The Sum of All Possibilities in Christ

By J.F. Morin

This book provides the reader with a framework required for the deeper Christian life that leads to Christ-likeness in character. Like the dry bones of Ezekiel 37 that come together to form a cohesive whole, the chapters in this book form the bigger picture into which we are better able to see ourselves as we truly are. The author uses multiple points of reference to get a clear picture of what is being described by the authors of the Bible. This will help us with an understanding of how we are to progress in the Christian faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 29, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664267404

J.F. Morin

For over 40 years J.F. Morin has followed Christ by the leading of the Spirit. In this book he shares the insights and lessons he has received that point to a walk with Christ both in this temporal world and in the eternal reality of the Kingdom of God.

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Copyright © 2022 J.F. Morin.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher

make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book

and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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Interior Image Credit: Léanne Morin

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-6738-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-6739-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-6740-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022909594

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/29/2022

Special thanks to Ben and Natalie, my sister,

Suzanne, and my wife, Dorothy

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part 1   Saving the Cosmos

1.1   In the Beginning

1.2   The Rebellion

1.3   The Fall

1.4   The Simulation

1.5   The Hidden World

1.6   Principalities and Power

1.7   The Coming of Christ

1.8   The Triumph of Christ

1.9   The Gospel

1.10 The Redemption of Man

Part 2   Born from Above

2.1   The New Creation

2.2   Quickened by the Spirit

2.3   Born into God’s Love

2.4   Fulfilling the Commandments of God

2.5   The Sample

2.6   A Walk in the Desert

2.7   Spiritual Sight

2.8   Born in Zion

2.9   To the Jew First but also the Gentile

2.10 Favour is Deceitful

2.11 The Inner Man

Part 3   The Cross of Christ

3.1   The Outer Man

3.2   Mountains and Hills

3.3   Weaned from the Flesh

3.4   The Husk is Broken

3.5   Crucified with Christ

3.6   The Power of the Cross

3.7   A Glorious Weakness

3.8   A Living Sacrifice

Part 4   Raising the Standard; From Law to Grace

4.1   The Law of Moses

4.2   The Law of Righteousness

4.3   The Law of God

4.4   The New Covenant

4.5   The Law of Faith

4.6   Paul-o-getics

4.7   Grace

4.8   The Law of Christ

4.9   Spiritual Discernment

Part 5   Righteousness

5.1   The Nature of the Truth

5.2   Self-Righteousness

5.3   Self-Awareness

5.4   The Righteousness of the Law

5.5   Human Righteousness

5.6   The Righteousness of Faith

5.7   The Righteousness of God

5.8   The Righteousness of Saints

5.9   The Nature of Holiness

Part 6   Measuring Up

6.1   Spiritual Warfare

6.2   The Cover-up

6.3   Spiritual Chaos

6.4   Heresy

6.5   Amalek

6.6   The Great Apostasy

6.7   Babylon

6.8   To Build and to Plant

6.9   The Church of God

Part 7   Inheriting Life

7.1   The Inheritance

7.2   Following Christ

7.3   Led by the Spirit

7.4   A Touch from God

7.5   The Race of Faith

7.6   Falling Short

7.7   The Assembly

Part 8   Entering into Life

8.1   The Baptism of the Spirit

8.2   Abiding in Christ

8.3   Walking in the Spirit

8.4   The School of Christ

8.5   The Full Stature of Christ

8.6   The Body of Christ

8.7   A Living Hope

Conclusion

Preface

If we have learned anything from the long and often sad history of the Church, it is that it is possible to be right in doctrine but wrong in practice, just as we can be wrong in doctrine but right in practice. Over the years we have found many ways to get things wrong. In a bid to organize and unify the Church into a visible structure, we have tended to squeeze God out of it. We seem willing to sacrifice the hidden essence of eternal truth for a temporal expression that we can wrap our minds around. Why do we reduce the truth to a version that is pleasing to us? Having begun in the Spirit are we to be made perfect through carnal means? Revelation from God only comes to those who seek the truth without compromising it.

The Church at the present time has never been so fractured. A house divided cannot stand. Even after two millennia, we are still struggling to put together a universal framework that allows for the building up of the Body into the full stature of Christ. The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth only insofar as it partakes of the life that is in Jesus Christ. Our witness to the world is more about how we hold on to what we consider to be sound doctrine than the content of those doctrines.

True Christianity is a living means, not an end. Our focus should not be on the ends, but on the means we have yet to grasp. The way of Christ is about running an active race, not claiming a finished status. When Jesus said, It is finished (John 19:30), He was speaking of His own work, not ours. We are a work in progress. By grace through faith, we are to overcome as Jesus overcame.

The purpose of this book is not to go into fine detail concerning any one aspect of the words of truth but rather to show how these aspects are interconnected and how they correlate. As these aspects are pieced together from a proper weighing of the truth, we will see a framework emerging. In so doing, we may uncover what has been covered up by the weeds that invariably grow when we are not careful to maintain an active connection to God by the Spirit. We must re-learn the ancient ways by a fresh discovery of the ancient paths from the written word into a living witness of life in the Spirit (Jer. 6:16).

The goal of this book is to edify the spiritual structure that God is building. God is Spirit and does not build as we build. My hope is to build up the inner man by bringing together the different aspects of the truth from the whole counsel of God found in the Bible. These different aspects fit together like pieces in a puzzle that show the manifold facets of God in His love and mercy, as well as in His judgments. It is only as all the pieces fit together in the right place that we get the right picture.

Finally, this book provides a biblical framework into which all the aspects of God’s ways come together to form a bigger picture. I want to show how verses from the biblical text fit together into a mosaic that offers up the sum of all possibilities that are in Christ. These possibilities are as diverse in expression as there are individuals, but also as inter-connected as the members of one Body. This could be likened to the dry bones in Ezekiel 37 that come together to form a skeletal framework; the bare bones of a structure that God can revive through His Spirit. What we should be looking for is an internal spiritual structure, not something that can be pointed to externally. The Kingdom of God doesn’t come with an outward observation (Luke 17:20). Orthodoxy is inward in the heart with a true expression of oneness being unfiltered by human techniques or agendas. In the end, orthodoxy is as simple as faith working by love (Gal.5:6).

The difficulty in forming a framework lies in the nature of the truth having layers, or depths of meaning. So then, the puzzle we are seeking to fit together is multi-dimensional. It is only as we break free from the shackles of our limitations that we can discover the way of endless possibilities.

Introduction

In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scriptures passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.¹

At what depth are we to approach the things of God? Can we assume that we are properly understanding what we are reading in the Bible through a casual study? Without spiritual discernment, we will read things into the text that aren’t there and miss the deeper message that is there. Both of these kinds of misreading lead to the acceptance of half-truths. Misreading leads to being misled. Without the illuminating and penetrative insight of the Holy Spirit, we are sure to go astray in our understanding. We will never go beyond the limit of what is possible for the flesh if we limit God who is the Source of all life and every possibility.

Before going into the deeper spiritual implications of the structure and meaning of the words contained in the Bible, I’d like to take a closer look at how the Bible was written as a means of conveying things that the human mind can only perceive in a rudimentary way.

Writing is a God-given method of communicating ideas through time and space. Conveying ideas that are readily grasped, such as events that occur in daily life, is one thing, but what of ideas that are novel or foreign to us? How much of what is unknown can be transmitted through the written word, and with what accuracy? How, then, is the Bible to record and transmit the mysteries of God so that spiritual ideas are able to be grasped by the natural mind? We can’t expect the Bible to only be appreciated by people who are already spiritually aware. We will find that there are levels of understanding that have been taken into account in the composition of the biblical narrative. Jesus used parables and simple stories to convey universal spiritual truth in a way that could be understood on the most basic level. We know we are understanding the Bible correctly if the elementary principles that Jesus taught are not being violated as we delve deeper into its mysteries.

To understand the written word of God on a deeper level, we need to know how the Bible conveys the words of truth. The Bible is divided into two Testaments. The Old Testament is concerned with righteousness and the New Testament is concerned with a holiness that reconciles humankind to the living God. It has been said that the New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed. The balance that exists in the truth is revealed in a tension of two seemingly opposing forces. The balance is in the dual aspects of the truth being equally measured, one against the other. Examples of these polarities are mercy and truth, the law and grace, the love and the fear of God, the kindness and severity of God, etc. It isn’t by accident that justice is often represented by a weight balancing scale. God is looking for a perfect and just weight in all our dealings (Deut. 25:15). A biased tilting towards one aspect of the truth or another in our judgments is an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 11:1). One aspect of the truth doesn’t negate another. We should be careful to not tip the scales in favour of a preferential reading of the Bible.

The Bible, at its deepest level, is a book of mysteries that conceals the ways of God. Something as unexpected and mysterious as this cannot be directly communicated without help from the Holy Spirit. The words that have been encoded by the Spirit into a human language can only be decoded by that same Spirit. The New Testament is communicating mysteries that are so deep and powerful that mere words can only convey truth in a low-resolution form. Unless we can appreciate the distinction between a low and a high resolution understanding of the words in the Bible, we will miss half the truth.

A proper reading of the Bible seeks to absorb the truth of a high-resolution reality through its lower resolution representation, without negating what is being conveyed more simply in the lower resolution. By encoding truth into words, there is a need for them to be decoded back to the original high-resolution meaning in order to be fully understood. The truth in high resolution comes with the requisite power that changes lives from within. We could draw a parallel to this process by comparing it to the modern compressed ZIP file whereby the message is locked and hidden unless one is in possession of the key that unlocks its contents. That key is the Holy Spirit. By faith in the truth, and according to the working of God, we are granted the spiritual key that transports us by grace into the place where the message originated from in the heavenly realm. Only the truth in its highest resolution sets us free. Reading the Bible without the key is to read without perceiving what has been hidden within the low-resolution narrative. Jesus calls this key the key of knowledge (Luke 11:52).

The Bible will interpret the Bible if we stay consistent in translating the same words the same way. In order to make sense of the text in context, the translators often sacrifice the meaning of the words to make a verse sound less mysterious. Owing to this practice, the same Hebrew word can be made to have many meanings depending on what meaning is acceptable to the ones doing the translating, and that leads to a lot of words being mistranslated because of a lack of understanding the text. If we add to that tendency, the very nature of the truth being hidden in the layers of meaning that were deliberately added in the creation of the text, we get the same kind of diligence that is required in our reading as is required in seeking the face of God. In any case, all Bible translations tend to be timid regarding the realization of spiritual mysteries, even as they are plainly written. It is good to keep in mind when studying the Bible that it is the original text (in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) which is inspired, not the translation. That is not to say that every passage is translated inaccurately. In most cases, the translations do a satisfactory job, even an excellent job at times. It is my contention that as the mystery deepens in certain passages of scripture that the text becomes compromised by those who have not understood the significance of the message beyond what they can naturally perceive.

God is infinite, eternal, and limitless. He dwells outside of time and space. Humankind, however, was created with limitations. Jesus came from the Father in the limitation of a human body in time and space to dwell with us and to reconcile what is finite with the infinite—on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus, as the eternal Logos of God, was revealed to us as the Word made flesh. Outwardly, Jesus appeared as any man, but He came to us as the embodiment of high-resolution truth as the Source of eternal life. His words are truth and life. To be fully understood, however, they need to be received at the same resolution level as they are being conveyed. To say that Jesus spoke in understatements is itself an understatement. Jesus let us know that He was speaking the deeper things of God, as dimensional truth within dimensional truth, when He repeated the words—verily, verily.

Jesus lived His parables. What we see in the parable of the Pearl of Great Price (Matt. 13:45-46) is something of great value, but in a form that few would recognize as such. Through the parable we know that the pearl, in a form that could be ignored or easily overlooked, is hiding something of great significance. Jesus came to us in such a way. We would walk right by Him without giving Him a second glance. Who would be able to discern the glory hidden in leaving everything behind to follow Him? If we only live life in its lowest resolution, without an eternal awareness, then how will we come to recognize the things that are beyond our experience and understanding? God must surely become involved if we are to grasp what is out of our reach.

Jesus, in His daily ministry, lived out the veiled witness of the eternal Logos to the world. In Him, we see a high-resolution manifestation of the truth hidden in a low-resolution representation of humanity. An example of this is with the miracle of the five loaves and two fish being unpacked before thousands of people so that they were filled even to overflowing (Matt. 14:15-21). In the course of that miracle, there was more leftover than when they began. How could a young boy bring enough food to feed thousands of people? (Those fish he was carrying were not whales!) So, we see how God transforms what is limited into what is limitless. The loaves and fish were not special in any way. They were ordinary and everyday food items. Likewise, in the Bible, God uses everyday words to conceal eternal truth. Did the people who were satisfied with the loaves and fish appreciate the miracle that took place among them? They could eat their fill in their low-resolution grasp of reality without any appreciation of the miracle that had occurred before their very eyes. So it is with spiritual truth. We can read the words and be nourished by them while missing the deeper and eternal reality they are pointing to. Those who are able to partake of the miraculous provision contained in the words of God are nourished to overflowing with a spiritual understanding that fills the soul. Jesus said:

"I am the bread of life: he who comes to Me shall never hunger; and he that believes on [eis] me shall never thirst." (John 6:35).

We, in our natural state, are limited to a finite grasp of reality. Until we are given the spiritual faculties that expand our perception into eternal reality, we can only grasp the truth on a very narrow bandwidth that is limited by our carnal perception. The devil rules the world in its low-resolution grasp of reality by manipulating it through a high-resolution form of evil. This subversion of reality can only be overcome by a high-resolution grasp of the truth. A high-resolution problem needs a high-resolution solution. How many times has the Church sought to wage warfare with the devil with only a low-resolution grasp of the truth?

The faith of Jesus Christ is faith in its full resolution. A higher resolution of faith brings with it a higher resolution walk. A small measure of that kind of faith can move mountains (Matt. 17:20). Through that kind of faith we are given the provision of a grace that makes it possible for us to walk as Jesus walked. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil. 4:13). With a high-resolution faith comes the grace to escape the pull of this world.

It goes without saying that the Church that represents the truth of Christ, the eternal truth, should itself be walking in the high-resolution form of faith and power. At the very least, its leaders should be. Any lack of unity in the Body of Christ should be quickly dealt with through a common ongoing experience of God through the Spirit.

How can oneness with Christ be presented to the world where vast differences in interpretations of the Bible in its low-resolution form are inevitable? Rather than seeing a given interpretation as being either right or wrong, it helps to understand that the truth can be understood at different depths. Such is the intent of God in the writing of the Bible. Of course, there are interpretations that are wrong and lead people astray. Not everyone can handle the truth at any real depth at the beginning of their walk. God has engineered His words to be understood at whatever level is necessary to bring us closer to Him. So, we go from what is required for the novice, who needs to understand the first steps on the path of life, to what is required for a walk that has the full power of grace behind it. There is more to God’s word than what the human mind can grasp without the help of God. God communicates with us from heart to heart, bypassing the mind, at least at the outset. We do well to never assume we have fully apprehended with the mind what God is trying to communicate to us. It has been said, what comes from the heart enters the heart.

Now each writer of the Bible has a unique perspective that helps us gain a new vantage point. This is especially true of the New Testament, which is more a testimonial than a compendium of laws we are to follow. A certain kind of language and imagery emerges from these multiple sources as each facet helps us with the overall picture.

For example, a verse that is universally understood in its low-resolution form is the very popular John 3:16, which is actually speaking of the power of the gospel to translate a person into the kingdom realm of the Spirit.

""For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in [eis] him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

A better rendering of the above verse would use the original Greek word eis to mean to or into. And this little preposition, whether it is to or into, changes the depth of the Biblical testimony in a drastic way. The Bible tends to interpret itself when comparing verse with verse. To better understand how John was recounting the words of Jesus, we can look at how he uses that same preposition elsewhere in his gospel.

"I am come a light into [eis] the world, that whosoever believes into [eis] me should not abide in darkness." (John 12:46)

Here we see how the word eis (into, to) is to be used and understood in the text. Jesus came into the world just as we are to enter into Him. By letting the Bible be internally consistent, we are led to a high-resolution truth that otherwise could not be conveyed. Any other consideration causes us to lean on our own understanding.

The above verse is key in understanding how faith works in its high resolution. John uses a very high spiritual tone that most people will not begin to fathom because of its accuracy and depth. This is where being limited to a low-resolution understanding can cause one to remain completely in the dark about words that are meant to convey eternal truth. It should be kept in mind that an idea taken from the Bible will only become popular when it isn’t understood properly. The temptation will always be to underestimate the depth at which the truth is hidden within the biblical narrative.

Jesus Himself used imagery that was at times very difficult to understand. We see this in the appeal to eat his flesh and to drink His blood in order to have eternal life (John 6:54). Jesus used the imagery of His flesh and blood to convey spiritual things that were not so obvious. As related elsewhere in the Bible, the life is in the blood (Lev. 17:11). By entering into Jesus, we partake of His life (His blood) so that we have the eternal life that is found in Him (John 6:47). Additionally, Jesus says that by drinking His blood we are abiding in Him (John 6:56). And if we abide in Him, we ought also to walk just as He walked (1 John 2:6). This walk is made possible by partaking of His life so that it is Jesus that the world is experiencing, not people walking in their own power. Here we are speaking of the resurrection power of Jesus. Paul also says at one point that it was no longer he who lived, but Christ (Gal. 2:20). We can never possess eternal life. Jesus said that without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5), at least nothing eternal. Paul is also very hard to understand at times, seeing that he uses legal terminology which requires an understanding that is proper to its own context. We will see more on Paul in part 4, as he needs to be looked at carefully, seeing that so much Christian doctrine is derived from His writings.

We know we are receiving the Word of God in an active way when we enter into the reality of the truth according to the power of His grace. How then, are we to reach out to God beyond our capabilities? We come to God when we perceive our need for Him. The more we perceive and understand our true state, the deeper our repentance and seeking will be. A higher resolution need, leads to a higher resolution repentance, which leads to Christ. As it is written, You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart. (Jer. 29:13)

As we will see, there are two steps, or salvations, necessary to enter into the kingdom life of God—saved from the world and saved into Christ. Most consider themselves to be saved by being in the wilderness part of the salvation process, and consequently, they will never get beyond that stage. Many will die in the wilderness, having never experienced the abundant rest from God in Zion that awaits those who fully surrender to Him. Just like the Israelites had to cross both the Red Sea and the Jordan River, so we also must be spiritually born again in an initial step, and enter into Christ as a subsequent step, in order to abide in Christ. Now, a lot of people were saved from Egypt, but few were saved into the Promised Land. So also, many of us have been quickened by the Spirit, but few (if any) of us walk in the resurrection life and power of Christ. Many are called, but few are chosen (Matt. 22:14).

In this book, we will investigate the binary nature of God’s dealings with us. There are two steps that must be taken in order to experience the fulness of God’s provisions for humankind. Those who would experience the full grace of God must be prepared to go the extra mile (Matt. 5:41). We will only discover Christ as the sum of all possibilities if we are prepared to humble ourselves before Him. We can never know His sufficiency if we rely on what can be grasped with the limitation of our own minds. We need to leave room in our hearts and minds for God. Our trust in God is to be such that if we remain teachable, we know that He will fill us with what is lacking.

I entreat my readers to prayerfully consider what is being presented in this book and be like the Bereans who were careful to compare everything they were taught with the scriptures.

1

PART

Saving the Cosmos

1.1 In the Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen. 1:1)

If we take the time to observe God’s ways in Creation, we will see that everything that the Bible refers to in Greek as the cosmos, is marked by a duality. From night and day, male and female, physical and spiritual, we see that God’s ways are plural by design. In the beginning, through the Word, the Logos, created both the heavens and the earth (John 1:1). All things were created through the Logos, who is the Son of God.

"All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." (John 1:3)

We know that God is Spirit and that He dwells in an eternal, spiritual realm (John 4:24). We also know that God, through the Logos, created a physical world (Earth) in a universe of a physical realm (cosmos). God created humankind in His own image as a duality, both male and female.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Gen. 1:27)

Humankind was created in the duality of male and female, in the image of God. Why divide the sexes unless to illustrate the need to unite seemingly divergent issues into a creative unity? We see many other such dualities being expressed throughout the Bible. The greatest and most mysterious of these is Jesus Christ being both fully God and fully man. God is revealing His unifying ways to us through these various dualities. It is through many seeming contradictions that we can better understand how the words from God can help us navigate successfully through the trials and tribulations of this life. To be able to do so, we need to understand how they fit together.

One of the ways of presenting a duality in the Hebrew scriptures is by simply making a word plural. In Hebrew, placing a plural "im at the end of a masculine noun renders it to mean double or two-fold". God is presented to us in the Hebrew Bible in plural form, as Elohim. God is one Holy Spirit, in the plurality of a Father and a Son.

It may help to see a few more examples of duality in order to see an emerging pattern. Some will know that Ephraim means double fruit or doubly fruitful. Additionally, mayim, the Hebrew word for water, represents both kinds of water, saltwater and freshwater. The plural chayim means a life with both a spiritual and a natural dimensional aspect. We also have shamayim, the word for heaven, which is also plural and signifies both a place that is temporal as well as one that is eternal. These are only a few examples of the use of the plural im as it is used in the Bible as a means to present some of the dualities found therein.

I would like to focus briefly here on the idea of God as a Trinity, seeing that for so many believers, this is the accepted view. To get some historical perspective, we’ll need to look back at the Old Testament to see how the Holy Spirit was perceived by the people of Israel at that time. Even a cursory Bible study will show us that the Jews never saw the Holy Spirit as a separate person within the Godhead. God is Spirit (John 4:24). There are not two Spirits of God. The Jews already recognized the Holy Spirit as the divine working and presence of God, and as such was never seen as another person in the Godhead. The scriptures do not support the claim of God’s Holy Spirit being a separate person. The spirits of people are found within them and are not to be identified separately from them.

For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so no man knows the things of God, but the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 2:11)

God’s Spirit is no more a separate person than our own spirits within us are separate people. His Spirit is a part of Him, an extension of Him. However, there is a prevailing tendency in modern church culture to see the Godhead as a two-dimensional unity of three persons rather than a three-dimensional unity of two persons sharing one Holy Spirit.

All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (Matt. 11:27)

God is One. We see the oneness of God in the Holy Spirit; both the Father and the Son working together as One. Both the Father and the Son share one Holy Spirit. Is it better for us to understand God in a duality of Father and Son or as three separate persons? Is the oneness of God ultimately in a Trinity or a Binaty? There is a great mystery concerning the Holy Spirit. God is fully present in His Spirit as an extension of His essence and power in the cosmos. Being created in God’s image, we also have spirits, although our spirits are receptacles—vessels meant to be filled by Him. The Spirit of God is an inexhaustible source of life that is able to fill all things.

We are to worship God in the enlightened functioning power of the Spirit and the truth. We are not to worship God and the functioning of the Spirit as separate entities. We should be careful when we elevate the Holy Spirit as a separate person in the Godhead. We should be careful to worship God, not His power and influence. We are to worship the Father; through the Son; by the Spirit. That is a proper use of the Trinity. Being drawn into the Spirit is to be caught up in the love that exists between the Father and the Son.

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the love between the Father and the Son. God is love, and the dimension of the Spirit is a dimension of love (1 John 4:8). In the Spirit, we enter into His love and the connection of oneness, or theosis, that exists between them.

We, as humans, have great difficulty finding the proper balance of truth, always taking things either too far or not far enough. To not acknowledge that Jesus is the eternal Son of God is to stop short of the truth—but to see the workings of God by the Spirit in the world as a separate person from the Father and Son would seem to be going too far the other way. However, if a person decides they want to see God as a Trinity, I have no issue with that.

Our own preliminary investigation of God and His ways will reveal more about us than about Him. It is easy to miss God and His works for the sheer scale of them. So much of what we accept about God is speculative in nature. God hides Himself from mere curiosity. His ways are beyond investigation by natural means. Scientists who only look to limited physical explanations for ultimate answers about life and reality will continue to be dumbfounded by leaving the Creator out of their theories and equations. Likewise, religious theorists who formulate dogmas to be accepted without question will continue to miss the life and purpose that God is offering to us. To reduce the truth to religious formulas is to fully miss the spontaneous activation of the Spirit. We were created for God, not He for us. We need Him to help us formulate proper questions, let alone settle on answers that can never satisfy the hunger of our souls, which is to both know and be known by God. The only true and pure science is the knowledge of God. The only true understanding of God is found by entering into His life. We can know Him profoundly without recourse to the artifices of science or religious speculation. When we come out of hiding from the inner refuge of our metaphysical imaginations, we can be filled with His Spirit in an everlasting embrace of love. How deep is the mystery and wonder of God!

If you should ponder the path of life while you wander in its circle [orbit], then you will not understand.²(Prov. 5:6)

The path of life cannot be understood if we are limited to a walk according to the flesh. The same God who framed the universe with His word has made life understandable to us in a duality of resolutions.

Human life in its original form, according to the scriptures, was plural—there was life on two different levels. This consisted of an animal (carnal) life that made participation in the physical world possible, together with having access into the spiritual realm through a life connection that was in close fellowship with God. The Hebrew word for human life is the plural chayim. In God’s original Creation there was one nature in Adam that comprised a duality of life forces. The paradox in humankind is the combination of the finiteness of a temporal physical life with an ongoing access to a spiritual eternal life; in other words, a fusion of a temporal life with an eternal life. What was lost in the fall of Adam was that vital connection to the spiritual realm and with it the previous intimacy of a relationship with God. Without that higher form of life, we are spiritually dead. The form of the word that is used in the scriptures to describe a human life that lacks a life connection to God, is the singular chay.

Long before the law necessitated a life for a life (Ex. 21:23) there was the law of a life in a life³(Deut. 19:21). Adam was created with a life in a life. His own life was contained in the life of God. The eternal life of God acted as a covering for Adam’s life.

This will take on a whole new level of meaning when we come to the New Covenant where we are called to abide in Christ in order to restore the divine covering of a life that is hidden in Him (Col 3:3). We are restored to God by having a new life that is found in Christ. The process that starts us on the path of life in Christ begins by having His life first planted in us.

It should be noted here that we have no eternal life of our own. A life that is devoid of God has no eternal dimension. Humankind was not created to live indefinitely without the covering of God’s eternal love and presence. As such, even our mortal lives should not be considered as our own.

Not only was humankind created in a physical duality, being created both male and female, but also in the duality of having both natural and spiritual faculties. With these faculties came an awareness of both the natural temporal realm and the eternal spiritual realm. The interplay between what was physical and what was spiritual was the norm before the fall. In the Garden of Eden, both Adam and Eve were clothed with a reflection of God’s glory. At that time, they were both clothed in His light. We know this because of the way the words are written in the Hebrew scriptures where the usage of a play on words is often employed. When Adam and Eve lost the covering of the light of God’s life, they saw that they were naked (Gen. 3:7). It is written that God then made a garment of skin for them in order to cover the shame of their newly discovered nakedness (Gen. 3:21).

The words for both skin and light in Hebrew are homonyms, each using a different silent vowel to distinguish the one from the other. God’s covering light was replaced by the skin of an animal. Whether or not God became a tailor by making actual clothing for Adam and Eve, there remains another layer of meaning in the text to uncover. The animal skin was a replacement of God’s life on and over them—a new covering of an independent carnal nature. The carnal covering replaced the spiritual covering by acting as an outer man—an interface of protection for survival in the now hostile world.

In the absence of God’s covering, the outer man serves to clothe the nakedness and weakness of the condition in which we now find ourselves. It is amazing to realize how we can have no idea whatsoever of the life connection that Adam and Eve once had with God before we are ourselves regenerated to life in our spirits. Once regenerated, however, we adopt the consciousness of a long-forgotten connection that humanity once had with God.

God’s covering on Adam and Eve was a manifestation of His love for them. The removal of God’s covering light took away their access to the spiritual dimension, and with it, the life it contained. So, Adam and Eve came out from under the headship of God to live under what they thought would be their own headship, being tempted by the statement, you shall be as gods (Gen. 3:5). However, there was the devil to pay in the form of subservience to another more sinister headship, as we shall see. Adam and Eve became independent agents, by having their temporal life successfully disconnected from the eternal God. God’s love was not extinguished by the sin of Adam and Eve, but with sin came the consequence of death, in a breach, or separation, from God.

His will is that we choose a path that corresponds to His ways, rather than choosing an alternative path that appeals to our own sense of purpose and justice. Before we get to how we came to having that kind of freedom, we will need to look at the events that led to the fall of humankind and the subsequent steps taken by God both to mitigate and to remedy the situation. Additionally, we will see how God is advancing a master strategy that would have humankind take a higher place in God’s order.

We have been given freedom that comes with a heavy burden of responsibility. God watches us to see what we will do with what we have been given, and He will ultimately give to us according to what we have done. God will judge us by our works (Rom. 2:6). His judgments are always fair and just.

In part one, I would like to cover the nature and scale of God’s creation together with the will and the means that He has chosen to bring humanity into the light of His eternal purpose. Of all the species of God’s creation, humanity has been given the greatest potential either to succeed or to fail in the most spectacular way.

1.2 The Rebellion

How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. (Is. 14:12-15)

Did the angels have free will when they were created? It is certain that, after the creation of humankind, they were offered choices that had not existed prior to that. With free will comes the possibility, even a seeming inevitability, of making bad choices. How can we understand all the ramifications of a choice until we have made it? Free will intensifies the situations we find ourselves in, making us suffer for the poor choices we make. We will reap as we have sown (Gal. 6:7). So, having a choice comes with having a corresponding responsibility for our actions. Can we learn anything in a permanent way without the process of becoming aware of our own responsibilities?

Who but God will ultimately judge us on the choices that come to define us? As in, there goes the murderer, or the thief, or the adulterer! We find that not all bad choices are final decisions or the end of the matter. Oftentimes, it takes these deviations from the right path in order to better appreciate the importance of taking the right path. As we experience the regret of our failures, we learn to appreciate the merciful nature of God in allowing us to be restored to a way that is right. Our bad choices can teach us how to make better choices in the future. With God’s help, our defeats can be swallowed up in victory.

All of the poor choices we make can be traced back to one fateful decision that took place in the eternal realm. That original bad choice was perpetrated by none other than Satan. He and his angelic followers are ultimately responsible for bringing evil into the world. It is through this angelic rebellion that the subsequent fall of humankind can be attributed. The bad choices of both Adam and Eve caused an exchange of authority from themselves as the intermediary agents of God in the temporal realm to a rebellious faction in the heavenly realm. Consequently, humankind has adopted many of the fallen ways that were inspired by the heavenly rebellion. The disobedience of the angelic host has been passed down to us as an inheritance that has become ingrained in humanity.

We should be aware that our baser instincts come from the father of lies. However, the devil was not always the paragon of evil that we know him as today. He was not corrupt from the time of his creation. Of him, it is said:

You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you. (Ez. 28:15)

What the scriptures reveal to us is that there was no prior indication of the evil change in Satan before it occurred. If the devil was not evil from the time of his creation, then why does Jesus say that he was a murderer and a liar from the beginning? From what beginning?

"You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44)

Was this from the beginning as in, from the time of the devil’s creation? Or was it from the same beginning that we read in the very first words of the Bible? We know that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Time did not exist before the creation of this temporal realm. The beginning, then, is in relation to the creation of this physical world, and with it the creation of humankind. The Bible is a book about this world, not the eternity that preceded it. There are only a few passages in the Bible that point to what was in existence before the beginning of Creation.

Can we perceive the cause of the devil’s rebellion? God was preparing for the elevation of His saints who would be given authority over not only the lower order of the temporal world but also the higher order of the angels of God. It remained to be determined if the angels would accede to the will of God in the matter. Could a higher order of Creation submit to what had every appearance of being a lower order?

Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know you not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? (1 Cor. 6:2-3)

Would the angels help humankind along in their preparation into becoming a higher authority than themselves?

We can see, then, that the creation of humankind brought about a turning point for the angelic host of heaven. Not everyone was happy with the new arrangement. The angels were given a choice as to whether they would conform or not with God’s will concerning the arrival of humankind. There was the formation of a dissenting faction among the heavenly host that coincided with this event. The chief of these dissenters became the devil, who led the faction that did not want to live in an eternal submission to a lesser order of created beings. The demotion of the angels from being God’s highest created order into playing second fiddle to a weaker creation was for many insufferable. Satan became the leader and chief representative of a rebellious order in heaven that could have begun as a strong objection to God’s will, even outright indignation.

Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: (Job 4:18)

Is there any doubt that humankind is indeed a lesser order of Creation when compared to the angels? If folly can be attributed to those who are greater than us, then how much more so to we who allow ourselves to be influenced by them? In His eternal wisdom, God chose to rule over all Creation through what the devil, and ultimately the whole world, considers to be weak and foolish. By doing this, God exposed the rebellious nature that we see displayed by Satan and his followers, and by extension those who would become his unwitting earthly followers. By exposing what is offensive to the eternal order and all that is true, God is preparing His Creation for a new age where there will be no pain or suffering. Although there is no way to redeem the satanic rebellion that first occurred in heaven, since it took place in the eternal realm, God has given us a way out of our eternally blameworthy predicament. There is a way back to God from our rebellious state. Consequently, we have a weighty responsibility to consider. The limitation of being human in a temporal world can work in our favour in that we are given a lifetime to return to God and His order. Should we not seek the Lord while He may be found? (Is. 55:6)

You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honour, and did set him over the works of your hands: (Heb. 2:7)

The above verse is speaking of Jesus Christ, and by extension, the saints who will rule with Him in the next age. All of Creation, including the angels, will serve the Lord at that time. The angels who were unwilling to be ruled over by God’s people, will have no part in the next age. God, in His mercy, exposes the darkness in us now while there is still time to forsake the rebellious ways we have inherited and adopted as our own. Will we persist in our refuge of darkness or will we come to the glorious light of God’s truth and love?

As a final proof of the latent rebellion that lurks in the hearts of people in their natural carnal condition, the devil will be allowed to tempt the world once again after he has been locked away for a thousand years of rule over the world by Jesus Christ and His saints (Rev. 20:7-8). And, he will once again be successful in deceiving humankind into a new rebellion against the perfect order of God. If there remains any doubt of the influence that the devil has on human nature, this new rebellion will provide proof that is undeniable. We will be left with no alternative but to see that neither the devil nor the rebellious independent attitude that is ingrained in the outer crust of human nature is redeemable.

What of the power of choice that was given to humankind? Was Adam truly given free will when he was created? In a similar way as with the angels, Adam and Eve were only exposed to new possibilities when confronted with another order of being. It was the interaction of both created orders of beings that gave each a new set of choices.

Of course, the will of God should have been enough for us. We should realize that there are no choices that we can make that can improve on God’s perfect will. There are no original thinkers in the eternal reality. We are just vessels that contain what has been granted to us from above. Every idea that pops into our heads comes from somewhere. There is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9). We can easily confuse what is practical and useful in the present temporal order and conflate it with a nature that is inspired by the deep-seated evil of the devil.

So then, why are we permitted to make choices at all? Was creating humankind merely a way for God to test the faithfulness of the angels when placed under a new constraint? Or conversely, was the pre-existence of the angelic order a way to plumb the depths of our own ability to remain faithful to God? The wisdom of God is such that the multiple functions of His actions are seamlessly interwoven so that every possibility has been accounted for. Such are the ways of God.

The whole premise of the rebellion was in questioning and challenging God’s sense of rightness in His judgments. In any regard, God was allowing a will to exist that was other than His own.

The devil demanded some respect for what God had created him to be, but in doing so, he exposed the evil in himself. The devil wanted some of God’s glory. Through his rebellious actions, he proved that what he truly loved was God’s glory, not the Lord of glory. The devil had become jealous of God’s exalted position, and in his folly, thought to compare himself with the eternal Lord of glory. Consequently, anything that is of a selfish nature comes from the devil. The power of reason does not come with an immunity from committing the greatest folly. What of the power of our own reasoning?

The devil’s glory is in his cunning ability to deceive the whole world. If God would not provide him with glory in heaven, then he would find it for himself among God’s new order of creation in the temporal realm. If he couldn’t have real glory, then vainglory would suffice. The devil would receive the honour he craved from people through the reflection of his own rebellious nature in them as a means to further his standing before God. So, we see that all who seek glory and honour from men are following the devil and his ways. Jesus said, I receive not honour from men (John 5:41). Will we not rather seek the glory and honour that comes from God alone?

How can you believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that comes from God only? (John 5:44)

1.3 The Fall

The fall of humankind came about as a direct result of the angelic rebellion spilling over from the spiritual realm into the physical realm. God allowed the devil to tempt Adam to test both orders of beings, angelic and human. Adam and Eve were overmatched when it came to resisting the subtle lies of the devil. Satan hid his own evil motives in presenting an argument to Eve that questioned God’s command forbidding them to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 2:17). The devil’s strategy was to make God be seen as someone who was holding them back from their full potential. The irony is that Satan made Adam and Eve feel that they were missing something when precisely the opposite was true.

Although they couldn’t have realized the possibility of any other alternative at that time, they were living under the covering light of God that gave them access to the tree of life. What was being offered to Adam and Eve, albeit surreptitiously, was a turning away from light into spiritual darkness; a darkness ruled over by the devil and his followers. The choice being offered them was between a continuing submission to God or a self-determination apart from Him. In their folly, Adam and Eve forsook the counsel of God for what seemed to be more advantageous to them. In doing so, they fell away from the life that was in God. Their eyes were thus opened to see their naked state without God’s covering light. Adam and Eve knew evil for the first time because they realized that what they had done was evil. So came the knowledge of evil into the world. From that point on, any undertaking of humankind would include an ever-present potential for evil. Anything outside the realm of God cannot help but be influenced by the knowledge of good and evil.

Rather than return to God with heartfelt remorse, Adam and Eve sought instead to hide from God’s penetrating light in their new sinful condition. In doing this, they took a further step away from God. They not only disobeyed God but also displayed further disloyalty by not turning to Him in repentance. The fall of man was thus assured by taking two steps away from God.

Adam and Eve were cast out of the spiritual realm, out of Eden, the place where they had enjoyed a precious fellowship with God. Where there once had been a sensitivity to the presence and love of God, there grew a veil, a spiritual scar, that covered the void left by the loss of life and fellowship with Him. Their hearts were now veiled from the presence of God and His love.

In his rebellion against the will of God, Adam also ceded control over the world to the demonic powers, having sold his birthright to the devil. From that point on, Satan would be the lord of this world (2 Cor. 4:4).

Having lost their previous divine covering, Adam and Eve needed a new skin, a new garment, a new covering of protection. They would now have to fend for themselves. An outer layer of self-interest was thus formed which took on the character and nature of the devil. The humanity that was created in the likeness of God continued to exist, although now buried, trapped as it were, beneath the carnal layer of that protective covering. Adam and Eve had known the pure goodness of God and now they also knew the evil of Satan. Adam was now a son of two fathers. The war over the soul of man originates from the antagonism of these two spiritual forces. The self-determination of humankind, because of the introduction of the knowledge of good and evil, meant that there would be, from then on, a constant battle within the soul of a now fallen man. The human condition would now consist of a tension between good and evil, with either one or the other winning out periodically or habitually, but without one fully eliminating the other.

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:21-22)

The above verses are often misunderstood to be speaking of natural life that is lived out in the world. For them, eternal life is only something that is possible after physical death. Paul, rather, is speaking of the life that was lost through the fall of Adam. The life that was lost by