Jim's Footnotes

Thursday, March 23, 2006

The Only Begotten (3-26-06)

This Day Have I Begotten Thee
Bible Study Time 3-26-06

In Psalms, Chapter 2, verse 6, God says, “I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion.” But then the Messiah-King, Himself, says:

Psalms 2:7 (NKJ)
7 "I will declare the decree: the LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.

We know that these verses look forward to the day when Jesus Christ will rule the earth from Jerusalem, the holy hill of Zion, because the next verse says:

Psalms 2:8 (NKJ)
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.

This kingdom is something that God had in mind before sin and its curse come into the world, and we have looked at the fact that God hinted at this worldwide kingdom at the time the curse was pronounced. He said, “The Seed of the woman would bruise the head of Satan.”

But let’s look again for just a few minutes at the first few verses of Psalms, Chapter 2. Verses 1, 2 and 3 read this way:

Psalms 2:1-3 (NKJ)
1 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us."

This is certainly a good description of the world we live in today, and it is a good description of the world as it has been since shortly after the curse was pronounced. We see the curse in Genesis, Chapter 3, and in Genesis 4 Cain killed his brother Abel and went to live to the east of Eden in the land of Nod. By the time we get to Genesis, Chapter 6, the world is in such rebellion and chaos that God elects to destroy all of the people of the earth except Noah and his family.

We might be tempted to think that there were relatively few people on the earth in Noah’s day, but if you do the math and consider the fact that people lived for eight or nine hundred years and often had multiple births, you will find that it is altogether possible that the population of the earth at that time was almost has dense as it is today with 4 to 6 billion people. If that’s true then we can safely assume that their technology was also very advanced.

But out of all of these billions of people, God saved only Noah and his family. It was not that Noah and his family were so good. On the contrary, the Bible says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and the book of Hebrews tells us that Noah became the heir of the righteousness which is of faith. God told Noah that it was going to rain and that he should build an arc. Noah simply believed what God said and did what God told him to do, and he became the heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

But the rest of the people who lived on the earth at that time had no concern for God. Whether consciously or subconsciously, they were in a rage against God, and they wanted to break loose from any connection with God. Genesis 6:5 says:

Genesis 6:5,11,12 (NKJ)
5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
11 The earth . . . was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

Therefore, God sent the flood to destroy everyone on the earth except Noah and his family. How different life must have been after the flood. Noah and his family went from a high tech world filled with billions of people to a world with 8 people who simply depended on God and His wisdom to survive. This may well be the way the world will be when Jesus Christ establishes His kingdom after the tribulation period. There may be very few people on the earth at the beginning of the kingdom.

But after the flood, it wasn’t long before man set his heart against God again. Genesis 11 says that the people all got together and decided to build a great tower which was probably a great temple dedicated to the worship of the heavens. The Bible says that the people wanted to make a name for themselves by building this tower which would reach up into the heavens. The people were taking counsel together against the Lord and plotting a vain thing so the Lord stepped in and confounded their language, and they were scattered abroad over the face of the earth.

As mankind followed his vain imagination, he grew continually worse and worse and farther and farther from God. One day God called out a man named Abraham and told him to leave his family and friends and go to a new land where God would bless him with great blessings. Now why did He chose Abraham? For the same reason that God chose Noah. Abraham believed what God said and did what God told him to do. The Bible says that Abraham believed God, and God counted it to him for righteousness. God’s purpose was to pour out His blessings upon Abraham and his descendants and make them an example to all other nations of what it’s really like to walk in fellowship with the true and the living God.

All the nation of Israel had to do was live by the righteous laws of God. All they had to do was love God and love one another for, in fact, all of the laws of God hang upon these two commandments, love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. But the children of Israel were still under the curse of sin, and it is impossible for those who live under the influence of the old sin nature to please God. The old sin nature loves pleasure, and it loves self glorification. The children of Israel were in no position to love God or their neighbors.

As a result, the nation of Israel joined the other nations of the earth in their rebellion against God. They took counsel against the Lord, and they specifically took counsel against the Lord’s Anointed. When the Lord Jesus walked and talked among them, they witnessed His miracles. They saw Him give sight to the blind and heal the lepers. They saw Him cast out demons and raise the dead.

However, on two different occasions the Pharisees and other religious leaders came to Jesus and asked Him to give them a sign from heaven. Can you image? After all of these miracles, they ask for a sign from heaven. Well, this was Jesus’ answer:

Matthew 12:39-40 (NKJ)
39 . . . "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

He said that the Son of man would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, but then like Jonah He would rise again. This would be the sign that would prove who Jesus really was and is.

The religious leaders plotted against the Lord’s Anointed. They nailed Him to the cross, but death could not hold Him. It may be that it took more power to bring the Lord Jesus back from the dead than it did to create the universe, but come back from the dead He did. And when Jesus Christ came back from the dead and conquered death, hell and the grave, that is when God the Father declared before all the hosts of heaven and earth, “Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten Thee.”

David predicted the resurrection of Christ, and He foresaw the day when the Father would say, “Thou art my Son. This day have I begotten Thee.” But it was the Apostle Paul who put the two together. In Acts, Chapter 13, we read that when Paul and Barnabas arrived in Antioch of Pisidia, they went on the Sabbath day to the Jewish synagogue where they were asked to speak.

When Paul stood up to speak, he demonstrated his enthusiasm by motioning with his hands, and he reminded the Jews that they were God’s chosen people and that God had demonstrated His mighty power to them over and over again. Then Paul told them about the Lord Jesus, saying:

Acts 13:26-30,33 (NKJ)
26 "Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent.
27 "For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know (Jesus), nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, (they) have fulfilled them in condemning Him.
28 "And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that (Jesus) should be put to death.
29 "Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning (Jesus), they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.
30 "But God raised Him from the dead.
33 " . . . As it is also written in the second Psalm: 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.'

In this passage the Apostle Paul reveals for the first time that the statement in Psalms, Chapter 2, finds its fulfillment in the resurrection of Christ. It was in the through the resurrection of Christ that God made the proclamation, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” Jesus Christ was always the only begotten of the Father, but it was the power of the resurrection that declared Him to be the Son of God before all of creation. Paul said in Romans, Chapter 1, that the gospel of God concerns:

Romans 1:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
4 and (was) declared to be the Son of God . . . by the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead.

In Psalms, Chapter 2, immediately after declaring the Christ to be His Son, the Father says:

Psalms 2:8 (NKJ)
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.

It was only after Christ’s resurrection from the dead that Jesus told his disciples:

Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJ)
19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Before the resurrection, Jesus had emphasized that they should go to no one except the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They were not to go to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans. But now, after the resurrection, He tells them to go and make disciples of all the nations. The resurrection had set the stage for the kingdom in which Christ would be given all of the nations of the earth for His inheritance just as David predicted in Psalms, Chapter 2.

However, the book of Acts is a record of Israel’s rejection of Christ and His kingdom. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said to the Jews, “You with wicked hands have crucified the Messiah, but the good news is, God has raised Him from the dead, and His resurrection proves that He is the Christ, the Son of God.”

Peter said, “Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins for the promise is to you and to your children and to those who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” What promise? The promise of the kingdom. Peter was offering them the earthly kingdom even as Jesus had taught them.

This offer of the kingdom went out to the Jews all the way through the book of Acts, but in Acts 28, the Apostle Paul called for a meeting with the Jews of Rome. He showed them from the books of the Old Testament that Jesus had to be the Christ. He had fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophesies. When the Jewish leaders of Rome refused to accept Christ, Paul proclaimed,

Acts 28:28 (NKJ)
28 " . . . let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!"

From that time on, the Apostle Paul spoke no more about the promised earthly kingdom. Instead, he revealed a body of believers who have a heavenly hope. He called them the Church which is the Body of Christ. If you want to know how to be saved today, you need to look at what Paul revealed for the Church the Body of Christ.

Paul says that for us to be saved and accepted into this church, we have to do what Noah did and what Abraham did. We have to believe what God has said. For us that means believing that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. We have nothing to add to what Christ has already done. All we have to do is accept it by faith.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Monday, March 13, 2006

Jesus, The King (3-19-06)

Jesus, The King
Bible Study Time 3-19-06

The prophet Zechariah was speaking of the Lord Jesus when he said:

Zechariah 6:12-13 (NKJ)
12 . . . "Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, and He shall build the temple of the LORD;

Zechariah saw the day when Jesus Christ would leave the glory of heaven to come to the earth and rebuild the Jewish temple. The faithful Jews had been looking for a kingdom since the time of Abraham. When God first called Abraham, God said:

Genesis 12:1-2 (NKJ)
1 . . . "Get out of your country . . . to a land that I will show you.
2 (And) I will make you a great nation . . .

Later, God spoke to Abraham again and said:

Genesis 22:17-18 (NKJ)
17 " . . . I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed . . .

From this statement the faithful Jews knew that they should look for one man who would come as the Messiah, or the Savior as we would say, and King David was one of those faithful Jews who was looking for this Messiah. He was, of coarse, overwhelmed when God told him that the Messiah would not only be the Seed of Abraham, but He would be of the house and lineage of David. In 2 Samuel 7, God said, David:

2 Samuel 7:12-13 (NKJ)
12 "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Do you see how the Bible is a progressive revelation? God reveals a little bit here, and then He reveals a little bit more as time goes on, and then later He reveals even more. Well, that’s the way the Bible is. If we study it all, and compare scripture with scripture, we start to get the whole picture of what God wants us to know.

The Messiah was going to be a descendant of Abraham, and He was going to be a descendant of David, and He was going to build a house for God. Now what does this mean, that He was going to build a house for God. Well, it means two things. First, it means that the Messiah will build the Jewish temple as Zechariah would later confirm. Second, it means that the Messiah would build a family of believers.

Mankind was kidnapped by Satan in the Garden of Eden, and it was God’s plan to provide a way for people to come back home to God. Those who are willing to come home to God become a part of the house of God or the family of God. God told David, “the Messiah will come from your house, but the Messiah will build a house for Me.”

Jesus Christ came as the Son of David to build a house for God. At one point, when Jesus was on the earth, He was told that His mother and brothers were waiting for Him outside. When Jesus heard this He looked around and said, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Those of us who hear the word of God and do it are welcomed as members of the house of Jesus Christ. We become a part of the family of God.

In Psalms, Chapter 2, David looked into the future and saw the time when the Lord Jesus will rule the earth in an earthly kingdom. He said:

Psalms 2:1-12 (NKJ)
1 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us."
4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision.
5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure:
6 "Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion."
7 "I will declare the decree: the LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'"
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

David saw the day when Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, would sit upon His earthly throne and rule for a thousand years. At that time, God the Father will declare from heaven, “I have set My King on My holy hill of Zion . . . You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”

When we look at Jerusalem today, it’s hard to imagine that someday it will be the most powerful city on the face of the earth. People from all over the world will come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Zechariah says that:

Zechariah 8:23 (NKJ)
23 In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"

Ezekiel described the vast dimensions of this future city of Jerusalem and then said, “the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE.”

But as strange as it may seem, the Bible is clear that some of the nations that are on the earth during the kingdom will not be pleased to have Jesus as their king. Of coarse, these people are people who do not know the Lord. They do not believe in Jesus and therefore they still have a sin nature.

Obviously, the sin nature is never satisfied. Jesus Christ will establish a kingdom in which the entire population of the earth will be provided with food and shelter. The air will be clean and the water will be pure. They won’t need hospitals on every street corner because people won’t need them. The people will be healthy. So David asks the question:

Psalms 2:1-3 (NKJ)
1 Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves . . . against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces and cast away Their cords from us."

David asks, why? Why do these kings of the earth want to rebel against Jesus? But then he says:
Psalms 2:4-5 (NKJ)
4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision.
5 . . . He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure:

The Apostle John tells us in the Book of the Revelation that at the end of the tribulation period Satan will be cast into the bottomless pit where he will be bound for a thousand years. He will not be able to go out and deceive the nations as he does today. He will not be able to stir up the envy and greed and distrust which is so prevalent among the nations of the world today. But at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ, Satan will be loosed once again. Revelation 20, verse 7 says:

Revelation 20:7-10 (NKJ)
7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth . . . to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.
9 (And) They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.
10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Those rebellious nations who are on the earth during the thousand year reign of Christ will not have the foolish courage to openly attack the Son of God, but when the devil is turned loose, he is going to be able to give these nations a false sense of confidence, and they will decide to overthrow Jesus Christ.

Well, they have no idea who they’re up against. They don’t believe in Jesus. They don’t know that He is the God of creation. So when they come up against Him, He sends down fire from heaven, and they are devoured.

Zechariah also predicted that this would happen, saying:

Zechariah 12:3 (NKJ)
3 "And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.

In Psalms 2, the Father says to His Son, who is the King of Zion:

Psalms 2:8-9 (NKJ)
8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'"

Then God adds a word of warning for the kings of the earth and particularly for those kings who will be on the earth during the kingdom. Verse 10 says:

Psalms 2:10-12 (NKJ)
10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

This is a warning for all of the kings of the earth, but it’s also a warning for all of us as individuals. Today, God is offering salvation, eternal life, as a free gift to all who will receive it by faith. When Jesus Christ was dying upon the cross of Calvary, He said, “It is finished.” He had done all that was necessary to provide for our salvation. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

Romans 5:6-8 (NKJ)
6 . . . when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 . . . scarcely for a righteous man will one die . . .
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus Christ is God, the Son, and He was willing to take upon Himself a body of flesh so that He could die and offer His blood as the payment for sin. When he arose from the dead and ascended into heaven, He took some of that blood which He shed on the cross, and He placed it on the mercyseat in the temple in heaven. Because that blood was the blood of the spotless Lamb of God, God accepted it as the payment for all sin. It fulfilled all of the righteous requirements of God.

Today, God is offering salvation to anyone and everyone. It does not matter how good you’ve been or how bad you’ve been. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in church all of your life or if you’ve lived on skid row. All that matters is whether or not you have accepted by faith God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

Those who refuse to accept God’s salvation, however, will be like the unbelieving nations of the kingdom. They will face the judgment of God. The other day I was preaching in Mineral Wells, Texas, and afterward a lady came up to me and said that she appreciated the message. She said she liked the fact that I spoke with in a nonjudgmental way with compassion and love, but then she said, “Although, when I got saved, it was because I was afraid of going to hell.”

Well, I thanked her for the compliment and for the thought because we should never forget the fact that there is judgment ahead for those who refuse the salvation of God. David said:

Psalms 2:11 (NKJ)
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way . . .

If you should die without ever accepting Christ as your personal Savior, without ever believing that He died on the cross for your sins, you will have nothing to look forward to in eternity except the fires of hell. Now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation, and blessed are all those who put their trust in Jesus Christ. John said:

I John 5:11-12 (NKJ)
11 . . . this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

If you don’t know Christ today, and you have not accepted His salvation, ask you shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened unto you.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been a pleasure being with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Church links:

Saturday, March 11, 2006

In His Image (3-12-06)

In His Image
Bible Study Time 3-12-06

Last week we saw that the Lord Jesus is like a tree planted by the river of waters. He is prosperous in all that He does, and He is fruitful. The Lord not only bears good fruit, but He bears it in abundance. He spoke the light into being, and the light was good. He created the heavens and the earth, and the sun, the moon and the stars, and they were good. He made all of the plants and all of the animals, and they were all good.

But when it came to man, the members of the Godhead took counsel together and said:

Genesis 1:26 (NKJ)
26 "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; . . .

Genesis 2:7 (NKJ)
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Genesis 1:27 (NKJ)
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

According to Colossians, Chapter 1, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God so that it was in the image of Christ that man was made. Man was made in the image of Christ in every aspect, spiritually, physically, intellectually and emotionally.

However, when Adam and Eve sinned, they lost the image of Christ. Their bodies converted into bodies of flesh which were susceptible to death and were, in fact, doomed to die. Adam and Eve also lost the divine nature which is characterized by love and peace and joy. Instead, they were given over to a fleshly nature which is characterized by greed and selfishness.

This body of corruption with its fleshly nature was passed along from Adam to Cain and Abel, his first two sons. As we all know, when they became adults, Cain became so jealous of Abel that he killed Abel. Cain had refused to bring the sacrifice that God had told them to bring, and when God rejected Cain’s offering but accepted Abel’s offering, Cain went into a jealous rage and killed his own brother, Abel. This whole scenario demonstrates the power of the curse. Cain was full of pride and envy because he had a fleshly nature. Abel’s body was subject to death because it was a body of flesh.

When Adam and Eve were blessed with their third son, the Bible says that Adam begot a son in his own likeness, after his own image, and named him Seth. Again, we see that the children of Adam and Eve did not inherit the image of Christ. Seth was born in the image of his father, Adam.

The Apostle Paul tells us that all men since the time of Adam have been born with Adam’s corrupt image. Romans 5 says:

Romans 5:12 (NKJ)
12 Therefore, . . . through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men . . .

Paul says in Romans 8 that the fleshly mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God, nor indeed can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

When Adam and Eve sinned, the Lord Jesus spoke of the day when the Son of God would come into the world as the Seed of the woman to rescue man from Satan, the father of sin, and from corruption, the curse of sin. The Lord spoke to Satan and said that Satan would bruise the heel of the Seed of the woman, while the Seed of the woman would bruise the head of Satan.

Jesus Christ came in a body of flesh as the Seed of the woman. Satan bruised His heel by nailing Him to the cross. This was not a mortal wound, spiritually speaking, because Christ overcame this wound by means of His resurrection from the dead. However, Christ’s resurrection from the dead proved to be a mortal wound to the head of Satan. Since the time of Christ’s resurrection, Satan has known that all of his evil scheming and plotting will come to nothing. His attempts to overthrow the plan and purpose of God will fail. Even today, Satan’s goal is simply to take as many people as possible with him to the lake of fire.

Those of us who have put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ can rest assured that our eternal peace and our eternal fellowship with the Father have been made secure by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is the resurrection power that sets believers free from the corruption of sin. Paul said in I Corinthians 15 that:

1 Corinthians 15:49-51,53-54 (NKJ)
49 . . . as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."

Someday, Christ will appear in the glory of heaven and then, in an instant, believers will appear with Him in glory. He will transform our lowly bodies and fashion them like unto His glorious body. However, even now we are already citizens of heaven, and we have been given the power to overcome the fleshly nature. Paul said in Romans 6:

Romans 6:3-4 (NKJ)
3 . . . do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

To the Corinthians Paul said:
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJ)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Unfortunately though, this is not the whole story. As believers today, we still have a big problem to deal with, and that big problem is our body of flesh. Romans 7 says that the body of flesh is the force behind the old sin nature. Paul says:

Romans 7:22-24 (NKJ)
22 . . . I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

But Paul goes on Chapter 8 to say:

Romans 8:1 (NKJ)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

The very day that Adam and Eve sinned the curse of sin fell upon the body and the spirit, but now that we have access to the Spirit of God through faith in Christ, we can have victory over the fleshly nature. The Spirit of God is stronger, He’s more powerful than the impulses of the body of flesh. Paul says that those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

How do we walk according to the Spirit? We set out minds on the things of the Spirit. When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said:

Philippians 4:8-9 (KJV)
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

In Romans 12, we read that we should not be conformed to this world, but we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we might be able to prove what is the good and acceptable and prefect will of God. We need the renewing of our minds to walk according to the Spirit.

God’s ultimate goal for believers is that we might be conformed, not to the world, but to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. Man lost the image of Christ in the Garden, but now through faith in Christ we have access to His image once again. Romans 8:29 says:

Romans 8:29
29 For whom (God) foreknew, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Even before Adam and Eve sinned, God had already planned for the consequences of sin, He had already planned the remedy for sin, and He knew exactly who would accept His remedy for sin. Whom He foreknew, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. His plan provided the way for man to be brought back to the image of Christ.

When Jesus Christ was on the earth, some of the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus with great wisdom took a coin and asked whose image was on the coin. When they replied that it was Caesar’s image, Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and render to God the things that are God’s.”

The question for believers today is, whose image is stamped upon our lives? Is it the image of Christ, or is it the image of the world? Jesus Christ offered His blood upon the cross so that He might deliver us from the condemnation into which we were born. It is His will, and He has determined it to be so, that all who believe in Christ should be conformed to the image of Christ. Colossians 3:8 says:

Colossians 3:8-10
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,
10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of (Christ) . . .

The glorious image of Christ was presented in the Old Testament Law. As the psalmist said, the Law of the Lord is perfect. But man in his sinful state can not behold the glory of that image. His fleshly mind could not comprehend it. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Law, his face shone so brightly from being in the presence of the Lord that he had to put a veil over his face. The brightness of his face was so intense that the people could not look upon him.

II Corinthians 3 explains that Moses’ veil represents the inability of the fleshly mind to comprehend the glory of Christ as it is pictured in the Law. The glory of Christ can only be seen through the power of the Spirit of Christ. II Corinthians 3 goes on to say:

II Corinthians 3:16-18 (NKJ)
16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image . . .

If you are listening today and have not put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, then you are still living in a world of corruption. Someday your body will die, and it will never be transformed into the glorious image of Christ. Even now, as you live upon this earth, you will never be able to comprehend the glorious nature of Christ without the Spirit of Christ. But if you accept Christ and believe that He died for your sins, the Spirit of Lord will come to live within your heart. The veil will be lifted, and you will be set free from the bondage of the flesh. The Spirit of God will start the process of transforming you into the image of Christ.

Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. It’s been pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

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