Father, we thank you that the eyes of our understanding are being unveiled to your purpose and to your plan. Lord, we are so grateful, beyond human expression, that we can stand in your presence because of your work at Calvary. We are so thankful, because it does not depend upon what we can or cannot do. We stand with a longing in our hearts to know you, knowing that there is nothing within ourselves that we could ever do to earn an entrance or gain entrance into your presence, but that the way is provided so freely that we can, as Hebrews says, come boldly before the throne of your grace to find help in the time of need. The veil of the Temple was rent at the Cross and now we, as your people, can simply enter into your presence and experience your peace and your touch and experience the impartation of your life which changes us into that which you desire. How grateful we are, Lord, that this is something that is done simply by your Spirit and through grace, because You love us, more than we probably ever have realized. We do know that that love is shed abroad in our hearts and is becoming greater and greater. The more we come into that love and understanding of your Father-heart, the more we can minister the gospel of salvation through the Spirit. Amen.
You probably have heard at least something about the Gospel of Grace that some of us are carrying in these days. It is a message of God’s love for humanity, a love that knows no bounds and no limitations. It’s a love that, when you can comprehend it and understand it, will totally change every fiber of your being.
I struggled for many years trying to be a good “Christian” and trying to perform according to what I thought a “Christian” should be. I was a miserable failure in trying to be a good “Christian” because I was not, in my natural human condition, a really holy person. None of us are.
Yet we try so hard, because we have that hunger and that cry within our hearts to be godlike. It is such a confusing thing because it seemed, at least in my experience, that the more I tried to be like God and the more I tried to do what I thought that I should do, I found it impossible within my natural makeup to be what I knew a good “Christian” should be. I knew I loved God with all my heart, yet I could not measure up to what I thought was the Christian standard.
I lived for about 29 years before I really experienced God in a real way. I had developed a lot of habit patterns in my life that were just not godly. I struggled for years trying to overcome them. The reason I appreciate so much today the un-limited, love of God is that when I experienced it--when I understood the love of God, and I really understood the work of Calvary, and I understood the blood of Jesus Christ--it absolutely set me free from trying to take this flesh, this carnal nature, and making it something it could never be.
Two Men, Two Lives, and Two Laws
I have written in the past on the two lives and two laws. To understand the Gospel of Grace, we need to see more about these two lives.
Adam Represents
Christ Represents Corruptible Seed Incorruptible Seed
A Natural birth A Spiritual Birth
The Soul of Man The Spirit of Man
The Human Consciousness The Christ Consciousness
The Carnal Nature A Spiritual Nature
A Man Living by the Flesh A Man Living in Spirit
The Law of Sin and Death The Law of Life
There are two lives from two different sources. The problem is that in the past we have tried to live out of our carnal Adamic life to produce Christ in us. There are many examples of this in the Scriptures.
In Genesis 15:3-4, God promised Abraham a son. “And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.”
Abraham got tired of waiting on God and produced a son after the flesh. “And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived” (Gen. 16:2-4).
This is only one of many examples in the Word of the flesh and spirit. After Ishmael was born and Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord came to him again. “And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year” (Gen. 17:15-21).
Isaac as the child of promise is a type of Christ. Abraham, instead of waiting on God, produced a son of his own doing and then asked God to bless Ishmael, the son he produced by the flesh. God did say he would bless Ishmael, but the promise is to Isaac. Most of us have spent many years trying to produce Christ by the works of the flesh. However, the promise is to the seed in us that is Christ. The promise is not to the natural seed that is our carnal human nature, the promise is to the new creation man in our spirit. Paul said in Galatians 3:16, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ,” and in verse 29, “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
All the religions of the world, including Christianity, have been caught in the trap of working according to the flesh. We have not truly realized that the old man is dead. He was crucified with Christ. We do not realize this because we do not trust in the new life within us. We are dead men trying to take a dead life and make it live unto God. It cannot be done.
Christ Must Be Formed In Us
Once we have been born again and quickened by the Spirit of God and washed in the Blood of the Lamb, we have a totally new life awakened in us. The promise is to the new life that is the seed of Christ in us. We have within us another regenerated in our spirit. This spiritual must be properly fed and nourished and will grow to be the overcoming one in us. This is God once again being birthed in humanity. The life in us is not the old carnal life made over. Jesus said, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is Spirit.” Most have never realized that in their spirit is another life. That life is Holy, undefiled, and high above the law of sin and death. This one in you is the child of promise, born of the incorruptible seed of the living God. I believe that even as you read these words something is stirring within you, trying to burst forth within your consciousness and bring deliverance from the Adamic nature.
You see, if Christ has not been formed in you, you cannot live the overcoming life. Once Christ begins even in a small way to be formed in you, you cannot help but be an overcomer. You must learn to look within and discover the truth of what it means to be born again. You are a totally different person in your spirit. As you discover this and begin to pray and meditate daily on this new life, the seed of Christ in you will begin to grow and fill your soul with His life. He will flow into your mind and renew it so you think like Christ. He will flow into your will and make it pliable to do His will. He will flow into your emotion so that the pure unadulterated love of God will flow from you.
Until the seed of Christ begins to grow in you, you must learn the power of forgiveness and the power of the blood of Jesus. If you have not read my book Coming Out of Condemnation It will help you to understand the Gospel of Grace. We are saved not by what we do, but by what God has done. He has made a promise to the seed of Christ, and you can be assured He will bring it to pass.
When I use the word “salvation”, I am using it in the sense of the full meaning of the word, because the word salvation is a total reverse of the Fall. It’s a redemption from poverty, from sickness, and from death.
Many people do not understand what death is. Death, in God’s eyes, is not when your body falls over and gets put into the grave. Death, in God’s eyes when you study Scripture, is simply a separation from God. As long as you are living in a carnal mentality, even though you might have a very good human nature, you can never experience the fullness of God. , our human nature, is a dead man. We are born into a death realm. If we have not been born again and washed in the Blood, we have no life as far as God is concerned. God wants to replace everything that we are with His life and nature.
I have studied the promises of God for many years because they have helped me more than anything else to come out of the struggling in the flesh. Recently, I found a really wonderful promise in the Bible that I had never seen before. In 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 it says, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”
All of us have experienced the human nature. In other words, it is not that which is spiritual which is first, according to our perception, but that which is natural. The first man, speaking of Adam or the carnal nature, is of the earth and is earthy. But the second man is the Lord from heaven.
“As is the earthy, such are they also which are earthy.” In other words, we are of the Adamic nature. As we live according to that nature we are earthy. “And as to the heavenly, such are they also which are heavenly.” This is the promise: “As we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” If we have been born of the first man, Adam, born in the flesh, we are earthy. All of carnal nature is ours by birth. We bear the image of the earthy. However, since we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Christ in us will come forth in all of His fullness. Can you believe this? If you can believe it you will very quickly begin to experience Christ’s overcoming life arise within you.
This is one of the most wonderful promises we have. I never saw it until recently. I can’t tell you how many times I had read and studied this chapter in Corinthians, but I never saw this. This is saying that if you have borne the image of the earthy you shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Paul told the Corinthians, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22). What this simply means is that in Adam, all of us are separated from God. In our awareness and in our consciousness we are born knowing nothing of God. We are in total darkness and alienation. In Adam, all die! You were born into death and separation. Now, if you have indeed borne the image of the earthy YOU SHALL ALSO BEAR THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY! This is a promise!
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