Editora: Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society
ISBN: 978-15-7770-003-6
Opinião: ★☆☆☆☆
Páginas: 186
Sinopse: We have found the secret that
the psychologists long have sought. It is the “inward man”, it is the
re–created spirit; it is the part of man with which God deals. It is really an
unveiling of what we are in Christ today; of what He says we are; what He has
made us to be in His great Redemptive work. The Pauline Epistles must ever
stand as the work of a super–genius or a divine revelation. It lets us into the
inner secret of God’s mighty purpose in the Incarnation. The four Gospels give
us the earth walk of the Master, but the Pauline Epistles give us a revelation
of what happened on the cross, what followed during the three days and three
nights until Christ was raised from the dead. We get the living picture of the
entire substitutionary work of Christ. It is the legal background of our
Redemption. This challenging book should be studied by every earnest student of
the Word.
“In
the Gospels Jesus acts like Deity, talks like Deity, dies like Deity, and
conquers death like God.
He
was God manifest in the flesh in His earth walk and He was God in the Spirit in
His Substitutionary sacrifice. At God’s right hand He has a glorified body and
is Head of the New Creation. You will find that He did a perfect work for us
and the Spirit through the Word does a perfect work in us as Jesus is today at
the right hand of the Father doing a perfect work for us.”
“Eph.
1:17-23 is a part of the great charter of our Redemption, and this is both
legal and vital.
He
reveals what He did for us. He reveals His process of building the very Nature
and Life of the Father into our spirits. He said, I want you to know what is
the exceeding greatness of His ability on our behalf who believe.
It is
“according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in
Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand
in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that
which is to come: and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and he
gave him to be the head over all things for the benefit of the church, which is
his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” Here we have the legal
background of His great Substitutionary work, of His absolutely conquering the
forces of darkness before He arose from the dead.
Just
as in Col. 2:15 it says, “That he put off from himself the principalities and
the powers, and he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” We
have failed to recognize this blessed fact, that in the substitutionary work of
Christ, it was as though we ourselves were with Him. Just as the Spirit says in
Gal. 2:20, “I was crucified with Christ,” not as the old version reads, “I am
crucified.” No, it is past tense. It is the legal side.
He
not only was crucified, but in Rom. 6:8 it says, “But if we died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.” Not only were we crucified with
Him but we died with Him. In Col. 2:12 we were buried with Him. In I Tim. 3:15
we were justified with Him. In Col. 2:13 we were made alive with Him. “You, I
say, did He make alive together with Him.”
Then
in Eph. 2:6 He raised us up with Him and made us to sit with Him in the
heavenlies in Christ Jesus. In these Scriptures we get a living picture of the
entire substitutionary work of Christ, in which we have a perfect
Identification. It was done for us. It is the legal background of our
Redemption. You can say, Yes, I was crucified with Him. I was identified with
Him in His shame and His deep agonies on the cross.
More
than that, God not only put my sin upon Him and made Him sin with my sin, but
He put me upon Him. He was taking my place. He was acting in my stead. It was
my sin that stripped Him naked. It was my sin that caused the crown of thorns
to be put upon His brow. It was my sin that drove the nails into His hands and
feet.
It
was Love that was taking my place and suffering in my stead that I might be
ransomed out of the authority of darkness and the power of sin and spiritual
death. I can say I died with Him; that when He died on the cross He partook of
my spiritual death, and I was identified with Him in that spiritual death. It
was as though I had been there in person and we had left His body together.
When
He died on the cross, He and I went to the place where I should have gone
alone, but He went with me as my Substitute. He went with me to suffer in my
stead. He was bearing my sin with me, that old spiritually dead self. He
suffered there until the claims of justice against me had been satisfied and
there was no longer any charge against me. My spiritual death and union with
Satan were wiped out.
And
then He was justified in Spirit. His justification was for me, for you see, He
went there for me. He didn’t go there on His own account. He went on my
account, and as soon as He was justified, He was Recreated-made alive in
spirit, and that wonderful scripture in Acts 13:33, “Thou art my Son, this day
have I begotten thee,” was made real. Right there in those awful surroundings
He was Born Again. He had become the very Righteousness of God right there.
And
now I can understand Eph. 2:10: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus.” That is the legal side of the New Birth. In the mind of justice, we
were Recreated down there at the time Christ was, because He is the Head of the
Body, the Firstborn from among the dead. He was the first person ever Born
Again. In His birth, the whole Body of Christ had the legal work accomplished
for them.
Then
He conquered the adversary, but in the mind of justice I was with Him. When He
stripped Satan of his authority and dominion, it was your victory and mine. We
were there in the mind of justice. We put our heel upon the neck of the enemy;
we stripped him of his authority; we left him defeated and broken, and then we
were raised together with Christ.”
“The Law
of the New Covenant is a perfect contrast to the Law of the Old Covenant. The
first Covenant Law is called the “law of sin and death.” The Law of the New
Covenant is called the “law of the spirit of life.” One law put men in bondage;
the other Law made them free from the law of sin and death. That was a fearful
title that was given to the first law-”of sin and of death.”
Both
sin and death are of the adversary, and so the Old Covenant Law was given to
men who were governed by the adversary, who had a Satanic nature and lived in
Satan’s realm. It was never given for New Creation folks. No man that is Born
Again has any part or lot in the Ten Commandments. They were all fulfilled in
Christ and set aside. You see, He fulfilled the Abrahamic Covenant first, and
after that was fulfilled, everything connected with that Covenant was set aside
and finished and rolled up together in that first document. Then Jesus
inaugurated a New Covenant.
The
First Covenant was sealed with the blood of bulls and goats. The Second
Covenant was sealed with the blood of Jesus. The New Creation that is under the
New Covenant had a New Law given to them. Jesus gave it. John 13:34,35, “A new
commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another ; even as I have loved
you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
The
Pauline Epistles are a Revelation and an exposition of this New Law. Just as
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are an exposition of the Law of the First
Covenant, so these Epistles of Paul are given us to explain the New Covenant
Law.”
“When
He was down in hell and Satan had been conquered, then man’s Redemption was a
completed thing. That is when God accepted His blood, and He sat down at the
right hand of God. But it was not yet complete while Christ was living, so it
was of no value to anybody. The New Creation was not available.
There
was no High Priest at the right hand of the Father with the blood to show that
He had dealt with the sin problem. There was no Mediator at the right hand of
God, and until there was a Mediator, no human being could approach God. John
14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one can approach the Father but
through me.” Acts 4:12, “Neither is there any other name under heaven, that is
given among men, wherein we must be saved, but the name of Jesus.” Jesus’ name
was not yet available as a Savior. His Mediatorial work was not yet available.
Jesus
was a prophet now. He had not yet become a Sin Substitute ; there was no
Savior. He dealt only in the sense realm with men. He dealt with demons. He
cast them out of individuals. He broke their power over men, which was all in
the sense realm. It is such a bitter thing for our hearts to realize that
Jesus, during His earth walk, didn’t have one single spiritually-minded
companion. Good folks loved Him, but their love was the love of natural man. It
was a selfish thing. It was so selfish that when He arose from the dead they
said, “Master, are you going to restore the kingdom at this time ?”
He
could not help men spiritually because they were dead in spirit. I think you
can understand this Scripture now : John 14:12 “Greater things than these shall
ye do; because I go unto the Father and ye behold me no more.” We are doing
greater works than the Master did in His earth walk, because we help men
spiritually. We bring to them the Word of Life and they are Recreated; they
come into the Family of God. We help them to pass out of death unto Life. We
teach them through the Word how God has made them His Righteousness.
Now
they can stand in His presence as though sin had never been. We are God’s
agents giving men Eternal Life, making them masters of demons and of
circumstances. We, through His Living Word, have been able to lead men into
fellowship and communion with the Father through the New Birth. Our ministry is
almost an unlimited ministry. His Ministry was a limited one. Jesus healed men’s
bodies. We, through the Grace of God, heal men’s spirits. He raised men from
the dead to die again. We show them that they were raised together with Christ.
He fed the hungry with loaves of bread and fishes. We feed the spiritually
hungry with His own wonderful Words. We have the Spirit in us who raised Jesus
from the dead.
We
have a legal right to the use of Jesus’ name. With that name we do the works
that Jesus wrought in His earth walk.”
““Love suffers long, and is kind; envies not;
vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up; does not behave itself unseemly; seeketh
not its own.” Those are the fruits of the Recreated spirit.
It is
vitally important that we understand that the Recreated human spirit is the
fountain out of which Faith flows. Natural man has only sense knowledge faith.
(Read my book “The Two Kinds of Faith.”) Natural man believes in the things he
sees and hears, the things that have come to him through the five senses. Like
Woolworth, who had faith in a five and ten cent store. Like Rockefeller, who
had faith in oil and gasoline. Love and Faith and Courage are the fruits of the
Recreated human spirit. The conduct that has made Christians outstanding in
society, has been the fruit of the Recreated human spirit.
You
can see very clearly how the natural man could not know himself. We must not
forget that the natural human spirit can be cultivated. We see this among the
occult societies, among spiritualists and others that are in close fellowship
with demons. James 3:13-18 says, “Who is wise and understanding among you? let
him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom. “But if ye have
bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the
truth. “This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is
earthly, natural, demonical.”
Then
in the 17th verse it tells of the wisdom that comes down from above. It is true
and peaceable. This contrast is suggestive. Wisdom is not a product of the
reasoning faculties, but of the human spirit. The natural human spirit can
contact demonical forces, just as the Recreated human spirit contacts God.
Christian workers should become familiar with this truth. They should be able
to discern at once whether a person is dominated by a demon or not. In my work
in praying for the insane, I have seen much of the depths of Satan and how he
gains absolute mastery over the reasoning faculties through the natural human
spirit.”
“The
Disciples never believed on Jesus until the Day of Pentecost. What faith they
had was simply sense knowledge faith. They could only believe in the things they
could see and hear and feel.”
“WHAT
HAVE YOU DONE WITH LOVE?
NEW
kind of Love was brought to the world by Jesus. As we understand this new kind
of Love, we realize there never was any Love before. The thing we have called
love has been sex attraction. In heathen countries there is no Love. It is mere
sex attraction hardly higher than that seen in the animal world.”
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