“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or imagine according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever… There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all… and he gave gifts to men…, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, [The finished (teleion) man] The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (From Ephesians 3 & 4)
A while back, I watched a little religious TV. The preacher was and is probably one of the most popular preachers in America today. His church building is a former sports arena. He was talking about each person needing to imagine his or her own future, to imagine himself or herself as “blessed, prosperous, and happy,” like he had imagined that successful Church. Then He said, “The book of Genesis says, ‘And nothing they imagined was impossible for them.’”
I looked up the word “imagine” in Genesis 1, in the King James Version. The word “imagine” appears three times in the King James Version. The first two, God is referring to the fact that, “the imagination of man is only evil from his youth.” The third time (which this pastor was quoting) described the builders of the tower of Babel. But do you know what that story reveals?
Because nothing they imagined was impossible for them,
Because they imagined nothing but evil, death, and Hell,
Because they imagined, “their tower was salvation,”
Because they imagined, “they were salvation,”
God came down and destroyed that tower and scrambled all their languages.
And it appears that is why He kicked that first Adam and Eve out of the Garden at the fall: they had imagined they could create themselves, in the image of God with the “knowledge of good and evil.” They had imagined “I am salvation.” So they could no longer imagine “God is salvation.”
I hope you know that the phrase “God is salvation” is (Yahweh, Yasha,) a name in Hebrew Yahashua. In English, that name is “Jesus.”
Paul teaches us in several places that Jesus is the last Adam,
The Eschatos Adam,
The Finished Adam,
The Perfected Adam,
The Ultimate Adam.
Eschatos Adam means “Super Man.”
Jesus is called, “The finished Adam;” “the firstborn of all creation,” “the firstborn from the dead,” which means, before Christ, none were fully created and all were dead…
The first Adam imagined, “I am Creator,” “I Am Salvation,” and died.
The Eschatos Adam is named “God is Salvation.” Paul wrote, “The last Adam became a Life Giving Spirit.”
Paul writes, “Put on the New Man, created (as if we aren’t created,) created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. In Romans Paul quotes Isaiah, “None is righteous, no not one.” In the Revelation, all the new creation sings, “You alone, oh Lord are holy.” The “New Man” that Paul is talking about is a God-man. He has been created and finished. We are like, not created-not finished. Yet, in Ephesians 1:4, Paul told us that we were “chosen in Him before the foundation of the world,” to be finished, holy and righteous.
Well,
We cannot imagine “God is salvation” because we imagine “we are salvation.”
We cannot imagine Jesus because we imagine ourselves.
We imagine that we are finished, that we are already fully created. We imagine that we are the end.
But according to Paul and the New Testament, Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead is the syntelious: He is the full end and perfection of the ages. Jesus is the edge of time and eternity. Jesus said, “I am the End” And yet, the End was revealed to us in 33 AD.
The End was revealed on the cross, as Jesus cried, “It is finished.” The Eschatos Adam, cried, “It is finished,” as He hung on a tree in a garden on the sixth day. He is “The Life” and He is the revelation of “The Good.”
At that tree, we come to know “The Good.” At that tree, we receive life. No man is completed in the image and likeness of God until He is finished in Christ through the cross and enters God’s rest-the Seventh Day… when and where everything, everything is good and nothing is evil.
To confess Christ is:
To surrender your own creation to God’s creation. It’s to surrender your ego and confess Jesus.
It’s to surrender, “I am salvation” and confess, “God is salvation.”
It’s to surrender the old man and put on the New Man.
It’s more than I could ever ask or imagine because He’s my new imagination.
It’s more than I can “choose” because He is my “new chooser.”
It’s more than I can simply will because it’s His will.
It’s His Faith, rising in me, that saves me, creates, and finishes me in the image of God.
Paul wrote, “The last Adam became a Life Giving Spirit.”
Without the gift of His Spirit, we imagine only evil. We imagine only ourselves, our kingdoms, our towers. We imagine hell and we are stuck there in space and time.
But with His Spirit, we begin to imagine Life. We begin to imagine “God is Salvation,” who is Jesus, the Eschatos Adam-the Super Man.
This devotional was prepared by Kimberly Weynen, Peter Hiett’s assistant. It is primarily a compilation of excerpts from Peter’s sermon titled “Body Building (The Nuts and Bolts)” & a few devotional thoughts from Kimberly. To read, watch or listen to the sermon in its entirety click here: Body Building (the Nuts and Bolts)
*For discussion questions click here: 2.17.2013 Discussion Questions