December 8, 2008

Mike,

A couple years ago the bible and the Word of the Lord was cryptic and largely unknown to me. I began a year ago, after a severe chastisement from God, to study to show myself approved. I was frankly intimidated by the bible. I concentrated on the New Testament. One thing that I have always felt that needed to be true in regards to the Word of the Lord is that it must be fitly framed together and metaphors that were used had to be true down to the finest detail and fully realized. I reckoned God would have it no other way. I have learned a lot and you, Mike, have helped very much.
The sin sacrifice is more than a cardboard cut out metaphor. Jesus became sin for us; we are to reckon ourselves dead with him but alive through the spirit. Those are not empty words but the doctrine of men can make them so. The sin sacrifice of Jesus does not hold up to close scrutiny by today’s established theology of man and even early Rome and Greek Church theology. Either it was a empty metaphor or something was being missed. The Word of the Lord is true and every man a liar.
Christ was sacrificed for our sins. He did carry his blood to the mercy seat of God in heaven, and as a faithful high priest he is a mediator for us with God. All that is true, but then what about the body of that sin sacrifice? What happened to that? Well, it was resurrected and became a spiritual body that was no longer corruptible. But theology forgot that when Jesus came into the world he had a body prepared for him since the foundation of the world. We are intertwined with him. No betwixt or between. His body on earth. And the bodies of those beasts that were sacrificed for sin were taken outside the camp to be burned so we are to bear his reproach. We are the body of that sin sacrifice that is being burned up. Many are called but few are chosen to go through the fire. Jesus died and our body (old man) is crucified with him and the only body that is left over to be burned is the one on earth. And I believe the sin sacrifice was burned right on the ground, which happens to be his body on earth. It fits, the whole metaphor carries through to the end, rich and full of meaning. John the Baptist talked about the one following him with the baptism in the Holy Spirit and with fire in Mat 3:11. The metaphor of grain being winnowed by using fire goes hand and hand with the sin sacrifice in this version of what John the Baptist said in:
 
Luk 3:16.  John made answer, saying to them all, Truly, I give you baptism with water, but one is coming who is greater than I, whose shoes I am not good enough to undo: he will give you baptism with the Holy Spirit, and with fire:
:17  In whose hand is the instrument with which he will make clean his grain; he will put the good grain in his store, but the waste will be burned in the fire which will never be put out.
God subjected the creation to flesh/ vanity because that was the way he saw fit to teach and instruct his children, by grace, how to discern good and evil. The whole purpose of God centers around the reproach of Jesus and the need for his death in bringing many sons into glory. But how does it work? I am a big one when it comes to the question – how does it work? Everything has to fit and be true to form. Unless a grain of wheat die it can not bring forth any fruit. The Spirit is given to man and the flesh needs to be burned up because God only used flesh as a means to instruct his children. God is all powerful Mike, but he was not able to create sons of God, with the attributes he wanted, right out of the box. The ones he did create out of the box, saw that the daughters of men were fair, and we know how bad that turned out. But needs be God had to start with something. God’s purpose on the earth is concerned with man as a individual and as a whole society. We know that Jesus was a created son, but I think that God set him over the house of Israel to learn. On the job training, so to speak. But then God took it to a much deeper level. He sent him to the earth and prepared for him a body and then made him perfect by the things he suffered and his being obedient. That was how the adoption of Son ship had to take place. God requires his children to possess his attributes and characteristics. That can’t be created, it requires the hand of a master potter, and of course fire. Jesus was the work of his hand, Adam was the imperfect work of his hands and so was Satan. We also are his imperfect work, albeit a work in progress, with a good end in mind. Anyway, that is how I see the sin offering, and as you so well point out, the Christ is going to be used by God to accomplish his purpose on the earth. I will leave you with one other thought and let it go at this point, Mike. The sin sacrifice was burned up and the ashes were used for purification. That metaphor is rich and full of meaning also. What we are experiencing and learning from the hand of the Master is quite valuable and will be of further use in the ages to come.
L___

Good morning L____,

The fire of God’s word has to have been burning in your life to see the depths you have been given to seen here in this offering. Thank you for taking the time to share with me what God has given you to see.

You say:

“God is all powerful Mike, but he was not able to create sons of God, with the attributes he wanted, right out of the box.”

I would reword that to say ‘God is all powerful and therefore will not do anything contrary to His own Word, which requires that the natural be “marred” and always precede the completed spiritual.’ As you yourself put it: “God subjected the creation to flesh/ vanity because that was the way he saw fit to teach and instruct his children, by grace, how to discern good and evil.”

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [ was made] a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

I was especially edified when you point out that the sin offering is burned on the very ground, which ‘ground’ we are, and the ashes are then used for purification, which is how God uses us once He has burned out of us all that must be burned out:

Num 19:9  And a man [ that is] clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay [ them] up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.
Num 19:10  And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.
Num 19:11  He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
Num 19:12  He shall purify himself with it [ the water of separation] on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.
Num 19:13  Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness [ is] yet upon him.

Those ashes typify the fire of God’s Word in Christ, and through Him in us, which produces those. It is through these ashes of Christ’s body that we are purified, and it is through our burned up ashes that the rest of mankind will be brought to Christ:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

The choosing of God’s elect is at the expense of the many who are called but not chosen, and the salvation of the many called, is by the channel, or agency, of the mercy of the “few chosen,” the ashes of the red heifer, Christ, and Christ in us.
Thanks again for sharing with me the insights God has given you.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike