Christ Only the First
I have been the father of two sons. I am human — they, born of ME, were born HUMAN, as I am! When we are BORN of GOD, we shall be of HIS VERY FAMILY — we shall be SPIRIT as He is Spirit — immortal as HE is immortal — divine as HE is divine!
WHY does not organized professed "Christianity" KNOW that? WHY should that seem incredulous, impossible, or, even, to some, like blasphemy? WHY?
The NEW TESTAMENT of YOUR BIBLE teaches that all the way through! Jesus taught it! Paul teaches it! Peter teaches it! John teaches it! The Holy Spirit INSPIRED IT, repeatedly!
You have seen, in Philippians 3:20-21, how, as stated just above in I Cor. 15, at Christ's coming our vile bodies shall be CHANGED, changed into SPIRIT, made IMMORTAL, fashioned like Christ's GLORIFIED BODY. That is when we shall be BORN of God. And THAT change does not take place in THIS LIFE! All these religious-professing people who think they have been "born again" HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED THAT CHANGE!
Now we saw, I Cor. 15:23, that Christ, who was BORN OF GOD by His resurrection, was the FIRST-fruits of those to be resurrected — those to be BORN AGAIN!
Now believe other Scriptures which say the same thing!
Believe Romans 8:29: "For whom He did foreknow, he also did predestinate" (write for free booklet on meaning of predestination) "to be conformed to the IMAGE of His Son (Christ), that HE might be the firstborn of many brethren." Christ was born a SON of God by a resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4). He was only the first to be so BORN of GOD, of MANY BRETHREN.
We are to be in His same IMAGE — as He is, NOW! We are put on HIS SAME PLANE — as His BRETHREN — to be also BORN OF GOD — to become GOD'S SONS!
We are already begotten sons — IF really converted — but what we SHALL BE, in the resurrected GLORIFIED BODY — does not yet APPEAR — cannot yet be seen (I John 3:1-2).
God is to have MANY SONS born of Him. Of all these, JESUS was the first to be SO BORN. He is the ONLY human so far BORN of God, though many have already been BEGOTTEN!
Believe Colossians 1:15, 18: Speaking of Jesus "who is the IMAGE of the INVISIBLE GOD, the FIRSTBORN of every creature. . . the FIRSTBORN from the dead." Yes, just the first of many BRETHREN, in the very IMAGE of bright shining GLORY of the INVISIBLE GOD. And we are to be conformed to the SAME IMAGE (Rom. 8:29).
WHAT is MAN?
Now will you believe what God says in the Book of Hebrews?
WHY should God be concerned about human beings? From a small airplane we look like little ants down here. From a jet 5 to 6 miles high, people on the ground have shrunken so small they can't be seen. HOW TINY must we look to GOD? WHY should He have concern for us?
The question is answered in Hebrews 2, beginning verse 6. God made man a little lower than angels; but, in God's PURPOSE and PLAN, He has CROWNED man, as He first has Christ, with GLORY, and HONOR.
What is the GLORY with which Christ is now CROWNED? A crown denotes KING-ship — rule — authority — power. Jesus Christ said, just before ascending to heaven, that ALL POWER in the universe — in heaven and in earth — had been given to HIM.
In Heb. 1:1-3, it is revealed that Christ is God's HEIR — heir of ALL THINGS — the ENTIRE UNIVERSE — which He now has already inherited! He now is the BRIGHTNESS of God's GLORY!
Yes, His eyes like flashing flames of fire — His face shining bright as the full-strength SUN. He is the express image of GOD'S PERSON — and here the inspired Greek words mean stamped, or engraved with God's own perfect spiritual CHARACTER. He UPHOLDS ALL THINGS — see Moffatt translation, Heb. 1:3 — He sustains, controls, RULES, the ENTIRE UNIVERSE! God Almighty the Father has delegated to Christ the administrative and executive power, rule, GOVERNMENT, of the UNIVERSE!
Christ's GLORY is such that now He sustains, upholds, controls, every force, energy, and power that exists EVERYWHERE — supreme POWER over the universe!
Yes, and as a BORN Son of GOD, Christ IS God! God Almighty His Father is God. They are two separate and individual Persons (see Rev. 5:1, 6-7).
How can this be? I suppose most people think of GOD as one single individual Person. Or, as a "TRINITY." THIS IS NOT TRUE. Genesis 1:1 gives God's name as, in the Hebrew, "ELOHIM." This is a uni-PLURAL name.
It means more than one Person, but combined into the ONE FAMILY, which FAMILY is GOD.
Yes, the name "GOD” as God revealed it in the Hebrew language, is a name like FAMILY, CHURCH, or TEAM. There may be several individual members in ONE FAMILY. In I Cor. 12 we find MANY individual MEMBERS form the ONE CHURCH. And Jesus prayed that we, in His CHURCH, might be ONE in the same manner that He and God the Father are ONE GOD! (See John 17:11,21)
Notice Heb. 1:6 — the very angels are to WORSHIP CHRIST! If He is not GOD — that is, one of the members of the FAMILY, or the KINGDOM of GOD, then that would break the first Commandment! He is CALLED GOD in verse 8.
Now remember, the true Christian is an HEIR of God (Gal. 3:29), and a JOINT-HEIR with Christ (Rom. 8:17). We are to be GLORIFIED TOGETHER WITH HIM (same verse). Christ is now an inheritor — a possessor. WE are still only HEIRS — not yet inheritors — not until we are BORN AGAIN!
Now back to Hebrews 2. Remember we are co-heirs with CHRIST — begotten SONS of GOD. Christ has INHERITED the entire UNIVERSE, which He now RULES. And in Heb. 2:6-8, we are told plainly that God's PURPOSE is to put ALL THINGS in subjection UNDER us. The Greek words translated "ALL THINGS" mean, simply, THE WHOLE UNIVERSE. God "left NOTHING that is not put under him" — verse 8 — only, WE SEE NOT YET this entire universe put under the dominion of mankind!
No, you'll read in Genesis 1:28 that God, so far, has given HUMANS dominion only over the solid earth, the seas, and the AIR — but not yet OUTER SPACE which man is now trying to conquer!
But, God continues, verse 9, we see Jesus ALREADY CROWNED WITH GLORY AND HONOR — which, in chapter 1:2-3, is explained to mean KING with dominion over the whole UNIVERSE.
Now notice verse 10: "For it became HIM in bringing MANY SONS UNTO GLORY, to make the Captain (margin, Leader, or Predecessor, or Pioneer) perfect through sufferings." And in verse 11 Jesus calls us His BROTHERS.
Oh, what matchless, transcendent GLORY God purposes for us — when we are BORN AGAIN!
WHY Not Now?
But, as we read in Heb. 2:8, we do not see YET all this GLORY having been inherited by any but CHRIST. WHY, then are we not YET born?
Because, when we are, we are to be given such POWERS to guide, direct, and control, that we have to BE TRAINED, and have the PERFECT SPIRITUAL CHARACTER developed in us so that we may safely be entrusted with such vast powers!
Scientists have learned to harness and control certain physical powers — nuclear energy, for example. And men DO NOT YET HAVE THE CHARACTER to be able to control rightly and guide such colossal power into safe and productive and beneficial channels. Men have turned that POWER into such tremendous stockpiles of DESTRUCTIVE and war-making force that there is now the power more than 50 times over to ERASE ALL HUMAN LIFE FROM THE EARTH!
So, before we may be even BEGOTTEN of God, we must REPENT of transgressing GOD'S SPIRITUAL LAW of LOVE — God's WAY to peace, happiness, abundance, and joy. Then, we must BE LED BY God's Holy Spirit which He gives us, IN THE WAY of God's RIGHT SPIRITUAL, LAWS — in the way of RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Now LOVE is the fulfilling of God's Law. But it is a SPIRITUAL Law that is in inexorable motion — and it requires SPIRITUAL LOVE to fulfill it. This is "the LOVE of GOD, shed abroad in our hearts BY THE HOLY SPIRIT" (Rom. 5:5), which God gives only to those that OBEY Him! (Acts 5:32)
God CREATED this universe. He is the REAL Supreme Ruler!; He is not going to turn over that power to rule to any except those who will rule HIS WAY — who will OBEY HIM — obey HIS GOVERNMENT, and carry out HIS GOVERNMENT, UNDER HIM!
So, it is ONLY those that are LED BY God's Holy Spirit, in HIS WAYS who are the SONS of God (Rom. 8:14). And we have to begin OVERCOMING our own self-natures, the wrong WAYS of this world which have become fixed HABIT, and the devil. We must GROW in grace and Christ's KNOWLEDGE (II Pet. 3:18).
Yes, even as the unborn, but begotten human baby must GROW from its beginning size no larger than a pinpoint, fed on physical food — so, once we are impregnated by GOD'S HOLY SPIRIT — HIS LIFE — WE MUST GROW SPIRITUALLY — fed on the SPIRITUAL FOOD of God's Word the BIBLE, and by PRAYER, and what fellowship is possible with truly begotten BRETHREN in God's TRUTH.
And UNLESS we do continue to GROW in spiritual character development, more and more LIKE GOD, we become like the unborn babe that miscarries — or like an abortion! AND SUCH SHALL NEVER BE BORN OF GOD!
Perhaps a basic error that has blinded nearly all professing "Christians" since the Great CONSPIRACY crept in as a Fifth Columnist — by which religious leaders of the BABYLONIAN MYSTERIES actually conspired to STEAL the NAME "Christian" — between 70 and 170 A.D., is founded on a mistranslation of Romans 8:15.
In the A.V. it reads, ". . . but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!" The marginal rendering for "adoption" is, properly, SONSHIP. But the theologians and "Higher Critics" have blindly accepted the heretical and false doctrine introduced by PAGAN false prophets who crept in, that the HOLY SPIRIT is a THIRD PERSON — the heresy of the "TRINITY." This LIMITS God to "Three Persons." This DENIES that Christ, through His Holy Spirit, actually comes now INTO the converted Christian and does His saving work on the INSIDE — "Christ IN you, the hope of GLORY" (Col. 1:27).
Peter plainly shows that the Holy Spirit entering INTO us means that we then become "Partakers of the DIVINE NATURE." The "Trinity" doctrine DENIES this.
Any Church, or preacher, that DENIES that CHRIST is actually COMING INTO each converted Christian, through His HOLY SPIRIT, IS ANTI-CHRIST!
And, those are MANY, today. See I John 4:2, and II John 7. The expression "Jesus Christ IS COME in the flesh," as inspired in its original Greek language means, literally, PRESENT TENSE — that Christ is NOW COMING — and the way He now COMES in human flesh, is that He comes literally INTO every truly begotten child of God, BY AND THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
If the Holy Spirit were a third PERSON that would be IMPOSSIBLE!
That false doctrine, beautiful as it may have been made to sound, DENIES the presence of God's Holy Spirit within, to impregnate or BEGET us with the NATURE and the very LIFE of GOD!
That heresy DENIES the true BORN AGAIN experience!
That false teaching DENIES that the Church is the true BODY OF CHRIST — because, as it was the HOLY SPIRIT of God working IN the individual BODY of Jesus, who started God's present work, so it is that SAME SPIRIT, now working IN THE COLLECTIVE BODY of His CHURCH, which carries God's work on. Thus the true Church is the BODY of CHRIST.
But the Holy SPIRIT is the SPIRIT that emanates from both the Father, and from CHRIST, and literally enters INTO us, begetting us, so that we may BE BORN as the VERY sons of GOD!
Yes, "BEHOLD, WHAT manner of love the FATHER hath bestowed upon us, that WE should be called THE SONS OF GOD!" Yes, if converted, then already, NOW, we are the begotten SONS of the Eternal Living GOD!
SIN is humanity's one super ENEMY! SIN — the transgression of GOD'S perfect spiritual LAW — has robbed the world of PEACE — has brought poverty, emptiness, misery, crime, heartache, WARS, and untold DESTRUCTION! But, when we are finally BORN of 'God, we SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO SIN — it shall then be IMPOSSIBLE — and we shall know only HAPPINESS, and JOY, and productive ACCOMPLISHMENT!
As CHRIST already, now, HAS GLORY, and POWER, so WE SOON SHALL INHERIT THE SAME!
For, as we read in Romans 8:18-19:
. . . The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be COMPARED with the GLORY that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the CREATION — yes, the entire CREATION! — waits for the MANIFESTATION of the SONS of GOD — (when we shall be BORN of GOD!)
What WONDERFUL, almost INCOMPREHENSIBLE, GLORIOUS GOOD NEWS!
And the BEST NEWS is, that the COMING OF CHRIST is now drawing VERY NEAR! Just a very few more years! And then — the PEACEFUL, HAPPY, GLORIOUS WORLD TOMORROW!
All who NOW are begotten sons of God shall then be BORN — elevated from mortal to IMMORTAL, from decaying FLESH to SPIRIT — from HUMAN to DIVINE! And THAT TRUE BORN AGAIN EXPERIENCE will be as incomparably more GLORIOUS than the fake, vague, meaningless, so-called "born-again experience" that deceived THOUSANDS think they have had, now, as the present transcending GLORY of CHRIST is superior to the status of sickly, diseased, sinning, suffering HUMANITY TODAY!
But, the Scriptures that break before our eyes this GLORIOUS GOOD NEWS, also warn us to TAKE HEED, and to MAKE OUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE!