Part 16 of 16 -

 

   We Now Possess the All-Inclusive Life of the Only Begotten Son of God

The cross, as revealed first by the Apostle Paul, has a duality within it. The cross is the place of both death and life; the place of termination of the old and germination of the new. God works His plan and purpose by the cross of Christ as the fulcrum of His plan – the fulcrum point is at the center. The cross changes everything between man and God, and between man and the world he lives in. Consider that whereas God was heretofore “unapproachable” (1Tim 6:16), now God in Christ, as “the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” indwells every believer’s human spirit – available and as close as the believer’s breath.

The cross was not to rectify an error in God’s judgment or plan in previous dispensational times or arrangements with mankind. God is not “now to getting it right.” No, the cross of Christ was in God’s heart from eternity past, as seen by the phrase “the lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). By the seven principle dispensation we note in the Bible, man was to learn that noting but the indwelling Christ will do to rectify that relationship that was broken in the Garden of Eden.

The ultimate purpose of the cross is that it is the basis for God to gain his “many sons,” birthed of His own loins, according to God’s loving heart’s desire…to be Father. This is in accord with “the eternal purpose that was purposed in Christ Jesus” (Eph 3:11). Hebrews 2:10 For it became him (God), for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory (expression), to make the captain of their salvation (Jesus) perfect (completed) through sufferings.

You see, with the addition of each of these “many sons” there is an added capacity for God the Father to have His glorious life’s expression multiplied on the earth via Israel in the eternal Kingdom on earth, and then ultimately in the heavens, where we have our ultimate citizenship (Philippians 3:20) as “the church which is His body.”

It is the sufferings that Christ endured for us that led to the enlargement of God’s family. Each believer is reborn out of the cross to become a child of God. It is Christ’s death as us, as our old fallen self, that frees us from the power of the Sin nature that indwells our temporal human body of flesh. It is Christ’s resurrection, and our resurrection with Him in newness of life, that empowers us to become living expressions (the glory), of our new found Father’s life. God’s Fatherhood comes to us out of Christ’s work at the cross and in the person of the resurrected Christ, now is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit (1Cor 6:17).

Christ’s Life is the Key

The two most commonly spoken of aspects of the cross of Christ are His blood and His death. Yet, these two are preparatory for accomplishing God’s ultimate intent – of producing His “many sons.” The many sons are to be born of God’s life-seed (sperma), which is Christ. The blood and death of Christ exhibit the termination side of the precious cross of Christ, but we come know the resurrection side of the cross by His life in us.

Jesus foretold these dual aspects of the cross here. John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except (unless) a corn of wheat (a seed) fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Jesus is that corn of wheat (one seed) that was sown into death as us, and we are the “much fruit” – we have His life that comes out of His death. We are the many grains that come out of God’s One Christ-Seed. The cross has the central purpose of yielding the many grains – born of the One Seed, Jesus Christ (Gal 3:16, 1Peter 1:23).

A New Nature

We, who have been born of God’s One Seed (Greek, sperma), are the “many grains” – the “many sons” of God, growing to express His life by His indwelling nature (2Pet 1:4). By that nature we are, the “glory” or “expression” of the One life of God the Father. It may not yet appear so to us, but we each now possess the spiritual genetics, the spiritual DNA, of God our Father in our spirit right now, if we’ve been born of His Seed – Jesus Christ. That birth that occurred by receiving Christ, God’s One Seed, made each of us one of the “many sons” of God. John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

While most Christians think of the cross primarily as the place of Jesus’ blood shed for their sins, wonderful as this is, it alone would fall woefully short of the depth of the riches of the cross of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Seeing the elements of the cross with greater understanding has the power to produce life-changing faith within us - the power to deeply change our lives.

 

A Change In Jesus

Do you realize that Jesus has become changed?

Once God the Son became flesh (John 1:1), then He beamed the life giving Spirit (1Cor 15:45), but here we see He has changed the Godhead forever.

Romans 1:3-4 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

The fleshly or human Jesus “according to the flesh,” who was in the lineage of David, was resurrected to be declared as “the Son of God.” The humanity of Jesus of Nazareth has infiltrated thee Godhead. It was in resurrection that He became the life-giving Spirit to become available to indwell us as our new life, as the life of God the Father in us.

This means all that Jesus, by all that He endured via His incarnation, suffering, death, and resurrection, now is what we now are…by His indwelling life. The resurrected Christ, in who the fullness of the Godhead dwells ( Col 2:9), is in us as our new life and nature. We are made new in Christ by Christ as He now is. In other words Jesus’ overcoming humanity, by which He obeyed the Father, is now in us as the new us. We are well equipped for human living and “complete in Him” ( Col 2:10).

My prayer is that we each come to see the riches of the glory of the work of Christ’s cross, which resulted in the glorious life of Christ that now abides within the spirit of every regenerated Christian who has been born of God the Father’s spiritual loins.

That life is a forgiving life, since we have been forgiven by God of all our sins. Thus, we are equipped to forgive ourselves and others… freely.                                          


NOTE: An "addendum" will follow as the next installment.