4. Our Only Salvation

Covering 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5 & 2 Thessalonians Chapters 1-3:

In this lesson, we will cover Gospel Word from Chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians and all three chapters of 2 Thessalonians. Before we start, I want to talk briefly about rightly dividing the word, but by bringing in a previous quote that defined “wrongly dividing.”

~ The goal of the evil one is to chop the Bible up into scattered, disconnected, and tiny pieces, organized around several non-Biblical points and coming from a God who “knows evil.” ~

This description of “wrongly dividing” actually covers the three levels of thought, base definitions (a God who “knows evil”), theory, or connecting story (organized around non-Biblical points), and then all the facts, all the Bible verses.

Goal Determines Organization. In explaining the meaning of Gospel Word, our focus is on the points of organization. And the thing that determines the organization more than anything else is the end goal. The goal of Nicene Christianity is “to go to” heaven and “not to go to” hell – after death. Every verse either serves this goal or is ignored, thus becoming effectively nonexistent.

The goal of the Gospel is to be just like the Lord Jesus in knowing the Father and to be a member of that Church that is God-made-visible. Every verse serves this goal, but at different levels or in different ways. To know the Father is Life. To be like Jesus is Covenant. And to be a member of the revelation of God is Kingdom. Let’s continue with the Gospel Verses from 1 Thessalonians 5.

Gospel Commandments. • 16 Rejoice always. 17 Pray incessantly. 18 Give thanks inside of everything; for this is God’s desire inside of Christ Jesus entering into you. 19 Do not quench or suppress the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Prove all things; take possession of the good.

Here is a list of Gospel commandments that we obey with joy and in all enthusiasm inside of Jesus. God commands us to laugh with joy inside of All Salvation now. Do we obey Him? To “pray incessantly” is to acknowledge God with us always. The primary line for our purpose is verse 18, to give thanks, which is the Greek eucharist, or speak good grace – inside of everything, for this is God’s desire (that you be with Him), found inside of Christ Jesus and always entering into you.

Speak Christ. To pray incessantly is to acknowledge God with us and to give thanks is to place ourselves with God. This is every step of our walk, the words of our mouth leading our way – give thanks in one step and expect God in the next.

• Speak Christ: To rejoice always is to live at the right hand of God, inside of His presence (see Psalm 16:11). To pray incessantly is to acknowledge God with us, God arising every moment. To give thanks inside of everything is to place ourselves with God in all. Not to quench the Spirit is to allow God always to flow through us to others. Not to despise prophecies is to receive God flowing through others to us. To take possession of the good is to take possession of God. These are Gospel commandments, and they very much include the words that we speak. Yet they also first assume God with us.

Wow, okay. I just kept going with the whole package.

No Other Gospel. • 23 Now the God of peace Himself makes you fully and completely devoted, your spirit and soul and body are entirely blameless, kept and watched over, inside of the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The One calling and summoning you is faithful, who also does this.

Twice now, just recently, a few days apart, I was plagued by unclean thoughts. I gave them immediately to God my Father, even in joy and thankfulness, with all of myself. In just a few moments each time my heart was pure, for He is faithful. I am KEPT. I am watched over. I live inside the presence of Jesus, my Savior. God my Father makes me devoted to Himself. My spirit, my soul, and my body are entirely blameless, pure inside of God. There is no other Gospel.

Two Notable Assumptions. • Ruling Verse 6: Our Salvation is found only inside of God. We take our sin and our shame straight into God, even with joy and thankfulness. God alone keeps us and makes us devoted to Himself. Every part of our humanity is pure, for the Jesus who carries us into God every moment is faithful.

Think again about our organizational theory for Gospel Word. The Truth thus far in James and 1 Thessalonians has contained two notable base assumptions. This first assumption is that God is utterly present with us. We live only inside His presence; Jesus lives inside our hearts. The second is that God alone saves us as we place ourselves into Him through confidence in Jesus and with utter TRUST. Now we continue on to 2 Thessalonians.

Refuge and Outlook. • 3 We are committed to thanking God and to speaking good grace always concerning you, brothers and sisters, according to your proportion and weight of value, because your faith is increasing beyond measure and the love of each one of you all is super-abounding into one another in a full back-and-forth reciprocity. 4 …your steadfastness and bearing under for the sake of others, inside of all the persecutions against you and the pressures of travail within and without that you are enduring. • 5 This is clear evidence of the right judgment of God as to your great value into the kingdom of God, for the sake of which you also suffer.

Verses 4 & 5 are ruling verse 9, our great travail for the sake of all creation, refuge and outlook. Already fully safe inside of God, we now live devoted to God through us for others.

The Kingdom. In all things of the Kingdom, there is a personal role for each one of us. Nonetheless, refuge and outlook, travailing together, setting creation free, these are corporate endeavors, things we accomplish only together. Covenant is first personal, but Kingdom is many as one. Setting creation free into glorious liberty as manifest sons of God is something we do together.

It will not be for another five years before Paul will make himself carefully explain these things in Romans 8. There is a sense in which he received his view of the entire Gospel right from the start. Nonetheless, to know what it actually means takes time. It was in 2011 that I wrote that the Kingdom is God just being Himself. Fourteen years later, I am just now beginning to think clearly about what that might mean.

Being Paul. Now, I am looking across all the Gospel Verses I have marked for 2 Thessalonians. I see that they are all tied together inside of Ruling Verse 9.

Before coming back to the extraordinary meanings, I want to approach rightly dividing the Word from a different angle. These two letters are Paul’s first letters sent into the churches. He is being Paul, writing with all exuberance, assuming much and explaining little. There is no possible way someone could explain Paul’s gospel by studying only these two letters. We are seeing the meaning clearly ONLY because we are coming into Thessalonians knowing Paul’s gospel, with all of our thinking ruled by the Ruling Verses of the Bible. How does that work?

Substance versus Appearance. Thessalonians contains references to very strong “events.” Those “events” include Jesus “coming back,” the resurrection (or to some, the rapture), the “man of sin” being exposed, and even the revelation of Jesus Christ. To most, those events are the big deal and the ruling structure by which we should understand these two letters. But all events, whatever and however they look like as they happen, are ENTIRELY peripheral, the obvious appearance versus a far greater, far more important, inward substance.

The Substance of the ruling structure is the Ruling Verses, guiding and shaping the FLOW of all Gospel Word. Thus we now see that parts of the first letter and most of the second are about the Kingdom Truth of setting creation free.

God Made Visible. With this way of thinking, then, we now see 2 Thessalonians 1:3 as a description of the House of God, and we see the “super-abounding” reciprocal Love that happens there out from which these powerful and overwhelming things proceed.

The value of something is determined by the value placed upon it. Those who had received Jesus through his ministry were of great value to Paul, for whom he expended his life. This is why he spoke good grace concerning all that they were. Yet Paul was only a vessel for God. Paul’s valuation was God’s valuation, that He places upon every part and member of His House, His corporate dwelling place. “Love super-abounding in full reciprocity” is just a description of God Himself, His Face visible.

Travail for Creation. All the steadfastness, all the bearing under for the sake of others, all the persecutions against, all the pressures of travail, all that we endure, all that we might suffer, all of it is for the sake of the Kingdom. All of it is for the sake of the Father that He might be made visible, God Incarnate. Here is where we place “faith increasing beyond measure.”

There are two possibilities. 1. Everything we go through, all pain and agony, is one big waste of time. 2. Everything we go through, all pain and agony, is for God manifest in the flesh. The difference? – Let it be to you according to your faith.

Before we can write our gospel comments, we must continue on with the remaining verses for Chapter 1. Paul is painting a large picture of the Ninth Ruling Verse of the Bible.

The Apocalypse. 6 For indeed God is justly correct to give back to you against the pressures of travail you are faithfully enduring, • 7 and to give you, as you are being pressured, rest with us inside of the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ out from heaven with His mighty angels 8 inside of a flame of fire giving justice… – • 10 when He shall come in that day to be glorified inside of His devoted ones and to be honored inside of all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, the manifestation of the sons of God, the revelation of Christ in and through His Body, the Church, many together as one. – Inside of a flame of fire – is – a woman clothed with the sun. It is the fire of sacrifice, of the lampstand, of the altar of incense, and of the pillar of fire, all together in one, Jesus in us.

The Ruling Verse Rules. Paul is firing the biggest guns of his gospel all together at once without explaining anything. It is no wonder that we have been confused. Nonetheless, when we place this entire chapter as a companion to, even the larger portion of Romans 8:18-27, we can see an outward structure of that Glory that fills it.

I notice now that Peter also placed “REST” inside of the Apocalypse. Of truth, even in my early thirties, I realized that every verse in the New Testament containing the word, apocalupsis, was definitional and critical. However, we must carefully limit our expression of Gospel Word here, for we are not quite as recklessly exuberant as Paul and do not wish to blow any reader away.

Setting Creation Free. • Kingdom: God highly values every member of His House, including you, for as your faith increases, and as your love for your brethren super-abounds in full reciprocity, then God is become visible as the face of His Church.
 
• Ruling Verse 9: Nothing that we suffer or bear with endurance is “for ourselves,” but for others. As we travail with God, inside of His Spirit (see Romans 8:18-27), so God moves through us for others, setting creation free.
 
• Ruling Verse 9: We rest inside of the unveiling of Jesus Christ, as God removes the cover from the eyes of all and Jesus is known as He is through His Church, for He is glorified inside of us. Yet our eyes are upon the Church, that we might clothe her with Fire, by placing the Lord Jesus Christ upon all of our brethren, even as we believe.

Iniquity Unveiled. Let’s go on to Chapter 2. 3 …the man of iniquity shall have been unveiled… (d) • 7 For the mystery of iniquity is energeoing, but only until now, as what has been restrained comes out of the midst (f). • 8 And then iniquity will be unveiled which the Lord Jesus will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and will render inoperative by His presence made visible and known (g).

Throughout all of 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, I am going back and forth between things that go into “Gospel Comments” and things that go into “Notes on Translation.” I want to begin with a definition of “iniquity.” When iniquity is wrongly defined, everything else in this passage must be wrongly understood.

Two Definitions for “Law.” The Greek word I have now again translated as “iniquity,” is, in it’s English form, antinomian. It means anti-law or “no law for me.” I first made it “lawlessness,” as many translations do. “Lawlessness” is a correct translation – EXCEPT. I have only recently begun to notice this fact, that the word “law,” as it is used in the New Testament, has two very different meanings, even the complete opposite of each other.

Which meaning is being used must be carefully ascertained from the context. Here are the two meanings. For the law of the Spirit of Life inside of Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). The law of Moses, the old covenant, the ten commandments ARE – the law of sin and death. The fulfillment is only death, for they are the ministry of death (see 2 Corinthians 3:7).

The Refusal of the Spirit of Life. The writers of the New Testament, as well as Jesus in His speaking in the synoptic gospels, often use the word “law” to refer to the law of Moses. BUT – in all of the epistles, when it is not clear that “law” is referring to sin and death, then “law” MUST BE referring to the LAW of the Spirit of LIFE inside of Christ Jesus. Thus anti-law, “no law for me,” lawlessness, is the refusal to live utterly and only inside of Jesus, inside of Life, through faith. It is a refusal of John 6:63, of 2 Corinthians 3:3, and of the New Covenant.

Lawlessness, iniquity, is the refusal of the law of the Spirit of life inside of Christ Jesus. What does that mean? It means trying “to fix” yourself.

God Alone Saves Us. Iniquity is self putting self to death, the old man of sin casting off the old man of sin, flesh getting flesh under control, evil trying to be good. Iniquity is living before the cross. It is the crucified one “getting back on” the cross. It is every human effort to connect with God.

Yet one cannot understand iniquity by the negative. It is known only as the opposite of union with Christ. This is why we must REST inside of the Apocalypse. God alone saves us through Jesus. He has already done so. We know such a wondrous thing only through placing ourselves, in all that we are, with ALL of our SIN AND INIQUITY, into God our Father, and only through the Faith of Jesus.

Defining Iniquity. God keeps us and makes us devoted. We do not save ourselves. But there is a greater iniquity taking place inside the Temple of God, and that is the practice of “fixing” one’s brother or sister. To fix, to manipulate, to put your hand upon your brother, is to put your hand upon the Ark; it is to insert yourself into the place of God in their lives. It is iniquity.

• Definition: Lawlessness does not refer to the law of sin and death, but to the law of the Spirit of Life inside of Jesus (See Romans 8:2 & 2 Corinthians 3:7). Lawlessness, iniquity, is refusing to live inside of Jesus as your only life; it is using your sinful actions to place a barrier between yourself and God. Iniquity is trying to fix yourself. Yet the greater iniquity, standing in the very place of God, in His temple, is that awful action of trying to fix your brother or sister.

Christ Is all First. The “mystery of iniquity,” then, is the same as the Old Testament “way that seems right to a man, but the end is death.” That “way” is any form of – God expects you to fix yourself, to “get it right” – first. Or of “Let me fix you.” Or placing one’s sin against God.

Then we see the ACTION of Jesus. Let’s paraphrase. – When your eyes are opened to your iniquity, that “fixing” self or others – God’s temple – is reprehensible to God, then you see Jesus, the Salvation of God. If you see His presence made visible, if you see Christ as all (1 John 3:2), then you see what He does. Jesus Himself surrounds your wicked deeds and renders them inoperative (propitiation), and by Spirit Word breathed into you, He eliminates ALL that is not of Him.

Or we could say it this way. – Christ is all FIRST, before anything not-Christ could ever vanish away.

See the Salvation of God. On the one hand, this powerful set of verses is another way to see Hebrews 10:19-22. But we will place this passage into Covenant, that movement of LIFE taking place within us. And I now see that what I wrote is what fits.

• Covenant: When your eyes are opened to your iniquity, that “fixing” self or others – God’s temple – is reprehensible to God, then know that you are lost. You see, you must be lost before you will turn to see Jesus, the Salvation of God. If you see His presence made visible, if you see Christ as all (1 John 3:2), then you see what He does. Jesus Himself surrounds your wicked deeds and renders them inoperative (propitiation – see 1 John 2:2), and by Spirit Word breathed into you, He eliminates ALL that is not of Him. Or we could say it this way. – Christ is all FIRST, before anything not-Christ could ever vanish away.

The Intimacy of Jesus. • 3 The Lord, however, is faithful, who will establish you inside of Himself and will protect you from evil. This could also be Covenant or even Ruling Verse 10, that is, John 14:20. But we define Galatians 2:20 as the personal involvement of Jesus towards us in giving us His life in trade, or coming into union with us FIRST, Jesus now living as us. Galatians 2:20 is the personal intimacy of Jesus towards us, giving us His own faith, sharing our lives in the flesh with us, trading His life for ours, calling us by name.

• Ruling Verse 5: It is Jesus inside of us who actively saves us every moment by making us part of Himself, by sharing our lives with us. His cross is the mighty barrier all around us, keeping us SAFE from all that is not of God (See Galatians 2:20). As we allow Jesus to be our judgment, and to remove our sin from us, He is the One who keeps us from evil. Jesus alone.

Two Opposing Directions. I have a “Gospel Word” explanation to write for both letters to the Thessalonians as one unit. We find two very different kinds of word in both letters, back and forth. The second type of word seems to be describing great outward events. Yet it is Jesus speaking through Paul, the One who said, “My words are Spirit and they are Life.”

This is where our two opposing “goals” of the Christian life give us two very different approaches to these verses describing the visible expressions that are Kingdom. Inside of the “someday gospel,” the biggest future event is “when Jesus comes back,” a statement that carries an overwhelming undertone – BUT – not here, not now, and definitely not you. The True goal causes us to see differently.

Hearing the Flow. And so those things that are Kingdom, along with important definitions of outward things, take on their True meaning only out from the wondrous Life and Covenant verses that are Paul’s main topic. I have just created a folder that will contain Word documents for each set of Gospel Comments. Now I can have Word read to me the whole thing for each book or set of books, so that I can hear the flow before writing the introduction to Gospel Comments for each.

Yet I can see this now, that Paul begins with the assertion of a Salvation already complete and with the sweet impartation of life and love to one another, and he ends with the simplicity of the personal intimacy of a shared life with Jesus.