What enabled a carpenter by trade and twelve men (fishermen, a tax collector, and largely common laborers) in a short thirty year period so impact their world that life has never been the same? What cause the twelve to be so radically changed from being beaten down, fearful and afraid to become men who uncompromisingly faced their impending death? What cause these "unlearned and ignorant men" (Acts 4:13) to be able to spread from Jerusalem to their entire known world in one generation?

Without the use of television, radio, newsletter, city-wide crusades, or mass revivals, they carried the gospel into largely their entire known world. It was not so much the teaching of Jesus, as such, and consequently the attempt to follow those teaching that changed their lives. Christianity was born as a result of what God did through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The movement that changed the world had its beginning in the claim of the early followers of Jesus to have had an experience of Jesus after his death. They were saved, they were transformed, they were empowered by the spiritual experience of Jesus himself. They were quickened by a personal, transcendent, transforming energy that came from Jesus returning to them after his death in the power of what they knew as the Holy Spirit.

What radically changed the early followers of Jesus was they encountered what can be called the resurrection event. The resurrection experience is based upon the claims of Jesus: He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father [the Kingdom of God], but by me." (John. 14:6). The death and resurrection of Jesus not only revealed the Way; it, more importantly, became the Way.

When Jesus was raised from the dead, he did not come back to life in the same physical sense as before his death. Although retaining a body, he was profoundly changed. Mark recorded, "he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked." Luke described, "And as they thus spake, Jesus himself appear in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. (Luke 24:37) "And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight." (Luke 24:30,31)

Jesus did not resume his earthly, physical existence but now he shared fully in the life of God as Lord. "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received into heaven, and set on the right hand of God. (Mark 16:19). He was raised from the dead, experiencing his resurrection event, and became the source of life, the quickening Spirit of God, for all men especially for those who believe (1 Tim. 4:10).

When the early followers of Jesus encountered this resurrection event, they, too, experienced a radical change. Although they remained in their physical bodies, the essence of their lives underwent a profound transformation. For example, the resurrection experience and the results of that encounter with Jesus after his death in the life of an early disciple of Jesus has been recorded.

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake. And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. (Acts 9:1-20)

In the resurrection event of Saul, he was taken down, made blind, encountered the risen Jesus and then raised transformed with new sight. Paul would later say this resurrection event would be the reality of all who would enter the Kingdom of God: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. (Rom. 6:3-5) The resurrection event of the early followers of Jesus accounted for their radically changed lives.

Paul would state: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Gal. 2:20-21). Paul was crucified with Christ not when Christ died on the cross but when he was taken down on the Damascus road. The fact that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead in the past to become the quickening Spirit of life enabled Paul to encounter his resurrection event on the Damascus road. Jesus simply stated, "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father . . . even [ye] shall live by me. (John 6:57)

This resurrection event is not something that only occurs one time in the life of the believer. It occurs many times during the course of life. Jesus will appear (the coming of Christ) in your life situations again and again as you encounter the experiences of life that brings to an end the current existence of life. As Paul stated, "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16). It should be obvious. If the inward man is renewed day by day, then the outward man must perish day by day

As Jesus illustrated, the resurrection event was not limited to one time (the actual death and resurrection of Jesus at the end of his earthly experience), but was the way of his entire life:

And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. (John 12:23-28)

The fact that the Father glorified the life of Jesus many times illustrates that resurrection events occur throughout life.

Paul expressed the same truth: "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway[s] delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:10,11). The coming of Christ appears in our mortal flesh enabling us to stand up again every time we experience a seedtime in the circumstances of our lives. The sun sets every day and the night comes. More importantly, with the coming of every night there is always a morning. It is the way of life.

The opportunity for our lives to be glorified occurs every time something destroys an aspect of our physical existence: a sharp word is said to us or about us, put down by someone at work or at home, conflict of interest issue arises, or any minor or major inconvenience in life occurs. Do we hear ourselves say, ". . . my soul is troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour?" Or, do we become weary and faint under the pressure?"

I have become convinced that the reason we tend to development distress, despair, a sense of being forsaken, and a sense of being destroyed is we attempt to live the moment based upon what God has done for us in the past. We have forgotten or have never understood the resurrection event. We attempt to live based upon believing that we died with Christ when he died. We fail to understand that how we are crucified with Christ is in the current moment of death that we are experiencing. Again, as Paul said, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway[s] delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:10,11).

As we encounter those moments, we will not only not faint because we know the morning always come. We also know that Christ will bring the resurrection in those moments because we have been enabled by the promise given to us by the heavenly Father:

And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:4-8)

The early followers of Jesus were radically changed by resurrection events which enabled them to experience the coming of Christ in their physical world. It was not just a one time event but an event that occurred over and over again as they went through each seedtime and harvest of their lives. It was what they knew as the way of life. It was experiencing the life that does not die (the eternal Spirit of God) in the dying world of their existence. These resurrection events are how every created entity continually experiences the renewing of the presence of God. It is how the Spirit of God brings the morning, brings the spring time, and brings the resurrection of life. We are enabled to stand up again because we have been quickened by the Holy Spirit in the mysteries of baptism.

The mystery of baptism is illustrated by the life of the God-man Jesus. The Son of God left the glory world and became clothed in human flesh. He was willing to become a man (born as a man, live as a man, die as a man, and be resurrected as a man) in order that men might experience the life of God in their own death and resurrection, their own baptism in life.

The virgin birth of Jesus begins the story of the greatest act of humility ever experienced by man. Jesus became a fact of history when the pre-existent Son of God assumed human nature and took upon Himself a flesh and blood body. The person of Jesus began with His conception in the womb of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When Joseph became concerned that his wife to be was "found with child," he did not know what to do with her. Should he "put her away privily?" An angel of the Lord answered his question, ". . . fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife . . . ." Then, the angel informed Joseph that this child to be born of Mary was in fulfillment of prophecy. For Isaiah had prophesied that ". . . the Lord himself shall give [Israel] a sign; Behold, a virgin [a young woman] shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Matt. 1:18-25). After quoting Isaiah, the angel interpreted what the name Immanuel meant, "God with us." It is what John meant when he wrote, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." The Son of God humbled himself to become clothed with human flesh.

Perhaps, the greatest truth in the entire Bible, the greatest seedtime and harvest ever told, is that the Son of God left the glory world to dwell in the tabernacle of flesh not just for a few short years but for the rest of eternity: "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God" (Rev. 21:2-5). The mystery of seedtime and harvest, the baptism of life, is how God manifests himself in the created world.

The birth of Jesus was a great act of humility, but it is not the only example of his humiliation of the baptism into human life. When the Son of God left the glory world, he did not hold on to his state of exaltation which he experienced in heaven. He willingly gave up the exaltation of heavenly glory and took on the role of a slave.

Jesus, although totally God, did not live his life in the power of the Second Person of the Trinity but lived in creature dependency. All that Jesus of Nazareth did in his entire earthly existence was in submission to the will of the Father and in submission to the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not live his earthly life in the state of exaltation but in the state of humiliation.

The God-man Jesus was humbled by his birth and by his life. His humiliation would carried Him further. In submitting to the will of the Father and to the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus became obedient to the most cruel death ever devised by man—death by the cross. The eternal presence of God that never dies by becoming clothed in human flesh experienced the humiliation of the pains of death in that flesh. The Son of God clothing in human flesh experienced not only the humiliation of death but a death reserved for common criminals.

Suffering as none has ever suffered—born of humble origins, lived His life in abasement, and died by the degrading death of crucifixion, he nevertheless willingly experienced the baptism into human life. He was taken down by the heavenly Father into the created world of physical existence with its weakness, decay, and death.

The humiliation of Christ is not the end of the story. His humiliation brought His exaltation. He was resurrected from the dead to stand up again in power victorious over death and the grave. He was raised up from the physical world to set down at the right hand of God becoming the quickening power of life for all men. He not only showed man how to live through the ways of life but by his exaltation he became the way by which man can victoriously experience his own baptisms in life.

Exaltation always follows humiliation. The distinguishing mark that separates Christianity from all other belief systems is the resurrection of the physical body to newness of life. Many believe in some form of the reincarnation of the soul. Many Christians even believe that the soul is trapped within the body and ultimate salvation occurs only when the soul is finally set free from the body. The basic tenets of biblical Christianity, however, declare that the body was created by God and will be resurrected.

For example, the morning always follows the night. Spring time comes out of the winter. The bloom of the flower occurs because of the planting of a seed. The ultimately expression of love grows out of the death of individual rights. God has created the entire world in the living hope of the resurrection of the body. Exaltation always follows humiliation.

The planting of a tomato seed in the ground illustrates this fundamental truth of the created world. The outer casing or husk of the seed must rot or decay before the essence of life within the seed can come forth with tender sprouts of life. One pushes up through the ground seeking the light of the sun and another one pushing into the soil seeking water and nutrients.

Eventually, the essence of the seed comes forth from the earth into the heaven producing a full grown tomato plant. Hanging on the branches of the plant are fully developed tomatoes. The mature tomatoes are the fullest possible manifestation of life the tomato plant can experience. The ripe tomato is the physical glory of the tomato plant.

Within each tomato there are many seeds. Within each seed is the same life that was in the seed that was planted in the ground to start the cycle of life. The new seed is the new body of the life that resides within the seed. Although individual tomato plants with their tomatoes live and die, the essence of life within the seed is eternal. The tomato plant with its seed has experienced the mysteries of baptism.

Baptism occurs when anything in the created world is taken down to be raised up again in newness of life. Death is not only an established fact of everything that is created. But, that which dies will stand up again through the power of the essence of life that dwells within. This is the eternal glory to which the created world has been called. This is the resurrection of the body that is the hope in experiencing life as a Christian.

God will not suffer His Holy One, the essence of life, to see corruption. Every time the seed (the outward manifestation of anything that has the essence of life within) falls to the ground and dies, it will bring forth abundant life. As Jesus stated, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24). It brings forth fruit because the life within is eternal; it never dies.

Each of us has been called unto this eternal glory. The mystery of this glory is seen in God’s statement to Noah after the great flood: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. 8:22). His eternal glory is that which flows through the seedtime and harvest, through the cold and heat, through the summer and winter, through the day and night, and through the countless baptisms of our lives.

The glory of experiencing life is not the actual seedtime or the actual harvest because both the planting of the seed and the harvest of the fruit will perish. As Peter stated, "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away" (1 Pet. 1:24).

The manifestation of the bloom of the rose, the fruit of the tomato, the love of a human relationship is definitely glorious. Each is produced by God, but the glorious moment for each of them will eventually fall away to be resurrected again and again. For His eternal glory is not the rose or the rose bush, nor the tomato or the tomato plant, nor the love relationship or the human beings. It is that which produces them, the Spirit of life. It is the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. It is the Spirit that enables everyone to experience the mysteries of baptism. It is how God keeps refreshing his presence in the created world.

As Jesus said, "John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 1:5). You will be taken down by the circumstances of life, but by the power of the Holy Spirit you will be raised up to manifest the glory of Jesus in your life. The mysteries of these baptisms is how you encounter the mysteries of a created being experiencing God. You, too, can experience the life of Jesus in your body. Through the baptisms of life, you, too, can experience the life of Jesus in your mortal flesh. It is mystery, but it is a mystery revealed.