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Where are we up to?
How does the One Flesh and the Sin Sacrifice, that nullifies death over mankind, bring the Gentiles into Abraham’s family?”.
As far as God is concerned Sin is no more a problem. Jesus’ Death and resurrection has finished that. But there is still sin in the lives of people. Ok, the Power of Sin has been broken but why do each of us still suffer from sinning in our daily lives? Simply, we did not commit the Original Sin, Adam did. Now because of Adam’s disobedience we all have received a spirit that has lost its connection to God the Father.
Now I hear you say. “But is not fair.” “I did not deserve this condition where I can’t help myself from sinning, it was Adam’s fault.” True, but here where God the Father’s great Mercy comes in. As I have stated earlier all the people that were born before the Death and Resurrection of Jesus are considered “Righteous” as long as they act in an obedient way towards God the Father.
Their willingness to honour God just like Abraham did when they died went to separate place of the dead to those that rejected God’s wooing. These ‘righteous ones' could not enter Heaven until the payment had been paid by Jesus’ Death and Resurrection. This included the People of Israel as well as the others, Gentiles. Not all the seed of Abraham were considered ‘righteous’ because of their unbelief, not honoring the Father’s offer of the Blessing that came through Abraham.
Are you still with me? We are moving to a conclusion so hang in there a bit more.
Let’s recall the ‘mystery’, ‘this secret plan’, which Paul talked about earlier. Namely, the Gentiles would be able to come into Abraham’s Family through a ‘union with the Messiah’. Here is where it all comes together. Until the Sin Problem was dealt with on the Cross on which Jesus died, this union with Him was impossible. The sin nature was still in the people that were obedient but still sinning because they had the life-force from Adam. The spirit they received from their parents.
The only chance of victory over this condition was a New Birth. Now the rules or Law of Life had been set back in the Garden of Eden and cannot be broken. Only death can intervene to make any change. Now death is final and free choice ceases at death. Being Born Again seemed impossible just Nicodemus said this in
John Chapter 3.
John 3:1-6 (CJB)*
1. There was a man among the P’rushim, named Nakdimon, {Nicodemus} who was a ruler of the Judeans. 2. This man came to Yeshua by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know it is from God that you have come as a teacher; for no one can do these miracles you perform unless God is with him.” 3. “Yes, indeed,” Yeshua answered him, “I tell you that unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
4. Nakdimon said to him, “How can a grown man be ‘born’? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” 5. Yeshua answered, “Yes, indeed, I tell you that unless a person is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. 6. What is born from the flesh is flesh, and what is born from the Spirit is spirit.
Nicodemus’s statement, “How can a grown man be 'born'? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?”, is very relevant here. Note the term “Born Again”, is born again from above, Verse 3.
Jesus answered, ‘unless a person is born from water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God’,
Verse 5, and ‘What is born from the flesh is flesh, and what is born from the Spirit is spirit’ Verse 6.
So, now we see there is two kinds of being born. ‘Water’, the natural and ‘Spirit’, supernatural or born from above. Now that we see that Jesus has broken the ‘Power of Sin’ and has been raised a ‘Life giving Spirit’,” the ‘Last Adam’, 1 Corinthians 15:45b. we can begin to see how this all comes together.
Jesus as the ‘Last Adam’, has the capacity to reproduce after Himself. Since He is now a Life-Giving Spirit, His children will be spiritual. Consider this; who is the wife or bride of Christ Jesus? Paul clearly states The Church is His Body. Hence The Church is The Bride. Now if we look at Revelations 21:2, it states that the New Jerusalem is described “like a bride adorned for her husband”.
Revelation 21:1-2 (CJB)*
1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had passed away, and the sea was no longer there. 2. Also I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
[I need to add an explanation here, the New Jerusalem comes down "like a bride" prepared for her husband. It does not say the New Jerusalem is the 'bride'. The New Jerusalem is prepared for the bride and her husband; Jesus.]
So, The Church, The Body of Christ, and The Bride are all the same entity. This is a Spiritual Reality. Christians will refer to themselves as The Church, The Body, or the Bride. This the Spiritual dimension in which the ‘Born Again’ experience can take place.
Let’s see how this happens. Paul gives a straightforward answer in
Romans 10:9-10.
Romans 10:9-10 (CJB)*
9. That if you acknowledge publicly with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord and trust in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be delivered. 10. For with the heart one goes on trusting and thus continues toward righteousness, while with the mouth one keeps on making public acknowledgement and thus continues toward deliverance.
When an individual realizes there is only way to be reconciled to God the Father. Only when they acknowledge that Jesus has made that way through His Death and Resurrection that this New Birth is possible. As Paul states, when a person sees that they cannot please God by their own actions, they must realize the New Life is only available through Jesus Christ.
When they acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus is trusting Him to do everything needed for Salvation, all this is the first step. The publicly acknowledging, speaking, or confessing which, comes from a belief, a trust in that person’s heart this is what brings the whole experience to completion.
As this process happens is where the ‘mystery’ occurs. The Holy Spirit comes removes the old Adamic spirit and replaces it with The Spirit of Christ. Hence the person of Jesus gives that person His Spirit making them a Child of God just as He is a Son of God. Here is where is gets really amazing. We don’t become a child of Jesus but a Child of God, a joint heir with Jesus. Everything of ourselves {that is the believer} He takes and because all our own efforts are ‘as filthy rags’.
Isaiah 64:5 (CJB)*
5. All of us are like someone unclean, all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags; {filthy rags} we wither, all of us, like leaves; and our misdeeds blow us away like the wind.
He places this on the Cross and leaves them there and we receive all that belongs to Him. This is how those that are ‘believers’ have become One Flesh with Jesus.
The reality of this is beyond words. Much more could be added here but that must be for another study. I hope this has been a help to anyone that has desired to understand how the One Flesh relationship relates to the believer and what are the benefits of coming a relation with God through Jesus.
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Index Page
(CJB)*
The Complete Jewish Bible" used with permission.
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