unbelief, no matter how high the price because nothing could substitute for the mercy he had received in Christ Jesus. Not only had he received grace, but he had also been given the task of administering this grace to whoever would receive it regardless of who they were. Grace was God free gift to everyone through Christ. Paul wanted the whole world to know that the God who had extended grace to him would respond in mercy to anyone who would recognise and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

This confession, based on the conviction that Jesus is Lord – not some god of human imagination or the devil masquerading as God, is the door that opens the floodgates of God’s favour and blessing to whoever will receive Him. From a human perspective, all these words and promises don’t seem like much, but to those who have received Him and live in the glow of God’s love and favour, the difference that faith in Jesus makes is remarkable.

Jesus had given His followers the legacy of His love, His joy and His peace – priceless gifts in a world of uncertainty, insecurity and fear. In the midst of a collapsing world economy, a corrupt and evil society and crumbling relationships, He is the solid rock on which those who trust in Him stand. He backs His promises with His incorruptible and unchanging character. When the chips are down, He secures those who trust in Him with His strong right hand.

He did not promise His followers a trouble-free life, unending good health or a limitless supply of money. Unfortunately, some have lured desperate people into faith in Jesus for the wrong reasons. Being disciples is of far greater value – His unconditional love and His permanent presence and, with Him around, we cannot lose.

Keep free from the love of many and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Heb. 13: 5-6)

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST REVEALED

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THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST REVEALED

For this reason, I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles – Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that, through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus  (Eph. 3: 1-6).

The secret is out! The Gentiles, who thought they were excluded, are in on God’s master plan to bless the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike, with the spiritual blessings Paul declared in the opening paragraphs of his letter. The children of Israel were the initial recipients of God’s magnificent array of benefits – if they had only understood and co-operated with God to receive the favour He promised them. However, they were only the prototype of what God had planned for the whole world.

Israel was the nation God chose to coach to walk in His ways as a visual aid for the rest of the world, so that all the nations would understand what God had for them and what He wanted from them.

God entrusted to Paul and to his fellow apostles His plan to open the door of faith to the whole world. He placed in Paul’s spirit, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, the understanding of this “mystery” – not something too difficult to understand but something hidden from human beings until the moment He made the truth known to His apostles. He entrusted to them the task of administering His grace to the previously excluded peoples so that they would have an equal share in everything He has promised to the Jews.

However, the Jews would have none of it. They believed that the covenant and the promises belonged to them, and to them alone. They hated and despised the Gentiles, believing that God’s prohibition to mix with them had to do with their worth as human beings. They failed to understand that the evil influence the pagan beliefs and practices had on His people was what God hated. After all they had suffered as a people because of their idolatry, they wanted nothing to do with Gentiles. They treated them as scum and called them “dogs”.

Paul and his fellow apostles suffered greatly at the hands of the Jews because they refused to participate in their prejudice. Jesus had given them a commission to take His message to the whole world. They were committed to go to the ends of the earth regardless of the way they were treated. The gospel of God’s grace was the dividing line which cut across all the divisions of race, colour, language and culture and created a new culture and a new race of people whose citizenship was not primarily in this world.

It was Paul’s task to administer this message and the grace God offered to those who received it, regardless of their human condition. It was a sacred commission from the throne room of heaven. Paul accepted and carried out the commission with integrity and commitment to his dying day, not counting his life worth anything unless he obeyed his Master.

Imagine the joy of those who had previously believed that they were excluded from the benefits of the bond that God had created between Himself and His chosen people. The Jews were the privileged ones, and everyone else was regarded as trash – until Paul came to them with the good news that they, too, had equal shares with the Jews in the favour of God. God’s mysterious ways had become clear. He was not mad with the Gentiles, consigning them to hell, as they once believed. It was His plan, all along, to pour out His grace on them through the Jews who were the recipients and custodians of His covenant.

There are many references to God’s plan for the Gentiles in the Old Testament which His people could have understood, had they chosen to believe the prophecies. God did not hate them. Yes, He hated their practices but, through the cross, He also forgave their sin and gave them an opportunity to turn from their wickedness and put their trust in the Son of God.

What Paul had to share with the people of Asia Minor and Europe, regardless of their nationality and religious affiliation, was truly good news. God had given them the opportunity to turn away from the sins that tore their lives apart, to start again with a new life which He created within them, to bring them back from spiritual death to life and to set their feet on a path of obedience to God and His Word.

Through Christ, God had made a new race out of Jew and Gentile, belonging to His kingdom, under His authority and participators in His nature. All God’s promises were theirs as well. They had the hope of eternal life with those of the Jewish people who believed in and received Jesus as their Messiah. This was truly good news.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

THE NEW TEMPLE

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THE NEW TEMPLE

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit (Eph. 2: 19-22).

What a magnificent declaration! God’s temple rebuilt but not with stone and mortar. God had His blueprint for a holy temple from the beginning, a temple of flesh and blood, built of the living stones, His people who are indwelt by His Spirit and built together to form a permanent dwelling and house of worship for His Spirit.

Peter also captured this vision in his first letter:

As you come to Him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2: 4-5).

The idea is not so much that we are being fashioned together to form a building – a house or a temple – but rather a household, God’s family of sons and daughters, brought together in unity through the forgiveness of our sins that Jesus purchased for us by His own blood. God eradicated the terrible hostility between Jew and Gentile by giving His Son as a sacrifice for us. With the reason for the enmity gone, He has brought us together to become one family, with a new home, a new name and the promise of an inheritance which we share with His Son as joint heirs of God.

In the midst of a hostile environment, this new status had radical implications for believers in those times. Jesus said that the supernatural unity which He achieved by His death, would be a powerful sign to the ungodly world that the Father has sent Him. In an environment of hatred and aggression which is as rife today as it was then, there would be two indisputable proofs of the reality of His coming – that His disciples love one another with the same sacrificial love He had for them, and that they be one with Him, with the Father and with one another through the Spirit.

A new commandment I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13: 34).

. . . That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me (John 17: 21).

These are qualities beyond the ability of human beings to achieve outside of God’s power at work in them.

God had one main purpose for bringing His people together into a powerful unity – worship! Paul recognised this when he painted a word picture of God’s new temple. In contrast to the emphasis on the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem, which is a pivot of one of the mainstreams of modern eschatology, Paul’s letters do not focus on the building of a literal, physical temple in Jerusalem.

He consistently used the Greek word, naos, which refers to the inner shrine or Holy of Holies, when he wrote of God’s temple in his letters to the churches. Only once did he use the alternative word, hieron, which is the Greek word used for the literal temple, when he wrote of the physical temple in Jerusalem. He emphasised the truth that God’s people are, individually and collectively, the temple of God.

Do you not know that your body is a temple (naos) of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God (1 Cor. 6: 19)?

The purpose of a temple is worship. God desires that we worship Him first of all, because all else flows from who or what we worship, whether it be a false god or the true God. When we worship Him in spirit and in truth, the rest of our lives falls into place in its right perspective and with the correct priorities. When we put God in the centre of our lives, everything we are and do flows from our fellowship with Him and from the Holy Spirit’s leading.

. . . Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God (Rom. 8: 14).

True worship is not about singing worship songs on Sundays. True worship flows from every thought and action that is centred in and obedient to God and His Word.

So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10: 31).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3, eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

PEACE THROUGH THE CROSS

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PEACE THROUGH THE CROSS

For he Himself is our peace who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit (Eph. 2: 14-18).

The great barrier in the ancient world was the conflict between Jew and Gentile. There were many reasons for hostility between these two groups. The Jews thought they were better than the Gentiles because they no longer worshipped idols. Their great suffering throughout their history as a nation cured them of idolatry and turned them against the pagan nations around them. They considered themselves superior to all other people because they were God’s chosen people, and they worshipped the one true God.

They believed that God was their God alone. They tolerated the Gentiles who had turned from idols to become “God-fearers” but they vehemently hated and persecuted the apostles for taking their God to the Gentiles, even if they were propagating the hated message that God was their Father and Jesus was their Messiah.

The pagan world was polytheistic. Greeks and Romans worshipped many gods and even revered the Caesars as god. They despised the Jews for their monotheism, their exclusivism and their superior attitude. Although the Roman government barely tolerated the Jewish religion, the Jews were not welcome in their society.

It would take a mighty act of God to reconcile the two groups and recreate a new race of people who were identified by a higher loyalty than loyalty to their ethnic origins and religious persuasions. Sin was the root cause of their racial hatred. Remove sin and there would be no more cause for the deep-rooted antagonism that drove them apart.

The blood that Jesus shed on the cross dealt with sin in every human heart and removed the reason for hostility between people and people groups. Paradoxically, the death of Jesus and faith in Him, not only drives people apart; it also brings them together and redefines them according to their new citizenship in the kingdom of God.

The reason for this transformed attitude and relationship between people of differing colours, cultures and languages is what Paul calls “peace”.  This new state of peace begins between God and man. Since Jesus paid the debt of sin for the whole human race, there is no need for hostility between God and man. Jesus appeased God’s wrath against sin. God has forgiven our sin and cleansed our hearts from its guilt. We have all, whether Jew of Gentile, been brought near to Him. We have been reconciled and restored to fellowship with Him as His sons and daughters.

In spite of the intrusion of sin, we can still see this “echad” in the amazing interconnectedness of the many systems in the world. The heavenly bodies function in oneness and God keeps them in place and functioning together by His powerful word. What we call “ecosystems” are microcosms of harmonious interaction between creatures and their environment. Every element of creation is adapted to function within its environment. People  alone have the power to interfere and disrupt the systems which God has put in place, by exploiting and plundering resources for our own selfish ends.

Just as God planned the natural world to function in perfect oneness, so He also created human beings to live together in unity and harmony. Sin interrupted this plan but God put it back on track by dealing with sin. Only through the forgiveness that Jesus bought for us through the cross can He reconcile us to one another and restore the peace between us that is the foundation of oneness. And He did it!

How amazing it is to see ancient enemies come together when Jesus is the centre of their lives – black and white, Jew and Arab, rich and poor, male and female, high-born and low-born – it’s as though we have been born again, and we have. We have made a new start and left behind all our old prejudices and hostilities because of a love that transcends our selfish love.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ (Gal. 3: 28).

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or Kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), a companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.