|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Spirit of the Word - Covenant Eschatology - Introductory Note - New Stuff
CONTINUALLY TRANSFORMED
by Ray Prinzing"Yes, indeed, I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have lost everything, and value it all as mere refuse, in order to gain Christ and be actually in union with Him, not having a supposed right standing with God which depends on my doing what the law commands, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the real right standing with God which originates from Him and rests on real faith. Yes, I long to come to know Him; that is, the power of His resurrection and so to share with Him His sufferings as to be CONTINUOUSLY TRANSFORMED by His death, in the hope of attaining, in some measure, the resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead." (Philippians 3:8-11, Williams translation).
We have chosen this particular translation, by Charles B. Williams, because of its unique wording which so beautifully becomes the foundation for the truths which we would share. To count everything as loss compared with THE PRICELESS PRIVILEGE OF KNOWING HIM! To have in Christ A RIGHT STANDING that depends not on our doing, but IT ORIGINATES FROM HIM. Hence the vital need to BE FOUND IN UNION WITH HIM.
A tremendous transition is being wrought within us by the Spirit of God, as He leads us OUT OF OUR OWN SELF-WORKS, AND INTO HIS WORKS. "For we are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10).
Christendom has long promoted a doctrine of the Old Covenant order, based upon an "IF and THEN" arrangement. IF you do such and such, THEN you will be blessed by God. Eat your spinach, then you may have your dessert. But in the operation of the New Covenant, it is based upon a BECAUSE of Christ, THEREFORE we have life, therefore we have victory, to His praise.
The "IF and THEN" is replaced by a "BECAUSE and THEREFORE." How vastly superior is the NEW over the old. The "if" was dependent upon "us," but the "because" is dependent upon HIM. As we have repeatedly stated these past few years, the arrangement of the New Covenant is that GOD MAKES THE PROMISE BOTH FOR HIMSELF AND FOR US, saying, "I will ... and you shall." Of His "I WILL" we are certain-- His Word is true. The immutability of His counsel was revealed long ago to Abraham, when He gave him a promise "and confirmed it by an oath." (Heb. 6:17). Literally, "He interposed Himself," He placed Himself as the Guarantee of the promise. And now the "you shall" is wondrously certain, BECAUSE He makes the promise that "we shall." He takes full responsibility for our part, and assures its victory by imparting His holy Spirit to dwell within us-- to live out that which He has purposed. HE is the Guarantee for our "shall." Today our very system of belief is being challenged: do I truly believe that HE is my life? Am I in UNION WITH HIM, so that it is "no more I, but Christ lives in me?" All of the BECAUSE is found IN HIM, hence the necessity that we also be found in Him. "Without Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5).
In 2 Chronicles 6:26-27, Solomon prayed, "When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You; YET IF they pray toward this place, and confess Your name, and turn from their sin, when You afflict them; THEN HEAR from heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, and of Your people Israel, when You have taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and SEND RAIN upon Your land."
So God answers, "IF My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; THEN WILL I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14).
As long as any man is living by the "IF" and "THEN" principle, as found in these scripture passages, he is living in the OLD TESTAMENT ORDER, where the emphasis is placed FIRST UPON OUR DOING, and then upon GOD'S RESPONSE. IF you will pray, fast, seek My face, repent, turn from your evil-- do all these things, THEN WILL I hear, forgive, and bless, sending you the rain. So again and again we have taken our stand upon this promise/arrangement, and we set ourselves to go through all the religious exercises which we know to do, and we expect that having done our part, now God will do His.
"The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: and he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while you be with Him: and IF you seek Him, HE WILL be found by you; IF you forsake Him, HE WILL forsake you." (2 Chron. 15:1-2).
So Israel moved under the "IF" and "THEN." When their IF/action was right with God, His THEN/response was beneficial towards them. But when their IF/action was negative towards God, it followed that His THEN/response was negative toward them. So the promises were conditional upon their proper IF/action. This is found again and again in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 58 gives a long record of the IF/action, the things which they were to do in the kind of a FAST that God had desired of them, which if obeyed, "THEN shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rearward. THEN shall you call, and the Lord shall answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am." (v. 8-9).
And the list goes on, "IF you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and IF you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; THEN shall your light rise in obscurity, and your darkness be as the noon day." (v. 9-10).
One more verse, Zech. 3:7, "IF you will walk in My ways, and IF you will keep My charge, THEN you shall also judge My house, and shall also keep my courts, and I WILL give you places to walk among these that stand by."
Over and over again Christendom has searched out all the IF promises, tried to fulfill their requirements, in hope that the THEN of God would be their portion. And God in His great mercy has often responded to that "level" of faith, blessing those that sought Him, showing His mercy again and again. But total victory has never been ours-- because we were in the realm of the "in part," hoping that the THEN/response of God would honor our IF/action.
How we praise God for God's promise of a whole NEW ORDER, which is not based upon man's doing, but UPON GOD'S GRACE, with all the initiative action being on His part. The BECAUSE is in Him, He is the First Cause of all that is to follow, and it is not an "iffy" working at all, it is SURE.
With precious prophetic insight, Isaiah records, "I AM found of them that sought Me not: I said, BEHOLD ME, unto a nation that was not called by My name ..." (Isaiah 65:1).
Romans 9:26 affirms this, "And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not My people; there shall they be called the children of the living God."
How marvelous! The initiative becomes TOTALLY HIS! No longer is it limited to an "IF" and "THEN," but BECAUSE GOD, in His great mercy and love, reaches out to draw to Himself a people that weren't even looking for Him. Indeed, they didn't even know there was such a God to look for. Blind to spiritual reality, living in the darkness of self-will, they were unable to latch on to some "IF/action" that would bring them a "THEN GOD/RESPONSE" for they are without hope, without God in this world. Yet suddenly, "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined." (Isaiah 9:2). That, my beloved friend, IS GRACE! The sovereign grace of God!
Jesus also clearly affirmed this, saying, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him..." (John 6:44). Now we have a true BECAUSE-- BECAUSE GOD! Then follows the "THEREFORE we come unto Him." Our coming was initiated by God-- HIS DRAWING, His wooing, His love to us-ward. When He draws, you will come, for "Who has resisted His will?" (Rom. 9:26)
Furthermore, the Word yet stands, "In (with, by) Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order (rank, time)." (1 Cor. 15:22-23). It all originates in Christ, not out of our works. Thus we need to get OUT OF ourselves, and INTO HIM. To be found in Him! Or, as Williams translates it so beautifully, "IN UNION WITH HIM." This is a UNION, a ONENESS which is God-wrought as He receives us into Himself, to become ONE IN HIS LIFE.
The promise remains, "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (1 Cor. 15:49). For we are being "Changed into the same image from glory to glory, even AS BY the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor. 3:18). Wuest Expanded gives, "ACCORDING as this change of expression PROCEEDS FROM THE LORD, the Spirit." The change comes from Him, we cannot change ourselves. Jesus very pointedly asked, "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?" (Matthew 6:27). Men may try their "do-it-yourself-improvement" exercises, but they are useless as pertains to spiritual transformation. Only what PROCEEDS FROM THE LORD will produce the metamorphosis needed in each of us. The chorus goes ...
"Only Christ can transform me into the image of the Son,
Only He can take this helpless life and make it all His own,
Only He can open wide the gates of Heaven's grace and glory,
And cause my blinded eyes to see the wonders of His love."We love the challenge of the verse, Hebrews 6:1, "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection..."
First note the word "leaving," for it is a strong word in the Greek, and speaks of an utter forsaking, a separation-- leaving as behind and done with, in order to go on to another thing. The act of abandoning is the prerequisite to that of going on. One cannot go on without being separated from that to which we have been attached.
And what are we to leave? "The principles of the doctrine of Christ." The word "principles" is the Greek word for "beginning," and could perhaps be called the elementary stages. Taken in context with the preceding chapters of contrasting the old covenant order, with the new covenant order, we have a clear reference for the need to LEAVE THE TYPES AND SHADOWS, which are as an elementary word concerning Christ, that we might be carried along into a deeper understanding of His reality. The writer had already expressed his frustration concerning their "need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." (Heb. 5:12). Our first glimpse into some of these truths, as we see HIM concealed in all the types, shadows, symbols, signs, etc. is most thrilling, and for the time, satisfying, as a babe is satisfied with its milk-- but the time comes when we need to GROW UP INTO HIM WHO IS THE HEAD, and leave behind the old "IF and THEN" order, and come into the reality of the NEW COVENANT ARRANGEMENT, where it is GOD WORKING IN YOU, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Next, we note the words, "let us go on," from the Greek word "phero" which means: to carry or bear on." It speaks of being acted upon by some outside agent. We do not CARRY ourselves, any more than we can pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps. One could properly translate this as, "Let us be carried along." HE who initiated the action, first in calling us out, must also BEAR US ALONG and bring His work in us to a successful conclusion at His appointed time. This CARRYING US ON BY GOD is beautifully illustrated in the life of Israel, when God said to them, "You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I BARE YOU on eagle's wings, and brought you unto Myself." (Exodus 19:4). While it is true they had to walk out the path that God set before them, yet it is even more true that HE SUPPLIED ALL THE PROVISION FOR THE JOURNEY, sustaining them, keeping them, yes, BEARING THEM day by day, else they would never have survived the journey. So again we see the BECAUSE-- BECAUSE HE CARRIES US-- THEREFORE
we shall go on.Then we come to Hebrews 6:3, for, though we are challenged to LEAVE behind all the elementary, first stage message found in signs and symbols, and be borne along into new testament reality, yet he says, "And this will we do, IF GOD PERMIT." For the fact is, God may not permit a going on into deeper revelation, for there is a peril in a carnal reception of higher truth. "He that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation (or, a processing of correction, judgment) to himself." (1 Cor. 11:29). There is a peril in trying to go on, if we are not prepared to do so, qualified to receive added revelation. GOD KNOWS THIS! So while we might stand at the gate and cry for more revelation, He holds us there until we have been inwardly purged from that carnality which would mis-use the truth for our own destruction. Truth in unsanctified vessels often causes much harm. Thus, it is no wonder HE RESERVES THE RIGHT FOR OUR PROGRESSION, and it is as He works within and prepares us, that we are permitted to GO ON-- "According as this change of expression proceeds from the Lord, the Spirit." What love, what mercy, what grace is revealed in His tender care for each of us.
Truly, HE must purge us, stripping away all of the old, that He might bring us into the new. He is not applying a coating of the new to cover the old. If you try to write a new message over a previously written one, you end up with total confusion, and cannot rightly read either message. "No man also sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up takes away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man puts new wine into old bottles: else the new wine burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles." (Mark 2:21-22). That is a strong word! It verifies what the writer to the Hebrews brought out-- there must be an abandoning of the former, to be borne along into the new-- and it is GOD'S INWORKING ALL THE WAY. He knows the speed at which He can do the work in us, and, praise God, "GOD IS FAITHFUL, who will not suffer you to be tempted (tested) above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it." (I Cor. 10:13). It may be that betimes we are sure we cannot endure another stroke of processing, but HE KNOWS THAT HIS LIFE IN YOU IS EQUAL TO THE INWORKING, and so it is that BY HIS GRACE we are brought through, carried along to perfection.
In order to be CONTINUOUSLY TRANSFORMED, changed from glory to glory, it is essential that we "die out" to one realm, that we might rise up in the new. The transformation, metamorphosis, is a process best typified by the worm that becomes encased in a cocoon, and ultimately emerges a butterfly. it requires a DEATH to one existence, to come alive in the new. Some would like to skip part of the processing-- and just attach some butterfly wings to the old worm and forget the "cocoon" stage of the process, for that is too confining, too dark, too death working. But it is when "we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, (that) we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." (Rom. 6:5). You cannot have the latter without the former. The cross precedes the resurrection!
One who is DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS, cannot die "to" them, but he must first be "made alive," and then, having received power from the inflow of the Christ-life, he goes through the PROCESS OF DYING TO SELF. HE must enable us to take up our cross daily, and follow Him. Many who clamor for LIFE refuse this process, for it is to them that STRAIGHT GATE, and they cannot enter.
Paul prayed to go through the process enough so as-- "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection out from among the dead." (Phil. 3:11). Note the word "attain," from the Greek "katantao" meaning: to arrive; but it is made more intensive with the preposition "kata" that means: DOWN. In effect, he is saying, "That I may come down low enough that I might come up in the resurrection out from among the dead."
There is a COMING DOWN LOW ENOUGH-- which is a conformity to His death. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you THROUGH HIS POVERTY might be rich." Paul writes in 2 Cor. 8:9. Many prefer to write their own translation, causing it to read, "That we through His riches, His abundance, His prosperity, His life, His power, might be rich." They desire a transfer of His RICHES into their account without their sharing in His poverty.
We cannot firstly relate to Him in respect to His riches, but we certainly are learning to relate to Him in His poverty. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:3). How poor? "I can of mine own self do nothing." (John 5:30). "In His humiliation His judgment was taken away: and who shall declare His generation? for His life is taken from the earth." (Acts 8:33). There is an identification with Him in this depth of poverty, where we know that IN OURSELVES WE ARE NOTHING, being stripped of all gifts and graces, of all confidence in the flesh, so that we know that without Him there is no life-- thus, "I am crucified with Christ." So complete will be this inworking, that it will bring an end to all of the old creation order, and then BECAUSE OF HIS INFLOW OF LIFE we shall rise up, a new creation-- even a "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13).
It is written of our Lord, "Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, was heard in that He feared (literally, for His piety, His reverence)." (Hebrews 5:7).
Note: He was saved "FROM" death. There are two Greek words for "from." One is "apo" meaning: from the edge of; and the other, "ek" meaning: out from within. Here it is "ek", OUT OF. He went DOWN INTO DEATH and was saved out of it by the resurrection. He did by the grace of God taste death for every man." It was not just a fragmentary, symbolical involvement-- but HE EXPERIENCED IT TO THE FULL, and came out of it "conquering and to conquer."
Isaiah 53:9, "He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His deaths." The Hebrew text gives the word "death" in plural form, intensifying the force and the dimensions. But whatever the vast scope of death might be, HE CONQUERED, and rose again, to be Lord both of the dead and the living. And it is now IN HIM that we shall find our fulness of life. The power of His resurrection shall work in us, continuously transforming us, until we are totally one in His image, likeness, and nature. Praise God!
Now it is all BECAUSE OF CHRIST-- THEREFORE we shall live and do. "BECAUSE I live, (THEREFORE) you shall live also."
(John 14:19).To Adam was the proclamation given, Hebrew text, "Dying you shall die." (Gen. 2:17). And the whole process of death works until the physical body is laid in the grave. Now JESUS REVERSES THE PROCESS, changing us from glory to glory-- in a continuous transformation until we are complete in Him. And as in Him, so also in us, it was by death that He conquered death and destroyed all the ultimate harvest of death. For now it is BY DYING to self, sin, the world, etc. that we conquer those realms, and then BECAUSE OF HIS LIFE we rise up-- going "from strength to strength, (until) every one of them in Zion appears before God." (Psalm 84:7).
It is one thing to preach CHRIST CRUCIFIED, and our identification and conformity to His deaths; but it is something else to declare CHRIST RISEN, HIS HEADSHIP, and our identification with Him in these realms of glory. For "It is in Him that all the fulness of Deity continues to live embodied, and THROUGH UNION WITH HIM you too are filled with it." (Col. 2:9-10, Williams)
BECAUSE OF CHRIST-- THEREFORE-- yet how little we know of this "THEREFORE."
It is "according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved. IN WHOM we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." (Eph. 1:5-7). IN WHOM-- BECAUSE OF-- the riches of His grace-- no more "if" and "then," because our own self-works are nullified, ended, dealt with by the cross. Now it is all IN HIM and BY HIM. All that we have is IN HIM, and only in the measure that we are also IN HIM do we enjoy the fulness of this life, glory, blessing, victory, etc.
"Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." (Matt. 13:45-46). In our surrender to Him we offer up ALL the gifts and graces, the blessings, the goodly pearls that we have bought-- and they were goodly pearls, and every one cost a price, yet now because we desire that ONE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE we are ready to offer up all of these goodly pearls, that we might obtain that ONE PEARL. How great that price is in every individual life, only God knows; and what to you is that certain special pearl, only God knows; but ONENESS IN OUR LORD, UNION WITH THE FATHER, to become IN HIM a life-giving spirit, is certainly a pearl of great price-- indeed, it will cost you your all. And yet we read "In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is LESS THAN NOTHING compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us." (Rom. 8:18, Phillips). All the PRICE-- the inworkings of the cross, etc. are not to be compared with the glory, for they are less than nothing. It is not what we have paid, but BECAUSE OF HIM-- because of His grace, THEREFORE-- and now we are being continuously transformed, to receive of His THEREFORE! Amen!
BACK - Spirit of the Word - Covenant Eschatology - Introductory Note - New Stuff