Created - Formed - Made

“Even every one that is called by My name: for I have created him for My glory, I have formed him; yes, I have made him” (Isaiah 43:7)

The plan of God centers around people – men and women who have chosen and are chosen to be part of His finished creation. These select persons go through a special process of development. In the text of Isaiah, they are “called”, then “created… formed… made.”
God’s whole plan centers around the developing and perfecting of these select individuals. In Isaiah 43, the prophet (under the inspiration of God) makes a remarkable declaration of God’s ongoing eternal purpose. Whom is God selecting? God replies, “Every one that is called by My name.” God may have been speaking to a nation, but at this point His Divine spotlight focuses on the individual. Here is the first step in bringing the human creation into the Divine plan: being called.
Then the next step follows quickly, a special aspect of development: “I have created him.” These select persons do not come about by chance, nor are they left to the blind forces of nature. They are “created”.
What is the purpose in this special creation? “I have created him for My glory.” God plans that His finished new creation will glorify Him, that is, enhance or increase His old creation.
“I have created… I have formed… I have made.” The Hebrew words behind these three terms show distinct emphasis and significance. First, “I have created.” This term refers to an entirely new beginning. We may apply it to God’s action in making a person with faith in Christ as Savior and Lord into a new creation. We Christians become totally new (in God’s eyes) when Jesus Christ comes to live in our human spirit (Galatians 2:20) – a total change of spirit nature from the independent nature inherited from the Fall of Adam into the Divine nature of God (2 Peter 1:4). It is, as far as each one is concerned, a radical departure from an earthly birth into a totally new birth – being born again. And it applies totally to the human spirit part of us.
The second step is that of being “formed”. This word indicates a process. It is a word which is used of the potter working at the wheel. He is using what now exists to make it into something better, something new. The potter takes his basic material, clay, and shapes and molds it into his design. But say a flaw develops in the product as he shapes it. Does he throw away the clay and say that the clay was no good? No, he just collects the clay into a new glob and begins again to reshape.
When a Christian becomes “flawed” by sin, does God throw us out as unworkable? No. He just collects us (by correcting us) into a new “glob” and works on us again.
This shaping, molding, reshaping, remolding takes place in the human soul, the intellect, emotions and will. The soul is like a mass of clay that has been shaped by the world previous to our new birth and now must be shaped and reshaped into the lifestyle of God. But always remember that the Master Potter does not throw out a “flawed soul” but rather takes steps of correction to the same “clay” in order to shape it the way He wants it.
The third word, “made” is a word which indicates the final result. It is accomplished. I have made; I have finished, and it is done. The prophet Isaiah looked into the future when the plan of God for all individuals would be complete. He looked also to the end of the forming he himself was experiencing, to the time when he would be “created… formed… made.” He was looking to the time when he would eventually stand as the finished work of God.
Of course, the potter and clay example breaks down in the aspect that regular clay must conform to the shaping of the potter – but we, as clay, can CHOOSE to conform. There is a sense in which we do the forming ourselves. And though we must do all in our power to cooperate with the Master Potter and submit to Him, all the parts of the process – the purpose, the life, and the ongoing success – are God’s.
There is something here which should startle and awaken us, something that should catch our attention and change the direction of our lives. It is the realization of the new birth – that Christ works on this clay of ours from the INSIDE OUT. The Master Potter has come INTO the clay, is actually in union with the clay, and will never leave or separate from the clay.
This whole process of forming is not a work God does alone, nor can we do it without cooperating with God in Christ. But rest assured, the shaping of the Christian WILL GET DONE by whatever means necessary. Sometimes that clay has to take a real “pounding” – but the finished product is guaranteed to be pleasing to God.

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Curious Things Jesus Said

Have you ever wondered why Jesus said some of the things He said?

For example, Mark 11:22-24 suggests that if, in faith, we want to tell a mountain to throw itself into the sea, it can happen. However, why would I want to tell a mountain to throw itself into the sea? What would it accomplish other than making me feel more than a little powerful, creating a blot on the landscape, and upsetting conservationists? Did Jesus really mean that we should use faith whimsically, to accomplish whatever takes our fancy?

Sometimes I think Jesus used ideas for their shock value in order to get the attention of His listeners. Remember when He said that if your right hand offends you, you should cut if off? Or if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out? If these passages were to be taken literally, there would be a lot of one-eyed, one-handed Christians walking around. Christ was making a point through exaggeration. The point was that we should deal decisively with our sin before it takes over our life.

Jesus compared prayer to a child asking his father for something and believing that the father would respond. So great is our heavenly Father’s desire to give to us that He knows the things we have need of before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8).

So what is Mark 11:22-24 all about? There is a context. There are powerful lessons to do with faith and prayer. The day before, Jesus, by His divine power, had caused a leafy but fruitless fig tree to wither. This was to teach His disciples that it is possible to seem spiritual and yet to not produce the fruit God seeks from us. He had also cleansed the temple of those who exploited the house of prayer for personal profit.

In remembering the fig tree, Jesus tells His followers to "have faith in God." Was He saying to them that they too, if only they really believed, could curse fig trees? I don’t think so. Or was He stressing that the religious life without faith is of no use to God and that it may as well wither up and die?

The context also shows in verses 25 and 26 that prayer made without forgiving those who may have wronged us, just as we want God to forgive us, will not be heard and fulfilled. Therefore this passage explains that we don’t automatically get everything we request in prayer—there are conditions of faith toward God, of bearing the fruit He requires of us, and of mercy shown to others.

It is not wise to let one passage of Scripture dictate the totality of doctrine on a particular subject. Mark 11:22-24 is one of many references to praying in faith. A prayer of faith reaffirms God’s sovereignty, not ours—that His will be done, not our own will (Matthew 6:10).

This touches on one of the problems with the "name it and claim it" prayer styles—the implication that faith gives us the ability to coerce God to give us what we demand. Such thinking implies wrongly that God’s sovereignty is subservient to ours.

Matthew 7:7-11 says that we can ask the Father, and He will give us "good things." Does that mean that God gives us what is good for our long-term development, just as a parent gives a child what the parent thinks is best? If we desire something in prayer that is not for our good, should God honor that request?

James, the brother of Jesus, exhorted Christians to "ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind" (James 1:3). Don’t suppose, he says, that you will receive any answer from prayer if you are double-minded and uncommitted in your own request.

We need to be convinced about the value of prayer. The reference Jesus made to believing we can move mountains affirms this. It is impossible to make an impression on God without faith that God is who He says He is, and also that He rewards those who seek Him diligently (Hebrews 11:6).
A major problem that the readers of James’ epistle had was that they let their own selfish desires dominate their prayer life. "You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:3).

What did they want God to give them? Various ideas are suggested—success by the world’s standards (4:4); God to be on their side and to win their battles for them (4:1-2); their self-seeking positions to be realized (3:14). Righteousness, argues James, is about faith. Faith is believing that God will do what He says He will do (2:23). A life of faith involves making peace with others (3:18), not causing dissention by pushing our own cause or point of view. The effective prayer of the righteous person, which avails much, is a prayer for others, for those who are sick, for those in distress, not a prayer that is overcome by selfishness (4:16).
Faithful prayer does not always play out according to our plans. Prayer is about trusting God and leaving situations in His hands. It is about showing love by petitioning God on behalf of others.

Sometimes, when we pray, we present both the problem and our favorite solution to God, instead of leaving Him to choose an answer for us. Not that it is wrong to think things through and offer ideas in prayer, but do we limit God’s answers in our mind to only what we think should happen? We need to open our minds to the infinite wonder of God—"to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20).

We all need and value the intervention of God. In His sovereignty God can and does choose to supply what is good for us according to the abundance of His grace. He seeks to give us gifts and blessings. However, those blessings are not provided on demand. We share in suffering as we are part of humanity.

Jesus taught that prayer is more about what we can give than about what we can receive. God is not a lucky charm or a winning lottery ticket. From the viewpoint of Jesus, prayer is a special relationship to be cherished, a relationship that brings us comfort and hope that the great God of the universe has taken a special interest in each of us. May He express through us that same interest toward others.

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In Jesus' Name

"Whatever you ask in My name," Jesus said, "I will do it" (John 14:13). Some people seem to think that Jesus is giving us a blank check—we can ask for anything at all, and He will sign His name to it and pass it along to the Father, and it will be done—guaranteed.

We all know that this doesn’t work—and it’s a good thing it doesn’t! Some people pray for rain at the same time as their neighbors pray for sunshine. The home seller prays for a high price, the home buyer prays for a low one.

If God had to answer every request He was given in the name of Jesus, the world would be chaotic, driven by the whims of well-meaning but foolish people. Even if humans could all agree, we simply don’t have the wisdom to be telling God how to run the universe.

So what did Jesus mean - “Whatever we ask”?

"I tell you the truth," Jesus said, "My Father will give you whatever you ask in My name…. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete" (John 16:23-24). Does this mean that we fill out the request form, and Jesus signs it and sends it to His dad? "Hey, Dad, I’ve got a buddy here who wants a million dollars. How about doing it as a favor for Me?"

No, that is not the way it works. Jesus is not a middleman who stamps His signature on our request, pretending that our request is really His. He says: "I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you" (verses 26-27). We have permission to go to the Father directly, because God loves us just as much as He loves His own Son. (Does that thought astonish you as much as it does me?)
Hebrews tells us that Jesus gives us permission to go to God directly. We do not need a middleman.

So what does it mean to ask in the name of Jesus?

Let’s imagine that we are in an ancient palace. The king is sitting on his throne, his prince at his right hand, dozens of guards at attention, hundreds of loyal servants waiting for orders so that every decree will be carried out immediately.

And now imagine that we go into the palace, and the guards immediately make way for us, knowing that we have permission to approach the king. They swing aside, snap to attention and give us the royal treatment. We walk into the throne room, bow before the king, bow before the prince, and then tell the king: "In the name of the prince, I ask you for a better job and a nicer home."

Maybe my palace protocol is a little rusty, but it seems a little odd for me to speak "in the name of the prince" when the prince is sitting right there. Maybe this is not what it means to ask "in the name of Jesus."

Some people think that Jesus was talking about pronouncing His name in a certain way. They believe we have to get His name right—like a secret password—before the request will get through the heavenly filters. But when ancient peoples talked about someone’s "name," they were not worried about the right pronunciation—they were referring to a person’s status or importance.

We can see that in the book of Hebrews. It begins by telling us that Jesus has inherited a better name than the angels have. The name in that context seems to be "Son," but the precise word isn’t really important—the point being made is that Jesus is superior to the angels. He has a higher status, a greater glory.

When we talk about the superior name of Jesus, we are really talking about His superior importance. When we pray in the name of Jesus, we are not dealing with a special word—we are dealing with a special person. When we pray in His name, we are praying according to the way that He is—according to His nature. Our praise and requests should be something that fits His character.

Let’s use another analogy. Suppose that a police officer says, "Stop in the name of the law"—it means that the officer has the force of law behind the command. But suppose that same officer asks for a bribe: "Give me $20,000 cash in the name of the law." Using the words "in the name of the law" does not automatically give the officer legal support, does it? When the officer says "in the name of the law," he is supposed to be acting within the rules of the law.

In the same way, when we use Jesus’ name, we are not obligating Him to support our own whims and desires. Rather, we are saying that we are already in accord with what He wants. We are saying something that He has authorized us to say.

Rather than forcing Him to conform to our wishes, "in His name" means exactly the opposite: We are conforming to His wishes, we are acting within His will. When we speak on His behalf, we need to make sure that we are saying something that He would agree with.

When we say "in Jesus’ name," we are conforming to the words of the Lord’s prayer: Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let it be done in my life. If my request is not according to your will, then feel free to change it to what it needs to be. "In Jesus’ name" is our affirmation that, as best we know, our request is within His will.

However, if we have to pray according to God’s will, what’s the point of praying? Isn’t He going to do His will whether we ask for it or not? Doesn’t it go without saying that if we ask God to do what He already wants to, that He will do it?

But God is the one who is telling us to pray. In His wisdom, God has decided to do certain things only in answer to prayer. Sometimes this is so that we will learn, in the process of prayer, what His will is, and whether our request is for selfish purposes. We don’t always understand what God’s will is, and praying can sometimes help us come to a better understanding.

But I suspect that on many things, God’s will is not set in stone. God may not have decided, for example, which person we should marry—but He has already decided how we should treat the person we marry. He requires that we choose the person, and choose each day how we will interact with that person. Prayer can help us here, too.

Prayer changes us—but it also affects what God does. Since He has decided to do certain things only in answer to prayer, He decides what to do based in part on what we do, on what we need in the situations we have chosen, and on what we ask Him to do. He has the power to carry it out, the compassion to help us in our needs, and the wisdom to know what is really best for us.

"In everything," Paul says, "by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" (Philippians 4:6). Whatever is on your heart, whatever it is that you want, ask God for it.

Jesus has given us the authority to ask—but it is a request, not a command. We can trust God to answer in the best possible way, at the best possible time. But whatever we do (prayer included), we are to do it for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). When we do that, we can be confident that we are praying in Jesus’ name.

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What We Need In Movies

When Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of The Christ” opened, I wrote an article entitled, “Let’s Accentuate Birth - Not Death!”. In it, I said that as moving as the story of Christ’s crucifixion is, I would like to see some producer make a movie about the importance of the Resurrection.
A new book has just been published by one of my favorite Christian writers, Gene Edwards, entitled, “The Day I Was Crucified”. It is written as Jesus Christ speaking in the first person. I find that the section on the Resurrection is wonderfully tailored to what I had in mind to accentuate a new birth.
I will henceforth quote from Gene’s new book, taking up where Jesus is about to die on the cross.

“I lived before you ever existed,” I said to Death as he squeezed me in his clutches. “Poor Death, there are things that took place before you existed of which you know nothing.”
“It matters not,” Death vaunted.
“It matters all,” I replied.
In that final moment I commanded those who were present from the unseen realm: “Lucifer, principalities and powers, and all whom you head, come into me.”
“Step forth, World System. Come into my very being. You, World, shall die with me!”
“Law, you have been fulfilled, now come into my bosom.”
“Adam’s race, all that was touched by the Fall, and creation itself, come into me and be one with me!”
“Death, be my servant: Put to death all that is now one with me.”
“Come religion! That which strives to be good but is ever failing, come.”
“Death, take religion, the old man, and the self nature and make them your prey.”
“Die upon my Cross. Come, all of you, die in me! You have now encountered the most destructive power in creation - my Cross!”
“Put me to death, I command you. Death, look at me: I am become the Fall. All that is created is crucified with me.”
“Oh, but there is one left - Death, as you take the last breath from me, I have a surprise for you. Death, YOU are now mine!” I cried out triumphantly.
As Death wrapped himself about me, to snuff out the last ember of my life, I whispered to Death, “You are not death, Is there not one greater than you?”
“None,” frothed Death.
“Is there not one who can put Death to death?”
“There is no such a one!” screamed Death.
“Not true,” I replied. “You have for so long called yourself Death, but I was here long before you. I tell you now what you did not know then. I am disguised. You, Death, are but a shadow. You are not death at all. You are but a picture of me. No, Death, you are not death at all. I am life, it is true, but I also am the one who is true death. And at this last moment, I am death to you.”
“Oh, Death, be now surprised. One is greater than all your vaunted claims. The one who can kill Death is death indeed. Today I kill you, Death. You thought you came for me, but it is I who came for you! Then when Death be dead, then shall Sin also be dead, along with the principalities, the world, Adam’s race, and the law. As Death dies, the law will be forever dead. When Death is dead, then who shall hold the graves? There will be life for all who were once your prey.”
“Death, hear me, there will be only one who inhabits the domain of the dead! That shall be YOU.”
Death began to feel his power draining away. His eyes blazed in horror.
“I have crucified the world, I have crucified Sin, I have crucified Law, I have crucified the race of Adam, and I have crucified all else that has this hour entered into me.”
Death cried, “I take comfort in this: I am also killing the Galilean. That is satisfaction enough for me. Let me end, here and now, but Carpenter, you shall lie in the grave beside me.”
Death screamed and then screamed again as he sank into his grave. His last desperate utterance: “If I can hold you for three days, Carpenter, then will I hold you forever.”
When everything I am that was not sin had fled from me, I cried out - Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani. A bystander thought I was calling for Elijah. “Hold, let us see if Elijah will come and save him.”
Then I heard the voice of my Father, “Well done, my dear and faithful Son.” Hearing my Father’s words, I cried out - It…is…finished!
In the last second of life, I released my divinity to the Father.
Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.

The curtain to the entrance of the Holy of Holies ripped open while splintering wood crashed upon the floor below. Instantly the great and foreboding cloud that had gathered around Golgotha disappeared. For the first time the Passover was spent in chaos. Terrified priests attempted to find some way to cover the entrance into the Holy of Holies, yelling all the while, “Do not look upon the Holy of Holies!” When told the door between man and the holiest place on earth was visible to ordinary people, Caiaphas tried to hide his panic.
At that same moment in heavenly places, the fierce cherubim with their ever-circling swords of fire (which had guarded the door between the two realms since the Fall) fled in terror because the door suddenly disappeared.
Not since Adam of earth and God of heaven walked in the garden had there been commerce between these two worlds. Angels, as terrified as the cherubim, fled that empty place where once had been the guarded door. Finally, when curiosity overcame them, the angels cautiously crept back to that place which had so long been sealed.

It was three o’clock in the afternoon. I had been on the Cross for six hours. Those executed by the cross never died in so short a time, as the point of crucifixion was to exhibit a long, merciless death.
Unsure that one could be dead so soon, the soldier raised a spear and pierced my side. I was pierced in the same place where I long ago had opened Adam’s side to bring forth his bride. The second man to be the head of a new race also had a woman inside him. In a few days, divine woman would come forth out of me.
As the soldier removed the spear from my side, first water flowed out of my side, then blood - thus fulfilling what I had told Zechariah.
At last it was all over, but who would come for my body? As far as the Romans cared, my body was now meat for vultures. But someone from the Sanhedrin, with newfound courage, and faith, was about to lay claim to my body.
Although the Passover was approaching, one of the men of the Sanhedrin had come to the hill to inquire about my body. It was Joseph from the nearby town of Arimathea. He dared not come too close to the dead, but he did ask the soldiers how he could go about removing my remains.
“Only Pilate can do that,” replied one of the guards defiantly.
Joseph, a good and kind man, not present at my trial, nerved himself, went to see Pilate, and asked for my body. When Pilate heard that I was already dead, he did not believe it. “No man has ever died that quickly on the cross.” One of the guards replied, “Sir, his side was pierced; he is dead. I was there.” With that word, Pilate gave Joseph permission to remove my body.
Soon another member of the Sanhedrin, a man named Nicodemus, joined Joseph and his servants. With time running out, they rushed to Golgotha to claim my body. Meekly and remorsefully, Nicodemus and Joseph, along with their servants, placed my naked body upon a long, white, linen sheath that covered my entire body.
Some years, earlier, Joseph had purchased a tomb for himself and his family, one never before used. The tomb was near both Gethsemane and the place where I was crucified. With the Passover only moments away, the servants rushed to Joseph’s tomb and there left my body, along with seventy-five pound of aloes and spices.
Just a short distance behind these men was my mother, wanting to be certain that she would know where I was laid. With my mother were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph.
Before departing, Joseph of Arimathea had his servants roll a huge stone across the entrance to my tomb. No one in the entire universe could have grasped what lay in that tomb that evening.
Creation itself was in that tomb awaiting the birth of a new creation. That new creation would not take seven days, but rather just three, and its beginning would be from this very tomb. That new creation would be born instantly in a burst of light and power.
All the power of darkness, World, Sin, and Law were in that tomb. So also the Jewish race, the Gentiles, all the race of mankind. But most important of all, Death lay there, still and silent. All were awaiting - awaiting their triumph or mine.
Would it be the powers of darkness which would arise? Or perhaps the all-consuming victory of Death, with the end of life forevermore? Or?? Was it possible that nothing at all would come forth?

“It has only been seconds as men count time, and already so much is changing.” “I cannot but wonder,” mused one of the angels, “does the disappearance of the door mean that we will be able to go back and forth to earth as we once did with Adam?”
“Or more,” asked another, “shall we see mortal beings setting foot in the realm of the spirituals?”
“I could not so imagine,” replied one of the angels.
“Perhaps you are correct,” agreed another.
There was a pause. All the angels looked toward the missing door and on to earth. One startled angel blinked and asked, “Pray tell what is that I see? Whatever it is, it seems to have only this moment appeared. It seems to be coming this way.”
“Forbid that fallen man should gain entrance to the habitat of the heavenlies!” exclaimed a rather concerned angel. “But what is that?”
“I have no idea,” responded another angel.
“Could it be an angel of some kind we have never known?”
“No, it is far, far too bright to be an angel.”
“Perhaps one of the vanished cherubim?”
“No, too bright even for that. Besides, cherubim are fierce. This appears to be trying to express some kind of overwhelming joy. It is not a cherub.”
“It cannot be a human, can it?”
“Of course not! Fallen men are not allowed in the realm of things spiritual under any conditions. Well, whatever it is, it is coming this way.”
“He stumbles, runs, and stumbles again. Look, now he is jumping. He is definitely…coming in…here!”
“I have never seen such conduct,” mused another of the angels.
“Look, he is transparent,” called one of the angels. “I think that he can see both realms.”
“I think he belongs to both realms.”
“That is not possible.”
“No, at least it was not previously possible.”
“There is no doubt the one coming this way thinks he has a right to be here.”
“I believe he can see us!”
“Is that possible? After all, we are invisible.”
“I thought something like this would happen if the wall between the two realms disappeared - and it has.”
“I miss having that door,” said one very troubled angel.
“I do not like this vast, unguarded space,” agreed another.
“Should not at least one of us draw a sword?”
“I doubt what good that would do,” declared another as they all began shielding their eyes.

“Are all of you angels?” he asked.
“It is speaking to us!” exclaimed one of the angels.
“Am I an angel?” asked the approaching creature as he paused and slowly looked around. “No, I guess I am not an angel. I think I used to be a human being. But oh, look at me!”
“I have never seen such innocence, purity, and perfection,” whispered one of the angels. “He does not seem to be aware of how beautiful he is or how bright his light is.”
“Where am I? What am I doing here? Who are you? Please, pray tell, what am I? You have never seen anything like me, have you?”
“You are the first,” stammered one of the angels finally, “but…I have an idea you will not be the last. As to who you are…I would be pleased to tell you, but I do not know who or what you are.”
He told me that I would be here today. Is this today?”
The mouths of the angels fell open. One said, “At last we know who you are!” Another said, “That is not possible. After all, remember what he was: He was an old thief. That old, cheating, lying thief.”
“Now I remember!” exclaimed the thief. “And, oh, oh, oh! HE remembered me! I am a thief. Or was. What am I now?”
“You are the first of the redeemed. You are the handiwork of Christ’s redemption.”
“That is what I am!” exclaimed the former thief. “I have another question. Am I as beautiful as I think I am?”
“Even more so,” replied the angels as one.
“Am I as bright as you are?” he inquired again.
“No. More so. Much more! We have never been that bright.”
“Never before have I been able to see places which cannot be seen,” observed the thief in wonderment. “Are you sure I am the only one of my kind?”
“You are the first of your species,” another angel informed him.
“I think I died,” said the thief. “I was on a cross just a few moments ago. Now look at me! Am I in…in…paradise?”
“This is at least paradise,” replied the angel, “and perhaps it will be even more. We will know in three days. In fact, with your arrival, we are sure this will be much more than paradise then.”
At those words, this child of God grabbed one of the terrified angels, embraced him, and began to dance.
“I do not know who I am. I know not where I am. I do not know what I am, but I sense I am not what I used to be - and I am wonderful and beautiful,” he shouted.
Suddenly he paused. “The one dying next to me said that I would be with him in paradise, but he also mentioned something too about a book. A Book of Life. Is there something called the Book of Life? Oh, also, there was something about being known even as I am known.”
With that the angels rushed to the Book of Life. Just as they had expected, the very first name written in the Book was that of the thief. As the angels began to shout praises, the thief asked, “I am the first of what?”
“You are the first of those for whom we have waited throughout the ages. We have long waited for this day to arrive.”
“One last question: You are called angels. What am I called?” he asked.
“You are called a holy one.”

Is that the sun coming up? It is just now breaking over the ridge of the mountains. I feel the tremors of an earthquake. This must be Sunday morning!
My mother, Mary, had spent a terrible night filled with images of my last moments of life, of my hasty burial, and of the huge stone that had been rolled in front of the entrance to my tomb.
“Saturday was the strangest of days,” she observed to her friends. Mary Magdalene had described it best: “It is as though the universe has come to a halt, with everything in creation waiting for something to happen.”
Saturday night would be as fitful as Friday. Sadness and helplessness had engulfed all my followers. But for Mary, for the Magdalene, and for the other women, all their thoughts centered around the huge stone. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had warned the women, “By no means should you come back to the tomb, not until Sunday.” Yet for Mary Magdalene, to return to that tomb was the only purpose she still had in life. Like the other women who had witnessed my body being laid into the grave, who had watched as a large group of very strong men rolled the circular stone into place. The women had seen the stone fall into a hewn notch, depriving anyone of access, and thereby hopelessly sealing his body. All agreed, “The rock is now unmovable.” It would take a multitude of men to budge that stone. And so they waited, watched, and wondered.
And there was another problem. The Jewish leaders had gone to Pilate and asked the Romans to post soldiers in front of the tomb to guard it day and night. The Roman soldiers enjoyed frightening people by brandishing their swords, and should anyone venture to approach the tomb, the soldiers would give no quarter to the curious. Until these guards departed, it was a certainty no one would dare approach my tomb. Nor would a guard ever dare fall asleep during his watch. To do that would mean certain death.
An unmovable stone and a platoon of well-trained soldiers had removed all hope for a brokenhearted woman to tend to my lifeless body. The night’s wait proved too much for Mary Magdalene. She determined that, regardless of the risk, she would go to my tomb and there keep her vigil. She passed Gethsemane, the place of the crucifixion, and from there ran quickly on to Joseph’s tomb. There she waited for a morning that seemed to refuse to come.
While the soldiers stood guard - and while Mary Magdalene made her way through the streets of Jerusalem - none could have imagined what was beginning to take place beneath the surface of my tomb, far below in the netherworld.
Death was dead, but its clutch upon me was unbreakable. It would take a power the likes of which has never been known to free me of death’s cold hand. Not even the power which I unleashed at creation could triumph over this enemy of God.
Others had been raised from the dead, only to die again. If I, the Son of Man, was to be raised from the dead, it would be a resurrection once and forevermore. Then would all the work of death be doomed - and doomed forever.
There were things which had once been reckoned as lasting forever but were not everlasting because they were now in my tomb. Sin was once forever, but now it was forever in its grave. The Hebrews had thought that the sacred law had been established forever, yet the law lay quietly in its coffin, never to hold sway on men again. Then there was the World System, which had been born at the time of the Fall and had grown to encompass the planet. But that system died when I died. Also in my tomb, the entire race of Adam lay cold and dead. Things within the unseen realm had assumed the fallen human race would go on until the last child was born.
As to the prince of darkness, he, like the others, had everlasting life, but my Cross had stolen such life from him.
In the eyes of God, all these which men had reckoned as everlasting were now everlastingly dead. Men may not comprehend the death of death, the end of sin, the destruction of the world system, the annihilation of the entire race of mankind, or the nullification of the kingdom of darkness, but in the eyes of God - and His view is the only view that counts - all of these were now in the tomb with me. Only one question remained.
Could the Son of Man be raised from the dead? Could an entire species vanish and a new species come forth in its place. Did such power exist?
That was, of course, impossible. Creation had been completed in seven days. God would not create again. But the Father knew something no others knew. God had reserved the right to bring forth that which was not created - rather, that which was uncreated - His own divine life! He would bring forth life that was not created!
So it was, in the darkest hour of Saturday, there gathered beneath me a power greater than that which had been released by me when I created the galaxies, the earth, and man. The gathering together into one place of such power caused the very earth to tremble. From the smallest atom to the grandest galaxy, things both seen and unseen began to lose their established ways. In the throes of such a cataclysm, creation itself began to groan while terror spread its wings across the very ends of the universe.

During all this tempest I lay cold and breathless, dead as any creature who had ever died. Nor was death’s furious grip likely to release its prey. Was death’s power as great as the power of the Eternal Spirit?
And so began the duel. Death versus life. Life over death.
Eventually the heavenly host realized there was no particular direction in which to take flight, for from molecules to galaxies all things were in uncertain turmoil. “The conflict is somewhere beneath the earth, near Jerusalem,” announced one of the angels.
As one, they now understood. “It is almost the third day.” With that the entire angelic host moved - as it had three days earlier - to the hills of Jerusalem. There the anxious messengers of God took up an uneasy watch, knowing that the outcome of the ensuing battle would decide the fate not only of creation, but also of eternity. Could the Eternal Spirit break death’s vice? Could the Eternal Spirit win over death? Does that mean that eternal life - even the very life that God lives by, divine life - could become the life-source of man?
And there was more.
The Spirit was striving to impart eternal life to a new species of mankind, and that same Spirit was extinguishing the old creation. A new species could now live in utter freedom in a new creation.
The earthquake intensified, and some of the graves in Jerusalem ripped open. Places long forgotten, even the burial place of Adam and Eve, shook in grand relief as all the descendants of the first family came to an everlasting end.
Still death’s hold would not relent.
“Not since the Fall has creation known such throes,” murmured an awe-stricken angel. “Shall God now annihilate this fallen realm? Or is something even more profound being done?”
Jerusalem’s hills began heaving stones into the air, fissures formed in the earth, buildings reeled. And in all of the world graves were being denied their peace.
“Is it something of death?” whispered one of the angels.
“Or perhaps something of life,” responded another.
As earth’s spasms grew, so also the brightness grew. This was not the light of stars, nor of suns, nor of fire, but rather a brightness no angel had ever known nor beheld.
“This is God before He ever created us! This is God before there was anything. This is what God was like when He was the all!” exclaimed one of the angels breathlessly. “Our eyes are seeing something that no created thing has ever before beheld.”
“Can the power of death be as great as the power of life? We are witnessing the ultimate duel. No war ever fought can compare with this battle.”
The brightness of the light finally forced the angels to turn away. The entire heavenly host, with faces shielded in awe-smitten reverence, dropped to their knees. Quietly they began to weep. The light which had been emitting from beneath that tomb was now radiating through the angels. The light of the glory of the power had so enveloped everything that there was no room for anything save glory.

And so, swallowed up in the life of my Father, Death’s hold at last began to weaken.
Deep within the tomb something moved.
For a moment there was a burst of light such as no man, nor angel, nor pen could ever describe. For one brief, glorious moment the entire universe was enveloped in God.
Death was dissolving in the presence of glory.
In that same moment, Magdalene was moving toward the tomb, struggling to walk, as the earth continued to tremble. As she was thrown to the ground, she dropped her vases of precious ointments she had planned to use to embalm my body. They spilled on the ground and their oils sank into the troubled earth.
“Oh, my Lord!” cried the Magdalene, “You once delivered me from such bondage as womankind has ever known. If this be my hour, then I praise you for releasing me from the pain which is in my heart, for I have lost you, my Lord, my everything.”
While I was lost in the sleep of death, I suddenly felt! It was my hand that moved. Then my feet, with the wounds they bore. I had begun to move out of the deep tunnels of the netherworld.
My Spirit began to glow.
Then came a cry, a shout of triumph, a shout so great that even the discerning ears of angels could not comprehend its origin. As the cry beamed its way across the worlds, it finally came to be understood. “It is HIS voice,” they cried as one, “but the words, what are his words?”
I AM RISEN!
I stood up. With a joy that no man nor angel (but God alone) would ever know, I passed through my grave clothes. I folded the cloth from my head and laid it in the corner of the tomb. I raised my hands to the everlasting God, my Father, who was now proven to be Lord of All.
I threw back my head and cried out again.
I have risen! I have risen! I have risen from the dead!
“The enemies of man, the enemies of God are vanquished!” I exclaimed. “At last it is safe for the new species to come forth. There is nothing to hinder the new race.”
The next moment was the most joyous moment I had ever lived! I touched my side! I cried out excitedly, “She is no longer inside me! I am no longer alone. Oh, Father! You who have made me Lord of heaven and earth have given to me one who is spirit of my Spirit. Here is my grandest hour.”
“I am no longer alone because she lives. Father, you have loosed her to the earth. She has no enemies, nor does she even know of their existence, for she walks in the new creation. She cannot see that which once was, for she is born after they have passed away. Just as my Father is not created, nor I, neither is she, for she is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, spirit of my spirit, eternal life of my eternal life. Father, you have brought her forth, the female of me.”
Lest the very tomb itself should melt from my radiance, I walked to the entrance and passed through the stone door. There I was greeted by such shouts and cries of excitement as have never heretofore been heard. (And never will be again until the hour of my wedding.)
“She has come forth!” I cried. “This day I have fashioned neither stars, nor planets, nor orbs, but I have fashioned her out of my divine matter. My new creation is nothing less than my own species. As I am so is she. Like me she is divine, yet human. She is my divinity, she is my humanity. She is my match. She is my substance. The shadow of oneness has passed away; the reality of oneness is here. This woman is of my own kind.”
Having understood, the angelic host burst into what could only be described as delirium!

The earthquake ended.
As she rose to her feet, Mary Magdalene looked around. There in the east she saw the first ray of the sun breaking over the hills.
“My Lord has been three days in the grave. Three days…has my Lord…been dead.” This very thought turned her face into a river of tears. She looked up with a start. “What was that? Some kind of shout?” she asked herself. “Some call of triumph? Was it a trumpet, perhaps? Never have I heard anything like it. Or did I not hear it at all? It seemed to…come from…within me. Whatever it was, it was beautiful, like the cry of thousands of angels.”
She stared at the broken vases and her failed attempt to preserve her Lord’s body.
“I cannot even tend to your body. The oils are gone. Oh, dear God, I beg you, bring forth some miraculous way to preserve his body. Man cannot, but I know that you can.”
Mary began making her way to what she did not know was empty at that moment - a very empty tomb. He thoughts turned toward the soldiers. She was certain they would draw their swords and then order her away. She felt certain she would hear one of them call out, “So you are the one who comes to steal away the body of the carpenter?” She could even hear their scorn, “You are welcome to the body. All you have to do is roll away the stone.”
Little did they know that the stone was in fact removed! And it had been moved for her. With joy two archangels had stepped forth and effortlessly rolled back the stone. It was now for the universe to see that the tomb was indeed empty.
Lucifer and his charges did not see this hour, for it was not theirs to see.
Law did not see this hour, for it was not for law to see.
Neither sin nor death saw this hour, for it was not theirs.
Neither was it for the race of Adam, for their hour had passed.
As Mary Magdalene approached the tomb, she was overwhelmed by sorrow and brokenheartedness. She fell once more upon her knees and wept. Then she looked toward the tomb and saw the stone had been rolled away! She rushed into the grave. “They have stolen his body! Now I will never find him.”
As she stepped out of the tomb, it was then she heard a sound. “The caretaker of the garden! Perhaps he knows…perhaps he has seen something.” “Oh gardener, Please tell me, what have they done with the body of my Lord?”
With joy I smiled at one who had learned the simplest, yet greatest truth. It was out of this simple heart, out of this maiden, there had come the greatest, highest desire of God. That was, simply to be loved. With all gentleness, I spoke one word. “Mary.”
She whirled around. “Lord, oh my Lord!”
“Mary,” I said, “you must let me go. It is time for me to ascend into the heavens. I am going there in triumph. The angels await me. But most of all, my Father awaits me.”
I knelt down beside her and whispered, “And now Mary, I want you to do something for me. I want you to go and tell my many brothers.” I looked into Mary’s startled face. She exclaimed, “Your many brothers! You have many followers but only four brothers.”
“Mary, there is a new race on the earth. The old race of man is gone. You may not understand this, and you may not see it. But my Father sees it and so do I, and that is all that is important.”
“Mary, you are now my sister. You are kin of my kin. You are kind of my kind. There is no difference now in our bloodline. I was once divine and became human. No creature such as that existed before I came here to earth. I was a totally new but singular species. Now all that has changed. Now my species has increased and will continue to increase. As surely as I am the Son of God and the Son of Man, you are my sister, a child of God. There now dwells within you that which is redeemed humanity, and there also now dwells in you my divinity. Yes, Mary, go tell those who are now my brothers. Tell them three words:
I HAVE RISEN!
“Go quickly, Mary, I shall now ascend to my Father and YOUR Father. But do not be troubled, for before the sun sets on this glorious day…
I shall SEE my brothers…
I shall BE WITH my brothers…
I shall BE IN my brothers!”


So what do you think? Couldn’t some Hollywood producer, with all the special effects available, make a great movie out of this script by Gene Edwards? The Bible tells me that my “old man” died with Christ on the Cross. And the really important part is that my “new man” came up with Christ in the Resurrection and He now lives in me.
I am crucified with Christ - nevertheless I live - yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.
(Galatians 2:20)

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Infallible Church? Infallible Bible? Or INFALLIBLE CHRIST?

In-fal-li-ble:
1 incapable of error
2 sure, certain
Webster's Dictionarry
Some people trust in an infallible church in which the will of God is interpreted by others. They say that the church was founded by Jesus Christ, therefore its doctrine must be His will. There are many Christians who know about Christ and try to live their lives under their "infallible" church rules. The yoke is not easy and the burden is not light but they give it their best shot. Many suffer guilt and condemnation and feel like spiritual "cripples". They may begin to wonder: Is this the right church? Is this the only church? Do I really agree that every doctrine is infallible?
Then there are those who trust in the infallible Book, the Bible, and try to live by it. These Christians sincerely believe in God's Word and its inspiration and infallibility. But the specific solutions to many day to day situations and circumstances are not given in the Bible. And so many doctrines which conflict with each other are proven by Bible verses. The result can be hair-splitting debate, contrary interpretation and a kind of pharasaical approach to God's will.
What is really God's way to a TRULY INFALLIBLE Christian life? It is THE Life, the Person of Jesus Christ, living within you by your conversion, your new birth. It is eternal Life NOW, and it is infallible! If you have called on God for forgiveness, accepted Christ's death for your sins, and made Jesus the Lord of your life, you are now in an eternal living union with an INFALLIBLE Christ.
Does this make your human life "incapable of error", "sure", "certain"? YES and NO! It all depends. What?? Let's explain.
Because of Jesus Christ coming to dwell in your human spirit, God sees YOU as righteous (which is just another word for "infallible") because Jesus in you is righteous. In your core, in the real you, you are infallible. It is just that simple.
But hold it! You may say, "I'm a Christian. I accepted Christ. But you don't know me if you think that I'm infallible! I make wrong choices, at times. I sin! And about the time I think I have overcome a problem, I sin again! What do you make of that?"
I still say that you are infallible! But either you just never became AWARE of Christ's righteousness living in union with you, or you temporarily lost that AWARENESS of Christ due to pressure from worldly influences.
The infallible Christian life (the Life of Christ within you) has become an eternal feature of your existence. This is what we term "salvation". But your soul (mind, emotions and will) must first come into this knowledge as truth, as fact. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher of the soul sent by God to reveal Christ in you. Secondly, as you daily grow in this knowledge and AWARENESS of your infallibility in Christ, you TRUST CHRIST TO LIVE INFALLIBLY FOR YOU. You know from experience that your human mind is prone to error. And your body follows your mind.
SO THE KEY TO BEING INFALLIBLE IS CONSTANT AWARENESS THAT, IN UNION WITH CHRIST, YOU ARE INFALLIBLE!
The Bible says that, as a Christian, you "have the mind of Christ". But your soul mind must TRUST in or turn over control to the mind of Christ. This is what the term "spiritual growth" means. You don't really grow stronger spiritually because your spiritual union is full and complete at conversion. You receive total Christ, total Christ's righteousness, TOTAL CHRIST'S INFALLIBILITY at the new birth. But you grow in AWARENESS and TRUST in who you are!
Okay, so you still have a human mind and the world gets to you sometimes. You slip into the illusion of independent-self once in a while and try to do your own thing. Your brain is still wired to accept external influences. At conversion, God doesn't do a re-wiring job in your brain so that you can only hear from your spirit. You still live in the world and hear its messages. And, on occasion, SIN! (For a Christian, sin is nothing more than trying to do your own thing separate from Christ in you.)
But Christ doesn't leave. And He soon draws you back into awareness and trust in His Life, His eternal life, YOUR eternal Life, His righteous Life, YOUR INFALLIBLE LIFE! The sin will hurt you in some way, sometimes in an extensive way, but Jesus will use the experience to actually INCREASE YOUR AWARENESS AND TRUST IN HIM.
God corrects His children when they slip up and do wrong in an attempt at independence, but He does not disown them. They have been made "partakers of the divine nature" and are forever IN God's Family. We don't lose Christ in us when we slip and sin. We are "saved".
All of the promises for God's children in the Bible are infallible! Therefore YOU, as one of God's children in Christ, ARE INFALLIBLE! You just must LEARN about Christ in you, ACCEPT the truth of Christ in you, and TRUST in the guidance and power of Christ in you.
"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" John 8:32
It could be stated that you shall know the truth of Christ's infallible living power within you, and the AWARENESS of this truth shall make YOU infallible!
Then you can begin just to live; to do the things at hand; to know the Life rising up and spreading out into so many areas. The more our eyes are opened to it, the more it happens. Even when the environments are grim and pressuring – there is no fallibility. It is HE!
Life becomes a steady, dawning AWARENESS that you are not merely a struggling patchwork of body, soul and spirit, but a unity, AN INFALLIBLE UNITY, expressing the universal Life of God. Surely that is what "wholeness" (holiness) really means – a conscious, inner, INFALLIBLE unity with the Life of God through Christ.
GOODBYE TO FEAR,
TO GUILT,
TO CONDEMNATION,
AND TO FALLIBILITY!

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"When I See God, I'm Going To Ask Him About..."

I have become a confirmed “fence-sitter” about many things, and even about a number of Christian issues. AND THAT’S OK!
I have been blessed by God with an inquisitive and curious mind. I have always wanted to discover how things worked. And there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s good. But after 74 years of seeking definitive answers to every question that pops into my mind, I have arrived at a conclusion: God doesn’t require me to take definitive stands on one side of the fence or the other. I CAN sit on the fence and survey both sides of the fence on many issues. In fact, the more I have used my mind the more I see that I am not able to jump down off the fence to land on solid ground on either side. I admit that at times I have leaned down on one side or the other hanging by my toes from the fence. But when I do, I don't touch the ground.
What are you saying, Lou? That you can be wishee-washee about everything and that is OK? That you don’t have to step forward and make decisions?
Not at all. God gave us free-choice and decision-making for a definite purpose – so that we would choose HIM. We have free-choice to choose Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of our life. We have free-choice to continue in spiritual growth by the power of Christ within us.
But we also have free-choice to “sit on the fence” about Christian issues that don’t involve the basics of faith in God and morality.
Throughout my life, I have jumped off the fence to the ground on one side or another of many issues of life, including Christian issues. On some things, I have jumped back up to sit on the fence again; on others, I have jumped over the fence to the ground on the other side. My inquisitive mind kept me searching for the “right” position.
But the “right” position is always God’s position – and God does not always reveal His position definitively!
A friend of mine used to always say, “I’m not sure and when I see God, I’m going to ask Him about it.” This is THE answer that we must give in a number of Christian inquiries, because, let’s face it, the Bible does not cover every facet of every issue.
You know what? I have learned to love the view from my perch on the fence. I can see farther and better from up there than I can down on the ground on one side or the other.
Let me talk about some specific issues that I am on the fence with, and then on those issues where my free-choice from God were really meant to apply.

Young Earth – Old Earth

Through most of my life, I believed that creation was 6,000 years ago give or take a few thousand. That the “days” of Genesis One were literal 24 hour days. That dinosaurs and man were contemporary. That the Flood of Noah was approximately 2350BC. I chose to be on the ground on that side of the fence.
Later in life, as I became more science oriented, I concluded that there are enough proofs of an “old” Earth and an “old” creation and that Genesis One concerned “ages” and not “days”. And on old creation did not require evolution of man from lower primates – God could have done His creating in stages or “ages”.
So I leaped right over the fence to the other side. But both sides put forth some pretty persuasive arguments for their side. Which is right? Thankfully, I don’t have to be down on the ground, I can sit on the fence, survey both sides, and wait until I can ask God. Because this is not a basic issue of Christian salvation, faith and morality.

Universalism

Throughout most of my life, I was right down on the ground on the side that you were either saved to heaven or condemned to hell by your responses to God in this life.
But some put forth a persuasive argument that all will ultimately be saved somewhere out there in the future – and they have scripture texts that certainly seem to suggest it.
How God will accomplish salvation and how many humans will make it is up to God and His plan. The Bible gives hints about it both ways but we won’t know for sure until we see and ask God about it.
I know this from the Bible: God wants us to spread the word about salvation NOW and He has persuaded me personally to accept Jesus Christ for MY salvation and Lordship. I can sit on the fence about the rest.

What Is Hell?

In my younger years, I was scared to death of “burning in hell”. I was firmly on the ground on that side of what hell was. And that certainly was a factor in the back of my mind as I came to accept Christ for salvation.
But after my new birth in Christ, my inquisitive mind discovered about three concepts of “hell punishment”. 1 – eternal torment by fire 2 – eternal separation from a loving God 3 – eternal annihilation.
I am on the fence here concerning what I have been saved from. But the key here is that I have chosen and jumped to the ground on the side that Jesus has saved me – a basic of faith that required me to jump to the ground and not sit on the fence.

Prophecy and The Book of Revelation

Here again, in my early years I was firmly on the ground about prophecy. It seemed like Jesus Christ was coming again to Earth in my lifetime. I put possible dates on everything. The Book of Revelation was practically all future for me.
But here in my later Christian years, I have discovered other Christian views that most if not all prophecy was fulfilled with the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70AD. This is called a “preterist” viewpoint. And believe me, they have some powerful arguments and proofs from the Bible to back it up.
Thankfully, God has allowed me to jump up and sit on the fence and survey both sides. I don’t have to ground myself on either side of the fence because, in all practicality, only God knows and it doesn’t matter definitively to me right now.
The important and basic doctrinal issue is that God has called me now, God is saving people now, Jesus Christ comes to live by a new birth in Christians now. Did Jesus come back to be with His people in 70AD, or is He coming physically at some future date? The necessary understanding is that HE IS HERE NOW LIVING IN GOD’S CHILDREN!

Where We Can’t Fence-sit

We can’t sit on the fence about our personal salvation. We must choose to jump to the ground and accept by faith that Jesus took the punishment for our sins on the Cross; that we are risen with Him to a new nature and life; that by making Him the Lord and leader of our life, we can and will grow into the lifestyle that God wants for His children.
We can’t sit on the fence about whether we choose to live our lives dependently on God or independently from Him. He has made it clear that there is only one right side of the fence and we must be grounded there.
Too many people try to make black and white issues out of things that are not definitively revealed to us by God.
One of the great joys of heaven will be sitting around the throne of God getting the answers that our inquisitive minds have wondered about. There our All-knowing, All-loving Father God and Son, Jesus Christ, will also take pleasure in seeing our inquisitive minds receive some fabulous information.
We think we live in a computerized information age now – wait until then!

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Where Was God?

In what may be America’s worst natural disaster, nearly a million people have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Tens of thousands were stranded in New Orleans without power, without food, without drinkable water, without sanitation, without medical services, without police. New Orleans grabbed the headlines because it involved the most people, but the destruction was severe in southern Mississippi and Alabama, too.
One tragedy piled on top of another to make them all worse. If only the city had been built in a better place. If only the people had built better levees. If only they had evacuated before the hurricane hit. If only the government had acted quicker to bring food and water, and to transport the refugees. If only…

Where was God?

All sorts of human decisions contributed to the tragedy, but it was nevertheless a natural disaster - nature gone awry - called an "act of God", (actually caused by an act of man at the Fall). Where was God when the hurricane hit land? Where was He when the 140-mph winds hit Mississippi? Where was He when the levee broke? Where was He when the people were trapped inside their attics when the water rose too high?
God was there, on the ground, in His people, suffering along with them. When one part of the body suffers, Paul said, every part suffers with it (1 Corinthians 12:26) - and that includes the head of the body, Jesus Christ. He suffers with us - He has proven His willingness to do it before, and He does it time and time again. God loves His people - he loves even the people who do not believe in Him - He loves them enough to send his Son to die for them. When we grieve, He grieves, too. When we suffer, He suffers, too.
God is big enough and powerful enough to do something about it. Sometimes He intervenes, and we hear stories of miraculous intervention - but often we do not. Maybe the hurricane could have hit harder and stronger than it did, but still, it killed thousands of people. God could have stopped it entirely, so that it didn’t kill any people at all, didn’t cause any property damage at all, and yet He did not.
Whether the disasters are small or large, why does God let them happen? Frankly, we do not know the complete answer. The Bible does tell us that when sin entered the world, God said that nature itself would work against the people. "Cursed is the ground because of you…. It will produce thorns and thistles…until you return to the ground" (Genesis 3:17-19). When the first people sinned, nature itself went awry - and nature will win over every person, and every person will return to the dust from which they came (v. 19). Old age will strike - unless something else does first - and nature will have its say.
Paul says that creation itself "was subjected to frustration" (Romans 8:20), and it waits for the day when it "will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom" (v. 21). Frankly, we do not know how physics would function without "decay" of some sort, and we do not know how God will fix the problem. But we do know that there is something wrong with nature, caused by sin, and God had chosen to allow that - even with the difficulties it causes, even though those "difficulties" are sometimes huge disasters that kill thousands of innocent people. Sin often affects innocent people, and sin has somehow affected nature itself.
We may pray for the day when "the times comes for God to restore everything" (Acts 3:21), but we still have to live in the world gone awry.

Looking to Jesus

Jesus saved His disciples from a natural disaster - the storm on the sea of Galilee. He saved Paul and his companions on a storm-caused shipwreck near Malta. But nature still had its way, for they all eventually died. Many were killed by evil people, others by disease (another example of nature gone awry), some by old age. God allows nature to take its toll. Not forever, not permanently, but God still lets it happen. Someday, I suppose, we will see how magnificent the plan is, but for now it seems quite messy.
Jesus talked about a natural disaster in one man’s life. Who sinned, the disciples asked: this man, or his parents? Neither one, said Jesus (John 9:1-3). Not all problems can be pinpointed to a particular sin. It’s just that nature doesn’t always work the way it is supposed to, and for this particular man, the result was a disaster in his own life. Jesus fixed that particular problem, but most of the time, He allows His people to suffer the consequences of a world messed up by sin, where even the forces of nature work against us.
Jesus talked about another disaster in Jerusalem: the tower of Siloam fell and killed 18 people. It was not a natural disaster, of course, but a disaster nonetheless, a tragedy that killed innocent people. Jesus did not spend time blaming the engineers or the builders. Instead, He turned to the audience and said, "Unless you repent, you too will all perish" (Luke 13:4-5). Take that disaster, and instead of blaming somebody, examine yourself. Get your priorities in order, and the chief priority is your relationship with God.
Bad things happen to good people as well as to the bad. The disaster that hit someone else could have just as easily hit us. God could allow it to hit us just as well as He could allow it to hit them - that’s the lesson we need to consider from these tragedies. We need to turn to God, to trust Him even when the so-called "acts of God" strike close to home.
During his tremendous trial, Job said, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him" (Job 13:15). We need a similar kind of trust - knowing that the God who did not spare His own Son will never cut us off, though we walk into the valley of the shadow of death, though we enter death itself. The God who spared not His own Son also rescued His Son after He went through that valley, and He promises to rescue us, too. He will give us life again, but to do it, we live in a world that takes life away.
If Jesus were talking to the families of the 18 people killed by the tower collapse, He no doubt would have been as compassionate as He was with the man born blind. When we are dealing with the victims of Hurricane Katrina or any other disaster, we need compassion, too - compassion that motivates us to help. Many of you have given generously, and no doubt will continue to help during the long recovery period. But we also need to examine ourselves. When tragedy strikes someone else, we do not need to ask where God is - we need to ask where we are, and whether we can do something about it. The only thing worse than nature gone awry is a heart gone cold.
Can we trust God even when nature strikes us dead? Yes, we should, for one way or another, nature will strike every one of us dead. We have nowhere else to turn, for God has the only solution to the problem. But we need to trust Him.
When disaster strikes, God is there, suffering in His people, and working in His people. Therefore, when disaster strikes, God’s people can be found standing with Him, not casting blame, but helping out, making a positive difference, loving as Jesus loves.

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The God Of The Living

Some have found the following verses of the Bible hard to understand:
“Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. ’Teacher,’ they said, ‘Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?’
Jesus replied, ‘The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. But in the account of the bush, Even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.” (Luke 20:27-38)
In order to get the picture of this dialogue, we need to understand the Sadducees. They believed in God. But they believed in a God for this life only. To them, God rewarded obedience only with rewards for this human life. Jesus taught the resurrection, and they did not believe in a resurrection.
They believed that when you die, you die forever, and the only thing that carries on is your good family name. And so they practiced levirate marriage (the practice of marrying the widow of one’s brother) to ensure descendants to carry on the family name. The Sadducees placed all their faith in the here and now. Their God was only the God of this life.
The Sadducees were always trying to trap Jesus with a question He could not answer. To make Jesus’ teaching about the resurrection seem ridiculous, they presented Him with a scenario where one woman outlived seven husbands who were brothers, then died. Then came their stinging question, “In the resurrection, whose wife does she become?”
The fear of death has forever plagued humankind. Humans have invented all kinds of means to attempt to evade its finality, with no success.
But Jesus had the answer. His response to the Sadducees says that one does not need an heir to thwart death. One needs only to be “counted worthy” by God. Each of the “worthy” ones will experience a resurrection – God will bring them back to life, and more – they will never die! They will be made “equal to the angels” in that they will have eternal life.
To further refute the Sadducees’ misconception, Jesus recalled the words of Moses at the burning bush. Jesus affirmed Moses’ confidence that even though sleeping, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not erased from God’s memory. The covenant relationship of God with these godly ones was not a temporary bond “till death do us part.” We may lose our friends in death, but not God. Even though they sleep for a time, God will awaken them at their resurrection and give them their inheritance, a place in His Kingdom of Heaven.
Contrary to the belief of the Sadducees, death is for us the “last enemy,” and it will be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). God will not allow this enemy to separate any of His children from His love (Romans 8:38). He will give to those who seek Him a place in His everlasting Kingdom (Daniel 7:27).
God is not the Sadducees’ God of human existence only, of dying bodies and fading memories. Those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will be given “glory, honor, and immortality…eternal life” (Romans 2:7).

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"I'm Only Human!"

How many times have you heard, “He’s only human!” or “She’s only human!”? Or more importantly, how many times have you said about yourself, “I’m only human!”?
Well, all these statements are just plain wrong!
An animal is just an animal. A fish is just a fish. A tree is just a tree. The Earth is just the Earth. The Sun is just the Sun. The galaxy is just the galaxy. All the elements of the universe are just material creation.
BUT – we humans are more than just material humans. We have something that nothing else in creation has: “the image of God” (Genesis 1:26-27). In other words, we have been given something from the spirit world that animals and other lower forms of creation don’t have which the Bible calls the “human spirit”.
This human spirit is the core of WHO WE ARE. And we are created to be controlled by this human spirit.
Before our new birth as Christians, because of the Fall, our human spirit contained the nature of Satan (John 8:44). After our new birth, our human spirit contains and is joined to the nature of God through the indwelling Jesus Christ.
God has said that he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). He has also said that He is the divine treasure and we, the believers, are the vessels that contain Him. He is the vine and believers are the branches. He is their owner, and believers are His bondslaves. He is the deity placed in the human temple to manifest and display Him. He is the husband furnishing the seed to the productive wife.
The vessel, the branch, the temple, the wife – are all dependent. The vessel is dependent upon the contents, the branch upon the vine, the temple upon the deity, and the wife upon the husband for the seed.
With this in mind, if you have been seeing yourself as an “independent” person and have acted from that belief, realize that you have gone for Satan’s lie about the believer. You have gone for Satan’s lie about yourself.
When God sees you, He only sees union with Himself through Christ. Satan sees and sponsors this divided outlook. The worst sin you will ever find out you have committed is the sin of wrong believing about yourself.
For more on this subject, click here for a previous article.

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Working and Resting

We have a popular restaurant chain in the St. Louis area called Steak & Shake. Their TV commercials are very creative. One of them is as follows:
The narrator says that when you go in to eat, you look at a menu on the wall, walk up and order at a counter, carry your food to a table, eat, and then clean up your trash and carry it to a disposal. All the while, the TV shows the hustle and bustle of a typical fast-food establishment. Then a curtain descends on the scene and you see the inside of a Steak & Shake. Everyone is seated at tables and is being waited on by serving attendants. Everyone is happy and relaxed. The narrator says over this happy scene, “Steak & Shake is a RESTaurant, not a WORKaurant!”
God says that there is a type of working that IS resting. The writer to the Hebrews (probably Paul) declares that this life has rest, not strain as its basis (Heb. 4:1-11). It is the rest God has had since He rested on the seventh day after completing the creation. It is also that of Israel entering into the land of Canaan. But he goes on to say that the true rest is what we have in Christ, our Joshua.
That rest is by no means a folding of the hands, but a fully active life that is a thrill to live because it has adequacy at its center, not inadequacy. Living life without what it takes to live it causes strain; living life with what it takes to live it produces rest. The resting life he describes this way: “He that has entered into His rest, he has also ceased from his own works, as God did from His” (4:10).
Living by my own works was when I was the worker. The rest-life will have even more works, for He is the worker. BUT THAT TYPE OF WORKING IS RESTING.
He defined rest as being a ceasing from our own works. Not from work, of course – that is an impossibility – but from works proceeding from self-effort. In other words sharing God’s rest doesn’t mean ceasing from work, any more than our ever-active God ceases, but resting in our work. If our activities are dependent on our own resources, we work from strain; if upon His, we work from rest.
That is also the “second rest” Jesus spoke of in Matthew 11:28-30. He worked from rest, and He was so evidently relaxed. Why? Because in humbleness He thoroughly knew His human incompetence, and therefore could also know His indwelling Father’s allness. And being meek of heart, He knew how to abide in His Father in times of stress, rather than rushing off to handle situations His own way.
The key to entering into God’s rest and continuing in it is by a revelation nowhere else so clearly stated in the Bible. The Hebrew writer distinctly connects the experience of this rest with ability to discern between soul and spirit (4:12). And my experience is that a great many of God’s people are confused and frustrated, and live in a great deal of false condemnation, because they have not learned this distinction.
Modern psychology has invented its own vocabulary for what it considers are the subdivisions of the human personality, such as the subconscious, the super-ego, and so on. But God gave us His own definition and analysis centuries ago, and that will never be bettered.
Man, the Bible says, is tripartite – spirit, soul and body – and in that order of importance (1 Thes. 5:23). In the Hebrew passage, it stresses that the difference between soul and spirit is very subtle, and indeed can only be recognized by inner revelation. Only the Word of God, it says, applied as the sharp sword of the Spirit to the human consciousness, can pierce “even” to that depth, sever between the two, and give soul and spirit their proper evaluation – so we can recognize the proper function of each without mistaking the one for the other, and thus enable the human personality to move forward in gear and remain there.
The first essential is a clear recognition of the human spirit as the real self, the nature and ego within us. Soul and body are the clothing or means of expression of the spirit. The human spirit is that “image of God” spoken of in the Genesis creation. When I say, “I myself,” the I is the spirit, the inborn nature which can look out from within, as it were, and knows the myself, the rest of me (soul and body). The human spirit is love – self-love through the Satanic nature in the Fall, and when joined to Christ by grace, God’s selfless love expressed through the human love-faculty.
Now we reach the important point: In what does the soul differ from the spirit? It is the means by which the invisible spirit can express itself. The soul is the reasoning mind, the emotions and feelings, and the chooser of action.
Now unless we have a clear differentiation between the properties of these two, we can get into a great deal of trouble, because the soul is the intermediary between ourselves and the world. And it not only channels the spirit to the world, but has the reflex activity of channeling the world back into the soul’s decisions. Reason and emotion are wide open, not only to our spirits, but to the world around. Therefore our soul can be very variable. We may like this, or dislike that. This may appeal to us, that repel us – either things or people. We may feel exalted at one moment or lowly at another; dry at one time, fresh at another; fervent or apathetic; bold or fearful; compassionate or indifferent.
If, therefore, we confuse soul with spirit, we quickly fall into false condemnation. Why are my feelings so variable? Why do I feel cold, dry, far from God? Something is wrong. Why do I dislike this person, or resent this happening? I am wrong with God somewhere.
But I am beating myself in vain. Soul is variable, spirit invariable. In my spirit joined to Christ’s Spirit, I live with an unchanging and unchangeable Christ, and am myself equally unchanging by faith. I am not my soul feelings. I AM spirit. But if we didn’t have sensitive souls, we could not be affected by the cross current of human living; we wouldn’t be humans. We are to be affected by them, but not governed by them, just as He was “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”
But we so often allow our souls to be influenced by the world’s input of external appearances. They would lead our emotions to “feel” spiritually cold, dead, apathetic, hard, dry. We feel that we are a disappointment to God. We feel out of touch with God. NO WE AREN’T! All we need is not to be fooled by our souls! The well of living water has not stopped springing up within us, the living bread in our spirits has not gone stale, the fire of the Spirit has not burned low.
Look within where you and He really are, spirit with Spirit. There is no change. Don’t be fooled by the color of your clothing – you soul feelings. You and Christ in you have not changed. Indeed we will have those kinds of feelings, and God intends that we should have, to stabilize us in the walk of faith. They are useful in driving us back to Him in our spirits. As we learn to walk more steadily in Him, we will find ourselves less and less bothered by that type of soul-feeling. A whole lot of the hunger people say they have, or need of spiritual refreshment, is at the core because they are mistaking soul-reactions for spirit-facts. The Reviver is already and always within! There would be much less talk of revival among Christians, if we had learned to walk in “vival” – in the fact of the unchanging life which is the real we, Christ in us.
In our spirits we are undifferentiated. That is where we are all one person in Christ. In our souls we all vary, and are meant to. That is why the salvation of our souls is an ongoing necessity, because it is through the infinite variety of our souls that all the glories of Christ will be seen, each of us manifesting some different facet of His unsearchable riches.
It is not wrong for the reasoning faculty of the soul to question and doubt, any more than it is wrong for the emotions to have their varied reactions. The Bible says that we have the mind and the faith of Christ joined to our human spirit (Galatians 2:20). When we understand the balance between the spirit of faith and the uncertainties of reason, and how the reasoning faculty is given us to face squarely all the various possibilities that confront us in life, then we enter with zest into life’s dialogues. Is a thing this? Is it that? We are not afraid of the cold winds of skepticism. We are not shaken by questions that seem to disturb our faith. We weigh things up and admit our ignorances and inabilities to produce our proofs. But we don’t live in the reasonings of our souls. We move back to where we really are – in our spirits. There is the place where eternal directions come from. We affirm what we know and are – by faith. Where reason has helped to clarify and confirm, we are strengthened and thankful, and are more ready to share those reasons with others. Where reason raises questions, we are always willing to consider and learn and adjust; but we never permit it to cross the bridge which is forbidden to it, the bridge of revelation from God which has become the bridge of faith, the bridge which has nothing to do with rational concepts, but is a Living Person, Jesus Christ.
So how can we be a RESTaurant and a WORKaurant at the same time? By resting in Christ within our spirit from attempting to do things in our own strength AND doing the work out to others in the strength of Christ.

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When Spiritual Disciplines Become "Commandments"

It’s 4:00 in the morning when the alarm goes off. You hate getting up at 4:00, but you do it. You are measuring spiritual growth by a strong quiet time with God – and that quiet time has to be disciplined. Discipline, it seems to you, is the ticket to true spirituality. And you are determined to be truly spiritual.
You are up, bleary eyed, reading (or attempting to read) your Bible, praying (sometimes incoherently, which is how you do most things at 4:00 a.m.), meditating (which looks occasionally like snoozing), attempting to memorize Scripture and being silent before God.
Every morning you consider yourself either a success or a failure depending on whether or not you showed up for work (spiritually speaking).
Eventually, all this may cease to be meaningful – and your deep dark secret is that you don’t know why and, in fact, are beginning to resent the spiritual disciplines.
What are the “Spiritual Disciplines”? Christians have long considered certain behaviors to be the product of Jesus living His life within believers. When we are saved by grace, not by works, God begins to produce His works in our lives (Ephesians 2:8-10). Historically, some of the habitual routines that were considered as products of being in Christ came to be called “disciplines.” Biblical evidence for spiritual disciplines includes: Prayer (Col. 4:2; 1 Thes. 5:17), Bible study (2 Tim. 2:15, 3:16), meditation (Joshua 1:8), silence before God (Psalm 46:10), worship (Psalm 29:2) and fasting (Luke 5:33-35).
God can use such spiritual disciplines in our lives, not only producing them in the first place, but using them as His tools to help us grow in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18).
HOWEVER, if we’re not careful, we can allow the practice of disciplines to become legalism or “commandments” toward self-denial for self-denial’s sake, where we seek to earn God’s favor through rigorous self-denial.
Ironically, as a new Christian before you knew about any spiritual disciplines, you may have read your Bible every night. You may have prayed throughout the day. It seemed so natural – a passion – not a duty.
It was later that things began to get a little unnatural. Slowly the joy seeped out of your quiet times, while ironically, pride seeped in. You became proud of your ability to deny yourself and felt a cut above, spiritually. You were doing God a tremendous favor!
All throughout the Old Testament God continually railed against His people for doing the right things (sacrifices, festivals, etc.) with the wrong motivation. You can see how that happens. Gradually, a seismic spiritual shift can take place where you find yourself spending time with God, not in order to know Him better, but in order to fulfill a spiritual duty or obligation or commandment. It is discipline, but not for the purpose of godliness.
You may begin to see God as a demanding school teacher, checking your homework every morning. If you don’t turn it in, you get a zero for the day and go throughout the day wallowing in guilt. But when you do show up, you get your gold star and are sent to the head of the class. And sadly, you even feel that God likes this arrangement.
If we’re not careful, we can begin to see the disciplines as a way to demonstrate to God (and others) that we’re “on track”. The disciplines can become little more than a measuring stick by which we attempt to measure our spirituality.
The danger is that you can assume that you really are spiritually on track. Yet, if you read the Scriptures but don’t truly seek to listen to God, if you pray in simply a mechanical and passionless way, you can deteriorate spiritually, all the while thinking you’re making great progress.
When we view the disciplines as spiritual measuring sticks, rather than products of God’s grace that enable us to grow closer to and more like Christ, we miss the point. It’s like dating your wife or husband because you know you’re supposed to. But on you date all you do is stare into space, make small talk and glance continually at your watch wondering how long it will be until this drudgery is over. Your spouse would be neither flattered, not fooled. Sadly, God is often on the receiving end of this kind of “spiritual date.”

A Disciplined Life In Christ

The spiritual disciplines aren’t rigid rules we must follow like some complicated tax code, but the natural moving of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we seek Him. And the Spirit in turn leads us to the awareness of our union with Christ so that we can replace our old desires with a desire to seek God and serve Him first and foremost. The spiritual disciplines are designed to help us do just that. However, they are more than a scheduled spiritual pit stop with God.
Here is how I have come to view the spiritual disciplines.
I give God the best of my time (which isn’t at 4:00 a.m.). When I am thoroughly awake and ready to face the day, I sit down and read the Bible. I have read it many times, but I read it for one purpose only now: to hear my Heavenly Father speak to me. The only thing that has changed is my attitude, but that changed everything. Sometimes I read a chapter a day, sometimes two or three. Sometimes I spend two weeks on a Proverb. Sometimes what God is saying takes time for me to understand, so I wait. There is no hurry.
Instead of plowing mechanically through a laundry list of prayer requests, I begin to pray about what Jesus wants, and it gradually becomes a conversation with my Lord, something it was always supposed to be. Jesus raises a topic with me, something for me to consider from the Bible or from the latest news of the world or from my relationships with people. Prayer becomes instinctive and natural, like two people speaking with each other, both intensely involved in the conversation. I then follow up on the topic either by writing an article about it or by taking steps to correct a problem pointed out to me.
It is hard not to get legalistic about the spiritual disciplines. We tend to ask, “Have I done them?” but not “HOW have I done them?” We are used to asking whether or not we did “it” rather than did I HEAR Him? We are used to settling for “mission accomplished” rather than “relationship strengthened.”
God gives us no brownie points for mechanically going through spiritual motions. If He did, He would have praised the Pharisees instead of criticizing them – because that was their modus operandi.
The spiritual disciplines have great value when approached with a passion to grow closer to the great subject of our discipline, Christ Himself. They become empty “commandments” and even counter-productive when we look upon them as spiritual busywork for which we receive great spiritual credit.

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What's New About a Christian?

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a NEW creature - old things are passed away; behold, all things have become NEW.”
(2 Corinthians 5:17 King James Version)
“When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand NEW person inside. He is not the same anymore. A NEW life has begun!”
(Same verse, Living Bible Version)

There are often people who hear this glorious and liberating message of salvation and ask the question, “Why doesn’t the salvation which Christ brings really SEEM to wash away the sins of the past, and why doesn’t it really SEEM to make us new people?” The answer to this is two-sided.
The first side of that is, of course, Jesus Christ did die to remove the punishment due us for our sins and to bring salvation in Himself. And we are a new creation - the old has gone; the new has come. Definitely, this is what the verse states.
However, on the other side, there is nothing in this verse, or for that matter any other verse I know of in the Scriptures, that obligates God to remove instantly everything that we don’t like about our past or about ourselves. In fact, there are three things which may NOT be permanently removed.
The first of these is EMOTIONAL PAIN FROM OUR PAST. While coming to Christ in the new birth takes all of the fire and the hurt out of our past that had to do with our sin, it does not necessarily take away the emotional pain and stress that comes from past happenings. The one thing we know for sure about being in union with Christ is that there is no guilt or condemnation (Romans 8:1). Being free of the guilt and condemnation takes much of the hurt and pain out of our past experiences. However it is a fact that none of these things that have ever been in our past are erased from our mind and very often can be triggered by events and issues of the moment. This makes many people think that God has not fully delivered them. But of course the apostle Paul saw it a different way. He saw that these things were a necessary contrast in our lives: 1. To not let us forget that from which we have been delivered, and 2. so that we would not forget who we are in Christ and our ultimate need of trusting our union with Christ as our only hope.
Would we be better off without these emotional scars from the past? Would their removal at conversion be a true blessing? God obviously feels that it would not because He assures us He wants the best life for His children and yet He does not see fit to wipe them away at our new birth as a new creation.
The second thing we see that God is not obligated to remove instantly is THE FRUIT OF OUR PAST SINS. You cannot live a sinful life separated from God and not bear the fruit of this. This does not mean we bear the penalty of the sin, for that is done at the Cross, and no man can pay for his own sin. However it does not mean that the things we have done are erased from our physical bodies; nor would we cease bearing the fruit of them. If a person is an alcoholic, has an automobile accident, and is injured, coming to Christ may not take away the wounds, and the broken parts of the body may be permanently damaged for a lifetime. If a person contracts AIDS through promiscuous sex, the fruits, that is the symptoms and pains of AIDS, may last a lifetime and result in premature death.
God by His grace gives us peace through Christ who is our new life. This means that in Him who is perfect, we stand perfect, but within our humanity we may still have present the fruit of our past sins.
A third thing that God is not obligated to do by 2 Corinthians 5:17 is TO MAKE US DIFFERENT PEOPLE THAN WE WERE BEFORE. God does not rewire our unique DNA material or instantly change our unique talents and abilities - our strengths and weaknesses. In our mother’s womb, every human being was created by God and gifted by God to be something of importance to themselves and of praise and glory to Him. The purpose of our life on this earth is to come to that understanding. We are a new people, a new creation in Christ, but we are not a different people according to our creation purpose.
Let us now go to three important facts of what IS OURS through 2 Corinthians 5:17.
First, we have A NEW CAPACITY TO RELATE TO GOD. Most human beings have never completely related to God because they have been spoiled by Satan’s nature which was their motivating and driving force of life. But now in Christ they have a whole new motivation and drive, Christ living through them. Trusting in Christ gives them a new capacity to relate to God. We are offspring of God, members of His Family containing His divine nature. And regardless of what might happen in our life, we remain His offspring.
A second thing that we have as a fulfillment of the verse is A NEW DESTINY. Most people would think that our new destiny was heaven, and that is so and that is important…and is the greatest destiny of all. But until we die, we can experience a new destiny on this earth. We can now wake up every morning knowing that our jobs, our families, our words, and our very thoughts and intentions have to do with Christ - that we are never in a separated state from Him. This gives us a destiny which we never had as sinful creatures or unknowing believers.
Then there is a third fulfillment of the verse - A NEW SOURCE OF POWER AND LIFE.
This is where the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit work in our life. God never intended for a human being to live a powerless, haphazard, weak, and insignificant life on this earth. We were purposed to live locked in His love and His power and by that fulfillment enjoy life and be free to live as God intended. We will have the same abilities, same background and the same DNA that God “proposed” in our creation. His “wiring” has not changed. This new power and life in Christ is so that Christ within can work through our unique characteristics and wiring and thus deal in a “Christian” way to those around us. What God has planned for every human being by the power of Christ is far greater than anything we could develop on our own or could reach out for on our own in this life.
Very often 2 Corinthians 5:17 seems to be a “mysterious” verse to translate - to bring forth its depth of meaning. Discerning the difference between soul and spirit is the key.
At our new birth in Christ, EVERYTHING is changed about our human spirit - Satan’s nature is out totally, and God’s nature in Christ becomes indwelling totally.
But in our soul, that unique wiring within our minds where our talents and weaknesses are located, NOTHING is changed at our new birth in Christ except possibly a little increase in tenderness toward the things of God. Our day to day Christian living is a renewing of the mind, a gradual transformation to trust in Christ (Romans 12:1-2).
Before our new creation, we did not have a MOTIVE to want to please God - we wanted to please ourselves, and if this happened to please God, so much the better. We did some “good” but our desire was always to please ourselves.
But after our new creation, we have a new built-in MOTIVE (Christ’s motive) to want to please God. We slip up in our weakness and do some “bad” things but our true desire is now to please God.
A new Life has begun!
And we are growing!

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