Saul (the old Paul before he was reborn) had been totally dedicated to promote the only light he knew – the works-based Law of Moses and the Prophets. He even testified to the intensity of his zeal of his former ways. But now, his oneness with Christ through rebirth impelled him to forsake the self-righteousness of dead works for the righteousness imparted to him freely and completely by faith in the finished work of the cross. For example, Paul states in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that he came “proclaiming to you the testimony of God,” and deciding “not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And in Galatians 6:14, Paul emphatically declared “May I never boast except in the cross (and in all it accomplished) of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” The cross made possible all the subsequent results of Christ’s finished work for our full salvation, i.e. “our testimony,” referred to by John in Revelation 12:11. Nothing or no one could stop Paul from abiding in the fullness available in Christ and declaring it in both his spoken and written words for the rest of his earthly life.
Saul (the old Paul before he was reborn) had been totally dedicated to promote the only light he knew – the works-based Law of Moses and the Prophets. He even testified to the intensity of his zeal of his former ways. But now, his oneness with Christ through rebirth impelled him to forsake the self-righteousness of dead works for the righteousness imparted to him freely and completely by faith in the finished work of the cross. For example, Paul states in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that he came “proclaiming to you the testimony of God,” and deciding “not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And in Galatians 6:14, Paul emphatically declared “May I never boast except in the cross (and in all it accomplished) of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” The cross made possible all the subsequent results of Christ’s finished work for our full salvation, i.e. “our testimony,” referred to by John in Revelation 12:11. Nothing or no one could stop Paul from abiding in the fullness available in Christ and declaring it in both his spoken and written words for the rest of his earthly life.
Question: Is it possible for us to understand all the pieces of the Master’s Jig Saw Puzzle (our testimony) that Paul preached so that it impacts, transforms and propels us, today’s saints in Christ, the same way it did Paul, Timothy and the Ephesians? Of course it is. God is no respecter of persons that He should withhold His best from all but a few. Paul prayed for the Ephesians (and for us too) to “… know the hope to which He (God) has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe….”[i] Paul’s passion was to free all believers from the curse of self-righteousness, based on the works of the Mosaic Law which are opposed to the fruit of the law of the Spirit life living in us – big difference.[ii] How? By helping them understand and depend on the gifts of righteousness and freedom that are found and sustained only in and by Jesus Christ. But one must understand the terms and glorious benefits of Jesus’ will and testament – His New Covenant – and how to receive them by faith in what He did for you. Why? In order to experience the fullness of his blessings and protection to walk as Jesus walked.
Paul wrote the book of Galatians to people who were born again by believing Paul’s revelation of the finished work of the cross – which had regenerated their spirit. However, their minds were still dominated by their former ways in Adam. Worse yet, they began to listen to the law-based Judaizers sent by James from Jerusalem. They were insisting that the Gentiles had to be circumcised and follow both Moses and Jesus. Paul was astounded by such foolishness. Why would Jewish believers return to the slavery of a law system, which no one can keep perfectly after tasting the meat of the revelation of the finished work of the cross? It was because they didn’t combine the whole truth of Jesus’ “superabundant revelations” with faith to the extent that Paul did. And why would his Gentile converts be tempted to fall from grace by putting themselves under a law system they were never given? Both groups would be doing what the Israelites had done in the Wilderness for forty years because of their unbelief in God’s as yet unseen promises. They walked by sensate faith rather than Biblical faith by looking at the puny giants they could see rather than the gigantic God they couldn’t see – and were afraid of.
Paul spent his later life receiving, living in and explaining the salvation and victory of the whole Gospel of lavish grace so that we, too, might allow that overcoming Life of the Holy Spirit to be lived through us – now! After all, we need to walk in God’s power and authority (that comes from consciously abiding in Christ) to do His will down here on earth more than we will need it after death. Why? Because this is where our battle against the world system, our natural experience, the flesh, and the Devil rages.
This book is dedicated to help encourage you, Father-God’s beloved child, to discover afresh the purity of Jesus’ whole Gospel of grace given directly to Paul, to help the saints of the 21st century understand and appropriate the fullness of Jesus’ divine exchange – and to bring the implications of that revelation from heaven to earth. Jesus’ death (not His birth) marked the beginning of His New Covenant offered to mankind. The “greater works” that He prophesied His followers would manifest under that New Covenant are what even He himself could not do before the cross, namely: 1) facilitate the transformation of in Adam, God-hating rebels into God-lovers and committed disciples through rebirth and 2) feed them the meat of Jesus, whole Gospel (not just one or two thirds of it.)[iii] Now, thanks to believing in Jesus’ revelation to Paul, we too can be equipped for the work of the ministry by faith in Jesus’ obedient faith to God which resulted in the finished work of His divine exchange with us.
So, the key to daily victory on earth is bringing Heaven to earth by consciously abiding in Christ Jesus. How? By learning to “walk according to the law of the Spirit of life” instead of following the law of sin and death – the Mosaic Law, according to Romans 8:1-2. As Paul advised the Colossians: “Because you have died (in Christ), set your mind on things above rather than on things of earth for your life is now hidden in Christ in God.” This may seem impractical at first. But it is the way Jesus walked on earth and how Paul learned to walk as a Christian. So again, instead of walking “by the works of the Mosaic Law,” they learned to walk according to the “higher” law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, Romans 8:2.
This new life was expressed by the three “laws” of faith in Father God and His love, which produces the fruit of liberty in the Holy Spirit, as summarized in Galatians 5:1-6. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit into every Christian’s new, reborn spirit-self to be our Friend, Sanctifier of our outer man, Guide, Guard etc., just like He was for Jesus. He is the love of God, shed abroad in our new heart so we can love God, others and our self as He desires and enables, as described in Romans 5:5.
Paul forsook the rubbish of religion (trying to attain or maintain a right relationship with God by the self-effort of law-keeping) to receive the gift of relationship with God through faith in Christ. “It is because of Him (God) you are in Christ Jesus, Who has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” through the grace of rebirth, according to Jesus’ revelation to Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:30. Anything different than Jesus’ whole Gospel of lavish grace is not true Christianity.
Through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, may all the “pieces” of your testimony in Christ, and the relevance and application to you as a “Christ-one,” become more alive to you personally by meditating on this book of personalized prayer, Every Christian’s Testimony. Let it renew your mind about 1) who God reveals He is and 2) who He declares you to be, thanks to the New Covenant of Christ Jesus, our ascended High Priest, Savior and Lord.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, please renew my mind with an ongoing revelation of all the truths and blessings of the New Covenant, made between Father-God and Christ Jesus for me. And help me to receive and respond wholeheartedly by Your grace through faith in the fullness of my inheritance, revealed in the finished work of Christ Jesus, available to me and offered to all mankind Amen.
FYI: In the extensive study book called Is There An Elephant In YOUR Church?, I present and explain in much greater detail:
1) God’s true purpose for the Law (which was never given to Gentiles),
2) the purpose for the four Gospels which reveals God’s true nature and
3) the wonderful new terms and privileges of Father-God’s New Covenant with Jesus which He revealed directly to Paul. It is really three books in one and is available in print on Amazon and on Kindle.
NEXT WEEK: Chapter One – Greeting, Seeing and Worshiping the One, True, and Only God – through the lens of Scripture alone.
[i] See Ephesians 1:18-19.
[ii] “But now we have been set free from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so as for us to serve in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Romans 7:6
[iii] Jesus could tell Nicodemus about rebirth but, before His substitutionary death, He could not do this “greater work” for him or even the disciples. Paul taught all three parts of the Gospel:
1) total forgiveness of all sin (past, present, and future) of all mankind, by the Blood of Jesus according to 1 John 2:2 and 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (rarely taught today);
2) the spiritual circumcision (removal) of the “old man” (the Adamic man as opposed to “the flesh”) by identification with the death and burial of Jesus Christ and
3) the resurrection and ascension of the believer in Christ as a New Creation (Ephesians 2:5-6), all accomplished instantaneously at rebirth through faith in Jesus’ finished work on the cross and all that our divine exchange with Jesus implies for us now and hereafter.
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Bonus Lists and Charts: There is a wealth of revelation contained in this book’s eighteen chapters about who God really is and who you were in Adam and who you now are in Christ by grace through faith in Him. Additionally, there is a also a gold-mine of revelation of what Jesus has done for all believers found in the lists and charts on pages 27 to 33 coming in the future for your edification and enjoyment.
For comments or questions please E-mail me at – lennysax@yahoo.com
life, that is, Jesus himself.