DIVINE REST by Rick Lange

 Have you ever stopped to think of the fact that God created Adam on the sixth day and that before Adam had done anything, his first day on earth was a day of rest? All of the other 6 days of creation were bracketed by evening and morning, but if you read carefully the Sabbath day was not bracketed like the other six.

 There are many wonderful parallels between God’s creation and His salvation. For instance, the Sabbath was not merely created as another day. It was to be a never ending state of rest. Mankind, having been created as a vessel in which God would dwell, would live in a perpetual state of rest. Eating from the tree of life, he would live forever. He would be given dominion over the earth and everything in it. He would be its master and not its slave.

 Notice how that as soon as Adam sinned and chose to eat of the fruit of the tree on knowledge of good and evil, something changed in him and in all of creation. The dominion was lost and now he would have to eke out a living by the sweat of his brow. He became a slave to the very soil from which he was made.

 Adam did not die physically that day… he died spiritually and now as a fallen human being he would reproduce after his kind. There was no way to reclaim what he had lost for now His sin nature was such that God could no longer dwell in him.

 We are all born into this world as children of fallen Adam. 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22 explains this saying: “For since by man came death, by a man also came resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.”

 No one other than man’s original Creator can restore what Adam lost when he chose the tree of knowledge over the tree of life. Jesus has become the new Adam of a new race and a new kingdom. He is the new tree of life and the only possible progenitor of a new creation.
 In order to truly understand the plan of salvation we really need to understand the nature of man as God created him. That way we can know just what Jesus Christ did to restore us and to enter us into His new creation.

 The tabernacle of Moses tells us many things, for as David said, “Thy way Oh Lord is in the sanctuary.” But one of the things that the tabernacle describes for us is the true nature of man. It tells us that man is a triune being. He was created spirit, soul and body, as represented by the Most Holy Place   (The spirit), the Holy Place (The soul) and the outer court, (The physical body.)
 When Adam was created God breathed into him the breath of life and Adam became a living being. We know that this breath of God was not merely air. God is Spirit (Joh 4:24) He doesn’t breathe air. God instead breathed His Spirit into man and that Spirit sets humans apart from all other animals.
 Just as God is a triune God, so are we triune beings created in His image. But when Adam sinned, that spirit departed from him and he became soul driven and flesh driven.
 So it becomes obvious as to what mankind needs if we are to be restored to God’s image. We need the Spirit of God to quicken our dead spirit and we need God to dwell in that spirit even as mankind was originally designed. We were created to be “fit extensions” of God’s presence and authority over creation. We were created to be containers of his Presence.

 But we face the same problem that fallen Adam faced. Our sin nature is no longer capable of containing the presence of God. Light and darkness cannot dwell in the same place and since our flesh is fallen, God’s presence would literally destroy us. So it is a marvelous thing that God did in order to restore us to fellowship with Him.

 God provided a law by which to define our sin. Then He provided a cross, by which we can enter into Christ’s death thereby taking us out from under the jurisdiction of the Law. Then He provided a resurrection for us so that we can be born again by that resurrection power. In this way we die to Satan’s and fallen Adam’s kingdom and we are born again into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. He is the new Adam of a new Creation. His blood covers our sin and His perfect righteousness covers and transforms us as we trust in Him. So, what the law could not do for us in the flesh, Jesus did, giving us His Spirit to live by so that the law could be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)

 The Law is eternal. It is in principle a foundation of God’s government. The only escape from its judgment is to die and this is what Jesus provided for us as a way of escape. He provided His death for us so that as we enter into it by faith we literally die to Satan’s kingdom and we are literally born again into Christ’s kingdom.

 When we are born again, we are given a new spirit and we become new creatures and even though our body and soul are still a part of the old creation, we can now learn to live by our new spirit so that we will no longer carry out the deeds of the flesh.
 Here we need to point out something very important. In John 20:21, 22 Jesus said, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

  Here we see Jesus breathing the breath of life into His disciples just as He breathed the breath of life into Adam and it is the authority of this text that I say, that God breathed His Spirit into man at creation. It was not mere air, but the Spirit of God that He breathed into Adam. But here now in John 20 Jesus is breathing upon His new creation the breath of life.
 So tell me… since Jesus did this after His resurrection… since He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit, why did He then tell them to tarry in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father? He had just breathed on them the Breath of life even as He had breathed his Spirit into Adam, so why did He tell them to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost?
 Here’s my theory. Jesus breathed on them in order to make them triune beings in the image of God once again. In breathing on them, He restored to them what Adam received at creation. But at Pentecost He gave them something new. He gave them power both to do the works of Christ and to become the sons of God of which He is the first fruit. In other words, through redemption we receive something greater than what Adam had.

 This is why even to this day there is a difference between receiving the Holy Spirit as every true Christian does when he is born again… and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit which we receive as power to witness and to do the works of Christ in the world. One restores us to His image, while the other empowers us to do His works.
 The infilling we receive automatically when we are born again, in fact; it is the receiving of this Spirit that quickens our spirit and causes us to be born again. We become new creatures of the new creation, no longer citizens of Satan’s kingdom, but sons and daughters of God in the kingdom of Christ.
 So the infilling of the Spirit at our new birth is by a sovereign act of God, whereas we must pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and receive it by the laying on of hands by those who have already received it.

 Paul said to Timothy, “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through the prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.” 1 Tim. 4:14.
 Friends, we are plunging rapidly into the final days of earth’s history and as such we cannot afford to rely on dead traditions that have rendered the church more or less powerless in our day. We need to study out the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. We need to understand the difference between the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. We can’t afford to keep living by the soul and the flesh. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, But if anyone doesn’t not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” Romans 8:8, 9.

 In my next article I am going to talk about the difference between conversion and the new birth. There is a vital difference for one is death and the other is life. Think on these things. I don’t think that more than one in ten Christians has been truly born again, nor are they living by the Spirit and this is why most of the church is asleep and dead today. Our hope lies in the new creation and the Gospel of the Kingdom.

 Because much of Christianity is of the flesh these days, many are being led astray with a different Gospel. It is a Gospel with no cross. No repentance… No new Birth and no Spirit filled and Spirit empowered living. And since they are dead, they are seeking security in unity and peace through compromise. They are becoming the global religion of the antichrist.

 We were created to do everything in a state of divine rest and this rest is found in the treasure we hold in earthen vessels. It is not in the works of the flesh, but in the working of Spirit and in truth that we must now learn to walk.

Until next time, Rick