By God’s design, for those called according to His purpose, subjection unto vanity is our place of strength because it becomes a place of weakness for us. It is in this place of weakness that we seek out God and in faith we find Him. It is only through faith that we find Him and experience Him. God has given each of us a measure of faith for this purpose. Though there is suffering in this place of bondage, it is through this suffering that we learn obedience to His will. Jesus “learned obedience through the things that he suffered”; so it was with Christ, so it is with us, for the servant is not greater than the Master. Obedience can only be learned when there is presentation of something to be obedient to. Jesus learned obedience to the will of the Father because he was presented with God’s will in contrast to that which was presented by the ‘adversary’ who is not mindful of the things of God but rather the things of man. Part of our ‘suffering’ is when we are called to be transformed into His image, which is God’s will, and we are presented with an alternative which exploits the bondage of our flesh. Again, the premise is that this subjection unto bondage was by design in order to bring about God’s plan to create man in His image. Perhaps this then raises the question; are we then to sin that grace may abound? As the writer declares “God forbid!” Why, because we will suffer in eternal torment? No, but rather it is ‘not convenient’ for us to do so. Why is it not convenient? It’s quite simple; it merely deters us from a greater manifestation of the glory that resides within us; we are called “overcomers” for a reason (Revelations 2:17). “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18). This glory is already hidden in us. This glory is the glory of God, the image of His son. We received it through faith and the impartation of the incorruptible seed, not through the keeping of the law. The law only pointed out our need for the Seed and our means by which we are able to receive it, His sacrifice. Upon hearing it we believed and by this we became the righteousness of God in Christ. (Yet help me in my unbelief!) So my spirit (as well as all creation) has been subjected unto the bondage. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). God’s purpose is to make man in His image. Everything in life is working towards that end. Everything in your life is working towards that end. Imagine if we only knew (believed) who we are (sons of God) how different we would approach life. We would have no fear, knowing (believing) the love of God for us, in and through Christ, demonstrated to us through the Father’s will by the manifestation of Christ in the earth and his victory over his own bondage of the flesh. We would accept this gift gleefully, joyously, and triumphantly harnessing the great potential within us. Yet in this process, He is to have preeminence, He is the Author and Finisher, apart from Him we can do nothing. For this reason we have this treasure in earthen vessels. He has designed a plan by which we are partakers of His divine nature. We share in His glory. Our glory is as fading grass, His is eternal. He has designed it in a manner by which we must accept His sacrifice, through faith, for our own inability to keep the righteousness that is in the law. This process is the means by which we (our spirits) have an independency from the Creator but yet are dependent upon Him, thus allowing Him to have family; beings of Himself yet not replications of Himself. The question is will we deny Christ (Matthew 10:33)? Often we are given the example of a dystopian time when believers will be on their knees before an executioner asking if they believe in Christ as an example of this scripture’s meaning. Perhaps it suggests the inward struggle that we have in our manifestation. Will we deny or refuse to allow the manifestation of Christ in us before men? If so, Christ will deny us before the Father. Not as some penalty for our lack of faith but rather a result of the impossibility for us, apart from our participation in the Divine Nature which is Christ, to be before the Father. However, if we do not deny Him before men but rather manifest His nature, we will bring to pass the will of the Father on the earth, our being made in His image. We are to be transformed from glory unto glory, into the same image that we behold (2 Corinthians 3:18). Will we deny the manifestation of Christ in the earth through us? It is all just inevitable. God spoke from the beginning that all was to come to pass on earth as it is already done in heaven. We are called to be witnesses and conscious participants in that process. Our subjection unto bondage is part of that process or it would be happening in a different manner. Perhaps this journey might seem unorthodox and different from what you’ve been taught before. We need to allow God to teach us inwardly. We too often rely on other people’s experience of God to shape our personal relationship with Him when he tells us specifically that we will no longer be taught by our neighbor but rather the Holy Spirit would teach us. The Lord God would write His laws on our hearts. (Jeremiah 31:33-34) The Spirit would lead us into all truth. (John 16:13). He is the Way, the Life and the Truth. There is no other way, except through the manifestation of Christ’s nature in us, by which we will be delivered from the bondage of this body of death, our flesh.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 14:18:10 +0000
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