Two Realities

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Greetings;

Well, life continues in a locked down world. We are restrained, but God is not restrained. When the apostle Paul was in prison, he said that he could be chained, but the word of God could not be chained. This is true in our light and momentary affliction as well. What is it that has our focus in the midst of our present world? Whatever, and whoever, is in the center of our world will determine what our world becomes. We must keep our focus on Jesus in the midst of this present hour.

The focus of our lives must be Christ! Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the Beginning and the End. If we expect to find the end to our present situation and a beginning to what is meant to be, we must see Jesus in the center of our world. Only Jesus can give us the endings that we need and the beginnings that lead to the increasing testimony of life. We cannot think the way the world thinks and expect to receive the world that God intends for us to receive. We are the body of Christ, the church, the gate of heaven! The future of the world is determined by the gate of heaven, not the gates of hell!=

Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! 22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, 23 who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away justice from the righteous man! 24 Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust; because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

A true rejection of the law of the Lord is a rejection of His character, nature, way, power, and authority. God’s grace transforms our lives to become what the law of God could only reveal in shadow form.

We must allow God to show us the good and we must allow God to define the evil. He doesn’t do this by informing us of what is good and evil, He does it by transforming our lives from within. This is where the light of Christ grants us the ability to know God’s glory in all things. We must look to light as God declares it to be. What day is at hand? Is it a day of doom and trouble? Or is it another measure in the Day of the Lord? Do we see an increased measure of Jesus in our lives? We must not look to things that provide some measure of comfort in escaping the reality of our world or condoning the reality of our world. We must seek God’s presence in our world! When Jesus walks into the room, the room changes! The room that He desires to fill is the room of our hearts and minds. The true law of the Lord is not the shadow of who He is. It is the substance of who He is. The true law is found by embracing the character, nature, way, power, and authority of God in the reality of His person and presence in our lives. I am not just talking about Him being with us, I am talking about Him being with us, in us, and even upon us as the one who transforms us and the world in which we live.

There are two realities in the world in which we live. Light is in the world (cosmos) as sin is in the word (cosmos). Before Jesus came, sin was in the world (cosmos) and mankind was bound to an administration that could not transform the lives of humanity. It could only inform them of good and evil. Unlike much of the traditional thinking in the church, I don’t believe that we inherit sin. I believe that we inherit iniquity and thus we are susceptible to fall to sin that is in the air – the atmosphere of the cosmos. We do not inherit sin, but we do inherit internal weaknesses. This makes us vulnerable to the temptations of the world and we entertain thoughts of independence, the will of self, and a means to be smart in some way. This is transgression and it leads to sin for each and every one. It is in the atmosphere of the world. Jesus came to give us a different atmosphere. He made it possible for the Holy Spirit to be in us and with us, thus the Last Adam brought an option of the true light of life into the world (cosmos). One can choose the Light of Christ, but that Light must become a Light with in them, even as in first Adam the light of sin becomes the darkness within their own souls. One can also chose the former administration of disconnection from the true Light. There are two family trees, but the life of the Last Adam is a growing influence in the world (cosmos).

Romans 7:8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. 9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

When first Adam (Adam & Eve) sinned, it was the result of allowing the internal weaknesses of the human heart to transgress their thinking to embrace a disconnection from God who is life. The internal weakness of iniquity made man vulnerable to entertain transgression in their hearts and minds. When man yielded to the temptation to disconnect from God in order to become smart in their own eyes, the path chosen was one of being disconnected from the place of God’s transformation. Man exchanged an administration of transformation for an administration of information. The testimony of sin is to be independent, self-sufficient, and even vulnerable to influences from external sources in becoming something different than what is one’s true identity, testimony, and purpose in life. This put man under the influence of sin (independence, self-sufficiency, and external influence) and the result was death. God did not, nor does not, kill sinners. Sin does.

Romans 8:1 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. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Jesus came to make us free from the law of sin and death. He didn’t come to destroy law. He came to make it so our lives cast a shadow that looks like law, but law is under us. We are not under law.

Blessings,

Ted J. Hanson