Imputation, Chapter Nine

Paul said in Galatians 1:3,

"Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father."

The word "world" here means age. The world is not evil but the spirit of the age we live in is the problem. Paul said that Jesus gave Himself for our sins. The story of Calvary says that God, in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, bore our sins, and that even before we were born, we were forgiven. Paul also said in Rom. 5:6-8, (NIV)

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.    Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.    But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Let me share with you something that is very profound. Those who lived before Jesus came were found to be sinners because of what Adam did and not because of what they did!!! Paul said in Rom. 5:12-14, (NIV)

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned"   for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.    Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come."

Let me make this very plain to you! Adam was what I call a corporate man and as such was a pattern of the one to come who was Jesus the second Adam. By corporate I mean that he was a representative of all men. As this, when he sinned, all men sinned even though they did not disobey God as Adam did. Because Jesus came as the second Adam, or corporate man, when He paid the price for our sin and was righteous, all men became righteous because of Him and sin was nailed to the cross. We are now living by His grace toward us and not living by Law.

I know that this is very hard for you to accept because you have always been taught that we must do many things in order to be saved and not go to hell when we die. This is a very profound truth which must be revealed to you by the Holy Spirit. Because of what I was taught all my life until I was about 34 years old it was very difficult for me to accept this truth but as I studied and searched for the truth it was revealed to me. This didn't happen over night but line upon line and precept upon precept it was revealed to me. The same will happen to you also if you will open your heart to allow the Holy Spirit of God to reveal His truths to you. Dare to believe Him when He said in Hebrews 8:10, (NIV)

" This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."

I know that many of you have been taught that the Holy Spirit no longer speaks to us and that God will now only speak to us by His word. However, listen very carefully to what God has said here in this verse. He said that He would put His laws in our minds and write them in our hearts. Dare to believe that God is living within your spirit and is leading and guiding you unto all truths. Dare to put your trust in Him and not in some man.

If we would just remember, when our flesh gets the best of us and we find the law of sin and death working in us, that before we were born, we were forgiven. You must understand that when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, most of the people he was writing to were alive when Jesus came to redeem them. So when Paul said in Rom. 5:8 " But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." he was talking to those who were living at the time of Christ.

We were never living under Adam because that was done away with when Jesus paid the price for our salvation on the cross. Listen, if all men were considered sinners because of what the first Adam did, doesn't it stand to reason that all men would be righteous because of what the second Adam, Jesus, did?

You say, "Dave are you telling me that everyone that has been born in this time in which we are living was not born under the control of sin, but born righteous in the site of God?" That is exactly what Paul was talking about in the book of Romans. "But, Dave, what about those who are evil today?" They will reap what they sow in this life but there is coming a time in the ages to come when every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is truly Lord. This will probably be the greatest sight that you will ever witness. God's word is truth and it will happen. Not because they are forced to bow but because when they come into God's awesome presence they will be overwhelmed by His Love!

Everyone that has been born since Jesus died on the cross were born not as sinners, but we were born as an incarnation of a Son or daughter of God. We were born without sin but lowered in this carnal realm of sin consciousness. A consciousness of separation, a consciousness of "I am here, but God is there." Even those of us who have been born again, for many years we have sung songs about God in heaven, but I am on the earth. Bette Mitler sang a song a few years ago call From a Distance saying that God is watching us from a distance. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are now beginning to realize that the God who we once believed was only in the heavens and some far distant place has made residence within us and we are literally, corporately, the sons and daughters of God on this earth.

Paul said in Rom. 8:29-30,

"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.    Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

So today God has a corporate son. Sin is no longer an issue with God. Sin was dealt with. Sin was annihilated. The old man was crucified. And now we need a revelation, an unveiling of the truth of our being. True revelation will bring a demonstration of the flow of life from within us. Jesus said in John 7:37-38,

"If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

For so long we tried to believe that we were justified. We've tried to believe that we were set free from sin. We've tried to believe so many things. What we really need is a revelation of who we really are because once the veil is removed from our eyes and we really understand that we are not a sinner; we are a son, our life begins to change. We are not an Ishmael; we are an Isaac. We are not a Cain, working by the fruit of our own hands to please God, but we are an Abel who brings nothing to God but an offering. We simply offer our bodies as a dwelling place for the spirit to dwell. Paul said in Rom. 12:1,

" I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." 

Hebrews 10:5 says, "Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me." That is why we are here, to give individual expression and manifestation of our Father God. He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil age."

Religion, which is man's concept of God, is the cause of probably almost all of the ills in the world because religion believes in a God who is like they are. Religion believes that God is both good and evil. That is testified to in the Old Testament. If you are good, God will bless you, and if you are evil, you will be cursed. Most of us have believed our entire lives in a God who is both good and evil. A God who will only bless you if you do what He says and this is the concept of God that Jesus came to break. You see, the Old Testament and the law in the Old Testament were given to mortal men. In the very beginning man was meant not to live by an outward law but he was meant to live by the law of God's life within in. That is why in the garden we have the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and Tree of Life are within each of us, yet living as a mortal man we are living by the darkness of the knowledge of good and evil.

We judge everything by good and evil and so we have believed that God is both good and evil. Now God certainly does know good and evil, but God is not good and evil. Jesus very plainly portrayed that His Father was just one thing: His Father was love. Jesus revealed that the concept of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" was not valid in the presence of the Father. My Father does not curse His enemies. My Father does not punish His enemies. For years the people of God have lived under the concept that God will punish them if they do wrong. And there is no such thought in the mind of God. In fact, God makes His rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

How many people have you seen in your life time that you would consider wicked or that you would consider was a natural-man with no knowledge of God, yet it seems that the blessing of God is upon their lives? Well, that should be proof enough that God makes His rain to fall on the just and the unjust. God delivered us from this present evil age.

In the first chapter of Galatians Paul was delivered from the Jewish religion. Paul said he was very zealous for God. Isn't it amazing? He was zealous for God. He kept the traditions and the laws. He said, "In the law, I was blameless." Yet one who was so zealous for God, as Saul he did not really know and understand the nature of God. Therefore Saul still had the Old Testament concept that if you did not agree with his God, then you were legally put to death. So Saul was given letters to bind and to chain all those who called on the Name of Jesus. Saul stood by and willingly consented while Stephen was stoned to death.

This is why it is so important for us to realize that God is not good and evil. God does not judge us by good and evil. As long as you have the concept that God is both good and evil and as long as the world has this concept that God punishes those who disobey Him, we will always have religious wars. The apostle Paul was in his day a terrorist. He was a religious terrorist because he would bind and consent to the death of any of those who did not believe according to his religion. Sounds a lot like the Moslem religion!

The situation is no different among those of God's people who are still living out of a consciousness of good and evil because you must do it their way; you must believe like they believe. If you do not believe like they believe, then they will not fellowship with you. But praise be to God, these religious walls are coming down just like the Berlin wall. God's people are beginning to recognize one another despite their differences.