The Body

All things are created with a reason and purpose. the sun has made to light and warm the earth. the air was made to breathe and provide life to all living things. Food was made to provide nourishment. but what was the human body and life made for? we were created for one purpose: to bring God glory. how? we are called to be holy, yielded, instruments of righteousness, givers of praise and worship, and the body of christ here on this earth.

but there is a problem, there is a controlling force in our life called the flesh. the flesh’s agenda is simple, to seek it’s own pleasures and anything that contradicts that is quashed. we are bound in this body of sin, we look around and see the flesh reeking havoc in our lives and realize that we are not fulfilling our designed purpose. “Hey flesh!” we cry, “Look at what you are doing to my life, it’s a mess!” we then timidly suggest. “do you think you could quiet down a little, maybe take a shower, and clean up some of this mess?” “What do you think you’re doing?” the flesh growls, “I’m gonna do whatever I want and you cannot do anything about it, Ha!” we try to get up and reason with flesh to talk some sense into him and teach him some manners, just who does he think he...ungh! what’s going on!? why can’t I stand up? we then realize that the flesh has duct-taped us to a chair in the corner and try as we might we cannot seem get loose. we look around in fearful horror as we watch the flesh continuing on his destructive rampage laughing maniacally the whole time. we begin to see that the damage to our life is much more extensive then we first thought. “Stop!” we cry, as the support of our life starts to give way, “please stop! I’m telling you to stop!” the flesh monetarily pauses and glares at us with a crazy grin smeared across his face, “and if I don’t stop, what are you going to do about it?” he laughs again and turns again to his carnage. with a new realization of the servility and seriousness of our condition, we cry out for help. “Help! I’m tied to a chair I can’t do anything! my life crumbling! I need a rescuer! I need someone to get rid of the flesh! Oh who can save me from this body of sin!”

In an instant, our savior Jesus Christ is at our side and sets us free. the flesh cries out “ hey! you can’t do that! I’m the one in charge here! I have the right to run this life however I want!” then our Intercessor looks the flesh square in the eye and with the voice that shakes the heavens proclaims “I am now the absolute ruler of this life, my Word is truth and law. At my name every creature will bend their knee and confess that I am Lord!” and with that, the Mighty God grabs the flesh and hurls him out. then the Redeemer turns and gently says to us, “I set you free so that you can serve me. If the flesh tries to return, rebuke him in my name and he can’t stay. I must have complete control over every area of your life. the parts of you life the have previously been mishandled and abused, I will repair them and teach you how they were originally designed for, to serve, honor, worship, and glorify me, the Lord of lords, King of kings, and the master of your soul.”

About Scripture

For the next couple weeks I'll be posting some of my class work for you all to read. It's coming from summaries of sessions here at Ellerslie, but the content is such that it's beneficial regardless if you have heard the sessions or not. This week's entry is talking about scripture, the divinely inspired Word of God. All of scripture pertains to Jesus Christ. On the surface it may not appear to be so, but because of the many layers that scripture has, every page reflects the person and nature of Jesus. If we read the Bible as we would any other book, we will only see the obvious facts. But if we humble ourselves before the Spirit of God and ask for spiritual understanding, the Holy Spirit will give us spiritual eyes so that we may troll the depths of scripture. Why? So that we may know the goodness and riches that are in the person of Jesus Christ.

Many people view the Bible as a book of good moral teaching, historical stories, and ancient poetry, but Scripture is much more than that. The Word of God is more than the words of men, it is the divinely inspired account of God’s agenda of redemption on this earth through the person of Jesus Christ. From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, all of scripture tells of the person and nature of God. The problem when the world looks at the Bible is that they only look at the text as a work of literature. They see words, sentences, paragraphs, grammar, logical thoughts, metaphors, stories, and characters, they can only see the superficial layer of Scripture. One of the things that the world cannot understand is that the Word of God has an infinite number of layers. We cannot find these layers on our own, only when the Spirit of God gives us spiritual eyes and understanding can we then troll the depths of Scripture. As we go deeper, we see more and more of Jesus and we see that He is the key to unlock the Scriptures. In Luke 24, Christ told His disciples“. . . O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Though Christ may not be explicitly mentioned, all of scripture pertains to His nature and person. As an example, there are multiple stories showing the battle between the Flesh and the Spirit. Esau vs. Jacob. Saul vs. David. Ishmael vs. Isaac. First born vs. second born. First Adam vs. second Adam. All of these reveal the war between the two Kingdoms of Flesh and Spirit and show us a picture of the spiritual realm. It shows us that we naturally desire the first born, which is the Flesh, and it is our natural default to have the Flesh controlling our lives. With the Flesh on the throne we are slaves to its sinful desires. And then one day something happens, the grace of God opens our eyes and we see the second born, which is the Spirit. Now the flesh is always at enmity with the Spirit and through the Flesh’s eyes the Spirit seems weak, strange, foolish, and unappealing. But once grace starts its work, we begin to esteem and long for the things of the spirit. We try to reach out for it and find out that the Flesh is fighting to remain in control and keep us from the Spirit. What is needed is for us to come to the end of ourselves and realize that the Flesh must go, but find out that we cannot get rid of it by ourselves. We need help to dethrone the Flesh. We need an Intercessor to fight for us, and that intercessor is Jesus Christ, He is the one who came to conquer the Flesh and give us new life, a life controlled by the Spirit. All of this is exemplified through stories from the Old Testament, explained in the New, but the key to it all is Jesus Christ.