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NASB | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, will be like a wise man [a far-sighted, practical, and sensible man] who built his house on the rock. [Luke 6:47-49] |
Subject: What is perfected for all time? |
Bible Note: Joe, You wrote: "The view you hold seems to be that everything that Christ's death has accomplished has already been given to us at the moment of salvation." Yes, Joe, that is the view I hold. 2 Pet 1:3 - Seeing that His divine power HAS GRANTED (past tense) to us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. But, could I make a stippulation here? This is how I would define it: In my spirit, where I am joined to God - 1 Cor 6:17 (yet distinct from Him i.e. I am NOT God, I am just in union with Him), these attributes (sanctification, holiness, righteousness, perfection, completeness) are ALREADY true. How could that Lord join Himself to me otherwise? Is is nothing that I have done, it is all HIS doing. It is by His doing that I am in His blessed Son. In my spirit, which is eternal, because I am joined to Him, I am as He is - 1 John 4:17 - "By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world." So ARE WE, Joe, HERE in THIS WORLD, not the next. Yet, at the same time, I realize that my soul is very much in the process of being sanctified, being made holy, being perfected, being cleansed, being made righteous. This is not an incongruity, it is a reality. I am becoming what I already am. I know, it sounds ludicrous, but it is not. It is called faith. The Israelites faced the same struggle and doubt when they first got to the promised land. It was already theirs. God had given it to Abraham and because they were his seed, his land was their land. All the needed to do was to put, in faith, put action to what was already true. But they didn't do it. Instead, they relied on their eye-sight and their experiences instead of God and His Word to them. God said, "It is already yours." They said, "Impossible. We are not there yet and we can't get there from here." As a result, that generation perished in the wilderness simply because of unbelief. Many Christians live the same way. All God's promises for abundant life, for holiness, for righteousness, for union with Jesus are all for "someday" - if not here, then when we get home. They come to Christ for the salvation He offers and then they spend the rest of their lives struggling to become what, in Him, they already are. In God's economy of faith, we become in action and attitude because we already are in constitution. You probably don't agree with this. That's okay. I can convince no one. That is His job. All I can do is to share. The New Testament says many things about us that our experience does not bear out. It says that we are citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20), that we have been washed, sanctified, justified (all past tense) (1 Cor 6:11). It says that we have already been made complete (Col 2:10). It says that we are already holy (Rom 11:6; Eph 4:24; Col 3:12; Heb 3:1; 1 Pet 2:9). It even says that we have been perfected for ALL time (Heb 10:14). It says that we are ALREADY seated with Him in the heavenlies (Eph 2:6). As long as we approach these truths from a fleshly view-point, we will remain, as the Israelites were, in unbelief and not enter His rest. We will be forever striving to become what He has already done in us in the spirit, eternal realm. I pray that you, brother, will enter the Sabbath-rest that remains for the people of God. The Sabbath-rest is not for "sinners". It is for saints who have grown tired of their own works and are fully trusting in His. Unless we learn to discern the difference between the spiritual realm that is not bound by time and the soul/body realm that is temporarily bound here, we will never "arrive." I become in experience what I already am. Experience said that the withered hand was permanent. God's realm proved that it was temporary. Experience said that Lazarus was permanently dead, resurrection was "someday". Jesus said, "Resurrection is today!" Experience said that Christ was permanently dead. The Spirit raised Him and said, "Not so." Don't be too quick to believe your eyes. We look not at the things that are seen, for the things that are seen are temporal (time-based). We look at the things that are NOT seen, for the things that are NOT seen (of God's spiritual realm) are ETERNAL (no beginning and no end). Spiritual things simply ARE because of the great I AM. May you grown in who you already are, brother Joe. McGracer |