|
Author
|
Topic: Put Ye On The Lord Jesus
|
Thunderz7
Advanced Member
Member # 31
|
posted
Linda you ask me,
quote:
would you deny the Gentile Christians water?
Acts 10:47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
I will not forbid water,
neither will I call it a requirement for anything concerning Gentiles;
as it is not among the four requirements in Acts 15 that seemed good to the Holy Spirit and the Apostles for born again, grace through faith, Gentiles.
Romans 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
T7
Posts: 1113 | From: Northeast Alabama | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged | 
|
|
becauseHElives
Advanced Member
Member # 87
|
posted
Is Water Baptism a New Testament Invention?
When we think of rituals, most of us think of the ordinances that were given to Israel in the Old Testament. Most believers today consider that "rituals" are a thing of the past and have been rendered useless and unnecessary by the sacrifice of Yahshua. It may come as a surprise to some when we consider just how many "rituals" we participate in (and rightly so) today. Ritual is defined as "a strictly ordered traditional method of conducting an act of worship…" (The New Lexicon Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language). Would anyone care to deny that they perform rituals in keeping the Sabbath, appointed Feast of YHWH or in worshipping in general? Did Yahshua advocate or approve of "ritual" in prayer and other acts of worship? Fasting, by the way, is a ritual! So is a worship service that follows a fairly consistent pattern. So is baptism! If any ritual is followed because the doer believes he/she will gain salvation by doing the "ritual," this is a mistake. However, rituals are part of prescribed and expected behavior that is pleasing to YHWH.
Now consider the ritual of baptism. Is it a New Covenant invention? Perhaps many will see the "washings" ritual as a forerunner of baptism. Leviticus 14 gives an account of a common "washing" ritual, that of cleansing lepers. After offering certain sacrifices and being sprinkled seven times with the water of purification, then the cleansed leper was to wash his clothes and wash himself (Hebrew--rachats - wash or bathe) as specified in verse 8. In 2 Kings 5, a gentile named Naaman was sent to the prophet Elisha to be cured of his leprosy. Elisha’s instructions include a "washing" ritual which Naaman thought to be silly at first. But he was persuaded by his servant that since it was simple enough to "dip" himself seven times in the Jordan River," it was at least worth a try. In giving this instruction, Elisha seems to have combined the "sprinkling seven times" with the "washing" itself. None-the-less, it is clear what for this "washing" took—an immersion (read verses ten through fourteen).
Likewise, it is common knowledge that the "washing" the priest performed in purifying himself for temple service (such as that prescribed in Leviticus 16:4 for Atonement service) took the form of an immersion (Hebrew—mikveh). In fact, so common was this "ritual bathe" (mikveh), that below the temple mount in Jerusalem there was built a "bath house" with many of these ritual pools where pilgrims could stop for purification on their way to temple services. In 1994 I was privileged to be in Israel for the Feast of Tabernacles and saw the evidence of these mikvot in the excavations below the temple mount as well as in the excavated ruins of Qumran and Masada.
Perhaps the best and most famous "baptism" of all was the great flood of Genesis. Think about what this entailed… The total immersion of the world and the "washing away" of all that was evil. So vile had the society of man become that a drastic change was called for. Read and think about the events of the flood in Genesis the seventh chapter. The imagery of what is taking place in the "drowning" of all the wickedness is the same as what happens (or rather is supposed to happen) for the person undergoing "baptism."
Many have been long familiar with the "baptism" or immersion imagery of the Israelites coming through the Red Sea with the walls of water on either side of them. "Moreover, brothers, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea…" 1 Corinthians 10:1-2. But, what is the connection with "under the cloud," "in the sea" and baptism?
Many would not know that immersion has long been practiced in Judaism for the purpose of initiating new converts called proselytes. In the entry "PROSELYTES" under the article titled "Laws of Conversion" in the CD edition of Encyclopedia Judaica, we find these statements: "The procedure… according to which a non-Jew may be accepted into the Jewish faith… (he) had to sacrifice a burnt offering either of cattle or two young pigeons (until sacrifices were no longer offered; after which)… only circumcision and immersion remained." There arose disputes as to "whether someone who immersed himself but was not circumcised or vice versa could be considered a proselyte." The procedure ordinarily had to be witnessed by three and a similar dispute rose up as to whether "a proselyte who immersed himself in the presence of two members only" could be accepted. One school said he could be accepted and another said he couldn’t. The point, of course, is that immersion was an important "ritual" in initiating new converts.
Immersion (baptiso in the Greek, t’vilah in Hebrew) had deep and profound meaning to the Hebrew people. It is not some giant leap from a mikveh to immersion either. When Yahweh created in Genesis, the Hebrew word for "gathering the waters" was from this Hebrew word mikveh (Genesis 1:9). The place where the "water was gathered" for the Israelites to follow Yahweh’s purification instructions came to be known as a "mikveh." The concept of immersion in the Hebrew word "t’vilah" appears unmistakably in Exodus 15:4 where Pharaoh and his host were drowned (t’vilah) in the sea. In Psalm 9:16 and Lamentations 2:9, the same Hebrew word is used and translated as "sunk." No mistaking the concept of immersion. The Hebrew people connected the washings and purification rites to this immersion and with the following ideas in mind:
(1) immersion in the mikveh symbolized the grave—man cannot survive immersed completely in water indefinitely; he enters a state of non-breathing. When he emerges from the water’s depths, it is as if he is re-born.
(2) It symbolized the womb—whn Yahweh hovered over the waters in Genesis, rabbinical understanding was that He impregnated the waters and the creation was birthed from thence. Job 38:29, 30 shows the basis for this imagery. So, when man goes down into the waters of the mikveh, it is as if he is in a womb and when he come up out of the waters, it is as if he is birthed from the womb.
(3) It symbolized a change of status—from death to life, from non-living to rebirth!
Now, consider: what would the people coming in view of John the Immerser have thought if John was doing something brand new? Would we not have some indication in the historical accounts that this man was instituting new rituals? But there is no indication in the gospels or in any other historical accounts that the "wild man" from the wilderness was instituting new rituals. His "audiences" were well familiar with the rituals being performed in the Jordan. Along comes Yahshua and instead of questioning John’s rituals, He joins right in. And later, we find His diciples who were with Him baptizing (John 4:1-2). And, is it any wonder that Yahshua took Nicodemus to task for not understanding in His discussion about "rebirth" and "coming out of the womb" because Nicodemus, as a ruler and a teacher of the people "should have understood" the imagery? And Paul’s discussions of baptism such as in Romans 6 about "being buried in baptism and raised" as if from the dead to be transformed? Does this not show the depth of the understanding of those taught in the way of life of the Hebrew "religion?" Check out Ephesians 2:1-6 where Paul talks about this "change of status" from death to life; 2 Corinthians 5:17 where Paul describes us as "becoming a new creation;" Galatians 4:7 where Paul describes conversion as a change from "a slave to son/heir" of Elohim; 1 Peter 2:9-10 where Peter describes this process as a change from "darkness to light." These are not some brand "New Testament" thoughts!
Now read Jeremiah 14:8. "O, the hope (the Hebrew word here is mikveh) of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble…" Did you get that? Is it not fitting that we are buried in our Mikveh in the ritual of baptism and come up out of that watery grave in HOPE? Is that just coincidence? All the symbolism of the Hebrew worship system is valid. The ritual of baptism will not save us, but who among us will teach that is it "just a ritual" to cast aside? It’s an important ritual that teaches a physical being some profound lessons affecting his relationship with his Savior and his Mighty One.
Let us be glad and rejoice and appreciate what our Mikveh (Baptism) means to us.
By Darryll Watson
--------------------
Strive to enter in at the strait gate:for many, I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. ( Luke 13:24 )
Posts: 4578 | From: Southeast Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
|
|
helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
|
posted
I have always wanted to ask you this Bro Thunder and in all the baptism discussions we have had I have never gotten around to it. So here goes:
I understand what you are saying about the Holy Ghost Baptism, and I believe that it is necessary for salvation, while water baptism is not, but I have to ask you.... would you deny the Gentile Christians water?
Acts 10:47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
|
|
Thunderz7
Advanced Member
Member # 31
|
posted
Having just said in another thread that I agree with most (not all) that I have read from Brogden; I had to hunt this thread back up.
In this article I feel Brogden is much too wrapped up in H2O.
When I was born again, I was baptized in "THE NAME", I put on Jesus, was clothed in Jesus,
I got HIS BLOOD applied to the Mercy Seat for me,
the Blood that flowed from HIS side,
I got HIS WATER that flowed from HIS side with HIS BLOOD.
I became a part of HIS death, burial and resurrection, and a part of HIS baptism that fulfilled all righteousness.
It's about what HE did/does, not about me.
Other than the mainline, man made, H2O tradition, I agree with the article.
T7
Posts: 1113 | From: Northeast Alabama | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
|
|
helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
|
posted
quote:
Then I finally met a pastor who could explain the Bible from other books of the Bible, who affirmed that the LORD's symbols and hard to understand parts are all explained and defined and hidden like treasures in other books of the Bible.
![[clap2]](graemlins/clap2.gif) Wow! What a concept!!!!
Praise God! That is good news to know that there are some out there that believe this!!! How refreshing it must have been to find this pastor!
I currently have several friends who are having real struggles in their home towns trying to find a plain old Bible preaching church.
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
|
|
BORN AGAIN
unregistered
|
posted
yahsway writes quote:
I got so tired of the pastor likening everything in the scriptures to a "football" team/game, or likening the word of God to the Fear Factor Tv shows, ect... Many of you probably can understand what I am saying.
I went to a church once (and only once) where the pastor was "explaining" the Bible by movies "everyone had seen". I don't go to movies anymore, so I could not relate at all. Nor do I think that God needs the devil's movies to explain His Word.
At another time, in a once-a-month little home group, everyone went on and on about the movies they had seen, while I just sat there, until finally I said, "when are we going to talk about Jesus" and they all looked at me like I was from another planet.
Then I finally met a pastor who could explain the Bible from other books of the Bible, who affirmed that the LORD's symbols and hard to understand parts are all explained and defined and hidden like treasures in other books of the Bible.
The Bible explains itself and needs nothing from the devil to explain it.
Put You On The Lord Jesus
God bless, BORN AGAIN
" a wheel within a wheel, way up in the middle of the air. big wheel runs by faith, way up in the middle of the air"
IP: Logged |
|
|
helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
|
posted
I know exactly what you are saying!!! You know it is funny because... I am guessing almost 20 years ago, I was over at my folks house one Sunday and I went to church with them, and we were Lutheran at the time; the pastor announced that they would not be having evening service because everyone would want to be watching the superbowl. I was so miffed by that, even then! At that time in my life, God was pretty much compartmentalized in my mind and not MY life... and still that was to me so offensive. I asked my dad if he thought Jesus would have closed the synagogue and not preached for to watch the superbowl game? Of course he gave me the old "that's not what he meant; I can understand his wanting to take the night off and he is right people probably would not come anyway." I would have come!!! ughhhhhhhh!!!
I don't really listen to secular music anymore either, but occasionally I hear it anyway. I have noticed that when I do, my mind goes through it finding things that disagree with scripture or agree. My kids sometimes are annoyed with me because I look at every thing that way, does it agree or disagree. I cant help this, it is unconscious, if my ears hear it, my mind asks it.
There is a great country song right now called Jesus Take the Wheel!!
The other night, Hal and I were in Applebees for dinner and there came on the sound system a Roxy Music song. Hal and I were both big Roxy Music Brian Eno fans in our day. This one was Love is the Drug. As I was listening, I could not help but note that even secular music speaks the truth. Though the secular don't realize it!
Look at these lyrics:
T'ain't no big thing
To wait for the bell to ring
T'ain't no big thing
The toll of the bell
Aggravated - spare for days
I troll downtown the red light place
Jump up bubble up - what's in store
Love is the drug and I need to score
Showing out, showing out, hit and run
Boy meets girl where the beat goes on
Stitched up tight, can't shake free
Love is the drug, got a hook on me
Oh oh catch that buzz
Love is the drug I'm thinking of
Oh oh can't you see
Love is the drug for me
Late that night I park my car
Stake my place in the singles bar
Face to face, toe to toe
Heart to heart as we hit the floor
Lumber up, limbo down
The locked embrace, the stumble round
I say go, she say yes
Dim the lights, you can guess the rest
Oh oh catch that buzz
Love is the drug I'm thinking of
Oh oh can't you see
Love is the drug, got a hook in me
Oh oh catch that buzz
Love is the drug I'm thinking of
Oh oh can't you see
Love is the drug for me
Is that not true... is not the world's "Love" "sexual promescuity" nothing more than a drug that keeps people drugged and oblivious to what God's love is about or to the blessing of expressing our God given sexuality in the commitment of a covenant relationship!
I am sure that Brian Ferry, never ever realized what truth he was writing in this song. But God has this way I think of bringing these things about of the enemy's mouth against his own will.
If God's word is written in your heart, I believe that you will filter all things through it.. it has become the paradigm that colors your worldview.
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
|
|
yahsway
Advanced Member
Member # 3738
|
posted
Wow, I can truly say I have also been where Ba and HFHS have been.
Yesterday I was asked at work "don't you just love that song?" What song I asked? The one playing on the radio now, she said. I just smiled and said, well, I don't know. I've never heard it. And then everyone started laughing at me and asked me what rock I had been hiding under.
Ha! If i had been fast enough in my thinking I would have said "well, Jesus of course, He's the Rock i'm hiding in", But I just smiled and let them have their fun and went about my work.
Its really been about 11 years that I have not listened to anything but inspirational songs about Jesus. Not to say that secular songs are wrong/bad, but thats just not where my heart is.
I can truly say I have learned more from the scriptures by getting alone with Him and studying for myself than anything I listened to in the church i was attending. I got so tired of the pastor likening everything in the scriptures to a "football" team/game, or likening the word of God to the Fear Factor Tv shows, ect... Many of you probably can understand what I am saying.
I was sooo hungry for the meat of His word. All the women, bless them Lord, would sit around at our different church functions and talk about this movie they went to see, that book they read, what dresses they bought, ect..
We would have "super bowl Sundays once a year and while the men watched the ball game from a big tv screen, we women would do our hair, make-up ect..
It was always preached to me that Jesus gave us life and more abundent life while we are here on earth and that we should dress real good, drive new cars, ect... because in this way, others would see how God was blessing us and that it was a shame to be poor ect..
Has anyone else gone thru this same thing? I was sooo enamoured by all this at first. And we would dare not confess our faults one to another or let anything "negative" come out of our mouth or we would be cursed by it. But we were to confess only positive things. Okay, yes I was one of those WOF believers.
But something kept tugging at my heart. Little by little, just about every worldly thing you can think of started coming into the sanctuary.
Finally, my husband and I said no more and we left.
And we both had "positions" there. I lead the Music Ministry and my husband taught the youth group. And we were asked "You mean you are gonna give up your "position" and just leave?
It was like they thought that "position in the church" should have meant more to me than my "position" with Jesus and God the Father.
Anyways, Im rambling on. Sorry, just wanted to add this to the post. Shalom
Posts: 1238 | From: Tennessee | Registered: Aug 2004
| IP: Logged |
|
|
helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
|
posted
Hey BA. This article is from Chip Brogden. I cannot claim it, but I appreciate his perspective.
quote:
But mentally and spiritually, people can stand quite still and unchanging for a long time, barely changing at all, or even going backward.
I was like this; I believe that it is because I did not renew my mind or sanctify God in my heart. These things I did not know to do. Jesus gave us a plan with order - teach the gospel, baptize in HIS name, teach them to obey all things that I have taught you. We forget all but the first and we wonder why Christians do not walk in victory. I would say that you Born Again are an exception to the rule in that you study your Bible BA. When people do as you do, they may find themselves in error from time to time, but because they do SEEK HIM in HIS word, God will set them straight when they error and thy will eventually come to the truth. HIS word is TRUTH!!! The transformation is inevitable.
However, most people do not study their Bibles; most people do not even read their Bibles and have no idea what it means to study it, to meditate on HIS word, or think deeply about it.
Sadly most people, are like I was,ignorant of the word, trusting HIM for the next life, not giving this life to HIM,living this life unvictoriously, wretched, naked, blind, neither Hot nor Cold.
Then when they are moved to get understanding, they get it not from the word of God but from men, who seek their own agenda and don't lift up Christ, but lift up themselves and call it lifting up Christ. I did this too.
Praise God because HE did not allow me to go down that path long, but I believe that is because I was so diligently studying on my own that I began to hear the places where what men taught was different than what God hath said.
quote:
I can't imagine ever thinking that there was any substance to those worldly songs and those boo-hoo I lost my baby kind of lyrics and other assroted nonsense, with musicians dressed the weirder the supposedly better. upside down is the devil and is now totally boring to me.
Same with his movies; not forbidden, just totally boring to me now. I can't imagine that I ever thought that those guns and cursing and homosexuals and angry husbands yelling at their wives or boyfriends yelling at girlfriend or vice-versa, that those scenes ever had real substance to me is both amazing and disgusting and unbelievable now that I look back at them.
It's not forbidden; it's just totally boring to me now.
Put You On The Lord Jesus, He is a lot more fun and provides freedom and fine feelings, better than anything I have ever done before.
Blessed are the LORD YHWH of Israel and His Son Yeshua to be with; there is nothing like it. I especially rejoice in hours of their music.
I agree with you 100% here. You feel this way because you have become more like Christ.This is worth re-stating:
quote:
Put You On The Lord Jesus, He is a lot more fun and provides freedom and fine feelings, better than anything I have ever done before.
Amen! and again Amen!!!
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
|
|
BORN AGAIN
unregistered
|
posted
helpforhomeschoolers, I'm tired, so I just grabbed one sentence out of your Topic to look at, for my sermonette; you write quote:
Moment by moment, hour by hour, we are being changed.
we are changed physically through anabolism and catabolism.
But mentally and spiritually, people can stand quite still and unchanging for a long time, barely changing at all, or even going backward.
When I look at a Christian Protestant Singles listing, almost to a Christian/Protestant woman they still write that activities they like to do include: Movies, Concerts, Plays.
Put You On The Lord Jesus
Still watching devil Lucifer movies in the theaters, still reading devil Lucifer books and novelas in your home or in the park?
Not that the devil Lucifer movies and books are forbidden, but they are very boring and empty-shelled to me now when I once in a while stop for a moment to see what the bands now play on late-night network TV. What emptiness and boringness those bands now are to me! Thank God for that. Now that is change.
I can't imagine ever thinking that there was any substance to those worldly songs and those boo-hoo I lost my baby kind of lyrics and other assorted nonsense, with musicians dressed the weirder the supposedly better. upside down is the devil and it is now all totally boring to me.
Same with his movies; not forbidden, just totally boring to me now. I can't imagine that I ever thought that those guns and cursing and homosexuals and angry husbands yelling at their wives or boyfriends yelling at girlfriend or vice-versa, that those scenes ever had real substance to me is both amazing and disgusting and unbelievable now that I look back at them.
It's not forbidden; it's just totally boring to me now.
Put You On The Lord Jesus, He is a lot more fun and provides freedom and fine feelings, better than anything I have ever done before.
Blessed are the LORD YHWH of Israel and His Son Yeshua to be with; there is nothing like it. I especially rejoice in hours of their music.
Put You On The Lord Jesus
IP: Logged |
|
|
helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
|
posted
Put Ye On The Lord Jesus
by Chip Brogden
"But put ye on the Lord Jesus, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Romans 13:14)."
We have discussed the difference between receiving the Life of the Lord and receiving the Lord as our Life. The two sound very similar, but in actual practice they are not exactly the same. We have seen how that God, desiring that we should not perish, did not give us "eternal life", but gave us His only Son to be our Life. Then we are told, "He who has the Son has the Life, and He who does not have the Son does not have the Life (I John 5:12)." Eternal Life, then, is not everlasting existence, but an eternity of union with CHRIST OUR LIFE.
As we look for some practical help for living out our new Christ-Life, the apostle Paul gives us some rather peculiar advice. We know that Paul is very good about laying the foundation, and then calling us to live out of that foundation with regard to some very practical matters. So it is interesting that he would say, "Put ye on the Lord Jesus." What exactly does that mean? How do we put on the Lord Jesus?
If we are looking for a method, or a technique, then we are apt to be disappointed, for neither the Lord nor the apostle Paul gives us such a method. The method is Christ: He is Way, He is Method, He is Technique. We are not given a three-point sermon for how to put on the Lord Jesus; yet we are told this is the key to making no provision for the flesh. This much is clear, however: victory is bound up in Christ, and not in ourselves.
It is fine to have the theory, but we need the practical application. I am mostly concerned with foundational truth, because the foundation of the Church is more important than anything (and that foundation is Christ). Nevertheless, the saints need some practical instruction on how to put on the Lord Jesus, for this is seldom done. This, evidently, is not an ethereal thing in the clouds, but a practical thing which involves our flesh. May God grant us further insight into His Son.
CLOTHED WITH CHRIST
"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27)."
What does it mean to be baptized? It is to go down into death and to come back up into life. We were baptized into Christ. The water of baptism does not merely signify the washing away of sins, but the death of the sinner. We go down into the water, and we are brought up out of the water. If we were to stay under the water for long we would surely die. But we are quickly lifted back up out of the "grave". This represents death and resurrection.
The outward sign of water baptism is meant to represent an inward spiritual truth - that I am baptized indeed, not into water only, but into Christ. I died with Him, and I was raised with Him. If I am one with Him then His death is my death; when He is raised, I too am raised. God has placed us in Christ, and since we are joined to the Lord, we are one spirit with Him. The Branches will go the way of the Vine. The Body will go the way of the Head.
So we may say it this way: to put on the Lord Jesus is to be clothed with Him. The apostle makes a connection between baptism into Christ and putting on Christ: he says these two are one and the same. When we signified our oneness with Him through baptism, we buried ourselves into Him and He became our covering. Have you clothed yourself with Christ? Some people are naked altogether, and their shame is evident to everyone but themselves. Others are clothed with the filthy rags of their own self-righteousness. Then there are those who are clothed with Christ. They are immersed into Him, and we touch something in them which is larger than them.
In our relationships it is easy to touch one another in the flesh. But to put on the Lord Jesus is to make no provision for the flesh, even in our relationships. To "know no man after the flesh" is truly a challenge. We "project" a certain something, and either it is ourselves, or it is Christ. We note the personality differences between Paul, and Peter, and John, and James, and Barnabas; even so, they each have the same clothing, having put on the Lord Jesus. So we can touch them on a deeper level than who they are in themselves. We can still see the man, but we mostly see the Lord of the man. When we put on the Lord Jesus then the outward man becomes consistent with the inward man. This is fruitfulness, and this should be the normal experience of all disciples of the Lord.
"Put on the New Man, created in God's own Righteousness and true Holiness (Ephesians 4:24)."
What is the Christian Life? It is leaving our ground altogether and coming onto the ground of Christ. It is deeper than a changed life - it is an exchanged life. Over time we can accomplish a change, but we can do nothing to exchange our life for His Life. This, from start to finish, is God's work, and it is a work of grace. What, after all, is Righteousness? What is true Holiness? Christ is not righteous because He does righteous things; He does righteous things because He is Righteousness. Christ is not holy because He does holy things; He does holy things because He is Holiness. His "doing" flows out of His "being" - and OUR "doing" flows out of His "being" as well.
How so? The old man (self) is put off, and the New Man (Christ) is put on - this is Christianity. Christ then becomes my Righteousness and my Holiness. But too many of us take a natural, intellectual approach to Christianity. We think if only we can instruct people concerning the tenets of our faith, or persuade them with a logical argument, or woo them with some emotional plea, then we will have disciples. This is a falsehood. That is not Spirit and Life. Christianity is not memorizing certain doctrines or disseminating a systematic theology or having people repeat a so-called "Sinner's Prayer". Christianity is becoming one with a God-Man! You can have all the other in its proper place, but for too long that "other" has been offered as Christianity. And so people touch our beliefs, our doctrines, our religion, our theology, our zeal, but they do not touch a Living Christ.
When we are called to put on the New Man we are challenged with something radical, something which by reason of Who He is must result in an upsetting of the natural, earthly order of things. It is a major upheaval. Why? Because this New Man is Totally Other. This New Man is of Heaven. This New Man is Spirit. This New Man is foreign from this world. And when we put on THIS New Man, we are going to be at once set apart from the world and earmarked for something larger than we can fathom with our mind, something apart from flesh and blood, something we call "Spirit and Life".
Many years after having first put on the Lord Jesus, Paul declares that he is still trying to apprehend the One Who has already apprehended him. The height, width, breadth, length, and depth of this New Man, this Heavenly Man, is quite beyond what we can measure apart from Spirit-revelation. We are more familiar with and have more confidence in the old man than we do in the New Man. By the grace of God, this has to change. When we truly see the New Man we transcend the old man. And this, in a nutshell, is how God accomplishes the work of decreasing us and increasing Christ.
"Bring forth the best robe and put it on my son (Luke 15:22ff)."
It would be helpful to illustrate what it means to clothe oneself with Christ. In the story of the prodigal son we find such an illustration. The phrase "put it on" my son is the same Greek words used as in "put ye on" the Lord Jesus. It is even the same word in English - "put on". So the connection is clear. In the fullness of time God brought forth His Son, and we are told to put Him on, to be clothed with the best robe.
Praise God! We are not laying down a rule for Christian life and saying that in order to be a good Christian you must start doing this, that and the other, and then you must stop doing this thing or that thing. That is the natural approach. But when the son returns to his father, we do not hear a word of rebuke (except from the elder son). It is not a question of our being "worthy", for the son frankly admits he is no longer worthy to be called a son. Nevertheless, he IS a son. The remedy our Father has for him is not what we would expect. We are looking for a rebuke, or a reproof. Perhaps we are looking for some new list of expectations, punishments and rewards. Instead, he is given the best robe, a ring, and shoes for his feet. This is grace!
To put on the Lord Jesus is to be clothed with the very best robe. This robe makes us look better than we really are. But when we are dressed with the best we begin to act differently. Our behavior and our conduct is the fruit of who we are, not the cause of what we are. Paul never gives us commandments for the sake of commandments. He gives us a lot of instruction regarding our conduct, but it is always based on who we are in Christ, not who we hope to be in ourselves. Having put on the Lord Jesus, we are enveloped with Him and His character replaces our character. His Life is received in exchange for our life. If we cooperate with the Life we will naturally find our behavior is changed.
But what of the elder son? "Son, you are ever with me, and all that I have is yours (Luke 15:31)." Hallelujah! There is no partiality with God, however much we may think God is being more fair or more generous to some brother or sister. Not so: the robe, the ring, and the shoes only represent the "all", the fullness of the Father, and "of His fullness we have all received (John 1:16a)". The Father says, "All that I have is yours!" Who can dare ask God for a single thing apart from the Son?
CLOTHED IN PURE LIGHT
"Put on the armor of light... put on the whole armor of God (Romans 13:12b; Ephesians 6:11a)."
In the matter of our spiritual warfare, we must see before God once and for all just what His armor consists of. By now we should know that God has not given us anything outside of or apart from Christ. We should know that God's Answer is Christ, God's Provision is Christ, God's Way is Christ, God's Victory is Christ.
So our overcoming is not bound up with a piece of armor, real or imagined. It is not without significance that just after saying "put on the armor of light" in Romans 13:12, Paul goes on to say "put ye on the Lord Jesus" in verse 14. It is hard for us to miss the point. Christ is the Armor of Light. To put on the armor is to put on the Lord Jesus. So it is not a great leap for us to connect Romans 13 to Ephesians 6 and discern that the Whole Armor of God is a MAN. Christ is Righteousness, Truth, Peace, Faith, Salvation, and Word of God. He is each individual piece of armor, as well as the Whole Armor. How ridiculous for us to go through the motions of "putting on our spiritual armor" in a sort of melodramatic pantomime. "Put on the armor" is another way of saying "Put on the Lord Jesus."
May I frankly say that anyone trusting in "spiritual armor" as a thing in and of itself is going to fail miserably. Anyone relying upon a faith-formula or a spiritual warfare method is going to see both the formula and the method eventually meet with defeat. Why? Because God has not given us a formula or a method: He has given us His Son. He does not give us a ritual or ceremony to follow, He says, "Put on the Lord Jesus". Having the Lord Jesus, I have the Whole Armor of God. It is not necessary to ask for each piece of armor, or to confess anything, or to do anything. It is only necessary, having put on the Whole Armor of God, to "stand therefore". It is only necessary, having put on the Lord Jesus, to abide in Him.
God's Solution to the problem of sin, self, and satan is to have us put on the Lord Jesus. Only through Him can we "make no provision for the flesh", and only through Him can we "stand against the wiles of the devil". We dare not make it more complicated when the Lord has made it simple. To focus on our flesh and on our enemy is a huge waste of time. Instead, we must perceive just how glorious the Son of God is, and press deeply into Him. Do you have a method, or a Man? It is not about me, my flesh, or the devil - it is all about Christ, and as He is increased, none of these other things can do anything but be decreased.
"Jesus was transfigured before them: His face shone like the sun, and His clothing was pure white, as white as light (Matthew 17:2)."
To be clothed with the Lord Jesus is to be transfigured. For too long we who claim a heavenly calling, a heavenly citizenship, and a heavenly birth have lived as earthly men. What light we have is hidden beneath a bushel; there is no glory that surrounds us. We are not talking about an outward display, or something fleshly, but a Light and a Life which demonstrates the presence of Christ. "In Him was Life - and the Life was the Light of men (John 1:4)."
If we are abiding in Him then we will be as He is. If we have put on the Lord Jesus then we are being changed into His likeness, we are being made into His image, and we are in the process of being transfigured. After some time following the Lord we should not have to stop and ask ourselves, "What would Jesus do?" If we are being transfigured then that Light and that Life will respond spontaneously and effortlessly to any demand placed upon it. Just as Testimony follows Revelation, so Life follows Light. We simply know what to do because He Himself is doing it through us. If we have put on the Lord Jesus then we need not look to the past, or to the future. We need not look up to the heavens, or down upon the earth. We need not look outward at all, for the Kingdom of God is within us. The One Who said, "I am with you, but will be in you" has now taken up residence within all who believe.
We might ask why Peter, James, and John were selected to come apart into a high mountain alone with Jesus to witness this revealing. A better question is, how can we be included in this remnant? We cannot answer why these three only, and not the remaining disciples, were given this revelation. The issue is: have we seen the Lord? Have we, at least once, ascended up the mountain and caught a glimpse of this Light? Have we, at least once, seen the Son of Man transfigured into the Son of God? Eventually all the disciples saw His glory, but in Peter, James, and John we have a type of Overcomer - those who see the glory NOW and possess the Kingdom now, not waiting for a future inheritance or a future reward, but standing for the Will and the Kingdom in advance of its future fulfillment. Because they see in advance, they are able to bring the firstfruits to the Lord.
Moment by moment, hour by hour, we are being changed. This transfiguration is subtle, but powerful. How is it affected? How does God change us? When we put on the Lord Jesus then we become what we have put on. When we see the glory of the Son of God then we are changed thereby. We become what we have seen. When we see Him as He in fact is, when we behold His glory, we will be smitten to the ground. If what we have seen thus far of the Lord has not struck us dumb and blind then we have not yet touched upon His glory. Our vision is too small. May God illuminate our hearts and grant us further revelation into His Son, that we may be transfigured. Amen.
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
| IP: Logged |
|
|
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
