CHRIST IN THE LIGHT OF THE PAULINE REVELATION

THIS is an unveiling of what we are before the Father, and how the Father looks upon us in Christ.  John 16:28: "I came out from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world and go unto the Father."  You remember Jesus said in John 3:3-5, "Except one be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The believer is born of God. He comes out of the very womb of God.

"Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." "For in one Spirit were we all immersed into one body, and were all made to drink of one Spirit." (I Cor. 12:13).

Just as truly as Jesus came out from the Father, so we have come out from God through the energy of the Spirit. We are born of God.

In I John 4:4 we read, "Ye are of God my little children." We are a part of the very Life of God.  God's very Nature has been poured into our spirits, for we are of God. Now we can understand Jesus' confession. It staggered the Jews. It startled the disciples. "I came out from the Father; I came into the world: again, I leave the world and go back to my Father."

Just as truly as we came out from the Father in our New Birth, when we leave our bodies, we go back to our Father.

In John 8:23 Jesus said, "Ye are from beneath; I am from above." Jesus was ever conscious of His heavenly origin and of His heavenly relationship. Nothing would help us so much as to be aware that we do not belong to the earth. We are on the earth but we are not of it. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are no longer a part of this Satan-ruled world. We are born from above.

We have the Nature and the Life of the Father. We are in Christ. Believers are in danger of being attracted to earthly things, such as money and the pleasures of life. If we could know we are not of the earth, as we know we are men or women, and know that our highest joy is to be found alone in Christ, it would make a great difference in our earth walk.

In Matt. 12:42 Jesus said, "A greater than Solomon is here." He dared to confess what He actually was.  He dared to tell that generation that looked on Him with suspicion and jealousy and hatred, who He was.

"A greater than Solomon is here." I wonder if we have realized who we are, I wonder if we ever considered that we belong to another race,  2 Cor. 5:17 "Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation (a new species); the old things that belong to the earth walk are passed away, and behold all things are become new; but all these things are of God, who reconciled us unto himself."

We haven't realized that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than Solomon. He was but a servant. His vast wisdom was given to him. We are the sons of God and Jesus has been made unto us Wisdom. Solomon was but a natural man who lived in the realm of the senses. He had no conception of this Divine Life that has been given to us.

But we don't think of that.  We have not yet realized our position in Christ; our position in the Family.  We are the very Sons and Daughters of God Almighty. Solomon was but a son of David. John 8:12 is perhaps one of the greatest sentences that ever fell from the lips of the Master if we dared to put one Scripture over against another.

"I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." Jesus dared to say that He represented a new order, a new type of man, that in Him was the Light of Life; that is, the Wisdom that comes from Eternal Life.

The people who follow Him, walk in His footsteps and obey His word, should never be caught in the realm of darkness where they cannot see.

Col. 1:13 says, "Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love." You see, we have been taken out of the realm of darkness where men walk by the senses. We have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His Love, or in other words, into the very Family of God. We have become partakers of His Divine Nature. The same Life that was in the Son of God is in us. The same Light that He had is in us. Now we can understand 2 Cor. 6:14: "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?"

In Phil. 2:15 Paul tells us, "We are seen as lights in the world." We are holding forth as a lamp, the Word of Life. We are the light of the world. We have taken Jesus' place. His Life in us is the source of Light, Light means Wisdom and the ability to do things, and the Greater One has not only imparted to us His own Nature, but He has actually come into us and lives in us - has become a part of us.

So when Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," it placed tremendous responsibility upon those who follow in His steps. If we are partakers of His Life, then we have that Light and John 1:4 must ever challenge us: "In him was life; and the Life was the light of men."

We have that Life. With that Life has come the Light, and we must walk in the light as He is in the light. To step out of that Light means to step into the darkness, which means broken fellowship. It means to step out of the realm of Love, for that light is really Love shining out through us, in our conduct, in our words.

The new kind of Love and the new kind of Light which Jesus brought are the very Nature of the Father.  When we step out of Love we step out of Light, out of fellowship with Heaven.  If we walk in the Light as He is in the light, we have fellowship not only with the Father but with one another. But when we are drawn aside for a moment by the adversary, we step into darkness.

I John 2:9-11. "He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in the darkness even until now.  "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. "But he that hateth his brother is in the darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes." His spirit is in darkness. Sense-knowledge cannot light the path now.

We have taken the Master's place as lights in the world. Just as Paul says, "Follow me as I follow Christ," so every one of us are light in the world, and we are saying to the world, "Follow me as I follow Christ." When we step out of light into darkness we spread confusion around us and folks know not what to do.

We should always remember what we are in Christ. We should remember we are the lights of the world, and those that follow us must not be led into darkness. John 14:6 has not only been a challenge but has been a thrilling joy. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

What a confession that was! When the Master said, "I am the Way," the Spirit at once began to bring to my mind excerpts from the 9th Chapter of Acts, of Paul going to Damascus to see if he could find allies that were in the Way, whether men or women, so he could bring them to Jerusalem. Christianity was the Way. "But some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of The Way." (Acts 19:9).

What did they mean by calling Christianity The Way? Back yonder in the Garden, Adam lost the Way, the Way into the Father's presence, the Way into the Father's heart. He left the place of light and glory and went out into the world without light. All down through human history, men have been groping for the lost Way, the Way back into fellowship with the Father; hacking into that Edenic condition where condemnation would not rule as a Master over the heart.

When Jesus said, "I am the Way." He meant He was the Way to the Father's heart - the Way of Life. Then I saw that everyone of us is a light, a signboard pointing to the Way.

Now notice carefully what it means to you. You are taking the Master's place; you are the Way, and if your life is not in tune with the Master, and you are not living the Word, you may be pointing the wrong way.

He not only said. "I am the Way," but He said, "I am the Truth," or, "I am the Reality."

When I saw that word translated as Reality, it gripped me. Jesus is the answer of the age-old cry of the human spirit for Reality. One translation of Rom. 1:25 reads, "For they exchange the reality of God for the unreal." Satan is the God of vanity. The major pleasures of the Senses of natural man have no actual reality in them.

There is no reality in the moving pictures, in the dance hall, in gambling, or in drinking.

There is nothing in them that the spirit of man can feed upon. Satan has not given to man one thing that has in it any permanent value.  The pleasures of the Senses perish with the use.  When Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Reality, and the Life," He was pointing to something that is different.

In John 16:13 Jesus said, "When he, the Spirit of Reality, is come, he will guide you into all Reality." Jesus is the Way into the thing that the heart has craved through the ages-Reality. It is a strangely realistic truth that no one who has ever actually found Eternal Life, has ever turned to any other religion.

The metaphysical religions that are born of the senses have no appeal for the man who has found Reality.  The human heart can find no Reality outside of the man Jesus. The New Creation is real. Our fellowship with the Father is real. The Word is a real message to the spirit of the New Creation. We walk in the light of Reality. Jesus said: "I am the Way, the Reality, and the Life." 

The Greek word here for Life is "Zoe." That is the new kind of Life Jesus brought to the world. "I am come that ye might have life and have it in abundance." What is Life? It is the Nature of the Father. In that Nature of the Father is all Wisdom, all Ability, all Love.

John 6:47: "He that believeth hath Eternal Life."

Believing is actual possession, so the believer is a possessor of this the greatest gift ever given to man-Eternal Life. John 1:4 "In him was Life, and that life is the light of men." How little we have appreciated the fact that Eternal Life in man has given to us all the creative ability manifested in this mechanical age.

No heathen nation ever had any inventors or creators until Eternal Life came to them.

When we boast of Anglo-Saxon superiority, it is simply the superiority of Eternal Life over natural life.  There are two words translated as Life in the New Testament: "Zoe"-the Nature of the Father that Jesus brought, and gives to man in the New Creation; and "Psuche" - the natural human life. "Psuche" has never produced any great literature; and has never given to man anything that was of any real value.

Let this become clear in our minds, that "Zoe," this new kind of Life, is the Nature of the Father, and the Father is Love. So when this new kind of Life comes into a man, it drives

out the old nature and the New Nature takes possession.  It is just like Israel moving into the promised land, driving out the inhabitants, and taking over the country for themselves. Eternal Life has taken us over.

It has captivated our reasoning faculties, illuminating them, making them the slaves of this New Order, so that wherever a man who has Eternal Life goes you see the marks of it.

He is a New Creation man. He belongs to the New Order of things. He has a new kind of Love-Agapa-and that Love makes a home in which it is safe for babies to be born.

The other kind of love is the Greek word "Phileo," the love which springs from the natural human heart.  It has never made a home in a heathen country.  It is the parent of all our divorces and broken homes.  Where a man and woman have "Agapa," the new kind of Love that springs out of this new kind of Life, there is never a divorce.

This is the greatest thing in the world.  The believer is the signboard pointing toward Jesus - the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and we must be bold in our confession that we are in the Way; that we have the Reality and are enjoying the fullness of this marvellous Life.

Jesus made another confession. "I am the Good Shepherd." The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:11)

What a beautiful confession, so full of suggestion - the Shepherd.  It brings before the heart the 23rd Psalm: "Jehovah is my shepherd; I do not want. He causeth me to lie down in green pastures, and he leadeth me beside the waters of gentle stillness"; he restores my thinking processes so I can think God's thoughts.

He is the caretaker, the bread-provider, the shield and the protector of His people.

His ministry is guiding and leading us into the real pastures where the heart learns to feed.

Can you see what this means to you? The moment we receive Eternal Life, that moment we become under-shepherds of the flock: we become leaders and teachers of this New Order, this new Life.

We are the protectors of the lambs from the adversary that would destroy them. What a ministry of Love that shepherd has! What a life of Love caring for them, watching over them, feeding them, pointing the way to the Water of Life, and leading them into the quiet place under the shadow of the great Rock in this weary land.

We ought to make confession of our shepherd responsibility and our ability to guide men.

I was amazed when I found the Greek word translated power meant ability, and that Jesus wanted the disciples to tarry in Jeru¬salem until they had received ability - the Father's ability that Jesus had been manifesting among men.

Now we, the under-shepherds, have His ability. We are partakers of that ability. He is made unto us Wisdom so we may know where to lead the sheep and what to feed them.

The greatest concern I have ever had regarding my ministry was the ability to rightly divide the Word so I could give men the food, the Bread of the Almighty.

I have wanted to be a Faith Builder. I wanted to lead men out of the wilderness of Sense-knowledge into the highlands of our privileges in Christ, which is a Shepherd's responsibility. Here is another confession of Jesus that has a Pauline ring to it: "The words that I speak unto you are Spirit and are Life (John 6:63).

How few of us have realized the power of words. Jesus knew. Jesus' words healed the sick, fed the multitudes, hushed the sea, and raised the dead. Not only that, but they stirred such malignity and hatred in the hearts of the leaders of Israel that they finally nailed Him to the cross, just because of the words that He had spoken.

Paul makes us see it with a vividness that thrills. "By faith, we understand that the worlds have been framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear" (Heb. 11:3). God created the Universe with Words.

You remember those three wonderful words, "Let there be." Eight or nine times those words are recorded in the first Chapter of Genesis. God brought everything that is in the Universe into being with words. But the Spirit climaxes it in John 1:1-3: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that hath been made."

He took man's words and filled them with Himself. He made man's words creative things.

He filled man's words with the very genius of Love. His words dominated. He indwelt words and made them work for Him. He counted the things that were not as though they were, and they leapt into being. Words create.

Then in Heb. 1:3, words dominated the things that words had created: "Who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." He had brought the world into being with His Word. Now that vast Universe is sustained and governed by His Word.

Oh, my heart craves for the hour to come when we will begin to appreciate what words can accomplish. All the business the world ever did was with words. With words we make love.

With words, we crush hearts. With words, God-filled words, we build faith into the lives of men. With words that are filled with sense-knowledge, we destroy the faith of men.

Sense-knowledge has no other means but words, and so our universities are filled with words, oftentimes destructive words, demoralizing words.

Our high schools are destroying the faith of our nation with false teaching - all with words.

There is nothing holy any longer.  An ideology borne of Sense-knowledge is dominating our nation, and unless the Word of God gains the ascendancy again, all the ideals of our Republic will go, and a new type of despotism that is destructive to Christianity will take its place.

Men without God have used the inventions that God has given to the New Creation to destroy all God has wrought through the Church since the Lutheran Reformation.

When Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life," He was lifting the curtain and letting us see the realities. Think of it! "The words that I speak," have in them the power and energy and Creative Ability of God.

"The words that I speak unto you," are life-giving words, love¬building words, faith-creating words. Now what is our confession? Our confession is that we are the products of His words, that His words have given to our spirits the very Nature of the Father, and that the law that governs this new Life is the Law of the New Covenant. "A new commandment give I unto you that ye love one another, even as I have loved you" (John 13:34).

This new Law that grows out of the Love Nature of the Father is the Law that governs us.

We are walking in the light of this News Law, this Creative, dominating Law, this victorious Law of Love. What a confession we have to make. God help us to hold fast to it. In John 14:9 Jesus says, "He that hath seen me hath seen tile Father."

That almost takes one's breath away. Jesus said, "Have I been so long a time with you and you do not know what I am? I am God manifest in the flesh." "You have been living and walking with God. "You have seen Him heal the sick and raise the (lead.

"You have seen Him feed the multitudes through me.

"You have felt His Love Nature in my voice and in my words, and so I say to you today, `He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.' "You need never say again, `Show us the Father,' for he  is with you." What a confession that was! How it has lingered in the very atmosphere through the ages! Then one day I caught a glimpse of the Revelation of the

New Creation in the Pauline Epistles and I saw we were actually taking Jesus' place; that we had the same Life in us Jesus had, and the same Nature of the Father has been imparted to us.  With that Nature have come all the attributes that made Jesus so beautiful to the world and made Him stand out as the most unusual character the ages have ever seen. Every attribute in Jesus that made Him beautiful is in the New Creation.

We have the same Life that dominated Him - that Love Nature.  We have the same kind of Love He had. He is made unto us Wisdom from God. He is made unto us Redemption from God. He is made unto us Sanctification from God. He is made unto us Righteousness from God. Those four attributes of the very Nature of the Father were manifest in Jesus.

Redemption from the hand of the adversary had not yet been accomplished when Jesus walked the earth, but it was manifested in Him. He was the Master of demons.

Sanctification was revealed in Him in His utter separation from the world that surrounded Him.  Righteousness, the ability to stand in the Father's presence without the sense of inferiority, the ability to stand in the presence of Satan as a master - all those gracious manifestations of the Divine Life were seen in Him.

As I read John 14:6-10 my whole being seems to open up toward Him and my heart cries, "Lord, make this real by thy Grace in my life so men who see me will see you; so I can say, perhaps not in words, `He that hath seen me hath seen the Master.' What a confession Jesus made to the world, and what a confession we have the privilege of making today.

Jesus said, "I am the vine, ye are the branches."

I would that my heart could understand it; that the heart could grasp the reality of our union with Him, of our unusual ability to feed upon the very Nature and Life of God in Christ.

You see, no branch can be closer to the vine than another branch. Every branch has the same union with the vine for its individual ministry of fruit-bearing. When He said, "I am the vine, ye are the branches," it brought us into the fullest union with Deity. We are actually partakers of the Divine Nature.

The very life and substance of Deity pours out of the vine into the branch. Then He said in that great prayer in the 17th Chapter of John, "And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one."

Why? That the world may know that thou bast sent me, and lovest them even as thou lovest me." That is the Vine Life. That is where the branch is glorified and the fruitage becomes like the fruitage of Jesus in His earth walk. We can understand now what e meant when He said, "Greater works than these shall ye do; because I go unto My Father." (John 4:12) Jesus was limited to physical things.

He could heal the sick, feed the multitudes, raise the dead, and turn water into wine, but He could not Recreate anyone.  He could not give anyone Eternal Life because it was not available until after He had put sin away until He had satisfied the claims of justice, conquered Satan, arose from the dead, carried His blood into the heavenly Holy of Holies, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High.