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Reverse of the Curse
by Richard Allan
The Old
Testament Logos/Word of God became flesh as the second and last
Adam in order to atone for the sin and sins all
mankind (Phil. 2:6,7). The
word “Atonement” means to make amends. The words reparation
and compensation are closely
associated with the word atonement. In mankind’s fallen
condition in a fallen world, when a nation goes to war against
another
nation, there are always collateral damages done to the defeated
nation, and often compensation is put forth by the victorious
nation to make up for the secondary harm it has inflicted. Often this is called
reparation, a kind of repairing what has been broken
down by force.
With the
first Adam, there was a very powerful force given to him, by
God, called free will. This
force was put into play negatively by
father Adam when he used his power of choice in a self serving
way. By this free
will choice Adam acutely harmed all those who would
spring forth from his loins, a kind of collateral damage, if you
will, inflicted on all mankind.
But how could the then fallen Adam repair the
damage he had done to all those who would be born genetically
connected to him? The
fact is, he couldn’t. The
fallen first Adam was
totally impotent with regards to compensating mankind for the
legacy of death he left them with.
This apparent dilemma is what the Gospel
of Jesus Christ is all about, …to do for Adam what he was unable
to do for himself or others.
If the curse of death was to be reversed, it
would have to be accomplished by Another Perfect Man, Who would
stand in as Adam’s Substitute and thereby satisfy God’s Justice
that
demanded his permanent death. The death penalty (the curse) had
to be set aside or else God’s Plan of creation could not endure. Because
man was created to forever rule and reign over the rest of
creation, this dominion would obviously be impossible with death
reigning supreme
over creation’s rulers. Being
that the Justice of God is absolute, the “stand-in” would have
to exactly correspond in every way to Adam. In
other words, nothing more or less than another perfect man could
propitiate or satisfy the Just demands of God. Remember, God’s
immutable
law says “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. There must be perfect
conformity and correspondence between the perfect first and
Second
Adam for God’s Justice to be satisfied. And because all Adam’s
progeny were brought forth with the stain of imperfection (sin),
none of these
could qualify as the perfect Second Adam to legalistically
appease Divine Justice.
So to make
things right on all levels, another perfect man (without
inherited sin and a life lived without sinning) had to be
substituted for the
first perfect man who caused so much collateral damage to
billions of his offspring.
Again, there needed to be a reverse of the curse. The
curse was death, the reverse was Life. Christ said, in part,
that He was that Life, and just as we all received the curse
without individual choice,
so shall all receive Life, without individual choice. In Scripture this is
called “resurrection life” or regeneration (being born again,
but this time
from above) and as we know from Acts 3:21, there is coming a
time, real soon, when all will be awakened from the sleep of
death to be
restored (“the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken
by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began”) to
a state that Adam
enjoyed before he
fell into the corrupting influence of sin. And additionally, we
are told that God has set aside a literal one thousand year
period
(called the Sabbatical Millennium) when this “restitution of all
things” will occur. But
until that soon to be realized dawn of a New Age arrives (after
the nighttime/nightmare of sin) and all humanity is raised into
Millennial resurrection life, God has seen fit to call out of
mankind a “first fruits little
flock” of new creation believers, who have been chosen and
elected to be the Bride of His Son, Jesus Christ. And further, this
predestined group
of believers (called The Church) have at some point in their
sanctification walk received the Holy Spirit message that there
awaits for them a
golden crown of co-regency with Christ. But this crown of gold
must be preceded by a crown of thorns. In other words, if a
believer is unwilling
to suffer with Christ (lead the crucified life), then reigning
with Him as His Bride will most likely not happen. It appears from
Scripture that those
who fail to “make their calling and election sure” by leading a
sanctified, crucified life, these believers then will not loose
their salvation, but will
thereby be relegated to a Kingdom status below that of the Bride
of Christ. This is
not spelled out in Scripture in so many words, but to some
it’s clearly inferred when Scripture talks in Revelation about a
“great company” too numerous to number.
Crucifying
the flesh and self will (living the crucified life) is not only
difficult, but it takes a lot of faith and spiritual grit. And it’s totally
contrary to
our old man nature of self indulgence and self preservation. The only way a true
believer can follow the self crucified lives of Christ and His
Apostles is by the unction of the Holy Spirit of Christ
empowering a regenerated person to first hear and believe the
crucified life message,
then implement that input with action. Not in order to be
saved, but out of appreciation for having been saved. One is legalism, the
other grace.
What’s truly amazing is that this message is not even put forth
as a consideration by nominal Christianity. Why? It’s not a popular
message
that lends itself to “filling the pews” of today’s nominal
church. The cry
from our hyper grace friends is that Christ has done it all for
us (including
our leading the crucified life) and now God wants to richly
bless His people with all sorts of fleshy, worldly
posses-sions/pursuits and benefits.
These believers are partially right as far as Christ having done
it all relative to Justification, for that initial phase of
salvation was the sole work
of the Messiah’s shed blood, shed and delivered to the Justice
of God. He “did it
all” as far as Justification goes.
But Justification is only
Part 1 of a three part salvation program. It puts a person on
the playing field, so to speak, but one’s performance, once in
the game, is then
Judged accordingly. And
we’re told in Hebrews 6:4-6 and 10:26-31, it’s
possible to run off the playing field, shower up, and go home. This,
if it happens, is called the unpardonable sin and leads directly
to the 2nd death (Gehenna). Not likely for most,
but possible. Once Justified,
the saints of God must then be faithful to salvation Part 2 and
work out what has been worked in, and it’s here where there are
two theological
camps that are at odds with each other. One group has
entrenched itself in the thought that once Justified, the Christ
person is part of a
“done deal” and heaven is guaranteed, so just hang on and enjoy
the ride. Another
group says, “Hold on a minute, what about all the verses
that warn against ‘license, falling away or failing to make your
calling and election sure’ and ‘work out your salvation with
fear and trembling’?”.
What do we do with these Biblical thoughts? Just edit them out of
the New Testament rhetoric?”.
Camp Hyper Grace retorts with, “Oh, I see,
we’re saved by Grace, but kept by works, is that it?”. And back and forth it
goes until both sides are ready to ex-communicate each other.
So which is it? A
gospel of prosperity (all Grace) on all levels, or a gospel of
Grace, followed by committed, obedient, submissive works?
The answer, I believer, can be found in the inclination or
disposition and attitude of the Christian saint. Are his actions (after
his reckoned
regeneration) in the indicative or the imperative mood? In other words, is a
person doing his good works of sanctification in an atmosphere
of compulsory authorita-tive commands (imperatives/legalism), or
in an atmosphere of indicatives, where sanctified good works
stem from
a place of thankfulness and peace and joy with obsessive
holiness issuing forth as an indication (the indicative mood)
that one is actually a
new creature in Christ and is constrained by love to show forth
the indwelling Spirit of Christ?
And so much so, and so consumed with God,
that the believer doesn’t even see his actions as “works”, but
rather his or her uncon-trollable urge to please the Beloved and
others around
him. It all boils
down to one’s intent, stemming from a new heart of flesh
implanted by God when salvation part 1 (Justification) was first
experienced. In
other words, was the gift of God (Justification) bestowed, or
selfishly apprehended? If
it was the latter, then a Christian’s
sanctification will be a life of self indulgence that is
virtually dead to any amount of selfless, good works. And if encountered on
the subject,
the nominal believer cries out loud and clear that he is kept in
God’s good graces no matter what he does. This attitude give
rise to the cliché,
“once saved, always saved”.
To these folks, anything that smacks of
accountability/testing/probation, is rank legalism. Of course, if they’re
speaking about salvation Part 1/Justification, they’re right. But if they’re
referring to salvation Part 2/Sanctification, they’re dead wrong
(in
my opinion). Works
will always be viewed as imperatives (legalism) by those who are
not truly consecrated to the sacrificial life and will be
avoided on grounds that believers are no longer under law
(actually, Gentile believers were never under the Mosaic law,
but rather under the
law of conscience). Also,
sanctified sacrificial works will be avoided, due to a selfish
heart that’s not about to give up the “good life” or as
some call it “the abundant life”.
(Also, some call this the “prosperity gospel”)
The
difference between the above two camps (prosperity/abundant life
concept vs. self sacrificial life) has to do with how various
verses are
exegeted that seem to support either camp. The Holy Spirit tells
us in Scripture that Christ came so we could have an abundant
life and that
we we’re to prosper. But
I believe this was speaking of spiritual, not fallen worldly
indulgent “blessings”. On
the other hand, if Justification is
bestowed, and the recipient is left stunned by it all with a
sense of “Why me?”, then the results of this endowment is a new
heart, with an
appreciation of how can I do more to show forth the gratitude I
feel in my inner most being.
Here we find an attitude that says, “Let me crucify
anything that would hinder my process and progress of being more
and more shaped into the image of my dear Lord”. An individual’s
performance in this endeavor may be a Volkswagon, but his intent
is a Rolls Royce. And
it’s God that will some day judge the heart’s intent.
Without a “new heart of flesh” to replace the stoney heart,
one’s purposes will always be towards serving self, no matter
how cleverly that
intent is hidden. When
Scripture
speaks of a day of judgment, it’s talking about God scrutinizing
the status of one’s heart.
Has God replaced
the old with a new, or not?
All we as
believers are called on to do is to “examine ourselves to see if
we be in the faith”, then work out our Part
2 (sanctification) with “fear and trembling” (Godly awe and
respect). Self-examination
should always be part of any spiritual maintenance
program, as we become our own fruit inspector. The 3rd part of
salvation is glorification and that, like Justification, is
solely an act of God.
In my
extremely humble opinion, today’s so called “prosperity gospel”
is found nowhere in the New Testament. In fact, verse after
verse declares
just the opposite message.
Two that come to mind right away are Romans 8:17 and Matthew
16:24. I’ll leave
it to the motivated reader to find
the many other portions of God’s Word that unequivocally convey
the thought that Christ and Paul are to be imitated in the
laying down of their
lives for the sake of other believers in the here and now, and
for the sake of those raised to life in the Millennium that the
Church will bless
(Gen. 12:3). This
then is the path that Jesus walked as the antitypical world’s
High Priest, and if any would aspire to be part of His Royal
Priesthood (His under priests), then as Christ Himself said in
Matthew 10:24, “The
disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above
his Lord”. And then
again we have the same thought in Matthew 16:25, “For
whosoever will save his life, shall loose it: and whosoever will
loose his life for My sake shall find it”. God’s way is from a
crown of thorns to one of gold, from a personal cross to the joy
and happiness of
ruling and reigning with Christ in the soon to be established
Sabbatical Millennium. This
wood to gold reality was best seen in the Messiah
being shown forth as the suffering servant, followed by
exaltation to the Right Hand of God. Then again, in Paul,
we see an almost identical
life process of persecution and suffering, followed by a
martyr’s death. Nowhere
does Scripture indicate that a believer is to try and side step
taking up his or her personal cross (the crucified life) before
receiving his crown of gold.
Those who bypass the personal crown of thorns in
their life and attempt to migrate towards one of gold have never
truly been born from above.
Or at best, they have, but will come through it all
“as if by fire” with a lot of burnt tail feathers.
So in
the Gospel of God we see the reverse of the curse in its
fullness, where all mankind will be compensated for the
secondary damage
done to it by Adam’s lack of loyalty to his Creator. The collateral damage
that the first Adam was unable to repair, the last Adam put
right by
His sacrificial Blood, compensating all mankind with eventual
resurrection life. The
reverse of the curse has been brought about by the One
and only Person Who had the mandate of the Almighty to reconcile
all mankind back into fellowship with its Creator. This reconciliation,
by
Christ’s applied Blood, was an accomplished fact 2,000 years
ago, leading to all mankind being awakened (in the future) at
the dawn of the
Sabbatical Millennium. And
in their new regenerated life they’ll fully understand what has
been achieved for them by Adam’s Substitute.
Then they, too, like the Bride now, will have their faith tried
and tested, just like the first and second Adam, all the
Apostles, and everyone
else professing their loyalty to God. More than anyone,
Jesus knows that “talk’s cheap” and “actions speak louder than
words”. Today’s
street language expression states the same sentiment, with the
cliché “money talks, B.S. walks”. No matter how we say it, the one
immutable
fact remains that at some point there will be those who will
hear the chilling words of Christ in Matthew 7:21-23. Sobering thoughts for
sober minds.