June 2003

RAISING UP A REDEEMER

(Part Sixteen)

“GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD”

[I]

            In this series we have contrasted the serpent’s bread of death that Eve fed the first Adam that has fed his seed through the ages- with the Bread of Life that the Holy Spirit fed the last Adam which is Christ, that has fed His Seed ever since! Partakers of the first eat the bread of mortality; partakers of the last eat the Bread of Eternity! First is the bread of men (Eze 24:22) and Last is the Bread of Heaven (Jn 6:32)! First came the polluted bread of wickedness, idleness, adversity, tears and sorrow; then came “Living Bread” (Jn 6:51), “The unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth!” (1 Co 5:8) and Jesus says “I am The Truth”! (Jn 14:6)
             The Bread of Life nurtures the mind of spirit with loving peace; the bread of death poisons the mind of flesh with hate-filled war! (Ro 8:6) We see in Pr 18:21, “Death and Life are in the power of the tongue (Heb 3956 “language”) and they will eat the fruit of the one that they love!” Ro 7:4-6 adds, “When we lived in the flesh, the Law aroused our lust for sin and worked in us to produce fruits of death! But now we are delivered from the Law so that being dead to legalism we can now serve in the NEWNESS OF SPIRIT, rather than in the OLDNESS OF THE LETTER! Thus, my brethren, you are now dead to the Law as members of the Body of Christ, which means you must now be married to Jesus Christ Who is raised from the dead; so that we may bring forth Fruits of God (that is: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance”).” (Gal 5:22-23) It is time for all believers to learn that:

The first Adam was satan’s incarnate word of death as
the Last Christ-Adam is God’s incarnate Word of Life!

            1 Jn 3:8-9 says, “HE THAT COMMITS SIN IS OF THE DEVIL...and Ro 3:23 declares, “A-L-L HAVE SINNED...The devil sins from the beginning (of human life); and for this purpose the Son of God manifested to destroy the works of the devil!” In recent episodes we saw Heb 3898 define bread: “FIGHT, WAR, PREVAIL, OVERCOME, EAT and DEVOUR!” Ga 5:14-18 says, “The whole Law is fulfilled in one Scripture- Love your neighbor as yourself! So if you BITE and DEVOUR one another, see that you do not consume (i.e., destroy, use up) one another! Therefore I say, Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh...for if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law!” And Ro 8:14 says, “All who are led by the Spirit are sons of God!”
             Remember when Jesus asked Peter [Gk 4074 “a piece of the Rock”; or loosely translated “a chip off the Old Block”] “Who do say I am?” and Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God! Then Jesus said, you are blessed, Simon bar-Jonah; for flesh and blood have not revealed this to you; rather My Father in heaven has told it to you!” But then, moments later, Jesus looked this same apostle in the eye and said, “Get behind Me, SATAN! You are an offense to Me; for you do not savor the (bread) of God, but that (bread) of men!” (Mt 16:13-23) Now how could the SAME MAN be BLESSED OF GOD one minute and an OFFENDING SATAN the next?! There is only one possible answer: BOTH NATURES INDWELT THE SAME BODY! This is what is meant in Eph 4:21-24 (Amplified Bible),

“Assuming that you have really heard Him (Christ) and been taught by Him (Christ) -
as (all) Truth is in Jesus- embodied and personified in Him; strip yourselves of your
former nature- put off and discard your old unrenewed self- which characterized
your previous manner of life; and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that
spring from delusion; and be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind- having
a fresh mental and spiritual attitude; put on the new nature (the regenerate self)
created in God’s image (Godlike) in true Righteousness and Holiness!!”

            Scripture has many types for the flesh nature and Christ Nature. Col 3:9 says of these two, “Do not lie to each other now that you have PUT OFF THE OLD MAN with his (evil) deeds; and PUT ON THE NEW MAN who is renewed in knowledge, in the Image of Him that created him!” In Mt 3:12, “(Jesus) GATHERS HIS WHEAT into the barn; and BURNS UP THE CHAFF with (God’s) Unquenchable Fire (of Love)!” Natural man is a “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” just as Spiritual Man is a “Tree of Life”! Every man is born in a flesh body housing a dead spirit! 1 Co 15:46 says, “First comes the natural (“Natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit”; then comes the spiritual!” (“The Spirit judges everything; but he, himself, is judged by no man!!” 1 Co 2:14) All men are first born of flesh, and, in God’s time- they are all born again of Spirit! “As A-L-L DIE IN ADAM; so A-L-L SHALL BE MADE ALIVE IN CHRIST- but each man in his own order...!” (1 Co 15:22-23) Praise God!

[TO BE CONTINUED]