Month: March 2024

If, or rather when, we allow lesser things to have some rule over us to an unGodly persuasion, God would be less than God to us to leave us unaware. Indeed, if in that circumstance God remained interminably silent there would lie a great injustice…of one not taking responsibility in and for His creation. Not “backing up His word” so to speak.

And yet, as true as this may be and seem in all of such circumstance, we are also persuaded no man can force God to anything; nor even by such understanding (even if true), to speak. It is to us imperative God speak and make Himself known, but all of our own imperatives must give way, and that always, to something greater.

For even to hold such an imperative as a recognized or recognizable thing already puts us in position of a thing having some law placed in us to make to us clear that necessity. God does not need to speak, or act, or do anything, for nothing above Him (as nothing is above Him) can cause pressure of imperative to, or upon Him. It is only necessity to us…who if in our right minds, know God has already “worked” in our creation, for we accept our being as creatures. It is all and only of grace that God continues to speak…to even tell us when we are wrong, even dead wrong.

We might even conclude if taking all the above that no matter what a man may hear from God, it is all a work of grace. For we cannot hold God to have to speak, nor force Him to, and though his justice is revealed in His speaking, whatever he may say that a man might hear…even if it be to all judgment, is of grace. We are to some true extent, caught in all consequence. God being the one of all consequence.

For we may attempt to lie, seek to lie, have a vain hope we can get away with lying…but each of us “do” according to some expectation of consequence. And what we take to ourselves, at very least, we cannot deny God’s greater right; even if in exercise of His doing we neither see nor know for the why of why He acts. Nor to what end. He is under no compulsion to tell us. Yet, He does. And we may see and know…but only to what measure He allows and reveals.

Indeed, we are caught. And indeed we are, as I am no less, as no man has ever less nor more been than caught, in the creation. Yet here is where the believer is shown different species of man by the faith of Him who entered the creation in all submission to the will of another. Consciously, willingly, knowingly in such submission. This is much to do, one may be persuaded, with the apostle’s words here:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Nothing we may do, or not do is the basis for what alone, as several other translations state…counts. That is the all that matters. For it points to the success of Christ to both make new and bring in a thing promised as from the beginning, even declared as from the beginning:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

We must, at least in one of many possible musts or necessities made plain to the believer, have revealed to us, the consistency of God. Yet only the new man, the new creature knows, or even can know of such matters. This is found owing in all to Jesus the Christ and His revelation. Which (if there is a why to it) we must, and can only read rightly from estate as new man. In that sense we are reading backwards now not looking as only through the lens of scripture to “find out”, but rather through the lens or eyes of Christ in His light to truly see.

And do not think that this understanding is as something to be made so esoteric or reserved to a mere few of some innate spiritual mastery accorded only to them as rare or more precious gifting, for why then would the apostle’s and prophets write and relate the things they have seen, if not to be known…generally? Yes, to some they may fall upon deaf, or yet deaf ears, just as the “red words” were spoken to him who has ears to hear. Jesus not neglecting to say that to those who are without, they must appear as dark parables to even prove that in their seeing they do not…see. Nor in their hearing do they really…hear.

And if this, even in most clear declaration seems puzzling or difficult to grasp, understand, much less give assent to; can one at very least lend some imagination or thoughtful meditation to consider what those some apostle’s also went through in their considering? Listen here if you can, if you are made able:

And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

O! but this is very strange upon first hearing! The disciples asking Jesus why he speaks to a “them” in parables. And the answer is not at all as one might have expected according to the (even the believer’s mind if yet captured in natural reasonings!) and commonly received notions of many.

No, the answer is not “I tell them stories so they can relate easily to certain matters and understand.” No, not at all, and much to the contrary. Is is too much to the contrary? Is Jesus, even this Jesus speaking these words too contrary? To you? To me? To any?

To some given, to others specifically…not given?

Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Jesus intentionally veiling matters to some. Even so that in such thinking they see, they do not, Even in thinking they hear, they do not. In some sense “going away” thinking they now have, and have gotten matters, when Jesus knows they do not “get it” at all.

But to those who questioned him as to even the why of “why do you speak to them in parables” He says:

But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Now this declaration is marvelous to any made to hear it, as first they were. Can it be overstated in its marvel and intent? God forbid any of His own think so. Jesus declaring the blessedness of eyes that see, of ears that hear.

One might even go so far as to understand it is all and only by such pronounced blessedness upon them, that eyes and ears have been made to such seeing and hearing. And this even, and as very much stated, as beyond the previous prophet’s and righteous men’s ken.

What they desired to have they did not, what they desired to hear and see…even they did not. Do we not see again a great dividing line as mentioned in some previous section? How that though none had arisen of women born any greater than John the Baptist, yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he?

All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Now, if it is not too clever to say “here is the kicker”…even a kicker that must not (may it be said so?) be lost on us. God forbid it be so…lost on us.

Just after His saying of these matters, His declarations of who sees and gets to, and no less of who does not see, and whose eyes and ears are blessed above all the previous prophets and righteous men’s as opposed to eyes that do not, nor at least…not yet…and the people are sent away:

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying,

And this is what they said:

Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.

Almost every other translation uses the word “explain” where here is used declare.

Is this the disciples in denial of all Jesus had previously said as to their seeing, and hearing, and understanding by asking for explaining? For at first glance…

God forbid!

No, it is not. For the love of Christ see that it is not. It is disciples doing what all and every disciple is alone given to do above all matters; that shows he does indeed have sight, he does indeed have hearing. And such that is indeed blessed, at that.

He does not presume to understand anything at all, but what he can do he does as first and always priority…ask of the Lord for understanding. For explanation. For declaration of the things He says. He eats with Jesus as only he knows as indeed privileged estate for the eating of His word(s).

And Jesus the Christ is no with holder from what is His own. He knows them and calls them by name for the eating of all of the Lamb. And there are no unpleasant parts of Him.

To such is made clear, even to those who once appeared themselves as parable, as deepest mystery irresolvable to themselves…in all a thing only in seeming by contrast. I am not a rock, I am not a fish, I am not a dog, or tree, or bird. I am man.

But what sort of man am I? Oh the depths of it! How shall I know…if I am mere parable, made only to be example of man…or real?

The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

The Lamb, and every bit of Him.

There is a great gulf, an incomparable chasm between Adam and Jesus Christ, though both at first sight appear as man. But the question, even as our question of ourselves…”What sort of man am I” that we are incessantly consumed to both knowing and showing of ourselves…is and can only be answered in the Christ of God. Only Jesus knows of what sort Adam is, and who He is.

No one else “answers for man” what, or who a man is. All the doing or not doing, circumcision or uncircumcision mean nothing here. Especially if they are taken as understood as an outward marking…some show of pious devotion by some, or ignorance of by others…or even showing of impiety as to demonstrate to certain others they can determine them as outsiders. Those yet religiously bound.

And Paul, as seeing through Christ, sees two men. As only the man in Christ can…see both. And of one he knows himself as once assuredly of. Even as the man who only knew as that one man. He assuredly then knew of himself, and no less…as that once man, seeing only one, knowing only one.

How do we know this…that he was sure of his once identity as Adam? He says so.

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

And he was only made able to know this by the revelation of another man, the man who captured him and took him to heavenly places…to see. And so from there he writes with heavenly vision:

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

He understood. Even that all that had gone before was to be for us as parable, as example, the land of types and shadows made for the new man to both see and learn by. Even what we thought was “finality” of creation as summed up in Genesis now bore revision…re-vision. The how once thought we would “know ourselves” that left us nothing but confused. Yes, he labored through…”Why God, would you do that?”…make a man you made in your knowing to all knowing of frustration? Vexation. Endless striving to be. Even of striving to be what he is not.

The Christ who prompted him for answer is the Christ who clearly gave answer…in two men to see. Their seeming alikeness now was dispelled in all from him, he saw. No reviling for Adam for being what he is…as example, even appearing now as parable in parable…that the glory of the Christ be seen and known. And Paul became real to himself by a thing of always astounding to him. Out of the land of types and shadows once made to him and for him…that he too, be drawn froth out from them and into truth. And truth of his being….even “real”.

And how do we know this?

Because he said so. There for any to see and find if they have received what Paul received as given him for establishment.

But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.

Yes, God does nothing in vain.

Even in His subjecting to all of old creation to vanity.

May it be as it is to be as all and only for the purpose of Christ, and His alone, glory.

Nothing counts but a new creature.

Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old 

and

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Adam, an example. Christ, the true.

That taste described as being sensible in regards to Adam’s change of estate may be subtle at first but, as we may grow, things once subtle are to become more plain. There appears a great gulf between the recognition of woman as received here by Adam:

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

And of what would be later response when questioned about his present knowing of being naked and if he had eaten:

And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

What a far cry from some understanding the reality of matters once so differently expressed! Where once was acknowledgement of a most tight knitting, and even recognition of self in it; Adam has now, and is now, speaking both of the woman and to God in a very arm’s length manner. He does not even understand that, to in any way, lay any accusation against the woman was to so inculpate himself :

because she was taken out of Man.

Because she was of him, she was no less than himself in another. And in a way that should not be peculiar to us as believers, being fully of him, and a full expression of things once in him; to now assign her as distinct in all explanation from himself, was a great chasm filled with blindness. Not merely had Adam, in such blaming by excuse set God and the woman as apart from himself, in all action and apparent question of motive…he could not even see his own self. He was made foreigner to all. And so, and no less also, when we read, if we do read of Adam in such a way as “different” from us, as totally other than us, as a story about someone else than us, we simply betray that same blindness of all unknowing in that fall to death.

It is a curious working this matter of death. How that man is totally blinded in it and by it, set to presuming because he may state facts, he knows truth. And as man, each must take caution as to how he sees, and in particular with the scriptures, how he reads and hears.

Jesus states emphatically that they all do testify of Him, yet in His now presence before those in that blindness of death made plain by refusal to come to Him in such recognition, they do not have at all what they think they seek, life.

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

To say all are blind and dead in such manner that there is a total alienation from God and therefore all and any truth, may seem a far too bold thing to either consider, much less, say. And as such surely true till the coming of, and the coming to, Christ. But the Lord is not shy nor reluctant to, and neither are His apostles. Is it not then of less wonder now one would read more rightly, even of the prophet Isaiah’s words? Even written as though in past tense of things yet to be revealed:

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

For there is no recognition nor receiving nor even understanding at all until such revelation be made. For if left all and only to man for his recognition and esteeming is this:

“he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men…”

For to read this as only pertaining to others, yet holding some pride of our own for recognition and acknowledgment of God’s Christ, God knows. For just as these words may be made to seem to us “to others”, no less then will God see to it that as to us in any estate of pride, and no less…all of the words of Christ are also excluded from us, by our own pride. Eating all the Lamb is not merely important, but essential.

To whatever remains of death and carnal thinking whereby that enmity of spirit is of all above as against it, there will be unsettling. And only the fool or novice will take to himself credit for himself, and as from himself, for being able to recognize the Lord. Only the spirit is able to give, and only the spirit is able to keep. For by any claim that he has come to such of his own, a man proves he does not believe the scripture(s) and is in no place to either instruct by them or hold them up to others for their esteeming.

It is quite like Jesus confronting those who took a stand upon a something they believed given exclusively to them as endorsement of their own exclusivity that they so relished and wallowed in.

And yes, God can smell wallowing.

Jesus said:

Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?

Paul also came to understand this, see later, understand later…when brought from death to life. He then understood Isaiah’s words in truth and light of which were once hidden by all pride and presumption in himself as, at best, only pertaining to others or some others of which he could never account himself as…because he was dead in such blindness. The words were surely there and no doubt he could repeat them even accurately and factually…but never till such time as:

When it pleased God to reveal His son in me

Understand their relationship…to himself. As all in Adam, truth was placed at arm’s length, making the man foreign to it. Nevertheless he came to see. To understand. To believe. To know.

But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.

and

But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

Are we gainsaying?

We cannot but be if we think ourselves so very different by our own distinctiveness.

We will always have a delightful treasury we may visit unseen by all except God of just how special and different we have made ourselves to ourselves.

And yes, God can smell wallowing.

To say spiritual matters cannot be understood by the natural mind is simply repeating a truth that will be clear to all who follow Christ. It cannot be otherwise. There is no provision for a truce between what is of all hostility one against the other. A total victory is set to one as surely as a humiliating defeat is set to the other.

And one needn’t travel too far with Christ to learn this bit of info, if not made flesh to us as in Christ, no less carries a peril and warning with it to which we must attend. Not all that provokes hostility need be considered of the spirit. For the natural hostility of the man in the flesh against the spirit is no less at work in hostility against all other flesh. Yes, the man in the flesh may be seen to be hostile to God, His ways, and especially His Christ; but he is no less hostile against all, surely including all “other” men. Even as consequence to his hostility to God and His ways. And the mind must take a bend in training to understand this. Even, and especially for the believer, toward the scriptures; so that what we read is read as men made alive from the dead, and seeing men.

Order, orderliness, and consistency are all compatible in, and only in, the truth. And likewise in that circularity that is of God’s reasoning, truth alone brings order, orderliness, consistency, and compatibility.

Just as Adam after eating provided God, not with answer as to “Where are you?”, but with explanation for his hiding; no less does he do so when questioned further.

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Adam now betrays by his response his present estate, already made clear in providing explanations rather than simple answer:

And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

How terribly rich in all aspects does this now show to what the man has descended. And of what he would impart to all generations after him till Christ come to man, or any man. And it is almost embarrassing that this might require or beg any further explanation or elucidation.

But what I am free to do, rather than seek to point out fault in Adam, or even any other; is confess of a man who has seen this in himself. He has seen in himself all ease of assigning to others in every or any matter by which he is called into question, as their fault. Someone else’s fault is what brings me into question. And God knows we have even all blamed Adam in some form or fashion, or found blame in or with him. But we come to see eventually as that particular fault is revealed in us, both how ubiquitous it is, and so commonly exercised as breathing as to mostly go unnoticed in the overwhelmingly commonness of its practice.

Was there anything factually untrue to what he, Adam, said?

The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

But do we see? Do we…see? Do we taste that change that took place? Even see such a clear and frank manifestation of blindness in all testimony of unknowing to which that man, and all men after him, descended? Even how though, it seems to us when reading he appears the same Adam being addressed in consistency in the story, he is so clearly now speaking as one so totally divorced from former understanding as to be a completely different, (and with little doubt, to himself ignorant of that difference) man. A now dead man not even knowing himself dead. And also, it may be surmised by his words betraying inner disposition and attitude now to both the creation and God, bereft of understanding truth.

A man in no recognition of truth though he be able, and to us perhaps appear to be able, to state facts.

Order, orderliness, and consistency are all of gone to that man, if indeed they were ever there. And perhaps that is not a bad question to ask of his nature, any more than it might be to ask of our own.

Did a testing only reveal his already nature, or was something in power thrust to him to change his nature? Is what can fall already formed to a falling by intent and purpose of the one forming?

Was he made to be made a show of something, perhaps even to some end for comparing, or measuring against?

Paul understood and saw a difference so vast as to be beyond comparison, so that even any attempts at comparison (which is native to the natural man) would be put to shame.

There is Adam man. And there is Christ man. Two entirely different species of intent and purpose. One shown refusing to identify with “other”, (the woman YOU gave) one giving life to other.

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

and

The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

And what may remain of dusty thinking and identity is being handled ably by the spirit to the renewing of mind.

Unless one is none of His.

The man and the woman, the transgression and the curse(s). And the irreparable, but for God, change there. And “but for God” is every saint’s most exceedingly delightful but.

But, we will not know this apart from our own passing through that garden, that place of experience where it becomes plain to us we are and were, as much “of them” (man) without contradiction nor gainsaying as to estate. Our attitude and disposition to being man must change and does only in Christ, but the reality that that is all and only what we are; without shame, yet without self gratitude, without grasping at, without bristling that we are not God nor vainly seek do for ourselves a thing forbidden, precisely because Christ alone has already accomplished all that ever need be accomplished.

We prove treacherous to Him, and traitors to the faith when we presume something remains of ourselves to be done for ourselves. As Jesus has told us:

It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

Is it enough? Is it enough for you to be called a devil in Christ’s identity? Will you try to justify yourself in the sight of the religious (as Jesus did not) and also understand that only from the religious can come, even must come, that very appellation? For it was neither Rome nor the Romans, nor the avowed atheist that does so; (for the use of devils to their mind is quaint and superstitious) but can only come from those with some claim of holding enlightenment as to spiritual matters. Crazy or hopeless rebel may come from others…but devil…no.

How plain then Adam makes himself, even must make himself, in his estate of knowing and information. Not unlike Adam, who, though knowing good and evil both exist, cannot distinguish among them. Blind, dead, dark…even in all his “knowing” of information. No less the religious, knowing God and devil are…but in all without any ability to know one from other. No wonder then the Lord severely admonishes:

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

And here is not an unworthy consideration. The devil hates being identified as what he is and for what he is, but the saint cares not at all, or will come to not caring…whether he be called a devil. Heretic. Lost soul. Actually how he is received and identified among men must come to mean less than nothing to him. Lest he be found untrue to the One who has called him. For delightfully, that is their only delightful care; for he has been persuaded:

And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Now plainly that is going to sting a bit amongst some, and may God be even pleased it leave a mark. Any or all who may yet seek to be seen as a something amongst God’s people (and who of must not deal with this?) or worse, to the world……well…it is enough to know that true God is neither blind nor stupid. And God knows well our affections even before we do for titles, acceptance, some eminence, some setting apart as “special” and this day warns…that such, if left unattended will result in the reward of seeking for himself to be set apart…for he will taste what it means to set himself apart from the Christ of God. And the merest taste is sufficient to sober the saint.

Simply, if Christ has not yet made you “special enough” to your knowing in His singling out of you from the world, the Father will answer accordingly to such as such is deserving in despising the Lord’s work. The son of His love. If one cannot be made content to be less than the least, one is not, or not yet the Lord’s for discipling. And there is a secret to be learned in being content. For one would be better to never preach nor teach according to any wisdom he believes he has gained of Paul’s enlightenment(s) than to lie about his person…in seeking to elevate their own. And of course, this as much and more pertains to all and anything of Jesus the Christ. Who:

made Himself of no reputation.

And God will, in and through Christ, provide abundant opportunity by His power made available, for any believing man to take the lower seat. For He sees who chose it first…and when no other man could, nor would. Do we?

And what yet remains of our affections for appearing as a something before men, by titles, accolades, praises…even this very day, each will be given opportunity to despise. For our perfidious soul delights in these things of recognition and accord of better status. But we are given to see a man who

bared his soul unto death

and all and every implication of that that has both begun and will complete His good work of salvation in us. That we may know, not merely have that information that God alone is good, even He which good is, and He alone accomplishes it. The making known of His goodness, and mercy.

We dare not lie about Him.

Something took a change there. Spoken of in the book of Beginnings. So deep and so drastic as we can only see by consequence (and believed); but only if we do believe the spirit gave to man the truth in facts.. of what took place. Any man may, if found believing that book as true to God’s telling, can see them, these consequences; but no man can know or understand them apart from Christ and His light. We can read to death but never see. But only when Christ is revealed, and only then, can we read to life.

And if it can be said, this drum must beaten quite fervently.

Listen if you can, to a story. About 60 some odd years ago a school room of children had an uncle of one of the students speak to them. This uncle was called a philosopher, and from what I may gather, probably held a teaching seat somewhere to accord him such a title. But to us he was introduced as a philosopher. He proposed something simple but profound to them all, that caught them in wonder of consideration. It was this:

“If everything in the universe suddenly, instantly, doubled in size, no one would know it”

Do you see? Do you see how this can even capture a child’s mind?

Our own metrics for measuring, even as in this example, are of no use to us as to what was once present, but is now former estate…but also and no less as to present estate in regards to former estate.

We would have no inkling that what once was, no longer is.

Especially, and so much the more so, if we consider Adam in his eating and dying. We may infer from what we see of consequences and that expulsion in the account, that occupation of place surely changed. But rarely might we consider that estate, let us call it of mind, that we infer in the reading took place in Adam.

And to be fair, if such fairness may be informed of and by the spirit and is therefore here made presentable, that the Adam to which command came was in such estate apart from any even knowing what “to die” is. Does one see that?

It is not unfair of God to declare what will happen, unless one adds the codicil that it is unfair to pronounce a consequence to someone unable to give informed consent or assent to its reality. But then we would have to conclude God is either unfair or unjust, or just ignorant to Adam’s estate as in “But God, the fellow has no idea what dying means. And certainly unfair to use it as any dissuasion or “threat or peril of” to keep him from doing it. Why God, it would be like me telling a man if he eats chocolate ice cream he will frugundabunda”

“Unless somehow in your intention…you had something else in mind with this as prep, that would vindicate your doings” Yes, a man might say that. Perhaps with some wisdom. God knows.

The first thing we infer as consequence is Adam hid. We are never told before he had done this or that God had to go asking for or seeking after him. And (God forbid!) we foolishly assume (as some wonderful atheists have proposed) that God in His saying of “Where are you?” means we hold a God of unseeing of all, and ignorance of all. No, God knows. But did Adam now know “where he was”?

We might also infer, if allowed, that there is something in Adam’s not giving of simple answer as in “Oh, here I am behind that third tree from you” Rather we see, not that, but an explanation by him of, and for, his doing. Now Adam is inferring in his estate that nakedness justifies hiding from God, or is a justified thing to do. Oh, the folly. But the folly of man can only be appreciated by the man in Christ, for he is brought to recognize himself. And no less, in that, in Christ, be completely dissuaded from any notion that God is either not able, nor already…seeing all. And Adam did not even know he had died. He couldn’t. Nor had he any “reference” for his former estate (as in the philosopher’s example) for estates…even as so totally different, also leaves one with no metric for knowing one as against the other.

Unless there is an unchanging and unchangeable standard against all can, and must be…measured.

But Adam is now hiding from that. Afraid to see that, now. Or be seen of that.

But we have to be careful about inferences, speculations and assumptions, lest we be found presumptuous. And there may be no greater presumption among us, persistent still to whatever extent remains, that because we read the story as about “a” them (with a sort of observer’s view, thinking we now observe objectively, as God) that it is a them, and not me, or us. Only the believer knows he has passed from death to life, and there is no other way of entry but by resurrection.

But we may not yet know it is, in all, generally applicable to all who have proceeded from Adam, and in his, even that estate, and no less. We are not at all at first reading objectively, we are those in that story. Especially if yet thinking we are reading of someone else. Or other sorts of man.

We have information, but no knowing of significance nor meaning of it. Nor of how it once was so (if we be in Christ) so very true of us. And so very true of all not yet in or of Christ and in their right mind. We cannot but also act nor think but according to that Adamic nature, no matter our claim. Paul told those in subjection yet to a “party spirit” they were acting as mere men. Carnally.

God’s language is made obscure to us, obscure to us in any true meaning of it. Even of Paul’s writing mentioned above. But only, again, the man in Christ will know this. He will know short of having God in all presence he can understand nothing of Him. And he will know that even the prophets, and all who came before Christ had, at best, only the inferences of their own as to what matters meant fully. And we will (if so convinced) therefore have no bucking up against nor bristling at Christ’s saying:

All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.

Likewise it must be made clear that Jesus the Christ is not adding to the law, nor changing or amending it in any way, here:

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

No, it is not Jesus even expanding upon the law. It is Jesus making clear (especially to any who may have taken any stance upon keeping their zippers closed as being righteous) that “you never got it“. “You thought it mean a this, when truly it has always and only meant this that.” And all men have been made subject to that form of death that causes them to think they know.

Or does one yet wonder if Jesus knows of what He speaks?

For such a one “all His words” have not yet been shown spirit and life. All His word(s). Therefore if you think you have any standing by staying out of your neighbor’s bed with his wife, but still delight in watching her hang the laundry, or walk down the street in a tight skirt…you are in no position to either boast, much less be a “teacher of the law”. Nor caution “others” against it. Or at least till you admit you are in no position to; for the law has caught you also…with your pants down. Too coarse? Too nitty gritty? Then you don’t know how God may speak at all. Read again if need be (or if never read) Ezekiel 23 around verses near 17.

The only legitimate place of occupation is the extolling of God’s sovereignly ministered grace in Christ to such a people, but one cannot know this until he sees it first toward himself, and not with “others” more in need. He cannot pass from death to life apart from knowing he was once among those dead. When dead he will not know he is, but when made alive he will begin to learn what life is…and even, as need be what death truly is. And he will learn this by participation in the Lord’s death, the Lord who truly knows what death…is.

It’s kinda fun to think of oneself as necessary to others as a form of self gratification. Even some crazily insane form of Godliness.

But God sees all the places we are hiding before we even know of it.

And where we stroke ourselves.

To say that in Christ we are set to face certain seemingly (or at least once seemingly) contradictions, paradoxes, and to the extreme…most impossible of situation and circumstance would be the essence of understatement itself. Yes, not merely set to, but even called and chosen to face them, and face them quite head on. The disciples were not being fey in their astonishment in response to the Lord’s instructions with:

“Who then can be saved?”

And we who are believing, perhaps even one like myself, are discovering how very sure and right is the Lord’s response to that:

And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

Yet it is not our surety or coming to it that supports anything, and certainly not the word of the Lord. It is always found to be quite the other way round in all, it is only the surety of the Lord’s word that supports us. We are simply those called to discover how very sure that is. Yet this coming to understanding is fraught with all manner of traps and snares, for there remains to our dealing a one who will abet, and even make seem reasonable our old ways of reasoning(s) to catch us in remaining presumption.

An adversary who, though he is completely darkened in his understanding of any “why” (yet in all presumptuous of knowing) is made terrified, and reacts furiously both to the light made to be in us, and any progress of liberty. I do not know if there is, or he is the least free (and most completely bound) of all of God’s creation or if such gradation exists, but I am convinced what bondage of being he experiences (and I am persuaded he does experience) he shares, and is driven to, with man.

By example such sharing is as a man who sneezes and shares his virus with all about, infecting. No, not “sharing” in any sense of kindly doling out of beneficence. His being, such as it is, gives “off” his nature. Really, just as everything in creation must and is purposed to. By expression. From atoms to nebulae, all pulses in its being to its assigned expression. And we now, and no less, are so assigned also. Where once we all and only “gave off” proof of our viral infection, we either have been, or are to be, changed. Even from death to life.

And yes, such is impossible with man.

My analogy/example may be poor to the extreme, even proving the depths of necessity to better understanding, but I cannot help myself. Desire of itself is never enough to even understand, for it of itself, accomplishes nothing. All that ultimately matters is who gives it. And we must be told. Be receivers of even what to desire. We are in all and every way, dependent.

Practice and practices, even those seemingly outward matters that may be observed of ourselves and/or by others mean nothing in the land of mimicry, for only what is true in heaven receives true endorsement…even here in the earth. Even in “our” earth, our tent, our very temporary housing. A man may self endorse (of which we are, or once were, very highly skilled) but only what comes down, even has come down to us of Christ, is eternal. For:

A man can receive nothing except it be given him from above.

And to whatever extent there yet remains any irksomeness or bristling at being no more than a created thing, or any pride owing to some standing of an excellency claimed to ourselves in any natural estate of betterness, or superiority: may we remember the Lord’s word to such. To such who are subject to boasting inwardly (yet seen of the Lord) of “who they are”.

And John the Baptist was not too timid to say:

And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

And God sees when we admire ourselves. And no less what despite is being heaped to His Christ in so doing. Or does one not believe…God sees? Is blind? Stupid? Dumb?

Idols are.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, is not.

O! But yes! We have entered to face the impossible for man! The best man “can do” is hide when hearing the voice of the Lord, bequeathed us in and through Adam, to everyone of his sons and daughters. That is all and only occupation of man, and can be, even must be; unless or until He who “bared His soul to death” comes to us and is made plain to us.

He sought no hiding though He entered the garden in much trembling and soul sickness. And yes, He even allows us to see all His weakness there (made so for us in His being found in fashion like a man…dare any despise it?) by a man’s expression of preference.

O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

May you be assured, if not yet. And no matter how very much a man may be conformed to the Lord, desire it to be so, or even think himself so to any measure, or hold to himself some like experience that God may give (now that’s true sharing!) to assure a right and true identity and identifying…no “other man” is that man, and none progressing will ever confuse themselves with being that man.

Paul, one of “your” (and my) apostles if once you were of the gentiles, with all his revelation(s), all his progress from being a law dog to his understanding of son-ship granted by grace, all his sufferings, resistances, tribulations, witnessing of the miraculous, diligence in labors and work on behalf of the church, sacrifices, and stripes, remained utterly unconfused, no matter his progress. No matter his granted seeing to right identity and identification.

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.

Yet not I.

How very much hangs and was hung there.

And no man who sees that (even He who hung there) can be made to feel sorry by, nor for, those who do not. Even if he may, he does not have to, for he is under no law.

It is enough he remind them of their need of sight.

It is enough to just speak to the dead in religion and tell them to wake up.

And if, or when, they do…they will most likely wake up swinging.

“In the day you eat of it you shall surely die”

Is not our premise but God’s declaration. There is no place of going around this. And also that any once in, or of Adam, are all to which this likewise pertains. And as death was made true estate there, no less, only those who once dead, are made eligible for the life of salvation. One cannot anymore know they are among the saved than they cannot know they were the once counted among the dead. And though it is without contradiction that God raises whom He wills as Christ gives life to whom He wills; only the one made alive is made to know things the dead either do not yet, nor never will, know. And Christ knows what death is:

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

And were we to say “If all truly died…” we would be showing ourselves false to the faith, that we can presume there was an “if” to be placed that could nullify God’s “surely”. But we may, if able, see that if that “if” is used to the better end of “since”, we might discuss what is of significance, or what is of meaning of that, but truly, only if we are now among the alive. We are allowed the grace to consider God’s words and doings for significance and meaning according to the light we have that He alone gives. And such light “in spirit” must, and is, (pre)destined to penetrate our mind. For we are told we shall….know. Even before we know.

Yet though our knowings and understandings may vary according to God’s gift or revelation through Christ, we dare not let go of that understanding…we are the called, to know. Has it yet been made true to you that “the dead know nothing”? And, moreover, that those who have come out from there are called to know much…even of that Lord who has raised them? We are all in learning. Disciples being discipled [sic]. Where, or how we appear to one another along this seeming continuum is of no consequence for any comparisons, for our looking into the wonder(s) of God is set to us into all eternity in His infinitude.

And I am quite convinced that even in Paul’s declaration that he will know even as he is known, is not a quenching of that wonder by then knowing all and everything with nothing and no one “left” to consider nor relate to, or in; but that all and any seeming irksomeness that so often accompanies testimony of lack of knowing in “need to know” is quenched.

But this is obviously my understanding. For to me, Heaven (such as it is, to me) is populated with those who are knowing God, (who is the all and that all to be known)…yet it is not there full of all “know it alls“. And so also, even now, is to be so among our fellowship in light.

I do not know whether our being of the created (creatures) will ever cease from us, but I am heartily convinced any and all seeming creaturely [sic] irksomeness that may attend that (and so easily taken advantage of to that very irksomeness by an adversary) is ceased through Christ. And has even begun already, in us. Jesus the Christ is not, was not ashamed to appear as a made one, a man. “Born of a woman, born under the law…”. And yet we no less know the Christ is from everlasting to everlasting in God. Yes, there is much we are given to consider. Wonderfully.

And as to this death pronounced as coming in the day of eating, there is no less, much to be considered. For how one speaks (even as God speaks) or better, how such is heard by those of differing estates, is vast. And all of what we might call dead understanding(s) are to go in renewal of mind. For what a dead man interprets is not, nor cannot be at all, what a live man sees. How even, a live man is.

In truth it is easily said that only the live man can know both death and life to any recognition. For the dead do not, nor cannot even know they are so…much less have any apprehension of what life is. And so even in that estate were they to “hear” the voice of God and there assume/presume to themselves they must be the alive…well…the scriptures are rife with examples otherwise, and surely not excluding the Lord’s own words and the apostle’s revelations.

Yes, God spoke to Cain before his murderous escapade into further darkness, and yes Cain spoke to God after, and with God even, yet speaking to Cain. As He no less did with Adam…after his eating. Therefore any notion that that death precludes God from communicating with man and vice versa (as I have often heard attributed as that for meaning of “death”) is not true.

If only (I speak as a man) such men could have understood at all the significance, the meaning, the import, the great wonder of all wonders beyond their capacity to contain…that God was speaking to them! Even in any acknowledgement that this was so, that they had heard from God…the veil remained…as only can be removed by Christ. The most sincere, the most seeming upright, the most holding greatest testimony…still captured in that death; pronounced over all till the deliverer come.

We can now understand this saying of Jesus the Christ…even in his testimony of John the Baptist.

For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

Such a division! A vast gulf pronounced. And we must be careful in our hearing, and hear. No matter who may be summoned in memory or testimony as to their greatness (And Jesus here is not dishonoring John at all) from Moses, Abraham, Samuel, Elijah, et al…we know, at least, none is greater than John the Baptist. None had…till that very time, of women born ever been greater…at least as prophet. (Does God esteem His prophets?) But there was/is a man who, born of woman, was in the Kingdom of God. To that point we might even say “only” one man.

And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

Whatever this death was or is to man as pronounced of God to him in the day of his eating (and if one can receive that this gulf is result and testimony of that) was of such magnitude in its profoundness that all and any comparison(s) between what is life and what is death…is insurmountable to man alone.

Even such that, further in the speaking of Jesus, and speaking of gulfs, when one pleaded for one to return from the dead to warn his brothers, Abraham understood (in what knowing was his) that if in their having Moses and the prophets they did not believe, neither would they believe should one return from the dead. It must sober all and any who may rest upon “if I only see a true miracle then I will believe”. But, it will not, despite my own insertion of “must”. Yet, it may sober a silly or novice believer as to his estate if there remain anything such of that thinking as “I need to see more miracles to believe better” That one may believe is already greatest testimony to the miraculous. For no man can move himself from unbelief to believing.

Or from death to life.

And a mind may be sobered…up.

But first it must receive as one alive from the dead how much latent hostility may remain to be rooted out, exposed, have light shining into all its dark places of that once enmity to the truth of God.

Oh, yes there is a fight. The only good one there is. The fight of faith to see redeemed that place of once all death where man was under all the influence of that death, even consigned him, and possessed only a mind hostile to God. The spirit of Christ, that life giving spirit, so far superior to Adam as living soul, must inform…and has license to deal with His house. Individually, and to all He builds corporately to His glory, the church.

It is both irrefutable and inescapable.

His having of a bride without spot or wrinkle or blemish.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

In that name of inheritance is His inheritance. And one is either in or out. Yet dead or made alive.And since the dead are so easily deluded into believing themselves alive…who alone knows?

Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

We are in departure from the death in iniquity. And told to be so. We of all are to know what it is to depart from, but this can only come by revelation alone. No, we do not innately know…good from evil.

No light means…no light.

Or have you not yet apprehended the Devil considers himself…a nice guy? He has no light to even know himself as evil. No light means…no light…and there be left alone to only one’s surmising. And:

All of a man’s ways are right in his own eyes.

Rejoice then, even if you believe it is the Lord that calls you evil, and that you are made able to hear! For if the Lord is speaking to you, don’t let the wonder of it be lost upon you. Or its significance. Awaken!

Only the alive can receive rebuke. Are are even prepared for, and made able to bear it. Rejoice in hearing that voice which could never come to you of yourself! If He wound, and one is made able to receive His wounds as acceptable, He will also show Himself the great Healer.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Too much?

God knows.

As many as I love I rebuke and chasten…

We might admit we do not like our theology tinkered with. Yet just as much admit we need our theology tinkered with. And if by theology we mean both a study (or diligent attention) that informs our understanding of God, and the means by which we all live in that understanding, we may understand those first two sentences. For what may be revealed of further need for, and to us of revision, always must bring some unsettling. But unsettling is not at all a bad thing of itself when ministered of God.

For us, and if we believe, the matter of having everything shaken that can be shaken (by God) is not to some end of His mere toying (or toying with us) but to the end of a firm establishment and rather that “only that which is unshakable remain”. And of all, it would surely appear reasonable if any believer desire truth, and to be established only in and by truth, that this shaking be neither foreign in experience nor be denied the testimony that it is a good thing for us.

Having all in Christ, as none would deny is our inheritance made clear the moment we believed yet requires enlargement; for both right handling and no less, for appreciation. And God our Father is much about seeing to it that His Christ rightly be accorded the right gratitude He merits. To the end of even being truly believed in all matters. For a true man deserves nothing less. And such gratitude for His Christ is always “passed along” in, to, and by, a righteousness undeniable in our Father. For in their being one with no separation what one accords the Christ, he likewise accords the Father.

That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

As Christ therefore cannot be over honored, any short changing of what might seem “one” is also a denial of honor to the “other” in their unity. Any denial of the Son is denial of the Father. And God is to be honored for all His goodness. God in all.

But (or better) And we are to grow as believers. Even toward such as is described here:

But solid food is for the mature, the ones by constant use having trained the senses for distinguishing both good and evil.

That right there disabuses us of any notion that such distinguishing is either immediately made known to us (though it be a goal), or even innate to us. No, only the believer has such made available to him in and through Christ and His working(s), and this even by many revisions and renewing of mind. In spirit are all things, and all things made to and for us of God’s Christ, yet the mind must be renewed…even to that particular (and O! so strenuously resisted) frank, but true confession… a man does not know right from wrong, good from evil (himself surely included) until Christ enlightens.

And how much we have built (as all men are absolutely so inclined) that remains of any and all of our presumption that we already know or have always known “good from evil” must be unsettled. We dare not take our notions of “good” and there ascribe them to God (for they would surely inhibit if they were able) but rather receive of God what He means by “good” (and no less evil) through the work of His Christ in us to provide light. And here, is it not every believer’s testimony that has walked more than a few steps with Christ, that much or what was once thought good…even to personal advantage, are to be considered…dung? Shown not as bright shining as once they appeared when now seen in the light of Christ.

And though this has been said many times and in many places, it bears repeating knowing good and evil exist is not at all, neither does it confer upon any automatically a right discerning between or among them. And certainly not any implication that, even in that knowing, there is any power granted to choose rightly between…or among them.

I can have, or be presented with two doors behind which I am told one lay life and behind the other lay death, and even to such surety that I believe it. I may have even watched many in their choosing of either right or left door with none ever succeeding. Sometimes death comes from right…sometimes from left. None have ever “made it”. I know for sure that death is there…which also informs to some extent that “The Presenter” is at very least true about death being there.

But I know nothing of life, nor even by previous watching, and may even wonder if “The Presenter” has deviously set death behind both and only told me life can be real and known. And nothing has informed me, even in all my watching if it may be of others, which is there…for me. This is quite experientially [sic] itself, the experience of death…for me. I desire a one…but do not know what or which to choose, and have no power to look through those ultimate of doors. But now I am sure without doubt…death is a real thing.

A foolish analogy, surely. But perhaps not wasted. What if someone, may He even be called “The Presenter” already knows of all our inability to either choose or discern rightly in any measure what life looks like…precisely because we are already…dead? Also and no less to good and evil? Yes we may have some convincing both exist…yet, we do not already know we are dead? Even in all of evil?

How to disabuse us of that illusion we so treasure? Even and what is so often called “free will”. Alive enough to make choices, good enough to have or hold some right recognition that would propel us to in our thinking we have choice and are at all able to make a “right” one? And how, or when…did such happen to “our self”? How did we enter, or have thrust upon us delusions and illusions? O! how foolish we are, and even perhaps have been in our readings and considerations.

Something happened. And it happened there in the Book of Beginnings. And you and I have heard, surely, have perhaps considered (not so surely) many of the explanations, many of the expositions of “its” meaning, many of the reasonings attaching themselves to that “it”, nevertheless this “it” stands plainly and without obscuring to its being plain…except to the deluded…”in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die”.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Do you doubt? Do you doubt the emphatic in surely? How it is not nor could ever even be inferred as “kinda like” or be “some sort of”? Does God know of what He speaks? If one says yes, then the next and obvious question might be “But do we?”

Does one see how revisit…even to some revision is absolutely necessary?

Even if one might say in all contradiction of Christ’s word(s), the apostle’s revelation(s) or try to confine it in some way to: “But this only happened to a “them” (Adam and Eve) historically” How foolish one shows one’s self. Know you not that all who came from Adam even as all “in” Adam, are of Adam in all his estate…that what is pronounced over Adam, declared to Adam, is no less “yours”? And your estate? There cannot be no knowing of this. It is irrefutable. Yet, how so?

For to deny Adam in any way, to deny for sake of claim of better standing before God of any natural form (and God knows what is being held on to “of the natural” and carnal, especially in mind) is to no less, and also deny (by denying that pronouncement of death) the also giving of promise. There is no way around this. Even if one claims Christ and any salvation made known to him of Christ…he must face he has come through Adam in all his deadness…in order to also that in coming through Adam to any seeing or acknowledgement of all that was also promised…as even to the crushing of the deceiving serpent’s head.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Our deliverer, the Christ of God, Lord Jesus.

And if we are not speaking the truth before God, and likewise against what remain of carnal thinking and reasonings to our “once estate” as being held to ourselves as in some way we are, or once were superior to Adam either in “our” affections, actions, dispositions…and even choices, God will show just how dead is dead…in such thinking.

Some will rejoice as appointed. No doubt some will growl.

It was given through an apostle to write:

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Any notion, even by the titling of these few sections, that there is an attempt to establish a book from the Bible (any book for that matter) and in particular Genesis as the foundation, or foundation of faith (God forbid), would be wrong. Though it is foundational, and in particular to what we might call our theology, it surely holds great influence; but always and ultimately Jesus is the foundation that God has laid to us of all matters. And there is not contradiction in this, for as Jesus has said, the scriptures all testify of Him. He is sole foundation…even that which supports all scripture(s), and can be discovered in all when His testimony is embraced.

And were we again to speak of house or houses and the place(s) in which, and from which, we live; it should not be a stretch to understand this as pertaining to our theology. We live from there, speak from there, act from there, think from there in such measure as our understanding of God is formed and informed and (hopefully) of Him, we know from there. For we know that stuff can “go up” of wood, hay, and stubble; in all subject to God’s testing by fire to show whether we are living (and building) in truth, or just fancy. The man with no marks of fire upon his theology has not yet even begun to build.

God’s end is His house, that habitation in which He dwells fully and unobstructed in spirit, even the Church as all little houses are joined seamlessly in submissive agreement to form that greater house, God’s house. Where Christ is glorified in His glorifying of the Father, and we together fitly joined in, and to Him, know this as all truth. O! but it is no small work God undertakes and has undertaken in choosing what was once of both all disagreement and hostility to Him (and therefore also one another) and fitly compact so that no seam be seen! A singularity, so to speak, so dense and weighty as all creation yields to this new creation.

And to whatever extent we learn, we have learned God is neither reluctant nor shy through Christ to tear down what is not of Him (in our theology and theologies) that this building can only grow in one way, and that upon that firm foundation that is Christ. He not long tolerates (though His patience is unfathomable) what may of corruption and therefore corruptibility be placed upon, or laid to, His Christ. And the fire tests every man’s work. Do we not know this…even in ourselves? We shall not make much progress, otherwise. God is faithful to do as He says.

For if not knowing this there is a day appointed in which the Christ of God says “Depart from me, I never knew you”. The whole of it, and surely foundation was never laid to that them; so that all, from a foundation of fancy to a steeple of once glamour will be torn down. “I never knew you” is quite emphatic overall in “never”. So, even if not yet made glad of God’s wondrous work of bringing fire to test, we, at least, dare not deny it. Lest we think as that them. Not merely bad theology, but knowing of God, at all. Even to constructing their own foundation and that not received of God as in His Christ.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Even the word exclusive pales to this matter and manner of work, for it is all of God’s sole doing. Man may be given a wonderful allowance to do (try doing nothing and find the end of that) but it, this joyous and gracious allowance to do, is always and only ministered relative to, and by our relationship with that, that foundation. And the Christ of God is not in suspense. I hope you see, or can see, that. He is both under and over all even as Alpha and Omega, all support in beginning, all and only support to end. All begins and ends in Him for us, no matter how we may be yet given to thinking, or reasoning, linearly. And God will handle that.

If then, as it was previously claimed above, Christ is for discovery the scriptures even as He maintained all testify of Him, we must be able to see Him in all. But only if we are made able. Not by first our looking only at the scripture, but contrary wise now, in the sense of only looking at the scripture through Him. We do not see until. We may have sense, there may be an inkling, even a great desire to seek and find (even as Jesus spoke to those who diligently searched them, the scriptures) but until a man is brought to Christ his best estate remains as described by an apostle

But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

Only Christ does, and can, remove the vail. Or veil. We must read always with those new eyes, of a new creation in Christ. And having a mind renewable. Otherwise our theology and the place we may live and speak from is not in congruence (and will be shown so, undeniably) as not consistent in and with the Christ. That foundation.

And how much of our theology finds well spring in Genesis? A creation, a fall, and all corrupted in result, a faithful One (who does as He says), a deceitful one, a deceivable one, curses ministered, rebukes made of actions, consequences to be so clearly seen of messing with authority leading to all direness of estate…bringing about a knowing of total and undeniable dependency and as being all under that Hand…and also promise. And this just in a first few chapters.

Does one not see (if they be in Christ) how all points to the Christ? And not only so, but in such way that the man in Christ be made able to recognize himself, also? For if we think this is all and only about a “them”, Adam and Eve…how wrong we may be shown! Even how wrong we have been.

But the same who ministers fire to our building, also ministers promise of all comfort and relief.

And, God willing, we may continue.

Perhaps having worn out to a great extent the matters of house and houses as in some sort of analogous estate, especially in reference to our own building and/or where and what we live in and from, we continue. For it is often in only wearing out a thing and there finding its eventual inutility [sic] to us, that we seek anew. Seeking after either new or better replacement for our use (or in this case, understanding) that will advance us in some work, or the things we have been given to do. And, so again, we continue.

Have we to do? Do we have work? Is there something to be done, or remaining to be done, among us in particular who may make claim of Christ’s knowing? Both knowing Him and being known of Him? Is there…work? Even such as might be called a worthy direction, or instruction toward it, as in:

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief

or

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (?)

And if such is given us to do, and even thankfully so to some end of benefit, can this ever square with our relief from the vain attempts at acheiving through works of the law, that which is and are, unobtainable to them?

Yes.

But only if we proceed from this:

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

And further in regards to a “to do” might this now appear less of a stretch for application in regards of a doing, or any doing?

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Admittedly, many other translations opt for the notion of giving account to that One to whom we are solely responsible to for response (as He is of all responsibility), but the implication is nevertheless clear.

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

For in the presence of a one (even that God!) who is all seeing, all knowing of everything to utter transparency to Himself, nothing can be hidden…even of all we have to do. No motive hidden, no intent obscure, no inner working of which He is unaware that we might form a thing to present to Him, as coming from a place unknown to Him.

How much more the wonder then, when this is received as truth revealed to us as in “I got nuthin’ Lord to come up with to surprise, delight, please…or even disappoint you” which may at first seem an unappealing estate to discover; but then we find in our hearing “No worries, I brought my own stuff!”

For it is God’s delight to work in us to surprise and delight us with the mercy and grace…and truth, found in His Christ alone. How contrary this is to our working toward or for Him to “get” something from Him as, or for, entrance. Our work, such as it may be of seeking, asking, knocking is all also and no less originated in and by Him and only response to His word of “that” to do. He has made us believers, to believe it. And no man engaged, no man persuaded, no man convinced to its undertaking (read: believe) would but laugh at any notion he is, has or could ever…do anything “for God” by works or any works to place Him in estate of owing. The work is His, the tools are His, the calling is His; all authority is…His.

All other labors we may have known are as burden or a thing to be compensated for, traded upon, or a quid pro quo engendering a debt…but here we find our delightful indebtedness, in all unable to be repaid, and such delight itself is the reward. Agreeing to self inability in:

“I got nuthin”

is either seen as some form of despairing utterance, or to the contrary, in this case…as entrance into all joy and relief. God is making His estate known in regard to a man…as supplier, and sole supplier of all…even to some admission that may have once seemed humiliating to him…of having nothing to present to God for gain of Him. Even as in “Hey Lord, I got nuthin’, but may I see what you have?”

And we find His Christ ready for display, in manifestation to us, as in us and for us, which is His (God’s) ever delight and joy. Where we despair of ourselves is so often the prelude of a manifestation of a great work of God in us.

Even to such as that which Jesus said, not in any despair but great joy, we find revises us:

“Of myself, I can do nothing”

…and He was not at all sad at all to know and confess “it is the Father within me that doeth the works”.

“Let’s not get confused here fellas as to what man is, and can do of himself”.

And Jesus Himself marveled at the faith of the Centurion for his seeing and understanding, for faith always brings sight and understanding, even holding those matters within itself for revelation’s sake.
He saw that the essence of Jesus’ power and ability to “do” was in all attributable to His being a man under an authority of power, and acting in obedient submission to it.

Where others may have needed disabusing of seeing Jesus solely as a “miracle man” able to do as He pleased, and when He pleased of Himself, the Centurion understood. He saw a man submitted to His God and Father. And from that is/was where His power had all source. Yes, Jesus marveled and commended him for that faith. In not unlike manner as He once declared of Peter’s seeing “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you…” No man of himself can recognize the Christ of God.

Listen if you can. Even if we were to read this with a certain sensing only of our self as some form of contradiction to this matter, we may read again.

No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

At first, or if incomplete in reading, it could seem Jesus almost boasting of a power He is holding of Himself to do there as He pleased. And there is no contradiction in, or of, Jesus making this plain. And, of course, nor is it boast…just plain stating of truth. Yet even in this, where Jesus is saying He is free of all others (read: man) in any obligation of response to what they may seek to do to Him, or against Him (even by seeking to take His life) He makes plain:

This command have I received of my Father.

Only the Father can give a man any authority and liberty in this matter, even in all things pertaining to his life.

This matter may be spoken of many times, as it has been, in all wonder. All and any manner of attaching to Jesus any manner of necessity by man is strictly forbidden. One enters the non-existent if there is any presumption of going there. It simply is not, nor can be a real place. Just as God can never be placed to any position of obligation or necessity by man or toward man.

May this not be too awkward for handling or obscure to understanding. God alone can hold Himself to Himself, but man cannot there leverage anything from God, even in any claim of “God has to honor His word”. Does God honor His word? Truly. But all and any form of presumption that such honoring (made only plain by God alone to begin with) now gives, in any way, shape, or form (and do not think this is as unusual as it sounds) place to leverage Him.

Such a place does not exist where any man can ascend to bring God under any pressure to either perform, or give, or exercise according to any man’s will. And if we think such is so rare, or so uncommonly absurd to even consider a man, even any man might do so…it simply, and starkly reveals how little a man knows of man, and particularly, himself.

For man, if known or seen to any right degree will understand. Man (yes, you and I) is so steeped in a thing, even quite skilled at it as to not even recognize its working; being something of “second nature” to him, in all. Oh, yes, man is clever. Clever in his dealings with one another that cannot resist being applied to all, and even attempted toward God Himself till it be crushed irremediably.

So simply, it is this. Man seeks out identifying what is of necessity to, or in others. And once found, if such necessity he is skilled enough at handling (read: clever), he can both easily manipulate, direct, control, and also make himself of necessity then to any other. As said, it is so “second nature to us” so inculcated this looking, this searching out, this clever way of seeking and finding in another where their eye falls for necessary esteem, or more basic matters of biological necessity, and to there then interpose our selves for control. We are expert at it. The more clever use flattery, subterfuge, ruses and false identity for gain. And the even more skilled at amassing power have resort to far less subtle, but often more crushingly effective means.

Find another’s necessity, and if clever enough take advantage of that (and so we hone our skills)…and one now quite “owns” the man.

Whether one can keep him is another matter, for all men are clever in this and always exercising it upon one another…and always honing their skills.

But, God is not fooled. Ever.

These people do honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Yet, their is a deliverer.