KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
Studies in end-time revelation
THE HEAVENS DECLARE
Part 12
LIBRA-THE SCALES
The Southern Cross is the first of three minor constellations or groups of stars which adhere to the constellation of Libra. It cannot be seen in most parts of North America, but throughout the Southern Hemisphere it is bright and easily seen. The constellation is also called CRUX, which means "cross" in Latin, and its stars form the shape of a cross. Innumerable eons before that dreadful and wonderful day when the Christ of God hung upon a cross, this most beautiful and brilliant of the Signs of the heavens scintillated against the darkness of the celestial canopy proclaiming with unerring wisdom and divine immutability the eternal cross in the heart of God.
"The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again" (Eccl. 1:5-7). Like the waters of rivers, we have all experienced the downward journey, irresistibly drawn by the gravitation of the flesh and self, until we come to the lowest point, a raging sea of pollution and death. But there is another power, transcending the pull of the earthly, and that is the DRAWING OF THE SON, lifting us up out of the "dead sea" and raising us up again into the heavenlies, to bring us back to the glorious heights of the Spirit.
Multitudes throng the low road, taking the path of self, sin, and death. But some, praise God, are already being irresistibly drawn upward, to take that HIGH WAY back to the image and glory of God. It has been said that the "way UP is DOWN," but to unceasingly go downward, without a way up, would create a hopeless frustration that would surely end in eternal defeat. But what is true of the cycles of nature is also tree in the spiritual processes of God, there is a place in our going down process where we finally "bottom out" and begin that upward journey. Certainly HIS CROSS is that TURNING POIIVF, and brought to the end of self, partaking of that death process which slays the carnal mind, we find there also begins an ascending, that we might progress and return to the LIFE OF THE SPIRIT. The cross of Christ stands as the bridge between the old and the new, between the depth and the height, and there is no point so low, but that His cross has penetrated to that depth, HE IS THERE to turn us around. In the cross God Himself has descended to the lowest depth, and there abides to receive us, to redirect our course, so that from that moment on there is an upward turning. "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; EVEN THERE SHALL THY HAND LEAD ME, and Thy right hand shall hold me," as we read in Ps. 139:8-10.
How we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory in the blessed knowledge that "all these things are of God." He has planned it all. He it is, too, who has been fulfilling it. There is no place BEYOND GOD, for it is "IN HIM that we live, and move, and have our being," even though it be without a consciousness of His presence and consumed by the consciousness of our own self-will. Still we cannot get beyond t Him, for matters not the extremity of our rebellion and waywardness, we shall find that HE IS THERE with His cross, waiting to deal with our self-hood, and then with HIS LIFE to restore us back into wholeness in Him again. There is, then, a divine Plan, and that plan is "the way of the cross" that LEADS HOME. A clear and profound statement of this plan occurs in Hannah's simple words in I Sam. 2:6, "The Lord KILLETH, and maketh alive." A killing process is here taking place, one which is being carried out under the direction of our Lord.
The question sometimes annoys us --- Why does God deal with me as He does? Why is God so SEVERE? Why does He strike so VIOLENTLY?. This burning question the scripture answers very simply by saying: He KILLETH. There is something within us that must be put to death. And that something God deliberately kills, whether we understand what He is doing or not. He does not ask us for permission thus to kill. It is the old "I" which must be put to death, our mistaken identity. Our self-hood must be bruised and broken. And not our self-life in the form of egoism and self-willfulness only. That too. But what we wish to emphasize here first and
foremost is that our soulish life in its relation to God must be broken. It is that confidence which I have in myself, in my own understanding of spiritual things, in my own will, in my own ability and righteousness and spirituality, that confidence in myself with which I always oppose THE SPIRIT and which is the real hindrance to the expression of HIS IND'0qELLING LIFE, which must be broken. To break our own inherent and deeply rooted self-confidence, and self-righteousness, which is fallen man's deepest error, is undoubtedly the most severe work that God has to accomplish within us. And when we see how He does it, we must stand before Him in awe, adoration, and thanksgiving. He breaks our old fleshly life, our carnal consciousness. This He does by driving it to exhaustion, to a point where it has spent all its energies and lies at His feet, surrendered and brought to naught --killed.
Is it not strange that the God who thus slays us is the same God who has given us the command: "THOU shalt not kill." It would seem a double standard --- GOD can kill whom He will, and without any permission or cooperation from us, but WE are forbidden to kill! Why is this? The answer is found right within the passages which speak of His killing. We have already quoted the words of the mother of Samuel the prophet, "The Lord killeth and maketh alive," to which she adds, "He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up." The Lord Himself declares, "See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand" (Deut. 32:39).
As the spirit of revelation and understanding floods our minds, we are left without any question as to the meaning of all this. The KEY in each of these statements is the little conjunction "and". "The Lord killeth, AND maketh alive! .... The Lord bringeth down to the grave, AND bringeth up." "I kill, AND I make alive." "I would, AND I heal." Thus the picture becomes clear --- no one has any right to kill that which he CANNOT MAKE ALIVE, nor to bring to the grave that which he CANNOT RESURRECT, nor to wound that which he CANNOT HEAL. God has commanded men not to kill for the simple reason that man is powerless to restore that which he slays. Death and destruction for man is final, irreversible, eternal. Only one with the power to restore, AND THE DISPOSITION TO. SO IX), may be permitted to bear the sword! Infinite wisdom and divine purpose must be the sure foundation beneath all destruction and restoration. Herein lies the deep mystery of the cross .... God kills AND makes alive!
"I am CRUCIFIED with Christ: NEVERTHELESS I LIVE; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). Before Jesus died on the cross, men would go to a cross to die. This was the method of execution for criminals. Since Jesus died on the cross, men now go to the cross to live. The seat of death has become the source of life. Whosoever loses his life shall find it, Jesus said. That is the meaning of the cross. For years we have emphasized the work of the cross, the dying to self, the crucifixion of the "I", to be stripped of every vestige of the flesh and the carnal mind. And the more we preached death, the more conscious we became of dying, and there was nothing but death, death, and more death. But there is the death side and the life side to the cross. An over-emphasis on the death side of the cross will arrest our spiritual progress by glorifying a death process that has no end, forever dying, but never coming to the knowledge of BEING DEAD. But there is a dying to die no more, and then it is time for RESURRECTION, to become conscious of the inflow of HIS LIFE which results in our complete salvation, spirit, soul, and body. It was upon the cross that He poured out HIS LIFE to us, so that dying we might live.
T. Austin-Sparks wrote: "The Spirit of God shows that God's ways and means are always positive and not negative. I want to say that with emphasis --- let us underline it in our minds. God's ways are ALWAYS CONSTRUCTIVE AND NOT DESTRUCTIVE; they are purposeful, not just ends in themselves. And if God's inclusive, comprehensive means is the Cross, let it be understood, once and for ever, that by the Cross He is working to an end --- a large end. The cross is never intended to end in destruction; it is never intended to end with a negative. God is working for some great thing, and He uses the Cross in a positive way. You see, the weakness in our apprehension of the Cross is largely due to a miss-apprehension of the Cross. Our idea of the Cross is that it is destructive, it is negative, it is death. We revolt against that; we don't want to be always reminded about this death of the Cross --- death, death, death. It is indeed possible so to preach the Cross as to produce death; but that is a mis-preaching. That is not God's interpretation of the Cross at all. Let me repeat: the Holy Spirit shows quite clearly that God's ways and means are always positive and not negative; they always have in view something more, and not something less; not an end, but a newness and a fullness.
"If only we could really grasp that, it would transfigure the Cross. When the Lord confronts us with the challenge, what do we do? We revolt, we draw back --- we don't like it! Why? Simply because we have not seen that, in this application of the Cross, God is set upon securing something more in our lives, something more than there has ever been before. That is God's law. God is not a negative God. Other gods are negative gods, but our God is not a negative God. He is not working to bring things to annihilation; He has very large purposes of INCREASE before Him in all His ways and in all His means. What we really have to see is that, whatever the Cross may negative --- it is God's most positive instrument for securing spiritual, heavenly, eternal values. The Cross is God's most positive instrument for securing the enlargement --- not the annihilation --- of THAT WHICH WILL ABIDE FOR EVER. So it is very necessary for us to move onto this solid foundation, that God always comes in with a mind to create or to recover, to build and to increase. It only we could believe that of the Lord --- even on our most devastating times, when every thing seems to be taken away, and all is stripped from us; when everything seems to be going, and the end appears at hand: if only we could believe then that God is working ---not to bring values to an end, but to increase them! That must be our ground --- that He is ploughing, He is digging; He intends a harvest; He intends an increase. He understands exactly what He is doing and how --- we don't. But we can be sure of one thing: God is at work by the Cross to make things safe for Himself' --- end quote.
The new birth is spiritual. The cross is spiritual. The life of sonship is spiritual. The well-spring of life is changed at the cross. The cross is the transition point by which we die to this carnal realm and are made alive unto God. There is a new influx of life from a heavenly source --- "born from above." This new intake of spiritual life establishes our identity as sons of God. The cross withers the old consciousness, and the Holy Spirit imparts the new. The cross is the sword, in the hand of the Holy Spirit, to make place for the new life from above. The life from beneath and the life from above are bitter enemies that will never be reconciled. As in warfare, there can be but one victor and one vanquished. This is the point where it hurts. The cross withers and dries the carnal consciousness, the self-life. There is real pain. The struggle of life against life --- or rather life against death. The old life is death --- a paradox of paradoxes. The present energy that motivates and energizes the human organism we call life, the Lord calls it death. The life that ends in death is not life, merely a mortal consciousness, a passing thought, a ripple in the sea. "If any man come to me, and hate not.. . his own life.. . he cannot be my disciple" (Lk. 14:36). The Lord hates your life, or He would never ask you to hate it. There is a place for hatred. This is very offensive --- a direct insult of the flesh. The offense of the cross must come. There are many things preached to avoid the offense of the cross, yet where there is no cross there is no life. This temporary life is a counterfeit; because it poses to be the real thing. The Lord hates this false life of ours, and He asks us to join with Him in that hatred. There is hope at this point --- real, glorious hope! The Lord Himself is that hope. Those that hurt over their own mistaken identity, their nothingness, are good candidates for the crucified life of the risen Lord. There must be a deep union with the risen Lord, that the saint and the Saviour may consciously share the same life. There was great energy that brought Him out of the grave --- resurrection energy --- greater than atomic power. This resurrection life energy is now available for the saints, for it abides right within YOUR SPIRIT. The trouble is that the life that merits only hatred is constantly blocking the way. Only the cross can remove it!
CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). What is this that Paul says: "I am crucified with Christ"? What does the apostle really mean? In what sane and solid sense does he use these hitherto un-heard -of words? Saul of Tarsus, we have his own word for it, had never seen Christ in the flesh, nor His cross either. He had not been in Gethsemane with Christ like Peter, nor on Calvary with Him like John. The two thieves might have said, "We were crucified with Christ," but how could Saul of Tarsus say it? For he was still at home in his own country; he was only as yet an aspirant to Gamaliel's school when Christ was crucified; and the crucifixion of Christ was long past before Saul had set a foot in the city of the crucifixion. In what sense then can he say, and say it so often and so boldly, "I am crucified with Christ"?
Nearly half a century ago Lloyd C. Douglas wrote a best selling religious novel called THE ROBE. Paul Rees, in reviewing the book, points out that its readers will remember that Marcellus Gallio was the Roman tribune who was supposed to have been the officer in charge of the actual crucifixion of Jesus. When Marcellus returned to his quarters after the crucifixion, he made a confession to his Greek slave Demetrius. He confessed that he felt dirty and ashamed. When Demetrius tried to console him by reminding him that he was only obeying orders given him by Pilate, Marcellus asked, "Were you out there?.. . Were you there when He called on His God to forgive us?" And the rest of the story is concerned with the strangely persistent way in which this Roman noble was haunted by his sense of guilt for having crucified the Lord. He, who was supposed to be upholding the law by executing a guilty man, was somehow condemned by that man's innocency and made to feel guilty himself. "WERE YOU OUT THERE," he asked. It is a fair question that Marcellus put to Demetrius. And the answer is "Yes." WE WERE ALL OI. JT 'I~IERE! Whether Roman or Greek, whether Israelite or Gentile, we WERE there when they crucified our lord.
Yes, the Christ was crucified "for us" --- on our behalf --- but Paul goes deeper into the mystery that is Christ and says that if we want to understand the deep meaning of the cross, we shall have to see, not just Christ dying for us, but also our identification with Him, we will have to see ourselves on that cross dying with Jesus. You see, IF JESUS MERELY DIED INSTEAD OF US, then Jesus will merely rise instead of us. Selah. Pause and think about that ! The scripture declares that we are crucified with Christ so that we may rise with Christ. If there is no participation in the cross, there can be no participation in the resurrection. George Hawtin has given beautiful expression to this precious truth in his article, THE CHRIST LIFE. He writes: "Every man and every woman will have to face the cross. If there be no cross, neither will there be a crown. We will have to face it in our own lives and, if I am not mistaken, we will have to face it every day we live. 'For to me to live is Christ, and to DIE is gain' (Phil. 1:21). Death to ourselves will be the greatest death we ever die. This death will never be accomplished by our vain struggling and trying, but it will be accomplished in that blessed hour when the Holy Spirit reveals to our hearts the truth that He revealed to Paul: 'I AM CRUCIHED with Christ.' The world itself cannot contain the full truth of this precious statement, 'I am crucified with Christ.' We will never GET crucified nor will we ever have faith to crucify ourselves. We will never go to an altar and accomplish this act by faith. The lesson we must learn, my earnestly seeking friend, is simply this: Before ever there was a world or a sinner in it, God Himself by His almighty power placed ALL MEN IN HIS SON JESUS CHRIST and then, having done so, He crucified Him and, when He crucified HIM, He also crucified ME, because I was in Him. 'When HE crucified His Son, He crucified YOU, because He had placed you in Him. All this took place before the foundation of the world. All men died IN ADAM and, because all men died in Adam, ALL MEN live IN CHRIST, because God has placed all men in Him. 'For as in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive' (I Cor. 15:22). 'But,' you ask, 'why is it then that all men are not saved?' The truth is that all men are saved, but all men have not yet believed, because God has not yet opened their eyes. All christians are crucified with Him, but few, oh so few, have ever been told that crucifixion is an accomplished reality ---accomplished by God Himself and left for us to accept and believe. Once the believer grasps this truth and seizes upon it by faith, then he understands that all of the old carnal realm with all its terrifying specters was a paper tiger, an alarming, petrifying panic, a phantom, a dead lion, no more real than a nightmare. My brother, my sister, in that good and glorious moment when you see God by His almighty power placing ALL MEN IN CHRIST, yea, even before the world began, and, having done so, He sent Him to the cross to be crucified, then you will know that, when Christ was crucified, YOU were crucified, for you were in Him. Then you will join with Paul and every participant of the revelation, saying, 'I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST.' Then you will be able for the first time in your life to RECKON YOURSELF DEAD UNTO SIN, BUT ALIVE UNTO GOD" --- end quote.
A most wonderful and significant event, completely passed over by the vast majority of christians, occurred at the time of the crucifixion of our Lord. In the purposes of God extending from Paradise lost to Paradise regained, the time came when all three of the characters (God, Adam, the serpen0 involved in the ancient drama in Eden MUST meet again --- this time AT THE CROSS! You will understand a great truth when you see how it is that Christ, Adam, and the serpent ALL MET AT THE CROSS. Let me unfold for you this deep and blessed mystery which transpired on the hill called Calvary. Yes, Christ, the manifestation of God in flesh, the consciousness of God in our spirit, was present there at Calvary. But Adam was also there in flesh, old Adam, the self-consciousness of man in the soul---he was not there in the flesh of Jesus (the last Adam), but represented in the flesh of one of the thieves crucified WITH HIM. Furthermore, the serpent was there, that ancient serpent, the power of the carnal mind, the law of sin and death in our members--this serpent was manifested in the flesh of the other thief crucified WITH CHRIST. Three and a half years prior to this event Jesus had encountered the serpent in the wilderness of Judea, the temptation came in these subtle words, "I-F THOU BE THE SON OF GOD, command that these stones be made bread" (Mat. 4:3). And now, on mount Calvary, while drinking in obedience to the Father the last bitter dregs from the cup of suffering and death, the satanic voice is heard once more taunting Him through the lips of this jeering malefactor: "I-F THOU BE THE CHRIST, save Thyself and us!" (Lk. 23:39).
Do you imagine, my friend, that it was an accidental and inconsequential incident that Jesus was crucified between TWO THIEVES? No way! The truth of God is multi-faceted and the scriptures abound with many and varied representations of the redemptive plans, purposes, and processes of God. There are those unique passages which point to all that has been wrought and made blessed reality IN CHRIST. The prepositional phrase "in Christ", appearing some thirty-five times in the New Testament, is filled with spiritual dynamite! Vital necessity, this reality of being IN CHRIST. This has much depth and preciousness in it when we remember that Christ is made up of many members, and that they ,are joined together as one, ONE MANY-MEMBERED CHRIST. There is a realm of fullness to come into, and it is IN CHRIST, until it is no longer "Christ and me" but just--CHRIST. God has chosen us IN HIM, and we are made alive IN HIM. We are new creatures IN HIM and are to walk IN HIM as we have received Him, rooted and builded up IN HIM and established in our faith. We become the righteousness of God IN HIM, we are established IN HIM, and can do all things IN HIM that strengthens us. God always leads us to triumph IN HIM, making our lives a sweet savor of Christ. IN HIM we have every spiritual blessing in heavenly places; as we abide IN HIM we are made complete IN HIM who is the head of all principality and power.
We should direct our thoughts to yet another consideration. Wonderful as is this troth of our identification IN CHRIST, let all who read these lines know and thoroughly understand that there is another and blessed aspect of' truth to be embraced in the precious words "WITH CHRIST'. Now I believe that I am quite correct in this statement--I am certain that Paul never said that he was crucified IN CHRIST He did say that he was crucified WITH CHRIST. Paul gave us a remarkable clue to this great mystery when he explained, "I am crucified WITH CHRIST' (Gal. 2:20), and again "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified WITH HIM, that the body of sin might be destroyed" (Rom.6:6). With these words in mind it should not be difficult to see that Paul never makes the statement or the inference that Christ DIED IN HIS STEAD. But Paul made it the sharing of a common death by saying that he was crucified W-I-T-H CHRIST This may seem to be an insignificant and unimportant point, but it makes a whole universe of difference whether we were crucified IN CHRIST or WITH CHRIST. Every word of inspiration is meaningful and full of depth. Truly Christ died FOR US, not in our stead, precluding our dying, but on our behalf, thus enabling us to truly die and rise again WITH HIM.
Now actually, Paul nor any of us, nor anyone else from Paul all the way down to us, was actually, physically, bodily crucified with Christ. I refer of course to that particular time of the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus the Christ was there at the crucifixion as the embodiment and manifestation of THE LIFE OF GOD IN THE SPIRIT, the pure, sinless, separate, divine, heavenly One pouring out His divine life for the world. So also did Adam, man in his self-consciousness in the soul, have a representative or a manifestation of himself there at the crucifixion. One man, a thief, was there as the representative of the living soul, of all humanity, or the representative of the first Adam, if you please. And the remaining thief, the jeering malefactor, was the representative of the serpent and his kingdom, the spirit of the carnal mind, the power of sin and death in our members. And ALL THREE DIED ON THE CROSS--TOGETHER! They all died the same natural death and not one of them was saved from it. The two thieves, above all who have ever lived, were truly and uniquely CRUCIHED WITH CHRIST.
Turn aside with me for a few moments and meditate upon these THREE CROSSES on Golgotha's hill. We Gill find a very wide field of truth opened before us in these THREE CROSSES. There were THREE MEN met together there by the counsel of God that fateful day. Three, in the numerology of scripture, stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete, and entire. E.W. Bullinger, in his book, NUMBER IN SCRIPTURE, points out that "All things that are specially COMPLETE are stamped with this number three. God's attributes are THEE: omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. There are three great divisions completing time--PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE. Three persons, in grammar, express and include all relationships of mankind. Thought, word, and deed, complete the sum of human capability. The simplest proposition requires three things to complete it; viz., the SUBJECT, the PREDICATE, and the COPULA. Three kingdoms embrace our ideas of matter--MINERAL, VEGETABLE, and ANIMAL" To which I would add--man himself is a TRIPARTIITE being composed of SPIRIT, SOUL, and BODY. Those three parts comprise the whole man. The three crosses on that hill far away were there by neither accident nor coincidence. There is deep mystery and divine meaning in the scene!
It is interesting to note that two of the three men there that day were THIEVES. I must emphasize that any man, message, action, or entity that brings to mankind any thing less than LIFE is a THIEF and a ROBBER! Man is spirit, soul, and body, and is it not a self-evident truth that TWO OF THESE THREE have no life of themselves and can transmit naught but corruption and death. Truly did Jesus say, "It is the SPIRIT that quickeneth (giveth life); the FLESH (soul and body) profiteth nothing" (Jn. 6:63). The apostle Paul adds his testimony in these words, "For to be carnally (fleshly) minded IS DEATH; but to be spiritually minded IS LIFE and peace. And if Christ be in you the BODY IS DEAD because of sin; but the SPIRIT IS LIFE because of righteousness. If ye live after the FLESH, ye shall DIE; but if ye through the SPIRIT do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the BODY, ye shall LIVE" (Rom. 8:6, 10, 13). Should one seek ever so earnestly for life and immortality in either soul or body, all such seeking will remain unfulfilled, for neither possesses one iota of divine life. They both, in very fact, DEPRIVE mankind of that most precious gift of all--LIFE! There is no life in the natural mind nor in the physical body, both fall dreadfully short, and should we trust in the flesh, exercise the flesh, or walk after the flesh IT WILL ROB US of the reality of the SPIRIT WHICH IS LIFE. The SPIRIT (Christ) alone possesses life, eternal life, incorruptible life, abundant life! The man or woman who lives out of any dimension other than SPIRIT will sooner or later discover to his or her chagrin that soul and body are indeed TWO THIEVES! And it was these three--spirit, soul, and body--the whole man in the totality of his reality that was crucified upon three crosses in that long ago!
You remember that the thieves began to rail on Jesus, but one of them said, "Lord, help me!" The rulers, and the soldiers, and the people standing there derided and mocked Him, but this one malefactor asked that Jesus have mercy upon him. How foolish it seems to the natural mind for this one to ask Jesus to help him or have mercy upon him, for here are two men, both dying upon a cross, yet one requests help of another who is in no better position to help him than he is himself Such a thing appears utterly ridiculous and because it was so absurd in the natural there MUST BE A MYSTERY HIDDEN IN THESE THINGS. All three of these died at approximately the same time, on the same day. When the soldiers came to Jesus, He was already dead and they broke the legs of the two thieves so that by shock, as we know it today, their deaths might be hastened. All were dead by sundown. So the manifestation of God in the flesh (spiri0 died. The manifestation of humanity (Adam) in the flesh also died. And the manifestation of the serpent (sin, carnal mind) died. They all entered the realm of death.
Listen now with infinite care as the drama of Calvary is enacted in that solemn hour. The thief who represents the living soul, man's self-consciousness, or Adam, turns to the thief representing the serpent, the carnal mind, the law of sin and death in us, and says, "Dost thou not fear God, seeing that thou thyself art under the same sentence of condemnation and suffering the same penalty? And we indeed suffer it justly, receiving the due reward of our actions; but this Man hath done nothing out of the way--nothing strange, or perverse or unreasonable" (Lk. 23:40-41). He then turns to Jesus, crying out, "Lord! REMEMBER ME when you COME INTO YOUR KINGDOM!" (Lk.23-42).
With these poignant words he confessed a wonderful faith in the almighty power of Christ. It has no parallel in the Bible. There hangs the cursed malefactor with Jesus of Nazareth, and he dares speak and say, "I am dying here under the just curse of my sins, but I believe Thou canst take me into Thy heart and remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom." The word "remember" means to recollect and both of these words can be broken down into two words: re-member and re-collect. The prefix "re" before them means to REPEAT OR TO DO SOMETHING AGAIN. So the malefactor was asking that when Jesus came into His Kingdom, He would remember him, or make him a member again. He was saying, "RE-COLLECT or collect me again into that Kingdom and give back to me my original place." This is re-storation, re-newing, re-demption, re-conciliation, re-freshing, and re-surection he was asking for! This was man, Adam, the living soul seeking the restoration of life, fellowship, authority and glory that he first had--in Christ! This is the soul crying out to the spirit for salvation!
Oh. that we might learn to believe in the almighty power of the CHRIST WITHIN! The penitent thief believed that Christ was a King and had a Kingdom, and that on the other side of the cross He would take him up in His arms and in His heart and remember him, make him a part again, when He came into His Kingdom. He believed that, and believing that, he died. Dear brother, sister, you and I need to take the time to come into a much larger and deeper faith in the power of Christ, that the almighty Christ will indeed take us in His arms and carry us through this death process, revealing the power of His death in us. Christ must do it. Christ CAN do it! Now that Christ is upon the throne, now that the revelation has dawned that HE has all power and authority in heaven and in earth, would you be afraid to do what the malefactor did when Christ was upon' the cross, and entrust yourself to Him to die His death and to live His life? Christ, the very Christ of God within your spirit, will carry you through the very process He went through. He will make the process of death work in you until it is complete and your soul is swallowed up into the reality of HIS SPIRIT.
We have seen the faith of this man. Now let us consider the response of Christ to his cry. First, the Lord met him with that wonderful promise, "Today shall thou be with Me in Paradise." It was a promise of fellowship, relationship, participation with Christ--"Thou shall be WITH ME." Further, it was the revelation of the amazing and glorious and triumphant OPENING OF EDEN AGAIN, a promise of entrance back into Paradise from which walking after the flesh had cast man out---"With Me IN PARADISE." Finally, it was the heralding of a change, of the dawning of something new for all mankind, a NEW DAY, a new age, a new Kingdom, a new order, a new realm, a new glory, a new covenant, a new reality, a new identity, a new nature, a new spirit, a new heart, a new mind, a new life, a new dominion--"TODAY THOU SHALT BE WITH ME IN PARADISE!"
Such truth as this requires deep spiritual thought and meditation. What do you think, beloved, Jesus meant when He announced the glad tidings to this poor thief dying WITH HIM, "Very, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be WITH ME IN PARADISE." Today--in Paradise! Do you imagine that He meant that the thief would, that very twenty-four hour day, walk with Him up and down streets of gold, strumming a harp, in some far-off heaven somewhere? Or do you suppose Jesus was telling this man that within a few short hours he would find himself in some "compartment of departed spirits" deep in the heart of the earth? Ah, I do not hesitate to tell you that the Christ spoke of things infinitely higher and grander than such time-worn traditions of men, for the blessed Son of God, the all-conquering last Adam, spoke of the amazing and wonderful and triumphant OPENING OF EDEN AGAIN. By death and resurrection Christ triumphed gloriously over the whole kingdom of sin and death; He strode boldly and fearlessly back into the Paradise of God from which man had been banished; He opened up for us all a NEW and LIVING WAY: He passed through the dominion of the Cherubim and the flaming sword keeping the way to the Tree of Life; He claimed again the dominion and the eminence and the glory which once belonged to the first Adam.
Consider the scene! "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the TREE OF HFE ALSO IN THE MIDST OF THE GARDEN" (Gen. 2:8-9). "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the TREE OF HFE WHICH IS IN THE MIDST OF THE PARADISE OF GOD" (Rev. 2:7).
Our English word "Paradise" comes to us from ancient Persian by way of the Greek language. Paradise is the transliteration of the Greek word PARADEISOS which, in turn, transliterates the old Persian term PARIDAEZA. The PARIDAEZA denoted an enclosed park, beautifully landscaped with floral and fruit trees planted along a spring-fed stream, belonging to the king and his nobles. History tells of the idyllic beauty of the orchards of the king's forests, grazed by sheep, and guarded at the entrance by two soldiers whose task it was to see that intruders and spoilers were kept out. Only those who were friends of the monarch were given the pleasant privilege of passing peacefully through its gates to enjoy the sweet waters of the stream and the delicious fruit of the trees. In fact, the old Persian word PARIDAEZA gained such intentional popularity that it became a loan word in Aramaic and Hebrew as well as Greek. The Hebrew word for Paradise is GAN, the word used in Genesis for the garden of Eden. In the Greek Old Testament (Septuagin0 the word PARADEISOS is used and Gen. 2:8 reads, "The Lord God planted a PARADISE eastward in Eden." It is not surprising that the Jew, during the Babylonian captivity, observed how many things about the paradise-parks of the king and the nobility resembled the story of the garden of Eden! There was the pure spring-fed stream, bounded by every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The Jew beheld the PARIDAEZA of his majesty, and thought of the flaming sword of the Shekinah and the guardian Cherubim at the entrance to the garden of the King of the universe! The Jewish captives knew of the flocks of sheep which grazed in the royal enclosure, feeding by the still waters, and thought of how beautifully they depicted Jehovah's sheep, over whom He was Shepherd as well as King! In short, the word PARADISE seemed a most fitting term for that wondrous realm where heaven met earth before Adam discovered his self-hood, and it was adopted into the Hebrew language by the post-exilic rabbis in particular to speak of the garden of God.
Beloved, these are but symbols, shadows, word pictures of grand and glorious SPIRITUAL REALITIES. Great and precious promises are given to the "overcomer"-- the overcoming one is promised a crown, a throne, a white stone, a new name, a feast of manna from a golden bowl, the fruit from the tree of life, and the privilege of becoming a pillar in the temple of God! He is, furthermore, promised entrance into the PARADISE OF GOD. But this does not mean that the overcoming sons of God will live in an earthly Paradise, nor does it signify a mansion just over the hill-top in some bright glory world above. This Paradise is far more than a piece of real estate somewhere over in the Middle East. The Paradise of God which is promised the saints of God is not a physical place or geographical location on this or any other planet. It is a STATE OF BEING. It is the state of being man was in when first he was brought forth from the creative hand of God and placed in splendor and infinite dominion here upon earth. The Paradise of God was the place where heaven and earth met together in the very person of Adam, the son of God. It is man living in the presence of God, walking in the mind of God, clothed with the glory of the incorruptible life of God, man living above sin, sickness, fear, pain sorrow and death, man as master and lord over all things! It is in THIS PARADISE OF THE SPIRIT that the overcomer eats of the tree of life!
During those moments of agony upon the cross, God ordained that one solitary first-fruit of Adam's race should be gathered from the world of sin and death and restored to the Paradise of God as wonderful proof that THE WAY WAS OPENED UP. It was the Spirit of God that moved upon the heart of this dying thief, causing him to turn his eyes upon the crucified Lord. There was a quickening, a rending of the veil of the carnal mind, and opening of the heavens above him, and in an instant his vision became clearer than that of all the multitude, and the soldiers, and the priests, and even the disciples. He saw in the Man hanging between him and his fellow thief, the Messiah, the Son of God, the last Adam, come to OPEN ANEW THE GATE OF THE PARADISE OF GOD.
That is why Jesus came--to open again to man the Paradise of God. He lived and moved and ministered from that Paradise all the years of His sojourn on earth. The pure river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb is again accessible as Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto ME, and drink. He that believeth on Me...out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (In. 7:37). The tree of life is now within constant reach as it is written, "This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is IN HIS SON" (I Jn. 5:11), and again, "He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shah he live: and he that liveth and believeth in Me SHALL NEVER DIE" (Jn.11:25-26). This tree is vibrantly and continuously bearing the fruit of His divine life in all who partake of it. The leaves of this wonderful tree are for the healing, the restoration of THE NATIONS. In this blest realm of Paradise, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the curse is removed, as it shall finally be in all the earth, for there shall be NO MORE CURSE. The throne of God and of the Lamb is with men--heaven and earth are united again. The river that flows from the throne of God flows from out of our innermost being, the Kingdom of God IN MAN. In this Paradise His servants serve Him, for they behold His face in the light that the Spirit brings. His name shall forever be in their foreheads, His nature reigning in their minds and hearts--only His will forever and ever. There is no night here in this city of living stones, for the never-ending day of the Lord has come. No need for the light of candies, or lamps, nor for the light of the sun or the moon, no external light of any kind is needed, for the glory of the Lord, the light of the SPIRIT floods the length and breadth of the city of God. God Himself has reconciled all unto Himself and HE GIVETH THEM LIGHT
TODAY! Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise, Jesus assured the thief. Oh, the wonder of it. "Today" did not signify a particular date on the calendar two thousand years ago. The word heralded the bringing in of a NEW DAY, a NEW DISPENSATION, a NEW PROVISION, a NEW ORDER, a NEW REALM OF LIFE AND VICTORY, GLORY AND POWER! Ah, today! Paradise! In this one notable statement Jesus reveals that the Garden of Eden, the Paradise of God, the high and holy estate from which man fell, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth was at last OPENED ANEW. Thank God--we can now enter! Today is THE DAY!
And yet, the mystery would not be complete apart from the knowledge that there is within us that which must die upon the cross NEVER TO LIVE AGAIN. The second thief died--and for him there was no repentance, no hope, no today or tomorrow, no offer of life, no promise of Paradise. He died to pass out of existence forevermore. Only by the spirit of revelation and understanding from above can we see that this bespeaks of the death of the carnal mind and of the law of sin and death in our members. The carnal mind is hopelessly blind to eternal things, pitifully helpless, and dreadfully full of death. The heart of the natural man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, NEITHER INDEED CAN BE. This explains why DEATH is necessary for our return to God. Death is the only way out of the world in which we are. It was by death to God that we fell out of God's world. And it is by death TO SIN AND THIS WORLD that we are delivered from the power of sin and death and the folly of the outer world. So--may I say-- you will never get out of this world alive!
Can we not see by this that there is that which must die to live and there is that which must die never to live again. Christ died to give us His life. The repentant thief represents that in man which must die to receive of HIS LIFE that it may live. Death alone, without ANOTHER LIFE, is not enough to bring us back to God's world. We need death to get out of this world, but we also must have the life of God to live in God's world! The soul of man is the receptacle of His life in the Spirit--in which union man's soul is redeemed, restored to the Paradise of God. This is the first thief. This thief dies to live by receiving the life of the Christ upon the cross in the midst. But the second thief represents that serpent in us which must forever be done away, whose head must be thoroughly crushed once and for all, the BODY OF SIN which is DESTROYED. "Knowing this, that' our old man IS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, that the body of sin might be DESTROYED, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is DEAD is freed from sin" (Rom. 6:6-7). Three crosses, three men, and three deaths. Oh, the mystery of it!
If you can see it, my beloved, the second thief is that work of the cross the apostle sets forth in Gal. 6:14, wherein he says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." There are vast multitudes of believers in the church systems today who may have grasped the concept of the death of Christ for them, and go about glibly declaring that Jesus died for them, and yet they do not even faintly perceive the fact that this also means that THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED UNTO THEM. When the Bible speaks of the world in the New Testament, it is not referring to planet earth nor to the created universe, not to the stars and clouds and mountains and flowers, but most always to the WORLD SYSTEM--to the corrupt system of this world order with all its evil devices, with all its vain and false and selfish and corrupt desires, its aims and goals and purposes, its self-centeredness and egotism. The "world" in scripture is this whole fleshly and carnal system that passes from father to child down through the centuries. The result of man's rebellion against the Spirit has been the establishment of a whole world system which the Spirit testifies is PASSING AWAY.
If we are God's elect the world has been crucified to us; it is dead. It is somewhat like a man who loves a woman. He greatly loves her but one day she dies, perhaps even in his arms. He looks down at her body which just a moment ago was warm and moving. Now all is still and silent. The light has gone from the eyes. Perhaps, if he really loved her, he might even yet smother her face with his kisses. Wait but an hour or so and that body will grow cold, and a little longer and it will no longer be soft, but now stiff and cold. Wait but a few days and it will begin to rot and stink. A ,week later one would not be able to stand to go into the room with it. That is what the Lord says should be happening in every believer's life concerning this whole world system, with all its vaunted success, all of its goals, with all of its economics, politics and religion. The world has already received at the cross, its death blow. Even its king, the devil, has received a wound in his forehead from which he will utterly perish. So this system is crumbling into oblivion. Even now you can smell the putrefaction of it. For the sons and daughters of the Most High it has lost its allurement with all its baubles and successes which men in the world count of great value and of high esteem.
Ray Prinzing commented on this passage: "While experimentally the world becomes crucified unto me-- so that we no longer have any desire for the things of the world, no lusting for friendship with the world, no latent feelings that can be awakened and stirred up by the world; to make it even more complete, 'I am crucified to the world.' Thus, as far as the world is concerned, you become dead to them also. They have no more desire for you--there is nothing in you that appeals to them, you are as useless to them as a corpse. You cease to exist in their realm. Don't be amazed, then, if they no longer seek you out or try to fellowship with you. Only those who are quickened to the same new life which you are receiving, can fellowship with you in that life. To all others you are a stranger and a foreigner."
In the Song of Solomon the King, beautiful type of God's corporate Son, Head and body, exclaims, "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me up to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense" (S. of S. 4:6). Myrrh in the scriptures is a figure of death, while frankincense is a figure of life, and was uniquely the fragrance of the Most Holy Place, the incorruptible realm of God. Beloved, THE CROSS IS THE MOUNTAIN OF MYRRH. It is not just a small amount of myrrh, but a great and eternal MOUNTAIN of this costly perfume. How many times we go up to the cross with our self-life as if it were mountains of grief and regret, of suffering and sighing, of rain and loss, and not a sweet and priceless fragrance unto God. How often when we take up our cross to go after Jesus, we follow Him moaning and repining at every step. All the fragrance of this precious mountain is lost when we go up reluctantly and grudgingly, or withholding something from death. Oh! let us go up with joy unspeakable and full of glory, exulting that we have been counted worthy to suffer and to follow in His footsteps, and that to us it has been granted to die to the vain spirit of this world, to the carnalit3,, childishness and abomination of the wretched religious systems, and to have our own fleshly minds, ambitions, desires and ways firmly nailed to the cross, to be gloriously alive unto God and exquisitely conformed to the image of God's beloved Son.
It is not enough to make an occasional trip up to the cross, for death must become a mountain to us, we must go there to stay until the day breaks and the shadows all flee away. It bespeaks of a STATE OF BEING. To BE DEAD is a STATE OF BEING. We must abide in the Lord's death. Today, many zealous christians have the wrong concept. They believe they must fast, weep, pray, and wait on the Lord in order to die. That is all good, but it is not death. To tarry at an altar is easy; to pray for a week is easy; even to fast for a month is easy; but to stay at the Mountain of Myrrh for a lifetime is not easy. We could all fast and pray for a long time without any sleep, but to stay in the Lord's death means that we so absolutely DIE to the flesh, the world, and the devil that we simply ARE DEAD. It is only then that the day breaks eternal and shadows of this earthy realm forever flee away. Let us open ourselves before the Lord. I do believe that we all have the sense that our Day is not yet fully broken. We all realize that there are still some haunting shadows of limitation, fear, lack of understanding and fleshliness about us. Even in our bodies, the lines, the gray hairs, the weakness, reveal that our bodies have not yet caught up to our spirit. No matter how much we say that we are the elect sons of God, sons of Light, sons of the Day, kings and priests of the Most High, living in the Holiest of all and feasting at the feast of Tabernacles, there is still the sense that we are not clearly in the Day. As long as we have such a realization we will spontaneously say, "UNTIL the day break, and the shadows flee away, I WILL GET ME UP TO THE MOUNTAIN OF MYRRH, AND TO THE HILL OF FRANKINCENSE." But, praise God, the Day is at hand!
J. PRESTON EBY
P O BOX 371240
El Paso Texas
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