The causal sequence of our salvation
Dec 22, 2013 0:01:07 GMT
Post by Colossians on Dec 22, 2013 0:01:07 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
Forward
It is both a blessing and a curse, that sex and sexuality are considered taboo subjects in the church at large.
A blessing because pearls, especially those of an intimate nature, should without exception be kept from the hooves of swine.
A curse, because so much of theology is best understood through the paradigm of sexual intimacy, pregnancy, and begetting: the scriptures are in fact packed to the rafters with metaphors and literals in this regard. And so and more to the point of this work, it is because of this omission that the Calvinist in particular has left his arsenal unnecessarily short in his battle to explain to the anti-Calvinist just why it is that one’s coming to God contains no element of self endeavour whatsoever.
Below we elucidate for the first time in history, and with due propriety toward the sexual paradigm (we shall in the main make reference to “intimacy”, also “being/becoming joined”), the causal sequence of our salvation.
Note: We shall be treating betrothal and marriage as synonymous.
_______________________________________
THE CAUSAL SEQUENCE OF OUR SALVATION
What most don't realise, being in the modern Western world where a significant number of women live the life of a ‘sleep-around-Susie’ before they decide to ‘tie the knot’, is that those who end up coming to Christ, end up so because they were the Father’s property in the first place and therefore rightfully betrothed to the Son by the Father, without their say-so.
Thus Christ has said:
“thine they were, and thou gavest them [to] me” John 17:6.
Accordingly, and as type for this, Leah and Rachel were given to Jacob (“Israel”) at their father Laban’s decree: it was not up to them (see Gen 29:18-20, 25-26). Similarly with Rebekah and Isaac (see Gen 24:51).
The fundamental justification for this, is that a father not only loves his daughter, but, from the viewpoint of the ideal, has the wisdom to discern just who it is that will love her as much as he.
With regard to the causal sequence of our salvation then, we now formally lay down our first ramification:
Ramification 1: We were married to Christ before we were converted to Christ. For it is not marriage to Christ which produces conversion, but intimacy with Christ, and intimacy with Christ is of necessity preceded by marriage to Christ.
___
And so we find no record of any marriage ceremony in the bible. There are feasts, but no ceremonies. That is, the virgin was considered married when her father decided she was married, from which point on the husband had complete conjugal rights to her.
This then brings up our second ramification:
Ramification 2: Just as Jacob didn't have to ask Leah’s permission to enter her (she was given to him by her father), so too Christ didn't have to ask our permission to enter us, for we were given to Christ by our Father: our conversion (intimacy with Christ) was ‘legally demanded’ by way of our Father’s having given our hand in marriage to the Son before the world began. (See also 1 Cor 7:36.)
___
Now … Jesus says:
“Wisdom is justified of all her children” Luke 7:35
the conceptual template for such consisting of Leah’s coming to be ‘justified’ as one rightfully joined to Jacob when once she had brought forth him through whom the Anointed One would come:
“And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing” Gen 29:35
: once one is justified, there is of necessity no need of any further justification.
And so and not to be outdone by her sister, Rachel subsequently demanded of her husband:
“Give me children, or else I die" Gen 30:1
: she too required ‘proof’ of her worthiness to be called by the name of “Israel”: she too required ‘justification’.
The point we are making here is that the “wisdom” which Jesus says at Luke 7:35 is justified of (by) her children, is in fact in reference to the ‘woman’ of Christ, the church, and the children which justify her, the ‘man child’ whom she brings forth in the form of the righteousness which is by faith. (See also Rev 12:5.)
For it is said:
“The woman is the glory of the man” 1 Cor 11:7
and that it is:
“[(the man child)] Christ in [us], [who is] the hope of glory [(which glory we are)]” Col 1:27
and that:
“faith is the substance of things hoped for” Heb 11:1.
This then produces our final ramification:
Ramification 3: The faith which justified us and which we thought originated from ourselves upon our conversion, consisted not of Christ's intimacy with us per se, but of the man child (the substance of things hoped for) produced by that intimacy. We therefore could not possibly have had anything to do with our justification, for although our justification was realised when once we had given birth (when once we understood in faith that Jesus Christ was Lord), it was nevertheless from a conceptual viewpoint begun in us by our Husband a metaphorical nine months earlier, and that in accord with the conjugal rights He had received from our Father.
Summary
It was not our being joined to Christ per se, which justified us, but rather the proof of such join in the form of our giving birth to Him who was conceived in us as a result of such join.1
For again: “wisdom is justified of all her children” Luke 7:35.
Given then that the faith we have in Christ and the child we give birth to are one and the same thing (they are simply two different ways of describing that which justifies us), it is necessarily the case that the intimacy which produced such child causally ‘preceded’ such faith and that therefore we could not possibly have had anything to do with our salvation. For although it is the man child which justifies us, it is nevertheless the intimacy which produced such man child that is the primary salvific element.
Although then from a temporal and experiential viewpoint our becoming joined to Christ was most certainly simultaneous with and indistinguishable from our coming to faith in Him, the two ‘events’ were nevertheless from a causal viewpoint distinct and separate inasmuch as conception necessarily precedes the begetting of any child. That is, and what is in fact the crux of the entire matter, from a purely causal viewpoint He was necessarily in us ‘before’ we knew it.
Finally and moving back up the legal ladder to the marriage covenant itself, given that we had no choice in whether or not we were first of all the Father’s property, of necessity it follows that we had no choice in whether or not we became the Son’s property. We were rather and simply given away by a paternal authority, to a matrimonial authority, which is to say that we were transferred from the law, to grace.
Thank you Dad.
Amen.
1 It is Christ our Husband who sanctifies us (sets us apart) by virtue of our marriage to Him but/and necessarily before intimacy with Him (more specifically, before He causes us to give birth). And it is our man child who justifies us. So before intimacy we are sanctified (set apart from the wrath of God) by Him who is, unbeknown to us, our Husband, and after intimacy justified by the child which we bear unto Him as a result of such intimacy.1a This does not mean, of course, that Christ is not our justification, for as will be clear from what we have laid down in this paper, He that is born unto us is the same person as He that is married to us. And thus although fast becoming archaic, when a woman becomes pregnant she will sometimes be heard to say: “I am pregnant with [first name of her husband]”. (See also Is 9:6, Mt 12:48,49, Gal 4:19.)
1a Sanctification and justification are in fact mutually exclusive, the latter necessarily supplanting the former. For once one is justified, there is no further need of sanctification. This is not to say, however, that sanctification is not relevant to us after we come to faith in Christ, for we are still from that point on operationally in a state of flux between the new man and the old man, and it is at those times that the old man has raised his ugly head, that sanctification is required.
Forward
It is both a blessing and a curse, that sex and sexuality are considered taboo subjects in the church at large.
A blessing because pearls, especially those of an intimate nature, should without exception be kept from the hooves of swine.
A curse, because so much of theology is best understood through the paradigm of sexual intimacy, pregnancy, and begetting: the scriptures are in fact packed to the rafters with metaphors and literals in this regard. And so and more to the point of this work, it is because of this omission that the Calvinist in particular has left his arsenal unnecessarily short in his battle to explain to the anti-Calvinist just why it is that one’s coming to God contains no element of self endeavour whatsoever.
Below we elucidate for the first time in history, and with due propriety toward the sexual paradigm (we shall in the main make reference to “intimacy”, also “being/becoming joined”), the causal sequence of our salvation.
Note: We shall be treating betrothal and marriage as synonymous.
_______________________________________
THE CAUSAL SEQUENCE OF OUR SALVATION
What most don't realise, being in the modern Western world where a significant number of women live the life of a ‘sleep-around-Susie’ before they decide to ‘tie the knot’, is that those who end up coming to Christ, end up so because they were the Father’s property in the first place and therefore rightfully betrothed to the Son by the Father, without their say-so.
Thus Christ has said:
“thine they were, and thou gavest them [to] me” John 17:6.
Accordingly, and as type for this, Leah and Rachel were given to Jacob (“Israel”) at their father Laban’s decree: it was not up to them (see Gen 29:18-20, 25-26). Similarly with Rebekah and Isaac (see Gen 24:51).
The fundamental justification for this, is that a father not only loves his daughter, but, from the viewpoint of the ideal, has the wisdom to discern just who it is that will love her as much as he.
With regard to the causal sequence of our salvation then, we now formally lay down our first ramification:
Ramification 1: We were married to Christ before we were converted to Christ. For it is not marriage to Christ which produces conversion, but intimacy with Christ, and intimacy with Christ is of necessity preceded by marriage to Christ.
___
And so we find no record of any marriage ceremony in the bible. There are feasts, but no ceremonies. That is, the virgin was considered married when her father decided she was married, from which point on the husband had complete conjugal rights to her.
This then brings up our second ramification:
Ramification 2: Just as Jacob didn't have to ask Leah’s permission to enter her (she was given to him by her father), so too Christ didn't have to ask our permission to enter us, for we were given to Christ by our Father: our conversion (intimacy with Christ) was ‘legally demanded’ by way of our Father’s having given our hand in marriage to the Son before the world began. (See also 1 Cor 7:36.)
___
Now … Jesus says:
“Wisdom is justified of all her children” Luke 7:35
the conceptual template for such consisting of Leah’s coming to be ‘justified’ as one rightfully joined to Jacob when once she had brought forth him through whom the Anointed One would come:
“And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the LORD: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing” Gen 29:35
: once one is justified, there is of necessity no need of any further justification.
And so and not to be outdone by her sister, Rachel subsequently demanded of her husband:
“Give me children, or else I die" Gen 30:1
: she too required ‘proof’ of her worthiness to be called by the name of “Israel”: she too required ‘justification’.
The point we are making here is that the “wisdom” which Jesus says at Luke 7:35 is justified of (by) her children, is in fact in reference to the ‘woman’ of Christ, the church, and the children which justify her, the ‘man child’ whom she brings forth in the form of the righteousness which is by faith. (See also Rev 12:5.)
For it is said:
“The woman is the glory of the man” 1 Cor 11:7
and that it is:
“[(the man child)] Christ in [us], [who is] the hope of glory [(which glory we are)]” Col 1:27
and that:
“faith is the substance of things hoped for” Heb 11:1.
This then produces our final ramification:
Ramification 3: The faith which justified us and which we thought originated from ourselves upon our conversion, consisted not of Christ's intimacy with us per se, but of the man child (the substance of things hoped for) produced by that intimacy. We therefore could not possibly have had anything to do with our justification, for although our justification was realised when once we had given birth (when once we understood in faith that Jesus Christ was Lord), it was nevertheless from a conceptual viewpoint begun in us by our Husband a metaphorical nine months earlier, and that in accord with the conjugal rights He had received from our Father.
Summary
It was not our being joined to Christ per se, which justified us, but rather the proof of such join in the form of our giving birth to Him who was conceived in us as a result of such join.1
For again: “wisdom is justified of all her children” Luke 7:35.
Given then that the faith we have in Christ and the child we give birth to are one and the same thing (they are simply two different ways of describing that which justifies us), it is necessarily the case that the intimacy which produced such child causally ‘preceded’ such faith and that therefore we could not possibly have had anything to do with our salvation. For although it is the man child which justifies us, it is nevertheless the intimacy which produced such man child that is the primary salvific element.
Although then from a temporal and experiential viewpoint our becoming joined to Christ was most certainly simultaneous with and indistinguishable from our coming to faith in Him, the two ‘events’ were nevertheless from a causal viewpoint distinct and separate inasmuch as conception necessarily precedes the begetting of any child. That is, and what is in fact the crux of the entire matter, from a purely causal viewpoint He was necessarily in us ‘before’ we knew it.
Finally and moving back up the legal ladder to the marriage covenant itself, given that we had no choice in whether or not we were first of all the Father’s property, of necessity it follows that we had no choice in whether or not we became the Son’s property. We were rather and simply given away by a paternal authority, to a matrimonial authority, which is to say that we were transferred from the law, to grace.
Thank you Dad.
Amen.
1 It is Christ our Husband who sanctifies us (sets us apart) by virtue of our marriage to Him but/and necessarily before intimacy with Him (more specifically, before He causes us to give birth). And it is our man child who justifies us. So before intimacy we are sanctified (set apart from the wrath of God) by Him who is, unbeknown to us, our Husband, and after intimacy justified by the child which we bear unto Him as a result of such intimacy.1a This does not mean, of course, that Christ is not our justification, for as will be clear from what we have laid down in this paper, He that is born unto us is the same person as He that is married to us. And thus although fast becoming archaic, when a woman becomes pregnant she will sometimes be heard to say: “I am pregnant with [first name of her husband]”. (See also Is 9:6, Mt 12:48,49, Gal 4:19.)
1a Sanctification and justification are in fact mutually exclusive, the latter necessarily supplanting the former. For once one is justified, there is no further need of sanctification. This is not to say, however, that sanctification is not relevant to us after we come to faith in Christ, for we are still from that point on operationally in a state of flux between the new man and the old man, and it is at those times that the old man has raised his ugly head, that sanctification is required.