Isa 42:9 “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.” We must be aware when the former or old things have come to the end of their usefulness to accept the new things.
If we are going to rule and reign as sons of God, we need to know God as our Father. God’s kingdom is founded on righteousness and justice. We are made in God’s image but if that image is distorted, we will act in a distorted way. If God is angry and vengeful so will we be as sons of God.
Son the greatest scandal of the age is about to be exposed. Many will not believe it but the truth of who I am and therefore who you are as my sons will be revealed. The lies of religion will be exposed to the pure light of truth. The great I am is about to reveal Himself as the lover of your souls in what will amount to a whole new reality.
When we engage to God face to face this will challenge our old views about God. There are many doctrines that are religious sacred cows that distort how we see God and they need slaying. We must be careful that we do not government or legislate from anything other than love
Sin noun or verb, behavior or power. Cross penal substitution and appeasement or justice. Punishment, Wrath, Anger. Eternal Judgement and Hell! Everlasting or age enduring quality of life. Separation or Inclusion? Is death the end?
The cross and the resurrection this is where God though Jesus has included us in the end of the old and the beginning of the new. We are co-included with Jesus in the victory of the cross over the old life and in the power of resurrection to reveal a new life.
Eph 2:1 Picture where God found us. We were in a death trap of an inferior lifestyle, constantly living below the blueprint measure of our lives. Eph 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and (the) sins. Religion focuses on sin, and it links to behavior – doing things.
The most common word for “sin “used 174 times in the NT is the word “hamartia” a noun. In most cases the word “sin” is not a verb. It is not an action at all! Jesus didn’t come to deal with our individual actions, as much as He came to deal with sin, a power, a thing that is the root of our actions.
A noun is a person, place or thing. In many cases, the word sin is preceded by the definite article “the” to denote it is a particular “sin”. So, then what is THE sin? It is the SIN of Adam in following the DIY (do it yourself) path of good and evil.
The Enemy said “If you eat of this tree you will become like God” but Adam was already created in the likeness and image of God. The sin was to try to become like God by his own DIY efforts. He failed to grasp and hold onto his true identity and likeness from God’s perspective.
He failed to continue to share and participate in God’s image and likeness. He saw himself as less than he was, it created a spiritual blindness about himself and about God. That blindness has affected everyone else since.
Adam’s failure to continue to “share in, grasp, and hold on to” his identity and the knowledge of God, affected every person after him negatively. We all inherited spiritual death which is a loss of relationship with God and personal identity.
Rom 6:23 The reward of the law is death the gift of grace is life! The bottom line is this: sin employs you like a soldier for its cause and rewards you with death; God gifts you with the highest quality of life all wrapped up in Christ Jesus our Leader.
Rom 6:23 for the wages of the sin death, and the gift of God life age during in Christ Jesus our Lord. (YLT). The sin we inherited through Adam has produced spiritual death. The sin did not need to be punished but forgiven, corrected, dealt with and removed
1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. We all inherited that spiritual death and blindness from Adam. We all shared in the spiritual-soul death that it created. We all share in the victory of the cross and resurrection life
1 Cor 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. Jesus the last Adam’s ministry was to undo the results of the sin of Adam. To reconcile and restore everything back into relationship with God.
Jesus came to share the truth of who He was and who His Father was. In relationship with God we all have a restored identity knowing we are accepted, forgiven, blessed, and made righteous. As restored sons we then have the same authority and the same ministry of restoration that Jesus had.
John 1:29 he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (cosmos). THE SIN (singular and with the definite article) of the world.” Not sins, plural, but sin, singular. The SIN of Adam was taken away from everyone by the willing sacrifice of Jesus.
John 1:29The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away( continuous action- remove) the ( definite article) sin (hamartía)of the world (kósmos).
The most common word for sin is hamartia, from ha, negative or without and meros – portion or form. Sin is to be without your allotted portion or without form, pointing to a disorientated, distorted, bankrupt identity.
The word meros, is the stem of morphe, as in metamorphe transformed 2 Cor 3:18 & Rom 12:2 with form, a new image. Transformation, transfiguration, metamorphosis is to have form, to be conformed to the image of sonship.
Bad behavior, murder, stealing, adultery, abuse, hatred etc. still exists. We think “sin” is disobedience to God, breaking the law of God, sinful behavior, that which offends God. With religion the focus is always on behavior that brings religious guilt, shame and condemnation.
The sin is the power of the DIY path and that has already been dealt with by Jesus on the cross. Sin is to live out of context with the blueprint of one’s design; to behave out of tune with God’s original harmony.
Deuteronomy 32:18, “You have forgotten the Rock that begot you and have gotten out of step with the God who danced with you!” We have forgotten our origin, our design and relationship and are now out of step with God from our perspective but not His.
18 Of the Rock that begat (A verb meaning to give birth, to beget, to deliver)thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed( A verb meaning to whirl, to shake, to fear, to dance, to writhe, to grieve. This word has many different meanings, most of which derive from two basic ideas: to whirl in motion and to writhe in pain) thee.
Hebrews 9:26, “Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away (THE) sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Jesus dealt with the sin on the cross.
Jesus came to put away THE sin by His sacrifice once for all and for all time. That means it need never be repeated again because it has totally accomplished its purpose. It can’t be UNDONE by any individual action on our part.
2 Cor 5:19 “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting men’s sins against them”. This word sins is paraptoma, also a noun that means fallen away from or deviation from, trespassing on the DIY path. This was global for everyone whether they know it, experience it or benefit from it or not it is still true for all.
19To wit “to know,” as, like, even as,, that God was in Christ, reconciling (continuous action, to receive one into favour) the world (“a harmonious arrangement or order, the inhabitants of the earth, men, the human family) unto himself, not imputing ( continuous or repeated action, passive-middle, to put on the account, to occupy the mind with, to reckon, to take into account, count up or weigh the reasons) their trespasses(para, “aside,” pipto, “to fall”), then “a lapse from uprightness, a sin, a moral trespass, misdeed,” is translated “fall” unto them; and hath committed (set in place, and assigned ministry) unto us the worda word, uttered by a living voice, of reconciliation.
Our negative behaviors have their own consequences they damage us and our relationships with others. God does not want to punish our behavior but forgive it and cure it. Fear of punishment will never be enough motivation for us to change. Change comes through knowing our identity as being righteous sons.
Colossians 2:11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of THE SINS (plural noun) of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Colossians 2:11 You were in Christ when he died which means that his death represents your true circumcision. Sin’s authority in the human body was stripped off you in him dying your death. In the same parallel (your co-circumcision in his death) your co-burial and joint resurrection is now demonstrated in baptism; your co-inclusion in Christ is what God’s faith knew when he powerfully raised him from the dead.
Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection enables the taking away of the old sin focused DIY mind-set … From everyone. Everyone was buried and raised with him. In Christ everyone had the old sin mindset removed, cut off from the Adamic race, replacing it with the presence of Christ but they don’t know.
Bad behaviors are not good. Not because they break some Law, but because they are contradictions to love and the image of Christ. 1 Cor 6:12 “All things are lawful for me”–but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”–but I will not be controlled by anything”.
All bad behavior comes from being blind to the truth of God’s love, care, provision, value and our true identity. It comes from us failing to understand that we are already accepted, forgiven, right with God, blessed, redeemed and included in Christ from His perspective. It comes from the DIY method of trying to meet our own needs
Eph 1:4 He associated us in Christ before the fall of the world! Jesus is God’s mind made up about us! He always knew in his love that he would present us again face-to face before him in blameless innocence.
2 Tim 1:9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, our acceptance does not make it so it just reveals it to us.
2 Tim 1:9 He rescued the integrity of our original design and revealed that we have always been his own from the beginning, even before time was. This has nothing to do with anything we did to qualify or disqualify ourselves. We are not talking religious good works or karma here. Jesus unveils grace to be the eternal intent of God! Grace celebrates our pre-creation innocence and now declares our redeemed union with God in Christ Jesus.
We do what we do because we don’t see who we are or who God is. We live in fear with a wrong and distorted view of God. That wrong view leads to a wrong relationship which then affects everything else we do. We live in fear instead of living in the love which heals everything in us.
Trying to DIY change ourselves with a behavior modification program, a self-help guru, or a sin management process of reading the bible, praying, fasting, or going to church misses the point totally. The point is that there is nothing spiritually wrong with you except that you think that something is wrong with you. We don’t know and believe truth.
God is doing everything in His power to get us to see the truth. You are in Christ, therefore whatever is true of Jesus is true of you! Technically, then, there is no such thing as “the sin” by the biblical definition anymore. Let’s stop focusing on the sin problem.
Let’s start focusing instead on the finished work of Christ! The cross is the power of God for our salvation and transformation. Gal 6:14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Col 2:13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Col 2:13 You were once spiritually dead, as confirmed in your constant failure; being bound to a lifestyle ruled by the distorted desires of the flesh, but now God has made you alive together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses.
Col 2:14 His body nailed to the cross hung there as the document of mankind’s guilt; in dying our death he deleted the detailed hand-written record of Adam’s fall. Every stain that sin left on our conscience was fully blotted out.
Eph 2:1 Picture where God found us. We were in a death trap of an inferior lifestyle, constantly living below the blueprint measure of our lives.
Eph 2:2 We were all part of a common pattern, swept along under a powerful invisible influence, a spirit-energy that adopted us as sons to its dictates through unbelief. The sin- the DIY Tree path of self-effort and independence.
Eph 2:3 Throughout that time every one of us were warped and corrupted in our conduct; snared in a jumble of forbidden lusts, driven by the desires of the senses, completely engaged in an expression of a life ruled by mind games; it was as if a twisted passion parented a universal breed of people.
Eph 2:4 None of this could distract from the extravagant love of God; he continued to love us with the exact same intensity. 5 This is how grace rescued us: sin left us dead towards God, like spiritual corpses; yet in that state of deadness and indifference, God co-quickened us together with Christ.
Eph 2:5 Sin proved how dead we were (the law confirmed it!) Grace reveals how alive we now are (the gospel announces it!) Before anyone but God believed it, he made us alive together with him and raised us up together with him.
Eph 2:5 We had no contribution to our salvation! God’s masterplan unfolded in the mystery of the gospel declaring our joint inclusion in Christ’s death and resurrection.
God found us in Christ before he lost us in Adam! [Eph 1:4] In the economy of God, when Jesus died we died. God saw us in Christ, in his death and resurrection before we saw ourselves there! He declared our co-resurrection with Christ in 800 BC in Hos 6:2
Eph 2:6 (As much as we were concluded in his death,) we are concluded in his resurrection. We are also elevated in his ascension to be equally present in the throne room of the heavenly realm where we are co-seated with him in his executive authority. We are fully represented in Christ Jesus.
Our joint position in Christ defines us; this can never again be a distant goal to reach through religious devotion or striving, but our immediate reference. In a single triumphant act of righteousness God saved us from the “guttermost” to the uttermost.
Here we are now, revealed in Christ in the highest possible position of bliss! If mankind’s sad history could not distract from the extravagant love of God. Eph 2:7 imagine how God is now able for timeless perpetuity (the eternal future) to exhibit.
Eph 2:7 the trophy of the wealth of his grace demonstrated in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Grace exhibits excessive evidence of the success of the cross. 8 Your salvation is not a reward for good behavior! It was a grace thing from start to finish; you had no hand in it.
Eph 2:8 Even the gift to believe simply reflects his faith! (By grace you are! Saved by the gift of faith; grace reveals who we are and the faith of God persuades us of it! You did not invent faith; it was God’s faith to begin with! It is from faith to faith, [Rom 1:17] He is both the source and conclusion of faith. [Heb 12:2])
Eph 2:10 We are engineered by his design; he molded and manufactured us in Christ. We are his workmanship, his poetry. God finds inspired expression of Christ in us. The Greek word for workmanship is “poemia”.
Eph 2:10 We are fully fit to do good, equipped to give attractive evidence of his likeness in us in everything we do. God has done everything possible to find spontaneous and effortless expression of his character in us in our everyday lifestyle.
We are all co-included in what Jesus did through the cross, resurrection and ascension even if we don’t all know it. We may not fully know or understand the fullness and reality of the fact that we have access beyond the veil to the heavenly realms
Living beyond the veil is a major characteristic of the Joshua Generation so we can experience firsthand the very precepts, character and nature of God Himself. To experience the reality of the very essence of who God truly is – LOVE. To live loved by God
1 Cor 13 – love is the point. The Greek word for the love of God is agape from the word, agoo, meaning to lead like a shepherd guides his sheep, and pao, meaning to rest, “he leads me beside still waters.” By the waters of reflection my soul remembers who I am. [Ps 23].
God’s rest is established upon his image and likeness redeemed in us. To encounter agape is to remember who I am. Jesus the Saviour of humankind rescued God’s image and likeness in human form.
To Live Loved is to rediscover my true identity as a son in relationship with a loving heavenly Father. To Love Living is to express the joy of life from the place of rest, to love creation as sons. To Live loving is to express the peace found in relationship as a son to bring restoration to everyone and everything.
If we are willing to engage God face to face, we are in for a wild ride of discovery. The very core beliefs that we might have held on to our whole lives are going to be challenged by the extravagantly revealed love of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As God reveals Himself to us in face to face personal intimate relationship it will be like discovering who He truly is and who we are for the first time. We will find that the God we thought new knew was but a figment of religious imagination.
1 Cor 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 2 Cor 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; Rom 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
2 Cor 5:14 The love of Christ resonates within us and leaves us with only one conclusion: Jesus died humanity’s death; therefore, in God’s logic every individual simultaneously died.
2 Cor 5:5 Now if all were included in his death, they were all equally included in his resurrection. This unveiling of his love redefines human life! Whatever (DIY) reference we could have of ourselves outside of our association with Christ is no longer relevant.
2 Cor 15:17 Now, in the light of your co-inclusion in his death and resurrection, whoever you thought you were before, in Christ you are a brand new person! The old ways of seeing yourself and everyone else are over. Acquaint yourself with the new!
2 Cor 15:17 In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God did not redeem a compromised replica of you; he rescued the original, blueprint you, created in his radiant mirror likeness!
Any other ‘self’ you’re trying to find or esteem will disappoint! Reckon your ‘DIY law of works self’ dead, and your redeemed self co-raised and co-seated together with Christ! This is freedom indeed! Let’s meet with God as Father so we can be His sons.
Luke 15:20 So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. Story of the loving father.
May be you don’t know God personally other than your higher power or as a swear word. Today you can come to Him as He is here now in the spirit. Maybe you know God but still feel wounded, rejected and have unmet emotional needs or have unhealed emotional hurts.
Engaging God the Father. Come to the Father now. Close your eyes, picture the Father waiting for you to come to Him. Think of all the worst things you have ever done, some no one knows about. Package up all the negative things, sin, guilt, shame into a bag and come to Him. He is waiting come and cast all those things at His feet.
Let Him embrace you with arms of love. Let Him put new clean clothes on you. Let Him put a ring of sonship on your finger. Feel the joy and pleasure of His heart for you. Let Him release forgiveness to you
Hear God the Father speak healing words over you. I love you and I accept you. I affirm you as My child as My son. I approve of you my child as My son and heir. You are My sons in whom I am pleased. It is My good pleasure to bless you and empower you.
Allow God to reveal your parental wounds. Hear God the Father speak healing words over you. Let Him remove the scar tissue in your heart. I love you I love you I love you …….