Sunday, we looked at how God keeping a Secret, the Mystery, destroyed the informational, organizational and power structures of Satan's whole usurpation of the cosmos that operated in accord with the mind of Satan, and replaced them with structures of His Own re-created cosmos that operate in accord with the Mind of Christ.

DESTROYING THE OLD COSMOS

When Paul writes to the Corinthians, he describes the “world” as a dangerous place in constant enmity against God and His people. To do this Paul bounces back and forth between two Greek words: “cosmos” and “aion.” The KJV translates both Greek words with the single English word: “world.” While being near synonyms, they are not, however, exact synonyms, so it is helpful to distinguish them as the NKJV does, which translates the former with the word “world” and the latter with the word “age.”

“Age” is a period of indefinite duration that is known for what characterizes it, in this case: EVIL. It is a present age characterized by evil and darkness (Gal. 1:4; Eph. 6:12), and it is not to be conformed to (Rom. 12:2). “Cosmos,” however, especially has to do with the arrangement or order of the universe, the standards and practices of creation, which in this present evil age, are under the rule of malevolent powers and principalities (Col. 1:16‑17) and their Prince, Satan (Eph. 2:2; 6:12). Together, they paint a bleak picture of a universe (“cosmos”) stolen away from God, filled with hostile forces under the rule of Satan, operating in accord with his mindset that has produced this evil “age” in which we live.

The Corinthians needed to realize that as believers they were taken out of the old “cosmos” centered in Satan and placed into God's new, re-claimed, restored, re-created “cosmos” centered in Christ. They also needed to appreciate that what brought them to this good outcome was Paul's Gospel, the preaching of the Cross in the context of the Mystery, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes (Rom. 16:25; 1 Cor. 1:18; Rom. 1:16). The work of God at the Cross of Christ was so powerful that it alone brought Satan and his cohorts--human and angelic--and his whole plan of evil throughout the AGES to NOTHING. Therefore, nothing should be added to it. Of course, not the things of the world, but not even the things in God's Prophetic Program with Israel like water baptism (1 Cor. 1:10‑17) or the Law (Gal. 3) either. One of Satan's trickiest deceptions is making us think that we can add things to Pauline Grace that will help God and Paul out, that will advance its message. But the truth is that anything—ANYTHING AT ALL—added to Paul's Gospel always--100% of the time, NO EXCEPTIONS--subtracts from it, and will ultimately destroy it (1 Cor. 1:17).

God caught Satan and all his associates in their own web of deceit (1 Cor. 3:18‑20), destroying them, and Paul's Gospel makes it known to the whole WORLD:

1. 1 Cor. 1:18‑25: Through the Cross, God destroyed the whole informational structure of the cosmos under the rule of Satan and his cohorts in this present evil age. Once God revealed this message to Paul, and he preached no other messages mattered. The Greeks and Romans had reached the high point of human wisdom--philosophy, mathematics, science, literature, civics, government, etc.—and even if you take all that, put it all together into one giant mass ... it was still not powerful enough to bring even one person closer to God, let alone save any sinners. Then, Paul came stumbling through town preaching the “foolishness” (by the world's standards) of a Savior who died on the Cross for sinners ... and it was powerful enough to save everyone who believed, bringing them into a permanent, right relationship with God forevermore (1 Cor. 1:21)! Where indeed are the messages of the wise, the scribes, the disputers of the world in the light of God's Good News proclaimed by Paul? NOWHERE. They are exposed for what they really are: NOTHING. They disappear like a puff of smoke.
2. 1 Cor. 1:26‑31: Through the Cross, God destroyed the organizational structure of the cosmos under the rule of Satan and his cohorts in the present evil age. God takes the foolish, the powerless, the abased of Satan's world, who have received the preaching of the Cross in faith and uses them to bring to nothing the wise, mighty and noble of Satan's world, who think they don't need the Cross and reject it in unbelief. In short, the Cross takes those who are NOBODIES by the world's standards and makes them SOMEBODIES by God's standards. And He takes the SOMEBODIES by the standards of this evil age and makes them NOBODIES in God's AGE to come.
3. 1 Cor. 2:1‑8: Through the Cross, God destroyed the power structure of the cosmos under the rule of Satan and his cohorts in the present evil age. God kept His solution to the usurpation of creation by Satan secret since the world began, since before the AGES, until He revealed it to and through the Apostle Paul (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:1-11) and made known that through the Cross He would overthrow the power structures that were filled with the mindset of Satan (Ezek. 28; Is. 14) and replaced them with His own power structures that were filled with the Mindset of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:6‑8). In the great pride of his own so-called, self-assumed “wisdom,” Satan never guessed that God would re-claim His Creation through the Cross! That's just too foolish!! Nor did he ever figure out that God would not use the “good” angels to re-claim the Heavenly realm, but a secret IN-CHRIST group of redeemed humanity called the Body of Christ! That was just too absurd!! God caught him in his own web of deceit, that brought about his destruction and with him all that is associated with him.

So, you Corinthians, don't be ashamed of Paul's Gospel in the context of the Mystery! Rather, proclaim it boldly!

We looked at God's Good News of the Mystery proclaimed through the Apostle Paul. It manifested some things that had never before been manifested. We also gave a short simple refresher on the basics of rightly-dividing the Bible.

Right-Division Made Simple

Sometimes people tell me that rightly-dividing the Bible is too complicated. I will always push back a little by saying that if it seems complicated it is only because we have been taught so many wrong things about the Bible that when the right things come along, we don't recognize them. For the most part we have been taught to go to the Bible not to hear what God has to say but to hear what we want God to say, reducing the Bible to little more than a superstitious “Christian” Ouija board. We make God's Word mean whatever we want it to mean and think we are being spiritual in doing so.

Rightly-dividing, however, lays down the ground rules to hear what God is saying. What God wants to tell us, instructing, correcting, rebuking us, leading us along in a walk that pleases Him. Rightly-dividing is SIMPLE, and I'm going to prove it right now with a refresher on the basics of right-division, starting with a summary chart, which will be followed with some brief explanatory notes.

Let's put it all together:

1. Paul's Epistles were written specifically to and about us today in the Dispensation of Grace. They explain God's Mystery Program with the Body of Christ to re-establish His Glory in the Heavenlies. To accomplish this, God is now manifesting His Righteousness in saving His enemies based on the Crosswork of Christ (ungodly sinners on enemy status before Him—Rom. 3:21-25; 5:1-11) because He has no friends, thereby manifesting how all sinners going all the way back to Adam were individually, personally justified before God and His Tribunal. It was always, is always and will always be by Grace through Faith WITHOUT works.
2. The NON-Pauline Scriptures, however, were written to and about the Nation of Israel. They explain God's Prophetic Program with the Nation of Israel to re-establish His Glory on the Earth. To accomplish this, God invites those who have already been justified before God and His Tribunal by faith without works (believing Israel) to participate in another justification, this time before Christ at His 2nd Coming by faith plus works for entrance into the Millennial Kingdom and obtaining a privileged position there. This manifests God's Righteousness in saving His friends (believing Israel and believing Gentile friends) and destroying His enemies (apostate Israel and unbelieving Gentiles) in accord with the Abrahamic Covenant, resulting in the establishment of God's righteous Kingdom on Earth.

As someone has said: The whole Bible is for us, but Paul's Epistles are written specifically to and about us today. When we read the NON-Pauline Scriptures, we are reading someone else's mail. We can learn from it. We can gain patience, comfort and hope from it (Rom. 15:4‑7), but for this to happen, we MUST rightly-divide it, understanding the role of Christ's earthly ministry and the ministry of Peter and the 12 (Rom. 15:8), the Old Testament whereby Gentiles received God's blessings with Israel and through her RISE (Rom. 15:9‑12) and, finally, the ministry of our Apostle Paul whereby today the world, especially the Gentiles, is now receiving God's blessing apart from Israel and through Her FALL.

Sunday, we looked at God's wise and prudent Creation plan, and how He is going to re-claim Creation unto His Own Glory centered in Christ. Amazingly, God has given us-in-Christ (the Body of Christ) a part to play in that, an inheritance in that! And the Mystery tells us what that is!

Sunday, we began looking at what, exactly, are the “all things” in Eph. 1:10, and how do they relate to our sonship inheritance in Eph. 1:11.

Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, today in the Dispensation of Grace we receive our sonship position the moment we believe. This sonship position provides us with everything we need to fulfill God's purpose for us, making us into the reflectors of His Glory, especially in the Heavenlies. It might be thought we have to wait until we get to Heaven and receive our resurrection body to do this, but God and Paul say otherwise. Of course, receiving our resurrection bodies like unto His without indwelling sin, perfectly equipped for our Heavenly purpose is the capstone wonder of our sonship position (Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14), but we can begin using our sonship position RIGHT NOW, today, down here on Earth.

In Pauline Grace Mystery Truth, God has made known His creation purpose and His business plan. He has brought us into the eternal councils of the Triune Godhead (Eph. 1:3-14) so that we could begin to participate in His Mystery Program for the Body of Christ RIGHT NOW, today. RIGHT NOW, today, God has given us all we need to walk in the good works He prepared beforehand in eternity past that us-in-Christ are to participate in as members of the Body of Christ in His Mystery Program to re-establish His Glory in the Heavenlies.

When we do that, when we operate in accord with our sonship position in Christ through the Spirit, we can RIGHT NOW, today, begin to do what all creation will do in the future (Eph. 1:10): Be the displayers of His exceedingly great Glory—the reflectors of the exceeding riches of His Grace, Mercy, Love, Kindness and Goodness toward lost, hopeless, sinners like us (Eph. 2:4‑7)— and the proclaimers of His manifold Wisdom that penetrates unto the powers and principalities not just on Earth but in the Heavenly realm as well (Eph. 3:9).

And we can begin doing this: RIGHT NOW, today!

Sunday, we looked at what, exactly, the “all things” in Eph. 1:10 are. What does it mean to say God is going to re-establish His Glory in the Heavenlies through His Mystery Program for the Body of Christ?

What Are The ALL THINGS of Eph. 1:10?

Sometimes it is hard for us as members of the Body of Christ to have a clear idea of what it means to be participants in God's Mystery Program to re-establish His Glory in the Heavenlies centered in Christ (Eph. 1:10, 20‑22). Creation doctrine can help us. In human terms, God constructed and furbished the universe as we would construct a building, specifically perhaps a Temple, He laid its foundations, determined its dimensions, measured it with a ruler, put up curtains, anchored its footings, and perfectly centered it around His cornerstone (Job. 38:4‑6; Is. 40:12; Prov. 8:22-31; Ps. 104:3, 5; 118:22). He constructed the building of this temple of the universe in steps or stories (1 Kgs. 10:19, Ezek. 40:6) , or what we would call floors (Amos 9:6). We could liken this to a modern-day skyscraper where some of the floors reside in the visible Earthly realm while others ascend above the clouds into the invisible Heavenly realm. The view on the 1st floor is very different indeed from the view 163rd floor (Burj Khalifa in Dubai).

When God created His “building” of the universe, He also created its organizational structure that identified all its positions of powers and principalities, authorities and rulers necessary to rule His universe. His plan was to fill those positions with His Own intelligent creation—humans in the Earthly Realm and angels in the Heavenly Realm. But we know that while this creation started out very good (Gen. 1:31), it didn't stay that way. Satan and the angelic creation had fallen, marring God's Glory in the Heavenlies (Is. 14; Ezek. 28). Then Adam and the human creation fell, marring God's Glory on Earth (Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12ff). Satan instigated and used these falls to ascend and ascend, vainly imagining he could be like the Most High God; that he could usurp the LORD God and be the Possessor of Heaven and Earth; that he could center it all around Himself, filling its organizational positions of power with his own followers.

God, however, wasn't going to allow this to be the final verdict. He decided to re-claim His Creation unto Himself, the rightful Possessor of Heaven and Earth, and center it in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:10). Through passages like Ps. 2 and Is. 6-:1-12, we know how He will re-claim the powers, rulers and principalities on earth at His 2nd Coming by removing rebellious fallen human creation from those positions of power, replacing them with His Own redeemed human creation, the members of the Nation of Israel. At that time, Christ will rule as King from His throne in Jerusalem, and through the princes of Israel, He will rule all the nations on the Earth in the long-prophesied Millennial Kingdom (Ps. 2; Is. 60). This will bring to completion God's Prophetic Program with the Nation of Israel to re-establish His Glory on earth.

There was no mystery/secret in this. In fact, how God would re-claim the Earthly Realm had been spoken about since the world began (Lk. 1:70; Acts 3:21). How He was going to re-claim the Heavenly Realm unto His Glory, however, He had kept secret throughout all eternity past and human history until He raised up the Apostle Paul and revealed it to him (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:1-10). Through the Revelation of the Mystery, God made known the secret councils of the Triune Godhead in eternity past. It reveals how He was going to re-establish His Glory in the Heavenlies, astonishingly, not through the good angels (as one would guess), but through another group of redeemed humanity called the Body of Christ (something completely unexpected)!

God's pre-ordained plan calls for two IN-CHRIST groups of redeemed humanity—one perfectly provisioned to operate on Earth (the restored Nation of Israel) and the other in Heaven (the Body of Christ). No wonder Paul, after explaining the Mystery, exclaims: O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom. 11:33-36; Eph. 1:8-10). As members of the Body of Christ, we were made alive and raised together with Christ and were seated together with Christ in the Heavenlies in Christ (Eph. 2:4‑6), and He is seated at the right hand of the Father (Eph. 1:20). As our Head, we, His Body, reside at His feet where He will us to put all things—the whole organizational power structure of the Heavenly realm—under His feet (Eph. 1:20‑23; 2:6‑7; Phil. 3:20).

God was victorious because His Son was willing to do something for His creation in Love that Satan would never have done in his selfish pride. God the Son descended, descended, descended unto death, even the death of the Cross whereby God exalted Him above all things—all powers and principalities both on Earth and in the Heavenlies (Phil. 2:6‑11)! What a wonderful Savior we Have!! Such is our heavenly calling, hope and purpose (Phil. 3:20‑21). If we understand and appreciate this, God will have replaced our limited, finite, earthly viewpoint with His Own eternal, infinite and heavenly viewpoint, and that CHANGES EVERYTHING!

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered in Christ now just in the future, but right now in our daily walk with Christ.

THE STARTING POINT OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY

Spiritual maturity begins with understanding and appreciating and enjoying the fact that salvation isn't our way to get God involved in our things and to do what we want! Salvation is God's way to get us involved in His things and to do what He wants, which is FAR GREATER! The former is little more than pagan superstition dressed up in “Christian” verbiage while the latter is true biblical Christianity from God's Word rightly-divided. The former puts the focus on the self and makes God out to be our servant. The latter puts the focus on God, Christ and His Cross, and makes us His servants (Rom. 6:11-23).

In the last half of Romans 1, we are told that God handed rebellious fallen humanity over 3 times to other masters and powers like the lusts of their darkened hearts and their vain reprobate minds, like sin and death (Rom. 1:18-32). He couldn't use them as they were, so He excluded them from His things and from what He was doing. But by the time we get Rom. 6, there is a startling reversal. Now, believers, redeemed sinners saved from the plight of fallen humanity, are told they have been handed over again, this time to a form of doctrine, a body of truth, what we call Pauline Grace Mystery Truth: God's Good News through Paul, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the Mystery (Rom. 16:25), and in accord with that truth, we are kept eternally secure in the love of God in Christ (Rom. 8:35‑39; Col. 3:1‑4). But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered (Rom. 6:17 NKJV). God's salvation provided through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:21‑24) is God's way of bringing humanity back into His plans and purposes, so that they can be involved in His things and do what He wants!

When we understand this, that salvation is God's way of involving us in His things not our way to involve Him in our things, it changes and reprioritizes everything. It replaces our limited, finite, earthly, human viewpoint with God's infinite, heavenly, eternal, divine viewpoint. It revolutionizes our prayer life so that instead of wasting it trying to get God to do things that He is not doing today--like removing our problems, supplying material physical blessings, etc., causing us to despair and wonder why when He doesn't--instead we will spend it talking with Him about how He can use us, and how we can serve Him in the midst of problems and difficulties, relying on Him to empower us in the midst of our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul explains that trials and tribulations aren't signs of God's displeasure with us. When bad things happen He is not withholding His love or blessings. They are not reasons for discouragement and despair, that cause us to question the sufficiency of His blessings and even His faithfulness. Rather, they are opportunities for hopeful service, opportunities for God to powerfully work in and through us to serve Him in the midst of weakness (Rom. 5:1‑5).

In short, it puts everything into perspective so that we can say with Paul: For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). Afterall, all our things are going to be left behind at death. The only things that really matter are the things that go beyond the grave with us, and the only things that can do that are God's things. Someone told the story about a reporter at John Rockefeller's funeral who asked one of his sons how much his father left behind. Expecting the son to give a dollar value, the reporter was surprised when the son actually responded with: ALL OF IT! All that really matters is our relationship with God and our involvement in His things, which can't be lost, are eternally secure and go on forever.

That is why it is so important to BOLDLY proclaim Pauline Grace Mystery Truth! For in that form of doctrine, that body of truth, we find the things that God is actually doing today. There, and there alone, we have the FULL-knowledge (eipgnosis) of what God is doing today (Col. 1:9), and how He has involved us in it unto His Glory!

In conclusion, God is not your co-pilot, nor is He your business partner, nor is thinking so spiritual; it is just fleshly and carnal. God is the One Supreme Creator of the Universe—and we ought to treat Him as such.

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now, today, by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in Phil. 3. For Paul, “seeing” Christ changed everything. It moved everything in the asset/credit/gain column in the ledger book of his life to the liability/debit/loss column. And that's what God and Paul are trying to accomplish with us in the Book of Ephesians.

REMEMBER: Paul explains to us in Phil. 1 that while the difficulties of life may hinder our ability to participate in our own things, they do not hinder our ability to accomplish God's things, in fact, they enhance it. Paul learned that lesson and wants us to learn it. Contrary to human wisdom and worldly knowledge, we don't need to be strong to serve the Lord strongly. Paul discovered that in reality: When I am weak, then I am strong (IN-CHRIST) (2 Cor. 12:10)!

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Philippians. For Paul, “seeing” Christ changed everything. He concludes the letter with a short but powerful instruction manual for the Victorious Christian Living (Phil. 4:4-9).

Victorious Christian Living In A Nutshell

Paul closes Philippians with a short instruction manual for victorious Christian living. He gathers everything he had said in the first 3 chapters and summarizes them in a succinct but profound way. To establish and maintain ongoing unity in the assembly (Phil. 4:1-3), the Philippians needed to operate according to the Mind of the Lord, the Mind of Christ, serving God by serving others selflessly in love unto edification (Phil. 2).

RIGHT LIVING (Phil. 4:4‑6a):

1. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice! Have a proper response and attitude toward God (Phil. 4:4).
2. Let your moderation (gentle forbearance) be known unto all (the Lord is at hand)! Have a proper response and attitude to others (Phil. 4:5).
3. Be careful/anxious for nothing within yourself (Phil. 4:6). Have a proper response and attitude toward yourself.

Well, that all sounds good but how do I do it? I'm anxious all the time ... and when I'm anxious I despair and treat others unkindly ... and when I despair I don't think I have anything to rejoice in the Lord about!. It's impossible. I can't do it. You're right! You can't do it. Only God working in and through you can do it, and this comes from:

RIGHT PRAYER: In everything—every situation and all circumstances (Phil. 4:6b-7):

1. Prayer—talking, communing with God about Him and HIS THINGS--centered on praise and rejoicing, thanking Him for all that He has done, is doing and will do with us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Supplications—assuming our weakness and creaturely dependence upon God, relying on and trusting in Him, seeking His power, recognizing that we can do nothing apart from Him (Phil. 2:13; 3:10).
3. Let your requests be made known to God—Notice that the verb is in the passive voice. That means it is not us directly making the requests. Someone or something else is making the requests. Let me repeat that: IT IS NOT US DIRECTLY MAKING THE REQUESTS! It is not us bursting into God's presence saying and requesting whatever foolish nonsense comes out of our mouths. No, the requests are generated by our prayerful rejoicing, praising and thankfulness in creaturely dependence upon God through the Holy Spirit to produce requests that are according to God's will: Requests that look to advance God's things (NOT our things!—Phil. 1) and that ask to benefit the things of others unto edification (WITHOUT considering our own things!—Phil. 2). Or as Paul says earlier in the epistle: through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, Paul would be “saved” from dishonoring his ministry and God in the midst of adversity (Phil. 1:19). This is Rom. 8:26‑27 in action!
4. And when this happens, the Peace of God that goes beyond our understanding (that's why the Spirit needs to generate our requests through prayerful praise—see pt. #3 above!), guarding and safekeeping our hearts and minds (Phil. 3:1).

All of this is great, but it just leads to another important question. How do we know what to praise God for? How do we know why we should rejoice in the Lord? What are we talk to God about? What are we supposed to thank God for? In short, where do we find the content for our prayers? Paul answers this question in the next verses by explaining that RIGHT LIVING flows out of RIGHT PRAYER, and RIGHT PRAYER flows out of RIGHT THINKING (Phil. 4:8‑9)!

RIGHT THINKING:

1. Think on these things: Things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, praiseworthy. THINK on them in a detailed manner. Meditate on them! Reason according to them! Make all the calculations of life based on them!

But what are these wonderful things? Where do we find them? Where do we learn about them? Where are we instructed in them? One reformed theologian suggested that Paul was referring to the great and beautiful accomplishments of humanity like those you find in the Art Museum or in a moving Symphony; or they are found in the beauty of mathematical theorems or nature. But this is all nonsense! This comes from a man-centered theological system that has gone haywire. How can I be so certain? So dogmatic? Because I can read the next verse:

2. THOSE THINGS which ye have both learned and received, heard and seen in me—PAUL—do—commit to, operate according to by following my, PAUL'S, instructions! God's good and true and lovely things that are to occupy our thoughts, renew our minds and re-create our hearts are found in Pauline Grace Mystery Truth (PGMT), Paul's Scriptures! It is there, and only there, that we find the things that God is doing today—the things that are important to Him.
3. PGMT brings us into the very presence of the God of Peace.

Let's summarize the path to Victorious Christian Living:

1. It all begins with RIGHT THINKING that comes from minds renewed with PGMT because that is what brings us into the presence of the God of Peace and reveals to us His things.
2. Once we are in His presence we can commune with God, praising and thanking Him, talking to Him about ways to advance HIS THINGS for the benefit OTHER PEOPLE'S THINGS (NOT OUR OWN THINGS) in creaturely dependence upon Him, resulting in the Peace of God guarding our hearts and minds.
3. And when that happens, we are continually rejoicing in the Lord, responding to others through gentle forbearance and operating free of anxiety that comes from self-absorption. In short, this is faith (which comes from PGMT) working through love. The very definition of Pauline Grace agape love is NOT considering one's own things but considering the things of others unto their edification in God's things (Phil. 2:3‑4; 1 Cor. 10:24, 33; er al.).

AND THIS IS THE VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE.

RIGHT THINKING based on PGMT produces RIGHT PRAYER selflessly centered on God, His things and the things of others, which produces RIGHT LIVING in every facet of our lives.

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Philippians. For Paul, “seeing” Christ changed everything. Once he met Christ, everything thing he had previously put into the gain/asset column was instantly and eternally moved to the loss/debit column and some even to the dung column.

The WORST Thing We Can Do and a Cautionary Tale or Two

The worst thing we can do as believers is to add something—ANYTHING—to Pauline Grace Mystery Truth (PGMT). I know, we add things because we think we need to help God out a little. We add the world's business methods, the world's entertainment, the world's measures of success, to PGMT and run our churches accordingly. We think that if we can use these fleshly things, it will bring in more people to preach the Gospel to. We'll chalk one up for God.

But listen to my cautionary tale and be forewarned. I grew up in a “Grace” church where the pastor taught God's Word rightly-divided, recognizing Paul's distinct apostleship. But that church wasn't content with just proclaiming Paul's Gospel, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the Mystery. They wanted to “grow.” According to the wisdom of the world: If you are not growing you are dying! So, they put on an addition and enlarged the parking lot, brought in professional music and entertainment, and added countless programs, and guess what? It worked. Pretty soon there were 1200+ attendees on a Sunday morning. Soon, the pews were filled with people and the coffers were filled with money. The church was full of people who were coming for the music and entertainment, activities for themselves and their children, but who had very little interest in that Pastor's unique message of PGMT.

The music and entertainment kept on growing, growing, growing, and the programs kept multiplying, multiplying, multiplying, and they were run more and more by people who had little or no sound doctrine. The corollary of this was that the preaching of PGMT grew less and less until one day, a day that turned my whole life upside down and inside out, it was completely snuffed out, and the Pastor left. All the noise covered over any attempt to boldly proclaim the Mystery. The music stayed! The entertainment stayed! The programs stayed! But the Grace message was kicked out.

To add anything to PGMT is to enter a law system, a system that tries to advance God's things or our position before Him by using methods and measures that operate according to the flesh rather than the Spirit. Perhaps, like the church I grew up in, we do this by bringing in professional music and programs, swamping the bold proclamation of PGMT (Eph. 6:19‑20) and silencing it. Or like the 2nd Grace Church I went to that added a certain brand of politics to PGMT. Pretty soon more was being taught about politics than about Paul's Gospel, resulting in its self-destruction. And then there was the 3rd Grace church I went to that added the KJVO to its teaching of PGMT, taking the focus off Christ and putting it on the KJVO controversy. Wow, I was really on a losing streak. But I thank God that I did eventually find a Grace church that just taught PGMT with as little distraction and contamination as possible and was, like the Apostle Paul, just content with that.

In our worldly wisdom, and human knowledge we think adding these kinds of things that the flesh can do to help God out will advance God's things and improve our position before Him. But they never do! No exceptions: NEVER! They always diminish PGMT and ultimately ruin it, and it goes back to the very days of Paul himself.

By the time you get to Romans 14, Paul had already given 13 chapters of doctrinal instruction, explaining that justified before God through Christ is by faith and grace (ie., not by the works of the Law through the flesh—Rom. 1-4); that we are sanctified and glorified by being created anew in Christ, made members of His new humanity called the Body of Christ (ie., NOT the Nation of Israel—Rom. 5-8); and that God has set aside His Prophetic Program with the Nation of Israel temporarily while He carries out His Mystery Program for the Body of Christ (ie., don't go back to God's Prophetic Program with Israel and its Scriptures without rightly-dividing them!).

So, guess what some in the assembly were doing. Surprise, surprise, they were taking PGMT and adding things from Israel's Law system to it. No doubt, they were thinking they were helping God out when, in fact, they were bringing the assemblies in Rome to destruction. Paul's teaching may be a good place to start, but if you really want to be spiritual you need to add things from the Law to it. But the instant you go under a law system—any law system—yes, the Mosaic Law, but also all those other religious and theological law systems that have cropped up in historic Christianity as well—the instant you go under it, you're either going to be honest and cry out like Paul, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?; and immediately throw the law system away and fall on the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone (Rom. 7:24‑25)! Or, more likely, you become a hypocrite, hand selecting bits and pieces of the Law that your flesh can keep, then bragging in it when it keeps it, pretending a superiority over others, or, as Paul says in another passage: Biting and devouring one another, take heed lest you consume one of another (Gal. 5:15)!

Contrary to traditional teaching, in Rom. 14, Paul isn't now coming along, after 13 chapters of in-depth instruction, telling them in chapter 14 that if they don't like what he wrote to them in the previous chapters, they can ignore it and do whatever they want. As long as you are sincere God and the rest of us will just have to go along. The problem in Rome was that there were believers in Rome, whom Paul calls weak believers (ones weak in PGMT—mostly of a Jewish background), that needed to be corrected otherwise the assemblies in Rom would divide and be destroyed just as it has throughout historic Christianity. It is that important, extremely important!

The issue Paul is talking about in Rom. 14-15 is whether or not the weak believers should be corrected—YES, THEY SHOULD! The question is HOW were they to be corrected? So far, the strong believers (ones strong in PGMT—mostly Gentile background) were trying to correct them by ridiculing and demeaning them. Paul rebukes the strong for this, reminding them that these are people Christ died for (Rom. 14:15). Paul instructs the strong that the right way to correct the weak believers was to in love take them under the arm, bringing them along gently, so they can teach them how to RIGHTLY-DIVIDE their Scriptures, building them up in God's truth for today (Rom. 15:1-22). Once the weak believers received and understood that, they would be taught by God that the things of Israel and her Law must NOT now be added to PGMT. Our completeness and spirituality does not come from who we are and what we do, but who Christ is and what He has done for and with us.

Let's watch how adding the Mosaic Law System (or any other law system!) according to the flesh to PGMT ruins and destroys everything:

1. We'll concede Paul's preaching is a good start, but just a start (Gal. 3:1‑3).
2. One group comes along, desiring to be more spiritual and feel closer to God, and they add the Law's food regulations to Paul's teaching (Rom. 14:2). We feel SUPER-spiritual now!
3. Then others come along not content with that level of spirituality, so they not only add the Law's food regulations, but observe Israel's Feast Days as well (Rom. 14:5‑6). They are SUPER-SUPER-spiritual!!
4. Then others come along, wanting to one-up that. They not only follow the Law's food regulations and observe the Feast Days, they also keep some of the Law's more esoteric commands, like not drinking wine in accord with the Nazarene vows (Rom. 14:21). They are SUPER-SUPER-SUPER-spiritual!!!
5. And then others come along wanting to hit the ball way out of the spiritual park. Yes, we keep the food regulations, feast days and other esoteric commands, but we have been circumcised as well (Gal. 5:1-10)! Try to one-up that one! We are SUPER-SUPER-SUPER-SUPER-SUPER-spiritual!!!!!

Such is the futility of a law system according to the flesh, and its self-aggrandizing destructive power. We MUST NOT add anything to Pauline Grace Mystery Truth. Entering a law system according to the flesh is the very opposite of: But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (ie., NOT in the flesh-- 1 Cor. 1:30-31).

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. Once Paul met Christ, his existence went through a seismic shift that made Christ the center of his life, and the sole source of his joy. But he warns the Philippians that there are things and people who want to steal away their joy in the Lord and rip it to pieces. One key thought: The moment we add something to Pauline Grace is the moment we say Christ is not enough!

LAW MYTH #1

Law Myth #1: God wanted Israel to enter the Mosaic Law System according to the flesh whereby when they obeyed they would receive its blessings and when they didn't, they received its curses.

This is not true. Israel entered the Law according to the flesh in rebellion against God in the rejection of the Grace resident in His I AM Jehovah LORD Name (Ex. 19:8). While God had introduced His I AM (LORD-Jehovah) Name in Genesis, it wasn't until the Exodus that He brought Abraham's descendants, the Israelites, into its fullness. God told Moses to tell the children of Israel, I AM has sent me unto you, the LORD God of Israel's fathers sent me (Ex. 3:14‑15). The phrase I AM is an incomplete thought. If I say: I AM ___, you will probably respond by asking: You are what? It's an empty place that calls out to be filled with something. God gave this Name to Israel so that they could fill it in with what they needed to become His great and holy Nation (Gen. 22:2; Ex. 19:6). It was their “blank check,” so to speak. The most important lesson of all for Israel is that they needed to rely on THE LORD TO DO EVERYTHING FOR THEM.

And the Exodus was one long lesson through which God taught them the necessity of relying on Him by continually accessing His grace through His I AM (LORD) Name by believing. Did they need healing? Just put it into the space: I AM your Healer (Ex. 15:26). Do you need enemy armies to be defeated? Fill in the space: I AM your Banner, your Conquering Hero (Ex. 17:15). Throughout the Exodus account, the LORD took the Nation of Israel (2‑3 million people—maybe half adults and half children!) out into the wilderness and placed them in impossible situations—enemy armies, no water, no food, etc.—situations that were impossible for them to remedy on their own. He wanted to teach them that instead of panicking, being defeated and falling into despair, they must instead rely on the LORD and access the grace resident in His I AM Jehovah Name so they can stay calm, stand still, and watch THE LORD DO EVERYTHING FOR THEM (Ex. 14:13-31)!

The value and importance of using His I AM Jehovah Name was the 1st lesson Israel was supposed to have learned in the Exodus. The 2nd was that they must never—NEVER EVER--enter a relationship with God based on the Law according to the flesh. He taught them this lesson by giving them 2 eensy-weensy, teeny-tiny, easy-smeasy little commands about collecting manna. As a group, a nation, they couldn't even obey those (Ex. 16:4, 14-29). In fact, if they had actually been under the law system at that time, it would have called upon God to put the diseases of Egypt on the Israelites for their disobedience (Ex. 15:25‑26)!

So, with all this in mind, the Israelites finally arrived at Sinai, and the LORD had already made them into the people He created them to be. Amazingly, BEFORE THEY HAD EVEN ENTERED THE LAW, they were already fulfilling their divine purpose by being the reflectors of God's Glory and Light to the Gentiles (Ex. 18)! Let me say it again: This was BEFORE THEY WENT UNDER THE LAW, they were already fulfilling God's purpose for them—bringing the Gentiles to the LORD. In Ex. 18 we see the Gentile Midianites worshipping the one true God of Israel with Israel and through her RISE (Ex. 18:8‑12): BEFORE THEY HAD EVEN COME UNDER THE LAW! The LORD had just carried them along as on eagle's wings and brought them to Himself just because of the grace resident in His I AM Jehovah Name (Ex. 19:4).

Then God gave them the final exam. This is the turning point. Would they continue as they had with GOD DOING EVERYTHING FOR THEM based on the grace resident in His I AM Jehovah Name? Or, would they change course and try to do it themselves through the power of their own flesh? Did they learn the lessons about accessing the grace resident in His I AM Jehovah Name, relying on THE LORD TO DO EVERYTHING FOR THEM? Did they learn the lesson about never—NEVER EVER—trying to relate to God under a law system according to the flesh, not even the Mosaic Law System?

Let's listen to their answer: And all the people answered: WE WILL DO all that the LORD has spoken (Gen. 19:8). They flunked the test. “We will do” does away with “the LORD will do it for us!” They rejected the LORD doing everything for them and proclaimed that they would make themselves into God's nation. Did you hear a loud crashing sound? It was the sound of the next 1500 years of Israel's history come crashing down. Immediately lightning struck, thunder thundered, the mountain smoked, the ground shook, and the LORD said get away lest I put to death those whom He had just carried along on eagle's wings and brought to Himself (Ex. 19:4, 12‑13). They spent the next 40 years in the wilderness and the next 1500 years (except, perhaps, for a brief gracious period during David and Solomon's reigns) under the Curses of the Law in the Courses of Punishment under the wrath of God.

This leads to two questions. First, how should the Israelites have responded at Mt. Sinai? They should have said: God, we see that Your Law is a perfect and wonderful Law, and that the nation that operated according to it would truly be a great nation. We see that, but we have learned the lessons you taught us during the Exodus. We can't do anything ourselves. Without you we are nothing and will never become anything (Ex. 33:13‑16). We will only perish away. Lord, as a group, we weren't even able to obey two little commands about collecting manna! There is no way that we would be able to obey 613 commandments that penetrate into every detail of our lives!! Impossible!! No, LORD: YOU MUST DO EVERYTHING FOR US! YOU MUST MAKE US INTO YOUR OWN GREAT AND HOLY NATION! We can't do it ourselves. Put us back up on your eagle's wings and keep on bringing us to Yourself and don't ever let us off the eagle again!!! Treat us based on the grace resident in your I AM Jehovah Name, not based on a law system according to the flesh. What they got wrong the 1st time, they will get right the next time when, at Christ's 2nd Coming they will answer: LORD, RECEIVE US GRACIOUSLY (Hos. 14:1)! And He will!!

The second question is why did God allow Israel to relate to Him under the Law according to the flesh? Paul explains why: That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: For by the Law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19‑20). The point being that if even God's Own nation, the Nation of Israel—with all her divine advantages, privileges, benefits, blessings—couldn't produce a righteousness of its own before God through the Law, it is obvious that no one else can either. And if this is true of the great Mosaic Law System according to the flesh, how much more true it is of all lesser Gentile law systems!

And this leads all guilty sinners before God to one place, or rather one Person—the Lord Jesus Christ. If we cannot approach God based on who we are and what we do, the only option left for all sinners--Jews and Gentiles alike--is to approach God His way, the way of who His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is and what He did for us on the Cross (Rom. 3:21‑25). So, once-and-for-all let's put away all impotent law/works/flesh systems, including the Mosaic Law/Works/Flesh System, and continue in and cling tightly to God's Own empowering Grace/Faith/Spirit System as revealed in Pauline Grace Mystery Truth!

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. Paul warns them that there will be many people and things out there that will try to take them away from their joy in the Lord. One of the prime ways is to get people under a Law System by which they are told they can gain blessings and status from God by doing things according to the flesh. Here it is taking things from the Law of Moses and using them as a means of acceptance before God. To do so is to slap God in the face, because it says His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not enough. But God insists He is: He has made us accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6).

If This Were My Final Message

Someone asked me recently: If you found out this would be your last message to give, what is the first thing that comes to mind that you would most want people to remember from your teaching? Well, what first came to mind wasn't one thing but four things. It goes without saying the most important things of all are Christ and His Cross and Grace. But the things specific to my ministry that I would most like people to remember from the perspective of Mid-Acts Dispensationalism are:

1. The 1st step to understanding the Bible is to understand that it is NOT centered on man and his redemption but on God and His Glory.
   It is traditionally taught that the whole Bible is one long revelation about God's one program that centers on man and his redemption. This is one of the biggest errors of historical Christianity because if this is true, there would be no need for Paul's distinct and unique apostleship. And once you throw away Paul's distinct apostleship, you also throw away the place where the whole Triune God is working today in this Dispensation of Grace (Rom. 15:13-21).
   This error is made when we start our theology in Gen. 3 with the fall of man rather than in Gen. 1 with the creation of the Heavenly and Earthly realms. When we begin and end the Bible where God begins and ends it, in Gen. 1 and Rev. 21, we see that the Bible is not centered on man and his redemption (as important as that is!) but on God and His Glory and its reflection through these two realms of existence.
2. The 1st step to using the Bible is rightly-dividing it.
   Once we understand that there are two realms of existence, the Heavenly and Earthly realms, both of which have fallen and no longer reflect God's Glory as they should, it becomes self -evident that the Bible must contain not one program but two programs, each with their own specific revelation. On one hand, the NON-Pauline Scriptures explain how God will re-establish His Glory on Earth through His Prophetic Program with the Nation of Israel, which had been spoken about since the world began (LK. 1:70; Acts 3:21). On the other hand, the Pauline Scriptures explain how God will re-establish His Glory in the Heavenlies through His Mystery Program with the Body of Christ, which was kept secret since the world began. It is only by rightly-dividing the Bible that we can know what divinely originated program and people we participate in, and how God has involved us in His Glory today.
3. The 1st step to spiritual maturity and victorious Christian living is to understand that salvation is not our way to get God involved in our things and to do what we want, but God's way to get us involved in His things and to do what He wants!
   Paul's Letters give us the step-by-step instructions for doing this, one place being Phil. 4:4-9. It all starts with thinking on the lovely and good things revealed about Christ in Pauline Grace Mystery Truth (PGMT) because that is what brings us into the presence of the God of Peace (Phil. 4:8‑9). Then, once we are in His presence we can talk and commune with Him about His things, the things we are thinking about, THE THINGS revealed in Pauline Grace Mystery Truth (PGMT). This is the fuel God uses to empower us to prayerfully praise Him in thankful creaturely dependence as His servants. And when we are doing that, it generates requests through the Spirit that are in perfect accord with God's will (Rom. 8:26‑27 in action!). All our things will fade into the background, falling into their proper place, and His things and the things of others will come to the forefront. Finally, this results in stability that comes from the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds (Phil. 4:6‑7). In short, victorious Christian living that continually rejoices in the Lord--no matter the circumstances--which in turn produces gentle forbearance with others and an anxiety free inner person (Phil. 4:4‑5).
4. The 1st step to preserving the purity of Paul's Gospel is to not add anything—No Not Even That One Little Thing!—NO NOT EVEN THE THINGS YOU THINK WILL HELP GOD OUT!!—to Pauline Grace Mystery Truth. Adding something to Grace is like adding one drop of cyanide to baby's milk—it ruins the whole thing. Doing so always detracts and diminishes Grace by steering our eyes away from Christ and His Cross and toward something else, and anything else is a lesser thing.

These were four of my “first thought” topics. Soon after I came up with 10s and 100s more. But I will stop with these since they were what first came to mind.

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. We learn there that the key to the Christian Life is to keep on rejoicing in the Lord in accord with Pauline Grace through the Spirit. Anything else is just a law system that boasts in the flesh (Phil. 3:1‑3).

Law System/Grace System

Paul states in Rom. 6:14 that we are not under Law but under Grace (NKJV). That is, we are not under LAW as an operational system. We are under Grace as an operational system.

In a one-time experiment, God allowed His Own Nation of Israel to relate to Him based on a law system according to the flesh. God led them out of Goshen, Egypt and to Sinai based on the Grace resident in His I AM Jehovah Name (Ex. 3:14‑15). During that time, He tried to teach them that if they were going to be His Own great and holy Nation of Israel, He would have to do everything for them. At Sinai, however, Israel rejected their Grace System, and said, No, All that the LORD has spoken WE WILL DO (Ex. 19:8), and at that moment, they entered a conditional relationship with God governed with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (Lev. 26; Deut. 28). Huh ohh, did you hear the thunder roar, the lightening strike and the earth quake? Did you hear the LORD tell those whom He had just graciously brought to Himself on eagle's wings (Ex. 19:4) to get away lest they be put to death (Ex. 19:12ff)?

The Israelites gave the wrong answer and spent the next 1500 years under the Curses of the Law that brought their nation to complete ruin and required their King and Messiah to hang on a tree, thereby coming under its curses through a technicality in the Law (Deut. 21:23) so that He could take the Israel's curses upon Himself and save the nation. Why would anyone want to go back to such a law system according to the flesh—Moses's or anyone else's? No wonder Paul said: Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you (Gal. 3:1)!

Israel under the Law system according to the flesh was a one-time experiment that ended at the Cross and is never to be repeated. Israel was the only nation or people God ever allowed to relate to Him based on a law system according to the flesh. Paul explains that God did this to prove once-and-for-all that if even Israel—His Own Nation--with all her divinely given privileges, promises, covenants, and prophets; who had the presence of God and the Word of God and much more—if even with all that Israel couldn't attain righteousness before God based on the Law, well, it is obvious that no other lesser Gentile nation or people can either! If even God's Own Law System, the Mosaic Law, couldn't provide Israel with a right position before Him, well it is obvious that no lesser man-made law system—no church law or denominational law or religious law or personal law or any other law—will be able to either!

This one-time experiment stopped every mouth and all the world may become guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). A Law system according to the flesh is guaranteed to fail 100% of the time because it is based on who we are and what we do, and as sinners, we can do nothing to please God (Rom. 8:8), and by the deeds of the Law no flesh shall be justified in His sight (Rom. 3:20).

The only way sinners can be brought into a right relationship with God is by a Grace system. A Grace system is the very opposite of a Law system. It is unconditional, providing blessings first by grace through faith (Eph. 1:3; 2:1-10), which God then uses to work within us to produce obedience and fruit through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:1-10). The Pauline Grace system is guaranteed to succeed 100% of the time because it is not based on who we are and what we do, but on who Christ is and what He does.

The main problem with a Law System according to the flesh is that it tells us to look at ourselves and treat and love others equal to that. The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you as you would have them do unto you (Mat. 7:12). And all the Law is fulfilled in this: Love your neighbor as yourself (Gal. 5:14). It sounds good to the flesh, but it is really a false start because of one huge basic problem: There is no power in the self. The Law sets the bar real low, about an inch off the ground, but we can't even clear that because it gives no power.

Pauline Grace according to the S/spirit, however, tells us to NOT look at ourselves (there is no power in that!) but to look at Christ and His Cross (Phil. 2:1-8) where we have access to the infinite power of God! And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come (Eph. 1:19-22), and He took us there with Him (Eph. 2:4‑6)! This infinite divine resource empowers us to serve God by loving others not just equal to ourselves but MORE THAN ourselves (Phil. 2:3‑4)! It goes far beyond anything the Law called for and gives us the power to accomplish it. It fulfills the Law. Grace sets the bar a million miles high and the Spirit catapults us over it, and we clear it by a mile. Pauline Grace is guaranteed to succeed because, unlike the Law system or any law system, it is not based on who we are and what we do, but on who Christ is and what He does for us, and that comes with 100% certainty and success!

COMPLETE IN CHRIST!

The worst thing we can do in our Christian lives is to go under a law system. A law system calls on us to do things through the flesh to gain something from God. It depends on who we are and what we do. There are many man-made law systems—the Pharisaical system of Israel's vain religious system, the various systems of Christianity's own man-made vain religious systems and man-centered theological systems. They are all in one way or another just dumbed down perversions and corruptions of God's Law System given to Israel by Moses.

That's what Israel's vain religious system did when they threw away God's Law and replaced it with their own dumbed down, easy little law system based on man's traditions that created the Pharisaical system of Jesus's day (Mk. 7:13). They did away with the big, hard and important things of the Law, like dispensing JUSTICE, MERCY and FAITH, and instead focused on its little easy things, like tithing anise and cumin seeds (Mat. 23:23). And then they boasted in how well they were keeping their dumbed down law (as though they were actually keeping God's Law!), pretending they had established their own righteousness before God (Rom. 10:1‑3). Jesus had one word for this: HYPOCRITES (Mat. 23)!!

No, when you give the Law to sinners, and it is used correctly, all it does is shine a light into their souls, revealing that they are sinners by nature, at the very core (1 Tim. 1:8‑9). If you go to a Law system as an approach to God, and it doesn't point you out in Paul's list to Timothy in 1 Tim. 1:9‑10, you are using it wrongly. The Law's purpose is to magnify our sin nature and multiply our sins, pronounce our guilt and assign the death sentence (Rom. 7:9). It give us the knowledge (epignosis—the FULL KNOWLEDGE) of sin (Rom. 3:20). When used rightly, it always leads to discouragement and despair that will cause us to cry out: O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death (Rom. 7:24)! And the answer can only be found in a Person, the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul's letter to the Colossians is one place he spells this out for us. Paul tells the Colossians that they are complete in Christ. They are in Christ (Col. 1:2) and Christ is in them (Col. 1:27). The fullness of God dwells in Christ (Col. 2:9), and the fulness of Christ dwells in us, the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23), and you can't add anything to that! Christ's work on the Cross for sinners is God's masterpiece: WE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM! We have a perfect right standing before God through Him. The moment we believed, God gave us every blessing He is giving today in Him—UP-FRONT (Eph. 1:3). There is nothing more to get. We already have it all in and through Christ.

Of course, therefore, Satan makes this one of his greatest points of attack. He tries to get us to think that our salvation through Christ needs to be added to, and that we can do that through the flesh. We are deceived into leaving God's Pauline Grace System whereby everything is freely and unconditionally given to us based on who Christ is and what He did for us on the Cross and going to a law system whereby we are given things conditionally based on who we are and what we do. Satan convinces us that we can add to and improve God's masterpiece by doing works through our own flesh. But this is like someone scribbling over a Van Gogh painting with crayons. They may think they are improving it and completing it, but all they are really doing is ruining it. When we try to do things to gain blessings from God or a better standing before Him or more access to Him, we are really just slapping God in the face, declaring that the Person and Work of His Son on the Cross isn't enough!

The only answer for fallen, sinful humanity is to depend solely on God to do everything for them, and that is exactly what He did at the Cross. All a lost fallen humanity dead in sins dan “do” is to do nothing and receive everything Christ graciously did for us on the Cross by faith. One pastor described faith in this way: Faith is the only thing you can “do” without “doing” anything. It is the setting aside of all our own “doing” so that we can rely on the “doing” of Another, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Neither Israel's physical circumcision in the flesh done with human hands, nor its physical water baptisms done by men could accomplish what we need. The fundamental problem for the Gentiles wasn't that they were physically uncircumcised in the flesh. It was that they were spiritually dead in their sins (Col. 2:13). The fundamental problem for the Jews was that even though they were circumcised in the flesh, it couldn't free them from being enslaved under the curses of the broken Law that was against them (Col. 2:14). No, fallen humanity needed something that physical circumcision and physical water baptism in the flesh carried out by humans could not accomplish.

They needed the God of Hope to spring into action (Rom. 15:13). They needed a salvation that man's hands could not produce. They needed a spiritual circumcision performed without human hands, and a spiritual baptism performed by an operation of God! And that is exactly what God did at the Cross of Christ. All fallen humanity, Jew and Gentile alike, but especially the Gentiles, needed to be freed from Sin and Death that enslaved them so they could serve God (Rom. 6). And all fallen humanity, especially the Jews (the only people God allowed to enter a law-based relationship with Him), needed to be freed from the curses of the broken Law that enslaved them so they could bear fruit unto God (Rom. 7:4). God did it all. He met every human need!

At the Cross, God spiritually circumcised the believer by cutting off our old man in Adam, thereby putting off the body of sin (Rom. 6:6), of sins and flesh (Col. 2:11), of the Law (Rom. 7:4) and of death (Rom. 7:24)—permanently removing everything that was against us, placing it all on His Son when He was cut off for us on the Cross. But that is only one side to the salvation coin. God also spiritually baptized us into Christ, identifying us with Christ whereby everything that is true of Christ because of His work on the Cross for us becomes true of us. His death becomes our death. His resurrection our resurrection. We are a new creation. We walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3‑5).

In short, He made us complete in Christ. Because it depends on who Christ is and what He did for us and not on us and what we do for ourselves, it cannot be added to or subtracted from, increased or diminished. It is ours forevermore. We are eternally secure standing in perfect righteousness before God through His Son. If God be for us, who can be against us (Rom. 8:31)? You cannot improve on that! To try to do so isn't spiritual and pleasing to God. It is carnal and displeasing to God. It insults God and declares that His Subject, His Son, is not enough.

Our privilege as believers is not to try to improve upon, add to or complete (as if we could actually do any of those things!) God's masterpiece. Our privilege is to just sit back and take His masterpiece in so that it can transform us from the inside and empower us to serve God by serving others selflessly in love. We are to relish its every detail as it reveals all that is true about our glorious Savior—every thing that is true and honorable and just and lovely and good and praiseworthy—that God has revealed through Paul's distinct apostleship and Scriptures. We are to think, dwell, focus, on these things for that is what brings us into the presence of the God of Peace, and you can't be any closer to God than that (Phil. 4:8-19). In short, the only thing God wants us to “do” is to enjoy His perfect and complete masterpiece, our role in it, and: REJOICE IN THE LORD, AGAIN I SAY REJOICE (Phil. 3:1; 4:4, 10).

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. The only way we can bring our IN-CHRIST position into our experience is to remain in God's Grace System, a Grace/Faith/Spirit System, as revealed in Pauline Grace Mystery Truth. God's Grace System is guaranteed 100% because it is not based on who we are and what we do, but on who Christ is and what He did for us on the Cross. God's role for us is to REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAY (every time, for all time!), and again I say rejoice (Phil. 4:4; 3:1). That is our safe zone (3:1). When we go to a law system to gain blessings through who we are and what we do rather than through Christ, REJOICING IN THE LORD is replaced with boasting in the flesh, and being secure in God's safe zone is replaced with entering the dangerous terrain of own selfish hearts where failure is guaranteed 100%. When you go to a law system according to the flesh there are only two outcomes possible. If you are honest and use the Law rightly, you are immediately confronted with breaking the command Thou Shalt Not Covet, which (by the way) is idolatry (Col. 3:5), thereby breaking the whole Law. You are put to death before you begin, resulting in despair that causes you to cry out Oh, wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death and to fall onto a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who returns you to a Grace System (Paul in Rom. 7-8)? Or, if you are dishonest, you will take some easy small things out of God's Law (like food regulations, observing days, circumcision, tithing), throw away its great and hard things (like dispensing justice, showing mercy and proclaiming faith), thereby making your own little man-made, dumbed-down law that you then boast about how well you keeping, assuring yourself that this puts God in your debt and enhances your position before Him. Jesus had one word for this: Hypocrites (Mat. 23, esp. 23:23)! The key to the Christian walk is to keep our eyes on Christ, His Cross for us and the Love of God powerfully displayed there (Eph. 1:19-2:10).

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. It is important to remember that in Phil. 3, Paul doesn't say it was his sins that drove him away from God. Rather, it was his supposed RIGHTEOUSNESSES that drove him away from God and caused him to reject Christ and His Work for him. That's the great deception of a law system according to the flesh as a means of approach to God. It deceives us into thinking that by doing works we can bring ourselves closer to God when, in fact, they just drive us further away from God and His provision in Christ. Everything God gives us comes through the Person of His Son and His work on the Cross for us, and they come freely by grace through faith. Trying to obtain things from God in any other way, doesn't please God, it just slaps Him in the face, telling Him His Son's Work on the Cross wasn't sufficient.

Think On These Things

Paul summarizes the whole book of Philippians and really the whole Christian Life centered in Christ in this way:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil. 4:8-9).

Early in life, someone taught me about the DIWE train of the Christian walk. Everything begins with sound doctrine from the Bible rightly-divided: (D--Phil. 4:9). Doctrine is the engine that pulls the rest of the train. It pulls our intellect, filling our thinking with the things of God (I—Phil. 4:8), which in turn leads our will, bringing it into accord with God's will (W—Phil. 4:6b‑7), which controls our emotions so we can continuously rejoice in the Lord and show longsuffering kindness to others from our stabilized, anxiety-free inner person (E—Phil. 4:4‑6a). The problem most of us have is that we let our emotions control the train of the Christian Life instead of doctrine, and the result is always the same: A massive train wreck!

We are to think on the true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, good, virtuous and praiseworthy things that we have received and learned from Paul. They are found In Pauline Grace Mystery Truth (PGMT-- Phil. 4:8‑9). Let's look at some of these things:

1. True Things of God: God's body of truth for today is revealed in Paul's Epistles (2 Cor. 4:2; Eph. 1:13). This word of truth is the power of God that equips us with the armor of righteousness (2 Cor. 6:7). It is the source of God's Good News (Gal. 2:5). The fruit of the Spirit is in truth (Eph. 5:9). To receive Paul's truth is to receive God's Word (1 Thess. 2:13). Salvation comes through sanctification of the Spirit that comes from believing the truth (2 Thess. 2:13). God's desire is that everyone would come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). To be an approved worker of God's, we must rightly-divide the truth (2 Tim. 2:15), and acknowledging the truth leads to godliness (Titus 1:1). Think on these things and others like them!
2. Honest or Honorable Things of God: This word is usually translated in KJV with the word “grave.” Deacons must be grave, worthy of honor, holding the Mystery of the faith in a pure conscience (1 Tim. 3:8‑9) and being sound in THE faith (God's truth for today--Titus 2:1‑2). Think on these things and others like them!
3. Just Things of God: The just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17), and God justifies (declares just or right) wrong sinners by grace through the redemptive work of Christ for them (Rom. 3:24), which should lead them into just living (Titus 1:8; Col. 4:1). Think on these things and others like them!
4. Pure Things of God: Pure because they have been cleansed from sin and created anew in Christ. Believers stand before God holy and blameless (pure—Eph. 1:4), a chaste virgin united to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). We are to hold the Mystery of the faith in a pure conscience (1 Tim. 3:9), and it ought to regulate every response in life (2 Cor. 6:6). Think on these things and others like them!
5. Lovely Things of God: Having laid the foundation of the Christian Life in the concrete of Agape Love (Phil. 2), which is anchored to the cornerstone of the Love of God at the Cross of Christ (Phil. 1:9, 17l; 2:1-8), Paul now mentions another love, Phileo Love. In Paul, whereas Agape Love is especially associated with GRACE, Phileo Love especially is associated with MERCY.

Phileo is the love expressed because of some kind of familial relationship, such as love for fellow believers. Phileo shows gentleness and kindness between fellow believers, brotherly love (Rom. 12:10a), which flows out of Agape Love. Notice that Paul sandwiched his use of Phileo in Rom 12:10a between 2 references to the overriding and controlling Agape Love; first, using the word itself (Rom. 12:9) and then using its definition (Rom. 12:10b, compare with Phil. 2:3‑4).

Paul brings out the sense of Phileo when he tells the Romans to greet one another with a holy kiss (a form of phileo). Believers should exhibit phileo in hospitality and of all that is good at church (Titus 1:8), in families (Titus 2:4) and with the outside world as God did when He looked down on His familial human creation (Acts 17:28‑29) and pitied them in their distress (Titus 3:4, 15). Once again, phileo love is placed under the overriding and controlling love of God at the Cross of Christ for sinful enemies, Agape Love (Titus 2:14). Think on these things and others like them!

6. Good Things of God: This is summed up in Paul's Gospel or Good News, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the Mystery (Rom. 16:25). It is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe (Rom. 1:16‑17; 1 Cor. 4:15; Eph. 1:13). The Holy Spirit uses the Gospel to sanctify the Gentiles, offering them up acceptable to God (Rom. 15:16). It is Good News that God is sending out to the whole world (Rom. 15:19‑20). Paul's main prayer request was that he might boldly proclaim the Mystery of the Gospel (Eph. 6:19). The Philippians risked everything to fellowship in Paul's Gospel, partaking in it, defending it and confirming it (Phil. 1:5‑7). Paul's Gospel is God's word of truth that secures them in hope that is reserved for them in Heaven (Col. 1:5, 23). Our main job is to be Paul's fellow laborers in the Gospel because that is what establishes and comforts believers today ((1 Thess. 3:2). Think on these things and others like them!
7. Virtuous Things of God: This refers to the most excellent things, and is similar to what Paul expressed earlier in Phil. 1:9‑11 that they grow in the love (Agape) that flows out of the full-knowledge and discernment of the Mystery (Col. 2:2), so that they might approve the most excellent things sincere and without offence till the Day of Christ, filled full with the fruits of righteousness unto the praise and glory of God! Think on these things and others like them!
8. Praiseworthy Things of God: These are the things that praise God's Grace as seen 3 times in Eph. 1: To the praise of the Glory of His Grace (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). If we are praised by men and God let it only be praise about our faithfulness to the Gospel (2 Cor. 8:18; Eph. 1:11).

If that doesn't give us enough to think and talk to God about, I don't know what will! When we are thinking about the things of God as revealed in PGMT, we are brought into the presence of the God of Peace (Phil. 4:9), who in turn gives us the Peace of God (Phil. 4:7), which stabilizes and empowers us to rejoice in the Lord alway, which generates service to others from an anxiety-free inner person (Phil. 4:4‑6).

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in Philippians 3. One of Paul's key passages on this is Phil. 4:8-9. Paul explains that what he did with his Jewish heritage with its vain religious system and Pharisaical law system (Phil. 3:4-9), the Philippians needed to do with their Gentile heritage with its vain religious system and idolatries. They were to take the words that the religious systems and philosophers of their day filled with their own vain imaginations--words like true, lovely, virtuous, good, praiseworthy—and fill them instead with God's truth as revealed in Pauline Grace Mystery Truth. This will give the doctrine they need to power the engine car of the train of the Christian walk, which pulls the car of our thinking directing our thoughts to God and His things, which pulls the car of our will, aligning it with His will, which, in turn, directs and stabilizes the car of our emotions so that we can Rejoice in the Lord continually, in every and all circumstances (Phil. 3:1, 4:4). Our big problem is that we usually try to pull the train of Christian living with the caboose of our emotions rather than the engine car of doctrine. The result is always the same. The train goes off the rails and crash lands because there is no power in the caboose. It is through doctrine that God powerfully works in and through us (1 Thess. 2:13)

Think On These Things

Paul summarizes the whole book of Philippians and really the whole Christian Life centered in Christ in this way:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil. 4:8-9).

Early in life, someone taught me about the DIWE train of the Christian walk. Everything begins with sound doctrine from the Bible rightly-divided: (D--Phil. 4:9). Doctrine is the engine that pulls the rest of the train. It pulls our intellect, filling our thinking with the things of God (I—Phil. 4:8), which in turn leads our will, bringing it into accord with God's will (W—Phil. 4:6b‑7), which controls our emotions so we can continuously rejoice in the Lord and show longsuffering kindness to others from our stabilized, anxiety-free inner person (E—Phil. 4:4‑6a). The problem most of us have is that we let our emotions control the train of the Christian Life instead of doctrine, and the result is always the same: A massive train wreck!

We are to think on the true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, good, virtuous and praiseworthy things that we have received and learned from Paul. They are found In Pauline Grace Mystery Truth (PGMT-- Phil. 4:8‑9). Let's look at some of these things:

1. True Things of God: God's body of truth for today is revealed in Paul's Epistles (2 Cor. 4:2; Eph. 1:13). This word of truth is the power of God that equips us with the armor of righteousness (2 Cor. 6:7). It is the source of God's Good News (Gal. 2:5). The fruit of the Spirit is in truth (Eph. 5:9). To receive Paul's truth is to receive God's Word (1 Thess. 2:13). Salvation comes through sanctification of the Spirit that comes from believing the truth (2 Thess. 2:13). God's desire is that everyone would come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). To be an approved worker of God's, we must rightly-divide the truth (2 Tim. 2:15), and acknowledging the truth leads to godliness (Titus 1:1). Think on these things and others like them!
2. Honest or Honorable Things of God: This word is usually translated in KJV with the word “grave.” Deacons must be grave, worthy of honor, holding the Mystery of the faith in a pure conscience (1 Tim. 3:8‑9) and being sound in THE faith (God's truth for today--Titus 2:1‑2). Think on these things and others like them!
3. Just Things of God: The just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:17), and God justifies (declares just or right) wrong sinners by grace through the redemptive work of Christ for them (Rom. 3:24), which should lead them into just living (Titus 1:8; Col. 4:1). Think on these things and others like them!
4. Pure Things of God: Pure because they have been cleansed from sin and created anew in Christ. Believers stand before God holy and blameless (pure—Eph. 1:4), a chaste virgin united to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). We are to hold the Mystery of the faith in a pure conscience (1 Tim. 3:9), and it ought to regulate every response in life (2 Cor. 6:6). Think on these things and others like them!
5. Lovely Things of God: Having laid the foundation of the Christian Life in the concrete of Agape Love (Phil. 2), which is anchored to the cornerstone of the Love of God at the Cross of Christ (Phil. 1:9, 17l; 2:1-8), Paul now mentions another love, Phileo Love. In Paul, whereas Agape Love is especially associated with GRACE, Phileo Love especially is associated with MERCY.

Phileo is the love expressed because of some kind of familial relationship, such as love for fellow believers. Phileo shows gentleness and kindness between fellow believers, brotherly love (Rom. 12:10a), which flows out of Agape Love. Notice that Paul sandwiched his use of Phileo in Rom 12:10a between 2 references to the overriding and controlling Agape Love; first, using the word itself (Rom. 12:9) and then using its definition (Rom. 12:10b, compare with Phil. 2:3‑4).

Paul brings out the sense of Phileo when he tells the Romans to greet one another with a holy kiss (a form of phileo). Believers should exhibit phileo in hospitality and of all that is good at church (Titus 1:8), in families (Titus 2:4) and with the outside world as God did when He looked down on His familial human creation (Acts 17:28‑29) and pitied them in their distress (Titus 3:4, 15). Once again, phileo love is placed under the overriding and controlling love of God at the Cross of Christ for sinful enemies, Agape Love (Titus 2:14). Think on these things and others like them!

6. Good Things of God: This is summed up in Paul's Gospel or Good News, the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the Mystery (Rom. 16:25). It is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe (Rom. 1:16‑17; 1 Cor. 4:15; Eph. 1:13). The Holy Spirit uses the Gospel to sanctify the Gentiles, offering them up acceptable to God (Rom. 15:16). It is Good News that God is sending out to the whole world (Rom. 15:19‑20). Paul's main prayer request was that he might boldly proclaim the Mystery of the Gospel (Eph. 6:19). The Philippians risked everything to fellowship in Paul's Gospel, partaking in it, defending it and confirming it (Phil. 1:5‑7). Paul's Gospel is God's word of truth that secures them in hope that is reserved for them in Heaven (Col. 1:5, 23). Our main job is to be Paul's fellow laborers in the Gospel because that is what establishes and comforts believers today ((1 Thess. 3:2). Think on these things and others like them!
7. Virtuous Things of God: This refers to the most excellent things, and is similar to what Paul expressed earlier in Phil. 1:9‑11 that they grow in the love (Agape) that flows out of the full-knowledge and discernment of the Mystery (Col. 2:2), so that they might approve the most excellent things sincere and without offence till the Day of Christ, filled full with the fruits of righteousness unto the praise and glory of God! Think on these things and others like them!
8. Praiseworthy Things of God: These are the things that praise God's Grace as seen 3 times in Eph. 1: To the praise of the Glory of His Grace (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). If we are praised by men and God let it only be praise about our faithfulness to the Gospel (2 Cor. 8:18; Eph. 1:11).

If that doesn't give us enough to think and talk to God about, I don't know what will! When we are thinking about the things of God as revealed in PGMT, we are brought into the presence of the God of Peace (Phil. 4:9), who in turn gives us the Peace of God (Phil. 4:7), which stabilizes and empowers us to rejoice in the Lord alway, which generates service to others from an anxiety-free inner person (Phil. 4:4‑6).

Sunday, we looked at what it means to be centered IN-CHRIST right-now by looking at the example of our Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:9-21. After meeting Christ, Paul's sole goal in life was to KNOW Him, know Him intimately and personally, so fully and completely that everything he did and said he wanted to be centered on Christ. To do this he needed to know not just the power of His resurrection, but the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death as well.

The Christ-Centered Circle of Life

After meeting the Lord Jesus Christ, all Paul cared about was knowing Him. Not knowing about Him, but knowing HIM, intimately and personally. He wanted to know the One who died for him while he was an enemy sinner. The One who saved Him. The One who freed Him from everything that was against him, namely, sin and death and the Law so that He could serve and bear fruit unto God (Rom. 6-7). He wanted to know the One who didn't just offer him a way to make his own human righteousness (as law systems do), but who offered him the way to be made the very Righteousness of God in Christ! The One who gave him access to all the riches of God. He wanted to know HIM! He wanted to spend every breathing moment with Him, growing in the knowledge of Him, walking with Him. Everything that belonged to Christ because of His work on the Cross now belonged to Paul (and every believer since) in Christ, and he wanted to bring all of it into his moment-by-moment Christian walk.

Every morning, Paul woke up with the goal of emptying out God's bank account that he could freely access through Christ and in wild, holy, abandon, give them away to others (an unattainable goal because God's bank account is infinite and eternal). He wanted to flood the world and everyone in it with the riches of God (Rom. 11:12). The riches of His grace and glory (Eph. 1:7, 18; 3:16; 4:19); the riches of His love, mercy and kindness (Eph. 2:4‑7); the riches of His goodness, forbearance and longsuffering (Rom. 2:4); the riches of His wisdom and judgments (Rom. 11:33). He wanted to experience all the riches he had in Christ as made known in the revelation of the Mystery (Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:27;2:2). His sole desire was to take hold of everything that was true of Him positionally in Christ and by faith bring them all into his daily experience through the Spirit (Phil. 3:11‑14). Paul knew this goal would in fact not be attained in the present because we now carry out this ministry in vile, mortal dying bodies, but that didn't deter him one bit. He just kept reaching for it as though he could attain it while waiting in hope for his glorious resurrection body that will be like unto Christ's in the future when he will fully and completely attain it (Phil. 3:11-21).

Paul sums up knowing Christ in this way: That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death (Phil. 3:10). Before Paul met Christ, he had been conformed to the world and his vain religious system that was centered on self. After he met Christ, however, he threw all that away (Phil. 3:4‑9) and was now being conformed to Christ and His death selflessly in Love. Christ, while being absolute God, did not use His things for His Own benefit but for the benefit of others, others like Paul and like US, all ungodly sinners on enemy status before Him (Phil. 2:6‑8)! The moment he believed, the Holy Spirit placed Paul into Christ, identifying Him with His death and resurrection positionally (Rom. 6). Now, Paul wanted to bring His death and resurrection life into his experience, his moment by moment Christian walk.

We don't like God and Paul's way. We are eager to experience His resurrection power but not so much His death and sufferings. But the very word “resurrection” implies a prior death! First there must be a death. Then there can be resurrection life and power (Phil. 2:5-11). Of course, the moment we believe the Holy Spirit identifies us eternally with the death and resurrection of Christ positionally (Rom. 6:1-11). Now, the goal set before us is to bring them into our experience ( 2 Cor. 1:8‑11; 12:9‑10).

And the only thing big enough to accomplish that is AGAPE Love, the Love of God displayed at the Cross of Christ as revealed in Pauline Grace Mystery Truth. The Holy Spirit takes this Love and overflows our hearts with it, thereby conforming us to the heart and mind of Christ when He was obedient unto death for our benefit ( Phil. 2:5‑8; Rom. 5:5), resulting in all resurrection life and power (Phil. 2:9‑11). AGAPE Love says don't consider one's own things (death to self) but consider the things of others unto their edification (Phil. 2:3‑4). Through the Spirit, AGAPE Love puts self to death and moves us to the place where resurrection power is released, so that we can be empowered to steadfastly serve God by serving others, selflessly proclaiming the Gospel for the advancement of others in God's truth for today, while fellowshipping in His sufferings. This is nothing less than Christ living in us, and God powerfully working through us (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 2:13).

This is what I call the never-ending circle of Life centered on and in Christ. Paul calls it the Mindset of Christ, the mindset of AGAPE Love (Phil. 2:5). It is the way Christ considered things when He left His heavenly abode and, while being in the FORM of God, ... took upon Himself the FORM of a servant ... becoming obedient unto death for the benefit of others (Phil. 2:6‑8). Paul patterned his whole existence around this Pattern of Christ, and so should we (1 Cor. 10:24; 11:1). For if God Himself in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ could make the infinitely great descent from being in the FORM of the eternal God to being in the FORM of a servant even unto death for His ENEMIES, certainly, those united to Him, created anew in Him and indwelt by His Spirit, should consider it a great privilege to make the infinitesimal, much smaller descent of loving service toward others.

Now, back to Phil. 3:10. The Love of God at the Cross of Christ, AGAPE Love, CON-FORMS us to His death in our moment-by-moment experience, which connects us to the source of His resurrection life and power, which strengthens us so that we can steadfastly proclaim the Gospel with patient endurance in the midst of adversity as we fellowship in His sufferings. This service in LOVE, then feeds into being made more CON-FORMABLE to His death, which releases more resurrection power, which strengthens us more to serve under adverse conditions, which ... on and on ... the wonderful circle of victorious Christ Living in the present evil age.

In summary: Agape Love conforms us to Christ's death, thereby putting us in the place where resurrection power is released, so that we can be empowered to remain steadfast in the proclamation of the Gospel while fellowshipping in His sufferings. And that is victorious Christian living.

Here is my attempt at putting it in pictorial form:

Sunday, we found our way back to Ephesians better able to understand the Love of God at the Cross of Christ for sinners, which through the Holy Spirit conforms us to Christ's death (Phil. 2:4a--not considering our own things—death to self), which brings us into the Power of His Resurrection, which empowers us to proclaim God's Good News for today selflessly with patient endurance in the midst of adversity (Phil. 4b--considering the things of others unto their edification), which is nothing less than the Mind of Christ and His Pattern of Agape Love (Phil. 2:1-8)—which brings us into more conformity with His death and gives more resurrection power that strengthens us for more service in adversity and on and on the never ending circle of victorious Christian living goes.

The Resurrections

Paul writes to the Philippians that he wants to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10) right now! He does this while waiting in hope for the future resurrection (or the Rapture) when his vile body will be changed fashioned like unto His glorious body (Phil. 3:21). There are various resurrections revealed in the Scriptures:

1. The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the basis of all other resurrections, or as Paul says, the firstfruits of them that slept (1 Cor. 15:20).
2. The Resurrection associated with God's Mystery Program and the Body of Christ occurs at the Rapture event. Those saints/believers who died during the Dispensation of Grace will be resurrected from the dead, and those who are alive at that time will be “changed” (Phil. 3:21) and caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air: And so shall we ever be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:16‑18).
3. The Resurrection associated with God's Prophetic Program and the Nation of Israel occurs at Christ's 2nd Coming at the end of the Tribulation Period. Those saints/believers who died in Old Testament times along with those who died between Christ's 1st and 2nd Coming—during Christ's earthly ministry, the ministry of Peter and the 12 in Acts and in the future Tribulation Period—will be resurrected unto life to participate in Israel's long-prophesied Millennial Kingdom on Earth, perhaps in the city Abraham was looking for, the New Jerusalem (Dan. 12:2‑3; Jn. 5:28‑29; 11:24‑25; Rev. 20:6). Those saints/believers who are alive at that time will enter the Kingdom alive and will not partake in the 2nd Death in the Lake of Fire ( Jn. 8:51; 11:26; Rev. 20:12‑15).
4. The Resurrection associated with all those who have rejected God and His Word in unbelief from every dispensation will be raised from the dead at the end of the Millennial Kingdom in the resurrection unto condemnation, receiving the 2nd Death, physical and spiritual death in the Lake of Fire (Dan. 12:2; Jn. 5:28‑29; Rev. 20:12‑15).
5. That takes care of all humanity except, perhaps, those who die in the Millennial Kingdom. Those unbelievers and rebels against God who die naturally or are put to death during this time will participate in the Resurrection unto condemnation per #4 above. But what about saints/believers who die physically/naturally during this time? We know their life spans will be greatly extended (Is. 65:20) but perhaps not for as long as the full 1,000 years. Perhaps they are included in the Resurrection unto life and are raised from the dead immediately (?) to join the other resurrected saints in God's Prophetic Program in the New Jerusalem.

Sunday, we looked at our inheritance in relationship to our adult sonship position. What, exactly, does it look like when we are operating as adult sons and daughters in God's plan?

In Eph. 1:7‑9 we have presented to us the two of the great things the Lord Jesus Christ did to accomplish God's eternal plan for the Body of Christ. The 1st one we all recognize: He went to the Cross to provide for our redemption and forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7). But what most of historic Christianity has thrown away, and most believers are ignorant of, is Christ's 2nd great act: He returned and raised up the new and distinct and unique Apostle Paul, giving him the Revelation of the Mystery of His will, and commissioned him to now make it known to EVERYONE (Eph. 1:8‑9; 3:9). The former gives us access to God's bank account, His riches of Grace. The latter gives us the wisdom and prudence we need to use His riches in accord with the Father's business plan, His purpose in His Mystery Program with the Body of Christ to re-establish His Glory especially in the Heavenlies. Operating in accord with our sonship position, operating the way God the SON is operating today, requires knowing and appreciating both of these great acts!

Sunday, we looked at our inheritance in relationship to our adult sonship position. What do we need to know and appreciate to operate as mature believers, walking as adult sons and daughters in the family of God, accessing the Father's riches (Eph. 1:7‑8) and using them in accord with His business plan (Eph. 1:8‑9)?

Walking In Accord With Our Adult Sonship Position

After getting saved, the next most important question we need to answer is how do we walk in a way that is well-pleasing to God? As adult sons and daughters in the family of God, how do we walk in the spiritual maturity that adult sonship position requires? To do this, we need to know and appreciate some things:

1. We need to know and appreciate that when we were saved, God did not place us into His Prophetic Program with His redeemed People the Nation of Israel through whom He will re-establish His glory on the Earth. God had been speaking about this since the world began (LK. 1:70; Acts 3:21). No, He placed all who believe today during the Dispensation of Grace into His Mystery Program with His redeemed People the Body of Christ through whom He will re-establish His glory in the Heavenlies. This had been kept secret since the world began (Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:1-11).
2. Then, it is almost intuitive that we must rightly-divide the Scriptures because some of it has to do specifically with God's Prophetic Program with the Nation of Israel, and some of it has to do specifically with His Mystery Program for the Body of Christ. The former is found in the NON-Pauline Scriptures (Old Testament, Gospels, Ministry of the 12 and those associated with them) whereas the latter is found in the Pauline Scriptures (Romans through Philemon). As someone has said: The whole Bible is for our learning, but Paul's Letters are written specifically to and about us as members of the Body of Christ (Rom. 15:4-21; 2 Tim. 2:15).
3. Because there are two distinct Programs and People with two distinct jobs to accomplish, their provisions or blessings to accomplish their purpose are not the same. God is going to make Israel into His Own Great and Holy Nation (Gen. 12:2; Ex. 19:6), in fact, the greatest nation on Earth (Deut. 28:13). In His Prophetic Program, restored Israel will be the conduit of His blessings to the rest of the nations on Earth. They are given the spiritual blessings so that they can receive their physical, material and earthly blessings. Under the New Covenant, they will be given the Holy Spirit, who will put the Law into their hearts and cause them to walk according to God's commandments so that they can receive the blessings of the Law rather than the curses (Lev. 26; Deut. 28), and the blessings of the Law are nicely summed up as health, wealth and prosperity. In short what a nation needs to be God's Own greatest Nation on the Earth.
   
   The Body of Christ, however, is a spiritual group already seated together with Christ in the Heavenlies (Eph. 2:4‑7). We do not need physical blessings, earthly, material blessings to accomplish God's job for us. Paul didn't need physical, material, earthly blessings to carry out his ministry (2 Cor. 11:23-33 or Phil. 1:12‑13), and we don't either. Not having physical blessings may have hindered him from participating in his things, but they didn't hinder him from participating in God's things. In fact, he learned that not having them actually enhanced his participation in God's things! He learned that His ministry in God's Mystery Program with the Body of Christ to display God's Glory in the Heavenly realm, wasn't affect by earthly things. God's grace was sufficient, for my strength is made perfect (complete) in weakness. That's the great paradox of Christian living: When I am at my weakest, the I am strong through the power of Christ that rests on me (2 Cor. 12:9‑10). He learned to be content in whatever state he was in (Phil. 4:10‑13).
   
   The moment we believed, God gave us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and now our job is to access them by faith and make use of them in our daily walk. We have the riches of His grace, the riches of His mercy, the riches of His kindness, and the riches of His love (Eph. 2:4‑7). The riches of His longsuffering, forbearance and goodness (Rom. 2:4). The riches of His glory and power (Eph. 1). The riches of His salvation, especially to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:12; Col. 2:2). The riches of His wisdom and knowledge (Rom. 11:33; Eph. 1:8‑9). We have the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8), and the riches of the glory of this Mystery among the Gentiles (Col. 1:27). This a perfect and complete, infinite and eternal provision, that equips us to fulfill God's purpose for us in the Body of Christ.
   
   Now, line up your rail cars, load them up with riches of God and spend all day giving them away to others, throw them over the balcony with wild, holy abandon to all who pass by.
4. We also need to know and appreciate that these blessings are all given to us freely the moment we believed. Unlike the Israel of old, our relationship with God is not based on a law system, not even the Mosaic Law, but on a grace system, the Pauline Grace System. We receive these blessings not based of who we are and what we do, but because of who Christ is and what He did on the Cross for us (Rom. 3:21-26). We don't “work” to gain or maintain a blessing nor do we “work” to escape a punishment. We simply rejoice in the Lord, accessing His grace by faith, and then He works in and through us (Rom. 5:1-11; Phil. 2:13).
5. We need to know and appreciate how the Righteousness of God is being manifested today in His Mystery Program. Today, He is manifesting the Righteousness of God in saving His enemies because He has no friends (Rom. 3:21-25; 5:1-11). In His Prophetic Program with Israel, however, He was in the past and will in the future be manifesting the Righteousness of God in saving His friends (believing Israel and their believing Gentile friends) while destroying His enemies (apostate Israel and unbelieving Gentile enemies). While praying with David in the Psalms, as he calls on God to save His friends and destroy His enemies will be a perfectly appropriate prayer for the Believing Remnant of Israel during the Tribulation Period and at Christ's 2nd Coming, it is not appropriate for us to pray today in the Dispensation of Grace. In fact, to pray this today is to pray in a way that directly contradicts God Will and Word for today.
6. Finally, we need to know and appreciate how God is manifesting His Love in the Mystery Program. Whereas the NON-Pauline Scriptures manifest His Love in that Christ died for His FRIENDS (Jn. 15:13), the Pauline Scriptures manifest His Love in that Christ died for His ENEMIES (Rom. 5:5-11). While John recorded that Jesus brought His disciples into the Love expressed in the Triune Godhead (Love for His friends—Jn. 14, 17), Paul recorded the words of the RISEN Lord Jesus Christ that He is now bringing believers into His Love that COULD NOT be expressed in the Triune Godhead (Love for His enemies)! In short, if God's Love was an ocean, John scans over its infinite surface. Paul, however, takes us by the hand and dives down into its infinite depths (Eph. 3:17‑19).

We could go on, but we will stop there. Perhaps a good way to conclude is with a couple examples:

Immature believers, like little children, are centered on themselves and think that getting saved is their way to get God involved in their things. This is little more than pagan superstition dressed up in “christian” verbiage, resulting in a walk that displeases God.

Mature believers, operating in accord with their adult sonship position, are centered on Christ and understand and appreciate that getting saved is, in fact, God's way to get them involved in His things, resulting in a walk that pleases God!

Immature believers, like little children, are centered on themselves and think prayer is their way to get God to do what they want. Hit the right buttons on the vending machine of prayer, and they can get God to give them a blessing that He would not otherwise have given. Again, this is little more than pagan superstition dressed up in “christian” verbiage, resulting in a walk that displeases God.

Mature believers, operating in accord with their adult sonship position, are centered on Christ and understand and appreciate that prayer is, in fact, God's way to get them to do what He wants! And this is always well-pleasing to the Lord.