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  CHAPTER 4

 The Love that Breeds Assurance
and the  Correlate
of the Power that Produces Victory -
         the case where  1 + 1 does not make 2.

This is taken from Red Alert ... Ch. 7 and
The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 16

In our last chapter, we considered the intrusive, abusive nature of sin, with special reference to international affairs, the state of the world and the fate of nations.

This time, as noted, we turn to Romans 5 to find the root cause. That is what Dr Mahathir of Malaysia reportedly says, is the proper topic for the USA. It would be certain, however, that he would not find as the Bible does, in any analysis he would provide, as the Bible is not his source, and duplication of the mind of God is more impossible than the creation of a new universe.

The human heart,  as we are seeing, can  at times with confusion, at others with varied motives, sometimes with celestial projections, perform diabolical deeds, with social manners accomplish slatternly spiritual procedures, indulge in monstrous self-gratifying immoral moralities, congratulating itself on folly, and allow the most hideous assault on what is precious; and for convenience, it can mix murder and method, hatred and idealism, luxury and a Spartan regime (for the doers, less than for the 'directors'). It is altogether a most charming piece of goods, and the question arises, WHY! After all, it is from this source, suitably aided and abetted when sin is there, with other agents of corruption, that the follies which lead to the 'problems' come.

Romans tells us, as reason can only concur (cf. SMR Ch. 1, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 6 -7, Repent or Perish Chs.  2,  7, That Magnificent Rock Chs. 1,3,6-7). By man came sin, by sin came death, by both came abounding evil. HOW can sin come by man ? How could it not, since he was free and subjectible to diversions and conversions to this and that ?

Yet WHY should it not be a perfect man with THEREFORE a perfect spiritual profile, incorruptible, good, mannerly, GODLY... Why did this not arrive ? The Bible informs us with total agreement from reason, with the authority of God, that a perfect man did arrive; but did not stay! He ceased in his performance in the area of godliness. He quit. He was not redeemed, merely created; so he quit. To be godly did not meet his penchant, for in the unfettered imagination with which he was endued, and in the test to which he was duly and truly subjected, he simply went a way he elected. Election is part of personality; he had personality; he elected. If he could not, he would not be personal; if he DID not, he would not be ungodly. He did, and so became ungodly. It was something to which he had aptitude, but not necessity.

Ah but, does one not hear, this godly bit! WHY does a perfect man have to be godly.

No reason at all, provided he can make himself, his universe and so on, before he exists. If he were God, he would however BE godly, being himself. He is not God, hence there is this problem when he institutes divorce proceedings. He has only to create himself and the universe ...

Do not be ridiculous ...is this the reply ?

Agreed. That is the answer. It would indeed be ridiculous to create yourself in order to be there; and that is why he needs to be godly.

If not, then he and his Maker at at odds, and His Maker's holy majesty (cf. SMR Ch. 1) is affronted.

Too bad! says one.

Agreed, once again. It is too bad, to last. SO it will not do, to be so. Of that, it is already giving ample signs and signals. It is not a nice old world that can take it, a nice old race that can make it. It will neither take it nor make it. It is on the way out. God has been most patient, indeed to the point that effrontery and arrogance have had whole sessions to discover themselves, and never a more jagged discovery.

Indeed, does not the putative question, WHY SHOULD MAN NOT BE PERFECT! and the hoped for qualification, and that WITHOUT GODLINESS, show the nature of the case ? This already indicates the character of the disease.

But then, one may say, I do not want this liberty to leave God. Godliness is fine.

Very well, we have already proved often enough that the Bible is the word of God (cf. SMR, That Magnificent Rock, Spiritual Refreshings in the Digital Universe Chs. 13, 16, with Repent or Perish Chs.  2 and  7, for example), and on this occasion,  we are considering man with respect to it, so that our discussion will be profitable. If a person DOES want to be godly, this means, then, that he or she wants to be free from autonomy, ready to obey God, filled with love, not self-centred, adoring Christ as Redeemer, subjecting all plans to Him, focussing on His magnificence, delighting in His will, word and way, working with His kingdom in view more than any courtier for his king. Is this too what you want ?

Someone may say, Well suppose it were! What then ?

Then you would be forgiving, understanding and gracious, leaving 'vengeance' to God, seeking to do good to all men, not seeking your own, loving your enemies. The world would groan in astonishment. HOW in the world, it might at once begin to ask, can I be expected to be destroyed when the things are so perfect! But no worry: they are not, and it will be destroyed like any other trash can, in the end.

But 'trash can!', one may expostulate.

Of course, what contains trash, is a trash can, or container if you want to be technical.

Man, trash ?

Does he behave very differently ? Yes, at times, and in some cases. Agreed. In most however, the gulf between manliness and godliness is far greater than that between Bill Gates' wealth and that of the most humble untouchable in India. Such a term is not a moral judgment on man, so to speak, merely a destiny-oriented factuality. The sole point being made here is this: That this is the destiny of divorced man, spiritually derelict for all his many pretensions, because disjoined from God; and if you read Mark 9 you will see that it is by NO means an overstatement.

Of course, unconverted man does for the time differ from trash in this, that he MAY be saved from sin, and so from judgment in Christ as Redeemer. SO of course one is not designating the race as 'trash' but merely indicating the defining point of DESTINY, relative to most of it. CHRIST indicated that FEW follow His narrow way (like a water course from a reservoir, it is not a plain, but a road, a channel); and that many walk in the highway to hell. This is not because man's conduct can have  no good points; oh no, not at all.  A murderer may be kind at home. It is not because in mankind there may not, even now, be in isolation from the overall condition, some admirable qualities.

WIthout any pleasant features ever ? Not at all: a gangster may have a wonderful sense of domesticity.

It is because without God man is without substance, setting, design specifications, is lost from his concord position, from his Father, from his Maker, disoriented from the pattern, program and the sure inter-personal connection with the divine: and the generic for that sort of thing, when it is NECESSARY, for any product, is 'trash'. It is thus an encounter with realism for the destiny in CURRENT terms for unbelieving man, not a judgment on his potential. Like a kite however in the mud, if it is not cleaned, it is mere trash. This is its reference point,  HOWEVER wonderful could be the flight it would accomplish if it were subjected to cleaning, drying and skill. Look at Ephesians 2 and consider.

With unconverted man, however, he insists on refusing this. THAT, and not something irreparable, is the reason why the correct designation OUTSIDE salvation, is trash. It is something - let  us remove any vestige of misunderstanding - which without remedy, is hopeless, and contrary to design. THAT, it is man without Christ. This is the Bible teaching as you may readily see in Ephesians 2 and 4, and to complete this introduction to Romans 5, let us look personally with our own eyes at some of these declarations from the Lord.

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart...

...put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).
 

When beings like this are let lose, however subtle, or pseudo-spiritual, things will not - because they cannot - go right. So they do not. They will go wrong. They do so with increasing force and fortitude, right being termed wrong and vileness nobility.

As time passes, and the third and fourth generation "of those who hate Me" (Exodus 20) proceed, the contortions arise in ways amazing and macabre. But still worse is to follow, and has already made its wake.

As Christianity is left as a residue on the plate in this reputedly 'post-Christian' Age, of course, it merely means that panel-beating is unfashionable, so deformity is not only normal, but increasingly unrelieved. It is even lauded and applauded in perverse sex, gender 'change', biological invention without wisdom, endless ignoble litigation for illusory pretensions, as if men were god and with a proliferation of would-be mock-up christs proceeding from every inventor's desk, to supplement the old fakes. The Bible is unfashionable, law is unfashionable, erratic life and death is the rage, and rage is the mode.

Since the moral dimensions are included in the so elegant inventions (cf. Ecclesiastes 7:29), it follows that the place must become unlivable, which is precisely two things. The first ? It is what we are seeing. The second ? It is what Christ predicted (Matthew 24:21-25):
 

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand."

In Romans 5:12-21 we find that there was a first man who went astray, a thing which personality is and must be, perfectly able to do, in its initial stages at least: for otherwise it would lack the qualities integral to BEING a person. Programmees are not persons. Freedom is not a mathematical, economic or moral necessity. Without freedom, there is only rule, not reality for man. It is the reality of man that he weighs and considers, proposes and disposes, often messing things in the meantime; and that his standards are as far from being set, as on the contrary, they are set in the Artic to Antarctic bird programs by their Designer^*2. Freedom was considered in Predestination and Freewill, Part I especially, as in SMR pp. 348ff., Licence for Liberty Preface,  I , 2  and elsewhere, in Things Old and New Ch.  1, Beauty  of Holiness  5,  7,   8; News 145  (see also indexes SMR and other).
 

• For the moment, our concern is the OUTCOME. In empirical fact, man went astray: it was his prerogative, he exercised it. It was a consumer-pay proposition. He paid.

He is still paying; he is still sinning. The direction is the same, the speed can increase as multiple assaults are institutionalised more and more, and good teaching is replaced with a moral invention of goodness, whereby evil is treated to glory (cf. Mystery of Iniquity and The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 8).

Now in Romans 5:12 we find the generic, historic declaration. The first man sinned, gained death and his condition became universal to the race as it then was. In verses 13-14, we learn that this was an exceptional case, like your first smash after gaining your driver's licence. It is not a particularly memorable thing, but it is remembered!

SINCE then, we there learn, man sins in a different way from the original idea of sinning, which then was indeed quite original... He sins in a derivative way, lest monumental in kind, but still fatal in type. When Moses was given a heavily codified law, we are told, then sin was decisively, if you like arithmetically accountable. However, before then, it was still sin; God was still divine, man human, results still accrued, and in particular, death.

In making this distinction, chapter 5 of Romans provides us with a link. The sin of man in the first was of one kind, and in the unity of that first man it was dowered to mankind! The first man was a type, illustration, forerunner, of the COMING ONE, we read.

Paul then resumes the argumentation of explication.

It runs well in the Berkeley translation^*1. The case is this (this is the sense of it): the first man sinned, getting death and this spread. The case was different in the first, from that of others, who came after the first episode. They sinned with sin already resident. However the first sin was from ONE agent, and the Coming One, to meet it, was another Agent. Each was one. Each was crucial. Not however like the first sin situation is the second man's or the second representative man's action. Sin multiplied by the first; grace abounded by the second.

The basic movement is this, then: Here is the position (v. 12). Just as sin came by man, and spread like a plague, so in complete contrariety, grace came by man, and spread like a bounty. Sin came like that; but otherwise did the coming of grace from the Coming One occur!

This then in verse 15 is the first of no less than 6 parallels, law court sounding presentations, each reinforcing the last, each proceeding to a new phase, and sometimes gathering strength from what went before as well. It is not possible really to interrupt this amazing flow of analysis with brackets and imagined recall of verse 12, as done in both the Authorised Version and the NKJV. It is a cohesive, coherent, deeply integrated series of propositions, like arms and elbows, and hands, each articulated so closely with the other, that interruption is dysfunctional.

The Greek does not carry brackets, so we have to use our own perception. What is clear is found in two points. The verse 12 is explained in verses 13-14 in terms of the first and later sin, and the difference between them. The in verse 15, we have the adversative parallel: That happened in one way, but THIS, it happened in the opposite.

The respect of contrariety is this: THAT was negative, this is positive. That was fatal, this is a balm of life. But BOTH were multiplying in results, like a cyclotron.
 

THE SIX PARALLELS

1) Thus in verse 15 we have the first of the six parallel statements, mutually developmental.  Here is the dismal multiplication contrasted with the delightful abundance, the salient stripping of sin, and the exotic abounding of grace.

2) In verse 16, we have a further and related contrast. There is, in the first man, Adam, the movement to judgment. There is via the second man (as Paul puts it in I Cor. 15 "the Lord from heaven" defining the term), the movement to justification. The one is to sentencing, the other to quashing. The one is to the bar of justice; the other is to the car of deliverance. One indites the guilt; the other waives it. This is the judgment-justification contrast in the parallels built about Adam and Christ.

3) In verse 17, we come to one offence of one man leading to the REIGN of death. Man could not escape, and the preludes and passions of death were the thing that ruled, de rigueur. However as to those who receive the GIFT of righteousness (cf. The Biblical Workman Appendix 4), donated with abundance of grace, these escape that reign. For them there is a substitute reign. It is the reign in life, THROUGH the One, Jesus Christ. This reign is very delightful. Life does not control you; but you in Christ find it is amenable to direction. HE as Lord is able to subdue it, control it, endue it, vitalise it, renew it, endue it, bring to the fore its proper qualities and project it into the space of grace like a missile. It is a reign IN LIFE, through Jesus Christ.

The contrast here is between reign of death and reign in life... THROUGH Jesus Christ the deliverer.

4) In verse 18, we move to the realm of offence and righteousness as performance criteria, rather than moral and legal directions. Here the one man achieved a result, offence. It produced condemnation, like decoration on a cake. It followed and exhibited what it was all the more clearly. The other Man however, also achieved something. It was transcendent in its superiority, opposite in its result.

He performed, and this was this was a life of righteousness unblighted, undimmed, exhibitive of that perfection which no sin touches, no judgment assesses and no fault maligns.

The gift if you will, of the first man was a performance contribution, like a father's will in the monetary sense. You get what you are given. He gave offence and judgment. The other, the One in parallel but in quality and wonder, beyond all comparison: He gave perfection and this, if received, presents justification, that is, the entire re-reading of your record in terms of your Saviour's attainment which you take. This is the OFFENCE achievement, RIGHTEOUSNESS achievement parallel and contrast. Here the direction of results is clarified for all, in the universal offering, one effective however only where received.

5) But the apostle is still further inspired. There is more to follow.

Thus there is the glory of verse 19. Here is the constitutive question answered. The first man's disobedience constituted MANY sinners; the second man's obedience made MANY righteous. Of course, as we have already been shown, the 'many' in the first case are all! Paul has emphasised this repeatedly. In this EFFECTUAL RESULT section, however, to preserve the parallel, Paul uses 'many' for both the fall and the finding. Thus, in the second, which uses the same parallel term in this garden of parallels, it is indeed 'many' as in Matthew 26:28, Romans 8:32. Many have fallen and many arise. The first is the entire multitude of mankind; the second is the entire multitude of those redeemed.

The parallel is thus in format beautiful, and it is for this reason that we have moved from the 'all' above to the 'many' in the case of this verse. It is manifest that Judas was not righteous, but indeed the devil entered into him and it would have been better for him, the Saviour said, if he had never been born.

Thus the word of God declares that "many are constituted righteous". The movement of justification was towards ALL; but the movement is, in terms of constituting people afresh, of regeneration, something quite different. The one has potential, the other actuality. The one is rich in hope; the other rich in fact. There is in some, those who receive the free gift of verse 17, a change that is more than one of the grace that looks differently upon them (and this is of course crucial, since only perfection is acceptable or indeed workable in heaven where sin is excluded, a colour bar that nothing will lift, a moral colour - Revelation 21:8,26).

In this case, it is one of the spiritual transformation of heart and value, priorities and power, of zest and passion, which fixes on God as a man on a rock, in the middle of the ocean. It is moreover not only a new stability and deliverance, but a change within. It is as if climbing onto the rock, the man finds his nature miraculously changed also. It is a transformative rock, not only situationally, but intrinsically.

That is because it is alive, and personal: it is the Creator, and it is in this mode one of transfer of power to create a clean heart, and to renew the mind (Ephesians 3:16, 4:23, Psalm 51).

While to God is known HOW many, the fact that the 'many' is put in parallel here is exhibitive of the grace which would have all men to be saved, however irreparable the reproach of many more, who will not have 'this man to rule over  us'. One can sympathise with this for a mere man; it is when the man is what God became in order to save that it is a privilege to obey, a delight to serve and a delicious joy (I Peter 1:8) to be acquainted; and with that, to be a friend of God, it is a bounty beyond all. So has been the way since Abraham was shown the way of grace, till Christ paid for it (Genesis 15:6, II Chronicles 19:7).

6) To Romans 5 verse 20, we now may proceed. The law, in this additional facet of the perspective, says Paul, came to expand in a vigorous realism, the offences. You cannot shrug. It is right or wrong, black or white, and no grays are tolerated, no argumentation. You do or you do not. It is simple, a snare for the self-justifying hordes of non-holiness living, who prefer the vacuity of talk to the virtue of walk. Here then you have OPPOSITE ABUNDANCES.

This said, the apostle continues, the abounding of the law, in defining sin, was outdistanced entirely by the superabundance of grace. But to what did the grace then move its recipients ? Just as sin brought on the reign of death, Paul continues in enrichment of verse 17, so grace now reigns through righteousness to eternal life. NOTHING has been left, in these enclosing parallels!

Hence the reign in life THROUGH Jesus Christ, now becomes the reign of GRACE through righteousness, that of Christ, to something endless: eternal life.
 

Thus there is a changing of the guard, the death squad out for the redeemed, and the reign of grace is the reign under the face of Christ, for God, as Paul observes in II Corinthians 4:6, who commanded light to shine out of darkness ... has shone in our hearts in which is revealed the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. This is transformative continually (II Corinthians 3:18), just as the receipt of grace and the free gift of righteousness is a total change of status, initially.
 

THEIR AFTERMATH

What says Paul, in Romans 6, are you now going (perversely, as if some enemy were mocking) to say this: That it is so wonderful that there is so much of this wonderful grace, so that we will sin more and more freely, allowing it thus to swamp in in even greater amounts!

God forbid, he declares. Christ had to die to secure this: we who are His die with Him, in Him, through Him. Our sinful personalities, and not merely our sinful deeds, are SIN, and the SIN offering TAKES the sin, of this or that kind, so that we are crucified with Him, planted with Him, buried with Him. This is found in Romans 6:3-6.

Obviously the successive figures have NOTHING to do with the sacrament of baptism, and everything to do with phases of life. They authorise no sacrament; they illustrate the wholly essential elements, the actual ones indeed, which follow when there comes to a person, this dynamic transformation of the Saviour who died and rose, bearing sin, breaking its penalty and presenting life freely, for ever. It is the practice of living, not of symbolic rites which is thrust into view.
 

ONE AND ONE, ADVERSATIVE, NOT CUMULATIVE

We have then finished this survey of ONE AND ONE, the one dynamically contriving ruin, with initiative, invention, contention and disgrace; the other creating salvation FROM IT, with initiative, invention, meeting challenge and overthrowing opposition to the deliverance, even to the point of resurrection from a penalty-bearing death, comprehending the sins of all who should ever receive Him. The scale is profound, the scope entire.

• These two do not add! They are opposite in contribution, wholly diverse in status, divergent in dynamic.

The scenario  does however provide entire focus on Adam and on Christ. They are added to the scene, Adam from earth, his spirit from God, Christ God as man, who yielded His Spirit without spot to God, He the sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 9:12,19). One adds sin, the other subtracts. One adds sentence, the other subtracts. One adds disobedience, the other obedience; one adds the scope for law, the other the realm of grace. This one and one do NOT make two: they are adversative, not cumulative!

The one is adequate for wreckage; the other for reconstruction. The one suffices for sin; the other for salvation. The one breeds disaster, the other relief. The one catapults man into death, the other makes death relinquish its mirthless jaws, by bearing it. Grace did it, love thrust into it, power accomplished it, purity enabled it. It is the work of God Himself (Hosea 13:14, Ezekiel 34, I Timothy 3:16, Titus 2-3).

That then is the reality of Christianity, when you bypass sacramentalism, neo-evangelicism, neo-orthodoxy, Romanism, liberalism, and the rest (cf. The Biblical Workman Appendix III), and simply take the Lord according to His word, and follow Him.

Devils are numerous. God is one. Error is multiple; truth is one. (Cf. Errors.)

Christ is one. He is the only One who is needed, and He is altogether needed. He is revealed in the Bible, exposed by the Spirit, adopted by grace, and transformative by power. In the last case, it is radical in its initiation and continual in upkeep. In scope, it is ONE MAN doing ONE THING in ONE WAY which has ONE RESULT. The conferred and constant result is status (John 10:27-28); the phase result is function. Both follow because God is alive. Both come through faith in the OBJECT which is thus, and this is Christ, and that, not any Christ, but the LORD'S Christ (Luke 2:26).
 

REMEDY AND RUIN, never better accomplished than in quack remedies
(Matthew 24:24, Colossians 1:19ff., Ephesians 1:19-23, Galatians 1, 3, 5)

All this is clear ? But of course. Very well. Then WHEN this is done and NOT UNTIL, then the sin problem ceases to be like so many radioactive wastes dispersed on a daily basis, like so many atomic bombs with cobalt delivered to the ground daily, and the kingdom of heaven arises within, in the midst.

When it is not, you have this present world, where not only are there numerous false religions, but numerous false versions of Christ, which never lived, were never born, never acted and never rose, because they are but figments of the imagination. There is evidentially but One. If you take someone else in His name (Iprecisely as was done in II Cor. 11 where Paul rebuked it), it is relevant only in one thing: its presumption adds vastly to your sin, and to the folly in the world, hastening its end. It is done likewise with the Gospel of grace, to substitute things like physical violence (and the world is having its face dipped in this tar, since it is so fond of such false philosophies and religions) and imperfect works, as if some arithmetic could determine eternity, where sin has no place at all.

Sin is an interesting thing, is it not ? The more of it, the sooner the world is unlivable; the sooner it is unlivable, the sooner He comes; and  the sooner He comes, the sooner we who are His have the privilege of being taken to Him (I Thessalonians 4);  and the sooner these things happen, the sooner the judgment sits. God of course knows when, but these are internal dynamics on the scene. Yet for all that, heaven forbid that one should call sin, for all its acceleration of the end,  in the tiniest degree beneficial. Like cancer that left alone, kills you sooner, it is hardly a blessing on account of that! The point is to be cured fast, and be rid of the destructive dynamic.

The cancer is spiritually speaking, sin. It is a figure of it, illustrates it. Sin kills and goes on asserting its just desert. It kills all the more when the remedy is denied, for then it is in the arena of the ultimate dimension of sin, like someone formerly of 20 stone, but now of 45. The world is overweight, with sin.

THAT is the problem. It is so because it does not accept the Saviour. That is the secondary cause which rejects doctor, drug and deliverance. That is like pouring atomic waste into your drinking water. In one sense, it is merely one more senseless act. In another, it is nearing the point of being terminal. As you see in II Timothy 3 and Matthew 24, not to mention Jude and II Peter 3 with I Timothy 4, there is a progression. We are about there. Answers to Questions Ch. 5 shows how VERY nearly we are there.

Your own eyes in the light of the word of God should be able to give you an increasingly interesting read-out as the last few phases (cf. SMR pp. 502ff.) arrive. The Moslem answer in Afghanistan and in so many centres showing vast crowd support for bin Laden, throughout the world, is not apt. Force and guns to produce submission to some being is nothing to do with truth, as we have repeatedly seen in the earlier chapters and the last volume (cf. SMR pp. 50-71).

To "fight against such of those to whom the scriptures were given as believe neither in God nor the last Day ... and do not embrace the true faith, until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued" is entirely irrelevant, a parody of personality and a misplacement of force where it is an outrageous accessory to spiritual crime, not a vehicle of truth (Koran, Surah 9:27). If then the US is to look to root causes of its trouble, it is not to be found here or in such places as this, nor in circumstances where, as to unbelievers, you "make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God's religion shall reign supreme" (Koran, Surah 48). These things are a large PART OF THE PROBLEM, not its resolution. The Jews by jihad must go; the US by jihad must yield. Others by jihad must do this and that. Remove this from the Middle East and the impact from the US and much of the problem would be reduced at once.

However these are but part of the total complex of confusion and infusion of man's imagination into divine matters, to his fatal detriment.

It is useless to look for the solution in the realm of its generation. It is hardly a solution to a hurricane to fly into it. It is vain to expect help from the invading elements, that assault the region of faith with force.

Rather needed is love, understanding and opportunity. If the faith is not received, judgment will come soon enough. People need not bother to play god, though they will, for it is so predicted and the world is hastening with all this acceptance of false religion, now even at State level, into this field as if hungry for its own dissolution.
 
 

Not dissolution, however, but solution, this is the requirement. That we have been seeing in Romans 5, precisely, as to its nature. As Galatians 1 makes so clear, the capacity of man to add or subtract to this gospel of divine grace, the product not of flesh but of God, the realm of His own mercy, under His own initiative and control, His only: it is zero. Zero alteration leads to infinite blessing. If purity of chemicals is so important to medicine for the mere body, what of purity of truth for the heart and soul, for the relationship with God who both IS it and PROVIDES it from Himself (John 14:6).

THIS IS THE SOLUTION: the LORD's CHRIST as Lord and Saviour in fact, not in theory, in dynamic not in booking for the hospital. THIS, it is an operation which allows your coming to the operating theatre only in repentance, liike a black robe (Luke 13:13), and allows your deliverance only in a trust in the surgeon (Romans 3:25, Galatians 3 and 5) - a thing which would be madness with men. With God, however, it would be madness to withhold it! That trust allows you to receive His directions. They are His, attested and verified, validated solely among all (SMR Ch. 1, Repent or Perish Chs. 2, 7).

Nor is the Bible an option for this operation, for as Christ said, He who wills to do the will of God will know of the doctrine (John 7:17), whether or not it be true, of God; and again, it is the word He has spoken by which He will judge (John 12:48ff.). There is no alteration. God knows His own mind. He has spoken it in word and in work, in His definitive expression, His eternal word, incarnate as Jesus the Christ. It is not obscure; it is not unknown; it not for millenia unheard of, but flashing like lightning on all sides, ever since the only Saviour did the only things that even in one being totally and absolutely, in all respects and at all costs, in every phase and feature, were divine, incapable of imitation, obfuscation or deletion. His words continue as if spoken yesterday; the world obeys, NOT in DOING them, but in receiving the due and precisely stated outcome of its deeds. As in other disease, these are not anything, but highly specialised and the prognosis and the symptoms alike, are all traced out with prodigious detail and exactitude (cf. SMR Chs. 8-9).

The point for this world is this: the gospel of GRACE is given in so many ways, in so many bindings, in so many languages, in so many places that its ignoring is mere wilfulness. The WORK of grace has been wrought in such perfection and attested with such precision that its continued refusal MUST, will and does lead to disgrace, violence and vileness.

THAT was how sin began, in the rejection of the grace of the place provided. It is NOT how it ends. If you want sin never to end for you, so that you either have it in operation or its results in operation, you have merely to reject the Lord's Christ and not receive His words. It is fatally easy. It is as Christ indicated, if one may use modern terms, a four lane highway to hell which is available (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 30).

The other way is exact, exacting but freely given (Matthew 7:13, John 10:9,27-28). It is unbreachable (Romans 5:9-11, I Thessalonians 5:9-10), but reachable (Isaiah 55:1-6). The gate is open (Psalm 118:19, I Timothy 1:10). The gift is free (Romans 6:23, 5:15, 3:23-28, Isaiah 55:1-6). It is without priests (Hebrews 2-10), available by faith through grace, with ONE only your Master, and He, Christ Himself. He ? Sinless, sovereign, the Creator. If you want ot invent God, so be it. You get nowhere, with NOT-God, If you want God, Christ is not a step, but the reality itself (John 8:58), saying, He who has seen Me has seen the Father (John 14:1-10).
 
 

*1
Romans 5:12-15 in this version runs as follows.

"It is therefore as follows: Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death passed on to all persons in that all sinned. To be sure, sin was in the world earlier than the Law; but in absence of law, sin is not charged up. Death, however, held rule from Adam to Moses over those who sinned but did not transgress a command in the way Adam had done , - who foreshadowed the Coming One.

"With the free gift, however, it is by no means as it is with the fall, for if through the lapsing of one person many die, far more richly did the grace of God and His gift, that comes through the favor of one man Jesus Christ, overflow to the many. "

We could with perhaps more consonance with the actual text write.

It is therefore as follows: As through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin and that passed to all persons since all sinned (for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not charged up, law not being in place,  but death reigned from Adam to Moses, even on those who had not sinned after the manner of Adam's transgression, who is a figure of the Coming One): yet not as the offence, so is the free gift. For if through the offences of the one, many died, much more the grace of God and the gift in grace which is derived from one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to the many.
 

This adversative parallel is most interesting. AS THIS happened, yet not so was it with THAT.

It is even more sophisticated. "The Coming one" in the interpolation or aside, is itself a link within what we put in brackets for simplicity of thought, to the next term. It gives the pivot for the next development in contrariety. If it is NOT as the first thing, the fall, this gracious gift, then in what mode is it to come. Anticipating this need, Paul refers to the Coming One BEFORE he mentions the contrast with the gift. Hence the grace is preceded by the Gracious One, and the Agent appears before the act, hence smoothing the transition, which nevertheless has a most delightful wrench to the heart, and impact on the mind. NOT like that is it when the Coming One comes, for it is OTHER!
 

*2
This sentence, incidentally provides another example of adversative comparison as in Romans 5, where we inspected it.

*3
The reader interested in pursuing examples may wish to consult the following.

Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ Ch. 9 - glamour, stammer, hammer  ... flitter and glitter;
Spiritual Refreshings for the Digital Millenium Ch.   3 (the soporific self, and the unity glide, under the sedation of sin);
The Frantic Millenium and the Peace of Faith Ch.  11 - twigs and towers;

News Fact and Forecasts - Chs.

   8 - sham, shame and co.;
   13 - symphony and seditions - two heady heads,
   14 - deadly d's;

Repent or Perish Ch.  5 inventions in mind, gender, politics ...

We continue in this Chapter with Ch. 16 of Biblical Blessings. Here we find personal consequences of a practical love which is not only diverse from all others, except they be founded on it, the original and meaning of love, but its embrace in what only is stronger than death, but what died to keep it to even for fallen man. What is actually needed is not self-esteem but salvation of the self, of the very spirit of man that it might become a child of God and love Him, who gives it sanctity, self-sacrifice and strength of salvation (Isaiah 33:6).

... Self-assurance is in vogue, and as ugly as any other pretension. On the other hand:-

Let us look at Romans 5 and 8, with other words from those divine lips.

After the defeat shown in Romans 7, we find it duly translated into victory in Christ Jesus who did what the law could not do (Romans 8:3) since the flesh merely revolts. This, we read, He did by personally becoming a sacrifice for sin which rubbed out the debt, cancelled the call and deleted the dynamic as sovereign, natural and necessary, leaving a deposit of power. Which? That of the Spirit of LIFE which lives in the life of the Christian as sap lives in the branches of the tree.

This, the Holy Spirit, has not only the NAME of life, but the LAW of life. This "makes me free from the law of sin and death". That is found in Romans 8:2. HOW is this so? In several ways. First, THAT old law is countermanded not by abrogation, as if it were recalled as inferior, but by having its claims MET, because Christ was called to cover the case, did so and leaves no charge to the recipients of the mercy He THEREFORE provides.

Yet there is far more than this in the liberation of the believer. Secondly, then, there is a presence which provides a perspective, power and indeed personality which lives within the life of the Christian. Thus, 8:5-8 shows that there is a carnal mind, an independent-irrationalism which parades as natural but is in fact pathological. It is INCAPABLE of bowing in adoration before the true and vocal God whose ways are known. It MUST be itself, because... that is what it is. Divorced from God, it is not part of HIS household, does not have His pervading presence, the law of HIS life, and so has its own. It may of course also harbour parasitical growths within, devils and the like, philosophies which are their threshold and home call, idols and extraneous ecstasies, 'pure' dreams that unhappily omit the only God who is there, and so are mere infections of the mind.

"Those," says Paul, "who are in the flesh CANNOT please God," - 8:8 (capitals added).
The world-weariness, sardonism and indeed cynicism of many resides in this that their greatest efforts here not only fail, but MUST do so. There is what might appear a certain mesmerism in this. It is like a frog trying to leap to the moon. It is earth-bound, not having the law needed to enable such a prodigy, within.

If, on the other hand and thirdly, "Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness" - 8:10. Sins cancelled, their ground annulled, their dynamic replaced and distanced - though it may strive yet it meets a greater: the Christian has a life in two respects. First it is a donation as to status and secondly it is an innovation of a most special character: it takes him/her back to where things were, except for this: that in Eden man had the presence of God and left it, whereas here, man being redeemed is guaranteed that God will NEVER leave and NEVER forsake him. Righteousness therefore is inherent, not AS the Christian, but as the status given; it is ineradicable, since Christ having redeemed, owns; and it is dynamic, since Christ being resident, WORKS where His presence is thus implanted, within.

As to the donation, see Romans 6:23, 3:21ff., 5:15, John 10:9, 27-28; as to special innovation and regeneration which RESTORES to the image of God, see Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10; as to ineradicable righteousness granted - see II Corinthians 5:19-21, I John 3:9, John 5:24, Psalm 17:15, Psalm 139, Isaiah 51:6 and of course what follows. More interesting yet is this: while Christ IN YOU (Colossians 1:27) THE HOPE OF GLORY means He is in us who believe; Isaiah 61:3 shows His servants as those PLANTED BY THE LORD, trees of righteousness. Planted where? Paul tells us: "Rooted and grounded" in love (Ephesians 3:17), you have Christ living in your heart: it is by His Spirit like the sap which flows. Again, you are "rooted and built up in Him". The imagery changes and the impacts are cumulative.

Thus you are founded in His love, and so have His presence; and equally, yet again, you are grounded in Him, and so may be built on His foundation. As to those so planted, Isaiah continues in 61:7 - "Everlasting joy shall be theirs!" Again, as he prepares for the grand declaration of redemption in the Messiah (then to come), Isaiah pronounces this: "So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads" - 51:11.

Here are the Jews who are Jews indeed (Romans 2:29), here is the Zion which is free and the "mother of us all", which is above (Galatians 4:26). Certainly, there is a fulfilment as we have shown in SMR Ch.9, of the Jewish covenant in their return a) to the land and b) to the Lord; but in this spiritual domain, this is a mere sub-section of the "new name" (62:1-3, 65:10-13) Christian Church, as has often been shown in these works; and the everlasting character of the joy comes from the everlasting association with Him who provides it, and whose righteousness flows like a torrent wherever souls are His (Amos 5:24, Romans 8:10.
 

Salvation City

Indeed, in this city, "you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise"; for here the citizens are those of the commonwealth of heaven (Colossians 3:20). From heaven, indeed, "we eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even o subdue all things to Himself" - Colossians 3:21. Here there is the same frank certainty -"will transform", as in John 10:27-28,9, Romans 10:9. God knows how to keep His children.

Moreover, though the universe depart (and of course it will - Matthew 24:35, Isaiah 51:6, II Peter 3, Hebrews 12), yet in Him and in those who are His there is a righteousness as undivorceable as gene from progeny: we who are His are BRED from Him, and are MOULDED by Him, and His donated righteousness is not merely imputed but resident in His Person, while are beings are subjected to the new law appropriate for their new birth, the LAW OF LIFE (I John 3:1-10). This is that joy which the "ransomed of the Lord" know on the HIGHWAY of HOLINESS (Isaiah 35:8-10).

It is something which they "obtain", while "sorrow and sighing shall flee away". It is endemic with the Lord: this combination of eternity, righteousness and joy. Thus Isaiah 61:10 declares:

• "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels... So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations."

Note of course that this righteousness imputed is in the practical life of the saint, duly mortified in that his sins being cancelled, their power is alien and their life not his. It is not that it is inescapable in some form of sinless perfection at this stage. Rather it has in practice a resilience and a redemptive realisation in the heart of the ransomed that is ineffaceable, impervious to invasion and ineradicable through the intransigeance of the truth in Christ which supplants all contest. IF such a person fall into a sin, then there is the ADVOCATE (I John 2:1-3), Jesus Christ; and this advocate LIVES ON THE PREMISES and imparts His own life and power, so that "if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness" - Romans 8:10.

Indeed, with Christ in you, you find that "He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you... for as many as are led by he Spirit of God, these are the sons of God" - Romans 8:13. THIS is the way it is, THIS is how it works, THIS is His life lived in His saints.

Now that we have seen the foundations, the life, the dynamic, the residency of our president, Jesus Christ, by His Spirit and all that this entails, in due address to the first part of Romans 8 and allied scriptures, let us turn to Romans 8:28-30. The intervening verses have been given attention in BEYOND THE CURSE, earlier in this volume.

First, notice that there is a gardener in our lives. The One who planted us indicates for this garden, that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" - 8:29. Thus there may be, will be suffering, and "through many tribulations" you enter the kingdom of heaven, as Paul states (I Timothy 3:12, Acts 14:22), but this is in the format of test, refinement, exposure of evil through loving grace and if need be opposition that surges though it is overcome, providence and planning. In the end, the structure of thought and the construction of the way leads to this blessed outcome.

The tempest may remove dead wood, uproot the unstable and carry off in a flourish of dynamic swirls, what is rubbish; but the children of the Lord are otherwise founded, rooted and grounded. Wisdom and knowledge is the stability of their times (Isaiah 33:6), and none will by any means snatch out of the Father's hand (John 10:27-28).

As to these CALLED according to His purpose, these who LOVE GOD (Romans 8:28), there is no static in the play of God's history, no tearing of the leaves of His book. It is planned from the first and kept true to the last. Romans 8:29-30 then gives us what you could almost - if it did not seem irreverent - liken to a circuit diagram; and certainly to an architectural structure.

There are FIVE steps in the circuit. First, there are those whom God FOREKNEW. This we recall, FOLLOWS the fact that all things work together for good to the lovers of God, in His purpose. They DO so work because He foreknew them. Before all time (Ephesians 1:4) He chose them as Christians. Not that He foresaw any righteousness in them, for (Ephesians 2:8-10) it is NOT of works, lest any man boast, and it is by faith through grace. Indeed, it is without the works of law that man is saved (Romans 3:28), and there is yet more! In Romans 9, Paul goes on to declare this: It is NOT a matter of the exercise of the human will, a question of our arraigning God by will: on the contrary, it is of God who calls: HE arraigns us! (9:16). HIS purpose according to predestination is going to stand, says Paul (9:11). HIS prior choice will be enacted. YOU, said Christ (John 15) have NOT chosen Me, but I have chosen you!

We have elsewhere (see Love that Passes Knowledge, in The Kingdom of Heaven; Predestination and Freewill etc.) shown that this by no means counters God's equally clear protestations of love and desire that "none should perish" and that "all should come to a knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2), a statement made in the parameters of there being ONE GOD and ONE MEDIATOR between God and man! It does however make clear that without reference to any meritorious performance or quality of mind or will, GOD CHOOSES. He KNOWS who are His (II Timothy 2:19), and indeed, of the Christian, it says this: He "has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began" (II Timothy 1:9).

Thus the historical circuit, the terrestrial realities flowing from the celestial preparations! FIRST, He foreknows His own. SECOND: He predestinates them, He sets them their positions, apportions their lot; THIRD, He calls them in that special call which is "effectual", which is the one which is obeyed, which is apt for this circuit and sufficient for this result. FOURTH, He justifies, cancels the sin debt and apportions the righteousness gift (Romans 6:23, II Corinthians 5:19-21, Colossians 2:14, I Corinthians 1:30). Finally, and FIFTHLY, He glorifies the justified. At ANY point, there is a prior action and a prospective action, until the fifth, which is eternity in blissful independence from the very environment and presence of sin.

Note too how we are prepared for this circuit in Romans 8, in addition to those preliminaries already shown. Thus "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" - 8:18. Yes, this is personal, individual and a work of God and of grace. If, being His and thus so moved, we "suffer with Him", then we shall be "glorified". This then is the glory of which He speaks: it is the counter to suffering, it is the future to this regime and world, it is the place of heirs (8:17), and as such we share His glory.

THAT is how sure a foundation the saints have; THESE are the pillars of righteousness which cannot be moved; HERE is the security which makes safe-deposits archaic and almost mirthful! ONCE enter into this circuit, and all is assured. Justified, then you were foreknown; foreknown you will be glorified. In this stream, this current, you are carried remorselessly by the One who made both it and you! NONE shall snatch you out; NOTHING shall separate you from the love of God here.

This, in fact, is precisely what Paul goes on to say (Romans 8:35-39) in one of the prodigies of revelation of the liberalities and securities and graces of God! Read it, it is energising merely to hear!

In the interim, in 8:31-34, you have equally, amazing Biblical Blessings to add to these. IS there any COUNTER to this? asks Paul (8:31). Not at all! If GOD is for us, there is NOTHING else that can avail. A lawyer, a potentate, a king, a president? Flesh that dies. If GOD is for us, WHO can be against us!

His commitment? IF He did not SPARE His ONLY Son, but delivered Him up for us all (speaking to the called and justified), HOW SHALL HE NOT with Him freely give us all things! (Keep here carefully to the context, for He is addressing the called with that "for" in verse 29), and God does NOT at all give all things, freely or otherwise, to those who are not His, but rather everlasting contempt and everlasting destruction (II Thessalonians 2, Daniel 12).

But some might urge: COULD not God bring some charge against us, Himself? Paul's answer again exposes the prodigious liberality of God's grace: "Who shall BRING A CHARGE against God's elect? It is God who justifies!" GOD is the VERY ONE who has put away sin by the sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 9) so bringing in "everlasting redemption". No it is not He! Who then is it that condemns? The very word is anomalous, for the active agent in this matter, at the very surface of the earth, at the very picturing of the face of God to man, is Christ, and as to Him, HIS will and action and activity in the field is this: IT IS CHRIST WHO DIED. Death is His contribution, but not this only: HE ROSE, He has arisen in power, He is in prayer at the right hand of God. Constant, consistent, faithful, fearless and favouring, He is the One who is our lawyer (I John 2:1-3), our Lord, our Saviour and our Redeemer, whose contribution is sacrificial death and glorious salvation.

These are like practical flags flying on the pillars of security, CHRIST-ASSURANCE, the assurance of the certainty of eternal and blessed salvation which is His. The circuit is strong; the flags are beautiful, and the life works as He says.

In all these things, Paul proceeds to declare, "I am persuaded that we are more than conquerors". Mere conquerors might flex their muscles and in the turmoil and troubled times, snatch and have snatched away again, in due course. Here however is an eternity of bliss; for no depth, height, no power, political, social or cultural, quasi-celestial, no power of any spirit, of any past, of any present thing or future thing: NOTHING shall be able to separate us from

the love of Christ.
 
 

Before all this, Paul had already given such a presentation of the case of man on earth, and the grace of God from heaven as to be like a dawning light, coming ever brighter to the brilliant day.

In this Chapter 5, Paul has traced the sin of the first created pair, and then proceeded to contrast the DIFFERENT manner of sinning of those born from him, in his lineage and line, for "as by one man's disobedience, many were constituted sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be constituted righteous." This constitution is not an inherent perfection, but a delegated position, a status, a manner of being, a placement in God's eye: it is situational, with dynamic consequences. Thus all born since Adam were sinners from the start, born in iniquity as David puts it (Psalm 51), not angles by any stretch of the imagination. Similarly, all born of Christ are given as it were spiritual genes, which though they are not perfection-determinants in the sense that sin is excluded, they do indicate a form of tree that naturally proceeds to bear good fruit. Moreover, there is a placement of the tree, a rooting and grounding as we saw. They are made into plants in the blessed botanics, whilst the other set is made into those of the cursed botanics. There are totally different criteria for both.

ONE man's sin, says Paul, led to MANY sinning; but ONE man's obedience does two things. First, it means that towards ALL this justifying righteousness is presented, freely available, and genuinely offered. Towards MANY, it becomes on reception, what results in "justification of life" (5:18), and these "will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (5:17). The law, says Paul, showed up and even incited sin, such was the sinfulness of sinners (Ch.7 and 5:20). But although sin in these ways abounded, yet grace superabundantly abounded, and REIGNS through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ. Righteousness is imputed, His presence is implicit and domestic to the heart, and in this His kingdom of power and empowering, enabling and adopting, there is an eternity of righteousness.

Those receiving this grace shall reign in life. Now we are considering the two lives, the former and the present, the unconverted and the converted. While it is indeed true that the converted life will be consummated in bliss without sin in the resurrection, it is no less true that it BEGINS NOW, and just as Adam died and imputed in history, so Christ rose and enables in history The "Reign in Life" begins now, albeit with many a tribulation. Look at the life of Paul: though the reign is one of service in the ever present sovereign and Saviour, what service, what deliverance, what presence and what enablement was provided!

THAT is the historical sketch. But what of the diagram, as it were, of FUNCTION? If that is the skeleton, what is the flesh? If that is the plan, what is the personality behind it?

THIS! Here we come to Romans 5:6-11.Now we come to the cyclotron of logic.

A. First, God's approach is as to unlovely sinners, and so far from being caught in desire for delightful mortals whose loveliness is impelling, God shows the purity and wonder and depth of His love in having His only Son die for us, while we were STILL IN THAT HORRID STATE! It is paying for a leper, offering to adopt a deaf mute. "Christ died us the ungodly", and God DEMONSTRATES His love in this, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". THAT is evidence astounding of the reliability and depth of the committed love.

B. Next comes the cumulative point that applies for those who become Christians.

IF we are justified by His blood (and this applies to His own), THEN this is our assurance that we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Wrath where such tokens of grace are exuberant; wrath where such cancellation of its ground occurs! Wrath where successful war has been waged on its basis! War at such a bold stroke of utter love and total justice! Heaven forbid!

• "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him" - Romans 5:9.

The past is a fact ("Having been justified by His blood"), and in parallel, the future is a fact: "We shall be saved from wrath through Him."

The totality of the sacrifice, the depth of the undertaking, the expression of the commitment, the adequacy of what is committed to cancel sin, the stature of the One who does it: all this assures us that IF blood covers sin, then Christ whose blood it is, covers us. His life for our lives, His virtue for our vice, His adequacy for our spiritual inadequacy, His unbreachable purity for our unteachable impurity. He has us covered - with His blood, His death, His offering, His adequate and infinitely prized guarantee - Himself.

C . Now: If we are so saved by His weakness, His death, His sacrificial buffering even to blood: then HOW MUCH MORE are we to be kept by His strength, His resurrected and impenetrable life, for He dies no more; for He was dead, but is alive for evermore (Revelation 1). He HAS MET the requirements of covering sin's penalty, and having done so, continues by "the power of an endless life" (Hebrews 7:16), indeed as one whose it is to have "life in Himself" (John 5:19-26).

Death saved in weakness, life keeps in strength; the death of His SON brought salvation, the LIFE of this SON will keep by its munificence and eternity. Death was deserved by us as ENEMIES, yet God intervened; HOW MUCH MORE will He keep as FRIENDS, those who He has NOW and THUS reconciled! (5:10).

Let us illustrate. Suppose two aircraft were on fatal collision course, neither knowing at this immense dual speed of approach, how to act so as to avoid the other. Then someone on the radio gives joint instructions, and with split-second timing the noses climb and fall respectively by just a fraction sufficient to deliver from destruction. IF when this was imminent, intervention enabled deliverance from disaster and death, HOW MUCH MORE will SAFETY be managed when the crisis is past.

Indeed, says Paul, not only are we who have been reconciled by this prodigy of grace and performance by God, saved by HIS LIFE, whose death so availed for us; we REJOICE in God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:11). As in Nehemiah 8:10, "The joy of the Lord is your strength". How else! Through Him we have received the atonement guaranteeing that we shall reign in life, here enabled, there ennobled in the form of the spirits of the just made perfect (Hebrews 12:23)! Then shall He have wrought even further, for He "shall change our lowly body, that it may be fashioned like His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself" - Philippians 3:21.

Christian assurance is not only warranted, but super-abundantly secured for the children of God: they are His! And He? He is God (I John 3:9, John 10:9,27-28, 8:58.
 
 

For the Christian, then, the child of God whose spiritual reconstitution has meant new spiritual 'genes', there is to all this a divine "appointment". With sin's guilt cancelled in a life for life proposition (Hebrews 10:10,14, 9:12-15, 6:19-20, 9:27-28, Romans 8:15-17, 32-39, 5:12-17, 4:25 with 8:29, 6:23, 10:9, 14:8-9, Colossians 2:13-14 and 3:24, Ephesians 1:4-11, ), there is "justification of life" that just as sin reigned to death, so grace should reign to eternal life. Thus we

• "have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory... sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession" (Ephesians 1:11-14) - the "redemption of the body" (Romans 8:23), to fulfil the redemption through His blood now applicable to the soul and life (Ephesians 1:7).

The appointment is sure, the destiny determinate, the adoption taken out in the name of the Almighty. For, says Paul in I Thessalonians 5:9-10:

• "God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."

From distant antiquity the certainty has been present in the name of the same Lord, the same incarnate Christ, whether as then, to come, or as now, come with His calling card left on the Cross, and His authority exercised in His own Red Sea crossing, where the waves of death were lifted, and He came to the other side, resurrected, having drowned the hosts of Pharoah, the Satan, the sentence of sin, the alienation from God for all who are the Israel of God, in the sea. For as He says of His people in Micah 7:19:

• "He will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."

Thus Job cried out when tried, with the voice of faith made mobile,

• "I know that my Redeemer lives,

And He shall stand at last on the earth: and
After my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh shall I see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.

• "How my heart yearns within me!" - Job 19:25-26.

• So does the heart of the child of God yearn for his Father, his Saviour and His home, for as Paul declares:

 
• "For we know if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while w are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith , not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord" - (from II Corinthians 5:1-9).

Faith rests in the completed work and living reality of the Christ who, resurrected in body, showed the power that love propelled, granting to those who received Him the abolition of death in a life eternal, never broken, always present without cease to the very shores and disembarkation point : heaven. (See II Timothy 1:12, Romans 8:29, 33-39 with T Thessalonians 5:9-10, John 10:9,27-28, 5:24, 6:51-54, 4:14, I John 3:9,. 5:13, II Corinthians 5, Philippians 3:19-21). Indeed it is time to hear the apostle further:

• "I am not ashamed: For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him against that day... Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only but to all those also who love His appearing." ( II Timothy 1:12, 4:8).

• "The power of God who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling , not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before the world began" - II Timothy 1:9.

• "In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ" - Ephesians 1:11.

• "For whom He foreknew, He also did predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, those He also called; and whom He called, those He also justified; and whom He justified, those He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us ? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" - Romans 8:29-32, cf. 8:17.

Here you see the assurance of Christians, for whom Christ was not merely offered as a sacrifice available, but delivered up, bearing their sins (Isaiah 53:11). Hence not hell but heaven is theirs, indeed "all things" are for them.

• "What shall separate us from the love of Christ ?... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, not things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation shall be able to separate us form the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord" - from Romans 35-39.