Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you have named your sins privately to God the
Father.
If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [Known, Unknown and Forgotten sins] (1Jn 1:9)
You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with God the
Holy Spirit and ready to learn Truth from the Word of God.
God
is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth. (Joh 4:24)
VICTORIOUS
PROCLAMATION
THE ANGELIC CONFLICT
Undoubtedly the
most startling event ever to be observed in the angelic realm was the creation
of man. Here was an inferior form of creation who, unlike angels, could not
travel through space, who was limited in power and vision and who was confined
to one small planet, yet this creature was made in
the image and likeness of God! (Gen 1:27)
Soul, body and spirit; God the Father is the soul,
God the Son is the body, God the Holy Spirit, is the spirit; and They are one
in Nature; and after we are born into God's family by faith in Christ; (Gal 3:26) we start to learn and
share His Thoughts and Nature; 1Co 2:16;
2Pe 1:4; and
are part of His body; (Rom 12:5) and will become One in body, soul (Thought) and spirit thru God the
Holy Spirit; Joh 17:11; with One ruler; (One Brain, One
Spirit and One body; Eph 1:22) The angels saw immediately that mankind possessed some
characteristics in common with them; the most important one; volition, the
power to choose for or against God!
The entire
angelic creation had previously made their choice, as revealed by the two
opposing categories of these super-creatures: elect and fallen. (Mar 5:1-20; Mar
8:38) When Satan exercised his volition and decided against God, (Isa 14:12-15; Eze
28:15-16) he drew one-third of the angels with him. (Rev 12:4) For perhaps
many untold years, before the advent of man, has the conflict raged between
those angels who followed Satan and those who
chose for God.
From the fact
that the sentencing of Satan and his angels to the Lake of Fire, (Mat 25:41) is not to be carried out until the
end of time, (Rev 20:10) we can arrive
at two conclusions. First, Satan must have appealed
his sentence, and second, man was created by
God to resolve this dispute which occurred at the termination of the trial. God the Father is the judge, Jesus Christ is the
Advocate, or attorney. The titles “Satan”
and “devil,” which mean “adversary, accuser, prosecutor; and
humans are the witnesses. Based on the above
passages, his arguments can be quite easily deduced: “Is freewill truly free;
if we have to obey God?” “How can a loving God cast His creatures into the Lake
of Fire?” These objections were in effect, an
appeal that demanded a new trial.
The answer to Satan’s protest is given in man’s freewill;
as it relates to God’s fallen angels that had been given an opportunity under
grace to take a plea bargain. (Salvation) And in a similar way we
chose take the deal and stand in the perfect righteousness of Christ our
lawyer; (Joh
3:18) or we can stand on our own
righteousness, (Rom 3:10) and represent ourselves. Rev
20:12-13) Angels that are now called demons
rejected grace; and chose to take it to trail. Now, while they were crying “Not fair!” God created man in order to demonstrate to them that His
position in grace was just and that, in fact, love can express itself only
through justice. God cannot change His character to accommodate any creature,
whether angel or man. God loved the demons, but God cannot love in a way
that is inconsistent with the other attributes of His character. Therefore,
when Satan went negative, God had to make a decision which was compatible with
His righteousness and justice, as well as with His love. So God created man to demonstrate that His Thoughts and
Integrity are perfect — bring many son's to Himself — give man the chance to be born into
God's family —
to use His Thoughts and righteousness to advance us to Spiritual maturity! For freewill with no authority in anarchy; just as authority
with no freedom is slavery. Therefore freewill
under God's authority is liberty! For God Himself submits to His own Thoughts! (Psa 138:2; Pro 23:7) So what we see in the
world, is Satan's attempt to show any way to live apart from God and His
Perfect Authority: His Thinking and therefore: His Word. (Joh 4:24) As soon as man was
created, God displayed His infinite grace by providing everything that man
would ever need and by setting up a test to make it possible for man to
exercise his volition. (Gen 2:17)
People often ask why God prohibited the eating of one tree. Why did He set up
any prohibition at all? It was to give man the
opportunity of choosing for or against God. Since God does not desire robots or to force love and
obedience from His creatures, man’s volition must come into play.
THE DIVINE
PROMISE
As we
know from the third chapter of Genesis, man chose against God in spite of
everything that God had given him. (The same as Satan and the
demons) At that very moment Satan became the victor in the first
battle of the conflict here on earth, for he immediately seized control of this
world and man. (2Co 4:4; 2Ti 2:26) In,
(Gen 3:15) we
see man’s curse can be turned in to a fantastic blessing; before The
Fall, man was a perfect creation; but did not have God's eternal life and
Nature; the best thing to happen to mankind was the condemnation of man; (Rom 5:16) so we could be born into to God's
family and share His very own life, Thoughts and Nature! (Heb 2:11)
God’s solution
to the angelic conflict.
God made a gracious Promise as He sentenced the serpent:
And I will put enmity Between you [Satan] and the woman, [Cursing;
can be turned to blessing] And between your seed
[Satan's] and her
seed; [Christ; and believers] He shall bruise you [Satan] on the head, And you shall
bruise Him [Christ] on [Or with] the heel. (Gen 3:15; cf.; Psa
41:9; Joh 13:18)
Here is perhaps
the greatest example of the justice and the grace of God. Man had just sinned.
Man had fallen. Man had turned this little planet over to Satan. Because man
deliberately went against God’s Command, Satan had won a major round. It appeared
as though the situation had reached a stalemate — not only for man but for the
entire conflict — when God established hope by this fantastic Promise! “I will put enmity Between you [Satan] and the
woman, And between your seed...” Satan has a parentage made up of Adam’s race, unbelievers and
carnal believers. (Joh 8:44; 1Jn 3:10) “Her
seed,” a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ at the point of His
Incarnation, is the first messianic title and the first Promise of the Savior.
The “Seed of the woman” stresses the
virgin birth as the means of bringing the Savior into the world without a sin
nature, (cf.; Gal 3:16) which is passed
down in procreation through the male, and therefore without inherent sin and
without personal sin.
“He
shall bruise you on the head. . .” “He” is the Seed of the woman, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ would bruise or, literally, crush the head of Satan. This
predicts the ultimate defeat of Satan, which will take place at the Second
Advent of Christ. (Mat 25:41; Rev 12:9; Rev 20:10)
We must bear in
mind that because man exercised his free will in negative volition, the victory
of the initial round belonged to Satan. Man had forfeited his relationship with
God and was in no position to reverse his decision unless God should mercifully
intervene. Therefore, (Gen 3:15) is one of
the key passages in the entire Bible, for God’s grace provision was the
God-man-Savior who would come to earth and provide the solution to the problem
of man’s sin. Satan understood that, even though many people today do
not!
When God
committed Himself to this Promise, the whole destiny of the human race, the
ultimate result of the battle between fallen and elect angels, and the perfect
essence of God, were put on the line. Would God keep His Promise? If God cannot
keep a Promise, then He is not God, His character is challenged, and there is
no hope for mankind or for any other creature!
Down
through the ages, men believed this Promise, right up to the coming of Christ
at His First Advent. They demonstrated their faith by
offering animal sacrifices to God. The blood of bulls and goats could not save
man from even one sin, (Heb 10:4) but
every time a man offered an animal sacrifice, even if it was only a pigeon, he
was saying, “I have believed.” (Gen 3:15) Today, when you accept Christ, you are
saying, “I believe.” (Joh 3:16) As a result, anyone who puts his faith
in Christ is eternally saved from the Lake of Fire.
Now there was a
period in the history of mankind when it looked as though God could not and
would not keep His Word. You see, Satan reasoned that if man went negative and
sinned, as he had, then God would be forced to withdraw the devil’s sentence to
the Lake of Fire. Certainly, thought Satan, God would not simply wipe out
mankind, which He had created expressly to demonstrate His perfect character!
And if man would be spared, so too Satan and his followers. But when God set up
another tree, the Cross, the issue was still alive, and Satan began his attempt
to negate the cross. The devil commands a tremendous host of demons. Certain
members of his organization were delegated to frustrate the possibility of
Christ’s coming in the flesh, for if Jesus Christ did not become true humanity,
there could be no Salvation for man.
When it became
apparent that the “Seed of the woman”
was to come through the line of Abel, who was the younger of Adam’s first two
sons, Satan inspired Cain to murder his brother. This first attempt to prevent
the fulfillment of, (Gen 3:15) was
thwarted when the line of Christ was transferred to Seth, but there were
numerous other attacks aimed at obstructing the First Advent.
Although God made
the Promise to come and pay the penalty for sin, which is Spiritual death,
Deity is subject neither to Spiritual nor to physical death. As eternal God, He
cannot die; as immutability; He cannot change. How, then, can this conflict
ever be resolved? How can man be brought to God? The answer: God must reduce
Himself to true flesh and blood, and indeed God the Son agreed to fulfill the
Father’s plan by clothing Himself with a human body. (Php 2:5-8; Heb
2:9-14)
There are
actually four reasons why Jesus Christ must become true humanity. First, to be the Savior and go to the Cross. Second, to be the Mediator. Before
man can have fellowship and a family relationship with God, there must be a
go-between who is equal with both the Godhead and with man. The Mediator, then, must be God and man in one Person.
(1Ti 2:5-6) Third,
to become our High Priest. Since man became a sinner, he must have an
acceptable Priest to represent him before God, and that Priest must Himself be
a man. Therefore, in order for Jesus Christ to fulfill this function, He must
be a true human being. Fourth, in order to
reign as the Son of David. (Luk 1:31-33)
Further down the road of human history, God would make some unusual Promises to
David. He would say, “You are going to
have a Son who will reign forever. A righteous King will be descended from your
own loins.” (2Sa 7:8-16; Act 2:29-32)
It was of the
utmost importance, then, that Jesus Christ be vested with a human body. But it
would be impossible for Christ to become a man unless an unbroken lineage of
true humanity existed on the earth! That may seem like a strange statement, but
it is apparent from the sixth chapter of Genesis that Satan conceived an
ingenious scheme to corrupt true humanity. His strategy was to change the
nature of mankind into half human-half angelic being
through an angelic infiltration into the human race.
The invasion
recorded in the first ten verses of, (Gen 6:1-13)
is the most alarming attack ever made upon our Salvation. It was so successful
that the line by which Jesus Christ could enter the world was narrowed down to
eight souls the family of Noah. Had it not been for the Flood, this satanic
attack would have turned into a decisive victory, for true humanity would have
become extinct on the earth.
THE ANGELIC
INFILTRATION
Genesis, chapter
6, opens with a capsulated account of the antediluvian population. It is
interesting to note that as a result of the population explosion after The Fall
there were more women than men.
Now it came about, when men began to
multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them. (Gen 6:1)
The word “men” is the generic term referring to
the entire human race. While “daughters”
describe literal females, the expression means more than that: it is an idiom
indicating that there was an excess of beautiful women.
That the sons of God [Demons] saw that the
daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever
they chose. (Gen
6:2)
The Hebrew word beni-ha-Elohim, translated “sons of God,” appears only five times
in the Old Testament: (Gen 6:4; Job 1:6; Job 2:1;
Job 38:7) In the New Testament, “Son of God” is a designation for Jesus
Christ, while “sons of God” refers to
believers; but we must not confuse the Greek of the New Testament with the Hebrew
of the Old Testament. Now since “sons of
God” in the Old Testament is used for all kinds of angels, both elect and
fallen, the question here is which kind?
Today there are
two types of fallen angels: those called “demons”
and those who are imprisoned. All fallen angels in both categories are under
the control of Satan, but from passages like, (2Pe
2:4) and (Jude 1:6) (Which
we shall examine) we learn that the angels in (Gen
6:2) later became the bound angels. These were the angels who became
women-watchers and observed the beauty of the daughters of men, and these
intruders and their children, (Nephilim; Titans) would become the recipients of
Jesus Christ’s victorious proclamation. The Word of God has not been written
merely to satisfy our curiosity but rather to reveal God’s plan and purpose for
man. From what is given we know as to what took place prior to the attack on
the women; (Mar 3:23-26) that he called
together a planning session and briefed his selected agents as to the method of
launching the attack; all designed to prevent the Savior from coming into the
world. “The sons of God came in to the
daughters of men, and they bore children to them.” means that they
literally cohabited with women on the earth. (Gen
6:4)
Now immediately
certain questions arise as to the physical possibilities and capabilities of
such a plan. First, are not angels invisible to the human race? The answer to
this is yes, they are, since their bodies are composed of light. However, they can not only appear to human beings but also
look like them. As a higher order of creation, they are extremely beautiful and
therefore appear as strikingly attractive, masculine or feminine human beings! All angels that are recorded in Scripture are male; and in
the Church age believers teach angels, fallen and elect. (Eph 3:10) In the post cannon period, (After Revelation was completed in 96 A.D.) there have been many
appearances but these are ALL demons. (Gal 1:8) This
brings us to another question. In view of:
For in the resurrection they neither marry
nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Mat 22:30)
When God allows angels to appear as men; they
receive all that is needed to do the job.
Beings of light do not! God controls everything; except our freewill to chose for or against God
and His plan; to believe in Christ and to grow to Spiritual maturity! (Job 5:18; Lam 3:37-39)
Then the LORD said, My Spirit shall not strive
with man forever, [Try to save them] because
he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty
years. (Gen 6:3)
This verse
orients us as to the time — 120 years before the Flood. God the Holy Spirit
would continue right up to the last day to entreat man to be saved. And this shows that the human race and the half-man
half-demon race can use their freewill to change their mind and choose for God!
(Eze 18:32) God the Holy Spirit is
striving with man in time, “for that he
also is flesh.” This means that there still
existed some opportunity on the earth for Salvation. But there would be
only 120 years in this case; for people to make up their minds about God. After that, the judgment
of the Flood would wipe out all who were part-demon part-man, unbeliever and
carnal believer; if they did not change their mind. (Where there is life; there
is hope!) (The
demons are in the appeal trail; and had to go to Tartarus)
The Holy Spirit
would specifically communicate to them; through the message of a man called
Noah, (2Pe 2:5) Before the Flood, the
Holy Spirit had a threefold ministry to the human race. First, He restrained
sin so that the human race could survive. Had there been no restraint during
that time, Noah and his family would have been slain. Second,
the Holy Spirit’s ministry of conviction provided information in the
unbeliever’s soulish mind so that he might make a decision necessary for
Salvation.
According to the
Doctrine of Common Grace, the Holy Spirit has been convicting unbelievers since
the beginning of time in regard to the Gospel: “of sin . . . of righteousness . . . and judgment.” (Joh 16:8-11) The sin is rejection of Christ, “because they do not believe in Me”; “righteousness” is the imputation of
Divine righteousness to those who believe in Him; (Rom
4:5) and judgment will be dealt out to those who reject Him. Those
who refuse to accept Christ’s work on their behalf stand on their own merit,
and their works — not their sins — will condemn them to the eternal Lake of
Fire. (Rev 20:11-15) Why? Jesus Christ
has paid for every sin; therefore, sin is no longer an issue. The only issue in
Salvation is, “What
do you think about the Christ?” (Mat
22:42) Without the Holy Spirit’s convicting
and convincing ministry, mankind could not be saved; without His restraining ministry, the human race would perish!
The third
ministry of God the Holy Spirit was His regenerating
work by which every believer was born again. Both before and after the Flood,
God the Holy Spirit is always seeking to convince the unbeliever and believer —
up to the point of death, (Rom 10:8)
which terminates his opportunity — to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved or
grow to Spiritual maturity.
THE
SUPER-RACE
The Nephilim were on the earth in those
days,
and also afterward, (Num 13:33) when the sons of
God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were
the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Gen 6:4)
As a result of
angelic procreation with humanity, a super-race evolved. This progeny, called Nephilim, “fallen ones,” in the Hebrew (The -im is the plural suffix) and translated “giants” in the English, are more than just giants. They had fallen
from the human race in that they were no longer true humanity. Half man and
half angel, they were creatures of remarkable strength and brilliant intellect.
The next phrase repeats the reason: “and
also after that [Literally, ‘because’] the sons of God came in unto [Cohabited
with] the daughters of men.” The children which the women bore to these
angels “became mighty men which were of
old, [Antiquity] men of renown,” that is, famous men of the “hero”
category.
All ancient
literature contains stories of heroes mighty men who performed unusual, extra
natural or supernatural feats. They were all described as half human and half
god. In Greek tradition, Zeus, the chief god, was said to be the father of most
of them, such as Orpheus, Theseus, Cadmus, Perseus, Jason, Hercules, Castor and
Pollux; called the Titans etc. Although this literature is called mythology, it
is not entirely mythical. It is based on fact — facts we see right here in, (Gen 6:4). As time went on, the facts were
embellished of course, with imagination and deception.
The half-demon
half-human super-race had completely taken over and corrupted the human race of
the antediluvian civilization except for the few who resisted — Noah plus
seven! The reason that Noah and his family did not get involved was that they
were born-again Spiritually adult believers; and God protected them physically
from the super-race, who were exceedingly warlike and brutal, but ultimately
there was no other way to preserve true humanity than to destroy the Nephilim. Furthermore, God must keep His
Word regarding the Promise to Adam and Eve in, (Gen
3:15) as well as perpetuate the issue of the angelic conflict. Only twice in the history of the human race is every
unbeliever destroyed: in the devastation of the Flood, and in the future at the
Second Advent when all unbelievers will be wiped out, leaving only believers to enter into the Millennium.
(Mat 24:30-31)
THE DIVINE
EVALUATION
In, (Gen 6:5-7) God expressed His attitude toward the
antediluvian civilization.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of
man was great on the earth, and that every intent of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5)
Man’s evil had
reached the saturation point because of his involvement with fallen angels.
Apparently the mixture gave man a super old sin nature as well as extra natural
stature and power. But evil is primarily what you
think, not what you do. Therefore, the mental attitude is brought in — the thinking in his right
lobe was totally engulfed in cancerous, satanic thoughts. Evil enters
the right lobe until finally through the progressively degenerate stages of
reversionism, the soul is locked in negative volition and strong delusion. (2Th 2:11) Then the individual is irrevocably
under the influence of satanic evil. (1Ti 4:1)
Toward this situation with the Nephilim,
God revealed His own mental attitude:
The LORD was sorry that He had made man on
the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. (Gen 6:6)
“Sorry” means to “change the mind.” Now God is immutable, and He does not change!
Why then is the Lord said to have changed His mental attitude toward the
creation of man? This is an anthropopathism:
ascribing to God human thinking in order to explain in terms of human language
His policies, Thoughts, acts and decisions. Throughout
the Scripture, God often reveals Himself in this language of accommodation so
that man might have a frame of reference for an otherwise incomprehensible or
complicated function. Illustration
Here God
expresses what He would do about man’s choice and about man’s losing the first
battle with Satan. He was not suddenly changing His plans; in eternity past He
had designed the Plan of Grace, which would rescue man from the dilemma he had
created for himself in the Garden, and restore what had been lost. But God must
demonstrate to man the consequences of negative volition.
The LORD said, I will blot out man whom I
have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things
and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them. (Gen 6:7)
There were also some extraordinary animals in those days,
and they were included in God’s disciplinary action. But there was one
exception!
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the
LORD.
(Gen 6:8)
God
detected positive volition in one man. “Favor”
means that Noah had not only believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, but that he had
literally discovered and exploited the grace of God to the maximum. Noah first understood the Promise of, (Gen 3:15) he further understood that if God did
the most for him at Salvation, He would do “much more than the most” to protect
the believer in the devil’s world. (Rom 8:32)
It is God’s responsibility to supply the logistical
support and necessary provisions for the advance to Spiritual adulthood and
Maximum Spiritual maturity. This temporal
security includes the air we breathe, our food, shelter, clothing, environment,
transportation, and even guardian angels for sentry duty to keep us alive in
spite of the hazards of life on earth. (Heb
1:14) Spiritual provision is the Word of
God, the communication of Truth by the pastor-teacher and the classroom for the
function of “Operation Z.”
Because Noah was adjusted to the justice of God, he was the recipient of
everything necessary to withstand 120 years of intense satanic pressure. He leaned completely upon the Lord’s unerring justice and
perfect grace!
The next verse is the Divine record of Noah’s family
history.
These are the records of the generations
of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his
time; Noah walked with God. (Gen 6:9)
First, Noah and
his family were justified before God. Justification is God’s justice being free
to give us Salvation — not because of any works we have done or any merit of
our own, but because Jesus Christ took our place and was judged for our sins on
the Cross. Second, Noah’s genealogy was uncontaminated by the demon cohabitation,
and he therefore represented true humanity in the human race. Between Adam and Noah there was an unbroken line of pure
born again Homo sapiens. This is one of the major reasons why the genealogies
of both the Old and New Testaments are extremely important. They demonstrate that at the point of the virgin birth
there was a line of undefiled born again humanity from Adam to the Virgin Mary.
At whatever time the angelic infiltration may have begun — in Noah’s
father’s or grandfather’s day — his forebears had all resisted. There was not
one blot upon the family escutcheon!
In addition, he
had a mature Spiritual life: Noah “walked with
God.” (Gen
6:9) As a
mature believer, Noah considered God's Reality more real than any circumstance
of life; even when there was NO RAIN and or WATER to put the boat in! (Gen 2:6; Gen 6:14) He personally withstood
the satanic scheme to corrupt him, and through his dynamic Spiritual
leadership, his family was also protected from the angelic incursion.
Noah became the father of three sons:
Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in
the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. (Gen 6:10-11)
“Corrupt” indicates that true
Spirituality was nearly extinct in mankind. Noah’s
three sons perpetuated the pure line. Even though there was a great deal of
culture, art and science prevalent in this era, it was also characterized by
bloodshed and warfare. The coexistence of violence and “sophisticated,” liberal
culture is one of the earmarks of mass reversionism in any race or nation.
Apart from the Tribulation, this is the worst period of unrestrained evil and
violence the world will
ever encounter.
God looked on the earth, and behold, it
was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. (Gen 6:12)
The single exception, as we have seen, was the family of
Noah.
THE DIVINE
JUDGMENT
Then God said to Noah, The end of all
flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of
them; [All the unbelievers, angels, half-man
half-demons and carnal believers] and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. (Gen 6:13)
God revealed to a
mature believer His plan for the human race, which calls for periodic judgment
and cleansing. “The
end of all flesh” is the announcement of
the termination of the antediluvian civilization and the destruction of that
evil generation. Every person who is ignorant of
Truth; rejects the God of the Old Testament as cruel and bloodthirsty; and
incompatible with a God of love. This notion, of course, originates from Satan
himself. Why did God destroy this first civilization? The predominance of reversionism, the presence of the
super-race, the temporary success of the satanic invasion, the lack of
restraint on old sin natures in a time of enormous population expansion; all
add up to maximum evil on the earth. When there
is a rampant malignancy of reversionism and evil, it must be cut away in order to preserve the remnant of
growing believers.
God’s decision to
destroy the Nephilim was grace! It
was the only means by which He could keep His Promise of, (Gen 3:15). Otherwise, all humanity would be
tainted with the fallen angelic strain, and it would be impossible for Christ
to come in the flesh and to win the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. Therefore, not only was
the Flood Divine judgment on a reversionistic civilization but it was also the
frustration of the satanic plot through the preservation of true humanity in
Noah’s family, as well as the perpetuation of the human race itself!
To demonstrate that these reversionists had no desire
whatever for relationship with the Lord, God
gave them a grace period of 120 years. Every
individual had free will plus 120 years to make up his mind! At the end of that period there were only eight people who
had made a choice for God, every one of whom
was uncontaminated humanity. As far as we can tell from the record of Scripture, there was
not another bit of positive volition on the earth. Everyone else was involved
in the thinking of Satan! (Luk 17:26-30; Mat 24:37-39)
When the Promise
of the Flood was finally fulfilled and the super-race annihilated, God also
judged those angels who were guilty of the infiltration. For the details, we
must examine two passages in the New Testament.
For if God did not spare angels when they
sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness,
reserved for judgment; (2Pe 2:4)
The
context of this chapter is a warning against false teachers and being a carnal
believer. To affirm the certainty of their
eternal judgment and the consistency of God’s character, the Holy Spirit cites
three examples in the past where God’s judgment fell upon certain groups who
were in total degeneracy. (2Pe 2:4-6)
God the Father is the Author of the Divine plan, and therefore He is the Judge.
Until judgment is committed to the Son, (Joh 5:22)
the Father does the judging. “If God did
not spare” is a first class conditional clause in the Greek, meaning that
He actually did not spare. “Did not
spare” means to get tough! If He was tough on
apostasy in the past; His attitude toward apostasy (Disobedience) will always be tough!
All you ever hear
today is that God is love. But the essence of God is
multifaceted: He is also sovereignty, righteousness, justice, eternal life,
omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, immutability, veracity and severity. The question is, will God crack down on offenders? If you
understand God’s character, if you know the Old Testament record, you will have
to say yes! Capacity to love does not
rule out the other characteristics of God’s essence. Certain situations call
for certain characteristics. This is true even in the human realm: only a moron
is either all love or all harshness.
Love motivates God’s grace, but all grace function stems
from His justice. God’s justice is not free to bless until that blessing is
compatible with His essence. The righteousness and justice of God must be
satisfied before love can come into play. The absolute righteousness of
Christ and His efficacious sacrifice on the Cross satisfied the Court of
Heaven. If the unbeliever fails to adjust to the justice of God through faith
in Christ, God’s justice will adjust to him in eternal condemnation. (Joh 3:36) Those who believe in Christ have
passed the point of propitiation; at the point of faith they are therefore
instantly adjusted to God’s justice and come under His maximum love.
God
will not let false teachers and or carnal believers get by — with negative volition. Therefore He did not hesitate to get hard-nosed with the
fallen angels of Genesis 6. He lowered the boom, first on the demons, then on
the Nephilim, unbelievers and carnal
believers; and ended the entire antediluvian civilization. The Principle
is that God not only makes provision for His plan, but He also provides
protection for His plan. This Plan of Grace includes three phases: Phase one:
Salvation; the provision: Christ paid for our sins so that whoever believes in
Him will have eternal life. (Joh 3:15)
Phase two: the believer in time; the provision: the techniques of the Christian
way of life, (Joh 4:24) based on the
Promises and Doctrines of the Word. Phase three: the believer in eternity; the
provision: absent from the body, face to face with the Lord. (2Co 5:8)
These provisions
are guaranteed by God. For example, no matter how disastrous or hopeless the
situation, there will never be a time when there are no believers on the earth, except of course for a brief period when God removes them
at the Baptism of fire during the Second Advent; and then returns them to the
purified earth to start the millennium with believers only! (2Pe 3:10-11) In Noah’s
day He protected His plan in order to safeguard true humanity through whom
Christ would come into the world, first by casting into pits of darkness the
angels that sinned, then by drowning their progeny putting them in the Abyss.
(Rev 9:11) However, the Greek word is
not “hell” but “Tartarus,” (2Pe 2:4) a
temporary holding place for demons.
The God of love
clobbered the whole bunch of angels who had sinned with the daughters of men.
God got tough! Both the human race and God’s plan have been protected many
times by the severity of God’s judgment. That is something people cannot (Or
refuse to) comprehend. The do-gooders and liberals are at a loss to understand
why, for example, we need a strong military. It has never occurred to them that
in order for us to enjoy freedom we must be prepared to protect it with
righteous violence. Because we had a soft policy in Viet Nam, we sustained
thousands of unnecessary casualties. When you get tough, you save lives — good
American lives! But people say, “What about the lives of the enemy? Are they
not worth saving? Can we not stop the carnage by loving them?” Unfortunately, this is the unrealistic attitude today of
those naive idealists who are living in a fool’s paradise. (One of Satan's MANY false realities) We have many
wonderful blessings in this country, but the hippies and the love-ins did not
provide them for us. Someone had to get tough; someone had to fight! Freedom
was bought with the blood of American fighting men!
The angels in Tartarus are at present “reserved,” or literally, guarded for
judgment. In other words, they are not yet in their final state. God just
knocked them down into a temporary prison where they will remain until He is
ready to try their case. There is a time coming when God will haul them out of Tartarus to be judged, and then He will
throw them permanently into the Lake of Fire. (Mat
25:41; Rev 20:1) In the
meantime, they are out of circulation; they are no longer able to observe what
is taking place in the rest of the universe. God had to exercise force in order
that we might be saved and have eternal life, that we might share His happiness
in time and eternity! Inside His plan, He provides
for His own; outside, He protects it!
In the next verse, God fights — the Nephilim, or super-race:
And did not spare the ancient world, but
preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought
a flood upon the world of the ungodly. (2Pe 2:5)
God not
only neutralized Satan’s forces that were involved in the corruption of the
human race, but He also destroyed the population of reversionistic unbelievers
and believers. No
apostate generation can exist very long without a population decimation.
But grace always precedes judgment! God gave
them 120 years. During that time, Noah consistently
and continually evangelized the Nephilim
who, though half-angel and half-man, possessed souls and could have been saved.
Yet not that we know of — did any of these creatures responded to the faithful
proclamation of the Gospel. This judgment is mentioned again in the Book of
Jude, where three categories of apostasy are specified: believers,
as illustrated by the Exodus generation; (Jude
1:5) fallen angels in Noah’s generation; (Jude
1:6) and unbelievers
and believers in the Abrahamic
generation. (Jude 1:7-13) A
segment of the population was destroyed in each generation. Pertinent to our
subject is the category of fallen angels.
And angels who did not keep their own
domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under
darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)
“Did not keep their own domain” means
that the angels did not stay in their own creative order. They left
their-Divinely designated sphere of relationships and activity.
Since
these celestial beings did not guard their own place, (The second heaven) they are now
guarded in their very own place Tartarus,
their custom-made prison! Tartarus is
described here by an unusual Greek phrase: hupo
zophos, “under darkness,” is a darkness in which there is total absence of
light. Why is this specifically mentioned? Remember, angels are constructed of
light. They cannot be killed, as was the exodus generation in, (Jude 1:5) or the inhabitants of Sodom and
Gomorrah in, (Jude 1:7) How, then, does
God judge these reversionistic and evil fallen angels? He
simply turns off the switch! They are still alive,
but they can never again turn on their bodies. This, of course, renders them
completely immobile. They are shut down as far as their body function is
concerned. They are “under the authority
of darkness,” awaiting their final judgment — “the Great Day.”
Satan is more
clever than any other created being man or angel. (Gen
3:1) When you connect all the verses pertaining to the angelic
infiltration, it becomes apparent that the devil was genius enough to
understand that if he could subvert genuine humanity, there would be no
Salvation. Furthermore, God, who had made a Promise to Adam’s race, would prove
to be a liar, for He would not be able to keep His Word. But He had already guaranteed to Adam’s race a Savior who
would come in the flesh. Consequently, Satan did all in his power to prevent true humanity from
continuing on the earth.
After his
audacious scheme was aborted by the Flood, Satan was never again able to come
so close to destroying true humanity, though he seized upon every opportunity.
Upon the announcement that the Savior would come from the line of Abraham,
Satan leveled his guns at this specific target. When it was revealed that the
Savior would come through a particular tribe, the tribe of Judah, the archfiend
turned his attention in that direction. From that time on, the Jews have been
the special object of Satan’s attacks. Yet in spite of his unceasing efforts,
Satan could not thwart the coming of Jesus Christ as true humanity the eternal
King and Son of David — to provide the solution to the sin problem. God’s
grace, as revealed in the sixth chapter of Genesis, made Christ’s advent
possible!
THE DIVINE
PROMISE FULFILLED
For Christ also
died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He
might bring us to God, having been put to death
in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits [The demons and titans] now in prison. (1Pe 3:18-19)
Here is the focal
point of history for mankind and the initial stage of the strategic victory of
the angelic conflict. Christ, the Seed of the woman,
the unique Person of the universe, suffered, or literally, died on the Cross,
the once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world. The suffering on the
Cross was as unique as the Person who was hanging there! He suffered
separation from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, (Mat 27:46) during which time the Father cast all
our sins upon Him and judged them. His Spiritual death
is explained in: (Isa 53:11)
As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will
justify the many, As He will bear their
iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a
portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; [Mature believers] Because He poured out
Himself to death, [Spiritual death] And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the
sin of many, And interceded for the
transgressors. (Isa 53:11)
He made Him who
knew no sin to
be sin on our behalf, so that we might become
the righteousness of God in Him. (2Co 5:21)
And He Himself
bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that
we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for
by His wounds you were healed. [Mended with
God] (1Pe
2:24)
No one in all of
human history has ever suffered or ever will suffer more intense anguish than
the Lord Jesus Christ when He became our substitute and bore our sins — “the just [Righteous] for the unjust.” [Unrighteous] In His humanity He was impeccable; in His Deity He was absolute righteousness. The meeting of our
sins with the God-man’s righteousness was not only the most excruciating agony
ever endured, but the supreme example of undeserved suffering. Yet it was the means
of our eternal Salvation, and it broke the back of Satan as far as the angelic
conflict is concerned.
There is
absolutely nothing that can be added to what Jesus Christ accomplished on the
Cross. One of the great satanic counterattacks in the
Church Age is the attempt to add to the Cross. The
saving work of Christ on the Cross was unique; it was perfect in every way. It
fully achieved its objective; it was efficacious and complete. That is why He cried, “It
is finished!” (Joh 19:30) Yet people are constantly trying to add their own works to
that magnificent sacrifice. They want to be baptized, join a church, feel sorry
for or renounce their sins for Salvation. But
the Bible says it must be faith plus nothing! “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be
saved,” (Act 16:31) period! Anything you add
to faith is works and negates the faith. Faith
and faith alone in the finished work of Christ on the Cross is the sole access
to God the Father!
Translated
literally, the next phrase of, (1Pe 3:18)
“having received death in the sphere of
His body,” emphasizes the two deaths of Christ on the Cross. The Spiritual
death of Christ occurred when He was judged for our sins; His physical death,
when He dismissed His spirit. Without a human body, the Savior could die
neither Spiritually nor physically. He must be truly a
man to take man’s place.
The ultimate victory of the angelic conflict depended on
Christ’s resurrection; and this decisive victory also made it possible for Him
to go from humiliation to maximum glorification, seated at the right hand of
the Father. (Heb 1:3-4)
The Holy Spirit
continually sustained the humanity of Christ during His entire Incarnation, as
well as in the state of His Spiritual and physical deaths. (Joh 3:34; 1Pe
3:18-19; Heb 9:14-15) When
His earthly mission was completed, Christ said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” (Luk 23:46)
His body, of
course, went into the grave. (Luk 23:53)
His spirit and soul made an underworld tour to Hades and its different
compartments; Paradise, (Luk 23:43) and
Tartarus, (1Pe 3:19) etc. — one of the
most unusual trips in all of history — And He was brought there by God the Holy
Spirit. (1Pe 3:18-19)
THE
COMPARTMENTS OF HADES
Before we can
apprehend the full import of the Lord’s unique visit, we need to picture the
underworld as it existed prior to the resurrection. Unfortunately, the
translators of the English Bible have confused the issue by rendering several
different Hebrew and Greek words simply as “hell,” when they actually refer to
different places. Sheol in the Hebrew is sometimes translated “hell” and
sometimes “the grave.” The parallel Greek word, Hades, is always translated
“hell.” But Sheol or Hades is the general designation for the abode of the
dead, both believers and unbelievers, before the resurrection and ascension of
Christ.
Hades contains four compartments: Paradise for believers, (A Persian word, meaning “Garden
of the King”) or Abraham’s Bosom. (The Jewish designation; Luk
16:19-22) For unbelievers, Hades and or
Sheol in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, (Psa 9:17) and Hades and or Torments in the Greek of the New Testament;
(Luk 16:23-25) Tartarus and the Abyss for demons, (2Pe 2:4) and for the half-man
half-demons. (Rev 9:11; Rev 11:7)
Paradise was the section where the souls of all believers of
the Old Testament resided after death. No
human being ever went to heaven until Christ entered into the presence of the
Father and was accepted as a man. Much
depended on this, because along with the Lord Jesus Christ in His ascension;
travelled the souls of all believers who had died up to that time; they were
being transferred from Paradise to heaven. (Eph
4:8-9) If Jesus was accepted in His
humanity, it would mean that the Father had accepted His sacrifice for sin, and
only under these conditions could believers be admitted into the abode of God.
Upon the entrance of Christ into heaven, the Father
said, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND . . .” (Psa 110:1; Heb 1:13)
His sacrifice was approved; He had made the way for
mankind to enter into the presence of HOLY GOD! (Heb 8:1; Heb
10:12-20) Those believers who die now go
directly into the presence of the Lord! (2Co
5:8) The second compartment; Torments, is a
temporary fire for the souls of unbelievers — and they still go to Torments in Hades; until the Second
Death when ALL Unbelievers from the time of Adam to the last unbeliever of the
Millennium —
will then be put into the Lake of Fire. (Rev
20:14-15)
Between Paradise
and Torments was “a great gulf fixed,”
(Luk 16:26) so that none could pass to
the other side. Now that Paradise has been emptied;
Hades and Torments are actually synonymous, but the rendering of both as
“hell” (And other words as well)
creates confusion because there is yet a final hell, designated as “Tophet,” “Gehenna,” or “the Lake of Fire.”
The Lake of Fire
will not be occupied, except by the “beast
and the false prophet,” (Rev 19:20)
until the Second Death, when all unbelievers will be raised and judged
according to their works and sent to their final punishment. (Rev 20:11-15)
Tartarus and the
Abyss; as we have already seen, is the prison of the demons and
half-demons who were involved in the
satanic conspiracy of. (Gen 6:1-13)
They were the ones who had not been watching the activities of the Son of God
on earth and therefore were not aware of the defeat of Satan. Jesus Christ was
transported to Tartarus in His human soul and spirit to issue a victorious
proclamation to the spirits in prison!
THE
VICTORIOUS PROCLAMATION
For Christ also died for sins once for
all, the just for the
unjust, so that He might bring us to God,
having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went
and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient,
when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the
construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought
safely through the water. (1Pe 3:18-20)
Jesus Christ did
not actually preach, as we think of preaching; He proclaimed HUMANITIES VICTORY; to all the fallen angels
incarcerated in Tartarus. The content of Christ’s proclamation has been
suggested in, (1Pe 3:18). It was a
testimony relating to the Gospel, but He did not declare the Gospel as such. He
informed these demons that they had failed in their attempts to destroy true
humanity and that God’s plan had moved right on through every satanic attack.
He had gone to the Cross on schedule! The penalty of
sin had been paid for mankind, and thus it was possible for Homo sapiens to
make a decision for the Son of God and to enter into fellowship with God the
Father, God the Son and God the Spirit for all eternity!
THE GRACE OF
GOD IN SALVATION
The victorious
proclamation was a declaration of the grace of God because the 120 years before
the Flood was one of the most extraordinary demonstrations of God’s grace in
the annals of history.
…When the patience of God kept waiting in
the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is,
eight persons, were brought safely through the water. (1Pe 3:20)
During those 120
years, the super-race had the top evangelist of all time — Noah, a preacher of
righteousness. (2Pe 2:5) While Noah
verbalized “imputed righteousness” — Salvation through faith in Christ — God waited. Makrothumia
is one of the strongest Greek words for patience. God in grace withheld
judgment on the antediluvian civilization for 120 years while the ark was being
constructed and until all who were going to be saved were saved. What is
the source of His patience? It stems from His essence, the perfect character of
God. The source of grace is also God’s character; God’s grace always depends on
His character, never on ours!
The
word for “ark” does not mean a
sailing vessel but rather a chest, one which was used to preserve treasures. Until the time of the ark there had never been
a boat or a ship in the history of the human race, and while Noah’s ark had the
perfect dimensions for a seaworthy ship, the emphasis here is on the grace of
God in preserving His own as one would store valuables in a treasure chest.
Vivid analogies
of grace abound in the ark. It is to be regretted that we cannot here elaborate
on each one but only emphasize the obvious. The ark or treasure chest is a
beautiful picture of Jesus Christ, in whom all the abundant riches of God
exist. (Col 2:2-3) Every believer in the Church Age is in union with Him,
preserved forever from the lake of Fire by our relationship to Him. And to show you the
dimensions of this grace, we were all sinners, pathetically disqualified from
fellowship with a holy God and as hopelessly lost as any in that antediluvian
civilization. Satan’s
victory; in the Garden; had cut us
off completely and gave us the sin nature that operated toward him rather than
toward God! (Joh 8:44)
Yet God did something for lost, sinful, evil,
vile humanity that we could in no way earn or deserve: God provided everything for us to
be united with Himself! That was the supreme manifestation of the grace
of God in the history of the human race. It began with the Promise of; (Gen 3:15) it continued with the destruction of
the super-race in the Flood and the protection of the line through whom the
Lamb of God would finally enter the world as true humanity. And when the Savior did come; He submitted to the Cross
and paid the penalty for your sins and mine, as well as for every sin that
everyone has ever committed or ever will commit! (Joh 1:29)
You may
ignore God, you may hold the name of Jesus Christ in contempt, but He died for you! He took your place. And as long as you live; He extends to
you the gracious invitation: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will
give you rest.” (Mat 11:28) “All that the Father gives Me will come to
Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” (Joh 6:37) That is the
matchless grace of God!
There is a
priceless nugget tucked away in Isaiah concerning the amazing grace of God.
Have you seen it? “Therefore the LORD
longs to be gracious to you...” (Isa 30:18)
While this relates to Israel by interpretation, its application is for us right
now. Think of it! The
Lord is waiting to give us fantastic blessings! If
you are without Jesus Christ, you are without eternal life and without hope.
You are under the penalty of sin, and you possess no relationship with God, no
assets by which to gain the approbation of God in any way. Yet God is waiting to extend His grace to you. How
can you obtain it?
For God so loved the world, that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have
eternal life. (Joh 3:16)
God can only be gracious to the one who has adjusted to
His justice by way of Salvation. At the Cross our sins were taken to court and
judged; therefore, we are able to adjust to His justice only by trusting in
Christ and His perfect righteousness! (Heb
2:9-11; Heb 10:9-12) When we believe in Him, the justice of God is free to save
us! Or we can appeal our case as Satan and the
demons are doing; and fight God and or trust in our own righteous deeds.
(Isa 64:6)
After the first FREE gift of Salvation; we are offered another FREE gift; the chance to die to the old sin nature, (Eph 4:22) and build a new nature. (2Pe
1:4) And to appear at the Judgment Seat, (2Co 5:10) in the
experiential righteousness of Christ; (Spiritual maturity; Php
3:8-10) being proud of Christ and
trusting in His Thoughts; (Php 3:3) or again we have the
chance to represent ourselves being proud of ourselves and trusting in our
thoughts. (Rom
2:15-16)
For whoever is ashamed of Me and My Words in
this adulterous and sinful generation, the
Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father
with the holy angels. (Mar 8:38)
According
to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a
foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he
builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. [Trust
in Christ for eternal life] Now if any man builds on the foundation [The
new nature; Christ's in us;
Gal 4:19) with gold, silver, precious stones,
[God's Thoughts] wood, hay, straw, [Man's
thoughts; Mar 8:33) each man's work will become evident; for the day
will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, [God's
Word; Jer 23:29) and the fire itself will test the quality of
each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it
remains, he will receive a reward.
(Mar 4:20) If any man's work is
burned up, he will suffer loss; (1Jn 2:28) but he himself will be saved, [From the Lake of fire] yet so as through
fire. (Mar 9:49) Do you not know that you are a temple of God
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the
temple of God, [With old sin nature thinking]
God will destroy him, [Divine judgment; Heb 10:26-27) for
the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.
(Eph 5:26-27) Let
no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this
age, [Old sin nature wisdom; SATAN'S!] he
must become foolish, (1Co 14:20) so that he may become wise.
[Spiritually wise] For
the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.
For it is written, He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR
CRAFTINESS; and again, "THE LORD KNOWS THE
REASONINGS [Thoughts]
of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS. So then let no one boast in men..! (1Co 3:10-21)
Seek
the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let
the wicked [Religious and or unbeliever] forsake
his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
[A believer thinking with the wrong thoughts; and
therefore not living by God's Reality]
And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. (Pro 28:13) For My Thoughts are not
your thoughts, Nor are your ways My Ways, [Motives]
declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So
are My Ways higher than your ways And My Thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isa 55:6-9)
THE GRACE OF
GOD IN POSITIONAL TRUTH
Those who entered
the ark were mature believers. The water was the
instrument of destruction for the negative angelic and human races, but it was the means of physical deliverance for the
Spiritually mature believers. (1Pe 3:20)
This was the foreshadowing of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Corresponding
to that, baptism now saves you--not the removal
of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God
for a good conscience--through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1Pe 3:21)
Every
analogy is a comparison of two things or Thoughts; a “type” and an “antitype” The
historical ark is the type, while the Doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit; is
the antitype pictured by the ark. In other
words, the ark is a representation of union with Christ. This analogy confirms the fact that water baptism does not
save! The people who were immersed in the Flood
were drowned! They were negative. Those eight
people, high and dry in the ark, were safe. (Rom
8:13) “Now,” today, since the beginning
of the Church Age, (Act 1:5) God the Holy Spirit places every believer into Christ.
That is the baptism of God Holy Spirit, and that is the baptism that saves!
(Act 11:15-17; 1Co 12:13) Water
baptism merely portrays Salvation.
To show that he
is not referring to water baptism; Peter adds a negative and a positive
explanation. This baptism is not a bath but the “guarantee of a good
conscience.” Even though the soul is saved, the sin nature is still active — a condition that renders a good conscience toward God
impossible. (Without growth to Spiritual
maturity) But positional Truth provides the answer: since we as
believers are in union with Christ and share everything He has, a good
conscience does not depend on whether we sin or do not sin after Salvation. It
hinges on our relationship with Christ. No one is
acceptable to God on the basis of his works, his morality or his ability; we are accepted ONLY because of Who and What Christ Is! (Eph 1:6)
Through
resurrection, Christ made it possible for us to be in union with Him and
thereby to be a witness for Him in the angelic conflict. Moreover, His
resurrection, ascension, session and glorification at the Father’s right hand
is the means of elevating every believer in the royal family of God to a
position of superiority over angels. (Heb 1:13-14)
THE
MECHANICS OF VICTORY
Who is at the right hand of God, having
gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to
Him. (1Pe
3:22)
First, Jesus Christ in the Spiritual life went to Tartarus. Now in resurrection body; He
embarks on another trip, from earth to the third heaven where He is seated at
the Father’s right hand. At this point, everything was assigned to be under His
authority. This is the victory of the angelic
conflict! The fallen angels are categorized in
this verse as “authorities,” demons
under Satan’s command who are equivalent to commissioned officers; and “powers,” Satan's false spirit as the
ruler of this world. (Eph 2:2; Eph 6:12)
During the Church
Age, there continues to be angelic opposition to the plans and purposes of God
because He permits the angelic conflict to run its course in human history.
However, when Satan has done his last and worst, these enemies will be defeated
at the Second Advent of Christ when Operation Footstool is launched from
heaven. (Heb 1:13) Then they will be
put once and for all under His feet. (Heb 2:8)
In the meantime, what can the believer do today
in the devil’s world where rebellion and insubordination are rampant, both
against the Laws of Divine establishment as well as against the Bible? The answer is found in, (Heb 2:9-14) in which
our attention is diverted from the antagonism of the satanic gunfire to the
certain victory of the Spiritual battle.
But we do see Him who was made for a
little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of
death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste
death for everyone. (Heb
2:9)
Blepo
is used technically in this verse for a look which discerns something of
paramount importance. In the previous verse, the verb horao, “to take a panoramic
look,” envisioned the current status of the angelic conflict: Satan is the
present ruler of this world, and, all things are not yet subordinated to the
Lord Jesus Christ. By contrast, Truth projects the
Spiritual sight beyond this temporary battlefield to the ultimate victory of
Christ and to what we as believers have in Him.
To see Jesus Christ as the highest value in
life is the beginning of Spiritual maturity!
Since man was created to resolve the angelic conflict, man
must be the one to do so. The first man, Adam,
fumbled the ball, but the Last Adam, Jesus
Christ, will scoop up the fumble and run for a touchdown! This is the reason why Christ became a man and not an angel.
In His sense of humor and grace, God chose to
resolve the prehistoric contest by raising a lower creature to a position
higher than angels through One Man who was inferior to no one! Although an angel wears the crown today, a man, the Son of
David, the Son of Abraham, will one day remove the usurper and rule the world
forever.
During the brief
period of His Incarnation, Jesus in mortal frame had become inferior to angels. In that status, He was qualified because of reaching
Spiritual maturity, being sinless, and creating His stainless Nature, (2Pe 1:4) to go to the Cross as a
substitutionary sacrifice for sinful man. The “suffering of death,” thanatos,
is a reference to the Spiritual death of Christ. From mortal humanity at the
virgin birth to resurrected humanity at the ascension and session, the
metamorphosis of the Lord Jesus Christ portrays in panorama His total victory
in the angelic warfare and the ultimate triumph of regenerate Homo sapiens who
are in union with Him.
God’s purpose in
sending Jesus Christ is directly related to our happiness and blessing in time
and in eternity. The Cross not only broke the back of Satan, but it also
provided the basis for entrance into the Plan of God and living under optimum
blessing from God — even in the devil’s world. Therefore, the Cross must
come before the Crown! Glory and honor belonged eternally to the Deity of Christ,
but through resurrection, His humanity became
superior to angels and proved it by the ascension and session! (Heb 10:12-13)
Neither the concentrated might of Satan nor the arrayed
combat power of the vast army of demons was able to prevent His passage through
the first and second heavens. Though all Satan had, opposed Him, the Lord Jesus Christ
arrived unscathed in the third heaven, where God the Father welcomed Him as the
God-man! Our Lord’s glory at the Father’s
right hand opened for us the avenue of the Spiritual life and points onward to
the glorious consummation when Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
will be crowned by the Father as the ruler of the world for the Millennium.
(Rev 19:6; Rev
19:16)
While
in the Millennium He will be the world Celebrity; He is the believer’s only
Celebrity now! If through Truth we keep our eyes
on our all-sufficient Savior, we will avoid becoming entangled in evil by
trying to help whitewash the devil’s backyard! Nor will we be led astray by
getting our eyes on people and either creating false idols or succumbing to
disillusionment.
Since Christ
tasted Spiritual death for everyone, (The Doctrine of Unlimited Atonement) He could now bring many sons into heaven!
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are
all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to
perfect the author of their Salvation through sufferings. (Heb 2:10)
“For,” the illative use of the Greek
particle gar, designates the reason
for the humiliation of Jesus Christ. While the Father, as the Author of the Divine
plan, is the Originator and cause of all things. He
assigned the Son to be the One to execute both creation, (Col 1:16) and
Salvation. (Act 4:12) Therefore, the Father’s purpose was to bring Christ to the
objective of the Cross in order that his unique Crown Prince might receive a
kingdom. As the Prince-Leader of the Church, Christ is the Advance Guard
leading into glory “many sons,”
mature believers of all time, members of the Body of Christ, a kingdom of royal
priests, who will in the future become the Bride of Christ. (Eph 1:22-23; 1Pe
2:5-9; Rev 19:6-8) The next step is Operation Footstool, in which the Last
Adam, the Groom of Israel and the Church; the Prince-Leader of Salvation
overthrows Satan and assumes His rightful place as the supreme Ruler! (Psa 110:1-7)
For both He who
sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which
reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, (Heb 2:11)
What a shock it must have been to the demons to
hear that Christ is not ashamed to acknowledge fallen mankind as His brothers! Furthermore, all believers in the
Church Age share all that Christ Is and has!
Saying, I WILL PROCLAIM YOUR NAME TO MY
BRETHREN, IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION I WILL SING YOUR PRAISE. (Heb 2:12)
(Psa 22:22) which is quoted here, anticipated the
session at the Father’s right hand, at which time Christ is Promised a Bride as
well as the future ruler-ship of the world through Operation Footstool. The longed-for Bride becomes a Reality at the Marriage
Supper. (Rev 19:9) His Kingdom starts when He brings them with Him at the
Second Advent. (Rev 17:14) He has always been preparing His Bride; and she is also
now being formed during the Church Age and throughout the Tribulation,
historical events will pave the way for the Second Advent of the King!
In the meantime, He
has provided a heritage for His brethren left behind in the devil’s kingdom.
This legacy is the content of the Bible: “Truth,” God's Thinking and God's
Reality — the plan of the Father and
the Mind of Christ; (1Co 2:16) — in
permanent written form! As far as the angels are
concerned; His declaration announces the progress of Operation Footstool and
the certain doom of Satan and the fallen angels. Just as David had responded in ancient times to the Doctrinal message,
so believers in the Church Age respond. Even
more will the Bride sing praise when she beholds her Groom in the fullness of
His glory!
And again, I WILL PUT MY TRUST IN HIM. And
again, BEHOLD, I AND THE CHILDREN WHOM GOD HAS GIVEN ME. (Heb 2:13)
The second and
third documentations from the Old Testament, (Isa
8:17-18) present the two sides of the angelic conflict as it relates
to the Church Age. First, the human side: “And I will wait for the LORD.” Each person who exercises positive volition in Jesus
Christ enters the angelic conflict and becomes a part of Operation Footstool.
Believers in union with Christ will share in the conquest of His enemies, (The
fallen angels) as God the Father throws them, as it were, at our Lord’s feet!
Second, the
Divine side: “I
and the children whom God has given Me.” So
that He should not be alone, God has given believers to Christ as His own
possession! Just as Jesus Christ had
anticipated the first Adam’s need of a right woman, (Gen 2:18) so God the
Father prepared a “right woman” for the Last Adam, (Christ) all believers; and the
Bride. (Mature
believers form the time of Adam until the Second Advent; Psa 45:1-17; cf. Heb 1:8-9)
Therefore, since the children share in
flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through
death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the
devil. (Heb
2:14)
In common
with the human race, Jesus Christ possessed flesh and blood, but without an old
sin nature or the imputation of Adam’s sin. Through His Spiritual death [Thanatos] on the Cross,
He rendered Satan powerless. In other words,
the Cross resolves the angelic conflict and provides the foundation for
Operation Footstool. The “power of death” which Satan holds from Eden to the Second Advent
of Christ refers to his dominion over those who are Spiritually dead.
Satan has the power of physical death only when, in individual cases, the
sovereignty of God permits him to exercise it. All
members of the human race are born physically alive but at the same time
Spiritually dead to God; hence, through physical birth, Homo sapiens
unknowingly enter the Kingdom of Satan. (Joh
8:44)
In this second
phase of the angelic conflict, (After Satan seized ruler ship from Adam) the
evil one holds man in bondage through Spiritual death as a kidnapper might
retain custody of his brainwashed victim until release is obtained. Jesus
Christ provided that release through His saving work on the Cross, where He
paid the penalty for sin-cursed mankind. The Spiritual
death of Christ propitiated the justice of God the Father so that anyone who
believes in Christ is reconciled to God and delivered from the ruling power of
Satan to become the servant of Christ.
And might free those who through fear of
death were subject to slavery all their lives. (Heb 2:15)
Satan’s
kingdom is made up of frightened people who have no security. Fear of
death continually stalks them until a relationship with God is established, and
through Truth they come to appreciate their new position. In Reality, it is
Spiritual death which shackles the unbeliever and, unknown to him, is the true
basis for fear. Fear is not only a mental attitude sin,
but it is a feeble state of mind stemming from a lack of Divine Thoughts! (Absolutes) Only as a person is
related to the Absolute God will he possess the assurance of a sound Mind which
casts out fear. (2Ti 1:7)
The mature believer’s deliverance-is in five
progressive stages: Salvation through regeneration; (Tit 3:5-7) freedom from the power of the
sin nature through staying in the Spiritual life; (Rom 8:4) freedom from the
influence of evil, (Satan's
thinking)
through Spiritual growth; (Joh 8:31-32)
deliverance through dying grace; (Php 1:21) deliverance through a
resurrection body! (1Jn 3:2)
In the next verse, we see the basis of Christ’s victory:
For assuredly He does not give help to
angels, but He gives help to the descendant of
Abraham. (Heb 2:16)
cf. (Gal 3:16)
In order to
resolve the angelic conflict, Christ had to become a man rather than an angel
because man was the issue in determining the outcome. At the Cross, therefore,
Jesus provided Salvation for Homo sapiens not for angels. As a result, man who is inferior becomes superior by
virtue of that salvation. Furthermore, it is
God who receives the glory by taking a base creature and lifting him to an
exalted position; the brother of Jesus Christ!
(Heb 2:11)
Jesus Christ
turned certain defeat into triumph and won back the victory that Satan captured
in the Garden. At the same time, by His Spiritual death, He made it possible
for every person who is of Adam’s race to have a relationship with God by a
simple act of faith in the finished work of Calvary.
He therefore gained much more than man lost in the Garden and this was always
His plan! (Isa
45:7)
THE
VICTORIOUS BELIEVER
Now what does all
this mean to you right now? Do you as a believer ever become despondent or
discouraged, upset or confused? Do you harbor a guilt complex because of some
sin? Do you think you have failed beyond hope?
Whatever your problem, it makes no difference God is willing and waiting to
pour out grace blessing to you!
The essence of
God is the key to all blessing in time. Grace and blessing always function from
justice. Omnipotence and justice make it possible for God to provide the
ultimate in blessing; but blessing is realized only as
the believer is adjusted to the justice of God,
first in rebound, and then by the continual, consistent assimilation of the
Word of Truth! Instantaneous adjustment to
God’s justice, which is free to forgive sins confessed and or “admitted” this
restores the believer to fellowship, and is basic to the continual adjustment
of Spiritual growth. (Pro 1:23) When the believer is
advancing Spiritually through the intake of Truth in the filling of God the
Holy Spirit, God’s justice demands of Himself that He fulfill the special
blessings which He wrote into His plan in eternity past; for every believer.
His justice is free to bless where there is no compromise to that justice!
Otherwise, God’s justice must adjust to the believer in
Divine discipline. (Deut 28:63)
We cannot adjust to God’s justice on our own merit or our
own works, but God always makes provision for us to do so — on His merit; in
the two instantaneous adjustments; He supplied Salvation
and rebound. In the
gradual adjustment of Spiritual growth; He prepared the “grace apparatus for
perception” (Operation
Z) whereby the
believer is able to understand the whole realm of Scripture. Basically,
Operation Z includes the pastor-teacher for the communication of Truth, the
local church and or the computer as the classroom for learning Truth, the Holy
Spirit as the Teacher of Truth, and the human spirit for the transfer of Truth
into the right lobe where it can be assimilated, categorized and applied to
experience. (1Co 2:11-16)
The grace apparatus must function on free will, and it
must be exercised daily! As a believer, you
cannot operate without Truth. Your capacity for life, your capacity for
happiness and love, your orientation to life and your ability to withstand the
onslaughts of the devil depend on Truth. Without
a command post of Truth in your soul, you will succumb to reversionism and
become a casualty in the angelic conflict.
The angels who are still able to observe the struggle in the arena of time between reversionism and Spiritual
maturity, carnality and Spirituality, human
realities and God's Reality, suffering and
triumph, are learning of the grace of God by watching us! (1Co 4:9; Eph 3:10)
But we learn of the grace of God from Truth; and by
walking in fellowship with Him! (Psa 40:5)
When the Apostle Paul came to the place of unbearable pain, frustration and
trial, he prayed three times that his “thorn
in the flesh” be removed. And what was the answer?
The most glorious exhortation in all the Word of God! The Lord said to him, “My
grace is sufficient for you” (2Co 12:9)
When
anyone angel or man sees you totally adjusted to the justice of God, moving
right on through adversity without panic or falling apart, without crying, “Why me, Lord?” but letting “patience have her perfect result,” (Jas 1:4) then God is glorified and you are blessed! God is able to shower His grace upon you in a fantastic
way, and in effect your whole life will be a “victorious
proclamation” to angels as well as to men!
Then
I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw
the souls of those who had been beheaded because
of their testimony of Jesus and
because of the Word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his
image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and
they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
(Rev 20:4)
END
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