Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Mark 12:29

Right belief and right doctrine, ultimately, are the same.  God is one.  He is not separate from Himself in any part, nor is there any shadow no matter which way you look at Him.  It could be said that to know any part of the Lord perfectly is to know all of God perfectly.

You see, while righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne, you cannot have true righteousness without true wrath.  You likewise, in the full scope of God’s character have true justice without true mercy, true punishment, true grace, and every other part of who God is.  God, in everything He does is perfect, in wisdom, depth, insight–every facet.

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Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

1 Corinthians 6:13 (portion)

Our bodies were made for the Lord.  Consider the parable of the yeast in Matthew 13:33.  The kingdom is likened to measure of yeast which a woman hid in a large quantity dough until the whole lump was leavened.  That little bit of something worked its way through the entire lump, changed it, and transformed it into something better.  What happens when the Holy Spirit comes into us?  Let us look a moment at some examples.

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Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Romans 8:12-14 KJV

This passage was written to the brothers by Paul, meaning to believing Christians.  In verse 14, he indicates a most profound phrase, to believing believers.  If we live according to the flesh, we will die.  It is not enough simply to have a prayed a prayer once.  It is those who are led by the Spirit that are the Sons of God, and only those that do the will of the Father shall inherit the Kingdom.

Bear this in mind, the Father’s house is very large, and the one who has been given much is required of much, and those given little required of little.  If all our capacity is to give a cup of cold water to one of His disciples, we shall not lose our reward.  But, for those who do not live by the Spirit, and mortify the deeds of the body, where then is life?

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For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Ephesians 2:8

Faith is not a work.

This is one of the places John Calvin, the leader of reformed theology,  in my opinion, missed it.  In depth doctrinal analysis of all of the branch of theology today called Calvinism aside, the essence of his argument for many of his works hinged upon the understanding of total depravity as being excluding using the faith God provided.  According to that branch of thought, any effort on our part was lacking when it comes to pleasing God.

Many people complain about having “faith in faith”, and saying that it is not what saves you.  Unfortunately, this steers very wide of the margin of scripture, and does nothing but raise a smoke-screen against the real issue, that many do not have a real understanding of what faith is.

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And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Matthew 17:20 KJV

As has been talked about elsewhere, unbelief is the greater belief in the seen, rather than the unseen.  This is often described as more than simple a lack of faith, is a force that works against true faith as it is a “faith” in the visible, rather than in the invisible.

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Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Mark 14:38

It is the heart willing to say yes and to follow it with obeying that sustains.  It is the heart, the spirit, that wants to follow, that chooses to believe, follow, and obey that receives the blessing.

Life grows from a willing spirit.  The heart that chooses to go on, the heart that has a will to live.

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When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. What do you want with us, Son of God? they shouted. Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?

Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.

He said to them, Go! So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.

Matthew 8:28-34

What is regarded as one of the most demonized men in the New Testament, the “Gaderene Demoniac”, was filled with a thousand demons.  While one Gospel records only one man, there is no contradiction, as Matthew records both, and the other only records the one with the most dealing.  Whether this man was actually the most demonized man in the New Testament is also hypothesis, as the number of demons in various people who were never converted is conjecture.  Also of note is that the phrase “demon-possessed” is a most unfortunate rendition of the single-word in the Greek, “daimonizomai”, meaning “demonized” or “under the influence of a demon”.  The English translation has the connotation of ownership in our version, which is not a part of the Greek whatsoever.  No matter how “daimonizomai” someone is, it is never a Biblical term to call them possessed or owned by a demon.  Even this man, in other accounts, fell at Jesus’ feet and worshipped, not the demons.  As afflicted, tormented, and affected as he was, He still had a sense of the truth.

Yet, for all that was on Him, for the legion of demons that had entered the man, they all left with a single word.  “Go!”.

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And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

Luke 18:19

The victory cry of Israel was, “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”  Psalm 100:5  They sang this refrain over and over, as a praise to their God who had given them them their victory.  No other words are recorded, if there were any, this was their triumph!

No one is good but God.  Even Jesus, God Himself, didn’t try to stand in His own goodness as a man.  Everything He did, He obeyed His Father, as an example.  He said that whoever does truth comes into the light so that it might be plainly be seen that what has been done has been done through God (John 3:21).

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Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:

Psalm 104:1-4 KJV

Paul wrote that whoever we present our members to obey, we are their slaves (Romans 6:16).  There is no difference if we do it entirely knowingly or whether we do it by instinct.  Jesus said that whoever sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34).

God covers Himself with light as a garment.  It robes Him, like a cloak.  He surrounds Himself with the glory, majesty, and splendor that is due Him, for He is God.

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The Word became flesh, and [tabernacled] among us.

John 1:14, portion, paraphrased

We live in our tents, our bodies.  Jesus, in becoming man, put on flesh as a garment.  We are not our own.  Our bodies are not ours, nor are we all that is within.

The spirit realm is complex and vast.  The inter-workings of the body and the spirit are not generally well understood by those in Western cultures.  Yet, as when two people come together in intimacy they become one flesh, there are realities that go Beyond the carnal, which the Western mindset as a whole has no capacity to account for.

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