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Chapter Five
Be Not Afraid
Here we must go into a place that few have ventured. It is a search to understand what God has established His own righteousness on and why. He has established His own righteousness and method of receiving blessings on -- “Righteousness by a Gift and Blessings by Inheritance.”
Righteousness by a gift is Sonship and Kingship because it places you in a royal family as a son of God and makes you a King . Blessings by inheritance is dominion rule and Kingdom living. It’s called inheritance because God had to die to His own self-rule so we could be saved. Inheritance – the very word comes from the truth that someone died to be able to give it to us. It also included the truth that we have to die to self-rule to receive it.
Of course -- if we are to understand God and our relationship to Him -- He must tell us what and why He does what He does -- because --we as created beings-- would just have to accept that God is righteous and all powerful no matter what and He will always be righteous. God could have just demanded our blind acceptance but then we wouldn’t be made in His image.
God has chosen Righteousness by a Gift and Blessings by Inheritance and He wants us to choose that also. If we don’t choose the True Gospel and commit ourselves to it -- it can never be our own. We could only be at best -- servants -- but never sons and kings.
The Invitation
It has pleased God to reveal to us the very depths of His being so that we can join Him there in the closest intimacy possible. We must know the Truths of the heart of God in order to join Him in those Truths. We are invited into the heart of God -- not forced to come in without any understanding of what we are receiving.
That invitation to us is the same invitation that God extends to all that will hear and believe what He is saying. He is asking us as he did Abraham -- Come and follow Me and I will give you -- Righteousness by a Gift and Blessings by Inheritance.
Here – some might believe that Abraham didn’t have the same Covenant we have but we will go into that later. Abraham is called the father of those that believe the same Covenant that Jesus offered.
(Gal 3:16 KJV) Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
(Gal 3:17 KJV) And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
(Gal 3:18 KJV) For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
Before God the Father -- Son and Holy Spirit brought forth Creation they were righteous altogether. That is who they were and are. They -- at that time had not created anything and so-- there was nothing outside of themselves. At that time -- before Genesis 1:1 -- they were righteous in their being. Therefore -- not having done any works to be righteous -- they were righteous by a gift. They were gift righteous. They are the self-existing Ones and are living life that is coming forth out of life.
I might want to ask -- Well who gave them that gift? No one -- there was nothing outside of themselves and so --they were righteous by a gift. That is the nature of their being. They are righteous by a gift. Perhaps for better understanding I could say that they chose that gift themselves and having never done anything to earn it -- it was theirs as a gift to themselves.
So in establishing that Truth about God and we being made in God’s image -- we must also receive our righteousness that same way. We are different from the Godhead in that God gives us our righteousness as a gift. No one gave God His righteousness -- it is His nature. This gift of righteousness that God gives to those that will receive it as a gift could never be something we earn because that would make us unlike God. God did nothing to earn His righteousness. By His self existence He establishes that righteousness is His by choice and therefore a gift.
Then we must also see that God -- and when I say God here I mean the Triune God: -- Father -- Son and Holy Spirit -- received all of their blessings by a gift. It was a gift to themselves. However -- it wasn’t an inheritance because in order to receive an inheritance someone has to die and leave the inheritance to their heirs.
The blessedness within the Godhead was all theirs by a gift to themselves. No one gave it to them -- they received it from themselves. They didn’t do works to get it. It came to them as a gift from their own creative breath: -- the Word of God.
So what have we learned from this? We have learned that the Alpha God -- before He created anything -- was righteous by a gift and blessed by a gift. Then --we will learn that God intends to become a God that is righteous by inheritance and blessed by inheritance. He has chosen to be known as the God that has received His new life from the dead -- and become the God of the resurrection -- the Omega God that has received His righteousness by dying to Himself and rising from the dead. The God that receives all things by inheritance -- the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why is this important? Because we need to understand what Sin is and what The Lie is so that when the kingdoms of this world offer us their riches we will be able to discern when we are being lied to. When we are deceived into believing The Lie we make decisions based on that Lie and the end of that is death to our plans and to us.
Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world if He would worship satan. Well-- how do you worship satan? You believe his lies and so --do what he wants you to do. It’s the same offer that he made to Adam and Eve and when they believed the Lie satan told them --they lost everything that was theirs by inheritance.
Before they believed The Lie they were kings and they had a Kingdom. When they believed The Lie they lost it all.
We don’t realize the magnitude of the consequences of what happened when Lucifer gave The Lie it’s life: by believing that he could have a kingdom equal to God’s and win over the Kingdom of God for control of the Universe.
When Lucifer believed the Lie that he could take control of his life and be blessed by getting the things he wanted -- The Lie then became like leaven as each being believed it and acted on it. It was put in the lump of the Universe and it would leaven the whole lump if Christ hadn’t become a man in the person of Jesus Christ to lay down His life to stop it.
When we as human beings and even sons of God get the idea that this is all about our redemption-- we have a very narrow view of what God is doing. Yes-- we are redeemed by the life of Jesus Christ laid down – but a whole lot more than that is happening.
We are just the fruit of a new root that God has planted that is called the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the everlasting foundation for the new Temple for God to dwell in.
The Lie was loose in the Universe because Lucifer gave it a voice so it could repeat itself. Lucifer became the father of The Lie because he gave The lie a voice -- but The Lie is much greater than Lucifer.
Belief of The Lie changed the Arc Angel of God called Lucifer into a fallen angel called satan. A mighty Cherub had fallen into the trap of The Lie and drew millions of angels with him. This leaven had to be stopped before it leavened the whole Universe.
God is all powerful and nothing can resist His power – but He is also a honest and righteous God and when He created a realm of darkness for The Lie to be king over-- He can’t just cancel it. To cancel the power of The Lie and its right to exist would be to admit that God made a mistake. It would say that the Lord never really gave man a choice as to who would rule over him. A real choice means that there is another kingdom to live in other than the Lords.
It was a sovereign decree that established that the opposite of The Truth is The Lie and The Lie has its kingdom where it reigns as king over those that believe it – just as The Truth has a Kingdom where God dwells and all those that believe The Truth can live in it.
(Isa 45:7 KJV) I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
I might ask – Wouldn’t it have been better for God to withhold this information about the possibility of choosing to believe The Lie in the light of all the death and pain that it has caused? Well-- if God isn’t up to the challenge then it would have been better – but when I consider that God Himself has taken on Himself the life that comes forth from death -- there has to be a tremendously important reason for allowing the power of choice.
I believe we are given a clue as to why God has chosen to go this way. Lucifer was an angel of great beauty – wisdom and power – appointed to this place by a gift. Yet-- he was lifted up by who God had made him. Had he continued to have that place there would have been no limit to where his pride would have carried him.
Think what it would be like to have a Universe of creatures like that. We see a shadow of that in the disciples of Jesus fighting with each other about who was the greatest because of the miracles they did under the anointing of Jesus.
God doesn’t want a Kingdom like that. Then-- when we consider that God plans to bring forth even greater beings in the persons of men and women -- we begin to see that God has to purge this evil out of His Creation before He proceeds to greater things.
We have learned that King Jesus and His Kingdom is the Gospel message. Well that is the same Gospel that Christ the Lord preached to Abraham.
Christ the Lord was inviting Abraham into the realm of God by preaching the Gospel to him. The True Gospel has two parts. They are the two parts of God. He is righteous by a gift and He is blessed by inheritance. Jesus is a King and He has a Kingdom. King Jesus is righteous by a gift and He is blessed by the inheritance of His Kingdom and he comes into the fulness of that inheritance through us as we invite Him to be Lord over us and receive us into His Kingdom as His ambassadors.
We understand the process by seeing that the Father willed Creation to come forth. The Son spoke the Word -- releasing creative power. Then -- the power of the Holy Spirit gave Christ’ Words life giving power.
In that process there are no works. It is the creative breath of God bringing forth life out of God’s Life. When those creative Words were spoken -- creation came forth and stood fast.
(Psa 33:8 KJV) Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
(Psa 33:9 KJV) For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
Let’s look at this verse again for a minute. In -- (Isa 45:7 KJV) I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
The Bible says here that the Lord created evil. So -- Where is evil in creation before the fall of Lucifer? I believe that up to that time -- which would be Genesis 1:1 and before Genesis 1:2 -- the possibility of evil existed because The Truth existed and evil is the opposite of The Truth -- but evil was only a realm that had no life because God would not give His life to it. God had rejected this realm called evil and had given it no life. It was a realm that existed but no one had given it life.
Then -- when Lucifer chose to give the realm of The Lie his identity and life -- evil began to live. So when Lucifer believed The Lie and acted on it -- then -- The Lie had a voice and so-- evil was born. Lucifer had given The Lie his voice as Christ had given His Voice to The Truth. Lucifer is the father of The Lie. He brought it forth with his voice. First -- Lucifer believed The Lie and so -- became Sin -- then -- Lucifer spoke The Lie .
(John 8:44 KJV) Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
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From this I conclude that The Lie is -- You are not like God yet and this is what you have to do to become a god. If you believe this and act on it by -- doing works to become like God and to be blessed -- you won’t die. Of course -- this is The Lie and you will die.
The Truth is -- You are made exactly like God and you are to receive all things by inheritance. If you believe and do this-- you have eternal life.
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Now we know what makes God righteous and what makes us righteous. That Truth is the foundation on which the King and His Kingdom stands. When we once understand this clearly -- there is no turning back to try to be established on some other foundation. No more trying to be righteous by the world’s ways -- religious or otherwise. No more gaining power through the accumulation of wealth by works.
Someone might say -- God doesn’t have to submit Himself to this Truth to be righteous -- He’s righteous without it and has always been righteous. Before Lucifer’s fall that was true -- but after Lucifer gave The Lie a voice and Sin was born -- God would have to do works to restore Creation.
We must see that after The Lie was given life by Lucifer -- God couldn’t just cancel everything and start over. Because of Lucifer’s actions -- Sin now had a voice and was loose in Creation. God had to deal with that in order for Creation to be like God -- sinless.
To cancel everything and start over -- God would have to have made a mistake and so --admit that the original plan was flawed -- necessitating doing it over again. God never makes mistakes and so-- hidden within the original plan is the provision for defeating The Lie and killing it forever.
So within the original plan God has decreed that even His own righteousness will be founded on this Truth of being -- Righteous by a Gift and Blessed by Inheritance. He chose to establish His own inherited righteousness on the foundation of being righteous by a gift and being blessed by inheritance. He did that when He swore by His own Name that the definition of His righteousness was: -- you are righteous by a gift and you are blessed by inheritance.
Before God could give His righteousness to others -- He had to establish a foundational basis on which He would give it. This Truth is the foundation on which God has decreed that He will attribute His righteousness to others.
God has exalted His Word above Himself and so -- has submitted Himself to His own Word of Truth. That should put to rest forever -- us trying to be righteous or multiplied any other way.
(Psa 138:2 KJV) I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
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Now we know what Abraham believed that made him righteous and so -- let’s compare it with what we believe that makes us the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
(Rom 10:9 KJV) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
(that is receiving son-ship as a gift. You’re confessing Jesus as Lord ) and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (that is blessing by inheritance)
(Rom 10:10 KJV) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;( that is son-ship by a gift) and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (that is blessing by inheritance). Out of our own mouth comes the creative words of the Christ that has entered into us as we bow to Him as Lord.
That confession with our mouth is the evidence in the world that we are a new creation. We have given righteousness a voice. That confession is like the circumcision of Abraham. It is the outward evidence that we are now the son of God.
These verses are saying -- believe what the Lord is saying and He will make you righteous -- or save you -- as we call it. Then -- act on that belief and speak with your mouth that you believe that Jesus arose from the dead -- because His payment for Sin was accepted by the Father. When we do that -- we become the heirs of God through Christ Jesus. Heirs of the promises of God. The same promise that God made to Abraham -- which is -- Righteous by a Gift and Multiplied by inheritance.
From this comparison we see that Abraham believed the same thing we believe in order to be made righteous in God’s eyes. We read in -- (Gal 3:8 KJV) And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Remember -- Abraham was a heathen when God called him to follow Him. Abraham was a gentile. Then --he believed what God said to him and left Ur and followed God.
Thus -- he became the first Hebrew. Hebrew means -- come outer. Abraham believed God and came out of the heathen world system .
We see in Abraham’s life that when he believed God -- the Lord became his King -- even though he didn’t know that the Lord Christ would someday become Jesus the Christ. Yet -- maybe Abraham did know that. The Lord might have told him because as we will see later the Lord preached the Gospel to Abraham.
(Gal 3:8 KJV) And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
So -- we who have the same kind of faith as Abraham -- we believe the same gospel he did. Therefore we are made righteous by a gift and multiplied by inheritance.
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