Truth About Reconciliation 3

Remember we are seeking to discover who it was that died on the cross. Paul tells us in 1 Cor 15:45 that, “The First man Adam was made a living soul, but the Last Adam was a life-giving spirit. Both men are called ADAM, but the LAST ADAM had the power to give life. But Paul says of this “Last Adam” that God made him to be “Sin” for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in HIM. How was Jesus Christ made to be S-I-N.

We know he was not a Sin Offering because scripture state clearly that God did not want any more sacrifices and offerings. So we must look carefully to discover the answer to this important question. In Matt 26:36-45 we find the veil lifted for us on a world changing event in the life of Christ. He returns to a “Garden” where once a man (Adam) lost paradise and gained a wilderness. Now we see unfolding before us an event that would restore to all mankind their union and oneness with God that originally was ours.

Jesus told the disciples to sit and wait for him as he went on further with just three of them. Then again he stopped and told the three to watch with him the events that would unfold. He began to be sorrowful and very heavy. The intensity of his sorrow brought him close to death. Then he prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.”

What was this “cup” that caused him so much sorrow and heart ache? The Mother of James and John had previously asked the Lord to allow her two sons to sit one at his right hand and the other on his left when he came into his kingdom. He asked them then if they would be able to drink of the “cup” that he would be asked to drink, and they replied, Yes. Jesus told them they would indeed drink of the same cup and be baptized with the same baptism.

That cup represented the “death” that Adam entered into in that first garden, through his disobedience. Everything that resulted from eating the fruit of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil was incorporated into that Cup, that was now placed in the hands, of Jesus Christ. To drink that cup he had to become what Adam became in the Garden of Eden. So Paul says, “God made him (Jesus Christ) to BECOME SIN for us!”

At that moment in Eden’s garden Adam became mortal and subject to death so that we might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM. So Jesus Christ the Last Adam also had to enter into a state of mortality in order to embrace death and so destroy its power. He found himself separated from God believing his Father had forsaken him. That is why on the cross he cried, “ My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” At the same time his eyes were opened to see another, alien world. Every effect of Adam’s disobedience formed part of the “Cup” he was now asked to drink, and nothing could be excluded that he might be the Saviour of the world.

In the torment of that moment he sweat as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. The one who was clothed with the glory of the Father now has been stripped naked as was Adam.

Beloved we need to take off our shoes to view this scene, he made himself of NO REPUTATION being willing to drink that cup which was rightfully ours, but he drank it to the last dregs, becoming at that moment A LIVING SACRIFICE and the burnt offering that is wholly acceptable unto the Lord. Rom 12:1

Three times he looked to see if the disciples could at least witness his hour of sorrow but they were asleep, so he suffered alone. But the moment had come when the son of man would become subject to his tormentors, and they found no resistance at this time. For they were not now dealing with the Son of God but the “LAST ADAM.” So they could mock him and put a purple robe on him and spit in his face, but there was no retaliation, for he had become the serpent on the pole.

Adam had permeated the whole human race with his “death” as well as his consciousness that knowing good and evil had made him to be as god, thus displacing the one whose right it is to be Lord within us. Now as the L-A-S-T Adam, he was taking all of the suffering, pain and death, that disobedience had brought upon mankind to its final conclusion. Such was the bitterness of that “cup” that he drank for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

The one that was lifted up on the cross was not the Lamb as a sin offering but the LAST ADAM. God had made Jesus Christ TO BE SIN FOR US, who knew no sin that WE might be made the righteousness of God IN HIM. But the CROSS that seemed like a total tragedy from man’s point of view was a total victory for every one who would LOOK AND LIVE. Now for every man that has been infected by ADAM, and as a result is facing a life of sin and death because of the mortality that has been passed on to us, if we LOOK at the one on the pole WE WILL NOT DIE.

How does the cross really work for us? Well as we look at the cross we see the very one dying there that has caused us to be bound by the law of sin and death, and subject to sickness pain and sorrow. As I LOOK I see that very one dying right there, so he can no longer affect my life. Seeing him DEAD means I AM FREE from that law of sin and death and I do not have to die. To me, that sounds like the best news anyone could give me. ADAM IS DEAD.

But this is not all that is involved in the cross! For as I look at the one dying there I see myself personified in Adam, for this natural man has been the willing tool of the Adamic consciousness for many years, but now in that LAST ADAM I DIED ALSO. As I look and see my “Old Man” crucified there I find myself free to serve the Lord instead of the law of sin. Now I do not have to sin anymore for the one that bound me by sin, is D-E-A-D.

It is for this reason that Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth into him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The truth is, that the real sacrifice that redeems us was not a DEAD SACRIFICE as all of the sacrifices were that Israel offered, but a LIVING SACRIFICE.

Was the cross therefore necessary? Absolutely, for Salvation to be available to all, the death of the Last Adam had to be a public spectacle held high enough that all men would be able to LOOK AND LIVE. Then when something dies it must be buried so the Body that had been the instrument of sin, could return to the ground. This is the final end of that part of us that served sin. So Paul says, “When we were baptized into Jesus Christ we were baptized into his D-E-A-T-H.”

If there is no death then there is no release from Adam, and his life will continue to function through us. “But if we have been planted in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this that our OLD MAN (ADAM) is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is DEAD is freed from SIN.”

So now we can discover how reconciliation can become a reality within us personally. Good and evil was a part of the Adamic life which we now discover DIED at the cross, so these opposites can no longer exist. In fact all the opposites only exist in the realm of flesh, and as we have found the flesh came to an end on the cross, having died in him who became the Last Adam. Being the L-A-S-T means there is no more ADAM, so that whole realm in which all the conflict functions is now dead, so I am free.

What a wonderful Gospel we have to share with all men. The cross has brought reconciliation to us, putting an end to the constant conflict that has been considered a normal part of the Christian life. Paul tells us that we no longer are bound to yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness. Sin has no power over us for the part of us that was under law is DEAD, and now we live under Grace. “Being made free from sin, we have become the servants of righteousness. For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son, in the LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH , and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”

THE COMING OF CHRIST

It was David that subdued all Israel’s enemies, bringing peace to Israel. Then David made preparation for the building of the Temple, although he was not allowed to actually build it. So today the preparation for the “appearing “ of the Lord in his temple is this work of reconciliation. Jesus said to the disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also.”

The place he is preparing is not up in the sky, but IN YOU. Paul says, “Don’t you know your body is the temple of God.” The word used here for temple in the New Testament is the Greek word “Naos” which refers only to the Most Holy Place. So the place being prepared is the Most Holy Place which is in you, for this is God’s dwelling place. Having now dealt with our Adamic consciousness the consciousness of sin has been removed, so this removes the veil and allows us access into Father’s house.

However Paul tells us that in the preparation of God’s dwelling place some changes must take place. He says that the “Man of Sin” must be revealed first. This term refers to Adam as he was the one who brought sin into the world, and perpetuates it by his presence in mankind. Where can we find this imposter? Paul explains about this Adam, “ Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he AS GOD sitteth in the Temple of God, shewing himself that HE IS GOD.”

How many Christians sing with great gusto, “He is Lord, he is risen from the dead and he is Lord!” But the truth is that in their life Jesus Christ has very little say about how life is lived. If we are honest many of us would have to admit that we decide what we will do and where we will go, and make great plans about the future, all without even a thought about what the Christ may desire. So we have to admit there is someone who occupies the “Throne” in the Temple of God, and it is not Jesus Christ.

We are back again with Paul in Romans 7 battling with a desire to do good but finding another authority, refusing to allow us to have our way. This is Adam, not just content with being a part of our life but insisting on being the royal presence within, sitting in the place of authority. Now it is obvious there will be no appearing of Christ in his Holy Temple while Adam is still there. Many Christians wonder why they do not have a real sense of the divine presence within, even after praying and fasting for it.

The reason is clear, for if Christ is not LORD OF ALL he will not be LORD AT ALL. There is no way he will appear in his Holy Temple until the Throne has been vacated and we are ready to conduct a coronation service for His Royal Majesty. We will soon know if the cross has been effective in releasing us from the law of sin and death, because if we are indeed free, the Christ will appear in his Holy Temple and we will crown him King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It will be, “Not MY WILL but THINE be done O Lord.”

However do not despair, for the battle is not just up to us, but God has made provision to clean out His temple when we decide that Christ is King. Often we have not realized the subtlety of our enemy, who deceives us into believing he does not really exist, and that what we do we do out of our own volition. But Paul says, “Then shall that wicked one shall be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his appearing.”

The Spirit of his mouth speaks of the Power of his Word. “Who has saved us and called us with a holy, calling not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.

So when we believe the Word God has spoken to us, that word will set us free by destroying the lie that has bound us. For God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power, and of love and of a sound mind. Now we are coming to that place where we no longer live out of a duality of being, but we can say with Jesus, “I and my Father are One.” The truth being that, “As he is so am I in this world.”

Des Walter