One of the greatest paradoxes
of the mystery of grace is the enormous number of people that fail to
experience the rich, full, and contented life. This failure is even more
mystifying when it is understood that the strongest motivation within man
is to experience that life. Ultimately, everything man does, it is done
with the hope that it will produce the life he so desperately craves. Yet,
even though man's basic drive is to experience life in the fullest sense
of the word, few people experience the life they desire.
Moreover, Jesus said, "I am come
that [men] might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly"
( John 10:10). Paul wrote, ". . . much more they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by
one, Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17). Peter stated, "Grace and
peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus
our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that
pertain unto life . . ." (II Pet, 1:3). James wrote, ". .
. [every believer has the opportunity to] receive the crown of life, which
the Lord hath promised to them that love him" (1:12). Finally,
Jesus said, "I am . . . the life . . ." (John 14:6).
The perplexing question must be raised,
"If everyone desires life and Jesus is life, why do people reject
Him?" How can people let life (the grace of God) be "received
in vain" (II Cor. 6:1), or frustrate the very life they desire so
desperately (". . . frustrate the grace of God" [Gal.
2:21])? How can people who have known God (Life) now "[glorify]
him not as God, [and not be] thankful" for Him (Rom. 1:21)? How
can people have life (Christ) within them and that "[Life] Christ
. . . profit [them] nothing" (Gal. 5:2) or that "[Life]
Christ . . . is become of no effect unto [them]" (Gal. 5:4). How
can so many people miss the "righteousness, and peace, and joy,"
(life) that is found in the kingdom of God (Rom. 14:17)?
Fatal Deception
First, it can be stated that most people,
if not all, do not consciously reject life. No one by choice rejects the
fullest possible expression of the one thing they so desperately desire.
In essence, they actually spend every moment earnestly seeking the
fulfillment of that life. Although they may reject Jesus, the Person
(usually because of how He is presented), they do not consciously reject
the life of which He is. They simply are ignorant of Jesus being the
source of the life they desire. They do not understand the mystery of the
preservation of the grace of God.
Temptation to Deception
Even the rejection of Jesus by the
Pharisees and most of the Jews during His earthly ministry was not a conscious
decision to reject life. Nor, even to reject Jesus (in the beginning) as
the source of that life. They simply did not know where life could be
found, or that Jesus was the life of which they were seeking.
As Paul wrote to the Romans concerning the
Jews, they were "confident that [they were] a guide of the blind,
a light of them which are in darkness" (2:19). In their own mind,
they knew where "life" was and the "way" to achieve
it. Their "rejection" of Jesus actual came about because they
"restest in the law, and approvest the things that are more
excellent, being instructed out of the law" (Rom. 2:17). Or, as
Paul said, again, to the Romans, "For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness [life], and going about to established their own
righteousness [life], have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
[life] of God" (10:3).
In reality, they rejected God's life more
by going about trying to establish their own life than by a conscious
decision to reject His life. Jesus was, consequently, rejected because
they accepted what they perceived to be the way to life. Although they
were working hard to experience life, they missed the One who could have
produced what they so desperately attempted to achieve. In their
ignorance, grace was frustrated.
Likewise, those who commit suicide are,
also, not rejecting Life. They are actually rejecting the failure to
experience His life. The failures of "their" lives, which always
occurs because of the failure to experience Jesus, drives them to despair.
Unable to hear (experience) Jesus, the "life" they are
experiencing becomes unbearable. They now make a "choice," not
to reject Life, or Jesus, but to end the experiences of their lives.
Sadly, the ending of their lives actual proclaims their desperate desire
but futile attempts to experience life, They, too, fail to understand the
mystery of the preservation of the grace of God.
In essence, few, if any, reject Jesus by
choice. No one makes a conscious choice to reject life. In reality,
everyone is doing everything they know to do to experience life, which,
unknowingly to them, can only be experienced in Jesus. They actually have
"a zeal of [Life], but not according to knowledge" (Rom.
10:2). In this zeal for life, they ignorantly frustrate the essence of the
True Life that is within them. They frustrate the grace of God (Gal. 2:21;
II Cor. 6:1).
Failing to understand the mystery of the
preservation of the grace of God, they are deceived into thinking that
they can produce life instead of submitting to the life of God. Paul wrote
of this deception to the Romans:
For I was alive without the law once:
but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the
commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it
slew me. (7:9-11)
Amazingly, life and death issues are not
matters of choice (or chance) but matters of truth and deception.
Truth and Deception
Jesus said to his disciples "and ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John
8:32). Paul said to the Romans, that the "wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold
the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom. 1:18). The truth will set men
free. Yet, if the truth is held in unrighteousness, it produces the wrath
of God.
Moreover, this holding the truth in
unrighteousness is always a product of deception. Or, as Paul continued to
the Romans, "Because that when they [the people who hold truth
in unrighteousness] knew God, they glorified him not as god, neither
were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish
heart darkened" (Rom. 1:21). Their foolish heart did not become
darkened by making a conscious choice to die, or even a conscious choice
to reject God. The wrath of God came upon them because they "became
vain in their imaginations." Their vain imagination led them into
the deception.
According to Paul, the people who are
experiencing the wrath of God are the ones "who hold the truth in
unrighteousness." Then, he added, "that which may be
known (original word actually means "well-known"] of God
is manifested ["to render apparent"] in them; for God
hath shewed ["to render apparent"] it unto them" (Rom.
1:19). The people who are experiencing the wrath of God "hold the
truth" and have "that which may be known of God"
within their being.
With "that which may be known of
God," being the "Revelation of God," Paul is stating
that the Word (Son of God) is actually within these people. Or, as John
said, the Word, is "the true Light which lighted every man that
cometh into the world" (John 1:9). Isaiah recorded, "Thus
saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out;
he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that
giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk
therein" (42:5). In addition, the writer of Proverbs stated,
"the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord . . ." (Pro.
29:27). Mysteriously, the Son of God is in all.
By the established fact of creation, man
has life because he has been set ("consist," Col. 1:17)
with the Son of God. It can be said, therefore, that the essence of life
is given to every man that comes into this world. Or, as Paul wrote to the
Romans, concerning his desire and prayer that Israel "might be
saved, " (Rom. 10:1):
For Moses describeth the righteousness
[life] which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall
live by them. But the righteousness [Life] which is of faith speaketh on
this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (That
is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the
deep? (That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead). But what saith
it? The word is night thee, even in thy mouth, and in they heart . . . .
(10:5-8)
The people who are in need of being saved
(Israel, in the day of Paul) do not understand that "the word is
nigh [them], even in [their] mouth, and in [their] heart." In
ignorance, being deceived, they frustrate the grace of God. They frustrate
the Life that is within them.
There is nothing that can be done to
"bring forth" Christ into one s life. He has already been
"brought forth." He is nigh every man, "in [their]
mouth, and in [their] heart" even the ones who need to be saved.
By the established fact of how man was brought into being (Gen. 2:7),
Christ, the Anointed One, is the essence of the life of all men (Acts
17:26-28).
For example, when mankind was created,
there was nothing Adam and Eve had to do to achieve the life he
experienced. As John wrote,
All things were made by him; and
without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and
the life was the light of men . . . the true Light which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world. (John 1:3,4,9)
Man, himself, had to do nothing but
experience the Life that came into him. Life, the Son of God, was given
and is given to every man.
Deception of Man
Although nothing could and was needed to be
done by man to enable him to experience life, something could and was done
to destroy that life, to frustrate the grace of God. When death (absence
of Life) began to be experienced in the fall of man, man had begun to do
something, As Paul would later say of Israel, "For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness [Life], and going about to establish their
own righteousness [life], have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness [Life] of God" (Rom. 10:3).
In the garden, the fatal deception of
"the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" was working
its course. Like Paul, who "was alive without the law once: but
when the commandment came, sin revived, and [he] died . . . For sin,
taking occasion by the commandment, deceived [him], and by it slew [him]"
(Rom. 7:9,10), the fatal deception of the law ("the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil" in the garden) brought death to Adam
and Eve. They died whey they began to attempt to produce life themselves.
Again, Paul wrote to the Romans concerning
this fatal deception,
For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the
truth [the Son of God as manifested in Jesus Christ] in
unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God [the Son of
God as manifested in Jesus Christ] is manifested in them; for God
hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that were made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are
without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not
as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. (Rom. 1:18-22)
Life and death issues are not matters of
choice (or chance). They are matters of truth and the vainness of man's
imaginations--matters of deception.
For every fall from the life of which man
so desperately desires to experience always begins with an
"overactive imagination." In the discussion (actually meaning of
the word translated "imaginations" in "vain
imaginations" of the mind, deception spins it deadly tale. For
what "mind" would not perceive the fruit of "the
knowledge of the tree of good and evil" as something that would
make it wise. Sadly, however, desiring to make itself wise, it becomes a
fool. The vainness of man's imaginations brings darkness to his "heart,"
darkness to the Spirit of Life that dwells within him. He now "hold[sl
truth in unrighteousness."
There is only one remedy for the fatal
deception of the vain imaginations of man, he must be turned again to
glorify God and be thankful for "the true Light, which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). The writer of
Genesis described the True Light as "And the Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life . . . (2:7). Job described it as, "The Spirit of God hath
made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life"
(33:4). Man must once again live only of "deeds . . . that . . .
are wrought in God" (John 3:21).
The True Light "entitles" man to
experience life ("entitles" is the literal meaning of the word
translated "call" in "For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all
that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved." [Rom. 19:12-13]). The True Light can give every
man salvation from the deception of his mind that has wrought death. Jesus
Christ can enable every man to experience the life of which he so
desperately desires. Every man is entitled to that life . . . call upon
Him. Jesus saves!
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