Ekklesia and Christ

Ekklesia and Christ

A flower blooming in your garden is a unique expression of many different ingredients such as the sun, water and earth. Although it is a beautiful expression of these qualities, the whole ecosystem that made this flower possible is infinitely greater than just this flower. The flower will soon fade and die, but creation continues.

When we speak about church, we have to look far beyond the local assembly, limited to time and space, that many refer to as church, before we can truly understand this. The local assembly is spoken of in scripture, but much more is said about the infinitely greater realities of which the local assembly is simply an expression.

We will therefore first look at the realities regarding ekklesia (church), beyond its temporal expression in a local assembly. Once these truths are grasped our expression of them will be much more accurate and beautiful. Trying to emulate the local assemblies we see in the N.T. without appreciating the realities that birthed these assemblies will leave us with lifeless, meaningless yet biblically correct assemblies! By this I mean the form will be there, but not the life. The appearance might be correct but the fruit will be missing as per the fig tree that Jesus cursed.

‘Ekklesia’ is the Greek word most often translated as ‘church’ in the New Testament. In plain usage it meant an assembly. Interestingly it is made up of two root words, the first being:
ek, ex
A primary preposition denoting origin (the point whence motion or action proceeds), from, out
And the second part being:
kal-eh'-o
to “call” (properly aloud, but used in a variety of applications, directly or otherwise): - bid, call (forth), (whose, whose sur-) name (was [called]).

It implies being named by our origin. From our origin proceeds a call; from our creator comes a claim upon our existence. Our Father names us and what He calls us is more valid than any other name or identity we might have adopted. Eph 3:15 reveals that all families/races/nations of man are named by the Father. The same words are used namely ‘ek’ (from whom) and the word named.
Eph 3:15 “Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named”

Firstly we have to say, based on this and many other scriptures, that The father’s call is for every person; his claim is upon all mankind for He knows their true identity; He is the origin from whom this call proceeds.
It then follows that those who respond to His call, those who acknowledge their true identity in Him become the manifested form of this ekklesia.

Jesus had a few things to say about ekklesia.

Mat 16:13-18 When Jesus arrived in the villages of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some think he is John the Baptizer, some say Elijah, some Jeremiah or one of the other prophets."
He pressed them, "And how about you? Who do you say I am?"
Simon Peter said, "You're the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Jesus came back, "God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn't get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I'm going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.

Can you see how the true identity of Jesus and the true identity of man is the revelation upon which Jesus builds His church. The Father revealed to Simon that the Son of Man is indeed the Son of God. He, however, only saw its significance in relation to Jesus. Jesus does not leave this here, but takes the revelation a step further. This is not only a revelation regarding the identity of Jesus, but also a revelation regarding the identity of man.
Jesus speaks very specifically to Peter regarding his identity. He starts by referring to him as “Simon, son of Jonah” With this Jesus confirms that he too is a son of man. But the he draws him into a deeper understanding of his identity. “You are Peter” ‘Peter’ meaning a piece of a rock. Jesus uses a different word the second time He refers to rock. He does not use the word ‘piece of rock’ but refers to the actual big rock from which the piece came. Isa 51:1 "Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking GOD. Ponder the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were dug.” Deut 32:3,4 respond to the greatness of our God! The Rock: His works are perfect.
Jesus challenges Peter to consider his own origin beyond his natural birth and come to the same conclusion concerning himself as the conclusion he came to concerning Christ, namely: the son of man (son of Jonah in this case) is also the son of God!

“Upon this rock” – the rock from which you were cut – your origin, I will build my church - the call of man’s origin. Whatever literal place is meant with the word Hades, there is also a very significant meaning beyond this. For the word is made of two words that mean ‘to see’ and the negative form of it. So figuratively it means ‘not to see’ or ignorance!
John 1:4,5 In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Jesus came and lived a life as an open display of who and what man originally was intended to be. This open manifestation of life as it was intended, appeals to every man’s conscience because there remained in man a divine spark despite the fall. This same appeal is extended through those who responded to this call and so Paul writes concerning his life “but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God” (2Cor 4:2).

When Paul writes about this ekklesia in the letter to the Ephesians, he uses the picture of a body of which Christ is the Head. What he describes is not just a local assembly. He does not start with the form or the method through which these truths are expressed, but rather with the bigger picture of what it is really about.
God desires to express Himself! God wants a body! Your body is not some remote controlled object apart from your head. You are one. In this same way the Father planned, and took pleasure in this plan, and He chose man as the ideal container for Himself. Verse 18 reveals that God has an inheritance and that inheritance is in man! He designed us as the ultimate expression of Himself. How big, varied, deep, wide, broad and long is God’s expression of Himself? Can you measure Him? This must bring us to the conclusion that we should never seek to control, limit or define how God is to express Himself through the church, lest we make it an expression of ourselves rather than an expression of Him. The head, Christ, alone directs and inspires each individual part to do whatever He desires. How often have we tried to displace Christ with methods of our own making.

Ekklesia is so much more than the final expression of it in a local body. We will look at the local body later, but first let us see deeper into what ekklesia really is.
1Co 12:12 Even as the body is one, and has many members, but all the members of the one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Christ is no longer an individual! Read 1Cor12:12 again and again until you see it. Christ now consists of many members, making one body. You are a part of what makes Christ, Christ. It is for this reason that we should never dishonour Christ by equating Him with an organisation. Only ‘that’ which is made in His likeness and image is able of expressing His likeness and image. When we speak of church we speak of Christ or at least a part of Christ and Christ is not an event or a program or an organisation made by human hands. He is a person in whom the fullness of the godhead dwells in bodily form.

Ekklesia from God’s point of view is not a temporary arrangement. Eph 3:19-21 reveals that God purposes to manifest Himself through us in ways we have not imagined and that this demonstration of who He is will continue throughout all ages to come.

Eph 3:1921 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.

Church as a local body is a temporal manifestation of real church which is eternal. Heb 12:23 shows that ekklesia includes the assembly of the spirits of just men. So church as God knows it, is not limited to the here and now. His church is eternal.

By Andre Rabe
http://eclesia.blogspot.com

No Seperation

I know that You are for me
I know that You are with me
I know that You are in me

Despite anything I might hear,
Despite whatever I might see,
No feelings, no fears nor doubt
could ever separate me
from this knowledge of Your love.

There are no contradictions
greater than Your confirmations
There are no lies
more persuasive than Your truths.
There are no voices
louder than Yours,
crying within me:
Abba Father
I am Yours.

By Andre Rabe

The House Church Movement

The House Church Movement by Loren Smith

This two part article appeared in Bermuda's daily newspaper, The Royal Gazette.

A largely hidden, yet growing phenomenon is changing the face of Christianity in the West and profoundly affecting the way in which Christians are choosing to practice their faith. Disillusioned by the lack of New Testament realities, abusive authority and the spreading apostasy within large segments of institutionalized Christianity, thousands of Christians across America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are gathering in homes to study the Scriptures together, pray, share the Lord's Supper and experience the fellowship and simplicity of first century Christianity.

"Yes, we are right now in the midst of the early days of a sovereign, very radical, move of God," says Nate Krupp, publisher of the book God's Simple Plan For His Church on his home church website, Radical Christianity. "We are seeing God do incredible things: people are leaving the institutional church by the thousands; they are tired of being an audience, instead of a body; they question increasingly all the money that goes into buildings; they are tired of being controlled and manipulated; they long to use their giftings to serve God and see 'the priesthood of all believers', instead of 'the clergy' and they long to see the Holy Spirit allowed to freely move instead of everything being controlled. God is sovereignly, in these days, raising up a massive, growing movement of people who are desiring to function like the early Christians in the Book of Acts. Believers are turning their backs on all the programs and returning to their first love, Jesus."

In a recent interview, Krupp claimed that he committed himself to a return to radical Christianity back in 1966 after a period of serious theological reflection. "After a week of prayer and searching the Scriptures to find out whether God had a plan for his church, I came to some very radical conclusions," Krupp explains. "God does have a plan for his church. He is calling his people back to the radical Christianity of the New Testament. Since the late 80's, I have been traveling across the United States and around the world sharing this message."

Krupp characterizes radical New Testament Christianity as a movement away from clergy-dominated services and programs to mutually participating assemblies of believers, from a gospel of "easy-believism" to the gospel of the Kingdom, with its call to repentance and submission to Christ as Lord, from one-man leadership to plurality of servant leadership and from gathering in church buildings to gathering in homes. "I do not believe that buildings as sacred places of worship are Biblical," Krupp maintains. "That is a part of the old economy. When Christ came, he did away with the old economy. The New Testament tells us that we, as the people of God, are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 that the time was coming when the worship of God would no longer be confined to or connected with a [sacred] place (i.e. The Temple in Jerusalem). Our whole lifestyle is to be an act of worship."

James D.G. Dunn, professor of New Testament at the University of Durham, highlights the incident that lead to the irreconcilable breach between Christianity and the predominant Temple-centered Judaism of the mid-first century in his book The Parting of the Ways Between Christianity and Judaism and their Significance for the Character of Christianity. " It was the Temple, not the claim regarding the messiahship of Jesus as such which led to the hostility against Stephen," Dunn explains. "When the new teaching was directed against the Temple, the warning lights started to flash. The larger community of Hellenists had invested too much in the Temple to allow any kind of radical criticism of the cult to go unchallenged; and the larger circle of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, including the high priests, depended on the Temple too much in economic and political, as well as religious terms to sit idly by in such circumstances."

However, what really infuriated the Jewish religious leaders was Stephen's bold assertion that " the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands." (Acts 7:48) Dunn explains. "The [Greek] adjective chosen, cheiropoieton, 'made with hands,' would be a horrifying word to use in this context. Why so? Because that was the word used by Hellenistic Jews to condemn idolatry. For that word to be used of the Temple would certainly have sent shock waves through any Jewish audience… that God's presence cannot be encapsulated or represented in any physical or man-made entity! &endash; the Temple itself an idol! The Temple was so central for Jewish worship and Jewish identity. Anyone who put forward these views, and in Jerusalem (rather than from the safety of, say, Qumran or Leontopolis) must have enraged a Jewish audience beyond bearing," Dunn maintains. (Emphasis in original) Outraged by Stephen's sharp rebuke, the Sanhedrin cast him out of the city and stoned him to death.

What has been the reaction of Christians to Krupp's radical conclusions, especially his advocacy of house churches? "Generally, they are quite receptive. Quite a number indicate that they have also been considering something similar. I've even found unbelievers receptive to the idea. The greatest opposition comes from the clergy," Krupp explains. "Some react out of insecurity. There is this feeling that 'you're leaving us and we will no longer have your tithes, we won't be able to meet budget.'"

Calvin Guy, one-time Chairman of the Missions Department of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in an article entitled Pilgrimage Toward The House Church: Controls That Limit the Spread of the Gospel, in discussing the subtle differences between the practice of New Testament Christianity and its contemporary counterpart, writes. "We talk about the church building when we go to the church; they spoke of the congregation that met in someone's house. {See Romans 16:5, 1 Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15 and Philemon 2). Spared both the expense and concern of erecting and maintaining a building, they were soon involved in expending all available funds in loving service to the widows and orphans. Charity was not the incidental, fractional percentage of the budget. It was the budget." (Emphasis in the original)

Krupp has generally observed two ways in which Christians are choosing to meet together and practice their faith. "Thousands who have left the institutional church are simply worshipping in homes with their families, just a father, mother and children gathering around the headship of Christ. Then there are others who have left and networked with other house churches in an area. Some house churches are being established by church planters, while others are springing up spontaneously. The movement is so large I don't even try to keep up with it," he says. "Just look at the number of home church websites on the Internet. It's phenomenal!"

Jon Zens, editor of the quarterly publication, Searching Together, and another advocate of New Testament church life, has also observed a growing exodus of people from institutional churches across America. "I see three basic phenomena as to why people are exiting the institutional church," Zen explains. "After years of starving in the institutional church, they leave to find New Testament realities. People study their Bibles and come to perceive a huge chasm between the New Testament and the traditional church and often they leave after the institutional church disregards their pleas for change."

If there has been some success with the traditional church model throughout the centuries, why bother to change? "While the traditional one-man, church building model has some visible success, there are many undeniable statistics that point to the reality of such success being short term, " Zens answered. "Divorce, suicide, nervous breakdown, burnout, etc abound among clergy. The average pastorate in the Southern Baptist Convention is under 18 months. The high-pressure altar call tactics have proven to produce "converts" that rarely last. Even with all the empirical evidence that many things are amuck in the traditional model, the real issue is 'what does the NT teach?' If any model contradicts or stifles the New Testament pattern, it should be jettisoned for such reasons alone. The early church had no clergy and no sacred buildings, and in this regard was radically different from all other religions, including Judaism. The proliferation of expensive church buildings constitutes a fundamental compromise of what Christ intended to build. Thus, believers gathering in informal settings [in] homes, rented store-fronts, outdoors and apartments apparently provides the best context for the 58 "one anothers" [in the Bible] to be fleshed out."

Certainly, the writers of the New Testament seem to have had a clearer understanding of what truly constitutes "the church", something that is foreign to most Christians today. They referred to the people of God as God's building (1 Corinthians 3:9, Ephesians 2:19-22), God's temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17), God's house (1 Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 3:6, 10:21, 1 Peter 2:17), God's household (Ephesians 2:19, Galatians 6:10) and Christ's body (Romans 12:4-5, 1 Corinthians 12:12, Ephesians 3:6, 5:23, 30). Christians in the New Testament didn't go to church. They were the church! They were God's building! They were God's temple! As Howard Snyder states succinctly in The Problem of Wineskins Today " A church building cannot properly be "the Lord's house" because in the new covenant this title is reserved for the church as people. So, if church buildings have any justification, it can only be practical &endash; simply a place to meet and carry on essential functions, as necessary."

In an article entitled Four Tragic Shifts in the Visible Church, 180-400 A.D., Zens writes. "Some assert that since the early church met primarily in homes, we are obliged to emulate this example. I think the primary theological point of the New Testament in this regard is that under the New Covenant there are no holy places. Contemporary Christianity has almost no grasp of this significant point. Taking a cue from the Old Covenant, people are still lead to believe that a church building is 'the house of God.' Believers are free to meet any place in which they can foster, cultivate and attain the goals set before them by Christ. The problem today is that many church structures neither promote nor accomplish Christ's desires for His body. Homes are a neutral place for believers to meet, and the early church flourished well into the first and second centuries without erecting any temple-like edifices. But the issue is still not in what type of place believers gather, but what shape their committed life together takes as they wrestle with the many duties and privileges flowing out of the priesthood of all believers."

Christian Smith, writing in the journal Voices In The Wilderness, develops this theme further. "God intends church to be a community of believers in which each member contributes their special gift, talent, or ability to the whole, so that, through the active participation and contribution of all, the needs of the community are met. In other words, what we ought to see in our churches is 'the ministry of the people,' not 'the ministry of the professional.' The role of the clergy is essentially the centralization and professionalization of the gifts of the whole body into one person. The problem is that, regardless of what our theologies tell us about the purpose of clergy, the actual effect of the clergy profession is to make the body of Christ lame. This happens not because clergy intend it (they usually intend the opposite) but because the objective nature of the profession inevitably turns the laity into passive receivers."

This fact is borne out in such passages as Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 12, and in 1 Corinthians 14:26 which states. "What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church." Ministry in the New Testament church was not centered on one man, but involved each member of the "ecclesia" as a functioning "priest" (1 Peter 2: 5, 9) under the headship of Christ and directed by the Holy Spirit exercising his/her gift for the mutual edification of the body.

In his widely acclaimed 8-volume set, History of the Christian Church, Philip Schaff dates the separation of Christians into clergy and laity distinctions to the third century. "During the third century it became customary to apply the term 'priest' directly and exclusively to the Christian ministers especially the bishops. In the same manner the whole ministry, and it alone, was called 'clergy,' with a double reference to its presidency and its peculiar relation to God. It was distinguished by this name from the Christian people or 'laity.' In the apostolic church preaching and teaching were not confined to a particular class, but every convert could proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, and every Christian who had the gift could pray and teach and exhort in the congregation. The New Testament knows no spiritual aristocracy or nobility, but calls all believers 'saints' though many fall far short of their vocation," Schaff writes. "Nor does it recognize a special priesthood in distinction from the people, as mediating between God and the laity. It knows only one high-Priest, Jesus Christ, and clearly teaches the universal priesthood, as well as universal kingship of believers." (See 1 Peter 2:5,9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6)

According to Zens, a number of institutional churches are moving away from clergy driven hierarchical structures and promoting 'the priesthood of all believers,' in order to address these concerns. "The phenomenon has already, I believe, caused traditional churches to reconsider the functionality of their structures. In the past 20 years, there has been a plethora of books advocating fewer clergy and more priesthood. Larry Richards' New Face for The Church was probably one of the first attention-getting books in this regard. And Howard Snyder's The Problem of Wineskins was another landmark volume. Some institutional churches sense that something is wrong, so during the week, they break up the large numbers into smaller house or cell groups."

A number of observers suggest that the movement back to the simplicity and intimacy of New Testament Christianity is a part of God's overall plan to prepare the church for difficult days ahead.

Al Dager, in a recent issue of Media Spotlight, writes. "Recognizing that there are some churches whose leadership are operating with servant's hearts and godly spirits, we nevertheless have concluded that the vast majority of churches are leaning toward the one-world, ecumenical religious system that ultimately will be the only one sanctioned by governments around the world. Those who resist the politically correct standards of the world's religious community will eventually be forced to conform or lose their tax-exempt status. It is because perilous times are upon us that the Church must begin to look anew at its form and function. While the present forms and functions have served since the Reformation, they will prove inadequate, and in some cases, even dangerous to the spiritual and temporal benefit of Christ's body. We are witnessing the beginning of the Underground Church in America - a church that will take lessons from the brethren who have survived in other countries where Faith has been and is still persecuted. If we in the West think we will escape what our brethren have suffered for centuries merely because we trust that 'things like that can never happen in America,' we are closing our eyes to reality. The persecution will come from our own households and from the churches themselves."

Unfortunately, Zens points out that Christians who follow their convictions and leave the institutional church to experience New Testament church life can expect to be misunderstood. "When believers leave the institutional church, friends and family often misunderstand and react negatively. The institutional church leaders often treat with disdain those who exit, and label them 'rebels'. The institutional church is an intimidating entity. If you leave it, people equate it with leaving Christ. We live in Minnesota, which is very Lutheran and people view us as being quite strange," he says laughing. "We've been labeled a cult and all that, but the way to show people that you are not a cult is by being non-sectarian."

It's amazing that a practice that is so clearly revealed in the New Testament has today been vilified by Christians, who react more out of fear and a sense of loyalty to tradition than a commitment to Biblical truth. Christians in the Greco-Roman world of the first century met in homes and Paul's letters in the New Testament were addressed to house churches. In fact, the very first church established on European soil was in the town of Philippi in the home of Lydia, a successful businesswoman from Thyatira. (Acts 16:15) Paul, in his epistles to the Christians in Rome, Corinth and Colossae exhorts them to greet churches that met in the homes of fellow believers. (Romans 16:3-5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15)

The frequently quoted scriptural admonition about "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together" used to foster guilt upon the consciences of Christians who no longer view the church as a "building", but as "the people of God," in its proper context, refers to Jewish Christians who were considering forsaking Christianity and returning to Judaism in order to avoid persecution. So the author of the book to the Hebrews (Jewish Christians) was exhorting them not to cease assembling together in their home fellowships since the early Christians had no specially designated church buildings in which to hold meetings at that time. As Craig S. Keener points out in The IVP Bible Background Commentary-New Testament, "Believers met in homes rather than church buildings for the first three centuries of the church." This later changed in 312 AD when the Emperor Constantine came to power and made institutional Christianity the state religion in Rome, converting pagan temples into Christian churches, while using state funds to support the clergy.

Howard Snyder, in his provocative book Radical Renewal: The Problem of Wineskins Today, proposes that the church adopt the radical ecclesiology of the first century to impact the world with the life-transforming message of the gospel. "A Biblical conception of the church will make it clear that the church is essential to the gospel, for it is the body of Christ," Snyder writes. "At the same time, it will be clear that human institutions and structures are not themselves the church; they are not hallowed. These are days when Christians must be clear about what the church is and what it is not. Just as many false Christs will come in the last days, so many counterfeit and apostate "churches" will litter the spiritual landscape. The church must be prepared, both as persons and as the Christian community, for the lash of persecution and the lure of the antichrist. This means the necessity for doctrinal clarity and authentic community - for both orthodoxy of belief and orthodoxy of community. Under the threat of persecution, life in community becomes both more difficult and more essential. Thus the priorities of structures which are flexible, mobile, inconspicuous, and not building-centered."

Asked whether the house church movement is simply another religious fad that people will soon tire of, Zens had this to say. "No, I don't think it will ever be just a fad for several reasons. One, it's been around a long time. There was a significant home church movement in Australia beginning in 1968. Obviously, for years home meetings have been the norm in China, Latin America and other places in the world. Two, it has New Testament justification and sanction, and so could hardly be a fad. If persecution erupts in America, the house church model could suddenly be very common, as churches that require immense weekly overhead to operate could fold virtually overnight. I think it will take catastrophic events to awaken the church to what is important in the Kingdom. If and when that happens, the shape of believers' lives together will change rapidly. As long as our affluence continues, the informal approach to church will remain. But whether something is minority or majority is hardly the issue. Our concern must be, 'how will we follow Christ in all areas of our lives? Are we going to obey the New Testament or not? One brother in our assembly has said, 'our way of doing church is not popular. It requires hard work and commitment.' The home church movement, of course, is not monolithic," Zens pointed out. "I have no idea where it will go in the next five years. But I know this, no movement will prosper long if it does not center on exalting Jesus Christ and obeying His Word."

To know Him is simple

To know Him is simple
No rituals to hinder
No levels through which to enter
To know Him is simple

To love Him is easy
No reason to draw back
No consciousness of lack
To love Him is easy

To reach for Him and find Him
is closer than you may think
‘Tis within you, this link

To see Him, close your eyes
This sight requires no light
This vision, no special might
To see Him, simply look within

It’s easy, it’s simple:
Within you, right now,
reach for Him, find Him,
love Him, know Him.

By Andre Rabe
http://eclesia.blogspot.com

Beware of prayer!

Beware of prayer!

The parent-child relationship is a rich illustration of God’s relationship with us. I have many vivid memories of childhood. Maybe it’s because of this, that I have no problem understanding kids. Adults are a bit more complicated. However, being a parent for many years, brings with it fresh insights into the dynamics of our relationship with Father.

Father confronted me with such a fresh understanding of prayer, a few weeks ago. I had no problem asking Him for whatever I wanted, presuming my wants were pure. I’m convinced about His love and ability, and such convictions lead to great boldness. I simply presumed that if my requests were part of His will, He would grant them, and if not, He would deny them. Simple.
I think many pray that way: Ask for whatever comes to mind and if the prayer is answered, great, it was His will. If the prayer does not get answered, well good it was not His will.

Father changed this perception by giving me the following illustration.
When my children were small, I would decide regarding each of their requests, whether they were right or wrong, for their good or not. For instance, when they were 4 and 6 years old, they’d ask me for money to go to the candy store. Once or twice a week I’d grant it, the other times I’d use the opportunity to teach them on the importance of eating well.
Now that they are 12 and 14, I trust that they have developed enough good judgement to decide for themselves that candy is not the only food to be purchased, even if they have the means to. They ask for money occasionally and I seldom ask why, I simply grant it for I trust them. The responsibility for using it wisely now resides with them, not me. In a way I am granting them more ability to harm themselves!
Maybe you are maturing spiritually and Father is granting your requests without deciding whether they are right or wrong, but placing more of that responsibility on you. I am always available to my children for advice and sometimes I offer that advice without being asked.

Father showed me that when I was a toddler (spiritually), He took full responsibility for granting or denying my requests. Now that I am maturing He is placing more trust in my own judgement. He is therefore granting my requests even when those requests are not His perfect will for me! Remember when Israel asked for a king. It was not God’s will, yet He granted it!

He started showing me that I now had to be very selective in my requests for they would often be granted even when they weren’t for my good! That was quite a shock to me, to say the least.
When we become highly selective in what we ask of Father; when we determine to see from His point of view before we make requests, we are very seldom disappointed with unanswered prayer. Rather, we ask and we receive and our joy is full.

I now have much less requests of Father, but I have much greater success in answered prayer. Prayer is much more conversation, asking advice, just enjoying His company. Sometimes He asks me if there is anything I want!

By Andre Rabe
http://eclesia.blogspot.com

Christ – the ultimate design.

Christ – the ultimate design.

John describes God as light, life and love.
God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. His light is not just any light, it is absolute light. Darkness cannot understand or overcome it. Light is not a passive quality, its dynamic, explosive. Light desires to shine! This is God; He desires to reveal Himself. He is not withdrawn, unknowable and hidden. He is light and He desires to enlighten every man with the knowledge of His favour. While Paul was hunting down the followers of Jesus Christ, Jesus revealed Himself to Paul. Later Paul writes about the God who reveals Himself to those who do not seek Him! He makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good. It is in His nature to reveal Himself; it’s got nothing to do with your ability to attain revelation, it’s got everything to do with His desire to reveal Himself independent of you deserving or not deserving it!

God is life and in him is no death at all! The greek word for this God-kind of life is Zoe. It also has the meaning of absolute life in it. Jesus spoke about this life as abundant life. At another time he describes it as a spring of living water bursting forth from within you. Again, this is no passive quality. God is not passive, He brims over with life. He lives abundantly and desires to share this abundant life. His life is so expansive and so full of goodness that he simply has to share it.

God is love. Love’s greatest need is to give. This is no passive love either, but a love that manifests itself. He demonstrated His love toward us, in that while we were yet at enmity against Him, He reconciled us to Himself! While the world was still spitting in His face and breathing out hatred against Him, He kissed the world and declared that their trespasses would no longer be held against them. This is a love so great that it cannot wait for man to approach, but took the initiative to embrace us while we were yet hostile.

We so often limit our perceptions to our own points of view. We see the love of God only within the context of our need. But it is not so much our need for His love or light that caused Him to reach out to us, as it is His own desire to simply love. It is not just the intensity of the darkness we are in, that motivates Him to bring light. It is simply His nature to shine forth.

God delights in revealing Himself. He overflows with life. He brims over with love. He bursts forth with light. At the very core of who God is, is this urgency to express Himself, to manifest Himself, to demonstrate His love. The whole of the universe is testimony to His enormous desire and ability to express Himself. Every galaxy, every plant, every animal is a unique manifestation of His imagination. But ultimately a person wants to express Himself through a personality and that’s why God made you!

Love needs to give; Light’s nature is to shine; life reproduces. These are the characteristics of God; these are His essential qualities. This expressive nature of God gave birth to His ultimate plan and purpose: He designed a vehicle, a being through which He would accurately and completely express Himself! He preserved that design in Christ. You are part of that design! The way is which the Word describes His eternal purpose is so revealing of His desire to express Himself: A body through which He would live; A living temple which He would fill Himself and dwell in; A kingdom of light and love in which He would put away all contradiction.

His eternal purpose is to fully express Himself. In Christ the fullness of the Godhead dwells in a bodily form and you find your completeness in Him
Col 2:9 Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him.
Col 2:10 When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.
Col 2:11 Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in--insiders--not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin.

By Andre Rabe
andre.rabe@gmail.com
http://eclesia.blogspot.com

The Inexhaustible Riches of Christ.

The Inexhaustible Riches of Christ.

The queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon. Stories regarding his wisdom and wealth were so amazing that she felt sure they were exaggerations. So she decided to go and see for herself. Here is part of that story:

The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon and his connection with the Name of GOD. She came to put his reputation to the test by asking tough questions. She made a grand and showy entrance into Jerusalem--camels loaded with spices, a huge amount of gold, and precious gems. She came to Solomon and talked about all the things that she cared about, emptying her heart to him. Solomon answered everything she put to him--nothing stumped him. When the queen of Sheba experienced for herself Solomon's wisdom and saw with her own eyes the palace he had built, the meals that were served, the impressive array of court officials and sharply dressed waiters, the lavish crystal, and the elaborate worship extravagant with Whole-Burnt-Offerings at the steps leading up to The Temple of GOD, it took her breath away. She said to the king, "It's all true! Your reputation for accomplishment and wisdom that reached all the way to my country is confirmed. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself; they didn't exaggerate! Such wisdom and elegance--far more than I could ever have imagined. (1Ki 10:1-7 Message)

Mat 12:42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

If the wealth and wisdom of Solomon could not be adequately described; if it was impossible to exaggerate, how much more impossible is it to exaggerate what we have in Christ. We cannot make too much of Him. And the treasure we found in Him cannot be fully appreciated by simply hearing about it; it is a treasure that needs to handled and experienced to find a sense of what it is really like. 1Jo 1:1: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

Hearing (or reading) is but the first step into an experience much greater than what can be captured in words. Our words can simply point towards this experience, but can never capture it. Let me illustrate. Imagine sitting in a hot, humid room with all the windows closed. The air is stale and breathing is unpleasant. Then someone opens a window and a breeze brings in a fresh fragrance. The cool movement of air revives your body and soon the stale atmosphere is forgotten.

This is what God-inspired words do. They simply open the window for the Spirit or wind of God to blow and bring refreshment. Much of theology and much of Christian writings are centred on trying to capture this fresh wind. Instead of opening a window, these formulas and definitions attempt to capture the wind by closing the window. But as soon as the window is closed the wind ceases to be wind; the refreshing that came from it becomes a memory and pretty soon the same stale air fills the room.

Read the Word of God with this in mind; read this book with this in mind. These words refer to a reality greater than themselves. The substance is Christ Himself and the intimacy He has in mind can never be understood by mere words alone; your spirit needs to connect with His. These words simply open a window and point beyond themselves.

Obviously we will use our minds in loving the Lord, but never forget that loving Him with all your heart precedes loving Him with all your mind. Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Paul’s love affair with Christ was clearly growing throughout his life. If we read His letters in the sequence in which he wrote them we find that His insight into Christ grows with leaps and bounds. His focus never gets diversified; rather he sees more and more of the meaning of all things in Christ.

Lets look at his initial experience of Jesus and how it grew.
Act 9:3-9 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

In a letter to the believers at Corinth he gives us further insight into this experience. 2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So much preaching has focussed on man’s decision for Christ; man’s faith in Christ; man’s repentance. Here we have an example of God’s initiative to reveal Himself to man, in this case Paul. Paul’s response was based on Jesus’ initiative. Paul did not need any teaching on repentance or how to have faith or making a quality decision. The revelation of who Jesus really is was all that was needed to draw from Paul the appropriate response. If, in our declaration of the gospel, we once again make Christ the focus; if we place our confidence in God’s ability to reveal Himself rather than placing our confidence in man’s faith, we will see genuine conversions as in the case of Paul. A conversion not based on popular Christian formulas, but based on a spontaneous response to ‘the light in the face of Jesus Christ’

We have changed the natural consequences of seeing Jesus into conditions for seeing Him. There are no conditions you can meet for God to reveal Himself to you. You can simply respond to His initiative. Isa 65:1 I gave access to them that asked not for Me, I was at hand to them that sought Me not; I said: 'Behold Me, behold Me', unto a nation that was not called by My name.
God is ready to reveal Himself even to those who do not seek Him! I remember the words of a beautiful song: “You are the rarest of treasures, yet so easy to find”
Paul gives us a further insight in Gal 1:15,16: Gal 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me.

How different is Paul’s language from today’s believers. His testimony is not: ‘When I made a decision for Christ then He….’ or ‘when I came to repentance then God…’ No, he has the order completely reversed! He starts with the initiative of God and his response is not even spoken about as a wilful decision, it’s just mentioned as a consequence! (be careful of making the consequences the conditions)

In this book you will find the same. I don’t place much emphasis on how man must respond or the importance of man’s contribution, simply because there are truths of much greater importance. God’s initiative, what He did before you were even born is the focus of this writing. Obviously man’s response is valuable, but I acknowledge that it is spontaneous and natural if Christ is revealed. A revelation of Christ is therefore the direction these words point to, the window it opens. If I have to teach a person how to respond to such a revelation, that person obviously did not have a revelation of Christ. It is dead religious traditions that need to teach its followers how to respond. An introduction to the living person of Christ needs no artificial protocols.

The light in the face of Jesus Christ is the light that blinded Paul. It is interesting to find this same Paul saying “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. “2Co 4:18
In the three days of natural blindness that followed, Paul started seeing with a clarity beyond his wildest dreams. God began to reveal His Son in him. He saw a reality within himself that was greater than anything outside of Him. Later he wrote: ‘So that we henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer.’ This time of natural blindness was obviously also the beginning of seeing spirit realities regarding God and man that remain hidden to those who do not know how to draw revelation from within.

T. Austin-Sparks expresses it as follows:
"I can understand now why Paul was revolutionized. He saw the face of Jesus Christ. He did not simply see a blazing light on the way to Damascus. He saw the significance of Jesus of Nazareth in the glory - the Man whom he had probably seen in Jerusalem... the Man whom he had hated - had loathed - as a blasphemer, as an apostate... the Man whom he thought had been rightly handled and given His due when He was crucified.

He saw that Man... and what that Man meant as installed in heaven at God's right hand; and there broke upon him something of the significance of Jesus Christ, as he saw the face of Jesus in that eternal, universal, and spiritual sense - that all-inclusive sense. Out from that beholding - for he never stopped beholding inwardly the face of Jesus - there grew and grew the explanation of history, the explanation of the race, the explanation of man, the explanation of human destiny, the explanation of the Cross... this unveiling of things which no man could ever know by reason or study. There came out into the heart of Paul the knowledge of what went on in Divine counsels in eternity of old. It was all seen in the face of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ interpreted everything - explained everything - revealed everything."

In one of Paul’s last letters, the letter to the Philippians, we see his adoration of Christ did not weaken through the years. On the contrary, we find in this letter his most expressive desire to just know Christ more. Think of it…He spent His life exploring the depths of Christ and his ultimate wish remains: ‘That I might know Him more’! This is not a revelation that we grasp, categorize and file with all our other neatly ordered doctrines; this is a revelation that grasps us, consumes us, until we say ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’ It’s a revelation that takes you beyond individual life into union life. Can you sense the call of Christ within you; inviting you to union with Himself. Can you sense His cords of love drawing you into a deeper understanding of Him; a spiritual understanding not a mental one. He is so ready to reveal Himself to you in a deeper way than what you ever experienced Him before.

By Andre Rabe
andre.rabe@gmail.com
http://eclesia.blogspot.com

Change of plan with book

Regarding the publishing of the chapters, I think a different approach might be better. There are parts of the writings with which I am comfortable; other parts need attention. So I will publish the parts which are ready, as and when they become available. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Andre Rabe

New Book! and latest news

Hi all,
I have started writing a book and would greatly appreciate your comments and recommendations through the process. I will be publishing the chapters as I finish them - tomorrow chapter 1 should be ready.

Blogs might therefore not be as regular as daily, but at least every week something substantial will be available.

In His grip

Andre Rabe

The Central Secret of Union

The Central Secret of Union
by Norman P. Grubb

The central secret of all history is the union of the creature and the Creator. Not just the Creator. Certainly not just the creature. But the union. We’ve found the whole meaning of life in time and eternity when we’ve found that.

It’s probably beyond apprehension by the finite mind, as well as beyond description. But if our minds cannot completely compass this infinite glory, thank God our hearts can experience it.

And yet, if we think around it, to some extent our minds can compass this great fact of union. We know, for instance, that this is what eternal life is all about. There is only one eternal life, that of God. But God is three, dwelling in each other, which is union. So original life is not one person, or still less one thing; it’s three living in each other and proceeding out from each other in their several offices.

Original life, then, is union. But not just union: unity. That which proceeds from union, in a balance which is so hard for us to apprehend, is a unity which still leaves us a separate person. There is such an intimate union that there is never again a sense of division between myself and the living God. We’ve become one person, for “he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” Not two, but one. And yet within that mystery there is a unity that allows us to retain our individuality. That’s where a major difficulty comes.

The first point that we need to get clearly in mind is the union that we’ve become one person. We’ve got so used to the curse of the fall, which is separation, that it’s a long time before we fully realize the fact of our union with God. And who of us does entirely attain to a continuous recognition of this union?

The great cry of the hearts of the saints of the ages was union. They expressed it in a certain terminology (which is impressive to some of us), describing the way to union as purgation, illumination, and finally union — three phases which to some extent resemble the little children, young men and fathers of John’s first letter. It doesn’t exactly correspond, but it’s somewhere near.

If you read the lives of saints you always find that when they came to union they experienced liberation. As soon as they grasped union, out came a great humanity, a great love, a great power, a great service. They had found the liberating secret.

It is when a crisis comes to you and me — a sudden sorrow, a sudden disaster — that we realize how separatist we are in our thinking.

The usual thing we say when a crisis hits us is, “God permitted it.” That means that God is up there and we are underneath. But God isn’t up there at all! He is within. I never lift my eyes one single time to heaven to try to find Him up there, do you? I don’t waste my breath, my sight, or anything else. Why should I waste my time trying to get a Person to come down when He lives within me? I can see Him where He is, in a common bit of human flesh redeemed in His precious blood, packed full of the Holy Spirit.

This makes my whole attitude to life different. Once I recognize that God is joined as one with me, I no longer try to find Him or get Him to come and rescue me.

A crisis comes to me. No, no — it doesn’t! It comes to us. Not to me, but to us. And I’m a mighty little part in the us, while He’s a mighty big part.

It comes to Him. And if it comes to Him, He doesn’t just permit it, He means it to come. Well, if He means it to come, He’s going to turn it out for His own purposes. So what is my attitude? “Come on Lord, handle it now. Praise the Lord, it’s perfect! Carry it out now — I’ll watch You.” And it’s a great watching life. We sit on the side lines and clap when the goals are kicked.

We’re caught out ninety nine times out of a hundred. We say, “Why did God allow that? He’s up there, and poor me down here.” No, I’m not. I’m in the heavenly places, if I could but recognize it. But I’m caught out almost every time. I’m so familiar with the separated outlook, I can hardly look upon life from the union point of view.

That is where my shocks and my sorrows come. I look at life from separation. I begin wondering: was it God? was it the devil? was it this? was it that? Instead of seeing that it happened to us, and that He meant it to be. When I see that, it changes everything.

“We speak that we do know,” said Jesus. “We testify that we have seen.” By we He meant the Father also. “I’ve got a shared life,” He was saying. Well, if Jesus had a shared life, we have a shared life. A united life. Christ in us, we in Him. I can’t say this moment that my mind can compass it. I’ve spent years trying to compass it — perhaps I haven’t sufficient light yet. But thank God, I know that I know it — or rather, know Him.

Friends, the cross is not the objective. Union is the objective. The cross is the gateway. It’s not the end. The Christ is the end, and He is joined to me forever and I joined to Him forever.

There are astounding statements in Scripture.

I was struck when I was reading in Colossians 3 about our relationship with Christ — the fact that we are ascended with Him, and so on. It speaks there about the “new man.” It says there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free, neither Barbarian, Greek nor Scythian. Then it says, “Christ is all, and in all.”

If Christ is all in me, and all in you — what’s left? Pretty extreme, isn’t it! Even in eternity, when the Son Himself becomes subject to the Father and hands everything over to Him that He may be all in all, is there anything more we can have of God then than we have now if Christ is “all, and in all”? We are complete in Him!

I like to emphasize the Bible as an extreme book. It entitles us to live an extreme life and preach an extreme message. Praise His name! It certainly is extreme. If we wrote what Paul did, that Christ is all in each one of us, they’d say we were pantheists. But God said it!

Now if a common, horrible little piece of clay like me can say “Christ is all in me,” it doesn’t leave me with much to bother about myself. I just say, “All right God, carry on then.” He is in everything that happens in my life; He is totally involved.

If a disease comes to me, it comes to Him as well as to me. It’s His business then. Oh, the burdens go off! You’ll find all our burdens are upon us because we have this separate instinct instead of the united instinct. Every sorrow we carry, every burden we bear, every tear of self-pity we shed (and there’s an awful lot of self-pity in our tears), comes out of separation in­stead of union.

Every weakness we feel comes out of separation. Oh, I share them with you. No one feels more weak than I do when I’ve got to speak! I have such as easy life, I’m always glad God has given me one cross to bear, which is the hatred and horror of speaking. Yes, I feel weak — but it’s all nonsense. Weak? Of course I’m weak; but there’s somebody inside me who isn’t.

What we are after is a fixed life, a natural life. By God’s grace I learn to live naturally in a continuous Christ-consciousness, so that it’s natural to me to live this way. It’s Fixed in me. The Word of God abides in me, not comes into me from outside. It may have started by coming to me, but now it abides in me.

The psalmist once wrote, “Oh, God, my heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise.” That’s the point we are aiming at. As Paul expressed it: “That Christ may dwell in your heart,” not visit it occasionally. He has taken up a permanent residence. That was Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians.

It wasn’t the first prayer he prayed for them. It was further along the way, perhaps even his deepest prayer. He prayed the highest things he could pray in Ephesians because he talked the highest language. He put a unique emphasis on the fact of Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith. He didn’t really mention the cross here. Not that he belittled the cross, because the only way into this is by the cross. But sometimes we can even give the cross the wrong place. It’s the Christ of the cross who must have the center place.

Now you would call Galatians more of an objective rather than a subjective letter. It’s defending the Christian faith from the outer assaults of the circumcisers and legalists. That’s the general message of this mighty letter. But I was very struck with how Paul every now and then, right in the midst of this great apologetic of how God rescued us through justification by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ alone, flashed in a word of his own testimony and went clean out of the objective into the subjective.

There is a striking instance in chapter one (verses 14-16). He is giving us insights into his conversion. Perhaps it was written 15 or 20 years after his regeneration on the road to Damascus.

He writes: “It pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen.”

I remember how I was caught out in such a simple way when I did a translation of the New Testament in my early days. It was into an easy language of Africa.] found that I had translated “to reveal His Son to me,” instead of “in.” It isn’t to reveal His Son to me, but in me.

But what struck me — and we all have different insights strike us, so that we can preach sermons to each other — is the fact that regeneration is a first revelation of an indwelling Person.

Right at the beginning, although it may have taken him some years to compass it, we see this central secret of union in Paul’s life. A union which is also a unity, just as God is a union which is a unity. This is what real life, eternal life, is. And we live it flow!

The realization of the indwelling Christ — the central secret of union — is the only basis for life -which has total meaning. Christ “all, and in all” — I in Him, and He in me. What a glorious way to live!


(I deeply appreciate the fact that nothing can seperate us from our union with God. This I believe is the heart of this writing. I do also value the truth found throughout the Word that we can influence the 'harvests' we reap in life, by deciding which seeds to sow -Gal6:7. This means that I am not passive in accepting all circumstances in life as determined by God and therefore His will. However, whether I am facing good or difficult times, God remains one with me. Whatever happens to me, happens to Him. That is the treasure I saw in this writing.
Comment by Andre Rabe)

God's Higher Order of Man

God's Higher Order of Man
by T. Austin-Sparks

I think there are a lot of Christian people who have the idea that what God is seeking to do through the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus in atonement for sin - in the salvation and recovery of man from his lost state - is to get him back to the place where Adam was before the fall. Now do you have that idea? Is that your idea of redemption - that you just undo everything that went wrong in and through Adam and restore things to that unfallen state in which Adam was before he fell? If that is so, you are entirely wrong. God is not seeking to do any such thing. He is not conforming to the first Adam at all, not even to an unfallen first Adam. He has gone immeasurably beyond an unfallen first Adam. He has left him behind altogether... and has One who is an entirely different order of being from the unfallen Adam. The first Adam was a living soul; the last Adam was a Life-giving spirit. The first man was of the earth, earthy; the last is of heaven, heavenly. Therefore, "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." This heavenly Man, this last Adam, this Life-giving spirit is of an entirely different order from unfallen Adam - of a higher order altogether. God has something transcendently greater than unfallen first Adam. His last Adam, His second Man, is of a heavenly order - a spiritual order; and blessed be God, an order which cannot know death. So do not let us drop down on to the poor level of an unfallen first Adam. It might be a great deal better than our present natural condition, but it is not good enough for God; and it should not be good enough for us. Therefore, let us "bear the image of the heavenly." That brings clearly into view what God's objective is. Having made the Lord Jesus the Head of His new creation - His new race - His objective is to conform the race to the likeness of its Head. Christ then becomes the one object in the eye of God concerning which and unto which He is doing all His works. And the Lord is now working in the new creation - in you and me - to conform us to the image of His Son. We may take it that God has no other work on hand. God has only one work on hand, and that is His work. That is to be taken account of when we realize the Lord is trying to do something. The Lord is at work. We may not be able to see what He is doing at this time; but if we ask the one general, all governing question, "What is it that the Lord is seeking to do?" The answer is one... and comprehends everything - every method of God, every means of God, every interest of God. It is reduced to one single, comprehensive thing... He is seeking to reproduce His Son in us - to conform us to the image of His Son. From eternity God has been governed by a desire to express Himself... and all creation is God's way of seeking to express Himself. Now, when we look at the Lord Jesus, we see God's realizing His desire; and then, when we look at His activity with us, we see God's seeking in this yet more fully extended way - beyond the individual Person of the Lord Jesus - to reproduce Himself in the Church, which is Christ's Body; that is, to make it Christ in expression. That is very simple and very elementary; but this heavenly order of which Christ is the Head is what God is seeking to bring about in a new race. Then the next thing is this: the last Adam is a Life-giving spirit. Thank God for that! You see, Adam could only produce after his kind, and his kind was an earthly order - a soul order of man. He could not produce after the full, complete, and final thought of God. It was not in him to reproduce himself in an order above his own level. Even as unfallen, he could not do that. The Lord Jesus is bound by the same law, but the difference is that as a Life-giving spirit, producing after His own kind, He has power to accomplish the Divine purpose by bringing in the heavenly - this spiritual - order. You have, then, a new race in view, set forth in its Head and, in union with Him - as one with Him - the Spirit with the Son, a Life-giving spirit, becoming the energy by which the end shall be reached. The Lord Jesus in us - the Holy Spirit in us - is the energy and power to produce, or reproduce, after His own kind. That makes a heavenly order possible.

http://eclesia.blogspot.com

Christ In You: The Apostle's Secret

Christ In You: The Apostle's Secret
by A. B. Simpson

Ancient mythology recognized some union of God with man, but it was a union which only degraded the gods and did not lift mankind. It still left a great gulf between the earthly and the heavenly.

It is this Paul refers to when he exclaims: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him" (I Cor. 2:9).

The apostle's secret of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27) is one which the world cannot grasp. Think of it and try to realize it. God is not only a God who mercifully pardons our guilt and saves us from its consequences, not only a God who gives to us a new nature that loves to do the right which once we hated, not only a God who comes to our aid in temptation and trial and interposes His strength and His providence for our deliverance, but above all this He is a God who comes Himself to live His own life in us.

He takes us into the divine family, makes us partakers of the divine nature, undertakes our life for us, becomes the Author and Finisher of our faith, and works in us "to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). This is incomprehensible to our finite minds.

What does human poetry, human philosophy, the purest form of human religion know of anything like this? No wonder Paul was aflame with the enthusiasm of his glorious discovery and longed to sweep like an angel flying in the midst of heaven to tell our helpless race the mighty secret - the secret that God not only had come down to visit men with a message of mercy, but had come to stay and live within them with "the power of an endless life" (Heb. 7:16).

It is still a secret, except to the initiated. Not only did it need a divine revelation to make it known to the world, it still needs a divine revelation to make it personally known and experientially real to the individual heart.

This is what the apostle means in I Corinthians 2, where with great clarity and force he argues that the mere human intellect cannot comprehend the things of God, but that we need a divine mind to be added to our human understanding before we can en­ter into the realm of spiritual truth.

It takes the mind of a man, Paul says, to understand the things of a man; and it takes the mind of God in us to understand the things of God. So he adds, "We have received... the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (I Cor. 2:12). Later he states the profound and extra­ordinary fact, "We have the mind of Christ" (verse 16), meaning that God gives to us a supernatural revelation of Himself and a supernatural capacity to understand that revelation.

Therefore the moment that this great mystery becomes an ex­perience in the life of a soul is a transcendent moment. It is one of the mountaintops of life. It is the crisis of existence. It is the °eniel where God declares, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel" (Gen. 32:28) and where transformed Jacob can say, "I have seen God face to face" (verse 30).

Have you entered into that sublime, supreme mystery? Have you passed through the veil into the Holy of Holies, so that you can say triumphantly:

I have passed through the veil to the
Sacred Abode
Where His glory the Savior reveals to His own:
And now, in the innermost presence
of God,
I am dwelling forever with Jesus
alone.

It is always a mystery, because even to the initiated there are still depths and heights of yet undiscovered glory and blessing. The apostle himself declares, "The Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God" (I Cor. 2:10).

Further, he prays that believers may fully know the riches of the glory of this mystery. He declares, "The love of Christ ... passes knowledge" (Eph. 3:19).

This glorious secret will unfold in ever-richer, fuller splendors till the end of time and through the never-ending ages of eter­nity. All that we know of it already is like the pebbles that a child has gathered on the shore while the depths of the bound­less ocean stretch out unexplored beyond.

Artists tell us that the secret of genius in any great work of art lies in the depth of the painting. Some pictures seem all upon the surface; others open to the observing eye infinite depths of suggestion and imagination.

But the mystery of Jesus surpasses all human thoughts, visions or imaginations. Every day unfolds some new charm. Every experience presents in it some new and living glory.

Like Aaron's rod, it is ever budding, blossoming and bearing new fruit. It never will cease to be as fresh as in the hour its glory first burst upon our transported view. And on and on through the cycles of eternity we shall still sing with wonder and adoration:

His love what mortal thought can reach,
What mortal tongue display?
Imagination's utmost stretch
In wonder dies away.