8.1 Confidence
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The big IF, the jeopardy verse of the gospel, our confidence, was already fully in my view, along with being led always in triumph, as being one of the key verses of the gospel before I placed it in my first layout of the “eight” most important verses. I do like patterns, however. And having placed that verse in spot #7, in what seemed to me to be the logical order, I saw that God’s first HOW verse was related to the Cross and His second was related to the Blood. It became necessary, then, for no other reason, for me to “claim” that the jeopardy verse, we are partakers of Christ IF, must be the resurrection verse. I thought I was stretching it, but I liked the pattern.
Stretching the Patterns
Then, when I wrote Symmorphy I: Purpose, I discovered that the same key word, parresia, is translated “boldness” in Hebrews 10 and “confidence” in Hebrews 3, the same word meaning the freedom to speak boldly. My first thought was that I had stretched my “patterns” a bit too far, that maybe, these two “most important verses” were just repeating each other.
However, the Spirit of God has caused this linking of the English word, “confidence,” with the reality of resurrection life, to grow ever more together in my understanding. “Resurrection life” had always been a “deep,” but practically meaningless concept in all my former Christian ideas.
Newness of Life
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).
This is one verse that allows us to consider resurrection, not just as something that happens to our bodies, but also as a “LIFE” in which we walk right now, that is, “newness of life.” And as I have spoken Christ my only life over the last eight years, I know, now, that there is no other term that comes anywhere close to how we “walk in newness of life,” than the English word “confidence.” Absolute confidence that Christ IS the only life we are.
Placing the Resurrection
But before we explore further this confidence and this walking in newness of life, let’s place resurrection into the Kingdom of God.
The moment of the resurrection of our physical bodies is the great dividing line between this age and the age to come. Instantaneous incorruptibility and immortality, death swallowed up by life, is the first complete outward appearance of Father to creation through His many-membered Body. It is the first outward appearance of the new creation.
That moment also marks the end of this present age of human folly, although it does not mark the end of the outward appearance of the old creation.
Miss-Defining the Transition
There is no question in my mind that we are in the final years of the end of this present age. There is, however, an overwhelming misconception in the minds of most regarding that transition between two ages.
Most Christians see present human folly ONLY, up until the very moment that Jesus “appears.” Then, at the moment when Jesus “appears” in an isolated and solitary body, they imagine that instantly everything changes and that now, for the first time, Jesus takes complete charge of all human affairs as, basically, the ruling dictator. They imagine that the affairs of man on this earth will be 100% different before and after this outward appearance of Jesus.
Shedding the Old Skin
I read something entirely different out from my Bible.
Consider the skin of a caterpillar. The caterpillar sheds its skin five times because its constant eating of life causes it to grow larger and larger. Some imagine that the old skin is shed “so that the new skin can grow.” NOT AT ALL. It is the new skin growing full and complete, ready, now, to manifest itself, by which the old skin is broken and cast off without any help from the caterpillar.
We know that the entire creation, in spite of the blackness of its rebellion, is groaning with eager anticipation for the revealing of the sons of God.
A Series of Transitions
This present age of human folly comes to its end only because the Kingdom of God is arising upon this earth among and as the Church of Christ. The “old skin” of the present age breaks ONLY because the Kingdom of God is so ready in all reality that the old can’t hang on anymore.
Yet we do not see that process as one event, or one moment of time. Rather, just as with the caterpillar, there are several times of casting off the old skin, so there is something similar in this mighty transition between two ages. The primary moment of this transition is the resurrection of our bodies, yes, but that is something that effects only a few million people, not everyone.
History Continues
Much of the rest of this course will explore this momentous reality of “the Kingdom rising” upon this earth.
It is my full conviction that 10 years before the resurrection of our bodies and 10 years after the resurrection of our bodies will be 20 years apart of human history on this earth. That might sound obvious, but that is not how most of our brethren see things. Some things will be different, yes, but not everything. Many things will continue to be in the flux of change. And everything happening in the first decade after will be directly related to everything happening in the decade before, one continuous flow of history.
In Opposition
Now, the arising of the Kingdom of God, tangible and for real, is happening right now – and we are part of it. As I am writing this, the elections in the United States are coming up in a few days, with the whole world wondering what will happen here as a result. The Kingdom of God arising now is directly related to all these things in a contradictory way, and they to it.
The travail of this world, this present age of human folly, is giving birth to the Kingdom of God bringing it to an end, that is, you and me. The arising of the Kingdom and the flailing end of human stupidity are parallel to each other.
The Most Significant Point
The resurrection of our bodies, then, is not the end of that transition, but it is the most significant single point in the transition. And yes, I do believe that before I celebrate my 75th birthday, my physical body will have been swallowed up by life.
Because of how God has set the arising of His Kingdom into full appearance, right in the midst of all darkness of evil, we will go back and forth through the rest of this course between the arising of that Kingdom on the one hand and the casting off of the age of human folly on the other hand. Now that we have placed the physical resurrection, let’s return back to walking in resurrection life right now, that is, confidence.
Be Just Like God
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Notice that this is one of the many “be just like God” verses. Just as – Christ was raised from the dead – Just exactly as.
Notice the words, by the glory of the Father. The Spirit through Paul is tying the resurrection of Jesus together with the prayer of John 17, the words by which Jesus spoke the new creation into being. Both definitions of glory are here inside of “the glory of the Father.”
The Glory of Father
Largest in this phrase is the glory of the performance of the greatest work in all reality. But the meaning of “that which is most important to the Father’s heart” is also inside this phrase. “Because You have done this thing.”
Now, back to “just as.” We are to walk IN JUST THE SAME WAY as the Father’s performance of His greatest masterpiece raising Jesus out of death and into LIFE. The implications of “even so we also should walk” are staggering. You and I SHOULD WALK as if the Father performing His greatest masterpiece, His magnum opus, His most incredible achievement – is the only life we are.
That We Might Know
Do you see how “confidence” can be the only word that fits? We are to walk AS IF we ARE the greatest performance Almighty God has ever accomplished. And that’s just for starters.
You see what I mean when I say that the only difference between the manifest sons of God and us right now is that they believe what God says and we don’t? If you and I actually believed that Romans 6:4 was God telling us the truth, the ages would change right now. This is why it is so important for us to go through these critical verses over and over inside the immediate hand of God, His determination, upon us – that we might believe and KNOW.
The Proving of Christ
Let me state directly what I am getting at. The proving of Christ, the absolute confidence God intends to showcase as His response to all accusation ever screamed against Him, is this. That if you look inside of you and me one hour before the resurrection of our bodies and then again one hour after the resurrection of our bodies, you will find NO difference at all. For we will be walking in absolute confidence that we are the very life of Christ revealed even while we DO NOT see. And when we do see, it will be overwhelming, yes, but no surprise at all. It will be nothing more than what we already knew to be our only reality.
As If We ARE
This session, then, is an attempt to clearly define what it means for us to walk in these present mortal bodies AS IF we are, right now, already immortal and already incorruptible, already all the revelation of Almighty God. And at the very center of that definition is the word, CONFIDENCE – with all faith! We walk by faith, not by sight.
God cannot judge the world until He has full proof in the earth that faith in His Word, knowing that what God says is true, is the only thing real to a company of people who cannot “see” anything of what they know. A people who are confident that they are Christ revealed.
Turn Around
Walk in newness of life. You see, we are simply expanding on Romans 8:30 – walk in the confidence that you ARE already glorified.
There is still way too much “going into God” in our thinking and speaking. There must be none at all. Turn around, turn around, turn around. Every step, every breath, every circumstance, every particle of our beings IS God through us now, reconciling the world to Himself – especially while we do not see. Jesus did not direct His own steps. Rather, every step of the Atonement was Jesus putting one foot in front of another, knowing that every step was inside the Love of God.
The Father’s Greatest Work
Raising Jesus from the dead was the Father’s greatest work, not ours. You and I are part of the Father’s greatest work, this resurrection Life of Jesus in which we walk ONLY if we walk in absolute confidence that resurrection is the only life we are. And that absolute confidence is parresia, speaking bold proclamations of Christ, the perfection of love – in the very Day of Judgment (1 John 4:17).
Rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you IN the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13). This grace carried to us inside our seeing Jesus for real IS the enablement of God to walk as if we are already resurrected.