I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 (portion)

The beginning portion of this verse says that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  Jesus said that He came not only that we might have life, but have it to the full!  The moment we begin to think that in some way, that this fullness of life has anything to do with this life, let us remember the apostle John’s words.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:15

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Superlative: [O]f the highest kind, quality, or order; surpassing all else or others; supreme; extreme: superlative wisdom.

via Dictionary.com

It is almost a wrong label to call the Kingdom superlative.  It is Beyond that.  John the Baptist was the superlative of human attainment.  A life of solitude, of extreme separateness and consecration to the Lord was his.  Jesus gave the man this testimony, and the comparison to the Kingdom.

Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Matthew 11:11

John was a man, a prophet, of the Old Covenant, under the law and order of Moses.  He signified the demarcation point between Old an New Covenants.  As the Law came through Moses, and Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ, the exchange between the two marked the transition from the age of the Old Testament and the coming of the Messianic Age.

The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

Luke 16:16

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The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Galatians 5:6 NIV, portion

The Kingdom consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).  It is seen only through the eyes of faith (John 3:3).  There is a way that seems right, but it’s name is really religion. Let us consider two similar looking scenarios.

Suppose a man understands by the Word of God that laying down everything in this life is worth it, and that God is a rewarder of those who diligently pursue Him.  This is a basic truth, and whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  But, there are two ways to approach this, ultimately.

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Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.

Mark 16:14

After the most dramatic day in history, and probably one of the most traumatic to the disciples, the Lord’s passion, the Lord appeared to the twelve.  Yet, the recorded portion of the content of His message on that day was not the substance of most sermons today.  Instead, He rebuked them for unbelief and hardness of heart.

Today, these are two of the things we must not have in our midst.  Unbelief, the belief in the natural over the Spirit, is the “un”-faith that will not see the things of God.  When Jesus ministered on the Earth, this was the thing that stood in the way of His mighty works (Mark 6:5).  Hardness of heart, however, is translated as “stiffness of heart” by the YLT.

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I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 4:4

There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12, Proverbs 16:25).  There is that which looks like labor and achievement, but, as a despondent King Solomon observed, it all the result of rivalry, envy, between a man and his neighbor.  It is vanity, meaningless, and a striving after the wind.

Consider the words of the apostle John.  He said that everyone who truly loves is born of God (1 John 4:7).  If love is the restoration God is looking to bring to the human heart (Matthew 22:40), then love is principally the one thing which fallen man cannot do (1 Peter 1:22, Galatians 5:6).  There is no true benevolence, as King Solomon pointed out, there is no real industry.  What appears to be love at the outset is really a misidentified attempting to gratify the flesh.

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Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

Hebrews 10:38 KJV

In the beginning, God created man and placed him in Eden.  He was assigned the job of subduing the Earth.  After the fall, things changed, and things were changed.  God told the man, “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19).

It was by the sweat of the brow that Adam was told that he would eat his food after the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had been eaten.  It would be with thorns and thistles and hardship all the days of his life.  And in the end, as God has originally warned him, he would die (Genesis 2:17).

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[The following is a letter I wrote to a friend, with a few edits for privacy]

Let me say this:  I appreciate your position, and I am not particularly in most of the camps that you might expect.

Summing it up, I hear about four main statements in your email.

First, there have been many different positions and view regarding holiness..  Which you cataloged quite well.

Second, you really don’t care which one is most doctrinally correct, but are sick of the compromise in your own heart and unless it can help with that, you’re not satisfied.   You said, “All I know right now is that I’m bound to sin and I don’t know how to get out”.

Third, You’re sick of the crap (scripturally, “dung”).  You want to know the experiential love, experiential forgiveness, and experiential cleanness of heart.  No more hypocrisy from yourself or others.  You want the real deal.

And, finally, the question of how to know anything arises.  “The only way I will know or anyone on this earth will know is if God shows us personally.”

I think some of these questions are proper place of a heart for your condition.  Let me remind you, however, truth is a person.

Let me present my Gospel, if you will…

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That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.

Matthew 13:1-2

The crowds came to Jesus.  Thousands had heard of the miracles following this man.  This man, who was God, had the wisdom of the Eternity within His heart, and He chose to take a moment to go out to the lake.  Perhaps He went out to pray in a quiet place, or possibly to rest for a moment, but, whatever the reason, the crowds surrounded Him until He was pressed on every side.  While the masses swelled, He entered a boat and taught them, while the people came.

Everyone wants the miraculous, the signs, wonders, and miracles, but who wants the reason behind them?  We want the power, but who wants the man?  We want the demonstration, but who wants the price he paid?

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Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Hebrews 6:1-2

Paul lists 6 things in Hebrews 6:1-2 that he lists as essential doctrines for the church for progressing further into spiritual things.  Without these pieces, we cannot build successfully in the Spirit what God would have for His house.  Each piece is important, and often builds on one another, until the whole foundation is laid.  It is only after the foundations, the fundamentals are secured in a living and active way that the whole house can be properly built up.

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She said to herself, If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.

Matthew 9:21

This a woman at the end of her rope, she had tried everything else.  She had done everything imaginable.  But, she had arrived at a plan.  She knew the Healer was nearby and, though it was breaking the law, she decided to press through the possible consequences of the stigma and her own shame and pain and touch the one she knew could heal her.

It was her faith that healed her, Jesus said.  Other times, it was Jesus’ faith, and the power of God present to heal, but for her, it was her faith that drew upon that anointing within the Lord.  It wasn’t His will that healed her, but hers!  Jesus, well aware of the Spirit within Him, according to other accounts, was able to feel the strength of that virtue departing from Him, but, it was her belief, if she only touched, that made it come forth.  And for this, He commended her.

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