Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 9:3 Every
moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Genesis 9:4 But flesh with the life
thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
We spoke on this issue Friday in
Sidney.
- The forbidden fruit
matches the forbidden meat in Noah's day.
- Forbidden fruit was
good for food and pleasant to this sight in the Garden like all the
other fruit, but had one ingredient that was the killer.
- Desire to make one
wise and be like God.
- Forbidden meat had
BLOOD in it.
- NATURAL LIFE.
I touched on this there, and saw
more since then.
- God wants us to
have HIS LIFE, not knowledge of good and evil.
- And Noah's
forbiddance against meat with blood in it shows NATURAL LIFE.
- Life of the FLESH
is in the blood.
- FLESH is fallen.
- Combine the stories
and we get the picture of LOSING NATURAL FLESHLY LIFE and instead
GAINING GOD'S LIFE.
Fleshly life wants to live.
- All LIFE wants to
live.
- But fleshly life in
the meat for food represents natural life that we thrive on, since
we thrive upon what we eat.
- We must thrive upon
God's Life which is eternal.
- Not natural life,
which is fallen.
And as much natural life that we
refuse to let go and shed, or die, is as much Life of God that we cannot receive.
- The SPACE in us
that natural life occupies is that much space that God's
Life cannot occupy.
Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto
his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow me.
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save
his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Matthew 16:26 For what
is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul?
Losing our natural life allows for
us to FIND IT again because natural life is gone and allows for eternal Life to
enter.
John 12:25 He that loveth his life
shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life
eternal.
The way of the New Testament is
death, burial and resurrection.
- That means LOSING
NATURAL LIFE in order to gain new resurrection life.
- And our flesh has
an aversion to losing its life.
- This is what OLD
COVENANT living is much more familiar to us, since it is actually based upon NATURAL LIFE DRIVING
OUR RELIGION by SELF DOING GOOD WORKS.
- So, when Jesus
tells us to LOSE SELF, and SELF was encouraged by Law to do good, the flesh cannot hardly relate to Jesus
and this New Covenant.
Having a law mentality cannot allow
you to relate to the New Testament lifestyle.
- It's much more
comfortable with LAW and Old Testament.
- Rules and
regulations.
Spirit-led living is something
totally different.
- It is being
empowered by God's Life to do good by HIM LIVING THROUGH US.
- His LIFE IS HIMSELF!
- HE IS LIFE.
- So when we say we
must live by HIS LIFE, that means HE LITERALLY LIVES THROUGH US.
It is quite and adjustment to go
from law-lifestyle to Spirit-led living.
- Self also throws
another wrench into the picture because it thrives on self-glory.
- IT WANTS TO BE LIKE
GOD.
That is what the serpent told Eve
to desire.
But LOVING JESUS is LOVING HIS LIFE
and denying our own.
Noah had to SHED BLOOD TO EAT MEAT.
- That represents
letting go of natural self-led life to LIVE FOR GOD.
- Letting go of the
desire to exalt self and be the focus, instead of God.
- Ridding ourselves
of anything that places people's focus on us instead of God,
- as though removing
attention of us bing god to Him being GOD.
Eve had to DENY HERSELF in order to
resist the devil's temptation.
- The devil appealed
to her desire to make herself wise.
- She needed God's
LIFE instead.
- But it's one or the
other.
- For that reason God
said they had to leave the Garden lest they take also of the tree
of life.
In Matthew 16 when Jesus
told us to deny self and take up the cross, he was taking us back to the Garden.
Matthew 17:1 And after six days Jesus
taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high
mountain apart,
Matthew 17:2 And was
transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
His face shone like the Sun.
Matthew 17:5 While he yet spake,
behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which
said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
Listen to what Peter said:
2Peter 1:16 For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eyewitnesses of his
majesty.
2Peter 1:17 For he received from God
the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the
excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.
2Peter 1:18 And this
voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
2Peter 1:19 We have
also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
He said that after he said:
2Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be
multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS.
2Co 4:6 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.
KNOWLEDGE IS LIKE LIGHT
SHINING IN DARKNESS.
GENESIS.
So it's like saying the LIGHT
SHINING FROM JESUS multiplies grace and peace to us, when it says it is through knowledge
of God and Jesus that we have it multiplied.
- LIGHT OF THE
KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF GOD.
2Peter 1:3 According as his divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through
the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:LIFE AND GODLINESS.
LIFE is what The Lord wanted us to have in the Garden.
- It's what Jesus
came that we might have.
GODLINESS is being LIKE
GOD, not the way the serpent distorted it to be.
- GODLINESS is having
God SHAPE US INTO HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS.
- The IMAGE OF GOD is
what God was after in the Garden.
LIGHT CHANGES US INTO HIS
IMAGE.
2Co 3:18 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.
That GLORY OF THE LORD we look at
IS LIGHT:
2Co 4:6 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.
Law actually VEILS us away
from that glory.
2Co 3:6 Who also hath made us able
ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2Co 3:7 But if the
ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel
could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance;
which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8 How shall not
the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
2Co 3:9 For if the
ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in
glory.
2Co 3:10 For even that
which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2Co 3:11 For if that
which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
2Co 3:12 Seeing then
that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
2Co 3:13 And not as
Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to
the end of that which is abolished:
2Co 3:14 But their
minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the
old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15 But even unto
this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16 Nevertheless
when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
The LAW resists the glory because
SELF and FLESH is encouraged.
- Self and flesh is
the veil.
- Flesh must be
denied and let die.
- That is the removal
of the VEIL.
Even Jesus' flesh was called the
veil.
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way,
which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 And having
an high priest over the house of God;
We got through the veil of HIS
FLESH...
- It was rent.
- But it died, and
through his death we enter.
- That implies we die
with Him since that is what his death was for.
- So it demands self
denial.
- Death of self.
So, being in His image occurs by
removal of fleshly self life, and reliance on natural life, and feeding on
resurrection eternal life.
The more He lives through us the
more we are like Him.
The more we deny self, receive his
knowledge and light. the more we come into His image.