Imputation, Chapter Seven

 

I want to talk with you in this chapter about the results of Law being taught in our churches. The sons and daughters of God today are releasing creation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. However, this comes about to every man in his own order. The one new man is growing and coming to maturity in these earthly bodies as we awaken to our true nature and identity. As we see this maturing of the Corporate Body of Christ we see the life and the nature of Christ coming forth for the world to see.

 

The Law does not produce the one new man. The Law produces divisions in the Body of Christ. You see, the law is the reason for most divisive acts in what we call, "the church", today. The organizations are really not the church. It is what we call them. It is the letter of the Law that creates all of the divisions in the churches because all of them feel that they have to live a certain way in order to be acceptable to God. We all have our statements of faith and we all believe that we are right and everyone else is wrong. Again, I will say that the Law is the root cause of most divisions among God's people.

 

Some of the divisions are absolutely ridiculous. There are different beliefs on baptism. Many people believe that to be baptized, you must be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Others believe, whom we call, "Jesus only", that you must be baptized not in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, but you must be baptized in the name of Jesus. Most of them say you are not really baptized if you do not do it in Jesus name.

 

There are denominations that are split over how to baptize, in what name to baptize in. And those who baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost don't really fellowship with the "Jesus only", and some of the "Jesus only" people say you must be baptized in the name of Jesus or you are not even saved. There are literally hundreds of silly doctrines like that which divide the people of God because they all believe that serving God is a matter of doing things right according to their understanding of what they read in the Bible. Well, what name should we be baptized in? Should we be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, or in the name of Jesus? Would it really make any difference if you are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost or if you are baptized into Jesus who is the fullness of that name? Jesus was the fullness of all that God is.

 

I have baptized hundreds of people and in order to not have someone argue about whether you were baptized in the right name I baptize everyone in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the name that is above every name.

 

There are so many doctrines that divide the Body of Christ. It is absolutely ridiculous today. So grace produces the one new man where we all realize that we are one. If we are in a Baptist church, a Lutheran church, a Pentecostal church, a Seventh Day Adventist church or a Mormon church; we all have the same Father and we all have the same life and nature. Then, why we are so divided, why we are so mean-spirited, why are we so hateful, and why don't we have a revelation of our Father's unconditional love. If you the Lord ever gives you a revelation of His Love you will understand that these things that we allow to separate us really doesn't matter all that much.

 

If we will focus on the oneness, on the life within us, on divine grace, and the inspiration to live as Jesus lived on the earth we will discover that our differences do not need to divide us at all. We can believe differently yet still love and fellowship together. I have never been a member of any church where all the people believed everything the same! That is why there is growth within the body of Christ. The more that is revealed to us the more we will differ because we are all on different levels of maturity. Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches." Is the branch not the vine? Does the branch not have the same life as the vine? Did Jesus not clearly reveal to His disciples that they were one when He said in Matt. 17, "I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you and we are complete in oneness?" This is what grace produces, the one new man. So anything that would try to divide you in your mind from a believer needs to be set aside.

 

The carnal mind living under the law is the creator of most of the divisions in the Body of Christ. We have been living by an outward law thinking that "our way" is the right way, when there is only one way which Jesus taught very clearly. There is only one way to the Father and that is through the unveiling of Christ within you. It is the unveiling of His essence, His being, His substance within you. There is no other way. You can intellectually believe in Jesus and still not really know God. You can't pray enough; you can't study enough; you can't read enough to intellectually know Him. The only thing that will bring us into recognition of oneness is the revelation of His life in us. That which the Holy Ghost teaches us.

 

When we realize that the same life and nature is in everyone we will become one. They may not believe like us, they may not talk like us, they may not observe the traditions of our church and they may not believe certain things that we believe. But if we see that the substance of who they are is the same substance of who we are it will bring into manifestation the one new man that Paul preached about. Can you just imagine what creation is going to be like as more and more people across the world realize that the being of Christ is within them?

 

The grace of God produces the New Jerusalem with streets of gold who are people that are walking in the divine nature. People who are selfless and people who are caring for one another. Grace produces the New Jerusalem, the city of God where nothing enters that makes a lie and nothing enters that is not God-like. This city of God is among us right now. We are the city of God, which is coming down out of heaven and we are the bride of Christ. John said in Rev. 21:9-11,

 

"And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come here, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;"

 

This city of God can be walked in today as we begin to walk on the streets of gold which is His divine nature.

I want to share just a few things to give you the contrast between law and grace. Grace produces God's seed and His nature of unconditional love within us. Grace is God revealing to you His life, His nature and His character within you and enables you to live by His life. That is grace! If we do not experience God's life being formed in us we have not yet walked in grace. Grace enables you to love as God loves. Grace enables you to walk as God walks. Grace produces God's seed in you.

The Law of Moses produces Satan's seed, the carnal nature of good and evil. Remember, the law was not given to spiritual men. The law was given to carnal men to restrain the carnal mind and to restrain the works of the flesh. The natural man without the law would be lawless. What we haven't understood is that grace absolutely replaces the law. You see; the law makes it's demands on you, and says, "If you do this, you will get this. If you don't do this you will get this, and you won't get this."

Grace comes bringing to you the bread of His word and the wine of His enjoyment. Grace comes to you bringing gifts to you, not putting any demands whatsoever upon you, God our Father recognizes His seed, His life and His ability within you. So He does not put demands upon you; He writes His laws in our minds and in our heart, (our spirit). He said in Heb. 8:10,

I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:" 

Notice that God said that He would do this because His Kingdom is within each of us. He reveals to you that you have within you, in the very essence of your being, His nature, His life and His abundance.

The Law of Moses produces from your carnal nature, good and evil. The carnal mind of man is based upon the knowledge of good and evil. That is what happened to Adam and it has happened to all of us who have chosen to live a life that is based upon choosing the good over the evil. If we choose the good, we feel that we deserve a blessing. If we choose the evil, then our conscious condemns us and we expect the worst. That is a man living under the Law of Moses. The law will always condemn you.

I've used the example before as when I was really struggling, trying to be a good Christian, trying to live according to what I thought the law demands. I began to pray every day and the more I prayed everyday, the more I felt that I needed to pray more. See; this is what the Law does to you. The Law never stops putting demands on you. If you give into it in just a small way the Law will increase its demands upon you and you will never feel good enough, or righteous enough, or holy enough. You will struggle all of your life trying to be a better person. Grace reveals to you that you are a spiritual being and as a spiritual being you have the same life and nature as your Father and so it becomes effortless for you to live a life of abundance. Grace produces a dependence on God for everything. You begin to understand that within your being there is all that God is.

Paul said in Eph. 1:3,

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." 

Everything that you need comes to you because the divine essence of His being is your being because you have been born of Him. Paul said in 1 Cor. 6:17,

"He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.(With the Lord)"   

This is what Jesus meant when He said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you', (Matt. 6:33) because once you walk in the reality of the Kingdom of God you discover that everything that you need just flows to you from the abundance of His life

Grace produces dependence on God for everything, but law produces a self-dependence. In other words, you must do it. You must build up your self-image. You must re-create an image of yourself and by struggling and striving and promising and making resolutions and doing all that you can do to produce within your own carnal being a better person. This is what the Law does. The Law produces within you self-dependence. In other words, "it is up to me". This is what preachers used to tell me all the time. "Dave, it is up to you. You make the wrong choices, you do the wrong things and you go into the wrong places, so how can you expect God to bless you when you are always making the wrong choices?"

What happens to those who have a strong self-will and a strong character and a good character? They are able to bring themselves into line with the law of demands. But what that does is produce a self-righteousness and it produces a modern day Pharisee. If you are living by the law you will look down on at all of those who are not able to do what you can do and you will think them to be weak because if you did it, they should be able to do it also. This is what self-righteousness is.

Grace, on the other hand, produces a dependence on God for everything and fills your heart with a forgiving spirit full of love for others with grace and mercy just like you Fathers heart. Lamentations 3:22-23 says of the Lord,

"It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.    They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

As the Spirit of the Lord reveals these traits to our spirit we will learn to show mercies to those who despitefully use us and say all manner of evil against us.

What I am sharing with you is not something to be easily accepted if you, like me, have been raised in a church which put you in bondage to the Law. I encourage you to put your trust in the Lord completely and in what Jesus has done for you and to relax and stop condemning yourself when you make a mistake and instead begin to praise the Lord for what He has done for you and learn to have faith in His righteousness and not in your ability to live up to the standard of some Law.