Book 1 of Musings Dust or Eternal Life?
We can return to the dust, or we can press on to the fullness of life. The choice is ours.
Mankind was created from dust. Of all the substances and elements in the world, dust may be the least useful. More than that, it is an annoyance. I never heard of anyone wanting more dust. Have you?
But dust we are and to the dust we shall return, unless we choose otherwise.
Into this pile of dust walks Eternal Life - the Lord Jesus Christ by name.
Christ gives eternal life to whomever God sends to Him.
Let's think for a moment. What we are is dust. Agreed. But exactly what is dust? Not our soul. Not our spirit. Only our body.
The way the Lord spoke in the beginning, saying dust we are and to the dust we will return, you would think we were nothing but a body.
But we know from the Bible we have a soul and a spirit. Where did they come from? They came from God and He housed them in dust.
What is eternal life? Eternal life is the Life of God, of Christ. It is a kind of life that is not dust. It is real life, life that does not age, life that is righteousness, love, peace, joy, and unlimited strength and endurance. In fact, all one could desire is found in Divine Life.
God did not say the body that sins shall die, although the Apostle Paul stated that our physical body is dead because of sin. God said the soul that sins shall die.
God made man a living soul. We know also that man has a spirit just as God has a Spirit.
So then, if we are to have eternal life, the Life of God; or perhaps I should say if we are to be an integral part of the Life of God, then we must come to Christ - for He alone is and has the Eternal Life of God His Father.
The Apostle Paul said if we live according to our sinful nature we will reap corruption, or destruction. Exactly what does that mean?
You know, I am not certain. It is difficult to picture what it means to reap destruction.
Most Christians believe the wicked will be tormented forever. Maybe this is what it means to reap corruption.
One thing seems certain to me. When our spirit is not in union with the Spirit of God, it is dead. It has no life. It reminds me of a tide pool that is too far from the ocean to be replenished at high tide. The small marine life in the pool goes up and down with the movement of the sea; but the water eventually evaporates and the life perishes.
Our soul appears to be the center of interest, as far as judgment is concerned. Perhaps it is true that it is our soul that decides to obey or disobey God. The soul that sins shall die. Meaning what? Probably that it is cut off from the Divine Life of God.
But what about our dust; our body? You know, the destiny of the physical body is of far, far more importance than we usually hear from the pulpit. The body actually is the focus of redemption, because it was immortality that was lost in the beginning.
When Jesus said God so loved the world that whoever believes in Christ shall not perish but have eternal life, He was referring to our body.
The blessed hope of the Church is that Christ will return and raise our body from the dead, making it immortal.
This is why the doctrine of the "rapture" is so misleading and destructive. The rapture teaching focuses on the believers being caught up to Heaven. This is not the focus of the New Testament. The focus of the New Testament is on the redemption of the body, the raising of it from its place of interment and the clothing of it with incorruptible, resurrection life.
How, then, does salvation proceed?
After we believe in Christ, repent of our sinful ways in the world, and are baptized in water, we are touched with the Holy Spirit - that is, with the Life of God. Also, the Substance of Christ is conceived in us. The Substance of Christ constitutes a new Nature in us which immediately is carried up to Heaven and hidden with Christ in God.
What is left on the earth? Our soul, with its passions, lusts, and rebellious nature, and our body with its passions, lusts, and rebellious nature.
There are sinful tendencies that reside in the members of our body.
So now we have a new life in Heaven at the right hand of God, and a sinful soul and body on the earth.
Meanwhile our spirit has become united with the Spirit of God. According to Paul, our spirit can become contaminated if we do not purify ourselves through prayer and obedience.
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (2 Corinthians 7:1)
Now the fight of faith commences, and what a fight it is!
What are we fighting for? We are fighting for eternal life. We who are dust want to gain Divine Life.
Our new spiritual nature already is in Christ in God in Heaven.
Now the task is to keep sowing to that new nature. This means we are to pray each day, read the Bible, have fellowship with fervent saints, give of our substance, serve, and do all else that is part of Christ living.
Meanwhile Satan will do all in his power to tear us down from our high place in God.
In the day in which we are living The Holy Spirit is ready to transform us morally. He does this by pointing out to us the worldly, lustful, self-seeking actions of our personality.
The Spirit does not show us all the problems in our personality at once. Little by little the Spirit leads us. As we become aware of our sinful behavior we are to confess our sins to God, denounce them as evil, renounce them, declaring we want nothing more to do with them, and then press further into Christ.
We are to engage in this moral transformation at all times, never giving up, never becoming discouraged, never taking anything for granted, never settling for halfway measures. Satan is to be removed from us entirely. We are to be desperate about this; vehement about this; forceful about this work of moral transformation. If we are not, if we are careless, frivolous, halfhearted, tending to compromise with sin, we will never be prepared to be raised from the dead when the Lord appears.
I hope you are hearing me clearly. We will not be prepared to be raised from the dead when Christ appears!
In many instances the true Gospel is not being preached in the United States of America. In its place we have a non-demanding pretty little philosophy that permits people to continue with their usual lives, not participating in the strenuous warfare necessary for moral transformation.
We have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. Change into the image of Christ requires a rugged warfare throughout our lifetime on the earth, and may extend into the next world for all I know.
When God says He is going to change us into the image of Christ, He is not speaking only of the body. The body will be taken care of when the inward nature has been changed into the image of Christ, and not before!
Adam and Eve were in the image and likeness of God in their bodies only. Their inward personalities were not in the image of God, they were blank slates on which nothing had been written.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the first Man in the full image of God to have walked on the planet Earth. He alone is in the moral image of God. Now we, his younger brothers, are to be transformed into that same moral image. The time is now. The work is going on today. According to the major types of the Old Testament, the work of moral transformation takes place after salvation; after the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It is the great and glorious consummation of the Divine redemption.
The issue is eternal life, Divine Life, in our spirit, in our soul, and in our body. This is what Christ our Redeemer came to bring to us. He took care of the guilt of our sins by His atoning death on the cross; otherwise redemption would not have been possible.
Now Christ is working to accomplish redemption in our spirit, soul, and body. He will give us more eternal life, Divine Life that will enable us to be more than conquerors throughout the age of physical and moral horrors that is on the horizon.
We have to lay hold on eternal life. We have to attain to the resurrection that is unto eternal life in spirit, soul, and body. In America we are surrounded with spiritual death. The invisible demons are everywhere, constantly impacting on our consciousness; deceiving us; seducing us into sin. We have to look to Christ day and night if we are to emerge in victory.
We are in a time of marvelous opportunity and dreadful danger. The last shall be first in the Kingdom. The thrones that control the world are there, waiting for those who care enough to follow Christ all the way.
The dreadful danger is that having known of the victory that is possible, we neglect our salvation. Then we are flirting with the fire that will torment those who have succumbed to the Antichrist world spirit.
The issue is simple and straightforward. Either we are willing to remain as an animal, our life consisting of flesh and blood metabolism, or else we are determined to press forward into the fullness of Divine Life. If we fail it will not be because Christ has not made every provision for us, it will be because we were so foolish, so shortsighted, we chose to spend our days seeking the pleasures of the present world. This would be a stupid decision to say the least!
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3:10-11)
Back To MUSINGS, BOOK ONE