Redemption Through Exile

When reading Jeremiah you come across a very odd thing
the good thing for the Israelites to do was to go into exile
if you didn't you would be destroyed

the old Israel had to be destroyed
it is the first Adam
it is the old covenant
it has all the imagery and facade to point to the 2nd, but it itself must go for the 2nd to come in

In Eden - we find redemption only comes when Adam is in exile
the Seed must be planted into the dust of the world which is cut out of God
so that the world can be incorporated into the new life
the life that is outside of God, and outside of Adam
this new way is the way of Christ, who incorporates both God and man and leads them both into the new creation
Christ is the end of the exile (Matt 1)

similarly, when you are born again, a new creation starts in you
your old body testifies to this new birth
but it must be destroyed - crucify it
it must be disassembled - break it
it must be poured out - spill your blood
it must die - die every day

the new life is the hidden treasure of the fiery torch that will merely be consummated on the day of judgement
it is real and present
otherwise it does not exist
the outside is merely a cracked jar - which will reveal its uselessness or will be shown to contain the power of God, that is, His Spirit

the non-Christian has no substance, he is but chaff that the wind (Spirit) will blow away

trust nothing of the flesh
do not regard your old man/life as anything but utter loss
there is nothing that will be carried over into the new
the old must be burned - even the skies and the heavens must also be burned
we do not return to our Father
Our Father whom we've never met meets us in the new place - Rev 21
Eden was merely a staging ground for the real Eden to come

the scale of the God-Man Christ Incarnation miracle is truly beyond human imagination!!

The Final Act of Christ - is to hand the keys of this new home, family included to His Father in heaven - that God may be all in all! (1 Cor 15:28)

Provision & Famine

Greetings from Singapore

always wondered why there are 7 years of prosperity followed by 7 years of famine in the story of Joseph

I kind of have a theory like this now:
God gives good gifts to all men in His provision
then He places a famine on these things so that they don't satisfy (cf. Hag 1)

Then a Ruler is raised up that stores good things in Himself
So that at the time of uttermost famine - all good things are found only in One Person
the true Joseph - Christ

So even in creation itself (of course after the church reveals it), we can say:

Acts 14:17
Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

Look around you and see the abundant provision of the Lord showing He is good - yet these things are going to be and have now been stored up in Christ and will be completely removed on the day of Judgement

The Spirit in Adam, the Covenant of Grace

Hey people.. I never really had a chance to vocalise my thoughts on the nature of Adam's faith, so here are some (non-detailed) bullet-points..

• When Adam was made of dust, he was 'good' but just like the rest of creation, is still awaiting the type of New Creation perfection.. total unity of heaven and earth, rather than just the garden of Eden
• What this means is that redemption and new creation is not a return to Eden, but is better than Eden
• So Adam, pre-fall, is less than what we inherit post-new creation
• Despite Adam pre-fall inheriting no sin, he was our head in whom we committed the same things (Hebrews 7 - the point on us tithing through Abraham to Melchizedek)
• He had the covenant of grace mediated to him via Christ the Redeemer PRIOR to his fall, not after... so Christ had already been his Mediator whether or not he sinned
  
• And so it was necessary that all of mankind be banished to death to gain this new life, just as the natural plantation and etc had continual 'reincarnation' of seeds new life death seeds new life death... a prophecy of our death long before Adam had even sinned
  
• Every good thing in Adam's faith prior to the fall was invoked by the Spirit Who was not only indwelling, but was possibly MORE than that... it was a natural and organic type of relation to Adam (re: Abraham Kuyper on the Spirit), he was more intimate with God then than he was after the fall when he still had the Spirit, but merely as a deposit... and the Spirit thereafter finds it hard to strive long in men
• Thus the mediation between Adam and the Father through Christ shifts from that represented by the covenant of grace in the tree of life to the covenant of works in the tree of good and evil... from Christ's mediation of the Trinitarian communion to Adam usurping the role of Christ and becoming part of the covenant of works which only Christ could have performed as part of the working Trinity
  
• We were never meant to be part of the covenant of works... Adam had enjoyed Sabbath immediately after he was created; but only Jesus Christ, the Father and the Spirit could live lives of purity and holiness within this covenant of works... something which a man from earth/dust could never accomplish and never partake... but he took part in it anyway
• Hence the necessary fall... for our greater redemption! death is a blessing in disguise, but indeed a curse of the greatest heresy if we live daily as if we were partaking in an enduring covenant of works..
  

Inilah Kebenaran

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