Resurrection Life Ministries (Daily Reflections from the Word)

Sunday, December 22, 2013

The Truth comes to Corinth Part 2 Volume 18

Paul declares his entire Life to belong to Christ and lived for Him

2 Corinthians 5:12-15 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. KJV

Paul having wakened these Corinthian believers and us up to the absolute sureness of our One on one appointment with our Lord Jesus Christ at His Judgment Seat and the concern that should bring about to every believer to examine our lives thoroughly, he now appeals to their knowledge of his life lived before them declaring that he has no need to prove anything to them because his very life lived completely dedicated to Christ Jesus is all the proof necessary. Paul’s life was not one lived to amass wealth or to gain fame or popularity with men but it was entirely lived for Jesus Christ as he wrote to the Galatian believers these words when telling them to count any man preaching a different gospel to be an accursed man, he wrote, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). However, the false apostles that came to the Corinthian believers justified themselves to these Corinthian believers as true apostles by their appearance or prosopon meaning the appearance one presents by his wealth or property, or his rank and status in the community according to their outward circumstances or external condition.

Paul was maligned and bad mouthed by these false apostles to these Corinthian believers because he did not live an outwardly lavish lifestyle that exuded wealth and prosperity. Paul’s purposes and motivations were never to gain temporal worldly things in order to authenticate his Apostleship but instead as he declared in the beginning of this second letter his aim was and would always be, to be found pleasing to Jesus Christ our Lord, as he wrote these words to them confirming this very point, “For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you” (2 Corinthians 1:12). Paul’s focus, attention, and concern was never only what was evident in his outward life but he was always analyzing, scrutinizing, and examining his inner man or his conscience, so that he would be found well-pleasing to Christ Jesus our Lord who made the inside as well as the outside (Luke 11:37-40). Paul was not a perfect man and never in any of his epistles or letters put forth or gave the impression that he was, as he has declared himself with these words to brother Timothy, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Paul here writes of himself saying “I am” and this verb “am” is a first person singular present indicative meaning he speaks of himself being as such in the present tense as an objective fact, even at the time of the penning of this letter and not declaring this condition to be only in the past, although he is a new creation in Christ Jesus our Lord and will never be dominated or held in dominion by his old nature again. Paul was so much more concerned with his inner man or conscience or the real Paul that he wrote this when he was being held prisoner and standing before Governor Felix presenting his case, “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men” (Acts 24:16). Paul’s life was lived to please Christ Jesus (understanding His terror) and that is why he warned men because he was always conscience of the judgment to come for all men, unlike the false apostles who were more concerned with outward appearances. Therefore, Paul declares that if he is regarded as someone who appears to be insane or unstable mentally, then it is for the will of God because God understands Paul completely because it is God who works in Paul and all true believers to accomplish His Will (Philippians 2:13).

It is also a fact that Paul, these Corinthian believers, and us are strangers and aliens in this world now as Christ Jesus our Lord has made us according to the great love for which He loves us and Paul declares that it is Christ love for him that constraineth or sunecho meaning holds him together and compels him to be steadfast in his occupation of doing the will of God from the heart living his entire life for Jesus Christ because of that love that necessitates him to live a life well pleasing to our Lord as he anticipates that One on one appointment. It is Christ death on the Cross that is pleasing to God the Father satisfying the penalty of every man’s sin against Him and it is only and purely through us believing in our hearts (Romans 10:9-10) that Christ death was for us that Paul, the Corinthian believers, and us can be resurrected from our spiritual death and spend eternity in heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ avoiding eternal death. Finally, Paul’s conclusion to all of this is simple and that is that since Christ loved us so much by dying in our place and loves us so much by living in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, then there is but one and only logical conclusion and that is for us to live the remainder of our earthly life or sojourn responding to His Love for us and to us with our reciprocal love to Him and for Him with our lives every day as it is written here by the Apostle John with these words, “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:4-6).

“It was of small importance in Paul’s eyes what his critics thought of him. He desired only to please his supreme Lord, whether he lived or died, was considered cold and staid or hot and impassioned. He was overmastered by his love of Christ. This may have been the sense of Christ’s love to his unworthy self, or the emotion that burned in his soul toward Christ, or the very love of Christ received into his heart, as a tiny creek on the shore receives the pulse of the ocean tide.” F. B. Meyer

“Paul’s life was one of constant spiritual warfare, persecution, trials, and test, yet it was his ever present awareness of Christ love for him that moved him through every battle zone in victory as he fervently wanted to live a life well pleasing to our Lord Jesus Christ always examining the condition of his inner man or conscience anticipating his appearance before Christ Judgment Seat.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...

Sincerely in Christ,

Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…

Saturday, December 21, 2013

The Truth comes to Corinth Part 2 Volume 17

Paul Declares the Judgment Seat of Christ for all Believers

2 Corinthians 5:9-11 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. NKJV

Paul now then having detailed this blessed assurance we have “in Christ” knowing that when we are made absent from our bodies we will instantly be with Him, Paul introduces this most logical conclusion to this truth by declaring our aim, objective, and ultimate goal should be by visible action to labor or philotimeomai meaning to be fond of honor and to love honor and to be ambitious and earnestly striving and studying to make ourselves and our lives well pleasing to our Lord, Master, and Savior Jesus Christ. We should have the mind set of visualizing our Lord Jesus calling us by name as He hangs naked on that filthy Cross making payment for our sins every time we sin against Him in word, thought, or deed and this should move us to repentance and turning away from what caused Him so much pain and suffering which He did not deserve but took on because of His great love for each one of us. The Apostle Peter reminded those early saints this very same thing when he wrote these words to them, “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (2 Peter 3:13-14).

Surely our love for our Lord Jesus should motivate this labor or philotimeomai but Paul now declares the number one reason we should be ambitious to please Him is because each one of us (His children) will appear or present ourselves formally before Him as one would do now before a human judge in a court of law. However, our appearance before Christ Judgment Seat will not be to determine whether we are guilty or innocent, saved or lost but instead it will be a full, piercing, thorough, and complete review of all we have done in this tent or body since the day we received Christ as Lord and Savior, the day of our new birth. Most of us dismiss this judgment seat as merely a time of receiving our rewards for our service in witness, giving, encouraging, teaching, etc. but it will be a time of great disappointment for many of us as we are confronted with all of the missed opportunities, all of our obstinacy, all of our besetting sins, all the times of our fear rather than faith, and all the times we limited the Spirit’s work in us and through us. The Apostle Peter put it this way when he wrote to the scattered believers during his time, “Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if it is with difficulty that the righteous is saved, what will become of the godless man and the sinner?” (1 Peter 4:15-18).

This will be the time for accountability of the ultimate sort because we can be assured that our Lord Jesus knows all and has seen all and there will be nothing left hidden in our lives that will not be uncovered by Him, even the things we deemed insignificant or have forgotten will not be forgotten or overlooked by Him. We have been made acceptable to God the Father through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ for our sins, but it is our daily lives that our Lord Jesus examines through His Supernatural Lenses studying, investigating, and finding out what truly moves and motivates us from our inner man or woman as He declared through the Prophet Jeremiah with these words, “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds” (Jeremiah 17:10). These words of our Lord Jesus through Jeremiah and what He declares here in 2 Corinthians 5:10 through the Apostle Paul suggest that our glorified bodies may be limited in accordance with the sins we committed “in the flesh” after our new birth testifying of differing degrees of rewards and of honor and glory to the saints in heaven (1 Corinthians 3:15) as the parable our Lord Jesus spoke likewise suggest differing degrees of suffering for the lost in hell when He said this, “But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more” (Luke 12:45-48).

Paul concludes by declaring it is his knowledge of the fear, dread, or terror of our Lord Jesus Christ that he goes about always seeking or desiring to persuade or peitho men, and this primary verb means to convince them by argument of the truth of this appearing before Christ Judgment Seat, that it will not be a sweet and pleasant role call for even all believers and it will be a day of terror and dread for the unsaved. The fear of the Lord does not stop nor is it diminished once one is born again, on the contrary it should be magnified even more so knowing the closeness to hell one was teetering on before the kindness of God’s grace came to us as declared by Paul with these words to Titus, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:3-6). The remembrance of this should actuate and activate our fear of the Lord or reverence of Him to move us to holy obedience to His Word and should make us fearful of His Judgment Seat when we are in sinful rebellion and crush us in our spirit and soul.

“The gate of death may look gloomy on this side, but on the other it is of burnished gold, and opens directly into the presence-chamber of Jesus. We long to see Him and to be with Him; and such desires are the work of the Holy Spirit and the first fruits of heaven. But remember that just inside the door there is Christ’s judgment seat, where He will adjudge our life and apportion our reward. Prepare, my soul, to give an account of thy talents!” F. B. Meyer

“But Paul is not only professing his own faith, he is speaking in the name of all his brethren. ‘We,’ ought to include every man and woman who calls himself or herself a Christian. It is this setting of the will of Jesus Christ high up above all other commandments, and proposing to one’s self as the aim that swallows up all other aims, that I may please Him-it is this, and not creeds, forms, opinions, professions, or even a faith that simply trusts in Him for salvation, that makes a true Christian. You are a Christian in the precise measure in which Christ’s will is uppermost and exclusive in your life, and for all your professions and your orthodoxy and your worship and your faith, not one hair’s-breadth further. Here is the signature and the common characteristic of all real Christians, ‘We labour that whether present or absent we may be well-pleasing to Him.’” Alexander MacLaren

“If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and it is, then the reality of our appearance before Christ Judgment Seat should strike holy terror within us at all times and especially when we are living in sin and rebellion against our Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. The man or women that do not know the Lord Jesus can in no way know of this fear unless or until they are brought under conviction that they are a sinner before God and accountable to Him as Paul declares of all unbelievers when he wrote, “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:18).” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Friday, December 20, 2013

The Truth comes to Corinth Part 2 Volume 16

Paul Details the Assurance of our Resurrection with Christ Part 2

2 Corinthians 5:5-8 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. KJV

Paul concludes this portion of his letter detailing the assurance of a new resurrected glorified body in heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ by reminding us that it is God the Father who has katergazomai us for this eternal glory meaning to perform or to work out; to accomplish and achieve; to fashion and finish; to do and to bring about and finally to cause or render us fit for spending eternity in His Presence. Let us never forget how Moses (in his earthly body) being so eager and curious wanted to see God who spoke to him from the burning bush and other places and this was the discourse between God and Moses, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.’ Then Moses said, ‘I pray You, show me Your glory!’ And He said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.’ But He said, ‘You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!’ (Exodus 33:17-20).

We can today be assured of our glorified state or condition to come by the fact and reality of the pledge, the solemn promise, and the guarantee of the Holy Spirit in our hearts who moves us and incites us to cry out to God as our Father now and no longer as some far away or far off God way out there somewhere, as Paul wrote with these words to the Roman believers, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (Romans 8:15-18). Our assurance is given to us by our Heavenly Father Himself the “Father of Mercies” as Paul referred to Him at the very beginning of this second epistle or letter to these Corinthian believers and to us (2 Corinthians 1:3). This gives us confidence to face what we know will come to us at any moment (death of our earthly body) at all times always because we know that as long as we are alive in this temporary body we are absent from our Lord, Master, and Savior Jesus Christ.

This is one of the greatest things done for us by God the Father through God the Son (our Lord Jesus Christ) and carried out “in us” by God the Holy Spirit removing our fear of death (Hebrews 2:15) and replacing it with the confident expectation of seeing the Face of Jesus Christ. The moment of our new birth we are made aware by the Spirit of God that this earth is not where we long to be but we see heaven as our real home and we long to make our way there, so now we are empowered to live by faith or trusting in the promises of God through Christ and the Word of God that no matter how hard or perplexed, or tempted with sin, or burdened, or weary in spiritual warfare we are prompted in our spirit to do what Paul said in the last few verses of the previous chapter 4, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

A great example of such walking or living by faith was what Moses sacrificed because he believed and trusted God as documented for us by these words written by the writer of Hebrews, “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen” (Hebrews 11:24-27). With this faith to see the unseen as if were seen, we then as Paul declares are willing or eudokeo meaning it seems good to us, or it is our good pleasure to choose or determine or decide to be ready and to prefer and be well pleased to be absent from our body so that we can be with our Lord Jesus Christ as Paul declared himself to be in a fix between staying alive on the earth or dying and going to be with Christ he wrote this to the Philippians, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better” (Philippians 1:21-23).

“The Apostle employs here a very emphatic compound term for ‘hath wrought.’ It conveys not only the idea of operation, but the idea of continuous and somewhat toilsome and effortful work, as if against the resistance of something that did not yield itself naturally to the impulse that He would bestow. Like some sculptor with a hard bit of marble, or some metallurgist who has to work the rough ore till it becomes tractable, so the loving, patient, Divine Artificer is here represented as labouring long and earnestly with a somewhat obstinate material which can and does resist His loving touch, and yet going on with imperturbable and patient hope, by manifold touches, here a little and there a little, all through life preparing a man for His purpose. The great Artificer toils at His task, ‘rising early’ and working long, and not discouraged when He comes upon a black vein in the white marble, nor when the hard stone turns the edge of His chisels. Now I would have you notice that there lies in this conception a very important thought, viz. God cannot make you fit for heaven all at a jump, or by a simple act of will. That is not His way of working. He can make a world so, He cannot make a saint so. He can speak and it is done when it is only a universe that has to be brought into being; or He can say, ‘Let there be light,’ and light springs at His word. But He cannot say, and He does not say, Let there be holiness, and it comes. Not so can God make man meet for the ‘inheritance of the saints in light.’ And it takes Him all His energies, for all a lifetime, to prepare His child for what He wants to make of him.” Alexander MacLaren

“The desire to go and be with Christ does not have anything to do with one’s age or even their physical health or the lack there of, but it is that longing in our inner man or woman to be rid of this “body of death” physical and spiritual as Paul detailed it in Romans 7:24 and be made completely just like Christ perfect in every way.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

The Truth comes to Corinth Part 2 Volume 15

Paul Details the Assurance of our Resurrection with Christ Part 1

2 Corinthians 5:1-4 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. KJV

Paul concluded the last chapter on such a great high giving testimony of he and us looking beyond our temporary sufferings (either physical due to sickness and persecutions or emotional/spiritual due to sin and satan) endured in these earthen vessels made from the dust of the earth to the indescribable glory we will have and experience forever with Christ in our new glorified body’s immune and secure against sin, sickness, and satan. Paul now begins to detail for the Corinthian believers and for us the absolute assurance we have “in Christ” in obtaining resurrection from the dead and our new glorified bodies. Paul declares that we who are certain of our standing “in Christ” know or eido meaning to perceive or discern and to understand by way of examination and experience that at the moment our frail and weak physical body is dissolved or kataluo meaning demolished, destroyed, torn down, and dies, we (our spirit and soul) will be immediately and instantaneously united with the glorified supernatural body made and reserved just for each one of us uniquely. Our earthly body is merely the tent, tabernacle, or temple that houses the real us made in the image of God our spirit and soul. Our spirit being the life giver to our earthly body as our Lord Jesus attested to by His Own words when He said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). Our soul is the unique part of us that distinguishes us from any other being in God’s Universe or Universes.

Everyone who is joined to our Lord Jesus Christ wrestles with the inward longing of wanting to throw off this weak and decaying physical body and be freed from all of its weaknesses physical, emotional, and spiritual and be united with the One (Jesus Christ our Lord) we long for as the Apostle Peter declares with these words, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:3-9). We groan in this flesh because we long to be with Christ Jesus our Lord and be made just like Him and we groan because we hate the weakness of this flesh, as our Lord Jesus reminded the early disciples and us with these words, “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). This English word weak our Lord Jesus used here is translated by the Greek word asthenes an adjective which means strength less or without strength, feeble, sick, and powerless literally, figuratively, and morally.

This body for us is an encumbrance or obstruction that impedes and is burdensome to our walk and intimacy with our Lord Jesus Christ as also the writer of Hebrews warned us about and encouraged us to fight against with these words as we remember those who have gone before us in this walk of faith, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2). Paul writes that it is our “earnest desire” or epipotheo a verb or action word meaning to yearn or long for, lust after in a good sense, and intensely craving this weak body to be removed from our spirit and soul. Paul declares that this “earnest desire” or epipotheo of being lifted out of this physical habitation our earthly body is not because we despise it in its form, for we know that it is God’s gift to us for living here on the earth, but it is due to the fact that we want the new immortal, incorruptible, and indestructible habitation that is completely and totally void of all sinful temptations and painful diseases as Paul already wrote to them at the end of his first epistle or letter with these words, “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).

“This mortal life is a pilgrimage, and our body is a tent, so slight, so transitory, so easily taken down; but what does it matter, since there is awaiting us a mansion prepared by God? Often in this veil of flesh we groan. It cages us, anchors us down to earth, hampers us with its needs, obstructs our vision, and becomes the medium of temptation. How good it would be if our physical body could be suddenly transmuted into the glorified ethereal body which should be like the resurrection body of our Lord! It would be sweet to escape the wrench of death. But if not, then through death we shall carry with us the germ of the glorified body. That which shall be quickened will first die, but God will give it a body as it shall please Him.” F. B. Meyer

“The earthly house of this tent does not merely define the composition, but also the whole relations and capacities of that to which it refers. The ‘tent’ is ‘earthly’, not merely because, to use a kindred metaphor, it is a ‘building of clay,’ but because, by all its capacities, it belongs to, corresponds with, and is fitted only for, this lower order of things, the seen and the perishable. And, on the other hand, the ‘mansion’ is in ‘the heavens,’ even whilst the future tenant is a nomad in his tent. That is so, because the power which can create that future abode is ‘in the heavens.’ It is so called in order to express the security in which it is kept for those who shall one day enter upon it. And it is so, further, to express the order of things with which it brings its dwellers into contact. ‘Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.’ That future home of the spirit will be congruous with the region in which it dwells; fitted for the heavens in which it is now preserved. And thus the two contrasts-adapted to the perishable, and itself perishable, belonging to the eternal and itself incorruptible-are the two which loom largest before the Apostle’s mind.” Alexander MacLaren

“The weakness of our human flesh and old nature (even though we be regenerated and born again) is a constant source and cause for groaning (Romans 8:23) within our hearts or inner man as we long for the day when we will be completely perfected in our spirit, soul, and glorified body.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The Truth comes to Corinth Part 2 Volume 14

Paul more than a Conqueror through Christ

2 Corinthians 4:7-18 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. KJV

Paul had come to understand completely that in his flesh dwelt no good thing as he declared in Romans 7:18, but he also understands as he writes here that there is a treasure or thesauros meaning a deposit of wealth being the Holy Spirit that causes him, the Corinthian believers, and each one of us to overcome by God’s Power and not from any human will or effort on our parts, although our part is subjection, submittal, or surrender to the Spirit of God. Paul knows fully that in him there is no strength to endure the great trauma his spirit, soul, and body has endured thus far and will continue to endure all the way until he is executed by having his head chopped off. Paul begins to detail some of his and the others hardship by first using the English verb troubled or as it is translated in Greek thlibo and this verb means to crowd or press (like grapes formed into juice for wine); a compressed, narrow, straitened, and contracted way; to be afflicted or distressed. Paul and his fellow workers faced this trouble or thlibo daily and in every place but were never overcome by it because of the treasure or thesaurus of God in him enabling him to endure. Paul declares to have often found himself perplexed or aporeo meaning to seem to have no way out or at a loss mentally or to stand in doubt not knowing what to do, but despite these real feelings, God enabled him and the others to never be in despair or despondent or to renounce all hope over the circumstances within his heart or inner man.

Paul was often persecuted or dioko meaning pursued by satan and his demons, and the human instruments he worked through causing Paul to flee or run away at times but also being caught and suffering as he described in (2 Corinthians 11:23-27), yet Paul was never forsaken or deserted or left behind or alone by God the Father, our Lord Jesus, or the Holy Spirit as the writer of Hebrews declares with these words, “Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6). Paul could easily write that everywhere he went he carried with him all of the marks of brutal beatings he endured by the grace of God for Christ sake, but in the dying and deteriorating of his physical body dwelt the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus Christ in him that could never be beaten, battered, or brutalized out of him by satan’s persecution, no matter the harshness and cruel intensity of it. Paul declares a great paradox by this statement that completely contradicts itself when he writes, “So death works in us, but life in you” (2 Corinthians 4:12) meaning that although his body is being beaten even to the point of physical death, yet his teaching and preaching “in person” and through his epistles or letters to them works or energizes God’s spiritual life within their souls.

Paul declares his faith and the Corinthians and us to be just as the Psalmist wrote long ago as he too was suffering affliction from enemies trying to take his life when he wrote, “I believed, therefore, I spoke, I am greatly afflicted” (Psalms 116:10) meaning despite the threats to life, he still declares the gospel of Christ wherever he goes. This faith did not come from the Psalmist or Paul or his fellow workers or the Corinthian believers or us today but it is the gift of God as Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians with these words, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Paul is confident in his resurrection and the Corinthian believers resurrection and our resurrection into our glorified body like that of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:53-55). Paul declares that everything he has endured up to the point of the penning of this letter and everything he will endure in the future is all for Christ sake and every person who trust in Him.

Paul faints not or ekkakeo meaning to be weak or weary because he knows that despite the reality of his perishing or decaying body, the real him (his inner man) is being strengthen and caused to grow up daily. Paul lived with such a great disposition in regard to all of the suffering he encountered and endured in his physical body for Christ sake and that of the gospel of grace, for he refers to it here as being light or elaphros meaning easy and he declares it to be “which is but for a moment” or the Greek word parautika meaning simply momentary or fleeting, that which last but for a brief time. Here Paul brilliantly contrast the afflictions of suffering with the glory revealed in us in our glorified bodies (Romans 8:18) and the light suffering compared to the exceeding or great weight found in our perfect, powerful, and permanent glorified bodies we long and yearn for (Romans 8:23) and finally the momentary or briefness of our sufferings with sin and persecution to the everlasting and eternal glorified body we will inhabit in heaven with Christ Jesus our Lord (Colossians 3:4), and therefore, we look past what we can see with our physical eyes and we look to Him (Christ Jesus our Lord) who is invisible to our physical eyes but not to our eyes of faith.

“They knew that Christ was raised, and that His Resurrection was an earnest and assurance of theirs. This he had treated of largely in his former epistle to these Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15:1. And therefore their hope was firm, being well grounded, that He who raised up Christ the head will also raise up all His members. Note, The hope of the resurrection will encourage us in a suffering day, and set us above the fear of death; for what reason has a good Christian to fear death, that dies in hope of a joyful resurrection?” Matthew Henry

“The earthen vessel which holds the priceless treasure of the knowledge of God-the lamp of frail ware in which the light of Christ’s glory shines for the illumination of the world-is human nature as it is; man’s body in its weakness, and liability to death; his mind with its limitations and confusions; his moral nature with its distortions and misconceptions, and its insight not yet half restored. It was not merely in his physique that Paul felt the disparity between himself and his calling to preach the Gospel of the glory of Christ; it was in his whole being. But instead of finding in this disparity reason to doubt his vocation, he saw in it an illustration of a great law of God. It served to protect the truth that salvation is of the Lord.” From the Expositors Bible Commentary 1886-1897

“The many Christians who are imprisoned right at this moment for Christ sake (like Pastor Saeed in Iran) being tortured far beyond what we could imagine, have surely received grace from our Lord Jesus to see the words Paul has written in this section of his epistle and find that strength that Paul himself found “the treasure in earthen vessels” to endure as Paul endured.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The Truth comes to Corinth Part 2 Volume 13

Paul Declares the Gospel of Christ brings Light

2 Corinthians 4:1-2 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. KJV

Paul in the previous chapter referred to himself as a servant of the New Covenant made available to every sinner by Christ death, burial, and resurrection from the dead and he sees his primary duty to acclaim, announce, and annunciate this message everywhere on the earth. The motivation for Paul was the mercy or eleeo he received from the endless and rich treasure of mercy that is stored up in our Lord Jesus Christ. This English word mercy translated by the Greek word eleeo means for someone to have mercy on another or to help one afflicted or seeking aid or to bring help to the wretched. Paul once a blasphemer and persecutor of the Church of God has now dedicated his entire life to Jesus Christ and the proclamation of His Gospel all due to the exceeding mercy he was shown by our Lord Jesus Christ, as he declared with these words to brother Timothy, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:12-16).

Mercy is what each believer in Jesus Christ has received and it is because of such great mercy that Paul now declares that he and every one of us true believers must refuse to adulterate, corrupt, or debase the Word of God by adding things to it or by subtracting from the truth of it in order that we would gain or profit financially from doing so, as we are warned by the Apostle John in the last Book of the Bible (Revelation) and in its last chapter with these words, “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19). Mercy received compels us to hold fast to the truth of this Book always, even when we are severely convicted and rebuked for our own personal sin when we open it and read we change it not to accommodate or to be agreeable or to be acceptable to our failures but we seek Christ and His Grace that we would repent and be turned back into the light of the gospel of Christ and His Word.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. KJV

It is the lost man or woman that has the light of the gospel of Christ covered up to them and it is the devil who has blinded or tuphloo their minds meaning to blunt, dull, or numb their mental discernment. Paul declares that the guilt and burden lifting light of Christ death on Calvary as a substitute or payment to God the Father for all their sins past, present, and future cannot be grasped by them (in their hearts). Their hearts remain in darkness without the light or illumination of Christ Spirit as we declared in the very last study that it is the heart or center of one’s spiritual life or inner man/woman that every sinner believes savingly unto salvation (Romans 10:10). True forgiveness can never come to anyone that merely believes “in God” or “in Christ” in an intellectual manner, for we must never forget what James wrote in his epistle or letter when he said, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder” (James 2:19) and we know that they will never ever enter into heaven again, for they are destined for eternal punishment along with the devil in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10). It is the devil that keeps the light or illumination of the gospel from shinning forth or augazo meaning to beam upon their hearts or irradiate them with spiritual insight as a lamp or light would do when brought into a dark room.

2 Corinthians 5-6 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. KJV

Paul declares that even though we are forgiven and new creatures “in Christ” we don’t herald or proclaim ourselves as something to be looked upon or admired, but it is Christ and Christ Jesus our Lord only we proclaim and herald and each one of us (even Paul) as Christ slave, subject, and servant. For we are not able by our words or even by our lives to grant the mental discernment, the illumination, or the enlightenment that the sinner’s heart or inner man/women needs to see Jesus as God and themselves as doomed, dead, and damned souls. However, the same Spirit of God that said, “‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Genesis 1:3) has done the exact same thing in every forgiven sinner’s dark heart through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is through our Lord Jesus Christ that we see the love of God, the grace of God, and the mercy of God each and every day we continue in our pilgrimage and sojourn on this earth as we travel toward our real home in heaven in our glorified bodies we will receive upon our arrival.

“The servant of Christ must never forget that he once needed and obtained mercy. This will sustain him in many an hour when heart and flesh fail. His weapon is the truth, his appeal to conscience. Others may vie with him in brilliant imagination, fervid enthusiasm, and intellectual force, but he has unrivaled supremacy in the realm of conscience.” F. B. Meyer

“They made it their business to preach Christ, and not themselves: We preach not ourselves. Self was not the matter nor the end of the apostles’ preaching: they did not give their own notions and private opinions, nor their passions and prejudices, for the word and will of God; nor did they seek themselves, to advance their own secular interest or glory. But they preached Christ Jesus the Lord; and thus it did become them and behoove them to do, as being Christ’s servants. Their business was to make their Master known to the world as the Messiah, or the Christ of God, and as Jesus, the only Savior of men, and as the rightful Lord, and to advance His honor and glory.” Matthew Henry

“It is perhaps a comparison that not many of us Christians ever contemplate but we should do so daily and that is that just as at the beginning of creation there was nothing but complete darkness so are our hearts dark and deceitful as Jeremiah describes in Jeremiah 17:9, but likewise as God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light, so has He said ‘Let there be light’ in you and me and there is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in each one of us who believes.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.

Monday, December 16, 2013

The Truth comes to Corinth Part 2 Volume 12

Paul Declares the Glory & Majesty of the New Covenant made by Christ Death & Resurrection Part 3

2 Corinthians 3:15-16 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. KJV

Paul testifies to the standing that Moses has among the Jewish people and their religion. Paul knows by way of experience what he declares here being that he was a Hebrew of Hebrews (Philippians 3:5-6), as he describes himself before his encounter with Christ and so was the majority of Jews then and still until this very day. One perfect example of how the Jews (in this case the Pharisees) felt about our Lord Jesus Christ in comparison to Moses was reflected in a discourse that took place between some of the Pharisees and a man born blind from his Mother’s womb healed by our Lord Jesus Christ, as recorded for us by the Apostle John here, “So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, ‘Give glory to God; we know that this man (Jesus) is a sinner.’ He then answered, ‘Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’ So they said to him, ‘What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?’ He answered them, ‘I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?’ They reviled him and said, ‘You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man (Jesus), we do not know where He is from.’” (John 9:24-29). This very discourse is one that has occurred from then all the way until now with many Jews. Every non-believer be they Jew or Gentile as Paul declares their hearts or kardia meaning the center of their spiritual life, their mind which houses all of their thoughts and feelings is veiled or kaluma meaning covered or obscured and concealed from the truth about Christ and the gospel of His death and resurrection from the dead for their sins.

Paul then immediately introduces a conjunction or makes the connection with the veil or covering over their (all non-believers) hearts by declaring that when “it shall turn” or epistrepho speaking of their hearts and meaning to revert or turn back or to go back to a previous state literally, figuratively, or morally; to turn to the worship of the True God. Paul declares here that when the heart or kardia of any sinner be they Jew or Gentile turns to worship the True and Living God Jesus Christ, then the veil or kaluma is immediately taken away or periaireo meaning to take away that which surrounds or envelopes a thing; metaphorically to take away altogether or entirely the guilt of sin, to expiate or make reparation for wrongdoing perfectly. This veil upon the heart is done away with and removed completely in the Person and Work of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are two verses in the New Testament written by this same Apostle Paul that many people refer to as “the sinners prayer”, but in actuality it is a description of what happens internally or in the inner man (where no one can see) when a person is born again and it is written by Paul with these words, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. KJV

It was the sole and only purpose of the Law of God or the Ten Commandments to drive every one of us in guilt and shame over our sinful state to the Cross of Jesus Christ where He then by the Holy Spirit pours Himself into us and we are absolved of all our guilt and shame and given a new freedom of full and complete access to God the Father at all times and at any time free from fear or condemnation (Romans 8:1) and we are liberated eleutheria meaning freed from being slaves to sin and evil and liberated into true liberty to live as we should and not as we please because as Paul wrote to the Galatian believers, “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:3-7). We are sons of God now and we are treated by our Heavenly Father as any good earthly father would treat his son (but far better), we are loved unconditionally (no matter what we do or don’t do (Hebrews 13:5)) but at the same time we are disciplined or chastened when we sin and rebel against our Heavenly Father because He Loves us (Hebrews 12:6-11). It is Christ living “in us” by the Holy Spirit and convicting us, exhorting us, teaching us, encouraging us, rebuking us, loving us, gracing us, and cherishing us through the mirror of His Word daily revealing to each of us the truth about our character, attitudes, and our behavior ever conforming us and molding us, and shaping us into the image of Christ Jesus our Lord, where when we see Him Face to face we will then be just like Him (Romans 8:29 & 1 John 3:2).

“Not only was Moses veiled, but the hearts of the Jews were covered with a thick covering of prejudice. They did not understand the inner significance of the Levitical Code; and when the Law was read, they listened to it without spiritual insight. Directly men turn to Christ, they see the inner meaning of Scripture. What liberty becomes ours when we live in Christ! We are free to love, to serve, to know, and to be. Note 2 Corinthians 3:18! We may gaze on the unveiled face of God in Christ. The more we look the more we resemble. The more we endeavor to reflect Him, in doing what He desires, the more certainly and inevitably we become like Him. Only remember that in all things we are deeply indebted to the gracious influence of the Spirit. He produces the Christ-life in us.” F. B. Meyer

“Troubled soul, the ‘much tribulation’ will soon be over, and as you enter the ‘kingdom of God’ you shall then see, no longer ‘through a glass darkly’ but in the un-shadowed sunlight of the Divine Presence, that ‘all things’ did ‘work together’ for your personal and eternal good.” A. W. Pink

“Worship is not a repetitious exercise of rituals and formulas. These create a veil that actually prevents us from enjoying the presence of the Lord. Worship is the heart poured out in gratitude and awe, expressing our appreciation of who He is and what He has done for us by His grace through Jesus Christ.” Dave Hunt

“Give up the struggle and the fight; relax in the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus; look up into His lovely face and as you behold Him, He will transform you into His likeness. You do the beholding--He does the transforming. There is no short-cut to holiness.” “Any battle for victory, power, and deliverance - from ourselves and from sin - which is not based constantly upon the gazing and the beholding of the Lord Jesus, with the heart and life lifted up to Him, is doomed to failure.” Alan Redpath 1907-1989

“It is the majesty and grace of Jesus Christ by way of the Holy Spirit that makes all the difference for me, to me, and in me and He is the only reason why I can rejoice, because without my Lord Jesus Christ I can do nothing (John 15:5) and I am nothing and I often prove the validity of that Scripture far too many times.” Clifford D. Tate, Sr.