TOUGH QUESTIONS PART 3

TOUGH QUESTIONS PART 3   THE PASSAGE

            Picture if you will finding a small hole in the ground. You are curious to know what is in the hole so you get down on your knees and peer into what appears to be a small tunnel. To your surprise at the other end of this long dark tunnel there appears to be another realm, a glorious new realm and as you gaze at the light of that glorious realm at the other end, you find a desire welling up inside of you such as you have never felt before.

            You sense that everything that your heart has ever desired is on the other end of that dark tunnel and yet it is too small to crawl through. But finally, being unable to resist the pull of that bright realm at the other end of the tunnel you begin to push through head first into that small hole. But even as you do, you find that you must leave everything you have ever known behind. All of your possessions… friends… cherished memories… even you own flesh your old life you must leave behind. You begin to feel like nothing will be left of you by the time you reach the other side.

            Strangely enough, even the laws that used to control your flesh get left behind with your flesh, because leaving the flesh you sense that you must now live by whatever power operates in the new realm ahead. And even as you begin to emerge into the bright new day of this other realm you find that your heart is coming into agreement with the One who drew you to this place. His desires have become your desires… His thoughts, your thoughts… His power… your power. You are no longer controlled by the external laws of the old kingdom, but by the indwelling power of the King.

            In this passage into the realm of the Christ the King, you find that you have passed from death into life and even more wonderfully you have entered into a new kind of rest. Your efforts have been replaced by His power.

            Jesus said to His disciples: “If any one wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Mt. 16:24, Lk. 9:23. And while some see how small the hole is and walk on by it, others are so powerfully drawn by that other kingdom that they become willing to leave everything behind in order to make the passage.

            Being born again is not the result of accepting a new list of rules. It is rather a matter of crawling through that impossibly small tunnel, leaving everything including self and the flesh and the world behind in order to follow Christ. And because you have left the flesh and the world behind, you must also leave old kingdom rules behind in order to receive new kingdom power.

            This tunnel is described in hundreds of different ways in the Bible, but I will choose Romans 8:1-4 and Galatians 2:20, 21.

            “There is therefore now no condemnation for those (who have passed through the tunnel) and are now in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was in the flesh, God did; sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us (Who having left all including self behind and crawled through the tunnel) do not live by the flesh any longer, but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1-4

            The other picture of this tunnel is found in Galatians 2:20, 21 where it says:

            “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave His life for me.”

            And, of course, when Jesus invites us to deny self and to take up our cross and follow Him, He is inviting us to crawl through the tunnel that leads to His glorious realm. Narrow is the way that leads to salvation and we must, of necessity leave all of our old baggage behind.

            Once we understand this concept of the New Birth in which we leave the kingdom of this world behind in order to dwell in the kingdom of Christ (in which He operates His New Covenant as our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek) we can understand Paul’s astonishment to find the Galatians living by the old laws again.

            In effect he was saying to them: “You have crawled through the hole. You left everything behind. You came into a glorious kingdom in which you are now living by the very power of Christ. Who has bewitched you? Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected in the flesh?

            So, if we really understand the New Birth in which we have passed from the dark womb of this world, through the birth canal and into a brand new kingdom empowered by the very Spirit and power of Christ… then we will begin to wonder how many Christians who claim to be born again are really born again? How many, in joining a church, any church, has actually passed through the small tunnel leaving everything behind?

            The true Christian life is made up of leaving all including the world and even our self behind in order to live by a power greater than our own. The Christian life is a supernatural life from start to finish and far beyond the reach of our flesh. The Law cannot get us there and our backbone cannot get us there. Only the power of Christ living inside of us can get us there. Grace is that power. And as our pastor said yesterday in his powerful sermon… Grace is not just a cover up of our sins… it is the power of God unto salvation. It is the power of God to overcome sin and to live holy and righteous lives.

            He also mentioned that today we live in a spoiled American culture that has embraced hyper grace and hyper prosperity in which we worship the gifts rather than the Giver and we have made ourselves the center of our religion instead of Christ. Today, instead of making the passage in which all is left behind, we simply join the club.

            But now in light of all that I have said about crawling through the tunnel, leaving everything including self and the world and even the Law behind in order to find Christ living in us,  (Phil. 3:8) we must ask our next tough question.

            When did Jesus become our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek?

            When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and then it says that He entered into that greater tabernacle made without hands. We know that the tabernacle on earth was patterned after the true tabernacle in heaven and Hebrews 8:1, 2 says: “Now the main point in what has been said is this; We have such a high priest who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, A MINISTER IN THE SANCTUARY AND IN THE TRUE TABERNBACLE WHICH THE LORD PITCHED AND NOT MAN.”

            Hebrews chapter 9 goes on to describe the tabernacle of Moses saying that the outer part contained the lampstand and the table of the sacred bread, but then the writer goes on to describe Jesus as having entered the (Most) Holy Place just as the High Priest did once a year to take, not the blood of bulls and goats any longer, but His own blood and for this reason He has become the mediator of a New Covenant.

            Let me add here that it is not presumption on my part to add the word (Most) in front of Holy Place for indeed the writer is here describing the once yearly Day of Atonement when the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant and this is exactly what Jesus did when He went back to heaven to become our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.

            So when those early Christians crawled through the tunnel, leaving everything behind to follow Christ, did they find a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek who had offered His blood upon the mercy seat and had sat down at the right hand of His father waiting until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet, or did they have to wait for some time in the far distant future for Christ to become their High Priest?

            I ask this question because as a youth I was taught that Jesus did not enter into the Most Holy Place in heaven until the 19^th century and I have found that concept not to be true according to scripture. So this is one of those tough questions we are dealing with. Jesus took up His High Priestly role upon His return to heaven and He sent down His Holy Spirit to breath His life into the church on the day of Pentecost and it has been that way ever since.

           

            The truth is that Jesus was glorified when He returned to heaven. He offered His blood upon the real mercy seat in heaven as our High Priest and then He sat down at the right hand of the Father and then He said, “Okay Father, You can send your promised Holy Spirit to them, for John baptized them with water, but I have promised in Your name, to baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire. (See Acts 1:4-5)

            So Jesus went back to heaven to present Himself as the first fruits of a grand harvest to come. He offered His own blood upon the Mercy seat in the true tabernacle in heaven as our High Priest (Heb. 9:22, 23) after the order of Melchizedek and then He sat down at the right hand of the Father and He will not leave His position as our High Priest until He lays aside His High Priestly robes and dresses in the royal robes of our coming King to return for His Bride. (Heb.9:24-28)

            And Jesus is coming for those who are truly born again… who are truly living by His Spirit,  “All who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. “Romans 8:14. And guess what, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the first-born among many brethren.” Rom. 8:29

            Now how are we ever going to become conformed to the image of Christ unless the very Spirit of Christ dwells in us? Our flesh can’t do it. The Law can’t do it. The Christian life is therefore a supernatural life from start to finish and that is why Jesus said that we must be born again. We must crawl through the tunnel… we must pass through the birth canal into an entirely new kingdom with new laws, a new High Priesthood and a New Covenant.

            And like we discussed yesterday, this New Covenant has been the plan of God all the way along and in fact the covenant of Moses simply laid the groundwork and foundations for the New Covenant in laws and rituals, in types and shadows and feast days and Sabbaths.

            But our true rest comes when we have laid all of self and the world down and we have begun to live by the power of Christ. This is what Hebrews 4 is telling us. Our true rest comes when we stop living by the flesh and we begin to live by His Spirit.

            To be sure, this transition from flesh is both instantaneous and progressive. In other words, when we are born again, we are justified instantly, but learning to walk fully by the Spirit rather than by the flesh, well, that is Sanctification and that is a process. We are by nature people of the flesh and it is so hard to give the works of the flesh entirely to God.

            There are still others who, having no idea of the infinite scale of the new birth, think that if they simply keep the Commandments and be a good person, they will then be qualified for Heaven. But that is infinitely far from the truth. Without Jesus we can do nothing… and we literally have no idea just how far Jesus has to lift us in order to share His realm with us.  We must literally leave everything behind. John 15:1-12.

            Repeatedly in the Gospels Jesus says “If you love me, keep My commandments and we think he is referring to the Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai, but if we are to reconcile Paul with Jesus we must listen closely to what Jesus is saying. Jesus is, in fact, introducing us to a New Covenant, for when He talks about His commandments he always follows up by saying, ”And this is My commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you. John 15:12, 17

            Jesus became the High Priest of a New Covenant under a new Priesthood. It is the Priesthood of the glorious kingdom that lies on the far side of that tunnel and those that enter it must leave everything behind in order to enter it.

            This is what baptism is all about. We die in this kingdom and we are born again into His glorious kingdom, now to live by His power and not our own. And subsequent to that baptism we must receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon us so that we can be His witnesses. Acts 1:4, 5.  The question then is this: How much of the visible Body of Christ in the world today has actually made that passage from this present kingdom to live by the powers of His glorious kingdom?

            Perhaps now would be a good time for all of us to fall on our knees and to tell Jesus that we need to truly make that passage. We have been trying to live in a new kingdom with old kingdom laws and it isn’t working. We know the condemnation that comes with falling short. We need a form of righteousness greater than our own and we need a High Priest of a better, more powerful covenant. We need Melchizedek. We have fallen short of the glory of God and we need Jesus like never before to prepare us to reign with Him in His soon coming kingdom.

            We have been playing church… now it is time to learn how to live in the powers of the age to come. We need to make our passage into that bright kingdom at the other end of the tunnel… and to do it we must leave everything else behind. Conversion is not enough…this new kingdom is one that we must be born into. Our destiny is to be sons and daughters of God and joint heirs with Jesus. We must be born again and simply joining a Christian club will not get us there.

            We are soon to pass through a crucible that will separate mere members from Sons and daughters, wheat from tares and we need to have the real thing.