W W W W World Wide Web Witness Inc

W W W W World Wide Web Witness Inc. Home Page Contents Page for Volume What is New

CHAPTER FOUR

THE DARE-DEVIL AND THE DEATH OF DELINQUENCY

THE GLORY THAT SURPASSES

Base Concept: II Corinthians 3:10

TOPICAL

II Corinthians 3:10 is in the midst of a comparison of the wonders worked already, and the eminent wonders wrought in Christ: and the key concept is this: THE GLORY THAT SURPASSES.

This concept will be used in application to works of Jesus Christ - His particular triumphs over direct or indirect temptation, correlative with His magnificent actions of the purity of perfection and the eminence of deity - in comparison with certain episodes in the Old Testament which these surpass. It is good to find examples of effort and result, to gain survey and orientation, as one reads the amazing exhibits in the Old Testament, often of high ideals and aims, and low attainment, sometimes of seemingly effortless corruption, though the cultural declivities, the national activities, the works of Satan and the constant vying of that proud spirit for control of man makes its spiritually salacious exploits often enough. It is good because it instructs; but it is if possible even better, to read of the contrast in perfection, in majesty, in greatness, in purity that does not move, in regality that is humble and truth that is inlaid, to be found in the ways, words and works of Jesus Christ.

In so doing, then, we find the glory that excels, that surpasses. Either He does not fall into some temptation, to which some saint or else some human failure found eclipse and confusion, or He surpasses altogether some great event or action. The glory of forgiveness to saints such as Moses is surpassed by the uniqueness of needing no repentance, because perfect, needing no pardon as Lord God Himself, encapsulated, indeed seeded into human form, the Eternal Word of God become flesh. Surrender becomes statuesque as at Gethesamane, and sacrifice becomes lethal to sin, at Calvary, where in just one act the actions of centuries and millions, are cancelled at such point as the Cross of Calvary becomes the ground of annulment of guilt and the door to the glory of God.

We look then at some of the trials and tests of Jesus Christ.

They appear as efforts of the devil, who has no heed to caution or prudence, so long as his tempting lures and impossible ambitions are being fulfilled, however strategic he may think he is being, and the responses of Christ. We then see what happened when certain temptations came in developments of Old Testament characters or Israel, and contrast the surpassing glory of what Christ has done. This serves as a stimulus to duty, a thrust to worship and a delight to the heart. In conclusion, we rejoice that not only did Christ complete His preliminary work, in overcoming every devilish device, but His consummatory performance, completing in the Cross the most significant event in history (Galatians 6:14).

Small wonder we should glory in this, remembering however that it had a vast hinterland on its way, and a transcendently triumphant over-ride of death itself in the bodily resurrection, glory for all, but strictly centred in Christ, as prototype for our own resurrection: those who believe and receive Him whose glory it is (I Corinthians 15).

It is of course not only in the Old Testament that such lusts of the devil, appetites of aroused flesh and exhibits of cultural pride appear. History has drunk its fill. Sin has no time slot for man on this earth, except at Eden.

Our task, then, is to contrast the WAY in which CHRIST met such challenges with some of the Old Testament cases, in order to show the consistent sense, never once alloyed with failure of any kind, of a glory that excels the best works of man formerly, and pinpoints in one Person the place of attainment, not placebo, but performance, the exhibition of glory with no vainglory and the consummation of prophecy without lapse, indeed with precisely the foretold time elapse, all in one straight course of majesty.

History knows nothing like it. Testimony from the first could have been deleted if the claims for what deemed the mere carpenter from Nazareth had been incorrect, since the public displays were made in Judea, often in Jerusalem, and it was immediately after His death that the claims so often made and now on parade publicly before the massed people, were exhibited. Why did not knowledge then overturn such claims of His acts, His actions of power and unique glory, when these were made in that great day, at Pentecost, as recorded in Acts, as the ship of the Church set sail into this world, in which it has been on display now for some two millenia! HOW could the Church have had such reception in such a place at such a time with such a people, with such a background ? It was not refuted, simply and publicly, for one very good reason, just as the body which would have refuted the resurrection was not put on parade, nor did the guards of any body at all, manage to retain it, nor find it then or later.

Facts are stubborn things, just as lies as subject to scrutiny. The reason why facts did not act in this case to crush the Church as a throng of liars ? It was this. The claims concerning the Christ were not refuted, on account of one so simple thing: they were well-known to be factually based and none could find a way to expose them. Light is like that. Darkness does not have much impact when light shines, since it is a mere et cetera, an extravagance of unbelief, a harassment and a confusion, to be confirmed as such the more as time constantly keeps its course on target with truth.

Imagine trying to make a funeral oration for some footballer in Adelaide, and to be claiming days after the career of years, by his death-bed, that he had kicked so many goals and so forth, had such and such friends, been given such acclaim, when such was manifestly not the case!

While we have greatly expanded news coverage, we are a more diversified city in size and scope; and not without report were the years of Christ's achievements, not without thousands following Him, miracles making the scenarios of spirituality a concentrate of glory, unique, Messianic, unable to be divorced in any point, however small, from what was to be the fulfilment of multiple prophecies, always there for comparison, day by day, with what He was doing while on this earth.

It was not that effort to that effect was not made during the years of His sensational and far-reaching ministries of healing, teaching, preaching and direct dealing with the word of God (as in the Sermon on the Mount) uniquely not only saying what God said but what "I say", yet this without strutting egocentricity, but with abundant and constant submission to the Father (as in John 8:29, 12:48-50). Rather from the first, Herod sought from scriptural scholars some guidance as to where His birth-place would be, and was told from Micah 5:1-3, that it was Bethlehem (Matthew 2:2-6).

Again, in their astonishing ignorance (though negative passion can delete so conveniently for a time, memory contrary to its lusts), some tried to maintain that Christ COULD not be genuine, that is, the foretold Messiah, since there was no reference to His coming, in His day, from Galilee (John 7:45-52). In fact, of course, this is in Isaiah, where as a prelude to the sensational announcements of Isaiah 9 concerning His being Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, He who would come to have a kingdom never to be destroyed, we find this same Galilee in sharp focus. That is in Isaiah 8-9 as follows (bold red type added):

"And when they say to you,

'Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,"'

should not a people seek their God?

Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?

"To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word,
it is because there is no light in them.
They will pass through it hard pressed and hungry; and it shall happen,
when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

^"Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed,

As when at first He lightly esteemed

The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,

And afterward more heavily oppressed her,

By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,

In Galilee of the Gentiles.

^"The people who walked in darkness

Have seen a great light;

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,

Upon them a light has shined."

It proceeds to show the peace that supplants the war-grimed, blood-soaked ways that ignore Him, one for which the world would wait till His coming not this time to suffer, but in glory (as in Isaiah 59:16-21, Isaiah11, Psalm 72, Psalm 2, 110, Daniel 7, Zechariah 11-14) as His Gospel completed its long journey into that same world (Isaiah 52-55, 42:6, 49:6, Jeremiah 16:19-21).
This delightful free gift (Isaiah 55 cf. Romans 3:23ff., Ephesians 2) would constitute a dawning prelude to the sunset of judgment to come (as in Malachi 3, 4, Isaiah 65, Habakkuk 3, Isaiah 51).

It is all centred in God becoming man, meek and lowly, entering Jerusalem seated on an ass's colt (Zechariah 9:9ff.), yet having salvation (cf. Zechariah 12:10-13:1), healing (Isaiah 29, 35) and delivering in His twofold mission, in sacrificial suffering to save and then to conclude the follies of sinful misrule by man, its inglorious haste and pace, with His glorious holiness and peace.

It was well-known.

It became better known, for if there is one thing calculated to make knowledge palpable and fact focussed, it is the exhibit of its HAPPENING; and if there is another, it is the FOCUS in power amongst the populace in a wide area, of the occurrence when it comes.

Thousands therefore assembled in the Church, as new converts, after being addressed in the days of Pentecost, and an entire people became distinct, visible and distinctive in the very first impacts of this teaching, following the ghoulish, inglorious desecration, ingratitude, political wildness and priest-ridden follies of the crucifixion.

It is not as if it were a novelty; it was merely novel in HISTORY. It had been written that He would be smitten, even He of majesty and eternity (Micah 5:1-3), but now it was visible. It was written that authorities would write Him off (Isaiah 49:7), but now fact and history had written Him in!

The prophetic scoop of history, hundreds and even a thousand and in fact more years than that before Christ did these works, appeared like yesteryear's headlines for coming events. They came and He went, this also as predicted, now fulfilled, and the Gospel as predicted in connection with His going and the manner and the time of it, and the timing of it, this also came as foretold by Isaiah 7, 9, 12, 22, 28, 32, 40, 42, 49-66 and Daniel 7, 9, Micah 5, Habakkuk, Hosea, the Psalms (such as 2, 16, 22, 40, 69, 109, 110, 118^*1): this glorious news came as if transplanted from centuries before; and it was indeed written up long before it so much as happened. It came from the wisdom of the all-knowing God, who knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:8).

It came from the glorious God who for centuries had been on record as apostrophising Israel, as commanding man to consider that NO ONE ELSE could or would or did tell utter novelty, before it happened, envisage and inscribe history on such a scale of wonder and detailed correctness, before it eventuated (as in Isaiah 41, 43, 48, where the case is expounded with stinging challenge).

There was then, a certain familiarity about the situation: it had been envisaged, declared and foretold in great detail. Now that it was happening, in after-math of Christ's coming and going, it was therefore

	novel in history, but not in thought,
	in circumstance but not in concept,
	in event but not in description.

It was not exactly déjà-vu, since such had never been seen.

It was rather if one could coin it, nouveau-vu, déjà-écrit! newly seen, already written. Yet because it had been written, the lines of its prophecy being registered over a millenium in the eyes or through the ears into the minds of over a score of generations, many millions of persons, recorded and revered in large or significant proportion in the whole race of Israel, and of those who were added as converts, and those who knew of it as seekers or scholars: therefore it had a solidity from the start.

Further, it had an awesome sense of the hand in control of deity Himself; for who else can foretell in age-making detail, saga-striking depth, divinely ordered continuity, so much concerning so much more, until the world was filled with a greatest epic, history, divine advent, explosive action for the salvation of this smitten race. Indeed in a few years the Gospel had penetrated Asia as it then was called, and Europe, the Middle East and was on its way to being proclaimed as official religion, with whatever wisdom or lack of it for such a political usage, in the Imperial Precincts of Rome, that vast and dynamic, multi-national Empire.

The background clarified and investigated, let us then proceed to the contrast, the glory that is superseded by still greater glory, or in the same kind of theme, the failure that is overwhelmed by triumphant success, the one before Christ, the other BY HIM. It is not that excellent things were not beforehand done by men of God; but that this, whatever the past, this present was of a glorious innocence, a perfected wisdom, an undying and undiminshed consistency, a code-copying perfection in fulfilment of so much so speedily and succinctly, at so much cost through so much acute and anguished test, the copy and the event, the wonder and the witness of DOING IT, that the world has seen nothing like it.

I DEATH TO THE BODY

The Effort of the Devil to extinguish the Babe
(cf. Revelation 12, Matthew 2:18ff.)

Incarnation Sustained

Here is the glory that surpasses the deliverance of baby Moses from the semi-genocidal effort of the Egyptians; for if Moses led a nation to deliverance,
Christ delivers all people who are believers in all nations for all time from the sentence and sovereignty of sin,
breaching death for eternal life, the summit of life and glory of destiny
(cf. Hebrews 3:1ff.).

As Moses was ready to be slaughtered by Egypt, with many others, so Christ
was ready to be slain by Herod, at its very entrance with many others, but was
Himself hidden in Egypt, since God can even use enemies for gain,
and turn history on its head in sovereign sway and majesty (Matthew 2:15).

Let us for a moment, look at what Hebrews itself in Ch. 3 and part of Ch. 4 says of this contrast, to be enriched by these considerations.

"Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,
who was faithful to Him who appointed Him,

as Moses also was faithful in all His house.

"For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.
For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.
And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant,
for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward,
but Christ as a Son over His own house,
whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence
and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end."

Hebrews is a specialist book to Hebrews, many of whom were acutely tempted to revert to Old Testament sacrifices and ways, even though Christ had long fulfilled this, there being danger of being 'slightly healed' as Jeremiah put it, of being impacted but not persuaded, dithering and dreaming, even turning from the taste of the truth and treading underfoot the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10). Instability and incertitude alike had to be brought to one way or the other. Dabbling and dithering were weak, their issuance possibly fatal as faith had first to be, and not mere toying with truth.

Thus although the Christian has an anchor inveterate and secure in the very Holy of Holies (Hebrews 6:19), yet those who trifle with truth or play with fire and so never actually reach saving faith in Christ, can be burnt. Hence Hebrews proceeds on to challenge any temporary phenomena. These ? they are such as those mentioned by Christ in Matthew 13, where the ground is shallow, there is no breaking up of the underlying hardness in repentance, where the seed of God's word does not reach deep to the heart, and the sun shrivels the word of God as it begins to arouse, this now being left to die in the hardness of non-repentant self-security of flesh. It is a matter of being skin-deep.

According, Hebrews continues from the part already quoted to declare these things (red bold print added):

"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

'Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

In the day of trial in the wilderness,

Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,

And saw My works forty years.

Therefore I was angry with that generation,

And said,

‘They always go astray in their heart,

And they have not known My ways.’

So I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest.’ "

"Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily,
while it is called 'Today,'
lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said:

"Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

"For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt,
led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years?
Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest,
but to those who did not obey?

"And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest,
but to those who did not obey?

"So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

"Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest,
let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

"For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them;
but the word which they heard did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:

'So I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest,’

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world..."

So we see there quite explicitly, there were those who although performing the external act (of leaving Egypt in the Exodus) DID NOT BELIEVE. They were seed in hard ground cases. It is by faith we are saved once and for all; but unbelief saves nobody.

From this we realise the eminence of Christ who brought His people into His rest. Though many to whom the Gospel was preached vacillated, did not believe, were shallow and superficial, yet many did, and into the rest of Christ they proceeded (Hebrews 4:9-10, 6:19, 10:10,14, 9:12, 27-28); for in Him we are complete, engraced in His 'body' (Ephesians 1:6), and have peace (Philippians 4:6). Moses indeed, as we shall shortly see evidenced, was a fallible leader^*2, but Christ failed in nothing.

Christ was as a babe hidden in Egypt, that He might live that He might show the truth and die; but Moses led them out of Egypt that they might find their promised land, though none but two of that generation entered it, and Moses was not among them.

In Christ, there was always an everlasting unction to His function, there was no friction with His Father (John 8:29), even if agony itself became like a pack of roaring lions in chaotic disunity (Hebrews 5:7), both in His time before and on the Cross. Thus the hatred of the Eternal God towards sin, had to yield to love that it should be borne AS IF He had committed it, while yet He remained without sin of His own (II Corinthians 5:17ff., I Peter 2:21ff., 1:18ff.), so that by vicarious sacrifice He should purge the guilt and overcome the power of sin in millions.

This is the glory that excels.

Here is to be found the first key to the Kingdom of Heaven:
the incarnation of the eternal, immutable, glorious and holy God into human form.
It was not an incantation of words, an incorporation of a religion:
it was the importation of God to mankind,
in kindness that needs neither pope nor priest, nor the power of man
nor the political rumpus of the mighty.
Until God is recognised, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace received,
life will be distorted. When He is, it will be the next phase:
the Second Coming (Acts 1:7ff.), and too late for many
(Revelation 1:7, Matthew 13:41ff.).

The key is not for framing, but for function - now!

II DART TO THE HEART

The Antics of the Devil
in Trying Charm and Collusion to Debauch Deity
(cf. Matthew 4)

Purity Preserved

Here is the glory that surpasses the efforts of prophet Balaam,
ambassador for hell in God's name, where ostensible obedience
became actual folly, making him a byword for an unfaithful ambassador,
a king for covetousness.

As Balaam (Numbers 22) was tricked and trapped by his failure simply to obey God in the first place, so that on his way to infamy (Jude 11, II Peter 2:15-17), he even had an ass divinely brought in grave humour from God to caution his folly, so Christ was by no means deluded by devilish duplicity,
but did what all who are His should do: answer from the scripture the efforts
to deceive, and summarily dismiss the darts of the devil (cf. Ephesians 6).

Balaam's pathology is impressive. Let us revisit that ancient scene, as Israel being delivered from slavery in Egypt, proceeds to inhabit its promised land, at last, after so long a time wandering in unbelief.

What now ? Under Joshua they have crossed the Jordan, entered the land. They surge.

Moab is afraid. Israel seems rampant as it traverses from slavery to liberty. The law of God at least formally is with it; and despite its many errors, the Lord is moving to aid the nation to secure that post and function, from which the Old Testament and ultimately the Lord Jesus Christ should come, in incarnation at His appointed time (cf. Galatians 4:4). This little land was coming into focus. Now from their viewpoint, they were amidst enemies. Yet, being chosen first to be the site for such grace, from the days of Abraham as its genealogical but better, its spiritual progenitor (Genesis 12, 15, 17) - leaving aside for the moment additions from marriage and aggregation - and being ordained to entry into this cavernous corruption in Canaan as the judgment of God proceeded, as He had long purposed (Genesis 15:16), they came. That coming had a certain force. It was frightening to Moab. The king of Moab then deployed his native cunning to meet this challenge.

Religious power eh ? it seems, he mused. Let ME show THEM something. Where is this Balaam, this prophet. Let us set about using the national treasury to impacting the spiritual with the spiritual, gods with gods; and if this guy is the goods, then he can wave a wand or sacrifice or whatever they do, and we'll see. Let's get in with the powers available and meet Israel on its own spiritual groundQ

Speaking of that, he seems to have mused, boy Israel seems to have SOMETHING, I'll tell you that! So perhaps we can at least cancel out the religious side of things. They are too impactive. Get some access to real religious power and we might counter them, or at least be safe!

Thus, to use modern vernacular, might have been, and seem to have been, at least in type, the nature of his thoughts. Kingly power, imperial power, national power is so often being used to secure from religion its assent, its help, often and perhaps usually with the State as the objective and the religion as the means. This is the nature indeed of the antichrist assemblage, its pseudo-trinitarian comically inept parody of God. Thus you have the false prophet of Revelation 16 and 19, the man of sin, the 'mouth' (the USA once had a 'mouth' in its politics too) and the beast - that is the socio-economic, fiscal-military, political-people manoeuvring power that tends to attach to empires, and certainly to heady ones.

There is the devil's imitative thrust in three!

It is interesting to see the triad in space, up, down and sideways, in time, present, past and future, in atoms, protons, neutrons and electrons, and as to protons and neutrons, these also have a threesome in quarks in both cases, into which they may be split. Three is by no means always a crowd: and this point is made with considerable impact in Answers Magazine, Jan.- March 2008, in an article by Jason Lisle, an astro-physicist working with Answers in Genesis. We remember from Proverbs that a threefold cord is not easily broken.

Thus the Trinity - in which the one God has His one Being, that glorious unity without unification, society without divisibility, as to persons three, as to Entity, one (cf. SMR Ch.7, Section 4, Sparkling Life ... Ch. 4) - has shone forth into creation. Indeed, man with his spirit, mind and body is another manifestation of this analogical reality, his will and imagination, initiative and selective drive, his purposes and interpretations, his analytical prowess and estimating facility, and the bodily equipment to get it all done (cf. SMR pp. 348ff.). Thus does he travel into the mental, the spiritual and the physical, indeed further, in his communings within himself, as he probes his very own being with expressive force, he also and especially shows in created form, the impact of the Creator's being.

Thus too the antichrist, not able to have this trinitarian unity, yet seeks to have something similar in its own debased way, the power of the beast underneath, the expressive brightness of the false prophet and the focus of the man of sin, the antichrist at its epic downgraded worst: the three an almost comic caricature of the Father, the Spirit and the Son.

As Professor E. J. Young of Westminster, in his day regarded as the foremost conservative scholar in the Old Testament, used to point out, the devil is a copier. He is an imitator: he loves to imitate God, using his debased deformed manner; and many copy his ludicrous distortions.

Moab, then, unaware of the reality of the God who reveals Himself definitively, but very much aware of the results of the Egyptian Exodus, out of which this same little Israel (not so very little in numbers) was having astonishing victories and triumphs, was afraid. It seems shivers of negative anticipation coursed through his troubled soul.

Israel's progress and the manner of it, as it came, were enough to shatter the complacency of old hands like Moab, sunk in its seedy spiritual sins (HOW Rash Shamra spoke of the immorality of the Canaanite civilisation with which God was dealing, according to long announced plan - cf. Genesis 15!).

From religion they came ? Very well, so to religion he, Moab's king would go. That seems to have been his spiritual equation. However, like things are not always equal, and religious entities differ infinitely, a small point of which seemingly, he was unaware, or which he chose to ignore.

Ah! he would have prophet Balaam CURSE them. This he proposed. Was it not a good way to remove credit (as when the USA in a few years after World War II went from being the world's greatest creditor nation to its most conspicuous debtor nation), to bring in debit ? Was it blessing they had ? let Balaam introduce some negative features, call it a curse!

Balaam - and this is exceedingly important - was told at once by God when the ambassadors from Moab arrived, DO NOT GO WITH THEM: YOU ARE NOT TO CURSE ISRAEL. So he sent them away. They returned however, and with a 'please' began, it seems to ooze from every pore; and what helped was the mention of gold, and silver, by the houseful. The thought seemed not unattractive to Balaam, though he kept to the point, that he COULD not say other than God would tell him.

Apparently, Moab felt that any god of which they were aware was sensitive to money in the coffers, and were not too concerned at this. Balaam this time asked the ambassadors, princes, to stay overnight. What a message is there for the disobedient! How often does a man, woman, child KNOW full well what is right and wrong, and allow the song of the wrong to enter, just a little, into the foreconscious, into the mainstream of thought, like a gondola on the canals of Venice, gliding its way among more worthy thoughts, at the perimeters of motion.

There is the step to avoid. Balaam seems to have luxuriated however in just such a movement, and they stayed. Amazingly bold, Balaam sought God. Perhaps there was some new message ? How he reminds of those so-called liberal theologians of yesteryear, who vainly and in the end futilely sought to induce a philosophy of error into the Bible, attacking it with the most ludicrous presuppositions (cf. SMR pp. 374-385), soon to be buried with the other ruins of presumptuous power, amidst the material empires of the past. Would God be able to be induced ... to change His mind, to see things a little differently perhaps, with the aid of thoughts fostered in folly, mutable in imagination, devilish in direction ?

Not actually. However, He allowed Balaam to make an ass of himself. He allowed him to proceed, on condition he said just what he was given from God to say. In this way, the covetousness and presumption of the prophet became a means for a divine lesson which still lives, to this day.

Off went Balaam until his wretched ass, as he conceived it, suddenly changed its normal serviceable ways and refused to proceed. Thrice he whacked it, but it would not move. In terms of this tragic comedy, God then allowed, indeed enabled the ass to give voice. First however the ass spoke. Imagine being tutored by an ass, a function alas in some spiritual settings not unlike much education these days, where the asinine is the regnant philosophy.

WHY are you hitting me! asks the ass, who cornered by the Angel of the Lord, in fact standing in its way, had crushed Balaam's foot against the wall, angels being impassible, and the way too narrow with such an occupancy. Balaam answers. "Because you have abused me! I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you".

You can see in the near demented manner of Balaam the undue reaction; and guilt is like that. Crowing over the fallen spirit of the man hastening into sin, it leads to intemperance and irritation readily. Often those made angry in guilt, will apostrophise whatever angers them. Balaam in this case lets his testy temper flare.

The tables are turned neatly. Have I since you acquired me, ever done this ? asks the ass, the divinely appointed and humiliating tutor for the eminent prophet! No .... admits Balaam. Was I ever disposed to do this ? asks the ass.

Then "the LORD opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his sword drawn." Then there was a beginning of too-late sorrow.

In the interim, let us consider. How great a donkey is a man when he needs an ass to be his tutor, and how idiotic is one who needs an animal to instruct, a hee-hawing ass to bring wisdom! Thus does the Lord use error to correct folly. Indeed, in the case of some churches, they lost much of their people and property dedicated to His biblical service, by listening to the asinine protestations of worldly men, filled with the follies of vain philosophies, here only to pass, moving fast from the everlasting arms of the Lord to the futile arms of flesh.

Now the Angel tells Balaam that if it had not been for the ass's refusal to go on, Balaam himself might have been killed! Thus does temper have its tedious tantrums, that can lead the haughty spirit to death in its blindness.

Becoming willing to go no further, Balaam however is permitted to proceed. The plan is now in operation and is to be fulfilled.

He goes and in the midst of majestic reception from Moab, he makes three efforts to curse Israel, protesting the while that he will speak only what the Lord gives, in the most sanctimonious sounding way, given his appalling folly from the outset! Is this 'dead orthodoxy' then, the mouthing of phrases about praises of God, while going on a way forbidden: it is not that the phrases are wrong, in that case, but that the heart does not believe the God about whom they speak. Trust is absent, harmony is evacuated, will rules. NOT MY WILL, is not the case.

In the course of what Balaam DOES say in the sacrificial settings Moab set up for him, he makes it clear that Israel is to be blessed, is to prevail, and goes much further. From Israel is to come a STAR, a SCEPTRE. Moreover "For there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel. It must now be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'Oh, what God has done!' " (Numbers 24:17, 23:23).

Thus God brought in the Messianic amidst the muddle of the effort of earthly majesty to HIRE religion and subdue God by its devices. Even Balaam was used to utter this! If stones at times must cry out, what of a false prophet speaking truth! So is the Almighty in His majestic wisdom, glorified.

In the end, the same type of effort in the present will be costly! Many people now move to immorality, written into the Bible by flat contradiction (cf. I Timothy 1:10), as if a little child were to say, 'No, Mummy, what I am doing is THIS!' Just as in the past, such spiritual dead lusts to disobey, and even change the word of God as if to permit it, have cost many churches much, as they fell to such ludicrous temptations to mix the carnal with the spiritual : so now is the whirlwind blowing! As is seen from I Corinthians 5-6, and II Corinthians 6 with Romans 16:17 and Ch. 3 above for the divine directions to the contrary, this makes of former churches fallen stars, refusniks to reality, prohibited territories to the people of God, candle-sticks with no candle, except they repent.

Such ways were open to Christ, and the devil was their ambassador in the wilderness.

Thus when Christ met the devil in person, that flawed beauty, that spirit who had "corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendour", He did not suffer for one moment the lodgment of evil possibility within the beauty of true holiness. Hungry after 40 days of fasting in the wilderness (Matthew 4) ? Then turn these stones into bread, suggests the devil. . Later of course Christ would create food for 5000 from a minimal base of fish and bread, enlarging on the powers shown in the days of Elijah and Elisha; but THAT was for a holy purpose.

THIS would be simply to mitigate the trial He was enduring (cf. Matthew 4:1) by misuse of the power. MAN shall NOT live by bread alone, Christ announced from Deuteronomy 8:3. No additives, this was the way, no omissions, the Bible itself: that is the case with the infinite wisdom of God, provided to man by the divine power and providence (cf. Revelation 22:19, Deuteronomy 4, 12, Matthew 5:17ff., II Peter 1, I Cor. 2:9ff.).

No sensual indulgence, no, not even when it comes to purity of heart, when on other and normal grounds, the same precise action would be permitted. It is not in itself wrong to eat when you are hungry; it is wrong when this tilts you into a sort of spiritual submission that will do ANYTHING for food, money, self-preservation and the like.

What! a Christian puts self-preservation before Christ! Is this the way it is to be ? Yes, certainly, for fakes and frauds; but as you read in Revelation 12:11, the opposite is true of the people of the Lord in their habitual practice. Thus there in the midst of Satan's final time of flap, and flack, tracking people in arch desire and device (as in Revelation 13), seeking to subdue by force the spirit of God's people, there is this simple contrast:

"And they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives to the death."

Similarly, the concept of sensationalistic abuse of divine power was rejected, the devil suggesting that Christ could fling Himself from the tip of the Temple: citing scripture concerning angels taking care of the Messiah lest He strike His foot against a stone. Christ put that fiend in place with the observation that it is also written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God! In other words, what is a provision for safety is not an idol for submission, a flush for provocation of the God of truth and of all comfort.

Keep a humble spirit and a bold faith in dual citizenship in the heart! Much is to be found in many a Pentecostal situation where sensationalism becomes a flavour, capering a joy and illicit actions a stimulus, as when people speak in tongues at the same time, more than in 2 or 3 instances, EVEN without interpretation, and ever without realisation that this is a gift not even to be compared with the straightforward enunciation, explanation and application of the word of God (I Corinthians 12, 14 cf. A Question of Gifts).

Again in the temptation of Christ, the simple objective so greatly cherished by Satan, that he get the worship instead that belongs to God, this was brought in with that audacious splendour which he appears so to love. Would the very Son of God bow down and worship him, Satan ? All the kingdoms of this world could be His, if He only would! Would Christ do this ?

What a triumph that would have been! To have God Himself, in His eternal Word, sublime and total expression, when coming to a form of man, in order to die for sinners, actually become one of them! What a joy, to show that no one, God Himself included, could resist Satan, if only such a person be put in the humble state and given the subordinate status of manhood! What a slap at God that would be!

Satan is not merely stupid. He is craftiness incorporated. There are often huge results from simple sins. Here was a monumental opportunity. Naturally, he took it, seeking to wring out of it, the uttermost drop.

Again, Christ rejected the suggestion, God is One and HIM ONLY shall you worship, He replied from Deuteronomy 6:13. Whether the devil sought to appeal to normal desires, to countermand spiritual necessities, or to abuse scripture by misapplying it, at once he got his answer and then the spiritual boot. "Away with you, Satan!"

The answer to scripture misused, was plain scripture applied. What an example! But it means this, you should KNOW the word of God. Zeal is a reality, like exercise for an athlete. We do not depend on our own zeal, but depend on it, zeal is real when life is from the Lord !

In this way, the acme of glory and the essence of purity and the regality of truth were all met together in the glory which surpasses, that of Christ. In this instance, it is compared with a subtle but ultimately gross case, that of the prophet Balaam; but this outlines its wonder. Other prophets might give the word of God, and did, but not without a tremor or a purging (cf. Jeremiah 15:10ff.).

Here, in Christ, was perfection.

Now is to be found the second key to the Kingdom of Heaven: fidelity to God's written word, to God's crucified Word, Jesus Christ, not reluctantly or growlingly, but with the intense vigour and joy of discovery, more than that of scientists like Einstein when E=MC² is found, more than that of poets or those just married, or at the first child: it is the joy of heaven that flows from Christ's kingdom like a Summer's breeze, the oceans peaceful rolling, the blessed sky-works that have transcendent beauty. This word blesses, guides, governs, and by it man is regenerated (cf. I Peter 1:23). The word works because it is from God's mouth, just as electrical points work because of the generator.

III CONQUEST OF THE COMMISSION

A Out-dynamising the Devil

(cf. Matthew 16:21-23)

Antic extraordinary: the devil seeks to please Christ through a good friend
so that He might avoid the Cross in the very midst of 'doing good' and achieving quite amazing fame and name for exploits divine

Christ, being rebuked for referring to the oncoming cross, humiliation and sacrificial mission for which He was sent from the eternity of heaven as the express image of His Father (Hebrews 1), turns with decisive sweep of sovereign singularity,
putting the devil in place by name!

He had been challenged even by Peter His friend. The latter had just given a leadership role amidst the disciples. This was very limited: a pebble amidst the rock of Christ when Himself recognised as the Christ, the Son of the living God (cf. Psalm 62),
and after all, still only one of the brethren (Matthew 23:8-10)^*3.
Far from You all this dying, Peter urges on Christ.

Get behind Me, Satan! Christ exclaimed in reply,
indicating that this word from Peter was not savouring spiritual things but fleshly.

Christ had, and has no need of a pope, of an instructor, of a God Almighty on Earth or any other transparently triumphalist thrust of human arrogance (cf. SMR pp. 912ff.), daring to use what applies to Jesus the Christ, to a man, a sinner, born of no virgin, instructed to be one of a group - "all you are brethren" but "One is your Master" (Matthew 23:8-10).
It is Jesus who came by the virgin, showed His authenticity,
died, rose in body and for all thirst, is the first. It is He who identified Himself ONLY as the Master, with all the sufficiency of infinity, in turn the measure of the folly of papacy
(cf. SMR pp. 1032-1088H). .

There is a need for man and it is not some religious or political leader who exalts his powers, and trades on greatness, but One ministering tender mercy to the heart, pardon to the spirit, grace to the mind and salvation to the soul, one incorruptible as God is, omniscient as He, who balms the life of man, inspires, uplifts and creates a new heart and a new spirit.

Thus the Rock had to be split and provide a place to nestle, and in the crucifixion, it opened for all whose hearts reside in God.

Here the glory that surpasses is contrasted with the failure at Kadesh,
when Israel, having been surrounded with miracles from the time of the Exodus,
was too scared to enter the promised land Numbers 13-14).
But if God is for you, who can be against you! (Romans 8:32ff.).

They refused and were to suffer 40 years of wandering;
Christ, by contrast, entered past the pressures of alternative modes,
letting nothing dissuade, compromise, detach, divert Him from His glorious task,
even if it meant the appearance of loss of what is valued,
and turning from what had intrinsic appeal,
in the realm friendship and high valuation, though here awry and amiss.

Here to be found the third key to the Kingdom of Heaven:
Rely on God to do His own work, in His own way,
and seek to fit in with His plans, not to create them,
knowing that His wisdom is available, in peace of heart
and a spirit resounding with His presence and beauty.
This wisdom seek; on this wisdom ACT; but do not act to counteract in flesh,
preferring to be moved and stirred by Him
before whom all flesh is open, more than any book.

What is to be done for the Lord, do; what is to be done now, do likewise.
Let no second thoughts mar performance, or false appeal from the faint-hearted
move from the path of faith at any point.

Additions have made for nullification of the word of God,
glorification of the blasphemers
who invent for His mouth, while subtractions have left the door for destructive desires and saucy unspirituality, masquerading as truth:
these things have left many unregistered ships of pseudo-spiritual abandon,
which confusing not a few, have carried off their lured lost ones to their lairs.
Rome’s addition of force, sects in their subtraction of deity from Christ,
liberals with their invention of new christs have been a counter-productive riot.
Good is the test, for eternal is the rest,
and the wisdom of God is the more candidly exposed.

These considerations apply both to key 2 and key 3.

B Gethsemane Grace

(cf. Matthew 26:36-46)

Would a flaw develop under maximal stress in the sanctity of the Saviour ?
Having dealt with the devil from the beginning, and often in driving out devils, the former as in the above episode with Peter, Christ prevailed amid anguish, and performed in the eye of the storm, shattering diabolical hope that He would succumb.

Here the glory that surpasses is this: that Christ at Gethsemane
did not submit to the thrust of pre-Cross sacrificial pain and prelude,

but fought to the end the battle of the soul,
submitting with full realisation of the awefulness
of actually having to bear the impact of sin,
most hateful and odious in itself (Hebrews 5:7),
infinitely worse than physical filth, so that in love He could rescue freely
those who received Him (Romans 3:23ff.).
In so acting, at Calvary, He paid for redemption,
the glory of His people for millenia since,
just as it was glory in the eyes of the prophets
who in detail predicted it, its actions and its meaning
(I Peter 1:10ff., II Peter 2:19ff.).

What is surpassed ? It is this.

Moses, as in Exodus 32:31, showed wonderful spirit
in asking God if need be, to blot him out of the book of life,
so long as He did not fail to forgive Israel. What a nurse1

God enlightened him: He would blot out those to whom this belonged,
but He DID discipline and then pardon Israel (Exodus 33:13-23),
and at the time, showed something of His glory to Moses,
who hungered for this inspiration and revelation and was not denied.

What then ? As Moses secured help for Israel, that they might have some cover,
Christ broke death and provided eternity, not mere temporary relief, to His people, for whom death is an anomaly, defeat an extrusion of weakness and shame a shadow of a cloud, one which in Christ has rained and washed (Titus 3:3-5).

Now we have come to the fourth key to the Kingdom of Heaven:
Man may point the way as a forerunner,
only God can build it as functional:

therefore set nothing on man, and all on God,
though gravity engrave itself on your brow,
and sorrow mark you a friend;
for without truth, you are a hindrance,
and in it, you have access to the loveliness of your Creator.
Rest in the Redeemer, for that rest is most blessed.

C Masterful Meekness

(cf. Matthew 26:50-56)

Once again Peter is involved. This time it is in a flurry of what might
in other circumstances be commendable courage, but here a potential disaster.
From this, Christ delivered him, restoring the sword-severed ear to the high priest's servant
who with soldiers had come at night to manhandle Christ, with the expert aid of traitor Judas.
Put up your sword! He demanded of Peter.
How could the scriptures be fulfilled,
that He must be so taken and all that was to follow that,
if physical resistance were put in place of it!

Here the glory that surpasses is this: that Christ again rejected any form of deliverance from His mission, willingly delivering Himself, not from it, but for it
that many might be saved, millions reside in eternal life
and the grace of God with mercy, its friend,
cover the hearts with a beauty illimitable and a peace surpassing all understanding.

Moses, on the other hand, when in the full sway of his gifts and leadership,
following the bitter disappointment of Israel failing to enter the promised land,
provoked by the seemingly endless complaints of the people (Numbers 20),
struck twice the rock which was the display point for the entry of divine power
to provide water, and said:

"Here now you rebels, must we bring water
for you out from this rock!"

At once came the divine word: Moses had not sanctified the name of the God
whose power did the job, beyond the symbolic striking of the rock,
so that Moses would not bring the people into the promised land:
in fact, it would be a generation later.

"Must we bring water ...!" Alas it is not Moses who brings the water, but God, as it is not the priest who brings redemption by bread, but Christ by flesh, suffering flesh ONLY, blood that flows ONLY (cf. Hebrews 9:22,25-26).
Nothing can cover Calvary, nor any equate to what brought pardon in any way,
for all others are sinners, their thoughts and deeds, their devices: but Christ is sinless and Saviour Almighty, direct, who in His own flesh has saved, and not by symbol or proxy,
but through blood, not by the temporal but by the eternal, nor yet by the man-ordered
for of His life, He has power to give it, and He gave. .

Moses even struck the rock twice, whereas it is imperative to realise that
Christ had to die ONCE (Hebrews 9-10), fully satisfying
the claims of death ONCE and for all with everlasting redemption.
Repetition is out, simplicity is in, and none should be seduced from the simplicity in Christ
(II Corinthians 11:3).

Christ used no force, showed no exasperation, but fulfilled with masterful meekness, all that was required of Him, till He cried at last, "It is finished!" (John 19:30), for the redemption was thus complete (Romans 5:1ff., 3:23ff., Hebrews 9-10),
and we who are His, are "complete in Him" (Colossians 2:9-10, Ephesians 1:6). .

cloud, one which in Christ has rained and washed (Titus 3:3-5).

Now we have found the fifth key for the life of the kingdom:

If ignominy is your brother, shame your father,
then certainly seek the force course;
but if you love God, revere His grandeur of love,
and sever not sinners but sin.

The use of the sword in the mission of salvation from God to this world
was abolished, its results quelled by creativity
and concern: the afflictions of the Cross are not optional.

Neither for Christ were they, who despised mere power without purity,
nor are they for us, relying on His work,
resting in His directions, mocking at force as a counter
in the quietude of the soul, despising its shame,
facing the spiritual terms without mitigation.

IV THE GLORY OF THE CROSS - Mission Completed
(Hebrews 9:12-28).

As to the Cross of Christ, that magnificence of Deity, that beauty of
practical holiness, that paragon and primacy of pity,

that purchase of freedom by discipline,

in this we may well glory (Galatians 6:14). In Him, says Ephesians 1:6, we are complete, and His salvation is complete because HE has completed it once for all,

in a singularity as real as that of the Fall. ONCE down and now ONCE FOR ALL up in the eternal redemption which He has to give (Hebrews 9:12ff.).

Shakespeare at one point has Macbeth think of just one thing
that might have made the difference, "then had I been complete" -
but he was not complete. There neither is nor can be any completion
except as being included in the purchase of the Cross, by faith,
and so becoming one of the redeemed.

That completion is the centre of the sufficiency of the free gift of saving grace
to those who secure saving knowledge of Christ.
NOT says Hebrews 9, that He should suffer often,
for then He would have had to suffer often since the world was founded
(as if a sort of amplified animal sacrifice repetitively engaged in).

It was a blood sacrifice, for without blood there is no remission,
and it was a painful and agonising sacrifice (Hebrews 9:25-26),
for suffering is integral with it; but once received, instead of wavers or works.
It is the power of God to salvation (Romans 1:16),
for the Father made Him to be sin for us, the One who knew no sin,
that we might become in Him, the righteousness of God
(cf. Romans 5:17, Ephesians 2, Titus 2-3),
that triumphant gift (Romans 5:17, II Cor. 5:21)
which
beggars comparison,
belittles death's power and
brings eternity back to where it belongs,
in the heart of man, as many as receive Him, whose it is (cf. I John 1:1-4).

This is the YES, the “yea and amen” (II Corinthians 1:20-22) which is true for all the promises of God, and here is the epicentre for that explosion of grace, washing of mercy, acme of assurance and delight of justice, which in Christ becomes the very ground of mercy, as I John 1:7-8 so clearly exposes.

	Here the glory that surpasses is this: that Christ paid once, not repetitively as in the schema of animal sacrifice, paid fully and not partially, as in this sacrificial type or that (cf. Leviticus 4ff.), and paid in the blood of God (Acts 20:28), which He secured in the incarnation, and shed for every man and woman and child indeed, who takes it as given, without addition or condition, qualification or alien context.
	Moreover, Christ paid freely out of love, so that there is no work in view but HIS (Romans 3:22ff., Ephesians 2, Isaiah 55) and eternally (Hebrews 9:12) with everlasting redemption.
	Hence he or she who believes in Him has eternal life (John 5:24, 6:40,51ff, I John 5:11ff).

It is so simple to enter, so sure to keep once given (John 10:27-28, I John 5:11ff., John 5:24). His blood replaces all the many cleansings both of priest and people in the Old Covenant for THIS priest is clean already, and needs no sprinkling with blood, for it is His own death which delivers and His own death which saves (Colossians 1:22, Ephesians 1:1-11).

	No more the blood on thumbs and big toes of priests, the sprinkling of the surrounds of the altar, people or priest with blood,
	no more the blood sprinkled on the high priest and his sons (Exodus 29:21),
	no more the sprinkling of Levites for purification (Numbers 8, Exodus 24:5-8, 29:19-20),
	no more the washing of hands and feet (to which Christ referred in the New Testament as sufficient to signify all of the body) for priests (Aaron and his sons – Exodus 30:19, this time in water),
	or the sprinkling of blood on healed lepers (Leviticus 14:7).

The forms and norms of sacrifice are transmuted at the Cross. There is nothing like it in heaven or on earth, for here is the answer to the question DOES God love us ? here is the reply to the query, HOW do we know ? here is the articulation in agony, the expression in delighted anguish (Psalm 40) of what the world cannot parallel, of the true God in His book, verified in outrageous completeness and continuity as nothing else is or can be over the millenia, unique beyond Everest, for nothing else is a foothill to it in glory, purity, power and presentation. It replenishes the tottering globe with reality, gives grace for bestiality and restoration from devilry. It swallows up all sacrifices in the Person who produced us, in Jesus Christ.

Only water baptism remains related to babes or babes in Christ (cf. Leviticus 1:5, 12:6. Colossians 2:11-12, Luke 2:22ff.), sprinkling the mode for baptism now - since this is a FORM of purification, as shown in John 3:25-26, and in Hebrews 9:10, where various ‘baptisms’ is the Greek term, and various sprinklings are accordingly listed 9:13,19-22. Now water is the substance for baptism, though not for sacrifice, since this is complete in Christ whose blood is shed once for all (Hebrews 9-10).

But baptism is symbol, whereas Christ is the substance (I Peter 3:21). On baptism, Peter is moved to stir grandly, to make the point vividly. Yes, baptism is crucial, he indicates, but THE BAPTISM of which this can be said if not something to do with water, but

"the answer of a good conscience to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

(paralleling the emphasis of Paul as in I Corinthians 1:17 - he did not come to baptise but to preach the Gospel). That is the difference between symbol and salvation! (cf. Jeremiah 9:22).

What then is left ? the blood, the sacrifice, the satisfaction for sin brought by Christ and the continual command to use its power:

“let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness

of the flesh

and spirit,

perfecting holiness in the fear of God” – II Corinthians 7:1.

You cannot patronise God, put Him on a string like a dog, or push in a coin and expection action. You worship, surrender and seek His will most heartily, where it may be found in the Son of His love, and follow Him. Otherwise, superficial connection merely insults Him.

It is this, then, that is left, the faith that follows, the love that obeys and the heart that abides in Jesus Christ. The resurrection of the body of Christ follows as dawn from day, a testimony both to the coming resurrection of our bodies and the present dynamic of deliverance and life which flows to us as waters from the snowy heights of distant mountains. This, it is far better; it is from the glory that excels, the gift of life in Christ, whose life itself IS that glory.

Therefore proceed with eternal living till He comes!

IV THE GLORY OF THE CROSS - Mission Completed
(Hebrews 9:12-28).

That completion is the centre of the sufficiency of the free gift of saving grace
to those who secure saving knowledge of Christ.
NOT says Hebrews 9, that He should suffer often,
for then He would have had to suffer often since the world was founded
(as if a sort of amplified animal sacrifice repetitively engaged in).

It was a blood sacrifice, for without blood there is no remission,
and it was a painful and agonising sacrifice,
for suffering is integral with it; but once received, instead of wavers or works,
it is the power of God to salvation (Romans 1:16),
for the Father made Him to be sin for us, He who knew no sin,
that we might become in Him, the righteousness of God
(cf. Romans 5:17, Ephesians 2, Titus 2-3),
that triumphant gift (Romans 5:17, II Cor. 5:21)
which
beggars comparison,
belittles death's power and
brings eternity back to where it belongs,
in the heart of man, as many as receive Him, whose it is (cf. I John 1:1-4).

This is the YES, the “yea and amen” (II Corinthians 1:20-22) which is true for all the promises of God, and here is the epicenter for that explosion of grace, washing of mercy, acme of assurance and delight of justice, which in Christ becomes the very ground of mercy, as I John 1:7-8 so clearly exposes.

v Here the glory that surpasses is this: that Christ paid once,
not repetitively as in the schema of animal sacrifice,
paid fully and not partially, as in this sacrificial type or that (cf. Leviticus 4ff.),
and paid in the blood of God (Acts 20:28), which He secured in the incarnation,
and shed for every man and woman and child indeed, who takes it as given,
without addition or condition, qualification or alien context.

v Moreover, Christ paid freely out of love, so that there is no work in view but HIS
(Romans 3:22ff., Ephesians 2, Isaiah 55) and eternally (Hebrews 9:12)
with everlasting redemption.

v Hence he or she who believes in Him has eternal life
(John 5:24, 6:40,51ff, I John 5:11ff).

¨ No more the blood on thumbs and big toes of priests, the sprinkling of the surrounds of the altar, people or priest with blood,

¨ no more the blood sprinkled on the high priest and his sons (Exodus 29:21),

¨ no more the sprinkling of Levites for purification (Numbers 8, Exodus 24:5-8, 29:19-20),

¨ no more the washing of hands and feet
(to which Christ referred in the New Testament as sufficient to signify all of the body)
for priests (Aaron and his sons – Exodus 30:19, this time in water),

¨ or the sprinkling of blood on healed lepers (Leviticus 14:7).

The forms and norms of sacrifice are transmuted at the Cross. There is nothing like it in heaven or on earth, for here is the answer to the question DOES God love us ? here is the reply to the query, HOW do we know ? Here is the articulation in agony, the expression in delighted anguish (Psalm 40) of what the world cannot parallel, the testimony of the true God in His world, in His book, verified in outrageous completeness and continuity as nothing else is or can be over the millenia, unique beyond Everest, for nothing else is a foothill to it in glory, purity, power and presentation. It replenishes the tottering globe with reality, gives grace for bestiality and restoration from devilry. It swallows up all sacrifices in the Person who produced us, in Jesus Christ.

Only water baptism remains^*4related to babes or babes in Christ (cf. Leviticus 1:5, 12:6. Colossians 2:11-12, Luke 2:22ff.), sprinkling the mode for baptism now - since this is a FORM of purification, as shown in John 3:25-26, and in Hebrews 9:10, where various ‘baptisms’ is the Greek term, and various sprinklings are accordingly listed 9:13,19-22. Now water is the substance for baptism, though not for sacrifice, since this is complete in Christ whose blood is shed once for all (Hebrews 9-10).

"the answer of a good conscience to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

(paralleling the emphasis of Paul as in I Corinthians 1:17 - he did not come to baptise but to preach the Gospel). That is the difference between symbol and salvation! (cf. Jeremiah 9:22).

What then is left ? the blood, the sacrifice, the satisfaction for sin brought by Christ and the continual command to use its power:

“let us cleanse ourselves form all filthiness

of the flesh

and spirit,

perfecting holiness in the fear of God” – II Corinthians 7:1.

You cannot patronise God, put Him on a string like a dog, or push in a coin and expect action. You worship, surrender and seek His will most heartily, where it may be found in the Son of His love, and follow Him. Otherwise, superficial connection merely insults Him.

It is this, then, that is left, the faith that repents, receives, realises and follows, the love that obeys and the heart that abides in Jesus Christ. The resurrection of the body of Christ follows as dawn from day, a testimony both to the coming resurrection of our bodies and the present dynamic of deliverance and life which flows to us as waters from the snowy heights of distant mountains. This, it is far better; it is from the glory that excels, the gift of life in Christ, whose life itself IS that glory.

Therefore proceed with eternal living till He comes!

There is ground for worship!

We visit at this point the SIXTH KEY.

God has come;
truth has come in PERSON;
reality has visited;
reason is surpassed with actuality on line, but it is not denied;
wonder becomes a matter of witness, works an issue of watching, and it is all HIS.

And WE are HIS, accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6), for whom He came:
those who do not ponder and wander, equivocate and blaspheme, feel drawn and dip,
but being believers, without panache or fanfare, surrendering to His mercy,
receive the goodness of His redemption, the discipline of His word and
the delight of His company:

	one Lord, one Book of the Lord,
	one Cross,
	one episode of the Cross,
	one Resurrection of the body of the Lord,
	one arena for victory with
	one Champion, the Trinity,
	the Father who so loved,
	the Son who so sacrificed and the Spirit who so seals.

The core is the Cross (Galatians 6:14), where the eternal love and glory shows itself as known from the first, and focussed to the last (Revelation 13:8, 2:8, 22:13, Isaiah 46:10). Let us then personally, in more than formal competence, in utter resolution and dependence, in weakness that makes strong (II Corinthians 12:10), in the simplicity of the faith, in the certainty of Christ, compromise neither with conscience attuned to His word, nor with command, uttered by His lips, nor personally, by simply letting Him down.

May God be praised in the limitless loveliness of His own eternal life which He has freely given,
awaiting reception (I John 1:1-4).

There is ground for worship!

NOTES

See Highway of Holiness Ch. 4, SMR Ch. 6.

See III C below.

*3 See SMR pp. 98 -99, 540, 887ff..

*4 See News 51, esp. *1, with Questions and Answers 11 for a fuller and more general treatment, as also The Pitter-Patter of Prophetic Feet Ch. 5 and What is the Chaff to the Wheat Ch. 1.