What an honor from the Lord to give mankind the privilege of journaling his story for him.

The authors of the New Testament not only wrote about the things Jesus did, and many events about his life, but most importantly, how it began, his journey, fathered by God, becoming our Lord, King, and Savior.

Christ, born to inherit the throne, required the journey, of being “made” King, Lord, and Savior (Hebrews 5:7-10).

And then to extend the invitation to journal his story to men and women over the centuries, writing insights the Lord has given them, is kindness upon kindness.

What better way to create intimacy and connection with those who desire to know him, and he them, but to entrust them with the honor and care of journaling his story from insights he shares.

Most of the journaling through the centuries was about Christ’s ministry and Calvary – where all the action was – easy to read and share with others.

The introduction of formal creeds, eventually institutionalized, leapfrogged from Christ’s birth to his ministry, and then on to Calvary, his resurrection, ascension, and promise of another return.

The two decades before his ministry are what many call the “silent years,” almost nobody writes or knows about, because the great weight of Scripture in the New Testament in thousands of writings have been pointed to Calvary.

Almost anything having to do with suffering, death, cross, crucified, blood, sacrifice, atonement, redemption, wounded, raised from the dead, etc., are taken as physical events and pointed to Calvary.

Jesus spent over three years ushering in the New Covenant with a new language.

I’ve written a lot about that in this series and it’s too much to repeat here.

Suffice it to say, his teachings were intended to draw hearts and minds away from Old Covenant thinking, into the thoughts and heart of the New Covenant – the opportunity to be made new from the inside out.

He expanded the meaning of words and phrases, elevating them to the transformation of the heart, partaking of the divine nature by grace, in bringing to death the lustful desires of the fallen nature.

He pioneered putting to death the enmity in the flesh, raised from mortality to immortality, resurrection life, becoming the source of salvation, the New Covenant in flesh and blood, before his presentation to John.

Jesus was no model, no, but a warrior inside out, knowing firsthand what it’s like to face sin and put it to death by one’s personal cross; not his own sins, but the sins of his human ancestors.

To the surprise of many when they see it, they find there’s much, much more, to the story of Christ’s journey to perfection before his ministry, in the New Testament and prefigured in the Old, than there is about Calvary.

That’s what this series is about, and much of the other series on this site.

Unless you start at the beginning of this series, and also read the Fullness of Time series, you’ll miss the foundation for this post.

The Lord desires to move those who earnestly desire him “well beyond” the 1700 years of creeds and traditions so entrenched in Christian thought today.

He wants his story fully known, not just the action sequences, but the backstory on how it all came about.

If we miss his story, then we’ll miss much of ours, which at this late hour has consequences far beyond what previous generations faced.

There’s a world of difference between putting sin to death, raised to walk in resurrection life, fulfilling Psalm 16, and putting Christ to death.

Creeds and traditions are a powerful foe.

They can become just like everything else outside of Scripture, an idol, potentially binding us, just like other “agreements.”

Every new move of God goes through the pain of shedding the old and embracing the new by the few, not the many, who transition into the new thing God is doing.

That’s been the story since creation and it’s not about to change in the last days.

If Christ could not transition Israel through his ministry out of 1300 to 1400 years of traditions into the New Covenant, and it took the Reformation 400 years to birth Pentecost in the early 1900s, and 100 years for Pentecost to come to maturity, it will be a challenging story in the last days to bring Tabernacles to the body of Christ.

The Scriptures clearly show Christ was perfected before his ministry, becoming the New Testament in flesh and blood, i.e., the Word made flesh, ushering the New Testament in at his perfection.

He was the pioneer, firstborn, first fruit of the new creation, having put the enmity in his flesh to death, made alive in spirit, resurrected to walk in newness of life, fulfilling Psalm 16, before his ministry.

It was this Jesus, the “resurrected Jesus,” as Peter says on the day of Pentecost Israel rejected, and killed; who God raised again, his second glorification.

This is what this series is about, the story of our Savior, the one who gave everything – his blood – his life and spirit (John 6), in being made perfect.

I hope this series awakens desire in your heart for more of the Lord, his Word, and the “open door” of the revelation of his nature by grace, he’s reserved for those who desire him in the last days.

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This series is devoted to sharing the theology of the deeper walk offered by Christ today.

Words can only communicate so much.

It takes the living Christ to bring words to “life.”

And only Jesus can make himself known to you.

There’s only one mediator between us and God, and that’s Christ.

You cannot know Jesus through another person, theology, creeds or traditions, family history, Scripture memorization, study, church, ministry, or through anything else.

You can only come to know the person of Christ through intimacy and connection with him as he makes himself available by grace.

And his grace extends beyond what we could imagine or think, ever – ready to draw us deeper in him.

As my counselor mentioned to me recently about my struggles in conversing with others, he said, and I paraphrase: “What brings two people together in conversation is curiosity about each other.”

Something many of us did not have in our childhood, or much in our adult life.

Jesus is intimately curious about you and all the struggles and wounding you face.

He is intimately aware of every aspect of our lives and what it will take to bring lasting healing and restoration.

He not only put sin to death for us – being made prefect, the atoning sacrifice for our sins (Hebrews 5:7-10) – but also went over and above “exceedingly abundant” in atoning for sin.

He publicly displayed at Calvary man’s hidden sin, etched into the holiness of his body, hoping they, and future generations, would come to forgiveness (Matthew 26:28).

His grace is not to just get us into the kingdom, nor to just teach us about the kingdom, but, most importantly, to make us into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18).

And to do that, he needs to bring resources our way, working with us on a one-on-one basis as he initiates you and me into being fathered by God.

And that is the heart of the age we live in, Philadelphia, the feast of Tabernacles, the fathering work of Christ to make us into his likeness, what the Scripture calls his bride, or in Revelation also the living creatures.

Suffering

There are times the Lord uses the body to bring resources our way for healing and restoration, and times he comes personally to cleanse and heal our wounds and brokenness.

He desires intimacy and connection with his creation unhindered by deep wounds and brokenness that make relationships difficult and sometimes impossible.

Coupled with that are barriers of creeds, traditions, beliefs, agreements, and what not, that make the road to healing even more difficult.

That’s why the road to healing and restoration goes through the city of “suffering,” – God’s spiritual hospital where outpatient and inpatient services are available, depending on the depth and degree of wounding.

The “suffering” of identifying the wound, the medicine and procedures needed, the removing of “barriers” to the wound, and then the cleansing and healing of the wound.

The Scriptures call the journey of cleansing wounds and brokenness rooted in sin “wounding and piercing,” “washed by the Word,” “putting sin to death, raised to walk in new life,” “sacrificing one’s life,” “picking up your cross,” “crucifying the flesh,” “baptized in Christ’s baptism,” “drinking his cup,” “eating his flesh and drinking his blood,” “new wine in new wineskins,” etc.

It’s a journey and a process by grace through faith in learning obedience, anchored in repentance and forgiveness.

Sin has us on the road to death; sin and death hidden and secreted deep in our members.

God’s “suffering” plan is the suffering in removing sin we and our generations embraced intent in stealing, killing and destroying our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

It hurts to open up festering and infected wounds and sores.

But the joy that comes by having them wounded and pierced (opened up and exposed to the light and breath of God), cleansed, healed and restored!

Jesus pioneered God’s suffering plan, being made perfect, redeeming generational transgressions and iniquities he inherited from his human ancestry.

And that pioneering work is the road of grace he patterned for you and me.

The enemy’s suffering plan is brutalizing the flesh, imparting deeper and deeper sin in his children, ensuring his children are opposed to grace and God’s love, working tirelessly to try and keep the law, never coming to the knowledge of Christ and the power of God to heal and restore.

Ultimately, his suffering plan includes separation from God forever.

God’s suffering plan brings you and me into intimacy, connection, and union with Christ and the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit forever.

Coming Wave

I hope sharing the theology of the deeper things of God will inspire and stimulate desire in your heart for more of Christ while the open door of Tabernacles remains open (Revelation 3:7-8).

We’re still in the beginning wave of the feast of Tabernacles.

It’s time to seek the Lord to be prepared (a wise virgin) so you can be chosen and ushered into the wilderness journey – adventure – in Christ.

The journey the Father ordained and designed for those who will follow the pioneer of their faith and “made” into his likeness – the forerunner, firstborn and first fruit of the new creation, Christ Jesus.

The Bible is not a book of facts and figures, but an open invitation to be embraced by the grace and love of God so long ago forsaken for another lover.

God has opened up the Scriptures like never before.

He does that to inaugurate each new wave of his Spirit.

And the healing and restoration wave we’re in now will only grow larger, and deeper, and eventually, after a sufficient “net” is built to hold the many fish that will be caught, break upon the lost in such suddenness, depth, and intensity, it will stun the unbelieving, boggle many believers, and have a catch of souls unlike any time in history.

Each major transition in history is preceded by an unprecedented move of God.

And the last of the last days will be no exception.

Some Christians take exception to this but the Scripture is clear – there will be a great ingathering in the last days just as well as a great apostasy.

Whether those who come in the last hours will have sufficient opportunity to be made “brides” is another post for another time.

But just as many were saved in the flood waters of Noah, though they drowned, many repented, and just as the Northern and Southern Kingdom’s had great revivals before they were taken captive, and just as the common people received Christ gladly and many were saved before Israel was destroyed by Rome, so to the end times.

The seventh headed beast of the last day Antichrist kingdom will suffer a wound, a wound so severe it’s likened to death – a death wound – (prefiguring those who will be eternally separated from God at the judgment).

The wounding of the seventh headed beast of Revelation 13 is the flip side of the great revival God will launch in the last days giving one last opportunity to millions to accept Christ before he transitions mankind to the final leg of this creation – Christ’s millennial rule.

These are absolutely some of the most exciting days in Christ, the best days to be alive in Christ; the greatest opportunities for depth and intimacy with Jesus this side of the New Covenant.

If one misses the heart of Philadelphia, the feast of Tabernacles, then one has missed the greatest opportunity for the deepest relationship with Christ and the last opportunity before he transitions mankind to the Millennium.

A lot is at stake.

I know your natural mind looks at the world and thinks, how can these things come about, the world is too powerful and pervasive to be moved.

Who has the power to fight against this world and world powers?

The same God who:

• brought the flood on the ungodly, Egypt to its knees, rolled back the Red Sea and Jordan, caused the Sun to stand still, rolled back time, brought the kingdoms of Babylon, Greece, Medo – Persia to their knees,
• fulfilled hundreds of prophecies of the coming Messiah, perfecting Christ, raising him from the dead twice (John 12, glorified again), ushering in the New Covenant with signs, wonders, and miracles,
• fulfilling the feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, millions today testifying of the saving and infilling power of the Holy Spirit in their lives,
• will surely accomplish all he sets out to do in the time he’s determined.

And the time he’s determined he’ll make known by and by to his children in his Word by the revelation of his Spirit.

It’s All About Jesus

I want you to know I feel inadequate, in a good way, in the theology of the deep work of grace I’m sharing with you.

Anything good we can share with one another is because of Jesus, and what he’s done in your life and mine.

It is an inescapable fact, the more we come to know the Lord, the more we need him.

One only has to look at John near the end of his life, falling as though dead, when he sees Christ in all his glory.

The knowledge of the mystery of Christ, the transforming power of Christ to change our lowly natures into the glorious nature of Christ through the story of being made like Christ, is a holy and sacred understanding.

The difference of who we are in our present story “our race to the finish line,” and the knowledge of what we can be in Christ, what he can accomplish in us, is so far beyond our ability in the flesh, only Jesus can span the gap of our wounds and brokenness and bring us safely into his embrace.

We are completely unable of our own volition, effort, and design, to save ourselves from generational and self – inflicted wounds; the deep sins rooted in the fallen nature within all of us in one form or another.

Only Christ can take the clay we present to him and make something whole and holy from a life previously dedicated to sin headed toward eternal separation.

Salvation comes by way of intimate care, not by way of punishment and condemnation.

Suffering in God’s hospital produces life “abundant life,” in wholeness and holiness.

The sufferings involved removing the appetites, desires, and passions for this world are not to be compared to the wholeness and holiness to follow.

The effects of sin are punishment enough.

It’s Christ who came to bring relief and remedy from sin and all the wounds and brokenness it generates and afflicts from generation to generation.

It all started in him, the redemption story, IT IS HIS STORY FIRST AND FOREMOST – THE ONE HE PIONEERED (FATHERED BY GOD) AND FINISHED FOR HIM AND HIS GENERATIONS.

And it’s by his grace he extends it to all mankind; an open invitation to those who desire the deeper things of God – an open door into HIS STORY.

Everything good, lovely, pure, and holy, in my life and yours, those who name the name of Christ, is because of what Christ has done in you and me anchored in the bedrock of what the Father accomplished in him some two millenniums ago.

Much has been taught how the Bible is about us, what Jesus did for us on Calvary.

And so little taught, if any, about Christ – what the Father accomplished in him, his perfection, learning obedience in sufferings, becoming our Savior.

Nothing we have in the kingdom of God would be available if God had not prepared his Son – walked him through the long wilderness journey of being made perfect, becoming the atoning sacrifice for our salvation.

Christendom is consumed with the sufferings of persecution and the like, the “outward sufferings,” and the “inward sufferings,” the sufferings from sin and all its ramifications in bodily disease, and wounds and brokenness of the soul and spirit.

But the heart of the New Testament is not about the outward sufferings of rejection and persecution, or the inward sufferings from the bad fruit of sin, but the “suffering in being made whole and holy” – being admitted into God’s hospital for cleansing, healing and restoration.

Noah spent 100 years in God’s hospital while building the Ark.

Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness of God’s care before he could be commissioned to lead Israel out of Egypt.

The Hebrews spent 40 years in the wilderness under God’s care.

David spent 15 years in the wilderness in the care of God’s hospital, learning obedience in suffering, a “type” of the Messiah to come.

Christ spent the better part of his life before ministry learning obedience, fathered by God, in suffering – putting to death the enmity in his flesh.

God’s plan of suffering – putting to death sin by the conviction and cleansing of the Holy Spirit, through repentance and forgiveness – produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness, wholeness, and holiness.

It’s the suffering of undoing and removing sin in our lives being made partakers of the divine nature, new wine in new wineskins.

Out of that comes the fruit of the Spirit to help others on the path of Christ.

This is the suffering Jesus pioneered, to be made whole and holy.

The suffering to learn to live without sin in holiness, the discomfort of being made new.

The New Testament is not about nailing someone to the cross, or beating our flesh, but being made new, like Christ, from the inside out.

If one misses the story of Christ – the battle to be made new, putting to death generational transgressions and iniquities from his human ancestry, and he did it without sinning, then one misses the most important story of the Bible.

Living “in” God is Greater

Christ announced and demonstrated the New Covenant “in him” for over three years.

The New Covenant is the fruit of the what the Father accomplished in Christ.

It came at great cost to Christ, everything.

It cost him everything to be made perfect!

His reward: resurrection life, given a name above every name, seated in heavenly places with the Father, freely sharing the fruits of resurrection life with others for over three years.

What is the greater and more costly sacrifice, and more pleasing to God: the sacrifice of putting sin to death – the suffering of learning obedience, cleansed, healed and restored (Hebrews 5:7-10), or, being put to death, because the ones you came to save reject what the Father accomplished in you?

Important

What does Christ want us to remember about him, seek, pursue, and follow?

Is it the crucifixion of Calvary or the crucifixion of the fallen nature?

Peter, on the day of Pentecost, used Calvary to point to their sins so they would repent and enter into what Christ apprehended, resurrection life, the New Covenant in fullness.

How do we know that?

Peter refers to Psalm 16, and says it was this Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, God raised from the dead.

In other words, Peter is saying, “Look, you killed the Christ, the Messiah, the one who fulfilled David’s prophecy pointing to resurrection life this side of heaven, the one who put sin to death (Romans 6), passed from mortality to immortality, an indestructible life (1 Corinthians 15, Hebrews 7), the New Covenant in flesh and blood walking among us.”

“It was this Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, the glorified Christ we witnessed on the Mount, you killed and God raised.”

“Now repent, and enter the kingdom of God so God can clean you up and make you whole and holy like Jesus.”

The “blood sacrifice” of being made perfect is far greater than the sacrifice of bulls and goats, or any human blood sacrifice.

The shedding of Christ’s blood at Calvary (Matthew 26:28) was to point them to Jesus one last time – to who he was, what he said, what he lived, what he did – hoping some would find their way out of darkness into his glorious light.

The Lord Jesus Christ changed the opportunity for man’s relationship with God, not Calvary.

Our salvation is in Christ, not Calvary.

The same salvation and repentance were offered and needed before and after.

Salvation is not a one – shot event, as creeds would have us believe, but, according to the Scriptures, a long journey of putting sin to death by the conviction and power of the Holy Spirit in your life and mine.

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“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (NIV, 1 Peter 1:18-19)

Note

As I’ve explained in earlier posts, and as Jesus himself spoke regarding his “blood” being life and Spirit (John 6), Peter is referring to the “person of Christ” and not his literal blood as being the source of redemption.

Jesus specifically spoke about eating his flesh and drinking his blood (John 6) because he did not want what has happened, the association of his actual physical body and blood to be likened to an Old Testament sacrifice.

That would be compounding the weakness of the Old Testament by starting a New Testament by killing a human, which Christ did everything but fight to avoid being killed.

And for which his words and his Father’s regarding his killers were not very pleasant.

The whole purpose of the New Testament is to fulfill what the Old Testament pointed to and not to repeat it, especially the killing of a human as a sacrifice, which God abhorred.

The purpose of the New Covenant is to kill sin by grace through faith, and not the person, Christ being the firstborn, first fruit, of the new creation.

Peter was reminding his readers what John the Baptist said about Christ before his ministry, the lamb standing before him having already atoned for sins through his perfection, that, he, (John) needed to be baptized by him.

Blood denotes the most intimate expression one can make about Christ’s sacrifice, his living sacrifice, in being made perfect (Romans 1-8, Hebrews 1-10), giving the entirety of his life, rights, and privileges (Philippians 2), to fulfill God’s plan for him, opening the same door of salvation by grace to you and me.

Blood denotes Christ as the New Testament sacrifice, doing the will of God from the heart, destroying the barrier between the law and the flesh, fulfilling the law in his flesh, without sin (Ephesians 2).

Peter uses blood to connect the fulfillment of the Old with the New by the sacrifice Christ made in being made perfect, fulfilling the law of God from the heart, which animal sacrifices could never do.

Remember, even in the Old Testament, blood is the symbol of life, and not vice versa.

Likewise, “lamb” is not literal, but pointing to the fulfillment of the Old in Christ; Christ being the New Testament in flesh and blood!

A living, breathing, walking, lamb sacrifice, having fulfilled the law in his flesh ready to announce and demonstrate the New Testament in his blood.

The empty way of life was the killing of animals, and with the pagans, the killing of humans.

Blood connects Christ to fulfilling the promises of God by sacrificing his life in being made the anointed one of God promised to come.

When Jesus said in Matthew 26 his blood is being shed for the forgiveness of sins, he was saying, “Look, I’ve been with you for over three years and yet you still either find it hard to believe in me, or for most, have chosen not to believe because of the great cost in coming to me.

I will give you one last sign, the one the carnal mind demands to see – the actual spilling of my blood so you can see with your natural eyes and senses I am who I said I am when my Father raises me again from the dead – to be glorified again (John 12).

Then unbelieving hearts will see with the natural eye what I’ve been telling and showing you spiritually over the last three years.

I will confirm to you and for others in the flesh what I and the Father have already accomplished in me by the Spirit.”

Here’s a subtlety in the creeds that leads most to believe our salvation is in the “death” of Christ when the Scripture clearly says our salvation is in his “life.”

Romans 5:8 – 9, Romans 6, Ephesians 2:14 – 15 (see an interlinear), Hebrews 5:7 – 10, (and other Scriptures), clearly show we’re justified, i.e., brought into New Covenant grace, because of Christ’s atoning work in putting to death the enmity in his flesh.

And it is his life, resurrection life, “…made alive in the Spirit” (NIV, 1 Peter 3:18), walking in newness of life (Romans 6:10), etc., that brings salvation to you and me.

In other words, Christ’s death to sin, destroying the barrier – the enmity in his flesh – between the law and his flesh, fulfilling the law without sin, opened the door for us to receive God’s grace, i.e., the new birth, which ushers us into the salvation journey of learning obedience through suffering by grace through faith.

“Justification” brings us into right standing with God, the passport into the kingdom of God, and “salvation” transforms our nature from death to life in the cleansing, healing, and restoration of our body, soul, and spirit.

Christ’s death to sin paid the price to get us through the door, and his resurrection life, which he freely shared to Israel over three years, cleanses us from transgressions and iniquities we’ve embraced, as well as our ancestors. (Romans 8:10 – 11)

This is why the Jews hated Christ so much.

Because he was a New Covenant Christian in flesh and blood walking in an Old Covenant nation demonstrating through signs, wonders, and miracles the Kingdom he had redeemed for them by being made perfect.

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“He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.” (NIV, 1 Peter 1:20 – 22)

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned…

if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness…

if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes…

and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)…

then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.” (NIV, 2 Peter 2:4 – 9)

“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” (NIV, Romans 8:5 – 8)

“But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” (NIV, Romans 8:10 – 11)

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time…we ourselves…groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” (NIV, Romans 8:22 – 23)

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters… He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all…” (NIV, Romans 8:29 – 32)

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (NIV, 2 Corinthians 3:18)

“Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (NIV, Ephesians, 5:15 – 17)

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour…

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” (NIV, 1 Peter 5:8 – 10)

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (NIV, Matthew 11:28 – 30)

It is good to be reminded the Bible is principally written to believers, not to unbelievers.

The Scriptures, the warnings, spiritual warfare, and battling the fallen nature, are written to believers, not to those who are outside the body of Christ.

And all the warnings and admonitions regarding the empty way of life handed down from the fathers – yeast kneaded into dough, and all the like – are to believers, and not unbelievers.

Preface

Christendom has made the central story of Christ about his resurrection following Calvary.

The Scriptures, on the other hand, make the central story of Christ about his resurrection to new life through putting sin to death, the enmity in his flesh, being made perfect, becoming the pioneer, firstborn, first fruit, of the New Covenant salvation before his presentation to John at the river Jordan.

That’s why then and there, John could say, “‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (NIV, John 1:29)

(Note: Some of you may be thinking the atonement must have started at Calvary, and not at Christ’s perfection, because it says in Revelation (5:9) Christ was slain, the lamb, (and slain definitely means killed) and “purchased with his blood” people from every tribe and nation.

There’s a difference in the words ransom, redeem, and purchase. I’ll cover this more in the next post.

Redeem, among other things, means buying back – redeeming what was lost and more.

That’s what happened at Christ’s perfection in his atoning work, salvation, putting sin to death, redeeming mankind to be made whole and holy, to walk in newness of life by the Spirit of God.

That’s the Gospel message he preached and gave through healing and salvation for over 3 years, the one they rejected.

Purchase is less intensive, it’s not redeeming what was lost, but buying what is present. That does not mean it’s not costly.

The perfected Christ was the treasure of God’s heart, the New Testament in flesh and blood, our Savior, and for him to be unnecessarily killed at Calvary was indeed a costly price.

No wonder Israel was destroyed in 40 years.

Redeeming will transform the purchase – bring salvation – into what Christ desires.

Purchase is used in reference to Calvary to show the length Christ went in extending grace to mankind, going beyond redeeming to actually purchasing them even in their rejection.

And not cut mankind off, and start a new nation of people through Christ, like God said over a millennium before he would do through Moses.

Purchase is used to remind those in difficult situations what he did, the cost to him to extend grace, to those who are fighting the fight of faith.

It’s used for the Laodiceans (Rev. 3:18), who will be required to give their life in the Tribulation; two times in 1 Cor. 6:20 and 7:23 in difficult situations; in regards to false teachers in 2 Peter 2:1; and, the 144,000 who will be in the time of the Trumpets and Plagues, (Rev. 14:3-4).)

Christ entered ministry hoping to be received but knowing possible rejection loomed on the horizon.

Rejection was not etched in stone but it loomed overhead nonetheless.

It wasn’t too long into his ministry before he knew his life would be required to demonstrate to the natural eye what he spoke spiritually.

It’s not easy writing trying to undo almost 1700 years of creeds and traditions so embraced they’ve become the main stay and foundation of Christian thought, repeated daily through TV, sermons, writings, and everything else.

Jesus warned this would happen in the parables of Matthew 13 and again in the seven church ages of Revelation.

Even Paul’s letters to the churches follow the progression of the downward slide into apostasy through his first four letters, which is similar to the pattern in the parables of Matthew 13 and the seven church ages.

Every move of God has to deal with centuries of creeds and traditions, the web of man’s doing to somehow bridge the gap for lack of intimacy with Christ.

If we were all in deep fellowship with Christ as the Scripture calls us into, creeds and traditions would find no foothold.

But alas, in the absence of intimacy with Christ, man must fill the hole with something else, which invariably means a righteousness based on works, beliefs and practices, birthed out of his own intellect and nature.

Lack of intimacy with Christ breeds lack of revelation, which fuels the intellect to fill the gap – an open door for the enemy to plant his tares in the sleepiness of man’s heart and the fogginess of man’s mind.

This series reveals how phrases commonly pointed to Calvary, such as “Christ being raised from the dead,” when the context is clearly about putting sin to death, have nothing to do with Calvary, and everything to do with his journey in being made perfect.

Greek lexicons show over and over again the many words commonly pointing to Calvary apply equally, figuratively, as well as literally, depending on the context.

Expressions such as, dying to sin, raised to walk in newness of life, raised from the dead, the firstborn or first fruit of creation, pioneer of the faith, forerunner, acts of obedience, and sacrificing his life “his blood,” except for a few instances, are expressions of Christ’s journey to perfection, mortality taking on immortality, raised to walk in resurrection life, not about Calvary.

Translators have added certain phrases and words in a number of Scriptures to make the Scripture about Calvary, in the absence of knowing what else to make of the rendering.

These additions are done to help make the Bible easy to understand.

(For example, Romans 3:25, Colossians 1:20, and Hebrews 12:14, “shedding or shed” of blood is not in the Greek, which changes the context from talking about killing to talking about life, the life and Spirit Jesus taught in John 6.

And Matthew 26:54 and Acts 2:23 have words added or re-ordered to make it appear God planned Calvary when God abhors murder, and would have dispatched angels to rescue Christ, if he had chosen not to give them “Jonah’s sign.”

You don’t call someone a murderer and tell them horrible things will happen to them, and at the same time, be complicit in their plan of killing!

When Christ talked about fulfilling the Scripture, he was speaking about being a man of peace, and not killing others to defend himself, no matter the cost.

How can two come together except there be an agreement?

And how can the kingdom stand if it’s divided amongst itself?)

However, lacking the revelation of Christ’s personal journey, pointing everything to do with sacrifice, blood, sin, and death to Calvary, has quietly and discreetly buried the most important story of the Bible – Christ’s personal journey to perfection.

Jesus did not walk in newness of life after Calvary, but after his perfection, publicly demonstrating resurrection life for over three years to Israel.

And that includes phrases in the New Testament letters of being crucified with Christ, wounded, being made perfect, learning obedience through suffering, and being hung, crucified, on a tree, etc.

These phrases are the heart and soul of the New Testament, putting to death generational sin, the enmity in his flesh, destroying the barrier between the law and his flesh “making in himself one man out of the two,” fulfilling the law of God perfectly from the heart.

Christ is truly a remarkable man, far beyond what we have been taught in our Christian schooling, whether Sunday school, sermons, seminary, or Bible college.

God pulled out all the stops preparing and fathering his Son perfectly, by grace through faith, to present to Israel one so like the Father they were indistinguishable, Christ, the exact representation of the Father.

As Christ taught in a number of parables, it was the hope and expectation of the Father Israel would honor and welcome Christ as their king and Lord, their long – sought Messiah.

But God, knowing the future, and this is important, not complicit in the exercise of man’s will to choose sin in the face of Christ’s righteous presentation, knew Israel would ultimately reject and kill their Messiah.

And so he, (God), cloaked the knowledge of Christ’s rejection in hard to understand Scriptures, even for Christ, until events unfolded that revealed their determination to kill him.

God left it in the hands of Christ to choose whether to fight or to submit, and knowing the heart of his Father not to kill those he came to save, let them have their way with him, in spite of his Father’s offer to send angels.

Christ is beckoning again, today, the Philadelphia church age, the feast of Tabernacles, to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, to seek him for the journey and adventure he pioneered for those who will be made one with him.

Jesus is knocking at the door of hearts today, standing ready, just as the Father stood ready with him, to begin the deep work of the Spirit of renewal and restoration while the day is still light.

Passover and Pentecost will only take one so far.

Tabernacles completes the journey and that’s what Christ is offering to his body today.

The stakes are higher today than in generations past, and it is only through Tabernacles, being hidden in Christ, the deep work of grace in the revelation of Christ, that one will be able to be prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

It is the making alive our mortal bodies (Romans 8:10 – 11) that prepares us for intimacy and union with Christ, and ultimately, for those alive at the time of the Rapture, eternal union with Christ, ruling and reigning with him forever.

Christ is pulling back the veil of his personal journey so men and women will be inspired and motivated to see the great calling yet possible in apprehending Christ this side of heaven as promised to New Covenant saints in the Scriptures.

Unprecedented days are ahead just as in eras past, and just as eras have come and gone, so will this one, and usher in a reign of righteousness in Christ unlike anything we could imagine.

But first, Christ must prepare a bride for the end times to display in one last great opportunity his salvation to men and women before this age comes to a close and the great stress, called the Tribulation, transitions mankind to the Millennium.

The close of one era is always preceded by a demonstration of what God has in store for the coming new era.

There is yet a great expression of Christ to come upon this earth and the question before all, saved and unsaved, what part we will play in Christ’s final expression of love to a lost and dying world.

Introduction

The purpose of my writings is to make known there’s more, much more, in the kingdom of God yet to be apprehended.

Unless you’ve finished your course like Enoch, Moses, Elijah, Peter, and Paul, there’s more territory to be taken, secured, and possessed by Christ.

And the key to apprehending more is the understanding in his Word by the revelation of his Spirit of the intense undertaking he has for those who desire the deep things of God.

The Lord has reserved the best for last, the feast of Tabernacles, the Philadelphia church age, for those he chooses to advance his kingdom, not only in their lives, but in the lives of others.

To undertake the depth and breath of ministry God desires in the latter times will require healing and restoration of those who desire to be known by him.

This series separates Christ’s perfection journey from Calvary showing the great depth of preparation the Father accomplished in Christ before his presentation to John at the river Jordan.

Christ, fathered by God, made perfect by grace through faith, healed and restored from the “enmity in his flesh” passed to him from his human ancestry, becoming our atoning sacrifice, is the most important teaching in the New Testament.

The New Testament, Christ’s ministry, and Calvary would not have been possible had Christ not put to death the enmity in his flesh without sin before he was presented to John for baptism.

Calvary is not the beginning of the New Testament, but the confirmation of the New Testament in Christ – the resurrection life he lived for over three years publicly.

Everything in this creation flows out from the perfecting work of God in Christ.

The making of the man Christ Jesus, is the heart and soul of the New Testament – everything flows from him.

Israel rejected the New Testament in Christ preferring the ways of the Old.

It is this Christ who was presented to John, and it is this Christ who was tested in the wilderness for 40 days by the King of this world.

And it is this Christ who was rejected by Israel nailing him to the cross at Calvary.

And it was this Christ death had no lasting authority over; having already passed from mortality to immortality, an indestructible life (Romans 6, 1 Corinthians 15, Hebrews 7, etc.) raised from the dead (mortality) in his perfection before ministry.

Christ, the firstborn, first fruit, forerunner, last Adam, securing salvation for mankind by destroying the barrier between his flesh and the law, fulfilling the law of God perfectly from the heart.

Christ is the only one to fulfill the will of God through fathering completely, without sin, the Word of God written on the tables of his heart and mind.

He sacrificed the entirety of his life to the Father; redeeming generational transgressions and iniquities in his ancestral line through the suffering of putting sin to death, being made perfect, the first of mankind to be fully redeemed and restored (the only one to be healed and restored without sin).

He sacrificed his life, rights, privileges – emptying himself of anything and everything that would stand in the way of fulfilling the call of God in his life – the only way it could properly be described in relationship to “sacrifice” and in relationship to fulfilling the Old Covenant sacrificial system, is by calling his sacrifice a “blood” sacrifice – which he defined as life and Spirit (John 6).

Because blood represents life, not death.

And the sacrificial system of shedding blood was done away in Christ, a new and better covenant.

Israel’s rejection of the New Covenant in Christ (Matthew 26:28), and Christ’s willingness to give them the sacrifice they demanded, rather than take up arms and fight, did not change the truth Christ was the New Testament in flesh and blood, before, during, and after Calvary.

With the New Covenant – ushering men and women into the kingdom of God – comes a new language, a new way of living and looking at things.

I’m going to get into the meat of some Scriptures commonly ascribed to Calvary.

That once the trappings of creeds and traditions are removed, it will be readily apparent the subject matter is about Christ and his journey, and not Christ and his death at the hands fallen men and women.

A Few Brief Important Notes

A number of Scripture’s in the New Testament letters talk about Christ being raised from the dead and the natural mind automatically assumes Calvary.

And a number of Scriptures talk about Christ’s blood, sometimes shed, sometimes shedding, and sometimes alone, and again, the natural mind automatically assumes Calvary.

And, a number of Scriptures talk about “wounding,” the cross of Christ, and again, the natural mind automatically posts these thoughts and phrases to Calvary.

If you lose sight of Christ’s humanity, his need for healing and restoration, fully human, pioneering the path through suffering in being made complete, our pattern, then he becomes just a shell, model, having no investment in the journey we must take other than being born to be killed.

The Scriptures do not teach this, even though it is heralded in song and sermons throughout Christendom every weekend.

If one loses sight of the new language in the New Covenant, which Jesus inaugurated in his teachings, and the Apostles expanded upon in their letters, and fail to understand the promised grace to come in the fulfillment of putting sin to death by Christ, then one ends up back in the Old Testament, its language, customs, and sacrifices.

If one loses sight of all of this, which creeds and traditions do, then it’s natural for the “naturally minded” to point all these Scriptures and others to Calvary because Christ was born perfect, modeled Christianity, born as a human sacrifice for sin.

But when one understands Christ was born into a body that would die, his perfection “raised him to walk in newness of life,” “resurrection life,” before ministry, then one can understand and differentiate the many Scriptures about Christ being raised from the dead versus his resurrection after Calvary.

And if he was raised from the dead to walk in new life, resurrection life, out of which flowed signs, wonders, and miracles over three years, then one can understand why he did everything he could do to convince them he was the Messiah for his and their benefit.

And if he was raised from the dead to walk in new life before his ministry, having been perfected, then one can understand the use of the term blood, “his blood sacrifice,” giving the entirety of his life to God, the most emotional and intimate term that can be used to describe the giving of one’s life for others.

And when one understands Christ was raised from mortality to immortality in his perfection, sacrificing his life “his blood,” then one can understand the use of the terms wounding and piercing, cross, crucify, etc., in the context of putting to death the enmity in his flesh, made new in spirit as Peter describes.

Then the picture becomes clearer and begins to take shape when we read Christ saying his blood is life in John 6 and he will be glorified again in John 12, after Calvary.

And then more muscle is put on the skeleton of Christ’s journey when noting in Isaiah 53:9 the literal Hebrew word for death, many contend, is the plural form of the word “death.”

That’s why Isaiah 53 is broken into three sections – his perfection, death to sin, raised to walk in new life, Isaiah 53:1-6; Calvary 53:7-9; and 53:10-12 his complete life journey.

****

Commentators wrestle with the Scriptures in Ephesians Chapter 2 – the enmity in his flesh, Scriptures relating to dying “to” sin (Romans 6), and being wounded and made alive in Spirit, 1 Peter Chapter 3.

They struggle to figure out what the Scriptures mean in relationship to someone creeds and traditions proclaim was born without “flesh” issues, essentially perfect, yet immature, but perfect in his essence, no “internal” spiritual warfare like the rest of us.

They forget James; you can have lust and yet not sin, unless you yield to it.

How could Christ truly be our Savior, pioneer, forerunner, firstborn among many brethren, author of grace, etc., if he did not know what it’s like to overcome sin internally and externally, just like you and me?

How could he be tempted in all points just like us, fully human, etc.?

Simply, creeds and traditions proclaim the virgin birth voided the passing of generational sin from his human ancestry to him, contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture.

I plan to write about the passing of generational sin, what it means to die “to” sin, not die “from” sin, or die “for” sin, but to die “to” sin the story of Christ the Scripture teaches.

And how every human has seeds of generational sin in them they have not embraced or yielded.

You can have the seeds of sin passed from your ancestors without sinning in all the areas given to you from your generations.

Though with each passing generation, in many instances, unless sin is dealt with, it becomes more prominent in intensity and scope with each passing descendant.

It’s complicated, there’s a lot of factors involved, but at the end of the day, the Scripture teaches sin passes through our human ancestral line and intensifies and deepens as it goes through the family line – the law of sin, the law of sowing and reaping, the barrier Christ destroyed through the promised grace to come.

Sin does not become sin to you until you come into agreement with it, embrace, and yield, which James likens to “conception.”

Remember in – kind produces in – kind, the law of creation established in the beginning.

Whether it’s righteousness or unrighteousness, whether the fruit is good, or the fruit is bad, the seed that comes from that particular fruit will produce the same fruit.

And sin is passed from kin to kin and those not kin when agreement is made with the temptation, whether it comes from within or without.

Sin makes us all brothers and sisters in one form or another, just like Christ’s righteousness makes us brothers and sisters in him.

Christ redeemed his ancestral bloodline, perfectly, without sin, as a living sacrifice for all of mankind to be grafted into, as Paul describes in Romans.

God fathered Christ at a young age through his adult years through the process of putting sin to death by grace through faith, redeeming his generations.

Just as a reminder, Christ was birthed into grace, the new birth at conception; restoring at birth the ability as he grew to “choose” righteousness and not automatically succumb to sin everyone else is born into.

That’s why he’s called the last Adam; placed like Adam before the fall, yet, having to redeem what Adam and his descendants lost before they capture Christ.

Christ was the mixture of two worlds, and the Father walked him through putting the “world” to death passed to him from his mother.

How else could he truly be our Lord, Redeemer, and Savior?

No soldier is worth his stripes if he does not lead his troops into battle and knows everything it takes to defeat the enemy.

Christ is the only one to face generational transgressions and iniquities and come out whole, holy, and completely untainted by sin, though, outwardly, not one anyone would be drawn to or attracted, having suffered in prayer, fasting, wounds, and piercings, in cleansing and healing the deeply rooted sins of his forefathers.

If one believes Christ just appeared on the scene, and

• fought the devil for 40 days,
• ministered for over 3 years,
• was willing to be killed instead of kill, to give his life again so some might be saved, without
• going through the long wilderness journey of the baptism of the Holy Spirit – the “fire” of cleansing and healing, the intense warfare of being made new, then
• the heart of the Gospel, the heart of Christ, the work of the Father, is missed, and much of the New Testament, and much of the Old (the wilderness journeys of those who were a type of Christ), has little meaning to you and me,
• because its all about Calvary instead of the pioneering work of Christ, our forerunner, in founding the New Covenant in his blood.

An Example – Galatians 3:13

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’” (NIV, Galatians 3:13, bold and italicized are mine)

This verse is commonly associated with Calvary, but it is not about Calvary.

It’s a description of Christ’s personal journey of being made perfect “dying to sin, alive in spirit,” as the author of Hebrews describes in Chapter 5, Paul in Romans Chapter 6, and Peter in 1 Peter Chapter 3.

The book of Galatians is about the struggle of overcoming the works of the flesh and living by grace through faith in obedience to God.

Christ pioneered crucifying the enmity of the flesh to the law of God, see Galatians 5:24; 2 Corinthians 13:4 (Christ walked in newness of life, Romans 6:10, after his perfection); and Ephesians 2:14-16, in an interlinear.

Paul even says he is crucified with Christ, and we know he is not referring to Calvary, the place of exposing sin, not putting it to death, like the pagans attempt.

But being led by the Spirit of God to put to death “works righteousness” – everything we do to live an independent life, hiding, protecting, and serving our wounds and brokenness in transgressions and iniquities.

The forerunner and pioneer of putting to death the works of the flesh, made alive in spirit, resurrection life, is the Lord Jesus Christ as the author of Hebrews describes in Hebrews Chapters 1 through 10, and 12.

The literal Greek in Galatians versus 2:16, 2:20, and 3:22 (as well as Romans 3:22 and 3:26) is the faith “of” and not the faith “in” Christ, the Son of God.

There’s a world of difference between the faith “of” Jesus and faith “in” Jesus.

Simply, Christ lived and operated in the kingdom of God by grace through faith just like you and me.

Creeds and traditions rob Christ of his journey, and our journey, by taking from Christ the grace and faith he exercised in being made perfect, substituting a little word “in” instead of “of,” making the Scriptures about Calvary, instead of about Christ.

Learning obedience requires grace and faith, no different than our journey.

And rightly so, because he is our forerunner and pioneer! (Hebrews 2:10, 6:20)

Christ is our pattern, our pioneer, the one who paved the way for the promised grace to come to you and me by grace through faith.

It is the faith of Christ that produced the works of power – signs, wonders, and miracles demonstrated in his ministry, and it is the same grace and faith, fathered by God, that healed and restored Christ, perfectly.

Galatians Chapter 3 discusses at length the curse of the law there’s no antidote for.

The curse of the law is everything we do to justify ourselves before God, to establish our own righteousness, out of our own uncleanness, attempting to wash the outside of the cup – what people see and hear, leaving the inside full of all manner of uncleanness.

Good works cannot remove the stain of sin we have from the fall.

Christ was the first to experience the cleansing power of God in being made clean from the inside out.

If we miss that, then we miss the story of Christ.

The story of Christ is not about Calvary, but about him!

This is critically important to understanding the New Testament.

Christ is the pioneer of being made clean from the inside out, destroying the barrier between the law and the flesh (Ephesians 2:14-15, see an interlinear), sin, fulfilling the law in his flesh as he and the authors of the New Testament describe over and over again.

The Father cleansed Christ perfectly, making him whole and holy, the atoning sacrifice for your sins and mine.

Cross of Christ (Galatians 3:13, continued)

The only way cleansing can come in the removal and healing of generational transgressions and iniquities, whether yielded to or not, is done by the “cross.”

The “cross of Christ,” the one he bore in his journey to perfection, and the one he asks us to carry in our own journey of healing and restoration, keeps you and me from trying to cleanse and save ourselves as God begins the process of cleansing and healing.

The “cross of Christ” prevents and restrains you and me from attempting to heal ourselves when the Lord comes to us in grace, in intimacy, and begins to reveal the deeply rooted areas of our life needing cleansing and healing.

The “cross of Christ” brings awareness there’s no answer or way of escape, except trusting the Lord, to bring healing and restoration to the deeply wounded and broken areas of our lives.

The “cross of Christ,” is the restraint of the Holy Spirit by grace in keeping you, holding you, restraining you from trying to heal yourself – work your way out – while by faith, “faith being developed,” God comes and provides care to the wound rooted in sin causing distress to you and others.

Being hung on a tree, crucified “symbolically,” is God’s grace restraining your efforts to save yourself, while he saves you, destroying the barrier of sin between the law and your flesh.

Suffering (Galatians 3:13, continued)

Both you and the Lord are involved as you exercise trust, faith, and obedience during your discomfort and suffering – the opening up of wounds and brokenness for cleansing and healing through repentance and forgiveness.

The suffering during God’s healing and restoration has many facets; the “discomfort” of removing the old structures of sin raised by our ancestors and us in working out our own salvation by: judging others and ourselves, embracing lies and curses, and practicing a sinful life.

Suffering also arises in learning the ways of God not learned to begin with, like turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, praying for those who persecute you, loving those who hate you, not retaliating and all the other ways of extending compassion, grace, and mercy.

This is the meaning in the New Testament of being hung on a tree.

The Jews rejected the New Testament “meaning,” which Paul explains in Galatians 3, arguing about works versus faith, and instead, nailed Christ to the cross demanding proof of what he said.

The Jews rejected the New Covenant and applied Old Covenant law to the New Covenant Christ.

The Jews rejected the Christ who carried the “cross” of being made “new” from the inside out – new wine in a new bottle – cleansed healed and restored, perfectly, and his invitation for them to take up their cross and follow him.

They hated him because of what God did in him by the cross, the sacrifice of his life, the emptying of himself of all his rights and privileges, to become a servant to others.

That’s the cross they hated, and were determined to nail him openly and publicly, in the natural, to a natural cross, because they hated the spiritual cross of sacrificing his life for others.

Becoming of no reputation, no priestly heritage, nothing outwardly that he could show them about himself, was too much to take, and in spite of the signs, wonders, and miracles, they hated the servant Christ and what that would mean to them if they embraced his invitation to be made new.

Paul is not referring to Calvary in Galatians 3:13, as Calvary was an act of unbelief, and you cannot clean the inside of the cup by acts of murder.

Killing someone else does not atone for your sins, only cleaning the inside of your cup will satisfy the heart of God.

Only someone dying to sin and offering you grace offers you the opportunity to be made clean.

The same Christ who offered healing and salvation and forgiveness, offered healing and salvation and forgiveness before and after Calvary.

Yes, Calvary was a turning point, because of their rejection the Holy Spirit would not be released upon the nation of Israel but instead would be released upon individuals, those who accepted Christ.

You don’t establish a New Covenant by repeating the Old Covenant!

“If someone guilty of a capital offense is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day, because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.” (NIV, Deuteronomy 21:22 – 23)

The Old Covenant Scripture Paul quotes in Galatians 3:13 is about putting to death someone for capital punishment, killing someone because of sin.

You don’t start a New Covenant, a better covenant, by doing the law, whether you do it for others or not, because it’s a work of the flesh – killing the person because there’s no remedy for sin.

Being hung on a cross, the cross of learning obedience by the things which we suffer, dying to sin to walk in newness of life, does not kill the person, but, puts sin to death, the heart of the New Testament.

This is what Paul is pointing to in Galatians 3:13; Christ was crucified by the same cross you and I carry, putting to death sin, to be made alive in spirit, to walk in newness of life – the whole subject of Romans and Hebrews and much of the New Testament.

Paul is saying, look,

“That only the cross of Christ, the one he carried in his own personal journey, will bring sin to death and new life in the Spirit; that works of righteousness under the Old Covenant will not produce the fruit of the Spirit or life in the Spirit.

Christ had to die to sin on his personal cross, and if he had to die to sin, our Savior, and he did it without sinning, how much more you Galatians!

He opened the door to salvation for you and me by putting sin to death.

If the cross was necessary for him for spiritual life, how much more for you who are stuck in the Law, continuing to try to save yourselves instead of letting Christ, who paved the way, teach and lead by his Spirit.

If you do not take the way of escape Christ made available to you through the personal cross, he bore, in putting sin to death for mankind – if you do not avail yourself of what he’s already done – then you will die under the curse of the Old Covenant, the one he put to death by grace through faith.”

Nobody is made new, new wine in new bottles, transformed, by physically being nailed to a cross, which should be obvious to everybody.

The cross of Christ in Galatians 3:13 is the symbolic representation of putting sin to death, the restraining power of the Holy Spirit transforming our “works righteousness” to grace and faith in obedience to God.

Remember, Galatians is in the New Testament, and the New Testament is about fulfilling the law, destroying the barrier between the flesh and the law.

Important

Christ is our sacrifice for sin because Christ put “sin” to death – the enmity in his flesh the Scripture describes – through the personal “cross of grace and faith” which restrained him from trying to save himself, and in that, being made perfect, the pioneer and finisher of the faith.

Christ is our sacrifice because sin was put to death “in” him, not because he died because he was rejected.

That extended the open door of forgiveness, but did not change the sacrifice Christ had already made in being made perfect before he took one step into ministry.

Remember, before he died, he said the New Testament was in his blood (in him, his life!).

Galatians 3:13 explains under the anointing and revelation of the Lord the work of the Spirit in the spiritual kingdom of God to make men and women new by the personal cross of Christ.

It’s a two – edged sword; if one does not take the personal cross of Christ, the way of escape, they’ll suffer the same fate, spiritually speaking, of those who commit capital offenses.

The cross of Christ keeps one in intimate care and love as God works on the inside of the cup of our cup.

Very Important

If the way of bringing sin to death, ushering in a new and better covenant, is by killing the Messiah, brutalizing his body for our sins, putting our capital offense on him, and literally nailing him to a tree, to let him hang, then the Old Covenant way of dealing with sin is being expressed again in the New Covenant!

And that’s not what the New Covenant is about.

The New Covenant is about the kingdom of God coming to you and me, Christ the firstborn, first fruit, pioneer of the promised grace to come, to cleanse and heal our brokenness, starting with Christ first, the last Adam.

The Old Covenant type Paul is referring to in Galatians 3:13 is fulfilled “spiritually” by putting to death the sin that causes the capital offense, so that you and me can be healed of sin and not put to death.

The works of the flesh, works righteousness, Paul argues against eventually results in the sinner being condemned for the capital offense of rejecting Christ.

Because Christ had already suffered in putting to death sin under the weight of his personal cross, fathered by God.

Paul is showing Christ has already paid the price for the curse, by being made new and whole, publicly demonstrated in power for over three years.

That Christ was perfected by the Spirit, and not the flesh.

Christ who never sinned, who knew no sin, and yet, inherited transgressions and iniquities (the enmity in his flesh), became a curse for you and me through the long journey of being made perfect through suffering in obedience to his Father, putting to death generational sin he never committed.

The cross of Christ, which he asks you and me to pick up, fathered by God, to be made whole and holy, is the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 21:22 – 23, putting sin to death, the curse, and not the person, in the New Covenant.

We’ve been taught the crucifixion of Christ at Calvary killed sin by killing Christ, he being punished by the wrath of God for our sins.

On the contrary, Calvary did not kill sin, but EXPOSED IT, so that Israel would see their sin on the holiness of his body and come to repentance and forgiveness.

Jesus said he was shedding his blood so they would find forgiveness; through repentance, as Peter expounded on Pentecost.

They refused Christ’s access to their heart for over three years.

So, Jesus allowed it to be EXPOSED in all its gruesome ugliness, they might see in the natural what he saw in the Spirit; the deep wounds and brokenness within them from transgressions and iniquities in dire need of cleansing and healing.

Again, Calvary was not the sacrifice for sin, but the exposing of it and their need, as Paul explains in Galatians, as Christ pioneered and patterned, to pick up their cross, as Christ, and allow sin to be put to death in their life by the grace and power of the living Christ.

In the Old Covenant those who committed capital offenses may be put to death, killing the sinner for the sin.

In the New Covenant sin is put to death, the wrath of God against sin.

Christ who knew no sin, yet, was made sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), i.e., being born of a woman, transgressions and iniquities passed to him from his human ancestry, became a curse for us; redeeming us from the curse of sin by putting sin to death through the sacrificial offering of himself to God, the cross, destroying the barrier of sin completely, without sin, fulfilling the law from the heart.

He fulfilled the Old Covenant practice of killing the sinner and sin with the New Covenant gift of grace, the promised grace to come in Christ, to kill the sin, and heal the sinner.

Christ, conceived in grace, yet born of a woman, was placed in the position of Adam before the fall, able to choose righteousness, and through repentance and forgiveness under the conviction of the Holy Spirit put generational sin to death by the cleansing and healing power of God.

Truly he is in all points from beginning to end our Savior.

Anyone who has had inner healing, deliverance, listening prayer, divine healing, physical healing, knows a little of what Christ experienced in putting generational sin to death, cleansed, healed and restored perfectly.

In closing (Galatians 3:13, continued)

In my next post, I’ll have more on this Scripture, what the “curse” means in relationship to Christ, more on why this verse is not about Calvary.

Calvary is consistently referred to as the killing of Christ, or crucifixion, where physical death is obvious, whereas, this is about putting sin to death by the power of the cross, the subject of the book of Galatians.

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (NIV, Galatians 5:24, italicized mine)

“For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you.” (NIV, 2 Corinthians 13:4, italicized are mine)

Christ lived the resurrection life, life by God’s power, he so freely shared in ministry, after putting sin to death.

Not sin he committed, but generational wounds and brokenness he redeemed, passed to him through his human ancestry.

Verse 13:4 is reminiscent of Romans 6, the baptism of Christ, putting sin to death, to walk in newness of life, Christ first, then we in Christ.

Christ walked in newness of life after his perfection, mortality taking on immortality, that’s why he said he was the resurrection!

He entered indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16), would have lived forever, eternal life restored, had it not been for purposeful harm done to him.

He was not just saying he was the resurrection because he had resurrection authority, but because he “was” the resurrection in flesh and blood. (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 5:7-10)

Jesus did not walk in newness of life after Calvary, his earthly ministry was over, except for a few transitioning interactions he needed to give to pass the baton to his disciples.

Note

In 1 Corinthians 15:4, in one of Paul’s few references to Calvary, about Christ being buried, he speaks with respect, honor, and, in a solemn way, about Christ dying for sins in the preceding verse, 3, without the “consistent” comments associated with Calvary.

It says in verse three, it is of first importance, which would be Christ’s perfection which made the New Covenant possible, the reason they rejected and killed him.

In my next post I will show Paul is most likely referring to Christ’s perfection in verse 3, because, where Calvary is mentioned in other Scriptures, the words “killed,” “kill,” or “crucify,” etc., are used because of the betrayal and violence involved in the killing of Christ, the Messiah.

Calvary is not taken lightly in the Scriptures in tone or words.

Paul, and other writers, do not lightly refer to Calvary as Paul does to the subject in verse 3, nor, is it of the first importance, the starting of the New Testament.

See – Acts 2:23, 2:36, 3:13, 3:15, 4:10, 7:52, 10:39, Paul speaking 13:28, 1 Corinthians 2:8, 1 Thessalonians 2:15, on how Calvary is described in the NT.

Further, Paul separates the two events by referring to the Scriptures, a broad stroke on the life of Christ, from the beginning of his perfection (verse 3), before ministry, to the end of his ministry (verse 4), the burial.

In the next post I plan to discuss the various terms used for the atoning work of Christ (die to sin, die for sins, sacrifice, atonement, redemption, crucified), and the different aspects they represent; Calvary being a public demonstration of the atonement previously perfected in him for Israel.

The use of the word crucifixion can either mean putting sin to death, or the killing of someone, dependent on context.

There are clearly Scriptures that speak of Christ putting sin to death, picking up his cross, crucifying the enmity in his flesh, and then obviously, the renderings about his physical death – the crucifixion of the “crucified,” Christ.

After Christ’s perfection, at any point in time in his life one could say Christ died to sins, walking in resurrection life, and, in that death, he died also for our sins, releasing grace so we can put sin to death in our lives, in him.

This is the “he” and “us” healed in the literal Hebrew of Isaiah 53:5!

Peter on the day of Pentecost says it was the “resurrected Christ,” the “raised Christ,” they crucified (Acts 2:22-36).

In verse 3 of 1 Cor. 15 Paul uses the Greek word huper from which we get the English word hyper, meaning over and above, exceedingly abundant, for the word “for.”

Paul uses this word in reference to what Christ did in being made perfect, becoming the atoning sacrifice for our sins, in other Scriptures, Galatians 3:13 being one of them.

Christ’s entire life from beginning to end, was “over and above, exceedingly abundant,” in putting sin to death – generational transgressions and iniquities he never participated in – and then, again, being willing to be killed to testify and confirm who he said he was.

His entire life was “over and above, exceedingly abundant,” in receiving and dispensing grace and life to those he was sent.

If, and it is unlikely, because of how Calvary is referred to in all other Scriptures, verse 3 is about Calvary, Paul is not saying Christ died at Calvary to fulfill a script, but Christ died at Calvary because he was the Messiah sent to save and heal, and not kill, having already atoned for their sins.

Christ did not read the prophecies of Israel’s rejection of him and think to himself, “I need to fulfill the Scriptures and be killed.”

No, he did everything possible to avoid being killed.

He worked with Israel to the end, hoping, praying, the tree would bear fruit, even raising Lazarus from the dead shortly before his own death.

Christ even gave two parables near the end showing the intention of the Father – the hope of the Father – Israel would respect and receive their Messiah.

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Closing this brief review of Galatians 3:13, it is important to be mindful of what readers may have thought regarding Paul’s use of quoting Deuteronomy 21:23 in reference to Christ.

Paul is not referring to Calvary by saying Christ became a curse at Calvary, and in becoming a curse, he redeemed our sins.

Paul’s readers knew the story of Christ and the story of his perfection.

Paul even refers to their attempt to become complete, perfect, like Christ, in Galatians 3:3.

Paul, in so many words, is saying to the Galatians:

“You cannot become perfect, complete, by the works of the law through the sinful nature of the flesh, because the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit wars against the flesh.”

He goes on to say in Galatians 3 it can only be done by the crucifixion of the flesh, which Christ pioneered through his personal cross.

Paul precedes Galatians 3 by saying he’s been crucified with Christ, that Christ in him, through Paul’s personal cross, is putting sin to death in Paul’s life, that he, Paul, may walk in newness of life by the Spirit of the living God.

The Galatians knew Paul was talking symbolically when he said he was crucified with Christ, using natural words to describe the experience of putting to death sin by the Spirit of God.

They knew crucifixion referred to putting the works of the flesh to death, and not the person.

Christ could not have become a curse at Calvary after already being perfected, walking in resurrection life, the source of eternal salvation he offered Israel for over three years.

For Christ to have become a curse, he would’ve needed to sin.

And we know Christ never sinned.

The sin of the world did not come upon Christ at Calvary.

The curse refers to generational transgressions and iniquities, as prophesied by Isaiah, the Messiah would bear in being made perfect.

It’s Christ being born of a woman, under the law, fully human, having enmity in his flesh, being tempted just like you and me from within and without, learning obedience by faith, needing healing and restoration, etc.

He was made perfect by suffering the wounding and piercing of generational sins the Father uprooted (Matthew 15) in cleansing and healing Christ from the wounds and brokenness passed to him from his human ancestry.

Isaiah 53 even refers in verse five in the literal Hebrew to both the Messiah and us being healed.

That’s why Christ is called the firstborn, the first fruit, pioneer, forerunner, etc., because the New Covenant started in him literally as the seed that would be planted in the ground of our hearts to produce “in – kind” Christ in you and me.

Christ and our salvation are not exempt from the law of sowing and reaping righteousness, thank God.

Important

God in Christ sowed righteousness in Christ, redeeming generational sins, and in doing so, birthed from Christ the seeds of righteousness planted in us from the tree of life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ bore the weight of sin in his being, which by grace through faith, fathered by God, he put to death in being made perfect.

He gave no opportunity for the sins of his ancestors to bear sinful fruit in his life, and in that, he became the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Christ was indeed a curse for you and me, which he overcame, and put to death, being made perfect – displaying the completed man Christ Jesus, the Messiah, to Israel over three years, and again, at Calvary.

When he walked into Israel to minister, he walked in as the Messiah, the New Testament in flesh and blood, King, Lord, Savior, High Priest, and Prophet.

He walked in having put the “curse of death” to death.

The Galatians knew Paul was not referring to Calvary in connection with Christ being a curse and putting sin to death.

They knew Calvary was the rejection of Christ, the exposure of sin, the exposure of Christ’s righteousness, and not a symbol of redemption, but a symbol of rejecting righteousness.

And Galatians 3:13 is about redeeming men and women from the power of sin by putting sin to death, in contrast to the Old Covenant that put people to death.

And he did it by the restraining power of the Holy Spirit to cleanse and heal him as our lamb sacrifice so God could present to Israel the New Covenant in flesh and blood.

They knew that redemption does not come about by killing someone, but by killing the sin, though they were going about it the wrong way.

Paul is using an example to show them sin can only be killed by crucifying the flesh – the cross of Christ – and not by killing the person through the works of the law, which destroys the passion for life.

The feast of Tabernacles, the deep work of grace in crucifying the sinful nature, is likened to hanging on a pole, spiritually speaking, dependent totally and completely on the grace of God to cleanse and heal our wounds and brokenness, started first with Christ.

Finally, Paul would not denigrate Christ by calling him a curse at Calvary, when Christ was walking in resurrection life, the New Testament in his blood, willing to lay down his life again that some might come to forgiveness (Matthew 26:28).

One can think of the curse Christ bore like this – Christ was placed – thrust – into the position of being conceived in grace by the Holy Spirit, having the knowledge of God at conception, yet, was born of a woman having generational sins passed to him, being led by God to put sin to death by crucifying the enmity in his flesh by grace through faith.

His journey lasted upwards two decades and was done as the Father led Christ into purifying his generations one wound and brokenness at a time and at the appropriate time of growth and maturity (Hebrews 5:7-10).

Important

To close it is important to note in Acts 2:23, in the Greek, it does not say God deliberately planned the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary.

No, the “deliberate plan and foreknowledge of God was Christ,” the New Covenant in him, the miracle working man and ministry (Acts 2:22).

It was lawless men who put Christ to death, who took God’s “deliberate plan and foreknowledge,” Christ, the Messiah, the one God brought after four millenniums of preparation to usher Israel into the Millennium.

It was that plan and foreknowledge they tried to shipwreck through their lawless actions.

God brought the goodness of God to man in Christ, a New Covenant, and man, through his lawlessness, tried to destroy it.

God is not complicit in lawlessness!

And in Romans 4 and 5 where we read Christ died for our sins and God presented him as a sacrifice, it is not referring to Calvary.

That is the “creeds” coming out of the dark ages.

Christ died for our sins in his perfection (Romans 6:10, Hebrews 5:7-10, etc.,) and was presented as our sacrifice in his perfection, in being made perfect.

Calvary was the rejection of the NT in Christ, not the perfection of Christ.

A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

Remember the parable of the Tenants, the Landowner expressing hope they would receive his Son.

Prophecy of Christ’s rejection was not etched in stone, it was future news today, that could be changed had there been people among them like David, Hezekiah, and even Ahab, who humbled themselves in God’s presence.

Prophecy of Christ’s rejection was not a sentence but a warning to those who would be wise to accept the Son.

A couple final thoughts.

It’s unusual in the least to conclude all the different descriptions in the NT of Christ’s sacrificial work would apply to Calvary, a place where the Messiah was killed.

There’s a world, or should say, heavenly, difference, between “killing” and “sacrifice” when it comes to humans.

The New Covenant is new, it’s not Old, and most certainly it’s not pagan.

Even in the natural it does not make sense; one reason so many struggle with Scripture because the natural reasoning process can’t make sense of what they know in Christ versus what the creeds proclaim; and the creeds certainly don’t make sense when one understands the symbolism and spiritual context of the terms and phrases related to Christ’s atoning work.

And finally, for now, does one think the Apostles would refer to their Savior being killed at Calvary, where Stephen said he was murdered (Acts 7:52), and Peter said he was killed – being disgusted with what was done to Christ, their close and intimate friend, companion (not implying in any measure thankfulness he died for their sins at Calvary), the Apostles would refer to his demise with phrases like hanging on a pole as an example of putting sin to death?

In other words, would the Apostles use Calvary as an example to encourage and instruct others on how to die to sin, fathered by God?

Is that what we think of God, he has to brutalize his Son to find a way to bring salvation to his creation?

That’s what the creeds teach, but not the Scripture, thank God!

Creeds and Traditions

Christianity has long lost the personal story of Jesus, pushing it under the rug through lack of revelation, elevating creeds and traditions to such heights (and depths!) they’ve become the pillars of Christendom.

You can journey through the feast of Passover and Pentecost (today) and not disrupt the pillars of creeds and traditions.

But once the Lord ushers you into the feast of Tabernacles, the age of Philadelphia, the pillars of creeds and traditions begin to wobble and eventually will tumble and fall when you come to understand the depth and journey of Christ, who he came to be.

Creeds and traditions require little of us and much of Christ.

The Scripture, required much of Christ, and requires much of us.

In Leviticus 23, the chapter describing the three main feasts, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Booths are Tabernacles) we are told in Tabernacles to do no work and to deny ourselves.

Those who do work and don’t deny themselves will be cut off.

There will be times in Tabernacles, the New Covenant, those chosen for the deep work of grace will be told to do no work and to deny themselves.

Jesus will guide you in this and let you know what must be surrendered.

The New Covenant fulfillment of Tabernacles is centered in the deep, intensive, cutting away of the sinful nature.

The putting to death of “works righteous,” and the denial of certain previously taken for granted pleasures of this life.

If you want to apprehend what Christ apprehended you for, then seek the Lord to be chosen for the adventure and journey of Christ in the feast of Tabernacles.

He is the only one who can usher you through the open door of grace into the deep things of God, in intimate care, as he reveals the mystery of Christ by grace deep in your inner man and woman. (1 Peter 1:13, Revelation 3:7 – 13)

The purpose of my writings is to elevate and clearly display Christ’s personal journey of being made whole, one with the Father, the heart and soul of the New Covenant, separate and distinct from his ministry and Calvary.

What I’m writing would not be necessary, had we not had 1700 years of creeds and traditions so permeating Christendom even Bible translations have added words and phrases to conform to centuries old beliefs.

Jesus said it would happen in the parables and church ages and it did.

Creeds and traditions have taken on a life of their own, overshadowing and overreaching the Bible itself.

This is not about finding fault with anyone group of people, Bible translations, commentaries, or other writings, but about revealing the truth of Scripture, letting it speak for itself.

We owe much to those who have gone before us in the faith no matter what they believed about this or that.

Our relationship with Christ is not based on theology but the person of Christ.

That being said, in the last days, with so much at stake, another fullness of time and transition to a new era in the balance for many, the Lord is revealing more in his Word so we’ll be better equipped to understand, respond, and persevere in the journey he has for you and me.  

We’re at a time in history where the Lord is bringing together the fullness of the Gospel, revealing what’s been hidden over an extremely long period of time, so his Church can come into its own in the closing season of the Gospel era.

The Lord prophesied in the seven parables of Matthew 13 there would be a time where the enemy would plant tares, a mustard seed would grow into a huge tree, and yeast would be kneaded into dough, symbolizing false teaching growing and spreading throughout Christianity for centuries.

The Reformation began the process of coming out of darkness which continues today in Tabernacles, the final season of the Church.

We have six millenniums of Bible history behind us.

Whereas Paul had four millenniums behind him, seeing the fulfillment of much of the Old in his lifetime, we, living in the 21^st century, have all of that, plus an additional two millenniums of Bible history.

And over the last two millenniums, much has been fulfilled, and some yet remains to be fulfilled in the closing season(s) of this age.

Much of God’s Word has a prophetic aspect to it, and today, if you wanted to see where we are in Scripture – our longitude and latitude – you don’t have to look very hard or very far.

We’re in the time of the “pearl of great price” and also the beginning stages of the “net being cast out” (the last two parables of Matthew 13), the Philadelphia and Laodicea church ages (the last two church ages), and their counterpart in Paul’s letters to the churches, Philippians and Colossians.

Paul’s final two letters to the churches, 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, prophetically speaking, represent the Church on the threshold of the Tribulation and in it.

From a different angle, we’re in the time of the wise virgins on their journey to be made into brides, some already being prepared as brides, the child in the “womb” of Revelation 12.

We’re in the beginning stages of the Church being prepared to minister in the end times, and for those who miss the bride, to weather the storm of the Tribulation.

And from another angle, we’re in the first few verses of Revelation 12, the bride being formed in the womb of the Church in the time of the Philadelphia church age, and the coming to fullness of the end – time Antichrist system.

Some of you may be shocked at this, but we have greater revelation of the Word and Spirit of God today, then the early apostles who established the Church.

The inner healing movement over the last number of decades has ushered the Church into areas reserved and set aside for the last days, because it will be desperately needed under the weight of the darkness to come.

Remember, Daniel saw a terrible beast in the last kingdom.

We see in Revelation 13 it’s a roll forward of the previous three (the cunning and prominence of the lion, the power of the bear, and the swiftness and craftiness of the leopard), plus the deceitfulness and fear the final kingdom will bring to almost every area of life.

Fruit of the Vine

Contrary to creeds and traditions, and the great weight of Christian writings, everything we know of Christ, from his ministry forward “flowed out of who he had become.”

Calvary was the result of “who he had become,” being rejected by Israel’s leaders.

It was because of “who he was,” the New Covenant in flesh and blood, and the cost to forsake the old and come into the new, that he was killed.

Christ, given a name above all names, seated in authority at the right hand of the Father, having died to sin, made perfect, walking in resurrection life, exposed Israel’s hardness of heart, leading to the call for his head.

It’s not “who he would become,” but “who he was” they detested and rejected.

They reasoned the cost to become like him, and leave the world they built and cherished, was too great.

Everything we have in Christ is because of the perfecting work of the Father in Christ, making him the source of salvation “before” his ministry.

Calvary was the last sign, the sign of Jonah, Jesus gave Israel, one the natural eyes could comprehend and understand even in the face of spiritual blindness.

Calvary revealed their unrighteous beliefs and practiced way of living in the light of Christ’s righteousness.

Calvary displayed in the natural, what they rejected in the spiritual – the goodness and kindness of God manifested in Christ toward unrepentant sinners.

Calvary was the last expression Christ was able to give in one last gallant effort to pierce the hardness of heart in the lives of Israel’s sons and daughters.

Some may disagree, but I believe the Scripture is clear – Christ’s perfection, what he sacrificed in being made perfect, not only putting to death sin he never committed, but emptying himself of all rights and privileges, was the ultimate expression of faith and love for mankind.

Note

Calvary would not have been possible without Christ’s completion before his ministry.

Fruit comes from a tree rooted and anchored to the soil.

The greater the fruit, the greater the storms, the greater the harvest, the greater and deeper the root system (spiritually speaking).

The fruit of Calvary that gave the people of Israel another opportunity to find forgiveness was anchored in “who Christ had become,” “not who he would become.”

The same healing and salvation offered after Calvary was offered before Calvary.

And had Israel accepted their Messiah, the Holy Spirit would’ve fallen on them just as it had after Calvary.

The Holy Spirit could not fall on the people of Israel before Calvary because of the lingering doubt in his disciples and the utter rejection of Christ by others.

The sign of Jonah, Christ’s resurrection, not only gave the people of Israel another opportunity to receive Christ, but dispelled the lingering doubt in the disciple’s hearts regarding Christ, paving the way for them to receive the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus talked about laying down his life for his friends, he had already done that in being made perfect – which was tested over forty days, and seen and witnessed over three plus years of ministry.

In order for them to fully receive and embrace Christ, he had to go the “extra mile” and let them see in the natural what he already apprehended for him and others in the Spirit.

That’s why Jesus said in John 6 his flesh and blood are Spirit and life.

Calvary did not define Jesus nor add to, or take away from who he was.

It confirmed and testified of everything he said about himself and those opposed to the grace and love of God.

The Heart of Christ Forged in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

In many ways it is astounding what many believe in Christendom about Christ that is contrary to Scripture.

Creeds and traditions have such hold (and why wouldn’t they, because they come with “agreements”) that someone can read a clear Scripture and yet default and argue a belief in the creeds. 

Christ’s wilderness journey of being made obedient; the sufferings of putting to sin to death – sacrificing his life fully and completely unblemished to God – was likened to a “blood” sacrifice, the most intimate and emotional expression of one who gives their all to another.

Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant sacrifice with his own blood, giving himself completely to God, being made perfect from sin he never committed but died to nonetheless, raised from mortality to immortality, to walk in new life, a life he freely shared over 3 years.

Enoch, Moses, and Elijah are “types” of a select group, (types of Christ), though sinners, who gave themselves fully to God, translated to heaven without seeing physical death.

Christ not only put generational sin to death, “redeeming” mankind, but also emptied himself of all his rights and privileges in preparation for what lied before him.

It is in this journey, a long journey spanning likely two decades, Christ’s inner man was forged in the furnace of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, made the temple of God, the Word made flesh, becoming the exact likeness of the Father.

It is in the refining fire of God’s love where Christ was perfected; passing through the heavens, the heavenly tabernacle; given a name above every name; seated in authority at the right hand of the Father.

And it is out of Christ’s perfection, resurrected to walk in newness of life, passing from mortality to immortality in flesh and blood, he was presented to John at the river Jordan in recognition of who he had become.

It was in Christ’s long wilderness journey where wholeness and holiness were forged, preparing him to pass the test of the King of this world, in preparation for ministering salvation and healing to Israel.

The grueling wilderness journey of Christ is something most cannot comprehend, and creeds and traditions have played a large part in keeping it a mystery to God’s sons and daughters.

You don’t build a 20 – story building on top of a pile of sand.

The foundation needs to be deep and strong enough, anchored in bedrock, to withstand the weight of its height and the storms of life.

Christ’s wilderness journey is something most of us do not understand because creeds and traditions bypass it, pointing the great weight and body of Scripture in the New Testament to Calvary, instead to the making of his foundation.

Jesus said a house built on sand will not withstand the floods and storms of life when they come, and that included him.

Forty days in the wilderness facing Satan was a “test,” not a time of transformation and sanctification, but a “test” of what God had already accomplished in Christ in the perfection of his Son.

The fullness of “who’ve we’ve come to know as the Messiah,” the Lord Christ, was “manifest” in overcoming the temptations of Satan, and, the display of signs, wonders, and miracles to Israel over three years.

It was John at the river Jordan who announced, “‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” (NIV, John 1:29)

Jesus, doing what God always wanted, by grace through faith, the will of God from the heart without sin, fulfilled the type of the Old Covenant blood sacrifice, the complete son God always wanted.

The perfect lamb sacrifice, the Messiah in flesh and blood, the New Covenant, walked the paths and byways of Israel for over three years.

Calvary was the rejection of God’s sacrificial Lamb, the perfected Son of God, the New Covenant in flesh and blood, not the ushering in, but the rejection.

But Christ rejected their rejection of him, and gave them one last opportunity, the sign of Jonah.

Trained for Love and War

The notion Jesus led a nice quiet life growing up into adulthood, and then, at the age of 30, he’s ushered by God headlong into the wilderness for 40 days to face Satan, is unreasonable, unrealistic, and most importantly, in open opposition to Scripture itself.

Nothing like this happens in the natural realm, and certainly not in the spiritual realm.

All of creation teaches us there’s a process, a time, seasons of planning, planting, preparing, cultivating and harvesting, no matter what it is, or who it is in this creation.

It would be like sending David to fight Goliath without having learned how to kill the bear or the lion.

It would be like Elijah going to Mount Caramel to face the prophets of Baal without years of preparation learning dependence on God, eating two meals a day, a seasoned veteran, trained for hardship and warfare.

You do not need hundreds of Scriptures outside the Gospels to explain Calvary.

But you do need hundreds of Scriptures in the Old and New Covenant to explain the making of the man Christ Jesus, the Messiah; the pioneering path he patterned for those who would follow him in the New Covenant.

You do need hundreds of Scriptures describing from different perspectives, seasons of times, and authors, the journey of putting to death the enmity in the flesh to walk in newness of life.

Christ could not have faced the devil except he’d been trained to overcome and get the victory over sin, to put sin to death, perfectly, sinless, raised from mortality to immortality, walking in resurrection life.

Only then could he face Satan face-to-face and succeed in the frailty of flesh and blood against the most powerful Angel God had created.

Only one who had been made intimate in union with the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in absolute dependence upon God, free from sin, could stand in the face and the power of the evil one.

It took upwards of two decades of God’s work of grace in Christ, perfecting the man Christ Jesus, to bring him to the place where he could be tested for 40 days, commissioned, and sent into Israel.

Only after having died to generational sin was Christ suitably prepared to face the God of this world, Satan himself, the King of sin, and the horde of demons he would face in his ministry.

He is the only one to conquer sin completely, perfectly, trained for love and warfare, that would know how to defend himself facing Satan.

To send Christ unhealed, unrestored, untrained, to face Satan would have been spiritual and natural suicide.

Christ faced the strongholds of generational sin in being made perfect.

He knew how to war in the Spirit against principalities and powers of darkness passed to him through his earthly ancestry.

And in learning how to defeat principalities and powers and spiritual darkness in high places in his own life, before they could bear fruit in him as they had in his generations, he knew what it would take to withstand the assault of the King of strongholds.

Christ had been trained for war to redeem what mankind had given to Satan, and, to demonstrate it was possible to defeat sin by grace through faith.

He knew firsthand (the firstborn, first fruit, etc.,) what war entailed, what it was like, and how to win in the strength of his Father’s Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Completing Perfectly the Journey of Those Who Prefigured Him

Moses was a seasoned “man” before he faced Pharaoh.

He knew the culture and workings of Egypt, having grown up in their midst.

He knew the layers of rulers, authorities, and darkness of their harshness.

He knew the structures of bondage, strongholds, and how they captured and enslaved their fellow man.

He knew their cruelty and the utter despair people lived under.

And then he spent 40 years in the wilderness being prepared; refreshed from the cruelty of Egypt in preparation for being set apart for a unique work by God.

He knew bondage and what it was like to be free of bondage.

The 40 years in the wilderness provided God an opportunity to cleanse his heart and mind, and cultivate clean passions and desires for the heart of God and God’s heart for Abraham’s seed.

Noah, Joseph, Joshua, Samuel, and others too many to mention, knew firsthand the pain and suffering from transgressions and iniquities in their lives and in the lives of others as God prepared them to represent him in extending the kingdom of God in the hearts of wounded and broken men and women.

Each foretold and prefigured a unique aspect of the promised grace to come in the Messiah.

It is written of Noah he was a preacher of righteousness – a warrior in the midst of darkness so great God repented of making men and women.

Joseph knew how Egypt worked as well, the kingdom of this world, and the pleasures of this life, at Potiphar’s first, and then in the pit of prison.

It prepared him to be cunning as a serpent but harmless as a dove in ruling as second in command of Egypt, and, in reconciling with his kindred, tricking them to see if their hearts were still full of evil toward Rachel’s sons.

Samuel saw firsthand the transgressions and iniquities of the priesthood; Israel’s wounds and brokenness pouring forth out of the priesthood; raised in an atmosphere of spiritual warfare, fathered by God as a young boy.

Samuel, raised in the fire of the Holy Spirit, gave no thought to fulfilling the command of God to cut to pieces King Agag of the Amalekites and tear the kingdom from Saul for his disobedience.

Joshua as well was trained as a seasoned warrior under Moses’ command, living in the midst of transgressions and iniquities; taking possession of the promised land as God led them in battle.

And King David, one of the greatest “types,” of Christ, fled for some 15 years from the face of Saul, a “type,” of the fallen nature, overcoming temptation time and again to possess the kingdom by force, unknowingly being cleansed and prepared by God to rule Israel and establish the lineage of Christ.

King David went deep in the Spirit of God, so deep, he possessed the Ark of the Covenant, and had his own Holy Ghost meetings, while the bulk of Israel still worshiped God “in law,” in Moses’ Tent of Meeting.

David was crushed and wounded by God in being made ready to serve the kingdom of God and set up a line for the promised grace to come.

David was humbled by God in being made perfect for what was possible under the Old Covenant dispensation.

The Psalms are filled with David’s sufferings and sorrow as God takes him apart and makes a new man of him – the greatest “type” of Christ’s journey we have the honor and privilege to see in the Old Covenant.

David, a man after God’s own heart, except for his actions with Bathsheba and her husband, pleased the heart of God so much he authored the resurrection Psalm (16), foretelling the time when the Messiah would come through his seed and put sin to death to walk in newness of life, mortality taking on immortality.

Psalm 16 is the foretelling of the journey of Christ, that he would not see death from sin, but be resurrected to walk in new life, the life he freely shared with Israel over 3 years.

Psalm 16 was about the coming Messiah, and his overcoming of sin, redeeming mankind, stopping short of his life beyond perfection.

Psalm 16 takes us into the heart of Christ, the coming Messiah, apprehending eternal life in his perfection.

And following David, there were a select group of kings and prophets that walked in righteousness, fighting spiritual wickedness in high places, and transgressions and iniquities in the heart of men and women.

Christ came from a long line of warriors, ancestral and otherwise, and needed the testimony of God in their lives, to put sin to death, made alive in spirit – resurrection life, fulfilling the promised grace to come.

An unprepared, ill-equipped, and unperfected Christ, would not have survived the fight for life he faced in the arena with Satan, over three years of ministry, and the rejection and demand for his life at Calvary.

You do not go up against the King of Sin, transgressions and iniquities in the heart of men and women for over three years, and maintain your relationship with God and those you love, when your life is on the line, if you have not learned how to defeat sin, personally, and corporately.

Solomon, a Picture of the Messiah

“Look! It is Solomon’s carriage, escorted by 60 warriors, the noblest of Israel, all of them wearing the sword, all experienced in battle, each with his sword at his side, prepared for the terrors of the night.

King Solomon made for himself the carriage; he made it of wood from Lebanon.

Its post he made of silver, its base of gold.

Its seat was upholstered with purple, its interior inlaid with love…” (NIV, Song of Songs 3:7 – 10)

Christ is made from the same stock of humanity we come from (symbolic of wood), he being the vine, the tree of life restored, we the branches, grafted into the new tree.

Formed gold and silver speak of the refining process; the purification Christ went through in being cleansed and healed, redeeming ancestral sins by the “heat” of God’s Holy Spirit; the baptism he pioneered and patterned for you and me.

Gold also speaks as God as his foundation, the bedrock of who he is in dependency on his Father; the carrying “grace” and strength of God in upholding him (base).

Gold also speaks of being released from the mantle, the headship of judgments and lies ruling the mind, subjecting the heart to a life of servitude in sin; humbled through the fires of suffering, remade by “grace” to stand in dependency on God.

(The statute of the world kingdoms in Daniel 2, representing mankind’s sin from head to toe, had a gold head, representing Babylon.)

Silver speaks of the purification of the upper outward body, humbled, frail, dependent on the grace of God to guide and hold upright our weakness in the strength of God by the “truth” of God’s Word.

It speaks of Solomon, his strength, is in the “truth” of God’s Word, not human wisdom and power (posts).

Truth is what we hold onto when the battle of warfare shakes our carriage.

Christ was full of grace and truth; God’s Word being written on the tables of his heart and mind (Hebrews).

Silver also speaks deeply of the refining process of the Spirit of God to root out arrogance, pride, and the strength of man to live life independent of God, self – righteousness, harbored in one’s heart, released from generational sins that keep men and women chained to the empty way of life handed down from the fathers.

(The statute of the world kingdoms in Daniel 2, had a silver chest, representing Medo-Persia; spiritually, the law of the Medes and the Persians, self-righteousness.)

Generally, in a broad stroke of the brush, gold is more associated with headship and authority, “image,” and silver is more associated with the heart, the “likeness” of Christ; grace and truth transforming the inner man into dependency on God for strength, purpose, expansion, and fulfillment – releasing man and woman’s identity and destiny into the fullness and fruitfulness of the Gospel of Christ.

That it is not in man’s strength, that of his arms, his shoulders, nor his back, that he will prevail in the furtherance of himself, but it is of a broken and a contrite spirit to receive the grace and truth of God to fulfill the purposes of God.

And if Solomon’s swords were bronze, it speaks of the refining process of establishing truth deep in the inner man; cleansing and healing of deeply rooted sins in the loins of men and women, made new in love.

Bronze speaks of the marriage of grace, mercy, and truth – creating deeply rooted godly desires and passions passed through the loins into the generations.

Bronze swords represent the passion of putting sin to death, sowing righteousness, to raise a new generation in wholeness and holiness.

(In contrast, the statute of the world kingdoms in Daniel 2, had a bronze belly and thighs, representing Greece; spiritually, reproducing sin throughout the Middle East and central Asia.)

And if Solomon had any iron it would speak of the refining process of bringing injustice to an end; justice would be walked out through the land cleansing and healing its inhabitants from the injustice of sin.

And bronze and iron also speak of the putting to death stubbornness, unmovable, unteachable, un-persuadable, to be so full of agreements opposed to Christ a breaking must occur to break through gates of bronze and bars of iron.

And of course, purple speaks of Christ’s royalty, Solomon descended from David, Christ descended from God and David, and the royalty bestowed upon Christ at his birth and at the end of his wilderness journey – born and “made” into royalty.

And of course, the love, grace and mercy of God binds everything together, whether it was for Solomon, a “type” of the one to come, or Christ, it is the love of God that heals and restores and not condemns and punishes.

Purple also speaks of God’s love to punish the outward acts of sin in the Old Covenant in demonstration of the punishment of sin to come in the New Covenant, putting sin to death, and not the sinner, for those found in Christ.

Solomon’s carriage, made of wood from Lebanon, shows Solomon’s victory over sin, a type of Christ, wood (humanity) prevailing over sin by grace through faith, redeeming men and women.

The wood was cut down and finely “made” into the favor and blessing of God showcasing his victory over sin in publicly displaying the redemption through the silver and gold, that which God created restored to its original purpose and beauty.

Note

It’s not a coincidence in Ephesians Paul says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (NIV, Ephesians 6:12, bold and italicized mine)

And it’s not a coincidence the great statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel Chapter 2, a picture of the present kingdom and the kingdoms to come set against the God of heaven was described as follows:

“The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.” (NIV, Daniel 2:32 – 33)

The use of four of this and four of that is common in Scripture to show the breath, depth, and scope of the context.

In some cases, four shows the complete fulfillment, like, Christ coming at the end of the fourth millennium from Adam, the four Gospels, the four seeds, the four living creatures of Ezekiel and Revelation showing fullness and completeness, etc.

And in other cases, four shows the complete fulfillment of sin, like the statue of Daniel Chapter 2, the four beasts of Daniel Chapter 7 (which are another picture of Chapter 2, but more intense, showing the character of the kingdoms), or, like the complete judgments against sin – the four judgments of Ezekiel 14, the four horsemen, the first four seals in Revelation, and sin to the fourth generation, etc.

God left no stone unturned in vividly providing different perspectives of our enemy through pictures, words, phrases, and patterns.

Daniel 2:32-35 and Ephesians 6:12

There is a likeness between the statue of Daniel 2 and the structure of evil Paul describes in Ephesians 6; four layers of sin working together to destroy mankind.

Wickedness in high places – evil in the heavenly realms is the “headship” of sin, the stratagems, planning, and purposes of darkness to give men and women the knowledge of sin, deeply and intimately.

The enemy has a strategic plan to bring mankind under his headship by deceiving men and women not with his true nature but with a false image of God, taking the beauty of God “the gold of God’s headship,” and transforming and coming to men and women as an angel of light masked by the luster of gold – the worship of human intellect – taking captive the thoughts of the mind.

The powers of the kingdom of darkness execute the stratagems and plans of the enemy across the wide spectrum of nations, people groups, and individual men and women to tempt, enslave, and keep men and women in bondage, hardening the heart to the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ.

The power of the statue to execute its plans resides primarily in its arms and chest in presenting a counterfeit to the refining process of God’s silver, which brings humility and weakness in dependence on God, offering instead, the strength of independence fueled by stubbornness and hardness of heart.

And the authority of sin, represented by bronze, the loin area, is the authority to propagate sin from generation to generation, “gating” generations under the law of sin, and the impossibility of escape.

And finally, the rulers of sin bring sin down into the depths of the inner man, imprisoning men and women walking sin out to its fullness; shackled to iron legs, prohibited from soaring in the kingdom of God and the things of the Spirit.

The statue represents sin coming to the fullness from head to toe, spiritually from the heavens into the heart of man, and naturally from the head of man into the soul of his feet.

And that statue is about to be released again upon mankind in the revealing of the Antichrist system up ahead; unleashed in such unprecedented ways God has to shorten the days lest all men be lost.

It is that system of sin Christ put to death in the fullness of time, redeeming men and women through his atoning sacrificial death to generation transgression and iniquities.

And it is that system of sin that resides in every human being, Christ being the only one to put it to death without sin, and the only one who can come to you and me and teach us how to war and love, so he can put sin to death in our lives.

Finally, in reference to the sinful nature, “gold,” represents the “identity” of sin – the arrogance, pride, and exaltation of men and women apart from God, enthroned as the rulers of their own identity.

The “headship” of sin.

It represents the final authority over one’s life.

It identifies the sinful nature stemming from the head – the position of authority of sinful thoughts conspiring to make us into the image of darkness.

“Silver” represents the “destiny” of sin, meditated and seated in the deep places of the heart.

It desires to orchestrate and plan the execution of sinful passions in our lives and in the lives of others.

The “heart” of sin.

It represents the deep embrace of sin and the desire to capture others in our sinful lifestyle as well.

“Bronze,” represents the “multiplication” of sin through the generations through the marriage of different metals.

And “iron,” represents the “carrying” out of sin in our practiced way of living out the sinful nature hardened and made bitter by earthly elements.

Righteously, and there are many symbolic representations, “gold,” represents the “Word” (the thoughts, heart, and mind of God), made flesh – the renewing of the mind founded in grace and truth.

“Silver,” represents partaking of the divine nature, resurrection life, cleansed, healed, and restored in the inner man, body, soul, and spirit, by the atoning work of Christ in putting sin to death, refined in the heat of the Holy Spirit.

“Bronze,” represents the long journey of warfare putting sin to death by the marriage of grace, faith, obedience, and suffering.

And “iron,” represents the transformation of injustice to justice, melting the hardened practiced way of living rooted in bitterness and lust into a living, grace filled, truth founded scepter to rule and reign in righteousness.

****

No King or leader, especially a righteous one, asks their subjects to fight a battle they’ve not fought.

Christ doesn’t ask you and me to do anything he hasn’t already accomplished.

He knows the workings of evil personally, hands on experience, facing its assaults from every angle imaginable.

Christ is the most experienced battle tested warrior to ever walk in this creation, from his youth forward.

He is ready and eager now to enlist sons and daughters into the deeper things of God, to advance his kingdom in them and in the lives of others.

And more and more Christians, the wise virgins, will lean into what Jesus is offering as the weight of transgressions and iniquities surface in the face of an increasingly hostile and growing Antichrist culture.

Unraveling and Exposing the Tangled Web of Creeds and Traditions with Scripture

It cannot be underestimated the impact fourth century creeds and traditions have had on the Church, some of them still as strong as ever.

People have become married, “joined,” to certain doctrines and beliefs in such depth and intensity, fear, restrictions, and ostracism, are the fruit of their beliefs.

Most have found it easier and more satisfying to embrace what’s been handed down through the generations than crying out to the Lord for inspiration, insight, and revelation from him.

Generational sin comes in all forms, and generational “agreements” with creeds and traditions are part of the package.

Every new move of God faces this barrier and today is no exception.

In this series I’m sharing the understanding the Lord has given me, and others, regarding his personal journey, who he became, and the prophecies surrounding the undertaking of the making of the man Christ Jesus.

The teachings I’m sharing with you reveal the main thread of division between Christ’s personal journey, i.e., his perfection, becoming the atoning sacrifice for our sins through the offering of his life (blood) to God (Romans 3 to 6, Hebrews 1 to 10, etc.), separate and distinct from the 40 days of testing, his ministry, and Calvary.

And to do that, we have to separate key Scriptures, and there are many of them, traditionally pointed to and ascribed to Calvary (under the weight and power of the creeds), to where they properly belong, Christ’s perfection, becoming our Savior, Lord, and King.

Anything between you and Christ, blocking intimacy and connection with him, becomes in one form or another an idol.

Including creeds and traditions keeping Christians “imprisoned” in systems of belief “above” Scripture, restricting and limiting access and intimacy with Christ.

I hope my writings inspire and initiate thoughtful searching and seeking on how the Lord can bring you and me into greater intimacy and connection with him.

There’s a fullness being offered today, the age of Philadelphia, Tabernacles, not offered in past generations.

And it is the last offering until the Millennium.

Actually, it’s a “type” of what the Millennium has in store for the true “millennials.”

Every critical transition in history has been preceded by people God raised up to display his goodness, to attract as many as possible, while the day was still light.

He did that with Noah, Abraham, Lot, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, some of the kings, and the greatest of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, who transitioned 4,000 years of history into the New Covenant, and the New Covenant, which Israel rejected, into the Gentiles.

For us, on the threshold of the Millennium, there’s no further opportunity for the deep things of Christ outside of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia and Laodicea, concurrent church ages, are the last two prominent ages before the end times are fully set in motion.

And both are taking shape today.

The fruit of Philadelphia will be the bride, those who come to maturity, and quite possible, also include many who come to Christ late in the season, having a heart for “all” of Christ, yet, not enough time to mature to fullness.

The fruit of Laodicea will be refined in the heat of the Tribulation, facing the fury of the Antichrist system.

Insight from Isaiah, the Spiritual Heart of Men and Women

The prophet Isaiah peered into the spiritual realm seeing the “insides” men and women through the eyes of the Spirit.

And what he saw was not pleasant as anyone would experience walking through a hospital seeing patients laden with sores, injuries, afflictions, wounds, bruises, and every injury imaginable, including burn patients.

Isaiah (Chapter 1) saw the impact of sin and its’ devastation.

We can think we’re just fine all the while there are things deep inside, festering, just waiting for an opportune time to manifest and “…steal, kill, and destroy.” (NIV, John 10:10)

If we were privileged to have Isaiah among us today, he would not notice much difference between Christian and non-Christian.

Being born again separates Christian from non-Christian, but all, saved and unsaved, need the deep cleansing and healing of the inner man Christ redeemed in his sacrificial atonement.

And unless the Christian be ushered into the feast of Tabernacles, they’ve only entered the Kingdom, but have not started the Kingdom’s journey.

Passover and Pentecost are the beginning, the introduction, step one, in being introduced to God, and the plan of God, to make men and women into his likeness.

For that to happen, there’s a long journey of healing and restoration, made whole and holy, deep in the inner man, through the wounding and piercing of generational sin.

What we see with conventional x-rays, CAT scans, and MRIs, Isaiah saw in the Spirit of the wounds and brokenness of the inner man.

He also saw the structures of “sin;” judgments, curses, vows, lies, and all the like, centered and deeply rooted in wounds and brokenness manifest in sores and afflictions.

The revelation of the effects of sin in men and women, the afflictions upon the soul and spirit, and body, opened his eyes to another realm very few have seen.

Most of us witness the effects of sin as it expresses itself in our lives, and in the lives of others, through the bad fruit it bears in broken relationships, sickness, disease, and the like.

But he saw the workings of sin from the inside and what keeps it in place generation after generation.

Isaiah, an Old Covenant prophet, got a glimpse of what’s going on inside men and women few have seen even in 21^st century.

The promise of a new heart in Christianity is not something just given.

Our spiritual heart, just like our natural heart requires inspiration, cultivation, time, interest, teaching, training, “seeds,” to become and breed righteousness.

The book of Hebrews says God will “write” his laws on our heart and mind.

And that takes a long journey in the wilderness with Christ revealing his nature by grace in the secret and hidden areas of our life.

The heart is the most precious gift we have from God, requiring time, effort, wooing, drawing, kindness, gentleness, etc., for transformation to happen in most areas of our life.

The transformation of hearts of stone to hearts of flesh require the long journey of exposure to the love of Christ through many paths in repeated responses time and time again.

When Isaiah spoke of wounding, etc., (Isaiah 53:5) he was revealing the Holy Spirit’s plan to redeem men and women from transgressions and inequities by bringing his wrath against sin and not man.

Isaiah received the revelation God would come in judgment, i.e., the promised grace to come, and by grace through faith, bring an end to the operation of sin through generational ancestral lines, starting with Christ first.

And to do that with Christ, he had to be conceived by the Holy Spirit to bypass the automatic passing of sinful “reactions” from parent to child.

God did not stop the passing from Mary of generational wounds and brokenness rooted in transgressions and iniquities, but, the passing of the automatic embrace of sin, ushering Christ by grace into the place of Adam before the fall.

Important

The literal Hebrew in Isaiah 53:5 is “both Christ and us” are healed by the wounding, crushing, and discipline of the inner man.

That’s why it says over and over again in the New Testament by different authors using different words Christ put sin to death, was raised from dead (mortality) to resurrection life; redeeming mankind.

It started with Christ first; the firstborn, first fruit, pioneer, forerunner of the New Covenant.

And having apprehended what God apprehended him for, being tested just like you and me in every way, he redeemed mankind, becoming the atoning “blood” sacrifice by giving his life totally and completely to God.

Christ, born with generational transgressions and iniquities, human just like us in every way, is why the Scripture can say he was “made” sin, or, was the “curse” for sin, because he carried the seeds of sin in him just like you and me at our birth.

But unlike us, he put sin to death before it could embrace him.

When Isaiah spoke of wounding, etc., in Isaiah 53 he was not talking about brutalizing the body of the Messiah, a pagan ritual.

That’s not how the New Covenant started, and it certainly does not make the New Covenant a better covenant.

Isaiah 53 verses 4 to 6 are the cure to what Isaiah saw in Chapter 1.

Isaiah 53:4-6 describes the journey, the process, from an Old Covenant perspective, like David’s journey prefigured, of the Messiah putting sin to death.

Matthew 8:17 quotes from Isaiah 53:4 revealing the fulfillment of what Isaiah saw in the Spirit with what Christ was doing in his ministry.

And it was the process of what Isaiah saw in the Spirit, the wounding and piercing of generational transgressions and inequities in the Messiah to come, that prepared the Messiah to minister salvation and healing to Israel.

The prophetic piece of Isaiah 53 concerning the events of Calvary begin in verse seven and it is not a coincidence in verse nine many contend the word “death” is properly plural (see commentaries).

Because, Christ died a death, spiritually speaking, in putting sin to death, including emptying himself of rights and privileges (Philippians 2), destroying the barrier of transgressions and iniquities, the enmity in his flesh (Ephesians 2:14-15, see and interlinear), fulfilling the law perfectly from the fleshly tables of his heart.

And he died a physical death to testify and confirm what he had already done and who he said he was in hope some would find forgiveness.

That’s why the Scripture says in John 12, the Father had glorified Christ, and he would be glorified again, and, in other passages, he was raised again.

And that’s why commentators and others struggle over so many Scriptures, trying to figure out what they mean, because creeds and traditions have anything and everything to do with Christ and death, suffering, sacrifice, blood, etc., to Calvary.

You do not cure wounds, afflictions, injuries, sores and all the like by beating the person to death, that is ridiculous, ungodly, ungod like, something God abhors and commands against.

No, you destroy sin and all its structures, uprooting its roots (Matthew 15) by grace through faith in learning obedience, repentance and forgiveness, to bring healing and restoration to the inner man and to the body.

And that brings a death to the works of the flesh.

The New Covenant is a better covenant because God’s wrath is against sin and its structures and not mankind, otherwise none of us would be saved!

The cure for sin is bringing cleansing and healing to the inner man by the power of the Holy Spirit through the promised grace to come in Christ.

The cure is to wound, crush the structures of sin through repentance, forgiveness, discipline – the cross of Christ by grace through faith; breaking union with sin by the leading and power of the Holy Spirit.

As the Scripture describes of the Christ, the Messiah, in many places:

• “…born of a woman…” (NIV, Galatians 4:4),
• having enmity in his flesh (Ephesians 2:14 – 15, see an interlinear),
• nailed to the cross (his personal cross of putting sin to death, being made perfect, redeeming generational transgressions and iniquities back to Adam), (Isaiah 53:5, Romans 5 and 6, I Corinthians 15, Colossians 2:13-15, etc.) – Christ made a public spectacle of sin in his ministry, disarming powers and authorities, bringing deliverance and healing to those captured by the enemy, the triumph in his life led to the triumph in the lives of others,
• redeeming his generations perfectly (Hebrews 5:7 – 10), without sin (Hebrews 4:15),
• by grace (John 1:14, 1 Peter 1:10 – 11) through faith (Galatians 2:16, 3:22; Romans 3:22, 3:26 see an interlinear, the Greek is the faith “of” Christ),
• and most importantly, fathered by God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Even though Christ never yielded to the enmity in his flesh – the barrier between the law and the flesh – he, by grace through faith, repented for his generations destroying the rulers of darkness he inherited.

This was spiritual war, a fight for his soul, the suffering of not yielding to sin and learning obedience by grace through faith, the same thing he asks of us today, as the pioneer of the faith.

In my next post, I’ll explain more what wounding, crushing, etc., looks like in the context of putting sin to death, and not the person.

Even some commentators, in the midst of layers upon layers of writings pointing everything to Calvary, say Isaiah 53:5 can apply to other things, but do not offer Christ’s cross to perfection, lacking the revelation of his journey.

Searching the Scriptures by the Revelation of God

When we approach Scripture, it must be from the standpoint of receiving revelation from the Lord, his Spirit, whether the message comes from a person, in a group setting, or strictly from the Lord through his Word.

Does it bear witness with the Word of God, regardless of the tens of thousands of writings about any particular belief?

And if fear is used to keep people from exploring the truths in God’s Word, an alarm should sound about why the most important person in creation is not to be understood, investigated, studied, and searched until no stone is left unturned.

Jesus is excited when people want to know more about him.

He’s not afraid of someone going off the deep end studying his Word.

Because with each new age and move of God, he shows more and more of himself and the kingdom of God, as he prepares his sons and daughters for the deeper things of the mystery of the kingdom, the deep truths of the faith.

One should not be afraid of going off the well-worn paths of the centuries!

Christ is doing a new work today, a deep work of grace in the revelation of himself, one not found in “moves of God” of past generations.

Jesus is giving the Church fresh manna so desperately needed to complete the wilderness journey in the closing seasons of the Gospel age.

Many are being prepared to go deep in the Lord, far deeper than previous generations, raising up men and women who will advance the kingdom of God.

He’s preparing sons and daughters to receive his love and care, in trust, being prepared for deep intimacy and union with their Savior.

Theology in and of itself does not bring us closer to Christ.

But the revelation of God’s Word – the revelation of Christ deep in the heart and spirit of men and women – promote and advance intimacy and connection with him, understanding who he is, what he desires, and his journey for you and me.

It is increasingly important for you and me to lean into Christ, allowing him to teach us how to follow his Spirit and hear his voice, as he builds trust and connection with him.

God does not make things so obscure in his Word, and the moving of his Spirit, we cannot understand them, nor so clear, we don’t need him for discernment.

No matter what you’re reading in the Bible, the revelation of the Lord is required to understand Scripture and have the revelation of Christ and his Word planted in our heart and spirit, to take root and bear fruit “in – kind,” in its season.

If there are tares planted where God wants to plant his Word, then the weeds will need to be uprooted, the soil tilled, fertilized, and the Word of God planted to take back the territory once held by darkness.

This is the process of dying to sin, putting it to death, wounding and piercing the structures of sin for cleansing and healing, crucifying the flesh, the cross of Christ, etc.

There are different levels and intensities in the revelation of the Word, the moving of God’s Spirit, the gifts and callings of God, and in other areas where God is bestowing and imparting his nature into you and me.

Briefly, when we’re born again, we receive a certain level of revelation commensurate with our stage of growth and maturity.

When we’re baptized in the Holy Spirit, the revelation of God’s Word and his Spirit expand because he’s made more of himself available in his Word, Spirit, and presence.

When one begins the long leg of the wilderness journey in Christ, Tabernacles – cleansing, healing, and restoration, the revelation of Christ by grace (1 Peter 1:13) – the moving of God’s Spirit greatly deepens, intensifies, and expands.

The more we journey with God, moving from one feast to another, eventually entering the feast of Tabernacles, the greater the revelation of himself, and his intimate plan and purpose for what he wants to accomplish in your life.

One cannot be healed and restored absent deep grace, intimacy, and connection with Christ.

The deeper you go in healing and restoration, the deeper the impartation and bestowing of grace, intimacy, and trust.

And this is not something we can just decide upon and thrust ourselves into, it is by invitation only, Christ choosing those who seek him for the deeper things of God.

He wants to choose every son and daughter, but he honors our heart and our decisions, and like the lover of our soul he is, he does not force himself on anyone who wants to limit their relationship with him.

He will try to convince us otherwise, through various means that do not violate the will, but at the end, he honors the will, and will not force himself on anyone.

To Be Mindful When Reading the New Covenant

To show how dramatic and beyond description the New Covenant is from the Old, one only needs to read the account of creation to see the un-describable difference between the New and the Old.

Briefly, on the fourth day of creation, the sun, moon, and stars are made to mark and separate days, years, seasons, and light from darkness.

It’s not a coincidence, according to Bible history, Christ came at the close of the fourth millennium, the beginning of the fifth – approximately four millenniums from Adam.

Christ is referred in the Old Covenant as the “…sun of righteousness…” (NIV, Malachi 4:2)

When you compare the difference between the sun and the moon, you’re comparing life and death, light and darkness, revelation and prison, grace and works.

The Son (sun) is the revelation of the New Covenant, and, the revelation of the Old Covenant in the “light” of the New.

The moon, symbolic of the Old Covenant, has no light of itself, only giving light as it reflects the light of the sun, a “type” of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Simply, we cannot understand the Old Covenant without the light of the New Covenant illuminating its’ surface.

We’re just scratching the surface, but there’s a lot more in Scripture about the typology and role the sun, moon, and stars play in symbolizing the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, the Gospel Age to the Millennium, and into the New Heaven and Earth.

It is in the feast of Tabernacles, the wilderness journey with Christ, where one begins to realize the dramatic shift that occurred in the passing of the Old, and in the ushering in of the New,  fulfilling the promised grace to come.

Here are some of the overarching truths of the New Covenant to be mindful when looking at the life of Christ, his personal life, his ministry, and public life, in light of New Covenant revelation and Old Covenant fulfillment.

The New Covenant is a Better Covenant

(Hebrews 7:19, 8:7 – 12, 9:11 – 28)

And it’s not just better for you and me, it was also better for Christ!

(It was not God’s intention Christ be put to death at Calvary, that was man’s doing, not God’s. See the literal Greek for Acts 2:23.

Christ knew God’s heart and was not going to kill those he came to save, and tarnish his testimony, even though he could have called angels and not sinned.)

The New Covenant did not put Christ to death, it was unrepentant sin in people’s lives nailing Christ to the cross.

It is not the killing of Christ that perfected him, but the sacrifice of his life, his “blood,” (Matthew 26:28, John 6:53-63), giving the entirety of his life to God, becoming our Savior – born a king, but made King (Hebrew 5:7-10).

Christ was the walking, breathing, fulfillment of the New Testament in flesh and blood, having sacrificed his life in being made perfect.

He was saying, “You no longer need to appease the law for your sins by shedding the blood of an animal.

I’ve sacrificed my blood – “my life” – completely and perfectly without sin, atoning for sin, fulfilling the law of God from the heart perfectly in obedience, and now you can have life in me.” (NIV, Romans 5:10 – “…saved through his life!” – not his death!)

I hope you can see the subtle difference, the shift, the Scriptures say we are saved through his life, his resurrection life; his death to sin opening the door to justification, so we can be cleaned and made whole and holy.

His “atonement,” “sacrifice,” “personal crucifixion,” destroying the barriers in his own life between the law and his flesh, dying to sin by grace through faith, opened the door to the born again experience for mankind.

But, it’s his life, his resurrection life, that brings salvation to you and me over our journey of being made into his likeness.

It was his resurrection life, the New Testament in flesh and blood, that brought healing and salvation to Israel for over 3 years.

The sacrifice of his blood, i.e., the life he was born into having ancestral sins passed to him, he put to death by grace through faith, crucifying the barriers between the law and his flesh – his blood sacrifice.

And in that, he was raised from mortality to immortality, resurrection life, which takes one beyond the new birth into the deep wells of salvation. (Romans 5:8-10)

The emphasis of the Scriptures is the life Christ made available to mankind by his death to sin, raised to walk in newness of life.

He shows us how to die to sin, because he died to sin; and he raises us to walk in new life just as he was raised to walk in new life – “in – kind” reproducing “in – kind,” the law of creation.

This is the heart and soul of the New Testament!

The New Covenant Put Sin to Death, Not Christ

(Romans 6, Christ died to sin, raised to walk in newness of life)

At Calvary, Christ was put to death; he did not have the opportunity to walk in newness of life after he was killed!

He was walking in newness of life when it was stolen from him because of the sin and spiritual blindness of unbelief.

Here’s a brief reference of comparable Scriptures describing in one form or another by different authors from different perspectives the journey of Christ being made perfect, dying to sin to walk in newness of life:

• Romans 5:18 – 19, Christ’s “one” active obedience in Romans and sacrifice “once” for men and women noted in Hebrews is understood as meaning not a literal one, but a long series of yes responses to God over years that resulted in his perfection, fathered by God.
• 1 Corinthians 15, Galatians 3, Ephesians 2, Philippians 2, Hebrews 2 through 10, and 1 Peter 2 and 3.

 

I’m going to go over specific Scriptures in these passages in upcoming posts and show how all these different passages brought together give a glorious picture of the journey of Christ before his ministry, that, without this journey, he would not have made it through the 40 days in the wilderness, and certainly, would not have made it through 3 plus years of ministry and Calvary.

The Heart and Soul of the New Testament Is the Story of Christ

The heart of what many Old Covenant lives pointed to, foretelling and prefiguring the coming of the Messiah, were “types” of the journey Christ would endure in being made perfect, the pioneer and finisher of the faith.

The story of the Lord Jesus Christ, the heart of the Bible, is not his testing in the wilderness for 40 days, nor his three plus years of ministry, nor Calvary.

That is not what Jesus wants to be remembered for, nor what the Bible emphasizes.

What Christ wants to be remembered for, sought after, has not changed from when he walked the earth.

It is not popular, among the saved or the unsaved.

In fact, blindly, creeds and traditions have been erected to keep us from the goodness of God in the deep truths of the faith.

Christ wants to be remembered for, and sought after, for his journey to being made complete, full sonship – the great body of Scripture in the New Testament pointing to his journey by grace through faith in putting sin to death.

That’s why he did everything he did, so God’s sons and daughters would follow in his footsteps, the forerunner of faith, to be made whole and holy by grace through faith in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Everything from Christ points to him – to eat and drink from the tree of life, new wine in new wineskins.

What pleases Christ are those who seek him at all cost, permitting him to access their deep wounds and brokenness to bring life where death reigns.

God did it in Christ, and he will do it in us if we will allow.

He’s knocking on the door of hearts, will we respond?

This is not something that can be done in the flesh!

That’s the story of Galatians, but the season we’re in is the story of Philadelphia, if, we allow him to usher us through the open door.

Pentecostals have tried to go through the open door of Philadelphia for over a century, to no avail.

Christ is the only one who can invite you and me into the deep grace of God, the deep work of the Holy Spirit, cleansing and healing from the inside out.

The New Covenant Is the Promised Grace to Come

(1 Peter 1:10 – 11)

The promised grace to come began in the life of Christ, the pioneer and pattern for the New Testament church.

Most have been taught how Jesus “modeled” Christianity, died for our sins, and little else of him other than the prophecies pointing to his coming.

Most were taught nothing about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, his story, because creeds and traditions pointed most everything to Calvary.

Some call it the 18 years of silence.

And yet, the great weight of Scriptures in the New Testament pointed to Calvary properly belong to that long period of time we thought was hidden from our eyes.

It’s been there all along, veiled by creeds and traditions, hiding Christ’s journey under the “cross of Calvary,” instead of the “cross of Christ;” his death to sin, made alive in spirit.

Christ spent three years sharing the “language” of the kingdom in parables and teachings, for others to see the kingdom of God from God’s perspective, and not through the lens of the fallen nature, Old Covenant, or traditions.

Christ walked in the grace of God by faith in obedience just like you and me.

He was conceived in grace by the Holy Spirit and it was the grace of God in him, fathered by God, to perfection.

When the Scripture says Christ was “full of grace and truth,” (NIV, John 1:14) it means grace and truth imparted unto him by the Father, came to fullness, and overflows; an eternal spring of life for all who partake of Christ.

The wounds and brokenness in the humanity he inherited, the underlying ancestral transgressions and iniquities, were put to death by the grace of God in him, conceived in grace, fathered by God.

He lived by faith, as the Scriptures clearly say, no different than you and me, except he never sinned – see an interlinear, the faith “of” Christ, Romans 3:22, 3:26, Galatians 2:16, 3:22.

Fear entered the Church in the early centuries, in an attempt to purposely bring everyone under one set of beliefs, making Christ someone he is not, requiring much of him, and little of us.

Because it was all about the end of his story, instead of the years of “making” his story.

Many are afraid to look into the Scriptures regarding the Lord Jesus Christ for reasons too numerous to mention.

As if Jesus will be offended because one diligently searches the Scriptures.

Just because there’s all kinds of weird beliefs out in Christendom, and outside Christendom, about Christ, doesn’t mean Jesus will not open and reveal his Word to those who diligently and heartfelt want the deep things of God.

The promised grace to come is founded in trust, that God, will be faithful to lead those who want him above all others, including their family, traditions, and everything else, not to despise their family or others, but simply want him.

God brought Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch, and he can bring someone to you as well.

Teaching Christ modeled Christianity robs him of his glory – the glory of actually, personally, in intimacy and connection with his Father, redeeming mankind from generational transgressions and iniquities.

That’s the glory the disciples witnessed on the mount, and Israel rejected.

He fought a battle unlike any of us will ever fight, and he fought it victoriously without sinning.

Someone from the race of mankind had to demonstrate the grace of God, by faith, was more than sufficient to destroy principalities and darkness handed down from generation to generation under the law of sin.

The evil one was found to be a liar in Christ’s perfection and testing.

In that place of intimacy and growing connection and union with his Father, he, by grace through faith in the power of the Holy Spirit pulled down the strongholds of sin passed to him from his generations, victorious in all points, redeeming his generations completely.

And in doing the will of God from the heart, sacrificing the entirety of his life for the will and purposes of God, he overcame sin, becoming the author of salvation, the Lamb of God for anyone that calls on his name.

Yes, the New Covenant is a better covenant because it’s not based on the killing of an animal or person, but on the putting to death sin, to walk in newness of life.

Christ just didn’t “happen” to appear to John for baptism without first going through the fiery furnace of the Holy Spirit in being made whole, holy, perfect.

It’s a glorious story of his victorious battle against the rulers and principalities of darkness, robbed of its glory, buried under the cross of Calvary.

But the Lord is not about to let his story be buried forever, for this is the season his story is more important than ever – because it’s the bride’s story in Philadelphia.

The New Testament Is Truly New!

It ushered in a new language of understanding spiritual truths and the operations and activities of the kingdom of God by the revelation of the Lord.

It’s not just the principles of hermeneutics and context that gives light on the meaning words express, but also the revelation of the Lord as he brings to light his greater plans and purposes through any particular passage of Scripture.

We must go to the author and inquire of him what he means and how it fits in the master’s plan he desires us to receive.

The New Testament creates a dependency upon God for intimacy and connection unlike the Old.

Simply, many common terms and phrases in the New Testament don’t mean the same thing as they did in the Old Covenant.

For example, in Old Covenant thinking, the term sacrifice would normally conjure up thoughts of offering an animal as a sacrifice.

In the New Covenant, a better covenant, thoughts of sacrifice should not conjure up something pagan, a human sacrifice, but the offering of one’s life “their being,” in relationship and intimacy with the Lord.

In the Old Covenant, when someone talked about yeast, they would think of actual yeast, absent in the making of certain breads for certain feasts.

In the New Covenant, when Jesus talked about yeast, he told his disciples to be wary of the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees.

That’s why Jesus used the words “flesh and blood” in John 6 to draw hearts from the literal renderings to spiritual truths, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Common words and phrases such as new wine in new bottles, the Lamb of God, lust begins in the heart, born again, born from above, baptized in the spirit, pick up your cross, pluck out your eye, tread on serpents and scorpions, casting out demons, healing, baptized in his baptism, etc., are either new or elevated into a spiritual truth.

The same with, drinking his cup, cup of suffering, sacrifice, mustard seed, tares, death, life, water, word, spirit, dead men’s bones, whited sepulchers, wounded, pearl of great price, treasure hidden in a field, let the dead bury the dead, raising the dead, resurrection, etc.

And what about all the other words and phrases Jesus used such as spiritual blindness, spiritual deafness, unless two walk in agreement, what is bound on earth will be bound in heaven, weeping and gnashing of teeth, I never knew you, birds of the air, in the days of Noah, those who fall asleep, one will be taken, made obedient, etc.

Having a brilliant mind and a thorough understanding of Hebrew and Greek, and the context in which the authors lived and spoke, being perfect in understanding the principles of Bible interpretation, will still fall short without the living Christ’s inspiration and revelation of Scripture.

This is God’s way of creating dependency upon him from the greatest to the least in the kingdom of men and women.

God is no respecter of persons and looks upon the heart, while men and women, in the natural, look upon the flesh.

The Old Covenant was fulfilled spiritually in Christ, in the kingdom of God, and to be fulfilled spiritually in us, in the kingdom of God.

Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant by putting sin to death, the barrier separating men and women from God.

Christ destroyed the barrier of sin, putting it to death by the blood of his own cross “his life,” fulfilling the law in his flesh, sacrificing his life to God, doing the will of God from the heart, establishing the New Testament dispensation.

As I’ve pointed out before there are a number of Scriptures where shed and shedding are not in the Greek in relationship to his blood, because in his perfection, he did not need to shed his actual blood, an Old Covenant requirement.

Christ pioneered, demonstrating the spiritual kingdom of God restores the natural kingdom of men and women in intimacy and union with him by cleansing and healing the body, soul, and spirit.

The natural does not open the door to the spiritual, but the spiritual restores the natural!

The brutalization and killing of Christ did not bring salvation “healing and restoration,” but the opportunity for forgiveness.

The Scripture is clear – it was God’s heart and desire all along for Israel to accept their Savior.

And his heart was for Christ not to take up arms and kill those he had spent over three years trying to save, though he would send angels if Christ chose otherwise.

The Old Covenant prophecies of Christ’s rejection spoke of unrepentant sin coming to fullness and manifesting in the murder of God’s holy Son.

The emphasis of the prophecies is their sin coming to the full, not the purported “sacrifice” for sins at Calvary.

Because Christ’s sacrifice for sins occurred in his perfection, not Calvary.

His atoning work for the sacrifice of mankind’s sin completed in his perfection was offered at Calvary as a demonstration of what he had already accomplished, testifying and confirming who they were, and who he was.

Again, Calvary was not the atoning event, but a demonstration of the atoning event already completed in his life, by being raised from the dead, having already entered eternal salvation, resurrection life, which he had so freely offered.

Those who rejected Christ and had the authority to end his life fulfilled the Old Covenant prophecies of their actions, naturally, in the kingdom of man, and spiritually, in the kingdom of darkness.

They rejected the spiritual kingdom of light, all the prophecies of the coming light of God.

The New Covenant places great responsibility on the readers of God’s Word and the followers of Christ because the promised grace to come has arrived.

It is now the expectation of the heavens, men and women will search out the things of God, come to him, seeking him for revelation and intimacy.

The New Covenant was ushered in to restore our wounds and brokenness, for lives to be made bountiful and fruitful in the blessings and presence of God.

Important

The New Covenant was not ushered in to point men and women to a time beyond where they are – that was the role of the Old Covenant – that’s Old Covenant thinking.

It was ushered in to bring men and women into the likeness of Christ in the present gospel age, as far and as much as we permit the Lord to make us into his image.

The New Covenant is for today, healing today, not for when we die.

The New Covenant was ushered in to work the work of God now, in this life, to restore men and women in this life, to advance the kingdom of God in them and others.

The New Covenant was not ushered so we would hope for the Rapture and avoid the Tribulation.

It was ushered in to make us whole and holy, to be made like Christ.

And out of that will flow the fruitfulness and rewards of everything else.

The New Covenant was not ushered in so we would hope to be raised from the dead when we die, but was ushered in to cleanse and heal our wounds and brokenness, that we might walk in newness of life this side of heaven.

The kingdom of God didn’t come in Christ to tell us about the kingdom of God when we die.

No, the kingdom of God came in Christ to reveal the kingdom of God in us now.

Jesus did not die and go through all the things he went through for us to die of natural causes, but that in Christ, there’s provision, though most find it hard to believe, to be made whole and holy walking in resurrection life.

The New Covenant was not ushered in just to give us grace and leave us in our wounds and brokenness.

It was ushered in by grace to heal our wounds and brokenness, bringing the kingdom of God deeply and intimately into your life and mine.

The New Covenant is not defined by the Old Covenant, and vice versa, it is truly and remarkably new.

The New Covenant is defined by the revelation of the Lord in revealing and unfolding the story of Christ in our lives by grace through faith, making his Word and Spirit our food and drink, life itself.

The Old Covenant pointed to something better – the healing and restoration of body, soul, and spirit.

AT ITS VERY CORE, THE NEW TESTAMENT IS ABOUT WHO WE BECOME AND ARE IN GOD, IN CHRIST; HIS NATURE “FORMED,” “FASHIONED,” “MADE,” IN YOU AND ME, AS IT WAS IN CHRIST, IN THE REMAINING TIME ALLOTTED TO US.

Out of who we become in Christ, by the power of the Lord, everything else flows.

The New Covenant Is the Foundation for All That Is to Come

The work of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life is the foundation, the fabric of your life, that will carry forward through all eternity.

It is the building block of what we will become and be in eternity.

What we allow God to do now, the revelation of his grace, and the impartation of his divine nature, are the critical pieces he’s putting in place for eternity.

I’m sure there are many surprises to come, but the threads of his nature he weaves and fashions in you and me now will be with us forever.

There are many Scriptures to bear this out.

From another angle, the formation of our inner man and woman – the deep wells within us making up our identity, who we are, what we believe, how we think, respond and act, do not magically change once we pass from this life to the next.

There’s a subtle belief in Christianity once we die everything about us is made new, which begs the question, then why does the Scripture command you and me to put sin to death, to walk in newness of life?

If it’s a simple confession of faith, then living our lives, and when we die, we suddenly become a brand-new creation in Christ, what does that say about the deep call of the Scripture and the Spirit to be made new, in the likeness of Christ, while the day is still light?

No wonder there’s an apostasy in the last days, an apostasy that does not come from those who are unsaved, but from those who name the name of Jesus.

And if everything changes when we get to heaven, why all the warnings to be made new, fight the fight of faith, and to be wary of the enemy who’s like a lion, subtle, crafty, seeking to devour the heart and soul of men and women in the cares and pleasures of this life?

That may be a scary thought for some but it is the truth.

God values our hearts, personalities, uniqueness, who we’ve become, the choices we’ve made, he will not tamper with the precious treasures we’ve become in him.

Now, all that being said, there are changes we undergo when we walk into heaven, but those changes do not change the character, personality, uniqueness, talents, and individuality of who we’ve become and the condition of our heart.

We will be forever individually significant and different in our relationship with Christ, and God our Father, based upon a lot of what happens here on earth, the formation of our inner man and woman, unfolded and revealed in eternity.

Otherwise, everybody who inherits eternity with Christ would be exact replicas of Christ, losing their unique and individual identities and all that makes up who we’ve become in Christ.

God will not tamper with our hearts and make us different than who we become in this life; a sober thought not much talked about today.

And certainly, one the enemy does not want us to know in his all – out effort to hurt God and us.

The treasure you become in this life is the treasure you will be in the next life along with some surprises God will have for all of us, but they will not include changing the unique and special person we’ve become.

The Scripture is pretty clear about this and yet not many preach it.

Creeds and traditions put all the emphasis on Calvary, what he did at Calvary, missing the heart of the Gospel, the story of Christ, “his making.”

And in doing so, cloud the story of the necessity for God’s sons and daughters to enter into the story of Christ, the deep things of the Spirit.

It’s a sober thought to think about, and something to consider when evaluating your walk with God, and the thousands of choices coming your way and mine every day to embrace the things of this life.

The New Covenant Redeems Authority Lost at the Fall

And importantly, it includes authority over the enemy of our soul, the one who deceived Eve in relinquishing her rights to the kingdom.

The authority of binding and loosing, breaking generational agreements with the enemy is one of the powerful tools the Lord has given his body, in him, through his sacrificial atonement, to move toward him and away from the enemy.

The redemption of authority began with Christ first, winning back the authority his generations lost all the way back to Adam, becoming the first fruit, firstborn, and pioneer of the journey by grace through faith.

His journey taught him everything he needed to know, plus more, of what it takes to help you and me redeem our generations, in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as led by the Lord, as Christ pioneered two millenniums ago.

You can only give out what you’ve been given; Christ receiving from the Father everything he needed, and more, to pave the way for you and me.

The notion Jesus just came here, faced Satan, having not experienced the redemption of authority in God’s Word and Spirit, ministering for over three years, could not be any farther from the truth.

It’s teaching like that, ignoring the journey of the redeeming work of God in Christ, “making” his Son into his exact likeness, that produces teachings such as:

• the Rapture could happen any time,
• all go in the Rapture,
• resurrection is for heaven (we don’t need it in heaven, but now),
• there’s no need to put sin to death because Jesus did it all on Calvary, etc., that will result in the loss of much in the last days.

The New Covenant is about bringing men and women into intimate connection and union with God, Adam and Eve lost quickly at the fall.

You cannot have intimate union and connection when one party has agreements contrary to the kingdom of God.

Jesus redeemed our authority in God to put sin to death opening the door to intimacy and union.

It’s not all of the journey, but it certainly plays a significant part of it.

To miss or refuse intimate union with God is to be left in Pentecost, the Holy Place, outside the Most Holy Place, not a safe place, especially as the days darken.

Those who reject or miss Tabernacles, the Philadelphia church age, and remain in Sardis – the age of the Reformation, will find their lamps insufficient in the coming darkness.

The New Covenant Did Away with Creeds and Traditions

The New Covenant was ordained and designed to usher men and women into the kingdom of God, growing and maturing into full sons and daughters, in intimate fellowship and union with Christ and our heavenly Father by the Spirit.

Absent that, or I should say, absent the journey of intimacy and connection with Christ, the deep work of the Spirit, one is still connected to the regulations of the Old, eating old manna, when Christ has made fresh manna available.

Simply, the New Covenant did away with creeds and traditions because each and every new citizen of the kingdom of God is to have a personal, intimate, and deepening relationship with the Lord.

Creeds and traditions are the product of the absence of relationship, an attempt to establish a relationship based upon formal beliefs and traditions, designed to create identity and destiny in the absence of personal intimacy and relationship.

It’s man’s easy solution to broken relationship, controversy, differences, and all the like, that requires much of man in moving toward Christ in relationship.

There’s a cost in knowing your Savior, and creeds and traditions buy time and reduce cost, in their attempt to institutionalize beliefs and practices.

The New Covenant is not only better with a new language, King, and kingdom, it also ushers in a new journey, fellowship, vision, hope, and future.

It also ushers in healing and restoration, and expanded and new responsibilities at the individual level.

Simply, the New Covenant brings identity, destiny, talents, gifting’s, and all the unique and personal things that make us an individual, to the forefront, to shine the light of God individually and uniquely as precious jewels in his treasury.

The Church is not to replace Christ, or stand in for Christ, but is to be a vehicle for the Holy Spirit to take each and every son and daughter into greater and greater intimacy with the Lord under the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The Church is to be the vehicle for teaching and training, pointing God’s sons and daughters toward the deeper things of Christ, to be fathered by God in the wilderness of his Spirit.

The New Covenant Ushered in Cleansing and Healing, Body, Soul and Spirit

(Romans 6, 8:10 – 11; 2 Corinthians 3:18, 7:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:23)

The New Covenant ushered in the opportunity for every Christian to fulfill not only the feasts of Passover (born again) and Pentecost (baptized in the Holy Spirit), but also the feast of Tabernacles, cleansing, healing, and restoration of the total man and woman.

Passover opens the door to the kingdom of God.

Pentecost provides the necessary preparations through nurturing, teaching, and the operations and gifts of the Spirit to help prepare one to seek and receive more of Christ, to want to be fathered into the deep truths of the faith.

Tabernacles is one’s personal journey – uniquely and specifically designed for each and every son and daughter – to receive the revelation of Christ by grace through faith, i.e., cleansing and healing of the body, soul, and spirit.

It is the journey to be made like Christ, being made a partaker of his nature, in intimate care and communion with Christ in preparation for union with our heavenly Father.

Passover opens the door to Christ, Pentecost opens the door further to the Holy Spirit, and Tabernacles is the leading and guiding by Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the equipping and maturing into full sonship with the Father.

You can look at it this way, the three feasts, Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, prefigure the Christian journey.

They, one by one, bring us face-to-face with Christ first, Passover; the Holy Spirit’s teaching about Christ and his presence, Pentecost; and then the deep things of Christ bring us into intimacy and connection with Father God, Tabernacles.

And this is accomplished through putting sin to death, made alive in spirit; the journey Christ pioneered through suffering – the removal of the enmity of the flesh, i.e., deeply rooted transgressions and inequities hidden in our inner man.

That by grace through faith we will be made ready to be joined in marriage with our Lord and Savior.

Blessings Drake

(NIV) Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblical, Inc.™