Moles Versus Butterflies

Wed Jun 10 13:32

I was reading this that you wrote in an email...

There is only one thing for you to do with yourself. You must grab your eyeballs by the shirt collar and place the seeing of yourself entirely IN Jesus. That is where you are, but you must see that is where you are. By you, I mean all of you, your humanity, your propensity to blow it, your flesh, your sin. When you look at yourself and see SIN, you are actually seeing Jesus – dead upon the cross. Did He not become your sin? And having become your sin, did He not die?

Christ became sin and died in my place... but there is still sin in my physical body correct? If sin is a done issue and his spirit is one with mine how can I still sin?

Wed Jun 10 23:27

I read the below also at your site and it made a lot of sense ..................

God has given us the continued presence of sin, not that He might be displeased with us. That is a completely Satanic understanding of where we stand. God has given us the presence of sin in our bodies that we might have the awesome privilege of fighting it with Jesus, of defeating it with Jesus. So we might share in the battle He fought, so we can share in His victory, so we can share in His glory.

You cannot know glory unless you know victory and you cannot know victory unless you know the fight. You can be handed something on a silver platter; you can be handed all the wonders of heaven, but none of it is glory unless you share in His fight. That is where we stand.

Great series... thanx for writing it...

Joe

Hi Joe,

I read your question last night and have thought about it since.  I was going to recommend you read through my What Is Man series, but I see that you have done that.

Whenever one is asked a question such as yours - [Christ became sin and died in my place... but there is still sin in my physical body correct?  if sin is a done issue and his spirit is one with mine how can I still sin?] - ,  first, a theology answer comes to mind.  That's why I wait to answer because no matter how 'logical' theology might sound, it's always full of holes when you're addressing the gospel, mostly because it's not Jesus.

What is sin?  I really don't know.  I know I was part of a group that over-emphasized such Old Testament passages as "Search me, Oh God, and see if there be any wicked way in me."  And so the Christian life became an introspection, sort of like 'whack-a-mole', an endless attack against something that never stops popping up.

On the other hand, Christ in me does not become a psychological mind game in which I 'pretend' that I have no sin.

I believe that Paul teaches us that there is still sin in our bodies, (but not in our hearts) nevertheless, the body is still the temple of the Holy Spirit and holy and presentable to God.  At the same time the 'works of the flesh' Paul says are evident.  That means that we don't look at every shade of 'feeling' we go through and call it 'flesh.'  "Works' of the flesh are stuff like adultery, etc.

However, here is how we deal with 'sin.'  By living in the thinking at all times that the blood is greater than any sin.  And that the one who did that sin is already dead.

I don't live in the consciousness of being without sin by a mental game, I live there because I know that the blood is greater.  I acknowledge that there is still sin in my body and that upon occasion, I may ask someone for forgiveness, including the Lord.  But I do not claim that sin as 'mine.'  I am severely disconnected from it by the cross.

I am convinced that this victorious way of thinking is the center of Rev. 12:11, by which we defeat the evil one.  Right now we celebrate the moment of the complete removal of all aspects of sinfulness and everything that comes with it as if it has already happened, even though we don't see it with our eyes.  That's what it means when Paul says that God always leads us in triumph.  We always exult boastfully in that final win of Christ in us, such that we 'see' nothing else.

Again, our being one spirit with the Lord does not come out of psychological mind games, but out of very real Blood, out of a very real Cross, and out of a very real Resurrection.  In the spiritual assault against our minds that we will yet undergo, that is the only unshakable foundation.

There is something about 'fighting' that is holy and powerful and of God.  A butterfly still encased in its cocoon is perfect and beautiful, but it has two problems.  First, the life that is in it has not spread to every part of that beautiful body, rather, it is in the core of the butterfly, in its 'spirit' you might say.  Second, the butterfly is still encased in a cocoon.  That cocoon is the only thing visible and it prevents and constrains the butterfly in every way.

But here's the trick of God.  God has ordained that the cocoon problem be the solution to the life problem.  By that butterfly struggling to throw off the cocoon, the life that is deep inside it is drawn out into every part of its being.  By the time the outer shell is cast off the butterfly is fully alive.

So it is with us.  God has left us encased in this outer shell.  The shell is not me the same as the cocoon is not the butterfly.  But I cannot soar in the heavenlies in all that I am created to be, first, because I do not fully know the extent and meaning of the life that is in my spirit, and second, because I am still encased in this outer shell of a dying body.

The people who live the 'whack-a-mole' version of the Christian life imagine that by getting rid of the moles popping up, they become pleasing to God and then they can know 'Christ.'   Once that final mole is whacked, then they will be introduced to all that Christ is.  They see the 'moles' as themselves and "Christ" as someone else.

We come from the opposite approach.  We first know Christ.  Christ as He is in me, first as me, in all of my weakness, and second as Himself in all of His power.  Then, it is His power in my weakness, filling every part of my humanity, that casts off that outer shell.  When that happens, His life will already be all that I am.  It already is.  The cocoon is there only so that I will come to fully know what already is. But the cocoon is not 'me' in any way.

Fight.  Fight from faith.  Fight from victory.  Fight to see Him in you as you in your weakness at all times.

Fighting is good, but only if it is a fight from full and complete confidence and rejoicing, rooted utterly in the profound depths of the blood of Jesus Christ.

May the Lord bless you,

Answering your question is as much a help to me right now as I hope it is to you,

Daniel

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