There is not one thing nor matter particular or peculiar to man that is not addressed affirmatively in, and by, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the man made spiritually alive is no less made alive to an awareness of these matters. Would it be too bold to say there is no avoiding the consciousness of them to whatever extent the Lord allows and ministers? I think not.
For an apostle neither naive nor timid in his expositions once said that in matters of judgment that “even” the least in the church should be able to fulfill such matters of judgment with a fit discerning as to uphold righteousness. What is made theirs in Christ, by bequeathal, is some knowledge of life and death, some sensing of righteousness and unrighteousness, some discerning of scheme vs the plan of God revealed in, and through, and by His Christ, Jesus.
And in regards to scheme(s) he was so bold as to say:
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (schemes)
Not ignorant of his schemes.
If taking such to the extreme of scheme, even as undone, conquered over, the setting free of those once bound to it by Christ’s victory, the writer here says:
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Deliver them made subject to bondage through fear of death.
In this stripping of weapon(s) by exposure of scheme the writer of the Revelation of Jesus Christ records these words as spoken by the Lord Himself:
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.
What was once held by another is stripped from him and now in full possession of the man (and by the man) who has overcome in every aspect any power once wielded by deception(s) that could accrue to their scheming usage. Any mystery as far as hell and death by which man could be maneuvered is exposed in, and through, the light of the Christ. It is little wonder then, that an apostle looking deeply into His Lord would see the scheme(s) exposed in such light.
He saw. He knew how terror of isolation abetted the unholy fear of man. How seeming failure spoke of matters of death and visible success contrarily spoke of matters of matters of life…by scheme. How a man could be maneuvered in the seems of things to turn right or left according to their appearance to him and what was made to appear resident in each.
A large life (abundance of possessions) was made to seem as speaking of an invulnerability and favor, while the destitute, having little between themselves and the grave, smelled of death and abandonment to isolation.
The apparently “wise” (even the apparently pious) also seemed to have a storehouse for their drawing upon to keep death in form, at bay. All these little deaths kept directing man as signposts along his way “do not go this way, death awaits”…till finally he be captured by that great death.
This has not changed in working except to the man delivered from their deceptions who is now made able to face such without any illusions, and in knowledge of Christ and His work(s). Large does not mean eternal, success before man does not mean anything (and in fact may mean nothing more than the seeking after it, which is itself death at work) and longevity as once testimony of a thing’s establishment in truth can also be easily exposed as built upon the most fragile foundation. All and everything that once spoke “life and favor” by illusion is now exposed in light. The Lord is not discontent with a “little flock”.
To not know by some entrance provided into the experience of Christ of these matters does not mean a man is not appointed to them. He may just not have come to know them…yet. He may still be “playing” in the land of appearances for whatever time God has allowed and appointed to him.
He may have little grasp of their depth and have little appreciation of such matter experienced in Christ where His cries of “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani” came forth and are not yet recognizable to him as also expressed by this apostle, here:
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:
The touching of a despair and despairing of all things of self…even self sensing, that God alone show forth His power to raise the dead.
Some may say, and no doubt will, and do, “I only want to know of life…this talk of experience of despair is too foreign to what is held, and I hold, as the experience of life in Christ.” Yes, our tendency and desire is often toward the apparently strong appearing, the self assured one, the fully confident (though often only self confident) one, even forgetting, or having never seen:
For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
This matter of carrying about both the dying of the Lord Jesus and the life of the Lord Jesus to some or many may seem ir-resolvable paradox or a mumbling about matters too esoteric to be understood. But the apostle knew it. And he knew it was not alone appointed only to his understanding.
Every broadcast of truth yields a fruitful harvest.
And so in his boldness, even abetted by what he knew to call the “terror of the Lord” he was made to persuade men. Even to such end as all so called as he might not miss out on the all to which they are called and made prepared to receive in and through God’s Christ.
Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
Embrace who embraces you, even with all things.
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