Evangelicals and
Pentecostals must understand that the WAR IS OVER. It was FINISHED
through His death, His burial, and His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:3-4)!
The MOST HOLY PLACE of the
Mosaic Tabernacle (Ex. 25:8,40), the THIRD DIMENSION of grace (the
Feast of Tabernacles – Deut. 16:16; with Prov. 22:20-21), is the realm
of Jesus' FINISHED WORK. He sits upon the MERCY-SEAT (the THRONE of
grace) between the wings of the cherubim as the KING OF KINGS (Rev.
17:14; 19:16).
Jesus in His once-for-all
triumph at the CROSS completely DEFEATED THE DEVIL (the subject of last
week's Chronicle), and as the LAST ADAM (1 Cor. 15:45), brought a
lasting end to the FIRST ADAM – there were THREE MEN CRUCIFIED:
1. The MAN on the MIDDLE CROSS was JESUS!
2. The THIEF on His RIGHT who REPENTED and who was RESTORED to PARADISE, to EDEN, to the KINGDOM was ADAM!
3. The ugly spirit that
energized the THIEF on His LEFT who taunted, "IF you be the CHRIST…”
(Lk. 23:39; compare Lk. 4:3,9) was the DEVIL!
In the Greek language, verbs
in the AORIST tense (the snapshot tense) speak of action completed at a
given POINT IN TIME in the past, present, or future, but especially the
PAST. The PERFECT tense speaks of those things that have been COMPLETED
in the PAST with ONGOING results in the present.
Time and space will not
permit to list all the Scriptures that speak of the DEATH of the OLD
MAN (such as Romans 6:1-14), where all the verbs are aorist or perfect.
There are TWO MEN on the
planet—CHRIST and ADAM, Beauty and the Beast! The nickname for CHRIST
is "the TRUTH” (Eph. 4:15,21). The nickname for ADAM is "the LIE” (Eph.
4:22,25). Which life are you living? Are you a "saint” or an "ain't”?
There are not TWO natures in the believer, just ONE—CHRIST, the NEW MAN (Eph. 2:15; 4:13,24; Col. 3:10)!
2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV
Therefore if any man be IN CHRIST, he is a NEW CEATURE: OLD things are
passed away; behold, all things are become NEW (kainos – fresh,
unprecedented, unused, brand new; "the old has gone, the new has come!”
– NIV).
As we pursue the heavenly
calling (Phil. 3:12-14), we are fighting a MEMORY, the GHOST of Adam.
His picture may be on the dresser and his socks in the drawer, but the
old man is DEAD! Don't commit the abomination of spiritual NECROMANCY
and try to call him up (Deut. 18:11). Even his MEMORY shall PERISH
(Isa. 26:13-14)!
FURTHER RESOURCE: My books, Whose Right It Is, and Freedom From Twelve Deadly Sins, available at http://www.kvmonlinestore.org/