QUALIFYING TO RULE WITH CHRIST IN HIS KINGDOM COMING

Being made in the image of God, man was created to rule in the Earth. It is the image of God which qualifies us for dominion. (Genesis 1:26)
It is sin that mars that image, and therefore, disqualifies us from that dominion.

JESUS, THE UNMARRED MAN

JESUS, THE 2ND ADAM, THE SON OF MAN WAS/IS THE EXPRESS IMAGE OF GOD, being found without sin (Col 1:15; Hebs 1:3)… and all things have been given under His Rule. (Matt 28:18)
JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, WAS ALWAYS OVER ALL HIS CREATION (Col 1:16, 17).
To the Angels was the government over the earth once committed.
But in the Day/Age coming, Scripture reveals they are set aside from that government, Revelation 5 further confirming the future reality. There, the Angels/Elders confirm the superiority of Jesus the Lamb of God, casting their crowns, representative of their authority in government of the Earth before Him.

Psalms 8 adds to our understanding. The eighth Psalm is quoted 3 different times in the NC.  Matt 21:15,16; 1Cor 15:27, and Hebrews 2:5-9. Hebrews 2 is the fullest revelation of those words of the Psalmist.
To rule over in His image is to then care for his subjects. But not just care, but loving care.

And although man was created in glory and honor to rule over all…. he was created a little lower than Angels. (Verse 5 with Heb 2:6,7,8,9) Satan, an angel who had rebelled against God, now becomes the enemy and takes on the role as avenger. Satan intends to avenge the wrong of God’s creating man, a lesser being than themselves, to rule in their stead.
Satan took his revenge through the deception of Eve and causing her disqualification through sin, to rule in God’s image.
Man, having sinned, became marred and could not then rule.

BUT GOD IS THE TRUE AVENGER… and intends to (avenge) through man…..
“Out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.”

This prophetic word has Jesus the Christ in view, and the great prospect of a final glory and honor for Man/man as He/he (in Him) then takes that final dominion and eternally avenges God and stills forever His enemies. (Rev 20 & 21)

The great enemy of God hates the children of man. And why shouldn’t he? As it is from the seed of women, that The Baby is born that crushes his head, receives back the authority and dominion once given to man, and stills the lying usurping avenger forever.

(Matt 18:1-4) “…Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven(s).”
NOT CHILDISH but CHILDLIKE is our model. In meaning similar to “Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as a serpents and harmless as doves,” with
“A conscience void of offense toward God and toward men…“ (Acts 24:16) expresses both.

The wise childlike conscience, void of offense towards God and men, form a praise of God’s Majesty from the lips of the lesser Being, that stills the voice of the greater Being’s voice of “reason” and pride (who is) set on avenging his self-determined rights.
Note the Psalmist in the Word emphasizes the “praise”, not the sword…. childlike faith and praise in the face of the Avenger and Accuser, although weaker.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then-heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

The battle to rule with Christ is spiritual…and we must suffer here in the material world that we might reign with Him.

Childlike children, “For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”   The call of the Spirit is to suffer with Him the death of the selfish flesh that we might be glorified together with Him. “For I will not trust in my bow neither shall my sword save me.”…… BUT “….in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us…” In childlike faith, we live and move and have our being.  We praise His works, our weapons are not carnal but are powerful in the pulling down of strongholds.

Paul defines for us the Spirit’s meaning of childlikeness… in Christian behavior in 1Cor 13: 11 and 1Cor 14: 20. “When I was a child, I spake like a child” – ignorantly; “I understood like a child” – erratically/unpredictable; “I thought/reasoned like a child” – with small mental grasp:  “When I became a man, I put childish things behind me”…
….Brethren, be not children in understanding: HOWBEIT IN MALICE be ye children (babes, infants), but in your understanding/thinking be adults.”.

(Matt 18:1-4) “…Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted.…”  the word is except you turn in the Greek, here Christ having the same thing in mind when He spoke to Nicodemus in John 3, when He said that a man must be born again. And Nicodemus’ thoughts were earthly when Christ was speaking spiritually. Christ, here in Matthew, is not suggesting we become children any more than He was suggesting to Nicodemus to that he must enter again into his mothers womb. What is born of the Spirit is spirit, and to enter into His Kingdom, the carnal flesh must lose its influence as the spirit (infused by the Spirit) must now take dominion over selfishness and become as little children, or ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven(s). (Matt. 18: 3)
“Therefore, whoever humbles himself (has a heart and mind to become) like this child (innocent with clear conscience, harmless without any malice) is (joins) the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18: 4)

God reveals His greater purpose beyond redemption out of satan’s kingdom for each Christian. The mature man-like intellect in understanding of Christ’s Atonement, with the accompanying affect, a childlike heart with god-like character and conduct…in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Childlike faith never questions the Father’s love and discipline.
Childlike faith is where inordinate reason can not reign, where conscience is clear and praise is pure. Meekness and absence of malice break through the ranks of principalities and powers advancing the kingdom of heaven…..that dynamic kingdom, being now formed, that will fully manifest in the Age to come.

UNDERSTANDING HOW WILLFUL SINNING DISQUALIFIES A CHRISTIAN FROM REIGNING WITH CHRIST IN HIS KINGDOM COMING AND LEARNING HOW TO OVERCOME SIN AND BE FOUND RIGHTEOUS.

We have considered before, the Christian who has received the gift of eternal life and in it his judicial standing, as justified by believing in Christ; and positionally as seated with Him in the heavenlies, his previous sins forgiven, seeing he had a different master; himself taken out from among the foes of God, to be forever his child.  In this view, having then access to the throne of grace and mercy, it is his privilege to draw near to his Father in reverent boldness; for he comes in the Name, and acceptance of Christ.
AND IN ALL THIS, WE FIND THE TRUE PURPOSE OF GOD, THAT WE MIGHT OBTAIN UNTO THE PRIZE OF THE FIRSTBORN SON’S INHERITANCE.

Christians are commanded to keep Christ’s Commandments after they have become His servants. “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”…..“he that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not  his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
His Commandments are instructions in living after our Redemption. Just as it was, in type, that the Torah was given after redemption out of Egypt. Not obeying the Commandments did not send the Israelites back to Egypt, but they lost their inheritance in the Promised Land and although supernaturally sustained, they died in the Wilderness.
After being redeemed through Christ and then commanded in character change, there is no threat again of eternal death, but of a Wilderness experience, typical of the state and experience of Christians after death that persist in sin.

Keeping Christ’s Commandments holds forth the promise of a part and place in His Kingdom when He comes back to rule over the earth.

Qualifying characteristics of Believers…

Matthew 5
Poor in spirit, they that mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, the merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, those persecuted for righteousness sake, those reviled and said all manner of evil against them falsely for Christ’s sake.

Qualifying fruits of the spirit….

Galatians 5
Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance….

Qualifying; Putting On…

Colossians 3
Bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another as Christ forgave us, and above all these things put on love.
Ephesians 4
Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Qualifying diligently; Adding to…

Faith, virtue…to virtue, knowledge…and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience …and patience, godliness; …and to godliness, brotherly kindness …and to brotherly kindness, love.

Disqualifying Sins from Christ’s Kingdom

1 Corinthians 6
8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that [your] brethren.
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

Galatians 5
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

19 Now the works of the flesh (sin nature God left inside of you when you were redeemed) are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

A Christian’s sin is not the same sin as that of an unregenerate’s sin. The sin of the unregenerate does not disqualify him from Christ’s kingdom in the heavens, he is disqualified because he is the subject of another kingdom and his master is satan.

A Christian has believed in the redemptive power of a greater Master and has been translated out of satan’s kingdom, into the kingdom of His Son, and his name is written in a heavenly scroll. (Col 1:13, Heb 12:23)
A Christian will not be judged on; Whose is he?, but what service he rendered to Whose he is.
Service is entirely based upon doing what the Master commands to be done.

WHEN FIRST REDEEMED, ALL CHRISTIANS GRATEFULLY WANT TO DO WHAT THEIR NEW MASTER COMMANDS

But it is not long before they discover “the carnal flesh” is still present with them, and being immature and unlearned in their understanding of Christ’s Atonement and the gift of the power of the Holy Spirit, and having been led to the Lord through the schoolmaster, that is to say, the laws of Moses, we naturally think we must now overcome the flesh through the law, and thereby resolve to sin no more. But we know not the fullness of God’s NC Salvation Plan in the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that is to use the law to bring us to Christ in justifying faith,  “But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”  (Gal 3)

Paul further explains the NC rebirth with the accompanying gift of the power of the Holy Spirit in Romans 7 and 8, as he contrasted his own trying to be holy by keeping the law of Moses in the renewed religious mind, according to its dictates, in the power of man’s will, driven by his own intellect. But alas….
“…for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” (Roms 7:18)

THIS IS THE STATE OF MOST CHRISTIANS SHORTLY AFTER THEY ARE REDEEMED. IT IS HERE THAT WE ARE MOST VULNERABLE TO FALSE DOCTRINES OF CHEAP GRACE.

It is here, in this state, where we naturally are looking to keeping the law for righteousness “….in the oldness of the letter” vs 6, then sin deceived me, working death in me by that which is good. We are to learn the exceedingly sinfulness of sin…. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?…. and then turn from trying to serve Him in the oldness of the letter of the Mosaic law in faith to the One who has made provision to overcome the sin nature in my members in His Atonement to “….serve Him in the newness of spirit..” (Verse 6) …..I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God; but with (because of) the (weakness of the) flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now (after comprehension of the death to the law and the being married to another) no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE (spirit) SPIRIT. For the law of the s/Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the (Mosaic) law of sin and death.” There is overcoming sin power in following the Spirit/spirit in newness of life.

SEE AND UNDERSTAND there is no power of the s/Spirit in the works of the law…. only the hopeless quandary of a religious pacifier or a continued state of “O wretched man that I am”.  “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written, CURSED IS EVERY ONE THAT CONTINUETH NOT IN ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW TO DO THEM.” (Gal 3:10)

We don’t do what our Master says, not because we don’t want to, but because we have been talked out of its necessity by confusing the Gift with the Prize. And we have grown willful in our apathy, growing worse and worse, and ever closer to losing our inheritance when we die in our unrepented sins. Or we have not been taught how to be holy through keeping sweet communion with the s/Spirit and walking in the light of the law of imputation to those who genuinely confess and forsake their sins, where the Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin and unrighteousness, (1 John1) outside the law of Moses, that we may inherit a kingdom place.
How greatly hindered we are from ever seeing that light when we receive the false light of cheap grace, doing away with such powerful and convicting Scriptures as Hebs 6:4-8, and 10:26-31, and wresting others by bestowing an unwarranted sinlessness on Christians by merely being justified but unsanctified, and thereby not having a true perspective of holiness, we have not habitually discovered how to walk in the newness of the enlivened spirit (Roms 7:6) and overcome and crucify that sin nature (Roms 6:6). “...this I say then, Walk in the (spirit) Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (sin nature). For the flesh lusteth against the (spirit) Spirit, and the (spirit) Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal 5:16,17)

We, as sincere Christians, must know that Scripture teaches more light from fellowship in the s/Spirit and Word will bring more obedience to the one who wills to do God’s will (John 7:17) and more obedience brings a greater presence of overcoming power. (Psalms 119, John 14:21, 1John 2:5)

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