WHAT KIND OF ALCHEMY IS THIS?

WHAT KIND OF ALCHEMY IS THIS?
The idle babbler tells us…
YOUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD.
How can this be?
I thought my life was this lousy job
and this woman who graduated top-of-her-class in the Julliard School of Nagging and Complaining.
I’ve got plenty of evidence ‘bout this nagging and complaining.
But what’s all this about “hid with Christ in God?”

Keep in mind God told Abraham he was gonna have many kids… sands on the sea, stars in the sky type thing.
And keep in mind Abraham was a very old dude. Older than me. Something like 100 years.
But the way Paul tells it… God spoke of what is not as if it were. — Yeah, I know, sounds like babble.

But if our life is hid with Christ in God… doesn’t that sound safe?
And what’s this —Christ’s life is hid in God? This is not shallow thinking folks.
I don’t know how to plumb this one. But I’m trying.

“Your life is…”
“Your life is hid…”
“Your life is hid with Christ…”
“Your life is his with Christ in God.”

The concept gets richer with every added word.

I can see myself whispering these words under my breath in the coming days.

Grateful to God. Grateful to Christ who added me into His doings. Grateful to Paul for bringing me the news.

And if you can hear me… Your life is hid with Christ…. IN GOD.

(Reference Acts 17:18, Colossians 3:3, Romans 4:17)

PAUL VS. PSYCHOLOGISTS EVERYWHERE

PSYCHOLOGISTS EVERYWHERE SAY WE ALL HAVE “LOW SELF-ESTEEM”.
And that… they say… is why we behave the way we do. (Or some such.)
They say… we misbehave… ‘cause we have this low self-esteem.”
I remember some 20 years ago, when my then-wife, wanted a divorce, her saying to me, “I don’t deserve all this love and attention you’re giving to me.”
What a crock of sh*t !!— So, I guess those shrinks make as much sense of this as anyone… i.e. her low self-esteem would not allow her to accept or believe the love I was giving to her, so she says “I don’t deserve this love.” and bolts.
Anyway… my point is not about psychology, run-away wives, or how to understand human behavior… I really want to talk about Paul’s evangel… and what God accomplished in Christ’s cross.

1. There is a difference in Paul’s writings between SHOULD and OUGHT. When Pauls says we SHOULD behave ourselves… it’s with the idea that ALL THE CONDITIONS ARE RIGHT FOR YOU TO DO THIS OR THAT. In other words… If I push the plate far enough off the table it SHOULD fall to the floor. — There is no moral obligation on the plate to fall. It should fall. All things being equal. I bring this up, ‘cause little miss Freewill Chick and her band of high-minded teachers are quite sure YOU “SHOULD” — MORAL OBLIGATION TYPE — DO THIS OR THAT to be saved. Otherwise, endless hell for you, sir. They tyrannize you with the kind of SHOULDS that have moral obligation written all over them.
2. They never bother with such key phrases as GRACE OVERWHELMS, or GRACE SUPERABOUNDS. — To them it’s YOU MUST REPENT, YOU MUST BELIEVE, YOU MUST RECEIVE, YOU MUST OBEY, and on she goes.
3. There’s even a notable differences in NEGATIVES in the writings of Paul. Apparently in the Greek of the New Testament — you can have two kinds of NEGATIVES — one is a strong, absolute negative. And one is a softer, relative negative. You can see these two negatives in Romans 8… where Pauls says NOTHING is condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, they are (not-soft negative) walking according to the flesh — because sometimes we do walk according to the flesh — but no matter — NOTHING IS CONDEMNATION to those in Christ… Because God honors what Christ did on the cross, He justified us there.
4. The psychologists, and Joel Osteen types all have these things we can do to improve our so-called “self-esteem” — yes, the Joel types turn the bible in to some kinda “self-help” book. In spite of the fact Paul says some wickedly grooving things like:

Not one is just” — not even one. Not one is understanding. Not one is seeking out God. “All avoid Him”: at the same time they were useless. Not one is doing kindness: there is not even one!

Oh my…. that’s from Romans 3, verses 10-13… And it gets worse in verses 14 through 19… but this is rough enough for my purposes here.

Paul’s remedy for all these “low self-esteem” problems is what was accomplished on the cross.

We were justified there. Now, God is not reckoning our offensive acts to us. The future… looks bright… not our personal future silly, the future of all… our eonian future and beyond the eons.

Paul’s explanation for this bad behavior is not like the popular psychologists. Paul says we behave badly because DEATH IS OPERATING IN US.

Wow, what a thought… every day, we get a little bit closer to our last breath, and THAT is why we behave badly. These mortal bodies drive us to steal for food, etc, etc, they even drive us to gossip.

Ever notice how full of pride young people are — to the point of saying some god-awful things about some older person… ha, just wait… in a few years, they’ll be in the same condition.

Our hope is in Christ. Not just for our personal salvation. Our hope is in Christ for life’s justifying. (Romans 5:18-19)

Grace to you, all of you.
ACE.

P.S. Note: The young (pride-filled) wife says “I would never cheat on my husband.” Then, 3 months later, she’s caught in bed with the milkman. The razor sharp psychologist says “It’s low self-esteem.” And we all shake our heads, not at the chick, at the psychologists…
Paul’s explanation makes more sense: “death pass through onto all mankind… and death is operating in you…” We’re all mortal and we can’t think clearly.
But one day… “this mortal shall put on immortality” …then we can re-write the rules of understanding.
No wonder GRACE is the favor of God shown to those who deserve the opposite. Ain’t the cross of Christ sum’em?

FALSE EXPRESSIONS VS FAITHFUL SAYINGS. BEWARE OF SHIBBOLETHS

The other day Martin spoke about “the hypocrisy of false expressions” — a warning given us by Paul.

What a lovely topic; false expressions.

The “christian” church is full of them.
And often, they’re not just “false expressions” but they’re also “shibboleths.”
Never heard that word? It doesn’t get around much. But it’s an old Jewish word that means ‘If you don’t use the same language we use, we knows you ain’t one of us… you must be from da enemy camp.’

The trinity doctrine is stuffed full of FALSE EXPRESSIONS.
“God the Son”
“Three in one”
“Triune”
etc., etc., etc.
False expressions not found in the scriptures, but INFERRED to be there. Inference, not clear statements.

Trinitarians will even try to press you into a corner by getting up in your face and asking “Is Jesus God?” — It’s a shibboleth, don’t fall for it. A false expression. But they think it’s a wildly important shibboleth and boy, you better answer the right way… or YOU’RE IN ERROR — PROBABLY GOING TO H. E. DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS.

I personally have found it very helpful to get rid of the “false expressions” (inferences) we were taught in “christianity” and just stick to sayings you can actually FIND — not infer — but FIND in the scripture.

If you INFER this or that, you’re setting yourself up for twouble.

The whole “christian” concept of endless hell is made up largely of inferences. For example: Gehenna (the garbage dump-compost pile outside of Jerusalem, constantly lit on fire to keep the smell down and shrink the pile) is inferred to be the same thing as the lake of fire, which is said to be “the second death” which is inferred to be an ocean of fire, and “eternal” in scope and a whole lotta things — on and on.

It’s not easy to come out of “christianity” into the evangel of grace. You can’t just learn about the evangel of our salvation, you actually must UNlearn a ton of deep bullshit.

It takes a while to unlearn all that stuff.

What about the lake of fire?
What about the sheep and the goats?
What about the rich man and Lazarus?
What about wide is the gate and narrow is the way?
What about the unforgivable sin?

The list goes on and on… it’s a wonder any “universalist” brother can get any sleep at all. ‘Cause all these limitarians keep playing biblical WHACK-A-MOLE.

I believe it took me about 5 years to shake off my evangelical-fundamentalist “christian” training — and believe the truth without second guessing the message.

“God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them.” — Wow… how wonderful to read that, and not discount it with preconceived notions of endless hell.

Now — beyond shibboleths, and false expressions — we have “faithful sayings.”

Like the faithful saying Paul gave us in I TIM 4:9-11: “God is the savior of all.”
And the faithful saying Paul gave us in I TIM 1:15: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

You don’t hear those two sayings much in “christian” churches.

And get this — Paul must have said “GRACE TO YOU” a dozen times in his 13 letters to the pagan brothers… so it must be a “faithful” saying. Yet we never hear this type of greeting in “christian” churches. But you’ll hear all kinds of “false expressions.”

Here’s one: “Spiritual death.” No such term in the Bible. But they love to toss that one around as if it has great meaning. It means nothing. It’s a totally made up term. Some 800,000 words in the Bible and no such phrase as “spiritual death.” Ain’t that a hoot?

If you’re new to Martin’s channel… or new to the evangel of our salvation, I feel for ya. You’ve probably got a lot of “What abouts?” that you’re asking.

Step one: when you spot a false expression … an expression that might be INFERRED in the Bible… but it’s not clearly taught… relax. Let it go… it might be just wrong thinking about that topic.
Step two: Embrace the FAITHFUL SAYINGS that you really can find in the scriptures. Not the inferred “false expressions” but the FAITHFUL SAYINGS…
Like:
God is the savior of all. (I Tim 4:10)
Christ came into the world to save. (I Tim 1:15)
God was in Christ. ( 2 Cor 5:19)
Abraham believes God. (Rom 4:3)

Hypocritical false expressions are designed to puff you up with self-righteous pride. And you actually feel dirty inside.

(Have you ever noticed how “critical” hypocritical folks are? Boy they can criticize. And it ain’t pretty.)

But faithful sayings will make you say “Wow, how beautiful.” And you’ll honor God and grasp His purpose. And you might even love your neighbor. How’s that for twicky?

Thank God for the evangel of grace delivered by Paul. And thank God Martin Zender took up with Paul to carry on the work. (Thanks brother.)

Watch out of “false expressions” especially when they turn into shibboleths. If you don’t use the right lingo, you’re about to get the right foot of fellowship.

Grace to you. All of you.
Jones.

OMG – AM I REALLY SAVED?

I suspect “christians” who
worry about their salvation…
worry about their “eternal destiny”…
worry about their place “in Christ”…
would do well to study the matter of Christ’s relationship to God.
For, after all…
Christ is the firstborn of all creation (COL 1:15)
And, we are created “in Him.” (COL 1:16)
So it would make sense that what ever happens to Him (Christ, our elder brother) would also happen to us.

Now we get to ask — what IS the relationship of Christ to the Father?

Well, one verse calls Christ “the son of His love.”
Is there anything, anything at all, more heartfelt than that? Anything?

Another verse says Christ’s prayer to God ended with the words “Not my will, but thine be done.”
Doesn’t sound like the words of a bad son. Sounds like a good son, if you ask me.

Imagine the tug of war between Christ’s love of His Father and Christ’s love for us. Such a delicate balancing act. It drove Christ to the cross. There he met his death. And death separated the two for three days. Oh my.

I’m sure, God did not like it one bit.

But something happened. It was complicated. We could only hear whispers through a closed door. It sounded positive. But we couldn’t be sure.

But wait. The stone rolled away.

He appeared. Flesh and bone.

God raised Christ. This changes everything.
—————————————————
PROOF FOR THE INQUIRING MIND:
COLOSSIANS ONE:
13 Who rescues us out of the jurisdiction of Darkness, and transports us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,14 in Whom we are having the deliverance, the pardon of sins,15 Who is the Image of the invisible God, Firstborn of every creature,16 for in Him is all created, that in the heavens and that on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or sovereignties, or authorities, all is created through Him and for Him,17 and He is before all, and all has its cohesion in Him.18 And He is the Head of the body, the ecclesia, Who is Sovereign, Firstborn from among the dead, that in all He may be becoming first,19 for in Him the entire complement delights to dwell,20 and through Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace through the blood of His cross), through Him, whether those on the earth or those in the heavens.

PUMMELED BY PREPOSITIONS…

The freewill chick tried to tell me that not all are IN CHRIST… so I quoted Colossians 1:16 to her. She blew it off by saying “Oh no, it’s not all are created IN Christ, it’s all are created BY Christ!!!”.
I didn’t know how to respond… as she uses the King James bible… which does say BY… but I use the Concordant Literal which says IN.
BEHOLD… I PULL A RABBIT OUT OF MY HAT…
Look how many prepositions Paul uses in Colossians 1:15-20… he is just PUMMELING us with prepositions: IN, BY, THROUGH, OVER, OF, FOR, BEFORE, — It’s like Paul knew the freewill chick was hanging out there in bushes, ready to attack.. so Paul gave us enough ammo to deal with it.

COLOSSIANS ONE:
13 Who rescues us out of the jurisdiction of Darkness, and transports us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in Whom we are having the deliverance, the pardon of sins,
15 Who is the Image of the invisible God, Firstborn of every creature,
16 for IN Him is all created, that in the heavens and that on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or sovereignties, or authorities, all is created THROUGH Him and FOR Him,
17 and He is BEFORE all, and all has its cohesion IN Him.
18 And He is the Head of the body, the ecclesia, Who is Sovereign, Firstborn from among the dead, that IN all He may be becoming first,
19 for IN Him the entire complement delights to dwell,
20 and THROUGH Him to reconcile all to Him (making peace THOUGH the blood of His cross), THROUGH Him, whether those ON the earth or those IN the heavens.

THE FREEWILL CHICK TRIED TO PULL A FAST ONE ON ME.

She tried to use that verse in Matthew about “this is EONIAN LIFE, to know God.” as an argument that EON and ETERNAL could be the same… leading to her argument that God saves only some and the rest suffer ETERNAL punishment of some sort.

She’s twicky.

MY REPLY:

Subject? Noun? Verb? Adverb? Predicate? Nominative?
There are rules for grammar that don’t start with your theological perspective.
In this case LIFE is the noun. Thus:
It is LIFE to know God.
What kind of adjective would be appended to LIFE??
Well, from the structure of the sentence, one would assume that the word LIFE would give color to the adjective… perhaps:
It is BLESSED life to know God.
It is HAPPY life to know God.
It is WONDERFUL life to know God.
It is SWEETEST life to know God.
It is FASCINATING life to know God.
It is ETERNAL life to know God.
My point is… the strength and power of the sentence rest on IT IS LIFE TO KNOW GOD, it’s not death to know God.
Eonian life.
You’re making a to do over adjectives. I’m incline to think nouns carry the weight.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”– a normal person would see that bread would carry the weight of this sentence. Not “daily”. Although “daily bread” is important… it’s the bread that concerns us most.
Just because a “day” is 24 hours long, does not mean the bread disappears in 24 hours.
DAILY bread is the BREAD that supplies the cares of the day.

Eonian life… is life sufficient for the eons. It is to know God. This does not suggest that LIFE ends when the eons end. Just like BREAD doesn’t end when the day ends.
IT IS LIFE TO KNOW GOD. EONIAN LIFE. BUT LIFE NON-THE-LESS.
You can relax now… trust in the living God, who is the savior of all (I TIM 4:10)… He is the one who suffices. He is all, for us, bread and life. Daily and eonian. As Paul says: “He gives life and breath and all to all.” (Acts 17:25)

POST SCRIPT: Here is a link to everything you might want to know about the word EON in the Bible. https://acetheologicalco.wordpress.com/2020/11/27/the-eons-of-the-bible-by-joseph-e-kirk/

NOTES I wrote to the Freewill Chick:

Christ died for all. We were saved before we sinned. Before we believed. Before we were born. As one verse says “from the foundation of the world – the lamb slain.
“Calling what is not apparent as if it were” says Paul.
God gave me the faith to believe these matters long after the matters were established fact.
He was raised because of our Justification, says Paul.
By turning “belief” into the last work you must do… to make salvation real, you turn grace into work.
The reason no one believes GRACE (God showing favor to someone who deserves the opposite) is that if God saves one stinking sinner who does not deserve it, then, since God is no respecter of persons, God must save all… or God is showing favoritism based on something… but based on what?
The calvanists can’t deal with this. The freewillers can’t either.
There is a Baptist who once said… “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
You works guys, don’t behold the lamb of God, you behold your contribution… to the scheme. You insist Christ work on the cross is lacking. Scandalous.
You insist the only way to complete the incomplete work of God (on the cross of Christ) is get with the program. Or there’s hell to pay.
Behold the Lamb of God.

I have searched the scriptures as much if not more than most folks. And I can tell you… Believing is vital for eonian life. But eonian life is just one of the things purchased on the cross.
Another thing that was purchased on the cross is “life’s justifying”. See Romans 5:18-19.
Remember, He gives life, and breath and all to all. (Acts 17:25) He doesn’t give eonian life to all, but he does give life to all. And life is not death. Death is destined to be abolished. (See I Cor 15:25) And when death is abolished, all will be vivified in Christ-another thing purchased on the cross.
Behold the Lamb of God. (shhh, don’t tell no one, but He takes away the sin of the world.)

IF A CHURCH calls itself THE GRACE CHURCH but they actually teach works… does the sign out front really mean anything?
Would anyone accuse you of teaching grace?
Has anyone ever accused you of teaching grace?
What would have to change for someone to accuse you of teaching grace?

THE FREEWILL CHICK SAID: Show me where it says every person will be vivified in Christ?

YOU SAID:
Can you please send me the verses that clearly say every person that ever existed will be vivified in Christ after death is abolished?
BEHOLD:
20 (Yet now Christ has been roused from among the dead, the Firstfruit of those who are reposing.
21 For since, in fact, through a man came death, through a Man, also, comes the resurrection of the dead.
22 For even as, in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall all be vivified.
23 Yet each in his own class: the Firstfruit, Christ; thereupon those who are Christ’s in His presence;
24 thereafter the consummation, whenever He may be giving up the kingdom to His God and Father, whenever He should be nullifying all sovereignty and all authority and power.
25 For He must be reigning until He should be placing all His enemies under His feet.
26 The last enemy is being abolished: death.
27 For He subjects all under His feet. Now whenever He may be saying that all is subject, it is evident that it is outside of Him Who subjects all to Him.
28 Now, whenever all may be subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also shall be subjected to Him Who subjects all to Him, that God may be All in all.)

PLEASE NOTE:
This “lake of fire” business is no where to be found in the evangel of grace delivered to us by our apostle, Paul.
The “lake of fire” is only mentioned in John’s book of Revelation. Part of the circumcision writings.
Paul warns in Galatians about those who would mix the circumcision message with that of the uncircumcision.
“Rightly dividing” where this “lake of fire” falls into line (on a time-line of events) seems to be a problem for you. It’s not a problem for me, as I ignore altogether. John’s writings are for, about and concerning the Jews. Paul’s writings are for us gentiles. Important.
And besides… it is a LAKE of fire, not an OCEAN of fire. A much smaller matter than you’re letting on.
The LARGER matter is this: Romans 4:6… Christ was roused from among the dead through the glory of the Father —
This changes everything.

WHY EVERYONE NEEDS THEIR OWN PERSONAL “FREEWILL CHICK”.

There’s something about LOVE being joined at the hip with ANNOYANCE and FRUSTRATION.

You cannot LOVE someone without ANNOYING THEM.
The father loved that prodigal son… ‘cause he ran off and spent the family fortune… TOTALLY ANNOYING.
If you remember that old TV show (The Andy Griffith Show) with Sheriff Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife. — Well… Barney was a TOTALY SCREW UP on the show, always causing everyone trouble… he was a gossip, a busybody, weak-minded, a total drama queen, even though he was a man.
Don Knotts played the character Barney Fife perfectly.
Well, Mr. Knotts quit the show after 4 or 5 years because he was told that this was the final season. He quickly picked up a few contracts to make movies…so when the producers of The Andy Griffith show changed their mind and continue the series… they had to do it without the Barney Fife character.
Lo and behold… the ratings went to hell.
Turns out everyone tuned in to see what crazy crap Barney was going to get into next.
Deputy Barney was the character EVERYONE LOVED TO HATE.

We need annoying people in our lives. We love to be annoyed.
If the annoying one walks away… we chase them down the street.

Maybe that’s why God loves us — cause we annoy Him.
He certainly annoys us.

My Freewill Chick annoys me. She’s got the theology of a 12-year old. It always starts with I, I, I, — it’s all about her. And her freewill.

God locks up all together in stubbornness. (Romans 11:32)
God is certainly stubborn. I guess we’re like him.

Hopefully, I’ve annoyed you all, today.
Grace to you. All of you.

HANNA ASKED:

Sorry, but who is this freewill chick if i may ask. It’s really weird to see you talk to someone evedy day that’s not even here, I assume.

MY REPLY:

Hanna, the Freewill Chick is your typical evangelical — making the argument that no one was saved by Christ’s work on the cross… but you “must believe”… and it is your “belief” that saves you. As I see it, she does not believe God, she believes in her belief.
She has an endless supply of bible verses that demand you must do thus and so to be saved. As I see it, God is the savior. Not man and man’s freewill.
Here on Martin’s channel, we (generally) have two filters by which to understand God’s purpose.

1. The bible must be translated CONCORDANTLY. In other words, each word must be translated in a none-confusing way. For example: HELL could represent 3 different Greek New Testament words- Not good. And the Greek word AION could be represented by “eternal”, “age” or a number of other words. Not good. So if you use the Concordant Literal New Testament… you’re ahead of the game.
2. It also helps to filter the messages through the lens of Paul vs. the other bible writers. Paul is the gentiles apostle.
   The Freewill Chick, does not use these filters. So she can be slippery and hard to pin down on meaning and understanding.
   If you don’t have any filters, you can use the Bible like a magic ouija board. And create any ole crap you want. And it looks real. But it’s not.
   Does that answer your questions?

THE SALVATION OF ALL IS MERELY A CONTINUATION OF THE CREATION OF ALL.

Every “creative” person (artists, writers, cooks, landscape designers, etc.) knows that “creative” is a process, not a ONE-TIME event, then it’s done. Lots of tweaking, editing, reworking, to be done.

God has begun creation (in Christ). And it’s clearly a HUGE process. A HUGE deal. But creation is not finished. Not yet.

Creation will not be complete until I Corinthians 15:28. (When God is all in all.)

Most “christian” thinking has it that God is done with His creative effort. God can do nothing more. And now man must choose between right or wrong… heaven or hell.
The pinnacle of this type of half-baked idea has to do with man’s supposed “freewill”. You see, man is so complete with a pristine “freewill” that man is perfectly capable of making the right choice concerning his eternal destiny.
Make the right choice: Man goes to heaven.
Make the wrong choice: Man goes to endless hell.
After all “The sinner can only blame himself if he goes to hell — because God did all He could do (or will do).

— under such thinking… man being created perfectly and all… if the sinner can only blame himself for going to hell, then the “christian” can only praise himself for going to heaven. Is there any “glory” left over for God? Hardly.

But I’m suggesting that God is not that reckless.

Creation has begun. But it is by no means complete. Not finished at all.

The Creator of all, is also the Savior of all.

These two thoughts are inexorably linked.

If God is NOT the savior of all, then neither is He the creator of all.

Christ is the firstborn of creation. (See Colossians 1:15)
Christ is God’s creative original. (See Revelation 3:14)

Everything else was created in Christ. (See Colossians 1:16)
Everything is held together by Christ. (See Colossians 1:17)

Every creative person (artist, writer, cook, etc.) wants to be acknowledged for their work — their creative ability.

The artist wants compliments.
The writer wants compliments.
The cook wants compliments.

Christ – the ultimate creative being, did a work on the cross. His greatest work.

Most don’t see it yet. Still some “tweaking” to do.
But all will see it.
Not even His disciples saw it as His greatest achievement — not till Paul came along and pulled back the curtain.

The first one to see what an achievement this was — was God, the Father.

ROMANS 6:4:
… Christ was roused from among the dead through the glory of the Father,

The word GLORY has a lot to do with a HIGH OPINION.

One dictionary defines it: high renown or high honor won by notable achievements.

So… Christ was roused from the dead — by the high honor of the Father?

Why did the Father HONOR Christ’s death so?
Because the Father could see exactly what Christ was doing. The direction he was going. The result it would achieve.

The creator of all, would become the savior of all. Glory indeed.

Modern “christians” generally don’t see or honor Christ’s achievement on the cross. At best they say that salvation is now “offered” to the sinner. Not that the sinner is saved.

Why would the Father “honor” Christ’s work on the cross if it merely “offered” salvation and not actually saved?

Dare we suggest that if Christ achievement on the cross was so lacking, God would have left him in the ground.

But no… His achievement was GREAT. God’s honor was bestowed on the Son of His love. He was roused from among the dead through the glory of the Father. Oh my.

Creation has begun. This we can see.
But there’s lot’s to be done:
The grapes need to be crushed.
The wheat needs to be ground to powder.
The dough needs to be kneaded just right.
The oven needs to be turned on high.
The loaf must be baked – it’s hot in there.

Creation has begun. The potter is using clay… making vessels — some for honor, some for dishonor (See Romans 9).

But the creative effort is not done yet. Hang on. There is still two eons of time left to go. (The *“eons of the eons.”)
Save your complaining for the end. We’re sure complaints will be replace with awe — when it’s all done.

The creator of all, is also the savior of all.
Creation is His choice. Salvation is also His choice.
Thank God.

We want our focus to be on God and His Christ.
Our own personal input or contribution can mean little, really.
“God was in Christ” says one verse. (II Cor. 5:19)
The vision before us could be grand, with the faith to see.
What did the Father see in the death of Christ?
It was something so great, that HIGH ESTEEM was given to Him. And He was roused from the dead wrapped in that HIGH ESTEEM. — “GLORY”.

If Christ was an “offering” — it was an “offering” to God, not to man. To God.

Did God accept this offering. Most certainly so.
We know God accepted it because — the resurrection.
No “offering” was made to man — we’re not God.
Christ is not “offered” to the sinner.
But… and get this…
Christ’s offering to God SAVES the sinner.
Christ’s offering to God purchases the sinner.
The glory of the Father brought Christ up from the grave.
Salvation is a big part of creation. The two are inseparable.

Let us hold the work of God in the cross of Christ in high esteem as well.

The cross is stupidity to most. But God sees the big picture. The final outcome.
———————

(*The eons of the eons–Gal. 1:5; Phil. 4:20; 1 Tim. 1:17; 2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 13:21; 1 Pet. 4:11; 1 Pet. 5:11; Rev. 1:6; Rev. 4:9,10; Rev. 5:13-14; Rev. 7:12; Rev. 10:6; Rev. 11:15; Rev. 14:11; Rev. 15:7; Rev. 19:3; Rev. 20:10; Rev. 22:5 (for ever and ever); Rev. 1:18 (for evermore). A comparison of Rev. 11:14-15 with 1 Cor. 15:27-28 makes it clear that the expression “the eons of the eons” does not mean an endless succession of eons. Christ reigns for “the eons of the eons,” after which He delivers up the kingdom to the Father and Himself becomes subject, that God may be All in all.)