Class Notes: 6/9/2010

The power of spiritual strength is humility; The power of human strength is arrogance

In our study of how the resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord impacted the spiritual life of believers in the Church Age we are discussing the two opposite systems, the arrogance of the Cosmos empowered by the OSN and the Grace of the Royal Law that is empowered by God the Holy Spirit.

We left off last time with two opposite statements of 1Pet 2:20; where the first sentence states the case of the believer who is enduring under the energy of the OSN versus the case of the believer who is enduring with the power of the Royal Law.

We saw that believers operating under the OSN glorify themselves. They never glorify God. There is no credit with God when believer's ability to endure comes from the arrogance of their OSN.

In this case emotional revolt of the soul is part of the strength of toughing it out and their emotion becomes their god.

They become so negative that they become totally thoughtless about anyone else and in their implacability and lust for revenge they will take others down with them.

They live for self justification and revenge. Good illustrations of this are Pharaoh and the Jews of the Exodus generation.

In James 4:6; states that God makes war against this arrogant believer. As this believer gets to the end of their life, they break down under the adversity and suffering.

The quickest way for a believer to ruin their life is to fail to execute the royal law.

Our standing with God is not based on how strong we are in the energy of the flesh, but rather how strong we are in the filling of the Holy Spirit that enables the fulfillment of the royal law of the spiritual life.

The human solution glorifies self. The divine solution glorifies God.

If the believer succeeds on human power, they glorify themselves. If they succeed on divine power, they glorify God.

The believer in the second line of the couplet is doing what is right by acknowledging their sin and through God's grace the suffering is turned into blessing.

When you do right and you suffer for it and you endure that suffering, then you are fulfilling the royal law. This is similar to our Lord's suffering that is described in Heb 12:2; where our Lord Jesus Christ endured suffering for doing right.

When this occurs the believer has great happiness while undergoing the suffering and is glorifying God.

Again, the human solution glorifies self; the divine solution glorifies God.

God has provided a system for the most fantastic grace when we suffer for blessing. But this blessing will never come to us as long as we hold a grudge or seek revenge.

We fulfill the royal law by enduring suffering, when we suffer for doing what is right.

1Pet 2:20f; Net note 45 The only way to enter into the grace associated with God at the end of the sentence is to acknowledge the sin.

Grace associated with God includes the blotting out of all of our sins at the Cross. This is where God's grace turns cursing into blessing. This grace associated with God is the spiritual life and harmonious rapport with God.

Some principles from 1Pet 2:20; include:

Acknowledgment of sin takes the believer from the first to the second sentence.

No matter how strong we are in our human strength, there no credit with God for toughing it out in the energy of the flesh because the human solution is no solution.

Grace from God comes from the execution of the spiritual life of the Church Age.

The power of spiritual strength is humility. The power of human strength is arrogance.

The human solution glorifies self. The divine solution glorifies God.

The divine solution is the only solution. The human solution is no solution.

Under pressure of unjust treatment, the believer who is advancing in God's plan does not react, but instead fulfills the royal law.

Personal love for God motivates the believer to the reject the arrogance of revenge motivation and the holding of a grudge.

The advancing believer uses impersonal love and faith rest to put the matter in the hands of the supreme court of heaven and stays out of the way.

The arrogant believer uses human strength to tough it out and functions on the sins of human arrogance and emotion in addition to the habitual use of the three arrogance skills of self-justification, self-deception, and self-absorption.

The difference between the believer functioning in the first sentence as compared to the believer function in the second sentence is found in Prov 3:34; as quoted in James 4:6 and 1 Pet 5:5; "God makes war against the arrogant believer, but He gives grace to the humble believer."

Peter states that this is the purpose of our calling. 1Pet 2:21; "For this purpose you have been called, because Christ also suffered as a substitute for all of you, leaving behind for your benefit an example (copybook) that you should follow in His steps,"

The call of God is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit whereby He invites the unbeliever to believe in Christ, after He has made the gospel academically understandable to the spiritually dead unbeliever through the ministry of common grace.

We have been called to live the same spiritual life which our Lord lived in His humanity during the dispensation of the hypostatic union. Our Lord fulfilled the royal law on the Cross through the prototype spiritual life with priority on personal love for God the Father and impersonal love for all mankind.

In the greatest suffering that ever existed, there came the greatest happiness that ever existed, Heb 12:2.

In 1Pet 2:21; the word translated "leaving you" is the Greek word "hupolimpano" means to "leave you" something of value behind.

In this case the" something of value" is described by the Greek word "hupogrammos" that is translated "example" and refers to his example or copybook for teaching the greatest spiritual life that ever existed in all of human history along with the New Testament Scriptures that describe it.

This spiritual life produces sharing the happiness of God. This spiritual life is the greatest riches, the greatest value that has ever existed, and it has been left behind for all church age believers.

The example or copybook is the New Testament Scripture and the heritage of the Church Age believer. It has been left behind for us as "something of value".

The copybook records all the details, the responsibility of every Church Age believer regarding the fulfillment of the unique spiritual life of all human history.

When we follow the copybook, we are doing a right thing in a right way for the right reason at the right time.

"Following in His steps" refers to our walk in the unique spiritual life, that our Lord used in His human nature. We are to follow in His footsteps in the sense that we have the same spiritual life that He used that has now been given to us.

You have a spiritual life which is able to handle extreme suffering while simultaneously sharing the happiness of God. We are called to execute the unique spiritual life of human history and fulfill the royal law, just as our Lord did.

Bible doctrine is the thinking of Christ, reduced to writing in the NT scripture as our copybook, 1Cor 2:16; "We have the thinking of Christ;" Phil 2:5; "Let this thinking be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

When this Bible doctrine circulates in our stream of consciousness as "epignosis" or spirit taught doctrine from the copybook believers ride on the crest of the waves of history

When believers reject the doctrine that is revealed in the copybook they are crushed under the waves of history under divine discipline.

History is not the record of who and what we are; history is the record of the impact of Bible doctrine in the souls of humble believers.

The greatest impact in history is the work of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, the unique person of the universe,

The impeccable human nature of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union magnified His word above His name.

Psa 138:2; "I will prostrate myself at the sight of Your holy temple And give thanks to Your person for Your unfailing love and doctrine; For You have magnified Your word above and beyond all of Your name."

This is a reference to the doctrine of kenosis as it relates to the doctrine of impeccability in the dispensation of the hypostatic union.

The impeccable human nature of Jesus depended on the function of the prototype spiritual life to solve the problems and pressures, the testing and blessings of life, as well as for the establishment of the true values of life.

The Church Age believer in union with him as a member of the royal family of God has inherited the prototype spiritual life that Jesus Christ left behind in the copybook, the New Testament canon.

We have the opportunity to magnify His word above and beyond our person as human beings born again by faith alone in Christ alone into His royal family.

However, we cannot have a passion for the word of God and live outside of its boundaries. Outside of those boundaries we are not going to fulfill the unique spiritual life of all human history.

We must therefore, must have a passion for the word of God and a passion to live within the boundaries prescribed by God's word.

To establish the values of the spiritual life, Bible doctrine must become much more important than we are.

To live the spiritual life, Bible doctrine must be more important than your personal goals and objectives and desires in the world.

The spiritual life is a lifestyle of absolute clarity and complete orientation to reality. It comes from knowing the truth about our status as believers in the devil's world that is revealed in the copybook and results in total freedom. John 8:31;

This freedom is to be used to serve God with a pure stream of consciousness. 1Pet 2:16-22;

1Pet 2:22; "(Christ) who did not sin, not even was any deceit found in His mouth;"

We see here that deceit is antithetical to the Royal Law.

Deceit includes every form of lying, and behind it is the motivation of trickery, duplicity, hypocrisy, the disguise of bitterness, hatred, rancor, malice, spite, vindictiveness, implacability, and resentment.

Deceit violates the royal law ("You shall love you neighbor as yourself").

Deceit is the disguise of the lust pattern of the OSN, and consequently is a very common type of sin.

People use deceit to gain power, approbation, pleasure lust, sexual lust, and crusader lust. All of this is inordinate ambition that results in inordinate competition.

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