THE CROSS Des Walter
I want to share with you today on the subject of the "Cross," because I think it is probably the most misunderstood aspect of the Christian faith. So I want to by-pass the traditional concepts that are the product of the natural mind and present to you the TRUTH as seen from God’s point of view.
We will begin in
Hebrews, chapter 2, because we need to lay a clear foundation and discover how God thinks about things because the Prophet Isaiah said, "As far as the heavens are above the earth, so far are my thoughts above your thoughts." Have you ever thought about that? Here we have been living with our thoughts for so long, or thoughts we have received from others, that have formed the basis of our understanding about God. But you see, His thoughts are way above our thoughts. So today let’s put away our thoughts about the cross, and let God start to insert some of His thinking and then we may come up with an answer quite different to that which we have believed over the years.
Hebrews 2:6, "One in a certain place testified saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the Son of Man that thou visitest him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor and you set him over the works of Thy hands." That is what God did when He created man. So it sounds like God had great confidence in the creation he called MAN. I do not see God making some alternative plan just "in case" it didn’t work out. No, it says here, "You crowned him with glory and honor. You have set him over the works of Your hands." -
vs 8 - "You have put all things in subjection under his feet and You left nothing that is not put under him, but now, we see not yet all things put under his feet."
That is the sad note that comes in here. But then we rise back on to the plain of glory because the next verse says, "But we see Jesus". So what is God saying to us? Why does the Lord tell us not to dwell on what we consider to be our failures and shortcomings but to focus our eyes on JESUS? In order to answer this most important question we need to understand how we were created and what we were created to be. In
Genesis 1:26 we read, "And God said, "Let us make MAN in OUR IMAGE and after OUR LIKENESS." The very first thing I want to impress upon you is that THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE! This MAN is not from outer space or some super creature different from every other man on the earth. There is no other MAN that God created and he represents all mankind on the earth in every generation. This is the reason why we need to look closely at what is recorded concerning the man (MANKIND) that GOD CREATED.
You will notice that in creation man did not have any physical material body, for he was created as spirit. However very few people today realize that the reality of their being is spirit. Even among Christians, most would deny this fact and declare they are mortal human beings. After 6000 years of living as flesh and blood in a material physical world, mankind has become convinced that they are mortal human beings. However the whole picture of man from God’s point of view changes when we realize that the FORM is not the REALITY.
Christendom is convinced that mankind has descended from Adam the man of dust and so teaches that everyone is born a sinner and under the curse of death. This puts SIN at the centre of all theology, which majors on how to deal with this issue, to satisfy God and "Go to heaven when we die." It is this focus that has distorted our understanding of the CROSS.
Because of our origin out of God we all have the capacity to create. From a child we begin to create the kind of person we believe we are. If we are convinced we are not very clever and cannot succeed in life that is exactly the kind of person we create and become. If I feel I am not loved we will create a very insecure person. If I believe the world is filled with evil and that I am subject to every problem and difficulty, I will be filled with fear and live in the hostile world I have created. So by ignoring the TRUTH concerning the Creation of man, and majoring on our physical birth, we have created an entity we call a "SELF." This "Self" is the source of all our problems, and locks us into this physical material world that is governed by the law of sin and death. However I want you to know that this "Self" is just an illusion and has no reality attached to it.
We need to get our eyes off the "self" that we created and consider the reality of what we are. Only then will we recognize the unreality of our assumed identity, which did not come from God, but which we believed ourselves to be. Some people say to me, "Well, I’m an alcoholic". And I say, "Well, you are very fortunate, because you know exactly how to live your life successfully. You are going to drink to excess and get drunk, and you are going to abuse people including your wife and family, generally cause a mess, because that is what alcoholics do. So if you declare you are an alcoholic, you have predetermined how you will act and what you will do, and nobody is going to blame you, because you are an "alcoholic", doing what an alcoholic does.
But, of course if we are Sons of God then we are going to live as Sons of God, are we not? Sons of God don’t sin do they? Sons of God cannot sin, can they? Whoa! Is that really true? Let us look in the First epistle of John, chapter 3. Now if I say something today and you can’t grab it, please don’t get angry, but do what Mary did and hide it in your heart. Just put it aside and say, "Lord, if this is you speaking to me then you will teach me in your time and it will be okay".
1 John 3:2, "Now are we the Sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be". In other words, John is telling us what is our true identity, for we are "Sons of God." This is not because of anything we may have done, but because WE CAME OUT OF GOD. But there is more to come, I mean, Sons don’t have children do they? Isn’t it Father’s that have children? Well, we’ve got to go beyond son ship, so that we can have children, then we become Fathers.
"Beloved we are even here and now God’s children. And it is not yet made clear what we shall be in the future, but we know that when he comes and is manifested we shall resemble and be like him, for we shall see him just as he really is." Notice whenever God thinks about man it is always connected to CHRIST.
And every one that has this hope resting on him Cleanses and purifies himself, because that is how he sees himself. Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And we know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin".
Verse 6, "Whosoever abideth in Him (in Christ), sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth has not seen Him, neither do they know Him". If you sin you haven’t seen CHRIST, and you don’t know Him. He has never become your identity; therefore, you will keep on sinning.
Now,
verse 9, "Whosoever is born of God" (Are you born of God today? Come on, are you born of God? Amen? Not too loud now, just a little amen will do as someone may hear you. Are you born of God? Hallelujah! Then what does John say? "WHOSOEVER IS BORN or begotten OF GOD DOTH NOT COMMIT SIN, for God’s nature abides in him. The principle of God’s life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him, and he cannot practice sinning because he is born or begotten of God".
What is the SEED of God? Well, Christ is the SEED out of whom all mankind has come. Paul tells us in
Eph 2:10 "You were created in CHRIST JESUS." Is He not also the SEED of Abraham, "and not seeds, as of many, but one …which is CHRIST!"
Gal 3:16. The "Seed" speaks about generation, and in
Psalm 90:1 Moses says, "Lord, YOU have been our dwelling place and our refuge in all generations." So we conclude that every generation of mankind has come out of God.
If Christ is your identity, if you are born or begotten of God and Christ dwells in you, then John says, YOU CANNOT SIN BECAUSE CHRIST CANNOT SIN! Well, you believe that, don’t you? Christ cannot sin and He is your identity. That is who you are, therefore I cannot sin. But remember, the "I" that I am talking about is not simply what the government recognizes me to be. They say this is Des Walter, born 70-odd years ago, and they know my address, where I live, who is my mother and father, and they recognize me by my photograph.
But the truth is that they do not know my true identity, because that is not listed on my passport. My identity is Christ. And if that is my identity then "I," that is the Christ "I", cannot sin. Are you hearing this? Does that explain what John is telling us? You never hear preachers preach on these verses. They always leave them out. NO, you can’t preach that, or we’ll have everybody think they are "going to heaven". Of course I mean NOW, and not after they die, because heaven is not a geographical location but a state of being.
Okay, we will go back to Hebrews now, having cleared up that little problem. "But we see Jesus." We have not yet seen everything under our feet. Why? Because we seem to be very slow to believe these things. To believe who we are, and to understand our true identity is very difficult, mainly because the Church has brain washed us into believing that we did not originate out of God, but out of the man of dust in the Garden of Eden.
Then in some cases, our parents added to our confusion, by telling us how far short of perfection we came in our actions, instead of helping us understand why we acted as we did. So all of these things began to produce a false identity in us, developing an attitude that we were sinners and God was angry with us. This in turn made us afraid of God so like Adam we have hidden ourselves behind our religious thinking, (trees).
To quell our fear of God and bring at least some measure of peace to our hearts, religion taught us to believe, that God recognized our hopeless situation and has come to our aid by killing his son on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, allowing him to be able to forgive us if we repent. Millions have grasped at this straw, but never found in it a release from their mortality.
But you see, it means that we have never truly discovered the seat of our problem, which is our false sense of identity, because we listened to all those voices. The hymn writer summed up our disillusionment in these words, "I’ve tried the broken cisterns Lord, but ah the waters failed, even as I stooped to drink they fled and mocked me as I wailed." Then after all this negative and misleading input I found that I had actually reproduced a "self," an identity which was nothing like Christ, but I called myself a Christian.
So, it says here, BUT WE SEE JESUS! Let us take a closer look at Him, "Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, THAT HE BY THE GRACE OF GOD SHOULD TASTE DEATH FOR EVERYMAN". Tell me, when did He taste death for everyman? Ah, you will say, "On the cross when he died as our sin offering," for that is what has been taught. But was not the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world?
Rev 13:8. The word "foundation" is a translation of the Greek word "Katabole" which means "The casting down." The casting down was when Adam sinned. That’s when the Lamb was slain.
Now, let’s go back to
Genesis 2. Isn’t it amazing how we have to go back to the book of beginnings, because we have got things so screwed up because we have never allowed the spirit to lay a true foundation for our Faith? We came in from the Matthew, Mark and Luke Gospels, because we thought that this is where the Good News was established, and that screwed us up again.
It was from these Gospels that we embraced the idea, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, baptizing them, and teaching them, and make disciples out of them", and we said, "That’s our task". NO IT IS NOT! That was for Israel, because that is what Israel did. Israel did not evangelize the world, they proselytized the world. They went out to make disciples of Moses, because everybody they brought into any kind of relationship with God had to be circumcised, and keep the law. That is what Israel did. That is why they kept having an argument with Paul, because he wasn’t doing that.
Okay, so in
Genesis, chapter 3, it says, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Hath God said ye shall not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?’" Now, I’m not going to read it all because you know the story very, very well. Eve was out there talking to a snake and I mean, how crazy can you get?
Never talk to a snake because they are going to lie to you every time. They will tell you, "I’m your friend," and then they strike – and you are gone! So, this snake is not literal as Christendom has suggested, and neither is it "out there" but, IT IS IN US. It represents the CARNAL MIND. Eve was speaking out of her carnal mind. This was a conversation with her "SELF". You know that God never made a "SELF" don’t you? Eve discovered she had the ability to create her own world and so explored the knowledge that would allow her to succeed, the "Knowledge of good and evil." As she embraced that knowledge she produced a fantasy world, which would be dominated by the duality of Good and Evil, and man became A LIVING SOUL.
And, here in the parable, because this is a parable, and by saying it is a parable, I do not mean that it has no reality. I do not mean that it is a fable, but I am telling you this is TRUTH, but it is presented in parabolic form in order to teach us what we need to know, regarding the function of Spirit and the Soul.
So here we are seeing how man functions as a LIVING SOUL. The soul (Eve) has gone out alone seeking to develop its OWN LIFE apart from the spirit that is God. The life she now seeks was not created in the beginning, but is formed by her own choices to satisfy the desires of her own heart and mind.
The "Soul" being the feminine aspect of man contains the "WOMB," giving her the ability to BIRTH what ever she desires. But now she has abandoned her "husband" the SPIRIT and has become a prostitute, seeking "someone" or something with whom to unite in order to produce the desires of her soulish senses. Did you know that is where all prostitution begins? It begins with the soul expressing its own will and desires, while being driven by its own emotions. Beloved, once we forsake Christ (spirit) as the Lord and authority of our life, we will find the "snake" poised to complete the soul’s decent into the illusion of physical life.
The "Snake" represents the carnal or natural mind that has chosen to function apart from the authority of spirit. How accurate is the Scripture that declares it to be, "More subtle than any beast of the field?" The word "Subtle" is almost the same word translated "Naked," and is used in the Old Testament with that spiritual sense. Scripture says, Adam and Eve were naked but they were not ashamed. What did that mean? It means that while the union of soul and spirit governs mankind, as Adam was originally created, nakedness has no evil connotation.
So we understand that the subtlety of the "Snake" is expressed as a perversion of reality. By this I mean that nakedness in a child has no sense of evil connected with it, until they are instructed by the carnal mind or THE SNAKE, usually by the parents. From that time they spend the rest of their lives associating their body with evil in the form of sexuality. Have you ever-wondered how whole tribes of people lived for thousand of years without clothes, until a missionary told them it were wrong?
It is interesting to recognize in this regard that the soul represents the female part of man, and it is this gender that is the focus of sexuality. Hence the carnal mind now has excited something in man that is like a wild animal out of its cage and refuses to be tamed. Where did this all begin? In the Garden of Eden when Eve listened to the "snake," and lost what we call today her innocence.
The TRUTH is, she stepped out of REALITY and entered into an illusion generated by the carnal mind. This illusion revolves around the belief that our great need is to satisfy every desire that we generate in the realm of our soul. Here is the way it is expressed for us in the parable of the "Garden of Eden." After the mind was separated from the spirit, the lusts and desires within man lost all their restraint and now were able to take control and fulfill their own destiny.
"When the woman SAW that the tree was GOOD FOR FOOD, and that it was PLEASANT to the EYES, and a tree to be DESIRED TO MAKE ONE WISE, she took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also to her husband."
What was it that motivated her to disobey God? Was it some literal snake hanging out of a tree? I think not. First of all her EYES saw something that captivated her attention, then desire began to arise in her that she must have that which now caught her attention. She reasoned in herself that it was good for food even though she had never tasted it before, so this was a "Mind activity."
She convinced herself that this tree would give her a wisdom she did not have, and so her will was energized and her actions now fulfilled her desire. She based her decision to disobey God on the function of her five natural SENSES, sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing, none of which are capable of discerning God, who is Omniscient, having all wisdom and knowing all things.
Thus Adam and Eve found themselves to be NAKED! No this is not a simple reference to having no clothing as the natural mind would have us believe. The PERCEPTION of man had changed. His ability to see into the reality of things was lost, and in its place they had created an illusion that today we call physical mortal life. MAN was not created as a physical being, for the man in
Genesis 1:26 was not flesh and blood, for he was a pure spirit man. This should not appear strange to us because GOD IS SPIRIT and man came out of God.
Gone was the intimate fellowship man had with God in the Spiritual Garden of his heart, and instead man had created a whole new physical material world that was no longer a Garden, but a wilderness. When God had completed creation, Scripture says, "And God saw everything that he had made and behold IT WAS VERY GOOD!" But in the world man has created there is both GOOD and EVIL and the earth brings forth thorns and thistles. In this "world" man has to earn his bread "by the sweat of his brow" unlike the provision God made for man in a Garden that provided everything he needed.
You may wonder what all this about the Garden of Eden has to do with the CROSS. But in theology it is the concept of S-I-N in the Garden with all its spiritual consequences that is the focus of most theology. Christendom has provided its followers with FORGIVNESS through a sacrifice in which God kills his son, and sheds his blood without which he cannot forgive sins. Every religion has provided some way in which man can find absolution, be it by a trip to Mecca, or an abundance of good works to out weigh the evil we have done. Even in some cases by the offering of their children’s lives to some heathen God.
If we fail to understand the Truth revealed in the Garden of Eden by trying to put a literal interpretation on it, we will end up with a totally distorted view of the CROSS-of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When God created man, he was a "God-man". He was to be the dwelling place of God, so that whatever God is, that would be the expression of His life. So man was created as spirit until he explored a "world" that was outside God, who is spirit. The knowledge of good and evil is not a part of God for these opposites do not exist in the realm of spirit, only in the physical world.
As we saw recorded in
Gen 1:31, everything that God made was VERY GOOD! Well may we ask, where did the devil and evil come from, if God did not create them?? Did God not plant the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? I don’t think so!!
Gen 1:9 tells us, "Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The tree of LIFE ALSO in the midst of the Garden, and the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil."
All the trees of the garden provided food and nourishment, but the Tree of LIFE and the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, were not in the same category. They represent a kind of probation for Adam by whom they would reveal the "thoughts and intent of the heart." Is not "Knowledge" the key to success in this life today? What about the quality of LIFE, where does it fit in our list of priorities today. Why to men push themselves almost to breaking point, risking a heart attack or nervous breakdown, so they can be rich. All this when we have access to the tree of LIFE, which is Christ. But alas that tree has little attraction for most people just as it was for Eve in the garden
Both of these trees are said to be "In the midst of the Garden!" Could these two trees be the same, depending upon the kind of mind we use to interpret them?? With a spiritual mind the TREE is to us, a tree of LIFE. But with the natural or carnal mind, that same tree becomes to us a tree of the knowledge of GOOD and EVIL, or a tree of duality. Seeing God as a BLESSER and a PUNISHER, as a Savior and a destroyer, as a Redeemer and a Condemner, as a Father and a Judge.
Remember in the Garden of Eden there are not two people there, for God called THEM ADAM. God did not call them Adam and Eve. It was Adam that called his wife Eve, who represents the soul. So the soul now takes the fruit to the Spirit and says to Adam, "Here you are, I want to share this "fruit" with you, because it can make us wise, and can even make us as gods". Now the Spirit has a dilemma.
Adam has a problem. What is he going to do? He can do one of two things. He can tell Eve, "You’ve blown it now, because remember God said, "The day you eat of that tree you will die." Now I am sorry for you Eve. I mean I love you very much, but listen, I’m not going to touch that fruit, because I know God. I am very sorry Eve, but you have blown it now, and you will just have to bear the consequences. I’m not having a thing to do with you or with the fruit."
Now he could have said that, but if he had, you wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t be here today. Why not? Because the soul would have been eternally separated from the Spirit, and there would have been no redemption. Can you hear this? Can you hear what the spirit is trying to teach us? Because the soul having sinned would have been separated from God and would have had to die, while the Spirit remained true to God and lived.
Can you hear this? So what did Adam do? Adam said, "Okay", and he took the fruit and ate it. He did not eat that fruit in rebellion. He did not eat that fruit because he was deceived by the snake! Are you hearing this? ADAM ATE THAT FRUIT BECAUSE HE WAS PREPARED TO DIE, SO THAT THE SOUL COULD LIVE.
Can you hear this? Of course, you know who Adam is, don’t you? THAT IS CHRIST for he is the ALPHA and OMEGA the BEGINNING and the END, the author and the finisher of our faith. That’s Christ. The MAN in
Genesis 1:26, who was CHRIST, the WORD, that dwelt with God and was God. He breathed into the nostrils of this MAN, the breath of the same life that he had. That was the breath of God. That was the life of God. And, Adam said, "Okay, I am prepared to forfeit my life, in order that the SOUL might be redeemed."
Since that time man has lived as a living soul. That is not how man was created in the beginning, but he BECAME, a living soul. And we have lived out of our soul ever since being subject to the passions, emotions and desires within us, that have risen up to take control of our lives. How often have we cried out like Paul, "Who shall deliver me from this body of death?"
Now, look back to
Hebrews 2:9 "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for everyman". He tasted death for everyman. For remember that Adam was not a single person. Don’t think of that man created in
Genesis 1:26 just as a single man. That was mankind. Adam represents ALL OF MANKIND. And what is the identity of MANKIND? CHRIST.
Luke 3:38. This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, "Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of ADAM, WHICH WAS THE SON OF GOD". Adam the MAN, is the SON OF GOD. That is who MAN is. That is Christ. Can you see it? Isn’t it amazing? When somebody shows you these things, you say, "Why didn’t I see that before"?
We see what we want to see, and because our theology has been messed up we haven’t seen the truth, because we have not been looking for it. Jesus Christ came into the world and Paul said He is the last Adam, BUT HE IS STILL ADAM. God had vested Himself in His creation. There is no God outside of His creation, for God now has become the resident within all of His creation.
Wherever there is LIFE that is GOD - IN ALL CREATION. That’s why all men can be saved. Come on, it’s not because all men are voluntarily going to say, "Oh yes, I love God", because they really do not know who God is. So when we look at Jesus Christ, this babe that was born in Bethlehem’s manger, what do we think? Oh, he is not one of US. This is some strange creature from the heavenly realm somewhere. We don’t quite know exactly who He is, but they gave him a name and called Him Jesus, but most people are convinced he is not one of US."
Are you hearing this? Didn’t you consider Him to be something quite different from us ordinary people? And then the theologians came along and said, "Of course you know that God is a trinity?" We have God the Father, and now we have God the Son, whose name is Jesus, and we have God the Holy Spirit, so in fact we have three Gods.
Christians therefore conclude that if Jesus was God, then God must be a man also, but we can never be like him even though we try. This TRINITY Teaching is not Biblical but was given to us by the Roman Catholic Church and Constantine the Emperor of Rome in AD. 322 and became Church Doctrine enshrined in the Nicene Creed two years later.
I want to tell you the babe in Bethlehem was no different from YOU WHEN YOU WERE BORN!!! He was no different from me when I was born. He was born of a woman and I am born of a woman. He was flesh and blood and I am flesh and blood. I don’t know any God that is flesh and blood and who is born of a woman. God is Spirit and is eternal.
Now let us go back to
Hebrews 2:10, "For it was an act worthy of God and fitting to the divine nature that he, for whose sake and by whom all things have their existence, in bringing many sons into glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect, i.e. bring to maturity the human experience necessary for his perfect equipment for his office as high priest, through suffering." That was CHRIST. He was made perfect through sufferings. Where was the suffering? Not simply at the Cross but they began when Adam took the fruit of the tree of good and evil. Now the earth was cursed but not the man. Oh, by the way, we had better look over here at
Timothy 2:11 first, because people say to me, "Adam sinned so how can he be CHRIST who never sinned?"
Let the Apostle answer the question for us. Paul is speaking to Timothy his son in the faith, "Let the women learn in silence with all subjection". Hasn’t the church hammered that one? "But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." So, what is Paul talking about here. Is it true that he has a dislike for women, saying they are not to teach in the church? NO NO, that is not what he is saying.
He is saying, "Don’t let the SOUL preach!" Of course, that is different all together. In some Churches you have a man standing in the pulpit, who wants to be called "father" but he is dressed like your mother, and He is just a LIVING "SOUL" ( the female aspect of mankind,) expressing itself. And God said, "Get Him out of there! HE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO TEACH."
And how many preachers do we have in the pulpit that still minister out of the soulish realm? And the soul is still teaching and preaching. That’s what Paul is talking about, not that you women can’t teach or preach, not that you have to be silent, and can’t say anything in church, no, no, but it better not be out of the soul, because God says look at the problems "Eve" caused.
"For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED". ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED. Underline it if you want to. He WAS NOT DECEIVED! "but the woman being deceived was in the transgression". So you can see that I am not attributing sin to Christ! Can you hear that? Paul tells me, Adam was not in the transgression. It was not the Spirit that sinned, it was the soul, and that is why you always read in the New Testament concerning, "the salvation of the soul", "save our souls" - SOS. Why? Because your SOUL NEEDS SAVING AND NOT YOUR SPIRIT. So Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
You see this is a foundation that needs to be laid in your understanding, before you will understand the cross, so we need to hear the VOICE OF GOD and not the words of man. You need to understand these things, how man functions, how sin came into the world. Sin came into the world through the soul and not through the spirit. And you see, when God created man, He created Him SPIRIT in his own likeness and image, MALE AND FEMALE, or SPIRIT and SOUL united as one.
And if God is Spirit, we must also be Spirit, having come out of God, but after six thousand years of human history we have become convinced that what we see in the mirror is "I," and this is not true. You cannot see me for I am Spirit. You see the body that I live in, and that is what the government identifies as being me. They identify your "body" by your birth date, parents and photograph. But they can’t identify your Spirit because they cannot see it. But we need to develop our spiritual identity in this life, because that is what cannot die but will continue on. If you have a spiritual identity in this life, you will have a spiritual identity in the next life. For we are part of a "Melchizedek order" and therefore there is no beginning and there is no end. Hallelujah!
Heb 2:14, "For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also Himself likewise took part of the same." He was flesh and blood. Jesus was as much a man as I am a man. He could not be any more M-A-N than what he was, because he was flesh and blood. So we need to understand this because otherwise, Christianity is totally confusing. The Gospel that has been preached by Christendom all over the world says, "Give your heart to Jesus and confess your sins, then believe He died for your sins on the cross, and ask Jesus into your heart and you are born again and a son of God." These are the doctrines of men. How can a mortal man suddenly become a Son of God just by giving assent to certain facts?
God never did create a "Mortal Man." God only ever created ONE SON and that was in the beginning.
Gen 1:26. That is the only Son God created and he was neither mortal nor was he physical. Here is our problem; we think that MAN IS A BODY and simply "Flesh and Blood." Eph 2:10, says "You are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus". When were we created? In the beginning when God created his only Son, for every other man was IN HIM. This means that the identity of every man must be the same as the one from which we have come, and that is Christ, for you were created in Him.
Who or what is Christ? The word Christ is translated from the Greek word "CHRISTOS" and means "Anointing." The anointing is the likeness and the image of God, giving us the ability to manifest God in this world. It allows us the ability to bring the invisible God down into the visible world and to make Him known to men. Christ is not the "Name" of any person, because it belongs to the spiritual realm from which all men have come, and not the physical material realm.
So, it says here,
Heb 10, "Wherefore, when He (Jesus Christ) cometh into the world he says, "Sacrifice and offerings you did not require, but a body hast Thou prepared me". God never required that men should offer sacrifices at all.
Jer 7:22. But, you gave me a body! Why did God give him a BODY? The answer is, because GOD IS SPIRIT and so if he wants to express himself in THIS PHYSICAL WORLD, it is essential that he have a BODY. From creation MAN was always intended to be the DWELLING PLACE and the expression of God.
Man expresses what "he" is through his body, but most people have never yielded their BODY to be an expression of God. When Jesus Christ came into the world he said, "I come to do thy will O God." The only sacrifice God is interested in today is a LIVING SACRIFICE, and not one that is DEAD. Paul says we should, "Present our BODIES as a living sacrifice unto God which is our spiritual worship." Otherwise we can never fulfil the purpose for which our body has been given to us.
So, if I believe I am an alcoholic I will get drunk, because I will express what an alcoholic is. If I believe I am a sinner then that is what I will express through my body. Isn’t that right? You keep telling a child, "You’re bad, and you will never be any good," and what will they do? They will be bad because to them it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. So now we understand, GOD WANTS YOUR BODY, through which to express Himself, and not for you to express what you think YOU are!
This is a truth Israel never understood, for thy offered the BLOOD and bodies of animals to God, but never made their own bodies available to him, through which to express himself. But when Jesus came he made his body available saying, "In the volume of the Book it is written of me, I come to express thy will O God." God did not desire BLOOD SACRIFICE at all, but wanted a BODY that would be a "living sacrifice," and not a sacrifice that was DEAD.
Okay, turn back to
Ezekiel, chapter 16. I haven’t got time to go through this chapter. However I would like to, because it is a very interesting chapter revealing the Jewish or Hebrew concept as a superior nation that enjoyed a very special relationship with God. All the other nations were considered to be heathen. One day two heavenly visitors called on Abraham telling him they were going to destroy Sodom and Gomorra. Abraham pleaded with them but in the end he was content to trust God.
We tend to read the Bible as if it were just a history book instead of bringing a spiritual message to us today. Fire in the Bible speaks to us of the cleansing power of God, which is not destructive. So religious people like to dwell on God destroying these evil cities. We read of their destruction by fire, but the preachers never tell you the end of the story, because they believe it is dangerous to preach GRACE.
In
Ezek 16:47 the Prophet tells this chapter He tells Jerusalem that they were WORSE than Sodom and Gomorrah. He said one day you will see that I am restoring them to their former glory. Hallelujah! The Grace of God hath appeared. Okay,
Chapter 16, verse 1. "The word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother was a Hittite". Listen to this. This is not a history book. But Israel thought they were the chosen of God because Abraham was their Father. But God reminds them concerning their natural ancestry.
In
Matt 23:9 Jesus tells us, "Call no man your Father upon the earth, for ONE is your Father (God) which is in heaven." Our natural generation has little to do with our true origin, for this reason people in every land pray saying, OUR FATHER which art in heaven!
He said to Israel: Your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite, and that is why you have the problems you have, because of what you believe about your origin. And yet, when Jesus came they kept saying, "We are of our father Abraham". And what did Jesus say? "You could have fooled me. Abraham loved me, but you want to kill me, so how can you be his children?" All right. So you see, Israel came out of a heathen father and a heathen mother, but where did we come from? Can you keep your finger there again?
Turn to Galatians. Like I say, if we put these verses together where they belong, they always mean far more than if we just read them independently. We are talking about our origin. We are talking about our mother here. Do you know who your mother is? Well, I'm going to tell you.
This is
Gal 4:25, "For this Hagar" (which was the Egyptian slave woman that Abraham took to bear what he thought was going to be his heir), "is Mt. Sinai in Arabia and answers to Jerusalem, which is now, and is in bondage with her children". This is true even today! "But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all". Come on, you need to underline that one. That is your mother, JERUSALEM, WHICH IS ABOVE.
The "Jerusalem, which is above" was the city that Abraham looked for. It says here he was a pilgrim and he was looking for a city. What kind of a city was Abraham looking for? "A city that has foundations and whose builder and maker is God". What does a "City" speak to us of? In the natural it speaks to us of the center of commerce and commercial activity.
So Jerusalem, which is "above," must be the centre of GOD’S ACTIVITY. And where is the center of all divine activity? Christendom will tell you that it is in a beautiful place up in the sky called "heaven." But this is not true, for the divine activity is centered IN YOU! YOU ARE GOD'S CITY! And all divine activity is centered in you. Whatever God is doing in this world, even in terms of bringing all the nations unto Himself, will be done through a PEOPLE! WE ARE THAT PEOPLE! YOU ARE THAT CITY! YOU ARE THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM!
The "Heavenly Jerusalem" is the feminine side of God through which he births his sons. Just as Sarah was the vehicle through which the promised seed was to come. Isaac was the natural seed but Christ was the SPIRITUAL SEED.
This is where God's center is. This is where His temple is. This is where His throne is, and from that throne he is functioning today. YOU ARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD! Do you hear that?
Go back to
Ezek 16:4. "And as for thy nativity, in the day that thou wast born, your navel was not cut". What's he talking about? See, we have got to get beyond the ink on the paper. We read that and say, "Ah, poor kid". But what is the spirit trying to say to us? We cannot be connected to any earthly origin or it must of necessity pollute the pure stream of LIFE that flows from God.
It means he was tied to his mother, that is, the umbilical cord, if that is not cut, you will continue to be fed from the natural realm, and remain a part of your mother and never be free. God was telling Israel, you and your mother are going to remain one, and she was a Hittite. You want to be a Son of God? Well, then you better let God cut the umbilical cord connecting you to any human origin. How can we be a part of the Melchisedek Priesthood if we are tied to any earthly origin? Melchisedek is without FATHER and MOTHER and without beginning or end.
Abraham is coming back from the battle of the kings and somebody meets him called Melchisedek, who was the King of PEACE, and not the king of war. Abraham had been out there fighting and he comes back and meets the King of PEACE. Do you realize that God has ways of doing things that we haven't dreamed about yet? When He wanted to deliver Israel from the land of Egypt, God didn't give them all an AK-47 rifle. God didn't train them in jungle warfare or whatever, but he released the nation of Israel from Egypt without firing a shot.
They walked free from their captors, and not even a dog could bark against them. That is the KING OF PEACE. The wars and all the fighting in the world are not our problem. Jesus told us not to resist evil, the reason being that evil has no reality and there is only ONE POWER in the universe, and that is GOD. Man is functioning out of a false sense of identity that says, "I want, I need, I'll have to get".
And so, let's go on in Ezekiel, "Thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee, and you were not swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but you were cast out into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou was born." Beloved, if you can't identify with that you are not honest. Haven't we all groaned and been discouraged by our natural heritage and what we believed ourselves to be. I can tell you I was. When I was at school I felt like I wasn't going to make it. It was all too hard for me. And, as I grew up beyond that and went to work, I believed everybody else out there was bigger than me, better than me, and I believed I was inferior to everybody else.
This is what the Prophet is talking about. It was like you were in an open field when you were born. But I want to tell you something.
Psalm 139 tells me that when you were in your mother's womb, Father molded your being. He brought the parts of your being together when there was nothing there, and He formed you for Himself.
And when you were born, you did not come out into some cold, sterile ward with a smell of disinfectant around you - Father was there with His loving open arms and said, "Come on, you are my Son. You're my Daughter. I made you for myself, and I have a tremendous plan for your life"! Ah, but we forgot that didn't we, and went out like the prodigal son to make a life for ourselves. Let's go on a bit further; otherwise we are not going to get through this. I want you to look now at Ezekiel, chapter 36.
GOD’S RESCUE PROGRAM
Ezekiel 36:22, "Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen wherever you went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified IN YOU before their eyes".
Please ponder the words for they express so much. But you may say, "This was for Israel and not us today". We are certainly not natural Israel, but WE ARE THE ISRAEL OF GOD and ABRAHAM’S SEED.
(Gal 3:16,19) We are those that God has called unto Himself to be what natural Israel could never be. We are that HOLY NATION. We are a KINGDOM OF PRIESTS. We are those things NOW. So, He says, "I am going to sanctify Myself in you before the eyes of the heathen". Now, how is He going to do that? I mean, haven't we all sinned? Haven't we all done all sorts of things that have violated the Law of God putting us under the curse of God?? Well now listen, and I will show you how He is doing it.
Verse 24, "I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you to your own land". The first thing he needs to do is to separate us from the "heathen" in the world. What's your own land? This does not involve some "rapture" lifting us physically on to "cloud nine," leaving the sinners to endure awful punishment here on earth! NO, Paul tells us, "He has raised us up and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus N-O-W." Our feet do not leave the earth, but our consciousness functions in the spiritual world. So what is this land into which God is gathering us.
You are the heavens and the earth. That is what you are. God says, "I will bring you into your OWN LAND, which I have given you. At the moment your "land" or body is controlled by the natural mind, unless it has been renewed in the Holy Ghost. Did you know that? You get a little pain, "Ooo, I think I've got cancer". You blow your nose three times, "I think I've got hay-fever". And you get it, because your mind controls your body. But God says, I am going to give you back your own land, and you can get rid of the enemies within, that have oppressed you. But the question is HOW is God going to accomplish such a thing.
Verse 25, listen to this, "Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you". I thought He was going to get a lamb and kill it or a bullock or something. Surely He must want blood to be shed, because He is going to sanctify Himself IN YOU! He says, "I will tell you what I am going to do. I am going to sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean". Can you hear this? He says here that "you SHALL be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you". God is not saying, "I want you to quit being an idolater, and stop sinning and be good". NO! He says, "I am going to sprinkle the clean water on you".
What do you think He is doing today? He is sprinkling the CLEAN WATER OF THE PURE RIVER OF LIFE on you. It is the clean and pure water of the WORD, beloved! This is not "water" that man has contaminated with his carnal thinking that has no power to cleanse us from all our filthiness. This involves no list of Do’s and Don’ts but just a simply statement, "I'm going to sprinkle clean water on you and that CLEAN WATER will make you clean from all your filthiness"! Come on, this is truth, and God is cleansing you right now as you hear his voice speaking the pure Word. It is taking away from you that sense of "Woe is me for I am undone". That sense of "Oh God, I'm a dirty rotten sinner and please, forgive me?" He is taking all that from you, so you can stand up in the presence of God and say, "My Father, my Lord, and my God"!
Verse 26, He says, "I will put a new heart in you. I'll give you a new heart, and a new Spirit will I put in you. And I will take away the stony heart". You get a transplant out of this! You think man was the first to think of that? God was the first one to transplant hearts! Of course he is not speaking of the pump that circulates blood to your body! He said, "I will give you a new heart", because the heart is the centre of man. The heart is that out of which we function. It is the soul of man. That is what the heart is, and the heart determines how you live. If you have a hard, stony heart, then you will be angry and you will be a destructive person in your life.
The NEW heart God has for us is a heart of LOVE, that will allow you to love your enemies, and to LOVE GOD. It will extend Grace to all and condemn none. That is the kind of heart God will give you. I will give you a heart of love that will bind you together like you have never been bound together before. I will give you a heart that won't leave any gaps in the seats when you fellowship, because you will want to be together. Then you will understand, "That there is a bit of me in you, and there is a bit of you in me". The Spirit that is in you, is the same Spirit in me, and your Father is my Father. Come on, WE ARE ONE!
He says in
verse 27, "And I will put my Spirit in you and cause you to walk in my statues and keep my judgements and do them". This is the Spirit of the Living God. No longer will we be LIVING SOULS as ADAM became, but we will be LIFE GIVING SPIRITS able to quicken the dead. And He said, "YOU WILL LIVE OUT OF THAT SPIRIT, because I will put that Spirit IN YOU"! The Spirit that activates God, THAT IS GOD, I will put in you. That will make you "Gods," under the Most High God. We won't replace God. Don't run away with that crazy notion. That is what people out there try and tell us, because they think this is blasphemy, just like the Jews in Jesus day, who tried to kill him for the same reason. Jesus upset them when he said, "I and my Father are one".
Jn 10:30.
you to wal"I will put my Spirit in you and cause k in my statutes and you will keep my judgements and do them". This is not writing Ten Commandments on a piece of stone. This is not God writing them on the wall and saying, "this is the law I want you to keep". God is not saying that here. He says, "I will put my Spirit in you and you WILL walk in my ways." You will not have to try to walk in my ways, because my Spirit will function in you and you WILL WALK in the ways of God. Can you hear this? For this is the gospel, and we have not even mentioned S-I-N nor have we spoken about sacrifice at all. Now, you can begin to understand why I am telling you all this before I talk about the cross. Beloved we need to understand this.
And He says here in
verse 28, "And you will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and ye shall be my people and I will be your God". Isn't this good stuff? Is it doing you good? Ah, the struggle that I had in my life to get rid of all that stuff we call sin. I struggled against my bad habits and failures because I did not want to continue to do them. I was like Paul who said," The things I want to do, I am unable to do, but the things that I do not want to do, these are the things that I find myself doing." God help me! "How can I be delivered from this body of death?" Then Paul says, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord".
Here is the answer to our entire struggle; it is through the INDWELLING CHRIST, the NEW HEART and the NEW SPIRIT that the change will take place. This is the Gospel. "I'll save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen". I am going to leave it there, but you can read the rest of the chapter.
Can you understand what the spirit is saying to us today through the Prophet Ezekiel? God says I will replace the "control" within you by rising up the CHRIST. This is your true IDENTITY and with that new heart and spirit, your will walk in my ways and you will be clean. In Christ you will discover the inexhaustible supply capable of meeting every need.
I want you to understand that God does not need the shedding of LITERAL blood to set you free. Christendom has tried to convince us that God has always demanded BLOOD Sacrifices. But remember what Jesus said when he came into the world. "Sacrifice and offerings and offering for sins you did not desire and neither did you have pleasure in them."
Heb 10:5 & 8.
(See also Jer 7:22)
But there are some who will quote
Heb 9:22 to support the necessity of BLOOD SACRIFICE. " And almost all things are BY THE LAW purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission." Now if you are still UNDER THE LAW then, YES, you will need a blood sacrifice. But we are under a NEW COVENANT of GRACE and physical BLOOD has no place there. The idea of blood sacrifice came from the Hebrew concept of God under the Old Covenant. Christendom has just continued the Hebrew concept, thinking that God still demands PHYSICAL blood before he can forgive us.
What would you say if I asked you, "What is the blood that cleanses you from sin?" Most Christians would say, "Well, it would be the physical literal blood of Jesus when he died on the cross". Do you mean the blood that was in the veins of that man called Jesus'"? "Yes". But he was a mortal man and the blood of a mortal man cannot save you from sin. Anyway that blood fell to the ground, so I don't know how he would pick it up and take it into the Most Holy Place, according to the analogy of the tabernacle. It had to be something else.
In John 6:53 Jesus said, "Except you eat the FLESH of the Son of man and DRINK HIS BLOOD you have no life in you." Do you think Jesus was asking us to be cannibals? I don’t think so and therefore he was not speaking about LITERAL BLOOD or LITERAL FLESH. The "Flesh" of Christ is the SUBSTANCE OF WHAT HE IS and the "Blood" of Christ is his LIFE. Whatever I eat in the natural is assimilated into my body and becomes "ME." So in the spiritual sense, as I eat the substance of what he is, that is what I become.
Jesus says finally regarding eating his flesh and drinking his blood, "He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood, dwelleth IN ME and I in HIM. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that EATETH ME EVEN HE SHALL LIVE BY ME."
TO SUM UP WHAT HAS BEEN SAID
We began this study by discovering man’s origin. WE found that man was created SPIRIT with no physical body, for that was to come later in Gen 2.
Now, I want you to turn to John's gospel, chapter 3, and verse 14. And this is Jesus speaking now about the cross. And he said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up". As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, in exactly the same way, the Son of man had to be lifted up. So, I want to know now, what is this serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness and what was it all about?
Let's go back and see. Numbers 21:5 says, "And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread'. They were saying to God that they had enough of eating this bread they had to scrape off the leaves of the tree every morning. I mean we would like to get back to normality with a choice of some kind. Surely Lord, you can give us something better than this, and while we are at it, we would like to mention that we are getting tired of banging on this rock to get a drink of water. They really were arguing with God.
In verse 6 it says, "The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much of the people of Israel died". This is not a history book. Can you hear this? This is not recorded here just to tell us that Israel did this and Israel said that, and you know, a bunch of snakes came in amongst them. See, we consider the things we read in the Bible are like children's stories, because this is what we tell the children in Sunday School. We tell them the story about the serpents in the wilderness, and we tell them about the baby Jesus born in Bethlehem. We tell them about Noah and the ark, but we never tell them what the truth is behind all of these things, because we don't know ourselves. So, let's have a look at this.
Now this is heavy stuff, I mean, here are these people arguing against God, and God sends a bunch of deadly snakes that bite them and kill them. Wow! What a God we've got. I thought my Father loved me. I thought God IS LOVE. Well then, surely there must be something more behind the words we read. First of all, if you want to do a little study, you will find that the word for snakes there, or fiery serpents, is the word "seraph" and more than one is "seraphim", the "im" is the plural suffix in the Hebrew language.
Now what is the function of the seraphs? Well, in Isaiah 6, you can read for yourself, that when the prophet went into the temple he saw the Lord high and lifted up with his train filling the temple. The sight so overcame him that he cried out, "Lord, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, and Lord have mercy on me". At that very moment a seraphim flew across to the altar and they picked up a live coal and brought it over to Isaiah and touched his lips and said, "Your iniquity is cleansed and you are purged from your sin." Your lips are now clean and you are clean, and there wasn't any sacrifice there, because the seraphim are the guardians of God's holiness, and they also take care of the fire of God. They were in charge, if you like, of the fire department, not putting it out, but keeping it burning. You see, it was the fire that cleansed him. Again, please notice there was no blood sacrifice. He was cleansed by fire, not by blood sacrifice.
So, the Lord released these seraphs, and they began to bite the people and as a result something in them began to die, because they represent the fire of God. However, the fire of God is not destructive. The fire is God's means of transforming you. So, these people needed a little clean up, so what better way of doing it than by God's sending his fire. It was not to destroy them, BUT TO CLEANSE THEM, and to make them to be what God intended them to be. In answer to the cry of the people, Moses turns to the Lord, asking for direction.
The Lord said to Moses, this is what I want you to do. You see those things, whatever they are that are biting the people, causing them to die, well I want you to make one of those out of brass. Now brass in the Bible always speaks of the judgement of God. What does the word "Judgement" mean? Well, it comes from a Greek word "KRISIS." If you put a "C" in place of the "K" you are very close to the meaning, "CRISIS."
A crisis is something that happens in your life causing you to pause for a moment. You are going along in a certain direction at about 100 miles an hour and suddenly something happens in your life, and God pulls you up. That is a CRISIS. And in that crisis, you are given time to assess the situation and say, "Hey, where am I really going." Is this the direction I want my life to take? It's a CRISIS. It allows you to reconsider your direction, and to think about where this pathway that you are on is leading you. From the spiritual point of view it means a "setting right" of that which is wrong, or a correction if you like. Again let me say, God’s judgement is not destructive but is positive in its purpose.
So, you see, these people needed to find an answer to their problem. Not just the problem of the snakes, but the problem of why do we keep griping against God. Why do we keep getting angry with Moses for bringing us out here? Is there an answer? Yes sir, there is an answer. God said, "Moses make one of those things out of brass, and then put it on the top of a pole. Then erect the pole right in the middle of Israel, and anybody that has been bitten by those serpents, all they have to do is LOOK at the brazen serpent on the pole and they will live."
SALVATION, beloved, is LOOK and LIVE. That's what Jesus is telling us in John 3. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, in the same way must the Son of mn be lifted up.”? Oh, well then who does the serpent on the pole represent? The answer must be, "The one who died upon the CROSS who was lifted up just like the serpent in the wilderness." This is Adam from the Garden of Eden. What in the world is it that makes you sin? What is it that every time I want to do good I can't do it, but I find that I am doing the thing that I don't want to do. What is causing me to live like that?
NO, it is not some external entity called the devil, but it is the Adamic consciousness that functions out of the NATURAL or CARNAL MIND. It is that Adamic nature that has come to us through our natural generation, because we look back at our parents and say, "Well, that's where we came from." But when we say that, we are denying our true identity that we came out of God. Remember God did not create a MAN OF FLESH AND BLOOD. We were created as SPIRIT and even today we are still spirit in the reality of our being. So, this Adamic consciousness remains in us. That is what is killing us, the Adamic consciousness or the carnal mind, that Paul tells us IS DEATH.
1 Cor 15:45, "And so it is written. The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life giving Spirit". They are both Adam, but one is a LIVING SOUL and the other has the ability to GIVE LIFE or is a LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT. So, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up? What has been killing us? ADAM or the Adamic consciousness that tells us we have come from Adam and so we believe we are sinners and under the curse of God. That's what has been killing us? Now we need to know what provision has God made to remedy our situation?
2 Cor 5:21. "For he (that is God), hath made him (that is Christ), to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." He made him, TO BE SIN, or the MAN OF SIN. NO, God did not make him TO SIN, because remember Paul said, "It was not Adam that sinned, it was Eve". She was deceived and she took that fruit in rebellion against God, but Adam had his eyes wide open when he ate that fruit, and he did it deliberately, because he knew the consequences of his eating and HE had in mind YOUR SALVATION AND MINE. So now God has made Jesus Christ, to be that LAST ADAM. The MAN OF SIN, who is the cause of all our problems, ultimately bringing us into DEATH, now willingly embraces the CROSS.
So now, let's go back then, to Luke 22:37, which says, "For I say unto you, this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, and he was reckoned among the transgressors". So this is what still had to be accomplished in him. He was reckoned among the transgressors for the things concerning me have an end, or have a predetermined expectation, if you like, probably would be a better translation. And they said, Lord, behold here are two swords. And he said to them, that is enough. And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the Mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said to them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed, saying, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done". What is the cup that he is drinking? Well, back in the Garden of Eden he took the fruit from Eve, and he ate it, not in rebellion nor in deception, but with his eyes wide open. He knew the consequences both of eating that fruit of good and evil, and also he knew what would be the result of abstaining from eating the fruit. Do you realise what would have been the result if Adam had not shared the fruit with Eve? Let me tell you. If Adam had refused to join Eve in eating of the tree of good and evil the soul would have been eternally separated from the Spirit and there would have been no salvation for any man!! Think about it!
Now God is saying, to the LAST ADAM I want you to carry this through now to its final conclusion and take that LIVING SOUL into death. That is the "cup". Now, I want you to lay down your NATURAL SOULISH LIFE, because if you do you will release all humanity from its power. You will release humanity by destroying the power of death. So Father says, "My Son, are you willing to lay down your physical soul life now?" Are you willing to become at this moment a LIVING SACRIFICE? NO, not a dead sacrifice as they all were in Israel’s history.
And in the agony of that moment it says he sweat as it were, great drops of blood, falling down to the ground. The agony - for the salvation of all men is here at stake. Because God said the day in which you eat that fruit, you will die. Well, Adam's physical death didn't accomplish anything for us 930 years after he left the Garden, except in type form, so we read, AND ADAM DIED.
But NOW we are looking at the reality of what we read concerning the FIRST ADAM in the Garden of Eden. Adam’s death is not a punishment as religion suggests, but MANKIND’S release from the POWER OF DEATH. Adam had to die before Christ could arise in us constituting us LIFE GIVING SPIRITS. But here he is now, as the LAST ADAM.
So, of course, when Christendom preaches the cross they say, "Now this is God's lamb, the Lamb of God, which is the sin offering for all mankind". But we already read that Jesus said, "Father, you didn't want sacrifice and offerings and offerings for sin." You didn't want that. That wasn't what you wanted at all. How can we then make him a sin offering? HE IS NOT A SIN OFFERING. He doesn't have to be a sin offering. I have already showed you how God can make you perfect, and it has nothing to do with literal physical blood. Because the blood that will make you perfect, had already been shed. When Adam took the fruit of that tree, he slew the Lamb of God.
The LAMB OF GOD is not a woolly creature with four legs and wool on its back. The LAMB OF GOD is the NATURE OF GOD, because a lamb is a defenceless creature. It says, "What do you want to do to me? You want to hurt me, you go right ahead. You want to shear me and take the wool off my back, you go right ahead, I can't stop you. You want to kill me, go right ahead". That is what the "Lamb Nature" of God says. There are many people in this world today, maybe thousands, who have mocked God and defied him to destroy them. But God did not destroy any of them. Could he have done so? Of course he could!.
Those people bring retribution on themselves, because whatever a man sows, that is what he reaps. Sow to the flesh and you will reap corruption. Sin and its consequences have nothing to do with God. But Christendom considers that SIN has outraged God, demanding that he give his only begotten son as a sin offering, instead of destroying mankind. It's like God says, "I'll tell you what I am going to do. I can't forgive you unless I have a BLOOD SACRIFICE so here is the deal. This time an animal sacrifice is not sufficient, so I will kill my only SON on the Cross of Calvary. Then when he is dead and his blood has been poured out then I will be satisfied, and forgive only those who repent.
This is what the Church has taught for centuries and Christians have believed it, even though in so doing they have defamed the character of God. But this cannot be our God of LOVE! Would you kill your son to provide salvation for somebody else? I don't think so. But let us just think about what we are saying for a moment.
Jesus taught us in Mark 11:25-26 that when we pray we must forgive all those who have wronged us. In fact he goes further and says that if we do not forgive others then our Heavenly Father will not forgive us. But now we are saying that this same "Heavenly Father" will not forgive mankind unless there is a "BLOOD SACRIFICE," and that sacrifice is his only SON. In Matt 18:24-27 Jesus spoke about a man who owed his master much more than he could every pay back but his master FREELY FORGAVE HIM THE DEBT.
These parables all display the character of God and are very instructive, but we have taken little notice of them choosing to believe the distorted character of our God presented to us by preachers and teachers, rather than the Truth Jesus revealed. Notice in this passage of Scripture it was the UNFORGIVING MAN who had himself been freely forgiven that was cast into prison, not because of any debt but because he failed to reflect the same grace that had been shown to him. In this he defamed his Heavenly Father before others. How many times in the New Testament did Jesus tell people that their sins were forgiven? It was not on the basis of the Cross, for that was still in the future. The woman taken in adultery was condemned to die under the LAW but Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you."
Christendom has presented such a harsh demanding God to the world who demands Blood Sacrifice before he can extend forgiveness to anyone, and even then only if certain conditions are met. Failure to comply with these conditions results in this God burning you forever and ever in "hell." This God is presented to mankind as "YOUR LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER." Who in the world could LOVE such a Father, and be proud to be his children?? No wonder the heathen are multiplying far more than Christians.
WHAT IS THE TRUTH
JESUS CHRIST WAS NOT THE SIN OFFERING. He was made to BE THE MAN OF SIN or the LAST ADAM, which is responsible for our mistaken identity, and the illusion of our physical mortality in and this physical material world. The Adamic consciousness has locked us up through the carnal mind to believe we are just mortal human beings born in sin, cast out of the Garden of God, and living under the law of SIN AND DEATH.
And so, you will notice a change after Jesus was arrested by the soldiers in the Garden. He has accepted the will of the Father to take "mortality" into death thus releasing the SPIRIT (CHRIST) to be manifest in all mankind. So now men were able to subdue him, which they were not able to do before this. Now they mocked him by putting a robe on him and a reed in his hand and a crown of thorns on his head, and announcing this one to be the KING of the Jews. But notice there was no retaliation.
He was made to carry his cross up the hill to Golgotha and there they nailed his hands and feet to the cross, and he did not resist. He was led as a LAMB to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Just as he took the fruit from Eve, so now he willingly yields his will to God
NO NO beloved, this is not the SON OF GOD for it is impossible for a SON OF GOD TO DIE. This is the Last Adam, tasting death FOR EVERY MAN, and in so doing he is destroying that which has the POWER OF DEATH, the CARNAL MIND, setting us free. There is no substitution involved here; Jesus Christ is not dying on this cross INSTEAD of you and me. NO, he is dying their AS ME, and as every member of the human race, for that is what he represents in the Garden of Eden. This is where ADAM the "LIVING SOUL MAN" dies, and the LIFE GIVING SPIRIT which is C-H-R-I-S-T comes forth out of that death.
Many times I have surveyed that scene on Golgotha’s Hill as the Spirit brings the truth into clear focus for me. My whole life and destiny are to be found here so I watch every movement with great intent. And, I am watching this one on the cross, because you see, this is so very important to me personally. Jesus told us clearly, "If the SON shall make you free, then you are absolutely free!"
So I am determined to walk free from the enslaving influences that are in my life. So I am looking at that cross, and there he, but even in his hour of suffering he takes care of his mother, and says to John, "See this is your mother, and Mother, I want you to see John, who is going to look after you". I mean, that is how much grace he displayed even at the time of death.
Then I see him speak so graciously to one of the thieves who were crucified with him. But the time of his departure was at hand, and I hear that victorious cry come from his lips, IT IS FINISHED! Then he surrendered his spirit unto the Father as he died. I stood there trying to contemplate what it was that was FINISHED. Like a soft vesper blowing across the meadows, I heard a voice within saying, "The power of sin is broken, and also the power of death, for here DEATH is swallowed up in victory, and you are free indeed."
The spirit can never be released without death, for it is death that releases the spirit. As in the natural, so in the spiritual. Can you hear this? The "Alabaster Box" of precious ointment must be broken to release its perfume. The BREAD (Body) must be broken so that others may eat and live. ADAM the man of dust must be brought into death before the LIFE GIVING SPIRIT WITHIN, CAN BE RELEASED. The TRUTH begins to unfold before my eyes not from the lips of some preacher, but as the Spirit of God lights up the scene before me to reveal all its sacred treasures.
So, I'm watching and looking at this man dying on that cross and I say to myself, "There is something familiar about him. I don't know what it is, but I think I know that man that is dying on that cross". So I step a little bit closer and I'm looking, and suddenly I say to myself, "I know who it is…. that's ME." That's why I could recognize him. THAT IS ME DYING ON THAT CROSS"! I do not just see Jesus Christ dying on that cross, but I saw myself identified IN HIM. Of course, now CHRIST the ANNOINTING has been released through death, because that is SPIRIT.
Now Jesus bows his head and all movement stops, he is dead! BUT THAT IS ME! HE DIED AS ME!!! So if YOU died in him YOU must also be dead. ADAM IS DEAD! The one who prevented me from being free, by enslaving me to sin IS NOW DEAD.
But this is not the end of the story. I am very interested to see what is going to happen now? His voice remains etched in my memory as he cries, "IT IS FINISHED". But the depth of meaning in these words has yet to fully dawn on me, but I believe it. Loving hands come and take that body down from the cross and they wrap it in the grave clothes, and they take it away. They go down the hill and I follow them, because remember that is me, and I want to know what will happen to me.
Over the years I have been asked many times about, "what happens after we die?" Well, if you will follow with me we will find out together the answer. The people carrying the body come to a burial cave on a rich man’s property, and they lay it gently on the rock shelf inside. Then in deep reverence, they walked out. And I am still looking because, that is ME! That's ME lying there in that cave.
Now I am outside, because the soldiers are rolling that big stone over the mouth of the cave and they are sealing it with the Roman seal! I remembered Jesus spoke about the THIRD day being the day of resurrection so I settled down to wait because I must know what happens to me. So as it dawns toward that third day I am watching. Suddenly I notice the stone has been rolled away already. And I look inside, and there is two angelic beings sitting there. These are like the "cherubim," one at each end where the body of Jesus had laid, the same as the MERCY SEAT ON THE ARK. And they say to me, "Who are you looking for"? Without hesitation I reply, "I'm looking for Des Walter". They reply, "Why seek ye the living among the dead"? I stand there trying to grasp what I am hearing, so they repeat it. "Why seek the living among the dead? This is the place for the dead and not the living".
So I go outside with my head is spinning and I am confused. I don't know what's happened now, because there is nothing there. I know I saw that body lay there on the rock shelf, and the cave sealed with a great Rock, but now, there is nothing there except the grave clothes. I mean, I thought there would at least be a little heap of dust there, but there is not dust! If there had been it would have been in Rome by now, and they would be charging you for a look! I want to tell you, I've looked in that tomb, and THERE WAS NOTHING THERE! Jesus and Des Walter have gone FOREVER, NEVER TO RETURN.
But my search is not finished yet, because I must know what's happened to me. I'm still looking, and I hear voices. Here comes Mary and she is talking with the gardener, and says, "Listen, I know we buried Jesus of Nazareth in there, but his body is gone. Did you take his body away, or do you know who took it? And do you know where it is now, because I want to know?" And this man looks at her and he says, "Mary", and she knew who it was immediately. She knew that it was the Lord. I heard that conversation so I know he is alive but I still do not understand. By this time others have come and the whole town is talking about the empty tomb.
The questions are still in my mind about what happened to ME. Notice that it was the women who first discovered Jesus Christ was ALIVE. Eve (the soul) had been searching for her beloved down through the ages, and now she has found him! Of course they told the disciples who were not convinced so Peter and John decided to run to the tomb and see for themselves. They also found the empty tomb!
A little later I am walking along the road to Emmaus with a few of the disciples and I am listening to them talk as they journey. Along that road a man joins the group and they walk together. He begins to talk to us and we get to talking to him, and all the time he is talking I am looking at him, and I am thinking to myself, "I know him from somewhere. I am certain I have met him before. But I can't remember who he really is. Finally we come to our destination and we ask him to come in with us and have a meal. The stranger was given the honour of breaking the bread.
At that very moment It was like a light was turned on within me and to my amazement I discovered who that person is. THAT'S ME! THAT IS ME! FOR I had RISEN IN CHRIST! And, CHRIST HAD RISEN IN ME. Des Walter, that character that was born 70 odd years ago in Atherton, in North Queensland, that had failed so many times along the road of life, no longer existed.
My life up to that point now seemed like a DREAM from which I had been suddenly awakened. There was a real sense of unreality about my past life just as if it had been some ILLUSION.NOW the whole experience of the Cross-burst upon my consciousness in stunning reality. The person I thought I was that was a mortal, physical human being expressing soulish life, had made me a prisoner of a false identity.
I believed I was born and that I would die. I believed I came from Adam and so was a sinner and God was angry with me. My Sunday School teacher told me one day to kneel down and repent of my sins and ask Jesus to come into my life, which I did. But life was a constant battle with me wanting to do good but evil was always with me. I believed what the preachers told me, that I was born again and a Son of God, but I had little evidence to convince me. But now I have found my true identity and that is CHRIST.
What about Jesus, what happened to him? Well, he died because he was flesh and blood also just like me. There was NO physical JESUS that rose from the dead. How glad I am for that, because otherwise I would also have gone through the cross and remained the same mortal human being I was before.
Flesh and blood do not exist beyond death, for they are a part of the illusion of life in the world of good and evil. Beyond the grave the only reality is SPIRIT. That spirit is eternal and is God that fills the universe. The "Grave" strips away the illusion so that all that fills the universe. The "Grave" strips away the illusion so that all we have left after that is R-E-A-L-I-T-Y. Heaven has nothing that is physical or material attached to it, for it has no physical location and is not a place to which we can go. The "City Foursquare," and the "streets of gold," is simply parabolic language, just as are the 12 gates of Pearl.
We have been deceived into believing that the FORM is the reality. Our body beloved is not the reality of what you are, for you were created as SPIRIT in the image of God. This is where the concept of "God being a MAN" comes from, bringing many Christians into IDOLATRY. For the Commandments tell us that we are not to make any GRAVEN IMAGE or any likeness of anything that is in heaven or on earth or even in the water under the earth. Jesus tells us that "GOD IS SPIRIT and those who worship him MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH."
Beloved, the truth is that we do not have to CONTINUE IN SIN ANY LONGER. Can you hear this? The MAN OF SIN, Adam was crucified on the cross? The L-A-S-T ADAM died 2000 years ago. We were created in Christ Jesus in the beginning as SPIRIT and that is the reality of our being. Christ is the Seed of God in every man but for so many the illusion of reality remains centered in the body of dust, and so they continue to live as sinners and under the law of sin and death, instead of the "Law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus."
Thus for many the CROSS-brings no release from the bondage of our mortality. The best Christendom can offer is that in the cross there is forgiveness for sins, but no power to keep you from sinning. Beloved this is not the Gospel that is the POWER OF GOD unto Salvation, for Sin continues to reign denying the Lordship of Christ and allowing death to exert its authority over us. Religion’s focus on S-I-N has distorted the message of GRACE, keeping us in bondage.
Do you still have problems trying to do the things you want to do? And saying, " I can't do the things that I want to do, but the things that I don't want to do they are the things I am doing". Do you still have that problem? You can't blame Adam anymore - HE'S DEAD. But, he's fooled so many people in the world that he is still here. I want to tell you, you have been listening to Christ today, not because it’s Des Walter writing this, but because Christ dwells in me expressing him through me. HE LIVES IN ME. And you see, He has redeemed me with his precious blood, HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD! What is the blood that has saved me? IT IS HIS LIFE! FOR THE LIFE IS IN THAT BLOOD! That's the blood that saved me - IT IS HIS LIFE.
Beloved, I do not want you to worship the cross today. I want you to worship the Christ that has risen from the dead. And, as you worship that Christ, I want you to understand whom you will be worshipping? You will be lifting up the saints, which would include yourself for CHRIST is you identity. It is Christ in you, which is the HOPE OF GLORY. This is God dwelling IN YOU, having removed that false identity that you thought you were, which is Adam.
Having cut the umbilical cord that linked you to humanity and mortality. Believing that you were born and would one day die, that you came from the dust, and you are going back to the dust. He cut that cord for me, and showed me that my ORIGIN and identity was IN HIM. He will do the same for you as you open your heart to the truth we have shared together.
Paul’s testimony is now my testimony and the testimony of all those who have been raised from the "dead."
"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I LIVE, yet it is not I that live, but CHRIST THAT LIVES IN ME, and the life that I now live I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2:20.
And, I lift up my hands now, to the Everlasting Father, full of grace and truth, which now dwells within me, expressing Himself as Des Walter. THAT'S THE GOSPEL!
May God bless you, and help you understand in your spirit, that which God is saying to you today.
Be encouraged and be blessed, Des Walter Jan. 2001
+of+6-6-08+008.jpg)
Posts
