“Paracelsus.”

Robert Browning (1836)

“Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise from outward things, whatever you may believe there is an inmost centre in us all, where truth abides in fullness; and around, wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, this perfect, clear perception—which is truth. A baffling and perverting carnal mesh binds it, and makes all error; and, “to KNOW,” rather consists in opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,”

 

I’m not sure what Browning’s intention in using this phrase “Imprisoned Splendor,” nor if his intention matches mine, but regardless, I love the phrase. To me it fully describes humanity’s lost condition struggling to be free from the carnal mesh that binds us up in unbelief. Yet all along there is a eternal light within us calling us home to freedom and life. Therefore, I’m borrowing this phrase for the title of this book.

 

Truth, as Browning so elegantly describes resides in everyman. Truth to Browning is a clear perception, a intuitive knowing within us all that rings in sharp clarity.  I believe that this place in mankind is the “Light that lighteth every man that comes into the world” described in John’s (1:9) Gospel.  This hidden place in mankind where truth resides is ever present in everyman. However, the penetrating question arises-- Will mankind dare to respond in faith agreement to this light of truth, or will we press its inner convicting voice further and further downward into unbelief? 

 

Luke’s gospel tells us that the Kingdom of God is within us, but also, Paul tells us in I Corinthian that, “Flesh and blood, shall not enter the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.” How can this be?  Since the harsh carnal mesh keeps us from entering, then how can we enter? The only way to enter in is to die and be reborn. The Gate is open, Christ who is “the Way” is also the “Door” to the Kingdom. Only eternal humanity can enter in.  How do we get this eternal humanity?  Christ, our New Humanity is available to all who will come to the fountain of living water. “Drink my blood, and eat my flesh” if you do, you will live forever. 

 

If we ever want our precious humanity freed from its prisons of ever circling wheels of frustration, and if we want to hush the deceptive voices that swing from self-worship to self-loathing to wane, then all we have to do is simply COME… Come and drink of the river of living water freely, “The Bride and the Spirit say, come, and discover how beautifully and wonderfully God made us, and see the “carnal mesh that binds us” transformed into our precious redeemed humanity wonderfully made for the Master’s use.

 

What Is Man?

 

The question, “What is Man?” has been examined by philosophers and anthropologists alike, yet the simple question is best answered by the greatest source of spiritual revelation today, the Holy Bible.  The Bible boldly addresses it four times, three times in the Old Testament, Job 7:17, Psalms 144:3, Psalms 8:4, and then once in the New Testament in Hebrews 2:6.  Psalms 8:4, properly translated by the New American Standard version, says this:  “What is man that Thou dost take thought of him?  And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?  Yet, Thou hast made him a little lower than God (Elohim); and thou does crown him with glory and majesty!  Thou doest make him to rule over the works of Thy hands.” 

 

The New Testament quotes in Hebrews 2:7 of Psalms 8:4, are in my opinion, a weaker rendering. It says that God made man, “a little lower than the angels” instead of “a little lower than God.”  The stronger Psalms translation (lower than God) is the one I prefer and most often use. 

 

Angels are amazing spirit beings, but they are spirits created to minister and serve redeemed mankind, who are, “heirs of salvation” (Hebrew1:14).  “Angels were not made in the image of God, and God could therefore not become incarnate in them.  No angel can become a blood-born son of God, nor can one ever be a partaker of the divine nature.

 

Let’s think about it:  Did Paul ever say of the angels as he did of the Church, that they constitute His Body of which He is the Head? Or did Paul ever say of angels they are ‘the fullness of him that filleth all in all’ (Ephesians 1:23)?  Did Paul ever say of angels, ‘Ye are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones’ (Ephesians 5:30)?  And didn’t Paul say that we, the body of Christ, would someday judge the angels (I Corinthians 6:3)?”[1] 

 

As we can see from these scriptures the obvious answer is an emphatic no!  No angle was created high than the body of Christ who are members of His body and His flesh, and of His bones.  Therefore, mankind could have never been created a little lower than angels because as you can see from these verses man was originally created higher than angles. The fact is that man is the highest created being in the whole universe.

 

Then how is it that Hebrews 2:7 says that we were made a little lower than the angels?  I believe it was weaken in the King James Version, but correctly rendered in the New American Standard Version, “man was made a little lower than God” (Psalms 8:5).

 

Dr. Theodore H. Mann writes concerning the Hebrew text of Psalms 8:5 (Remember the author of the New Testament letter to the Hebrews is quoting the LXX, a Greek translation of the Hebrew text). “We do not find the word angels, but God (“Elohim”).  The Jewish scholars who wrote the LXX thought that calling man only a little lower than God might belittle God, so they chose to use the alternate meaning of Elohim (the plural gods or godlike beings, interpreted as angels) in their translation.” 

 

It is interesting to me that the Jewish scholars didn’t want to bring God down any where near to man’s level, while God wants to bring redeemed man back to an exalted glorified level, that is “a little lower than God.”  Personally, the fact that God created man a little lower than God Himself doesn’t belittle God, it elevates Him.  It is nothing but God’s self-less love that would cause our God to raise us up with Christ, and seat us on His very throne of authority.

 

The Spirit is making the point in the Hebrews 2:7 passage that through the Fall, lost mankind has fallen into a realm lower than even the angels. Angels are not mortal flesh beings—they are able to take any form they want to, while fallen man has mortal flesh and blood limiting him to time and space.  Although, through the intercessory work of our Savior, the last Adam, Jesus was made mortal “flesh and blood,” “being made like unto his brethren” (Hebrews 2:9-14). In order that by “tasting death for all men,” He might gain the victory of His resurrection, and reinstate man to his proper elevated place far above the angelic realm being made in union with Christ, “lord of all” (Galatians 4:1b).

 

Ephesians 1:20-2:6 says the redeemed are seated with Christ “in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might and dominion.” That certainly includes the entire heavenly angelic realm. 

 

So then how do we explain all of this confusion?  Original man was made a little lower than God.  Fallen man lost that position and fell lower than the angels, but now the redeemed resurrected “new man” in union with Christ is crowned with “glory and honor, and God put His works in our hands.  The Lord put all things in subjection under our feet.  For in that He put all in subjection under redeemed man, he left nothing that is not put under him.  “But now we see not yet all things put under him” (Hebrews 2:6-8).  Interesting statement.  It is not until redeemed man is made safe through Cross, can he receive his full inheritance in Christ, it is then that we will see all things put under redeemed man’s feet.

 

Man is God’s highest creation and lower only to the Creator.   The Creator made man a little lower than “Elohim” in the sense that the visible form must be lower than the one who is Himself the Creator and is invisible and uncreated.   Also, God’s created dwelling place (man) must be lower than the one who created him. So, we, the redeemed, have a tremendous inheritance in union with Christ. What happened to mankind? How do we get back this inheritance? How can we be restored back to our Creator?

Take the Elevator to the Ground Floor

After we have explored the heights of redeemed man’s glorified position in Christ.  Let us get on the elevator and drop to the ground floor.  How far have we fallen in our understandings concerning ourselves, our purpose, and our destiny?  Our lives and minds have been inundated with separated concepts and fantasies spun to us by our former father, Satan (John 8:44).

 

All my life I thought of myself as just me-- Sylvia living here alone and having an alone human existence with my own thoughts, my own decisions, my own abilities, and basically my own life.  Little did I know that this lie of seeing myself as a separate being is the lie that is all pervasive and “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).  All humanity lives in this lie and believes it as if it were the truth--whole-heartedly agreeing with it.

 

What I would like to do in this book is expose this insidious lie of self-empowered independent self and bring the Christian reader right on through to the truth of who we really are in union with Christ, as well as illuminate our understanding concerning our precious redeemed humanity.  Unless this lie is examined to its depths, height, and its width, we cannot fully see what it means to have the indwelling Christ living within us. 

 

In our fallen condition our minds are blinded, our thoughts about ourselves are false, and our consciousness is deluded with ideas of independence.  Through our union with Christ, we already have the new mind of Christ, but because we don’t know it, nor draw from this new mind, the old thoughts flood our consciousness and keep us in bondage.  My good friend, Louis Tucker says that we have “crystallized thought patterns.” These thought patterns hold us in bondage and fear.

 

So the best way for the Lord to unravel the confusion is to do it in stages.  This presentation, and particularly the first chart, takes us from stage to stage as the Spirit begins to illuminate to us the real truth.  Norman Grubb once said that we move from “wrong-self, to no-self, to right-self.”  This is another way of declaring the great identity truths of Galatians 2:20, I (wrong-self) am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I (no-self), but Christ lives in me, and the life which I (right-self), now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God who loves me and gave himself for me.      

 

All Spiritual understanding and insights come from the interactions of opposites--the one opposite gaining its definition and distinction from its opposite, and significant other.  Hot cannot be known except by its opposite, cold.  Small cannot be understood except by its opposite, big.  Soft is felt because it is not hard. Sweet is tasty and known to be sweet because it is not sour.  You say yes to doing this, but hidden in that yes is a no to doing that, and so on.      

 

Consciousness is realized the same way.  We have a consciousness of oneness with Christ because we have previously had a mind brainwashed with the satanic lies of self-empowerment and separation.  The darkness of this lying consciousness is swallowed up when we are baptized with Spirit understanding in the light of the glorious truth of the gospel.  One is defined by and built on the other.

 

The name of the first chart is “Cleansed Consciousness” (Hebrews 9:14).  It is rightly named simply because we all must have our minds renewed to the truth (Romans 12:2) This will close all the gaps of separation and cleanse our blinded consciousness from a guilty, “What Is Wrong With Me”, sin-consciousness, to the clear free liberated mind of the Spirit.

 

Therefore, unless this lie of independent-self be known and drunk to the dregs with its wicked source fully exposed, how will it ever be known to be a lie, and how will we ever know the truth that will set us free?

 

This first chart is a synopsis of the whole presentation: It is a appetizer that will hopefully encourage you to study this presentation as a whole.  I often call this chart, “The Four “I’s”.  It is a pictorial illustration of Galatians 2:20, i.e. the Saints great identity verse gratefully given to us by the Apostle Paul. “I am crucified with Christ, (wrong-self); nevertheless, I live, yet not I, (trying-self ) but Christ lives in me (resting-self); and the life I now live in the flesh, (right-self) I live by the faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave his life for me.”

 

I intend to go from stage to stage, as the bible does in I John 2:12-14, “Little Children; Young Men; Fathers,” and unveil a sometimes perilous but rewarding journey. Let us go behind the veil and see our identity and oneness in union with Christ.

 

As you can see, there are four “I’s” on this first chart.  Why “I’s”? All we ever really have in life is ourselves: “Who Am I”; “What am I really about?”; “What am I to do?”; “Why am I always dissatisfied with myself?”; and “Why am I so self-absorbed?” When we are disturbed enough we will find our answer and thereby find liberation and rest for our weary souls.

 

Stay tuned to July’s Article and we will continue presenting this subject.

 

 

[1] Destined for the Throne Paul E. Billheimer

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