The Aramaic Bible Web Log is a forum for discussing the origins of the Bible and the value of translating the Scriptures from the Ancient Aramaic Texts of the Ancient Church of the East directly into English. I believe that the Ancient Aramaic language is the true scribal language of Scriptures. My translations are posted at http://www.v-a.com/bible/. If you send me appropriate questions or comments, I will post them on this Web Log and attempt to answer or respond to them as best as I can. I will only post what I consider proper. I will not include e-mail addresses, but only your name as you wish it to appear on this blog. Click here to submit your questions or comments via e-mail. Or you may use the FORM MAIL at the bottom of this blog.
Acceptable, Accepted, Accepting.
Comprehend your triple “A” rating with God.
1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,* by the mercies of God, that you submit your bodies a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice to God, through wholesome ministry.
2. And do not resemble this world,* except become transformed through the renewal of your vision, and be discerning as to what is good, acceptable and mature according to God's will.
3. I say then through the blessings that are given me for all of you, do not look for anything outside of what you are supposed to look for, except look inside yourselves, every human being according to the measure of faith that which God doled out to them.
4. For just as in one body we have many members, and all members do not have one function,
5. Thus we also who are many, are one body in Christ, each one of us then are members of each other.
*12:1 Lit. Ar. id. construction: "Want or pray I thus from you, my brothers..."
*12:2 Lit. Ar. id. expression retained: "These people here."
This is one of those fascinating Pauline scriptures which are so redolent of the savour of the Saviour, that is as if Jesus Himself were speaking the words, which is of course so. It is a great example of what he is talking about and so it reinforces itself. It is also a scripture whereby the order of the words can be changed around but the meaning remains essentially the same, while showing differing facets of meaning. It is like looking at a beautifully cut diamond of Ideal proportions. If it is viewed from differing aspects, the diamond does not change but the light dispersed by it does, however, if we look at a diamond upside down, the essential effectiveness of it is lost as it is only designed to be viewed the right way up.
In my meditations upon my own life’s experiences and circumstances, and those of others, it has become an inescapable conclusion that most, if not all Christian and human failings come from a distorted perception of reality engendered by a failure to comprehend our acceptability in Christ by God and by God in Christ, and that this has been perpetrated by the workings of systemic religion in its capacity to bind those who seek the truth that has for so long been obscured by the lie of dead works. The reason why this dysfunctional dichotomy of sweet and sour has been enabled is because Man does not want to submit to the Lordship of Jesus, but rather is content to manifest a form of Godliness which denies the power thereof, or to submit to a religion of rules and regulations – touch not, taste not – which have a show of humility.
20. If you are dead to the principles of the world, together with Christ, why are you, since you live like Him, judge everybody according to the world?
21. Do not go near this, do not taste that and do not hold on to the other,
22. These that are recommendations that come to nothing,* and that are commandments and the learning of humanity.
23. And they appear to possess the manifestation of wisdom, a gentle outlook and submission to God, and they do not relate to the body or any form of reverence, except to what appears appropriate in the flesh.*
*2:22 Lit. Ar. idiomatic expression: "The worth that spoils."
*2:23 A reference to the appeal of ritual.
I recently attended the funeral of a pastor whose church I went to many years ago. He had been poorly for some time and had suffered from a horrible necrotising of half of his face which resulted in him eventually dying. A few days prior to, and on the night that he died, I had a vivid dream in which I saw him restored to his prime and completely healed (he was 81yrs old). The thing which struck me about his appearance was that he did not look happy or joyful, but rather like someone who had just found out that most of what he had believed and taught had been wrong – which is what I was told was the case when I asked the Holy Spirit why it was that he appeared that way. I was fully aware in the dream state that he was in fact with the Lord just as I was aware of a distinct absence of any joy, yet the set of his jaw was as of one who had been corrected – “And the sons of the kingdom shall go out looking at darkness, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
(Do not be fooled by the cherubic external countenance nor the pearly gloss of a smile – anyone who has had experience of a “good” salesmen who can put on a smiley face knows that we humans can have another face of stubborn obduracy which hides beneath the external smiley visage which we have cultivated and which we present to the world. This is the comedy/tragedy “two-face” of the leavening of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. If you have a W E Vines – look up hypocrisy.)
The next morning, I got given a revelation that the only thing that we take with us is the faith, hope and love – the gold, silver and precious stones that is built upon the foundation of Christ, and that the knowledge that we possess down here is for here. Knowledge will pass, prophecy will be fulfilled, but faith hope and love abide forever – these are the eternal values. I do not have time to explain it here, but the Seven Spirits of God (for-as-much as I have been given to understand) are – Father, Son, Spirit, Faith Hope, Love and God. God – the Ancient of Days, is the centrality of His own being, and the other six facets are His character attributes and enabling. Think of it in this way – you have a body, a mind, a spirit, as well as the faculties or gifts of faith hope and love and you are created in the image and likeness of God – but who are you – who is the real you? Are you the sum of the parts, or are you the possessor of the same? It is “your” body, “your” mind, “your” spirit – it is “your” faith, “your” hope and “your love”, but who indeed are you? Only God can and ought answer this question to you as to who the hidden man of the heart really is and just who the real you is. In beginning to grasp the centrality of your very own being, you take the first steps to becoming truly mature and One with God in the Spirit. Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one.
Paul understood this, as have many others, but the truth is so mind-numbing and system shattering that when it begins to dawn, the light is so intense that most will run back to the darkness of the Law. The awesomeness of God and of our Oneness with Him is death to the life of the flesh and it will resist at every turn to keep you looking at the backside of the diamond, lest you see the light and be healed and released. Oddly enough, the devil knows and that is why he is able to sell his spin on the truth to the New Agers and to get them grasping covetously at their God-likeness and to keep the “believers” from grasping (apprehending) the Truth.
Back to Romans 12, Paul is beseeching his brethren by the mercies of God, to submit themselves. This could also be read that the submission is by the mercies of God, and both are equally true. Where the real catch is and where many have gotten this upside down, and so have been brought into bondage to dead works, is that if you do not understand that your bodies are a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice to God, and that He has already accepted us in the beloved, and that Jesus is able to present us as being spotless before the Father. If you do not understand this, then you will keep trying to do something to please God which you are neither designed nor equipped for. Jesus was and is the One Sacifice for sin, and we are acceptable to God thereby. For in Christ – all died! Not some, not a chosen few, but ALL, and all Mankind was reconciled to God who is not imputing their sins to them. Now, before you spit the dummy and start talking about judgment and damnation, I will get to that, but you are not even remotely equipped to understand such issues without first getting the foundation set in your heart and having some of the absolutes of God worked out.
We may only truly submit our bodies as an act of faith (as opposed to dead works) if we in fact comprehend that we are already acceptable to God in Christ. Any attempt to please God by sacrificing yourself is a denial of the finished work of the tree of Calvary. You were and already are sacrificed in Christ, you died together with Him, and in realising this, you may come into alignment with the Truth and be set free from bondage to dead works of trying to please God by your sacrifices! He does not want your sacrifices, He wants your obedience and that you be transformed by the renewal of your vision – so that you become conformed to the image (hope) of Christ and cease from conformity to this world.
Why is it that so many Christians and their institutions look like the world when we are enjoined to be in the world but not of it? It is because they are conformed to its image, and the life of God which is in them manifests as death as God answers them according to the idols of their hearts. Get it? If God does not give us the image to apply our God given faith faculty to, we will take another image and apply our faith to it – but it is an image of death and therefore only death can result. If that part of us which needs to be occupied by and for God in order for us to rightly discern what is the will of God is in fact given over to an idol, then until the idol is revealed for what is and cast down by us in concert with Christ, it will remain and be manifest in our lives, and there is no respect of persons with God.
Learning to discern what the will of God is and so avoiding this death dealing idolatry comes as a result of a process.
That by the mercies of God and through wholesome ministry (sound doctrine, teaching and guidance) that you comprehend your acceptability to God and so yield yourself to His service that you yourself may impart the same Truth to others, through wholesome ministry, and this in the knowledge and assurance that God has not only accepted you but that He has called you to carry this message of acceptance and reconciliation to the world, so that the end of all this vanity which many call life, but which is in fact death, may come.
That through this freeing you will recognize the trap of conformity to the world and will fix your gaze upon Him, Christ, the Hope of your salvation, and to be freed from the Law of Sin and Death which was given for transgressions and to imprison the whole world in its own disobedience that God may have mercy on everyone.
That you may realize that the blessing which God has given to you are for service to others, and thereby serving Him – for as surely as you have done it to the least, you have done it to Him – and that He alone is to be your source, provider and provision, so that we may cease from any semblance of covetousness toward others and by extension, God Himself.
That we all of us have One Hope of our calling, that we may realise and actualise the part which we have to play in the Body of Christ, which is our reasonable service to God and to His creation.
I encourage you to meditate on this scripture and to seek God if you feel that you have been misled into trying to sacrifice your life. There is much to say of the other scriptures which seem to support this false doctrine of dead works, but suffice it to simply say that the reason why they appear that way is that we do not have our foundational basics worked out, that we are already accepted in Christ, and that by the One Sacrifice, all may be made One. It is only by conformity to His image, and through obedience to His calling and election, that we will walk in the power of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.
I was thinking this morning about how tender young souls get to church and hear the beauty of the gospel and behold their redemption and redeemer, and then promptly get proselytised and burdened by a bunch of rules and regulations, and then go about working to infect others with their own yeasty “Trojan”. Just as children are hamstrung by their parents during their formative years, so too spiritual children are hobbled by conformity to regulations which cause them to live dysfunctional lives of burdened conditionality masquerading as Christianity, and we may indeed do this our whole life only to find that the eternal values of faith hope and love have been swept aside by a zeal for dead works and vain attempts at trying to please God.
It is said that without faith it is impossible to please God – but if you truly understood what pleased God, then you would not allow such kingdom denying burdens to be put on you. What pleases God is for us to comprehend His Goodness and for this to worked out in and of us, for His fulfillment in our lives and of our lives in Him. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am fulfilled.” God is pleased alone by being fulfilled in you and to overflow to touch the lives of others and is satisfied already by One Sacrifice and has One High Priest - Jesus. When you realize that you are (to be) a functioning member of the One, then you will stop trying to please God and let Him be pleased in you! Get it?
Once we really start to get this, we will begin to see the extent to which we tend to judge others and hold them through unforgiveness and false accountability and responsibility to their own actions, instead of releasing them and ourselves from the bondage of judgment. And we will also be freed from the curse of churchianity – which is COVETOUSNESS, which is as the sin of idolatry. If we do not awake to righteousness then we may well die in our sins and suffer judgment and loss, but if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us! If we persist in judgment, or to the extent that we do, we judge ourselves and we will suffer the consequences thereof, yet ourselves will be saved so as through fire, for our God is an all consuming Light.
Amen, Ian.
posted at: 21:21 | path: | permanent link to this entry
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