Living Word Dependant
Mike Jarvis
Agents for Change
The scriptures were not written to make us dependent upon a book or the Letter. Jesus said that, "You study the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but it is the scriptures that speak of me." (John 5:39). The implication of this statement is that, for us, Eternal Life is not in the Scriptures, but in Jesus
We are not meant to be "written Word" dependent but “Living Word” dependent. Old Covenant relationship with God was through Observance, Statute, Practice and Law. God was an external entity to be approached – “God Out There” – rather than The New Covenant relationship which is through the man Jesus. The indwelling anointing, Jesus, The Christ Crucified
He is in Heaven, still in his body, and we are on earth in our bodies – but we’re also in heavenly places where He is; we are with Him.
John 17: 24, Father, I desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me [as Your gift to Me] may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me [Your love gift to Me]; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. (..do we not believe that The Father gave the Son what He asked for?).
Most of the church does not relate to God through “the New and Living Way”, but are caught up in a hybrid mix of the old and new covenants. We are judging our own performance because we think that God is judging us individually, even though He has judged Jesus as our scapegoat sacrifice
We never had any righteousness and never will have, except through our being in union with God, in Christ, by grace. He is our righteousness and we are become His. Too many of us believe we are sinners instead of saints
Guilty feelings reveal that we are under judgement, (still living under Law) a judgement which is not always legitimate. By being always aware of The Law in our minds and judging our performance, we are captured by the idea of the Law, even though something greater than the Law has come. This is because the fact of our New Creation Identity has been almost universally denied or overlooked by church teaching - that is to say, it has been assented to in small letters but not written large enough to be properly seen to be believed in
If we perceive sin in us we feel guilty and we make some act of contrition or penance "before God" to conform to the idea of emotional repentance. Often it may be that we have had "a bad week" and subtly we attribute this to “our fault” or flaws that then indicate a sinful failing. And before you know it we are repenting for a feeling. Repentance has always been the evidence of contrition that we have wanted to see in the unbeliever so we can be confident that they are soundly converted. It is not the repentance that is important but the Grace that makes it possible
Religion forces us to deal with God as unregenerate sinners, not as New Creatures set free and with Eternal Life, but as if we were still under Law and Bondage, treating God as an external entity to be "approached" and “pleased” or appeased by sacrifice and ritual. All this is a failure to be as we are meant to be, despite the Old Testament prophecies such as:
"though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18) and "As far as the east is from the west that's how far I shall remove your transgressions from you" (Psalm 103:12)
Note: sin washed and wrongdoing removed. Sin is a nature, transgression an event, a result of that nature. Jesus took it away – his blood washed us clean with stripes for healing and a cross for resurrection. Church still expects us to sin and teaches a wicked mixture of Old Covenant Law and post resurrection heresies. Paul taught (and still does) that we are free and that where sin is, grace will always be greater, like a mathematical formula. Grace has no choice but to abound
Paul tells us we are joined in Christ, in union with Jesus and the Father. Hebrews tells us that the New is better than the Old. Better than the Law that condemned
Jesus declared liberty to the captives because He was anointed to preach "Good News": this is the Gospel; “That one Man Died for all”, (Isaiah 61) so all died and all were resurrected in Him – Salvation comprehensively purchased for us - no mistakes. And no effort on our part
We are “New Creations” all of us, by faith in that glorious Cross-Death that took Satan by surprise and revealed him conquered and captive himself, fooled as he was by pride. If the New is better than the Old, in what way can it be better, if we are really left in the same condition we were in before?
Church teaches that we will sin, despite Paul's gospel and his assertions to Union, Holiness, Justification and Sanctification. At the same time it often teaches that we need an inner cleaning, that our spirit is clean but our soul dirty; that we need a process to clean us, a process that somehow never ends. So we are torn by the knowledge that we are "saved" but still sinful and that we must engage in some "work" to ensure we are cleaned up. This is nonsense and drives some over the edge with the pressure and frustration, or will, if they care
The law was not repealed but better than that it was satisfied. Christ fulfilled the Law for us, He shut it up, He satisfied it in every demand. Death came by sin, abusing the Law. When the Law was satisfied there no longer remained any opportunity for sin and death to come by it
Here it comes guys... guess what... IT IS FINISHED! The Law is set aside because of His sacrifice, the last sacrifice, the Law is no longer in force – it has been met once and for all – all debts are paid. We are released from external covenants and observances, slavish works of appeasement and no context remains for such "approaches" and "offerings"
Colossians 2:
14Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared [j]completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.
15[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].
16Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath.
17Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.
18Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,
19And not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world's crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?--such as]
21Do not handle [this], Do not taste [that], Do not even touch [them],
22Referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines.
23Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the
indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature). [Instead, they do not honour God but serve only to indulge the flesh]
Two things happen after the cross: the Law is met and put away and the blood shed for us allows for Grace, a gift – a revelation – to stimulate Faith to believe the Good News. To become a New Creation. Ransomed, healed, restored. Grace and Mercy started it all!
In this union, we are in Him, and He in us, He is our Hope of Glory: Christ within. The life we now live is Him. To quote a friend, "it’s all about Jesus walking about in your body.”
We are liberated. The occupying forces of God have won the battle over our lives, and we never heard a shot
We are in union with the son, He is our all in all, we need no other mediator. He has done everything for us, we did nothing to achieve it, it was freely provided. Grace is Grace. We now rest in Him. After making a spectacle of the powers and principalities and taking captivity captive, He sat down and we sat down in Him.
To speak in favour of the Law is to say that the woman caught in adultery should have been stoned to death. However, mercy triumphed that day and Jesus showed the world the flaw in the Law and the victory of Grace.
Grace has always been at the heart of God's dealings with men. Jesus’ sacrifice makes the law to be put away and Grace abound to us in such a powerful and liberating way that we become children of God, justified and sanctified, no longer obligated to sin or the Law that gave sin power over us or any other manifestation of religion
We should be rejoicing at our liberty and freedom from religion, in the wonderful Grace of Christ. Personally, I intend to enjoy the finished works and revel in the lack of obligation to Be or Do any sort of religion for the rest of my life
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