A Public Disgrace

You may or may not have experienced (or at least witnessed) this in your life:

The scene is a public forum, whether one in which people are physically present or an online forum or a written publication.  Some person makes a series of accusations against another, or against a group of people.  In response to this, another or a group of others responds by revealing the accusations as false and the accuser(s) as the villains which in their heart-of-hearts they are.  OR, the accusations are dealt with.  And then, peace and prosperity - - -LIFE - - - are restored.

When you see or experience this type of thing today, it is a microcosm of what went on eons ago in Heaven, when we see Satan in the throne room of God the Father, accusing Job (Job 1:6-12), a man "upright in all his ways".  Satan has no new methods; he simply recycles his old ones.  Satan has always been the accuser of mankind and particularly of the "upright in heart".  It is his way of crowing about the fact that mankind "fell" in the Garden of Eden (as if he caused that to happen and is proud of his accomplishment).  He is not called the Accuser and the Destroyer, without reason.

Job is a "type" of the Christian, the true born-again Believer in Jesus Christ.

Today's text is Colossians 2:9-15.  Paul is describing Jesus Christ and emphasizing to believers in Jesus Christ how He not only triumphed over Satan for ever, but how he publicly disgraced him and his legions of demons.  Take a look.

9For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11In him you also were circumcised – not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. 12Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. 13And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. 14He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Paul begins by affirming the different-ness of Jesus Christ (vs. 9-10).  Although Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of God, he is not merely one of the "sons of God" mentioned in Job 1.  He is THE Son of God, "the only begotten" Son of the Father (John 3:16).  In Him ALL the fullness of the Godhead dwells in human form.
In this capacity, He is the Head over all spiritual entities including, and especially Satan.  Jesus affirms this in Matthew 28:18, where He declares that ALL authority is given to Him.

Now, jump to verses 19-20 of Colossians 2.  Satan had brought against all humankind a "certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us", a debt we as sin-enslaved humans could not pay.
Mankind was not falsely accused by Satan.  We were guilty!

It has been said (anonymously): "He came to pay a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay."  Through His substitutionary work of death, burial and resurrection, our debt is now marked "Paid in Full"!  And, in so doing, he "disarmed" all the spiritual forces arrayed against God the Father and against us.  Not only did he yank their weapons away from them, as far as we, His children, are concerned (they no longer have power over us).  He made of our spiritual enemies a public disgrace!

Do you know what I love most about this passage?  The finality of it, the indisputable, irrefutable certainty that Jesus Christ has triumphed and that our salvation as Believers in Jesus Christ as Savior is secure!
1.  Our spirits have been permanently marked "circumcised". (The thought of trying to reattach a circumcised foreskin is totally abhorrent.  It might could be accomplished, but the result would be Frankensteinian....)
2.  Our sins have been buried, drowned, to use the water metaphor that exists in the baptismal rite.
ALL of our transgressions are forgiven.  ALL.
3.  We are ALREADY raised with Christ. Remember, there is no time with God.  He sees it all, past, present, future - - - accomplished.

What a cause for celebration!  No matter your spiritual battle today, Believer, you know for whom you fight. You know that He is the Victor.  You know that your enemy is already defeated (and he knows it as well).  "What's done is DONE!"  Hallelujah to the Name Above Every Name!

Oh Thou, to whose all-searching sight...
Oh Thou in whom my soul takes delight...
Thank you for the finality of my rescue, the totality of my redemption, the certainty of my cancelled debt.  The Accuser (that old serpent!) is defeated forever.  Jesus has overcome!  In His name I pray, amen.

The Gift-Givers

This is a frightfully busy week for me, work-wise, which is why I didn't blog yesterday.  An additional reason is that, in the midst of the work-related mayhem, I wasn't up to tackling Ephesians 4:7-12, today's text.  But, I found, as the day wound on yesterday that I missed my time here in the Word terribly.  I regretted not ordering my priorities well.  Here's today's text (NET):

7But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. 8Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he captured captives; he gave gifts to men.” 9Now what is the meaning of “he ascended,” except that he also descended to the lower regions, namely, the earth? 10He, the very one who descended, is also the one who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things. 11It was he who gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ

Here's the gist of it:  Father God gave us His Son.  Then, when Jesus Christ finished the work pre-ordained by God the Father, He was given by Father certain gifts and rights.  He, in turn, gave gifts to us, the members of His Body, the Church.  Not all the gifts look the same or are the same.  He gave to each of us, at the moment of our receiving Him as Savior, the exact spiritual gifts we would need in order to build up His people and to evangelize the world.

Ok, so what is meant by all this ascending and descending?  In these words, Paul is referring back to Psalm 68.  Let's turn there and take a look.  When you read Psalm 68, a long song of praise to God for His triumphing over His enemies, you will notice that verse 18 is quite similar to Ephesians 4:8-10.  The origin of Psalm 68 is that it was written to commemorate the triumphal bringing of the ark of the covenant to Mt. Zion.

When did this occur?  It happened about 1000 years before Jesus Christ was born as a baby (incarnated).  King David had both wanted to build the first Temple in Jerusalem and also to give the ark of the covenant its permanent home there.  But, God decreed that his son, Solomon, should do this.  Solomon built the Temple and the ark was triumphantly installed there, in the Temple's Holy of Holies, where it remained for about 450 years, until the Babylonian invasion.  There it remained, high above all its foes, a symbol of the triumph of God above all His enemies.  This was the first time the Ark had had a "permanent" home.

In his commentary, Barnes1 says this:

 The fact that the ark of God thus ascended the hill of Zion, the place of rest; that it was to remain there as its permanent abode, no more to be carried about at the head of armies; was the proof of its triumph. It had made everything captive. It had subdued every foe; and its ascent there would be the means of obtaining invaluable gifts for people; Mercy and truth would go forth from that mountain; and the true religion would spread abroad, even to the rebellious, as the results of the triumph of God, whose symbol was over the tabernacle and the ark

We see Jesus Christ's triumphal ascension to the throne room of God, after His resurrection pictured in Revelation 4-5.  The Father, seated on His throne, gave to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, who has triumphed (emphasis mine) a sealed scroll.  Because of his triumph, His finished work, He began to open the seals on the scroll as the Church Age began to unfold.  We are currently approaching the Sixth Seal, which will occur with a mighty world-wide earthquake, when the Church is raptured; and, this will usher in the reign of THE Antichrist and the 7-year Tribulation period.2  But, I digress from todays' topic.

So, Father gave His  Son gifts, and the Son gave us gifts, the first of which is grace - - - grace that is offered to all, even to "the rebellious" (Psalm 68:18), should they turn and accept His offer.  Salvation is offered to every man and woman.  (It is a comfort to me that God has patience and is long-suffering toward those who, for a time, run from Him.)  In addition to that saving grace, Christ bestows on us the gift of His Holy Spirit, and through the Holy Spirit, the various "spiritual gifts".   I've written about those extensively, and won't re-plow that row here.  But, I'll put the links under Sources: below.3

Now, we come to the difficult part of this passage, if you compare it to other related passages.  By itself, Ephesians 4:8-10 seems to say that Jesus was in Heaven, was born (came to Earth), died, was buried, was resurrected and ascended back to Heaven after walking the Earth alive for about 40 days. All of that is true.  But, there are other relevant scriptures, by other writers, which add dimension to Paul's verses here.  Take your Bible and look these up:

• Matthew 12:20 tells us that Jesus was three days and nights "in the heart of the earth".  This goes beyond Joseph of Arimathea's tomb...
• Luke 16:19-28 and Luke 23:42-43 tell us that Paradise and the place of eternal fire and torment were in the same location.  Ephesians 4:9 (NIV) calls this "the lower, earthly regions". This is where the spirits of Jesus and the thief on the cross went after death.
• 1 Peter 3:18-20 tells us that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison who had caused all that mayhem that led up to the Great Flood.  This is part of His "triumph" over His enemies.4

Other sources talk about how Christ changed the entire structure of the abode of the dead with his death, burial and resurrection.  But, that is sort of controversial.  However, I'm not going there (lol!) at the moment....because all of this is plenty enough for one day!

Sources:

1  http://biblehub.com/commentaries/ephesians/4-8.htm

2  Lowe, David W. Earthquake Resurrection: Supernatural Catalyst for the Coming Global Catastrophe. Place of Publication Not Identified: D.W. Lowe, 2005. Print.

3  http://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2015/10/to-each-his-own.html
    http://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2015/10/gifts-small-and-great.html
    

4  http://heavennet.net/writings/did-jesus-go-to-hell-after-he-died/