Episode 38- Chapter 22
Transcription
Hello friends and welcome to the latest in a series of podcasts that follow along with our book, The Wizard of god. This is Steve Roy. Today we're going to be discussing chapter 22, The Wagon. If you haven't already, you're invited to download a free digital copy of The Wizard of god from our website, wizardofgod.com. Or if you prefer, you can buy a paper copy online through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. In these podcasts, we're going chapter by chapter, discussing our character's journey through the land of God. So, if you haven't read Chapters 1-22 yet, and/or listened to the previous podcast, please do. Okay?
Let's get started. In chapter 22, the four friends go on a wagon ride. Grace is still suffering from the effects of her misplaced hope in the wizard. Her state of mind is symbolic of someone who is losing, or lost faith in a church, perhaps even lost faith in God. So what's the answer? On the wagon ride, the friends shockingly discover that Cal was the wizard. Listen to this quote from the Wizard of Oz book.
"You're a bad man," says Scarecrow upon discovering the man pretending to be the wizard behind the curtain. "No," declared the wizard, "I'm a good man. I just make a bad wizard."
You may have noticed that there's no wicked witch, wicked villain in this story. Yes, there's Jared and Linda, but are they wicked or just hungry and lost, like most of the people in the land of God? Remember, the religious crowd saw a sinful Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus saw someone who was thirsty. As the story unfolds, it's clear that Cal started out trying to do good towards the people of the E.C., but his good intentions led him into a trap, a trap where he stopped being cow and became the wizard, someone who was trapped by hero worship, by the expectations of others, trapped into feeding the monster he'd helped to create.
This parable is not about bad churches, bad pastors, etc. The majority of all pastors are true children of God, and the church is filled with precious brothers and sisters in Christ. No, this parable is about an evil trap, a devious trap designed for good people, a trap that Paul called the other or false gospel, or in 2 Corinthians 3, the ministry of death. Friends, the bait in this trap is good, as is bait in all traps. Understand this, the bait always appears good, but the trap is always deadly. Traps are affected because the trap is invisible to the prey. All the prey sees is the bait. And again, the bait is good. Traps are baited with what the prey at least believes to be good things. Cow was trapped by the good bait of trying to be good, do good, by helping the people of the E.C., but in his own strength, in his own power. The bait of doing good traps Christians all the time. Precious ones like Anna who desire deep in her heart to please others, to please her church leaders. Of course her leaders told her she was pleasing God by drinking the formula and studying the secrets. Good people want to do good and pleasing others sure helps you look good to them as long as you continue to do as they desire.
So how did Jesus avoid this trap? In John chapter 8 verse 25 it says,
“So they were saying to him, ‘Jesus who are you?’ Jesus said to them, ‘What have I been saying to you from the beginning? I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but he who sent me is true and the things which I heard from him, these I speak to you.’ They did not recognize that he had been speaking to them about the father, so Jesus said, ‘When you lift up the Son of man then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me, and He who sent me is with me, and He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.”
Jesus said, "I always do," meaning His only desire, His only mission was to do what was pleasing to the Father. Trying your hardest to do what is good, not doing what is bad, stems from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But there was another tree in the garden, the tree of life. Jesus was, Jesus is the tree of life, and is the Son of Man. He only ate from this tree. The bait called good is a powerful one when trying to trap good people. In Romans 7, Paul rights about being trapped by the good law. In verse 19,
"For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, But I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death."
Romans 7 isn't the story of a bad person named Paul trying to get away with doing bad, but the honest testimony of a good person desperately trying and failing to do good by his own strength under the illusion of being somehow independent apart from God.
The false gospel appears good because it is a mixture of two good things, the grace of God and doing good by keeping the good law. And of course serving God by doing good is what good people desire to do. But is this really what pleases God? Well Paul tells us it doesn't work anyway, So what does it matter? A person eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a person trapped in the law of sin and death.
So what's the answer? How do we free ourselves from this deadly trap? Paul begins to announce the way of freedom in the beginning of the next chapter. Romans 8 verse 1,
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death."
Please allow me to bring something out in this passage. Some but not all translations of Romans 8:1 include who did not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Some people get tripped up by this. I did. They wonder if they are in the Spirit or in the flesh. Most Christians feel as though they walk in both of them every day. So are we under the threat of condemnation or not?" Many commentators point out that this part of Romans 1 was not included in many early manuscripts, but still. This apparent condemnation clause troubled me for years, but one day my eyes were open and I kept reading in Romans 8. Verse 3 says,
"For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did."
Sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on things to the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God,
for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it's not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Well, so far this doesn't sound reassuring, but wait, first nine. But you, speaking to Christians, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, for if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he has none of these. This is written to Christians, those who have the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God living within them.
If you are a Christian, then you have the Spirit of God dwelling in you. This clause doesn't apply to you as verse 9 declares that you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If you are in Christ Jesus, you are in the Spirit. This is your identity. And praise God, this is not something we can mess up by our behavior because as Romans 8:3 says, it is something, "God did." It's time to do the happy dance and stop knowing yourself according to our flesh.
2 Corinthians 5:16,
"Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. The whole things have passed away, behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, this is the ministry of reconciliation, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he is committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
Hallelujah. Like Romans 3, this says,
"Being in Christ is from God, not from our flesh, our behavior.”
Being new creations in Christ Jesus is something of God. It's a spiritual work of grace, who we are in Christ. It is not of us. It is of God, by God, something God does in us. If being in Christ hinges on human behavior, then it's not of God.
It's just as simple as this. If the false gospel preachers are right, then what level of walking in the Spirit is needed to remain in Christ? 60, 80, 90, 99%? No. In Christ Jesus is the gospel of the new covenant of grace that is 100% based on the finished work of Jesus. Any teaching that says our behavior is apart, even .0001% is blasphemous. Don't you see? It says our dead works must be added, mixed with the blood of Jesus.
God forbid such a thought. Friends the first attack of the enemy is always to try to isolate us from God. Think about when you are under attack. Is the devil trying to deceive you into feeling alone, that God is far away? You know why? Because if we are in Christ we cannot be defeated, we cannot be devoured. The devil wants us to set our minds on the flesh, to put confidence in the flesh, to know ourselves after the flesh instead of in Christ. He wants us to try to make ourself perfect in the flesh, knowing we will fail and lose hope.
Satan tempted Jesus by misquoting, misrepresenting scripture. He didn't try to tempt Jesus with what we would label as bad things. No, the temptations were presented as good things, or at least neutral. But listen carefully to this. All the temptations hinged on the phrase, "If you are the Son of God." Satan was trying to deceive Jesus into doubting his identity. This was the only thing that could give power to his temptations. Wow. Friends, Jesus couldn't be trapped by Satan because he knew who he was. He knew he was the Son of God. And brothers and sisters, if we know who we are and Christ truly know, we cannot, will not be trapped. It is so vitally important that we know, truly know who we are. This is why I labor in these podcasts to declare this glorious truth in every way.
God gives me the grace to speak it. Paul clearly describes the trap of the false gospel in Galatians 3:3.
“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Friends, this is a devious and highly effective trap because having received the new nature, Christians want to do good. Remember in Romans 7, Paul writes,
"For I delight in the law of God, according to the inward man.” But trying to be good, do good in his flesh, in his natural mind and strength, led to what he described in the next verse, Romans 7:23.
“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."
Don't fall for this trap. The answer is simple. Having begun being born again by the spirit, by the power of the spirit of God living within you, you are perfected in Christ. Just continue to live through by the spirit, trust in Jesus, not in your flesh. Grace had a desire to do good when she was ministering in the badlands, Remember? She truly wanted to help the people, but she didn't have anything to give them.
They desperately needed food, but there was a problem. She was starving also. Both Cal and Grace were trying to help people by serving them from their own strength, from their own flesh. In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul said, "The Lord told him, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. The power of God is perfected in our weakness.
So having received this revelation, Paul declared, "For when I am weak, then I am strong." In Ephesians 6, Paul says,
"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”
This is life. This is ministry in the Spirit. Ministering in our own strength, trying to live in our own strength, even with the best of intentions, will leave us exhausted, empty, and starving. As it says in 2 Corinthians 4:1,
"We will lose heart."
Of course, why we're ministering is important, but ultimately only one thing matters. Is our ministry born of the flesh or of the spirit? Our new life in Christ is supernatural in nature. It's of the spirit. It can't be lived than the flesh. Our new nature is not of the flesh, not of this world. It is of God. Jesus said in John 17 that his disciples were not of this world even as he was not of this world. So as Christians, if we try to live, serve, minister of this world, of the flesh, we will not be living according to our new nature. Romans 5 verse 17,
"For if by the offense of one death reign through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ."
We can only truly operate, thrive, reign in our new life through Jesus Christ. Life flows from his life within us. It doesn't matter how much we care, how sincere we are.
In John 6:63, Jesus said again the flesh profits nothing. If you're ministering in the flesh, living in a flesh burnout is only a matter of time this is the first lesson to learn from Cal and Grace you can't give someone bread that you aren't eating yourself or a drink of water in this case living water unless it is flowing from the Holy Spirit within you if any man is thirsty let him come to me and drink, and out of his innermost being shall flow, shall flow, living water. To focus on the how-to's of ministry makes no sense. If we drink, we shall flow. How simple. Every deception, every secular world system, every carnal revelation is merely a different variety of the same fruit that was consumed in the garden.
Basically secular means a place where God is not, apart from anything to do with God. This is vain imagination. This illusion that we can somehow have something, be something, do something, apart from God is what caused Adam and Eve to fall. It's the same vain illusion, the lie that led to the fall of the one who was tempting them.
There is no way, no truth, no life, apart from God. To give, we must first receive. To give life, we must first receive life. The second lesson to learn from Cal and Grace has to do with who we're serving, who we're trying to please, because this is ultimately who we'll be receiving, glory, or identity from.
I've owned a business for many years. I must please my customers as their money provides the fuel, the lifeblood, if you will, for my company. There's a proverb that said the customer is always right. Well there's no conflict of interest here as the purpose of the business is to provide income for the owners and employees of the company.
So serving the customers pleasing them is the logical means to this end. Sadly this often becomes the case in church ministry. Cal started out with a vision to help people but ended up being sucked in by their expectations and eventually became part of a machine known as the E.C.
He felt compelled to remote the system, which eventually became a living thing that needed to be fed. So instead of feeding the people, he was compelled to feed the E.C. So many pastors, leaders live out the same story. They began with a vision to minister the gospel, to feed living bread to the hungry, only to end up as a CEO of an organization, which demands to be fed. And as in the business world, after becoming profitable, the primary goal of the organization is growth. So instead of, as Jesus, having the one and only goal of pleasing the Father, they end up feeling compelled to minister to the organization by pleasing more and more people and growing in numbers. Doctors call their customers patients. This is a euphemism.
They are customers in every way as customers in any business. People who attend church are called members, parishioners, whatever. But if the leadership needs them, depends upon them, looks to them to provide income for the church, to feed the machine, then there will be a huge temptation to treat them as customers and to please them rather than pleasing God. Jesus faced the same temptation.
The people who followed him wanted to be pleased. They wanted Jesus to do what they thought would please them. Incredibly, showing the extent of human pride, people tried to give Jesus advice on how to build his ministry.
Can you even imagine this? Trying to give Jesus advice on how to build his ministry. If you want to be successful, Jesus, if you want to grow your followers, you must go here, go there. Don't do this, do that. For goodness sakes, don't say that. Sadly, being successful in "building a church or ministry" is often measured by growth, by numbers. Well, by the world standards then, the ministry of Jesus was a complete failure. He started out strong, growing in numbers, but ended up offending the majority so that in the end, only three followers were at the cross with him, and one was his mother. But Numbers didn't matter, didn't move Jesus as his only goal, his only mission, his only passion was to please his father.
John 8:29, Jesus said,
"And he who sent me, his with me, he has not left me alone, for I always do the things "that are pleasing to him."
The sad, often ongoing conflict of interest for most pastors and leaders is, what is pleasing to the father is often at odds with what is pleasing to the majority of the people. This clearly was true in Jesus' ministry over and over again. He continually confused, offended, and angered the crowds that followed him. The response to the people after preaching his first message, which was a good news message, was to try to throw him off a cliff. If his primary goal was to add numbers to his following, he would have never said things like "you must eat my flesh and drink my blood to have life in you.” He knew these spiritual truths would offend and for the most part totally confuse those who heard them.
Pleasing man was never a temptation for Jesus. As he said, the kingdom he was building was not of this world. I can't imagine anything more of this world than measuring success in numbers. Can you? Jesus stayed true to his ministry. He stayed true to only pleasing the Father, he refused to receive glory, which means identity from man. The opinion of man was unimportant when compared to the glory of the Father. As a result, he had the most important, most successful ministry in the history of the world. Think about it. Is it much of our lives spent slaving away, hopelessly trying to please people, please the flesh, ours or someone else's? We don't really desire to do a lot of the things we do, but we feel obligated to please the flesh, or afraid of what the flesh will do, how it will react if it isn't pleased. What a waste of life, and as the flesh is never really pleased, so all the effort is doomed to end in failure. The flesh has an endless list of "needs" that must be met or else.
Jesus told Martha, who was anxiously being drugged around the house, trying to do good through pleasing the flesh that only one thing was needful, to sit at his feet and receive of him. Read the story and you'll see sitting at his feet was what Martha actually desired to do, but she felt trapped by obligations to the flesh.
The Bible teaches that the flesh is dead. It has nothing to give us, only to take from us. Trying to please the flesh will suck the life out of us, but sitting at the feet of Jesus ministers life to us. How simple. Grace is so self-centered, so fixated on pleasing herself, she barely notices that Leona is a completely changed person. Self-centeredness brings such blindness and bondage. The good news, Romans 8:12 says,
"We are under no obligation to the flesh, to please the flesh."
Jesus delivers us from the bondage of pleasing the flesh. He says His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Do you know what pleases God? Jesus said our only work was to believe in, believe on Him. When we do this, we receive all things that He is, and He is pure life. He who believes on Jesus receives eternal life. This is not a one and done experience. This is a present and continuous receiving the life of God, which we are connected to as a vine is connected to the branch. To believe, to center on Jesus, to receive is to continually be receiving life. Giving us life is what pleases God. How wonderfully amazing grace. You have been freed. So be free, my friend. John 8:36 in the Amplified says,
"So if the Son makes you free, then you are unquestionably free."
Free indeed. And there's much more. According to 2 Corinthians 3, the gospel freedom in Jesus has boundless rewards. For one, it abounds, it overflows with the glory of God. Being a Christian, ministering the gospel to the power of the Holy Spirit is to be continually transformed from glory to glory.
Receiving it and sharing the gospel is to be filled and flow and shine with glory. The life of God flowing in you and through you. You are in Him and He is in you. We drink of God and we flow of God. This is the normal Christian life, the normal way of living, ministering, and simply being. But the flesh, the natural mind, seeks glory for itself, in itself. It seeks to have an identity, to have, to be, even to "do good" apart from God. Remember, I think we went over this story before.
Matthew 19, the story of what's known as the rich young ruler. Verse, chapter, Matthew 19, verse 16,
“And someone came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good thing shall I do so that I may obtain eternal life?"
Since this was the way he wanted to go, be his own savior, then Jesus gave him the way. Verse 17,
“He said to him, ‘Why are you asking me about what is good?"
And Jesus goes on to tell him to obey the commandments. Well, in verse 23, Jesus talked to disciples.
He says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I say to you, it's easier for camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, ‘Well, then who can be saved?’ And looking at them, looking at them, Jesus said, ‘With man, with people, this is impossible. But with God, all things are impossible.”
The rich young ruler went away sad. But on the surface, the question he asked Jesus seemed reasonable and good. What do I need to do to obtain eternal life? How can I please God? But Jesus looked below the surface to the heart of the man's question.
What must I do that I may obtain. The young man believed that within him, independent of God, it was possible to attain eternal life. As Paul writes in Galatians the law, the perfection demanded by the law was to show us our need for God and how apart from God it's all things are impossible. Galatians 3:24, I'll just read it.
"Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith, but now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed, clothed yourself with Christ.”
Friends, until we see that with man, the flesh with us, it's all things are impossible, we will continue to go away sad and not come to God for what is possible, to be clothed with Christ, to live in the knowledge and the reality that we are clothed with Christ. If all things are impossible, we will continue to go away sad and not come to God for what is possible, to be clothed with Christ, to live in the knowledge and the reality that we are clothed with Christ.
Many believe a Christian is just someone who lives a moral life, a person who believes in Jesus and who does good in order to please God. Well, if we can do good, then think about it with us. It is possible, isn't it? So this can't be right. But most of the sermons many Christians hear are about them. What they do, don't do, should do, shouldn't do, It is possible, isn't it? So this can't be right. But most of the sermons many Christians hear are about them. What they do, don't do, should do, shouldn't do, meaning the subject of the weekly sermon, whatever it is, is possible. Now go out and do it. You live the Christian life, for God, of course. Afterwards, you can show him all the trophies and he'll be pleased with you.
Friends, this impossible life is not the Christian life and this is not the gospel. The gospel is the good news concerning Jesus and what He has done for us, in us, and through us. Hallelujah. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul gives the resume of those qualified for ministry, calls for ministry. In doing so, he also unveils the true resume of all Christians. In verse 18,
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For as written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent? Where is the wise where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made the foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God it Please God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put the shame to wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put the shame, the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised. God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.”
On the surface our resume leaves a lot to be desired doesn't it? Allow me to recap. We're not wise, we're not mighty or powerful, not noble. We're foolish, dull, stupid, weak without strength. Helpless, base, lowly, despised. We're the things basically that are not, a negative, basically a total loser. Who would be happy to have these character traits listed on their resume?
But when we received our divine calling, this was who we were. So our prospects for living a victorious Christian life, much less ministry, was simply impossible. And friends apart from Jesus, this is still who we are. But praise God, we are never apart from Jesus. Verse 30 says,
"This is the good news, but of Him, of God, you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. That, as it is written, heal glories, and let them glory in the Lord."
In the Amplified, verse 30,
"But it is from Him that you have your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom from God, revealed to us the knowledge of the divine plan and salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as our righteousness, thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God and our consecration, making us pure and holy in our redemption, providing our ransom from eternal penalty for sin.”
Of God we are in Christ Jesus. This is who we are. Our identity is now 100% from God.
We are no longer the sum total if we were apart from God, because we're not that person anymore. and this new person is never apart from God. And in Christ, Jesus is our wisdom, our righteousness and our sanctification and our redemption. He doesn't zap us with these things only to have them leak out over time. He is these things to us, in us and through us.
Yes friends, from the ashes of our lucid resume comes a renewal, a rebirth, a transformation has occurred. We are now in Christ Jesus who has become all things for us, in us, and through us. And for eternity we remain in Christ Jesus, which means as Jesus is, so are we. We are in Him. He is in us, and so we share His glory, His identity. But this also means we have no life apart from Jesus. Verse 30 declares,
"Of God we are in Christ Jesus."
Period. It is not of us at all. I know I'm laboring on this point, but it's a gift that we've received. There is no life apart from that which does not come flow from Jesus. We don't live the Christian life to the best of our ability in order to please Jesus. Jesus is the Christian life. 1 John chapter 5 verse 10,
"The one who believes in the Son of God has a testimony in himself. The one who does not believe in God has made him a liar because he is not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his son. And the testimony is this: that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son.”
Again, the Christian life is Jesus, it's not something that we try to do for Him. It's something we receive. The life of God. Praise God. It's something wonderful that we continually can eat and drink. So many Christians' hearts are troubled. This should not be so. In John 14:1, Jesus was speaking to His disciples. He says,
"Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.If it were not so, I would have told you for I'd go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way out where I'm going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how do we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me."
In verse six, Jesus didn't say that he would show us the way and the truth, leave for heaven and then observe how we do. He didn't say, no, he said he was the way and the truth and the life. This same is true for you and I right now. He didn't say he would zap us with life and leave us to do the best we could. No, He said he is the way, the truth, the life and all things including coming to the father flows through him.
I've seen so many “dedicated” Christians file out of church weighed down by the burden of the week that was just put on their back. Well, I'm gonna end this podcast with some amazing what may be mind-boggling good news: We never have to work at anything apart from Christ. Now I understand that many Christians believe in John 14:2-3, Jesus is talking about his return at the coming of the age, what is commonly known as the second coming. They believe Jesus is in heaven working on, building their mansion. These mansions are clearly taking a long time to finish, but is no one in a hurry to die? I guess most believe, what's the hurry? So Jesus is up in heaven with his carpentry belt on, working away, and we're down here trying to hold on, living in a tent while we wait for our mansion to be finished. Yes, some translations read mansions instead of dwelling places, but the Greek word simply means abode or home. Didn't Jesus cry out, "It is finished" just before dying on the cross? Have you ever wondered what the “it” is?
As a young Christian, I thought about crying out in the church during the weekly sermon many times, which was usually about my finished work and asking what exactly did Jesus finish? Because from what I was hearing week after week, it didn't appear that much of anything was finished. It seemed like most of the "it" was up to me to finish. So are we subcontractors on our mansions? This is not what I believe the text is saying. I offer this alternative for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth. Look to the Word of God, to the Holy Spirit instead of what you've been told by me or anyone else.
Here's the context. Jesus was trying to console his disciples prior to going to the cross. He would be going away. He would be seen as dead for three days. I think it's clear that this is what he was speaking of in verse 1 that would trouble their hearts. So he apparently died. He went away. I believe with the cross and the resurrection he prepared a place for us in him and he came again and his return the Bible clearly teaches that he received us unto himself that from now on where he is there we will be also we are now in him and he is in us this makes us the church the many dwelling places the mansions of God the abode of God not mansions in the sky that we live in by ourself when we die just read the text. He went away. He came again. He returned. He received us to himself where he is. We are right now.
How people misunderstand this is honestly beyond me. The night before he was crucified he made this crystal clear. He prayed this to the Father and it was done. John 17:22,
“The glory which you have given me. I have given to them that they may be one just as we are one. I in them, you in me, that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am so that they may see my glory which you have given to me for you love me before the foundation of the world.”
Hallelujah. Jesus and the Father are in us, and we are in Him. We have past tense, finished, been given this glory. This abode is all finished, not a work in progress that we move into after we die. There are scores of scriptures that proclaim that the present conditions of Christians is this. In Christ Jesus, Christ in us, and we in Christ. So the desire that Jesus had that we just read in John 17,
“That they also whom you have given me would be with me where I am so that they may see the glory which you have given to me” is finished now, for all who were in Christ. Amen, and praise God First Corinthians 3 16 says know you not that you are the temple of God Paul declares that we are presently the dwelling place of God
He also says this in 1 Corinthians 6:19, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 2:21-22, and many other places. If you don't like my understanding of the scripture, let me just ask one last simple question. Are we presently in Christ Jesus or not? Are we in Him and He in us? If so, how can we possibly get any closer to God than this? Those who have ears to hear, hear and rejoice. Jesus has not spent the last 2,000 years, "up in heaven working on mansions of some divine carpenter."
No, we are the mansions and Christ lives in us and we live only live in Him through the blessed everlasting covenant that He has finished. We are forever where He is. Why is this important? Because as He said, as we said before, I'm sorry, the original lie, the original temptation was to be as God apart from God, the vain imagination that we that we can have be do something apart from Him. This includes working for Him down here in our natural strength and abilities while we're waiting for Him to finish work on our mansions.
Of course at the end of the age Jesus will return. When we are dwelling with God quote face to face there will be a transcendently other level of intimacy, of knowing, yes. But friends, if we don't know who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us right now, then the essence of the gospel, our true identity, will be unknown to us. We will live as those apart from Christ in an illusion of separation, will dwell in darkness. The darkness of our earthly tent is those without hope. The message of the cross is foolish to the natural mind. The mystery of the gospel reverberating mystery to the natural mind. Colossians 1:25 again, Paul says of this church,
"I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God."
This is the fully carrying out the preaching of the Word of God, verse 26, that is, the mystery that has been hidden from past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ.
Christ in us is the mystery. It is now manifested in and to the children of God. This work is finished. We are right now complete in Christ. The promise of Jesus to finish the work in return so that for all eternity where he is there we are is fulfilled. It was fulfilled 2,000 years ago. It is not pie in the sky when we die. The scripture says that Jesus is seated beside the Father in heavenly places. Being seated signifies that his work is finished.
We're not waiting for Him. He waits for us to attend the everlasting heavenly feast that He declared on Luke 14 as ready now. Praise God. If you've been looking forward to picking out the furniture for your heavenly mansion, feel free to keep hoping for that day. But in the meantime, don't live as if Jesus is up there, over there, showing up now and then. Study the scriptures that speak of being in Christ and Christ being in you, in you and Christ. And ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart, of your understanding, so that you might know His promise that I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Dear friends, we who are born of the Spirit deeply desire to please God. The question is how? If we do it like Cal and Grace, try to do it in their own strength, like them, we will fail. I lived this wait for many years until my eyes were open and I saw that the Christian life is not something I live, something I do. The Christian life is something Jesus did for me perfectly and completely and now lives through me. Hallelujah. Paul said in Galatians 1:16 that it pleased God to reveal Jesus in him.
Friends, this is what pleases God. So what do we do? Come to the feast and dine. Eat, drink, worship, and magnify Him. Dine on the abundance of grace, the gift of righteousness, and reign in life as sons and daughters of the King. Through our blessed Savior Jesus Christ. Eat the living bread, drink the living water, and the new wine of the new covenant.
And share this heavenly meal. Minister Jesus, minister Jesus to all those who hunger and thirst. Amen. And praise Jesus for his gospel of grace. Please join us next time as we continue our journey through the Land of God. Until then, I pray by putting all your hope, all your trust in Jesus alone, you'll receive an abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, which is your inheritance at this very moment in Christ Jesus. Bye for now.