"LORD JESUS RECEIVE MY SPIRIT"

And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And having said this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:59-60).

“Surely Stephen’s dying prayer to Jesus to receive his spirit proves that Jesus is God?”

This statement was made at a recent Bible study I was attending. The reasoning goes that since God is the Creator of our lives when dying, Stephen committed his “spirit” to the Lord Jesus. We are surely meant to conclude that Jesus’ ipso facto must be God himself! Hard to fault that logic!? Well, let’s dive a bit deeper. 

YEHOVAH IS THE GOD OF THE SPIRITS OF MEN 

Indeed, many verses say that the God of the Bible is the God of the spirits of all flesh (Numbers16:22; 27:16). And Ecclesiastes 12:7: states that at death, the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God - Yehovah who gave it. (1) 

The Psalmist prayed with confidence,” Into your hand, I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Yehovah, God of truth” (Psalm 31:5). Jesus must have held the comfort of that prayer dear for, as he drew his last breath on the cross, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, ‘Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.’ And having said this, he breathed his last (Like 23:46). 

Even the living should be conscious that our “spirits” are in God's - Yehovah's hand … All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but Yehovah weighs the spirits (Proverbs 16:2). 

These few verses are samples from many that could be used to show that it is God - Yehovah our Creator who holds our “spirits” in His loving care in both life and death. However, before rushing off to conclude that Stephen believed Jesus is God just because he asked the Lord [Yehovah] to receive his spirit in death, we need to bear a few salient points in mind. But first … 

THE HISTORICAL SETTING 

Most Biblical and secular historians place Jesus’ crucifixion either in 30 or 33 AD. Pontius Pilate was Procurator for ten years in Judea from 26 AD to 36 AD, so Stephen’s murder in all likelihood occurred towards the end of his governorship. This sets Stephen’s martyrdom in the mid 30’s AD; at most, a few short years after their official murder of Jesus of Nazareth. 

1. The word ‘spirit(s)’ carries a lot of interpretive baggage. It is not my intention here to unpack the full range of its possible meanings such as; word, attitude, breath, mind, heart, demon or angel, that which is non-material, etc. I have done that elsewhere both in They Never Told Me This in Church! and in my articles on death on this website. Obviously, each time the word spirit(s) appears its local meaning must be determined by its context. 

We may be certain, therefore, that most of the Sanhedrin and other Jewish leaders who  gnashed at Stephen with their teeth and cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears, and rushed together against him with one accord, had been the very same ones who had falsely condemned Jesus to death no more than a couple of years previously! 

Let this fact sink in that most, if not all, of the Jewish leaders who rushed upon Stephen with their killing stones, would have been the very same ‘dignitaries’ who had condemned our savior to execution under Pontius Pilate. And now, among other serious charges, Stephen holds them to account for having rejected God’s - Yehovah's Righteous One (Acts 7:52). 

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF 

Stephen’s murder at the hands of the Jewish Council of the Sanhedrin is a case of deja vu! It’s been said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, so the Sanhedrin find themselves on the same treadmill at Stephen’s defense. Groundhog Day! 

Recall how at Jesus’ momentous trial when the Sanhedrin’s false witnesses failed to secure the needed agreement to implicate him in a crime worthy of death, the High Priest then said to Jesus, “I put you under oath before the Living God - Yehovah, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God” (Matthew 26: 63). Jesus’ inspired reply was to quote the first part of the famous vision from the prophet Daniel … 

“I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64; Daniel 7:13-14). 

At this audacious claim to be the very celestial figure whom Daniel’s vision anticipated as the Son of Man, we read that then the High Priest tore his clothes and said, “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You [the entire Council of the Sanhedrin] have now heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” They answered, ‘He deserves death.’ (Matthew 26: 65-66). 

How significant. The very same Court now rejects Stephen’s testimony when he says he can see “the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:56)! Thus, Stephen effectively reverses their previous judgment upon Jesus who claimed to be the fulfillment of the Son of Man vision. The authorities had been unable to stop the persistent testimony of the first Christian eyewitnesses that God had reversed their verdict by raising His Son from the dead. So much for eliminating all talk of Jesus being God’s right-hand man! 

Note: Stephen sees this vision of the exalted Christ before they drag him out for stoning. Not a single stone has been hurled yet. He is not concussed. All of his faculties are present and highly alert. The man who had been personally chosen by the apostles of Christ because he was of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and a man full of faith and power, who did great wonders and signs among the people, has a crystal clear vision: and Stephen sees two distinct persons in heaven. 

He sees “the God” - the Greek text uses the definite article which is used of God the Father Yehovah exclusively and approximately 1,325 times in the New Testament (NT) - and he sees the Son of Man. Let the historical gravitas of this ‘Stephen moment’ truly sink in! 

JESUS’ FAVOURITE TITLE 

Jesus loved to call himself “the Son of Man”. It was his favorite self-reference. (2) But he did not pluck his favorite self-description out of thin air. It is a term rich in OT connotations. It is a term from the OT to reference a true, genuine, human being - definitely NEVER used of, or by, the Almighty God Yehovah for Himself. In fact, it is a term that contrasts One Who IS NOT God from the One Who IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD! (3) 

Apart from the lips of Jesus, and apart from the Gospel accounts, there are, for sure, only two other places in the NT where Jesus is called the Son of Man (here in Acts 7:56 and in Revelation 1:13). They both occur after Jesus had been raised from the dead, and they both testify that there is presently a glorified man in heaven at God’s right hand. 

Thus, there are at least two reasons why Stephen calls the resurrected and now glorified Jesus, the Son of Man: 

First, Stephen’s dying testimony that Jesus is the Son of Man affirms that Jesus is a real human being - not God. 

Remember when the resurrected Jesus told his confused disciples that he is “not a spirit” for, he said, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39)? Jesus was impressing upon the disciples his very real humanity before ascending into heaven. He is a glorified human being with a physical body, albeit a now immortalized body. The Bible knows only that kind of Jesus who has now entered heaven. 

Putting that in the negative: Jesus did not enter heaven as a non-material “spirit being”.

Stephen saw the same flesh and bones Jesus whom the disciples had seen taken up into heaven just a few short years earlier. Stephen saw a glorified “flesh and bones” Man – a real human being, a physical man at the right hand of God. 

He sees a glorified Jesus who has been immortalized and who will never be subject to death again. He sees the same human being who could be physically touched by his disciples after the resurrection, who walked on the seashore, who started a fire to cook some fish, and who ate some fish in front of those awe-struck disciples in Galilee (John 21:1ff). 

This fact ought to impress on us just what a high value the Almighty God places upon humanity, for Jesus’ destiny to receive and rule in the kingdom on behalf of his God is also our destiny in union with him (Daniel 7:27)! (4) 

2. The technical term for referring to oneself in the third person is illeism. When Jesus called himself the Son of man 113 times in the NT, it’s clear he loved applying this Messianic “code” to describe himself as God’s – Yehovah’s future glorified human king destined in God’s plan to rule in the coming Kingdom of God, as predicted in Daniel 7. 

3. E.G., Numbers 23;19; Job 25:6; Psalm 8:4; 80:17; 144:3; Isaiah 51:12; Jeremiah 49:18, 33; Ezekiel 2:1,3,6,8; 3:1, etc. Observe that in all of these references, the term son of man compares and contrasts the polar extremes between mortal humanity and the Eternal, uncreated God of heaven! 

In effect, Stephen announced to the Council of the Sanhedrin that the promised descendant of David had already come and gone into heaven right in front of their very eyes, but they had ignored him, missed him, even killed him, as an imposter! 

Secondly, Stephen affirms that Jesus is Israel’s promised human Lord Messiah. 

Stephen sees the Son of Man as the highly empowered human being through whom God – Yehovah will bring all of His promised purposes for mankind to ultimate fruition. Jesus now has been given universal ‘lordship’ at God’s right hand with all the operational prerogatives of God … 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). 

This is not an unforeseen development. It had been announced in the key prophetic Messianic Psalm 110 originally addressed to King David: The LORD - Yehovah says to my lord, ‘Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool’ (Psalm 110:1). 

Notice the two ‘Lords’: The LORD (Yehovah, or Adonai and never used of a mortal man or any other creature under heaven) and David’s lord (adoni - which in all of its 195 OT occurrences never refers to God - Yehovah, but always to a human superior such as a husband, a master, a king, and also occasionally to an angelic superior). 

Here, in the spirit of prophecy, the first LORD - Yehovah addresses a still future descendant of David who will sit as lord over the kingdom of God: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” On the Day of Pentecost in his first sermon the apostle Peter preached that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God had made his promise good: 

“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: 

‘The LORD - Yehovah said to my lord, Sit at my right hand …’

“Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:33-36). 

Note well how, just like Stephen, Peter sees two distinct persons in heaven … The LORD God - Yehovah raised ‘this Jesus’ to be ‘Lord and Messiah’ by seating him at His right hand of power. 

4. Contrary to popular ideas, Enoch and Elijah were never taken alive into heaven! See They Never Told Me This in Church! 

What a stupendous claim! God’s complete authority is invested in that man. No wonder, a couple of years later, the Sanhedrin again buckled big time under the weight of their own heinous crime for officially rejecting that man: They were cut to the heart and gnashed their teeth at Stephen and bundled him out for stoning for his outrageous claim! 

However, there is a further related thought that is worth considering before we answer our initial question about Jesus being God because he receives Stephen’s spirit at death. 

STEPHEN SAW THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS! 

No less a commentator than C. K. Barrett suggests that this vision was for Stephen “a glimpse of the Parousia”. (5) I think Barrett is spot on, for “the Son of Man” terminology is very often found in the Gospels when the triumphant return of Christ is anticipated. (6) 

Stephen’s dying faith was the very same faith that Jesus himself had died with, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has now sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 12: 2). Jesus died believing God - Yehovah his Father would give him the dominion and glory and a kingdom … which shall never be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14). He had often encouraged himself by meditating on Daniel’s “Son of Man'' vision, for in that vision he saw himself as the triumphant, glorified Son of Man who would receive the Kingdom of God on behalf of all God’s people. That prophetic Son of Man vision sustained Jesus in both life and death. 

In his dying breath then, Stephen was claiming to see the still future triumphant Second Coming of Jesus on the clouds of heaven. He died in faith fully expecting that when the Lord Jesus the lord Messiah returns to earth at the end of this present wicked age, the Son of Man would raise him up, along with all the saints of God - Yehovah to “eternal life”. Stephen died with the eyes of faith fixed upon the coming glory of Messiah’s Parousia! 

JUST AS JESUS HAD PREDICTED! 

We now arrive at our core question: How can Jesus NOT be God if he is the one who can answer Stephen’s prayer; “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”? 

To ask the question is to either not notice, or forget, or ignore, Jesus’ own repeated statements that he would do this as God’s fully authorized Messiah, i.e., as the Son of Man: 

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father - Yehovah has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in himself and has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:25-26). 

5. As quoted in ACTS: Understanding the Bible Commentary Series by David J. Williams, baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1990, p146

6. A few examples include Matthew 13:41; 16:27-28; 19:28; 24: 27,30,37,39,44; 25: 13, 31; 26:64; Mark 8:38; 13:26, etc. 

It is God - Yehovah who has granted and who has given authority to Jesus, to raise the dead and to judge mankind precisely because he is the Son of Man! And again, Jesus said … 

“Labour for the food which the Son of Man will give you because God - Yehovah the Father has set his seal on him … Most assuredly, I say to you … Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:27, 53-54). 

Jesus himself teaches that he is the Son of Man whom God has sealed, fully authorized, and empowered, to exercise the prerogative of raising the dead on the Last Day. Is this not just another way of saying that under God’s administration, the Son of Man holds the destiny of every human being - our “spirits” - in his hand? 

Indeed, for God now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all, by raising him from the dead (Acts 17:30-31). 

Almighty God - Yehovah is going to judge the world by His human agent and representative -- the man whom He has ordained. The lord Jesus is a real human being exercising all of his delegated powers as God’s right-hand man. This agrees with Jesus' own testimony after being elevated to heaven: “I am he who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of Hades and of death” (Revelation 1: 18). Jesus holds the eternal destiny of all peoples’ “spirits” in his hand.

In his last dying moments, when Stephen sees Jesus, the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand and prays, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”, he is dying with the conviction that Jesus is the Messiah [the anointed one] of God- Yehovah, that he is coming to judge all men (including the Jews who were right at that time rejecting Stephen’s testimony about Jesus) and that he possesses all of God’s – Yehovah’s authority to raise the dead and to determine their status in the Kingdom of God … whether they

enter with joy or are excluded with anguish and gnashing of teeth in bitterness of soul. 

STEPHEN SAW THE SON OF MAN STANDING! 

On that point, the careful reader will have observed that in his vision Stephen sees Jesus, the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Why was Jesus standing? After all, the prophecy was that the Messiah would be invited to sit at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1). After Jesus’ resurrection the NT again and again states that Jesus now sits at God’s right hand (e.g. Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3: 1; Hebrews 1: 3; 1 Peter 3:22; etc.). When Stephen was being martyred, why does he say he sees Jesus, the Son of Man standing? 

I think this is another indication that Stephen is actually seeing a vision of the future

Parousia, the Day when the Son of Man returns in the glorious power of God and of the

holy angels riding on the clouds of heaven to judge the nations. Standing is the posture of readiness to act. Sitting is a posture of rest. 

The dying Stephen sees Jesus standing, ready to act in judgment upon the nation of

rebellious Israel, which was committing a most heinous murder of Stephen, one of her finest sons. Nor is it beyond the realms of probability that every time one of his own precious sheep is being tormented and martyred Jesus stands ready to return in judgment on their behalf at his Parousia. He is not indifferent to the suffering of his body, the church. How can love sit when the beloved is suffering? 

SUMMARY 

“Surely Stephen’s dying prayer to Jesus to receive his spirit proves that Jesus is God? 

No, we actually conclude that Stephen’s prayer to Jesus that he receive his spirit does NOT prove Stephen believed Jesus was God. Stephen saw two persons in heaven. He saw “the Son of Man” at God’s – Yehovah’s right hand. Stephen saw Almighty God - Yehovah and the man whom that God - Yehovah had raised to glory from the dead! 

Stephen saw a glorified man empowered by God to exercise all the prerogatives of God – Yehovah; a man with all of God’s delegated authority for determining the destiny of every single man and woman for eternity; for he certainly will return to raise the dead and judge all mankind.

A FINAL THOUGHT ON THE DRAMA OF THE GREEK VERBS IN STEPHEN’S MARTYRDOM 

When the Sanhedrin heard what seemed to them an outrageous claim — that Jesus, the Son of Man whom they had put to death, was in fact now at God’s right hand in heaven in fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies - they acted in a murderous rage. 

Stephen was dragged out of the city. Luke the writer of the Book of Acts narrates the final dramatic climax with a remarkable economy of words. That is to say, the imperfect tense of the Greek verbs indicates that Stephen was calling again and again on the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit as they kept on pelting him with stones; until he fell to his knees and then to the ground, dead. What an example of the one who has been called “the first Christian martyr” who died, like the lord Jesus, also praying for forgiveness for his murderers! 

When our time comes to draw our last breath, may the eyes of our faith be inspired by

Stephen’s vision. May we too be found gazing intently into heaven from whence the Son of Man shall come again. For, friend, that Day is certainly hastening when the sun shall be darkened, and the moon will not give its light: when the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers of heaven will be shaken, and all will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory … (Mark 13:24-26). 

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Remember me when you come in your kingdom!” Amen. 

Written by Greg Deuble and edited by Bruce Lyon

Greg has written many wonderful articles like this one that you can read on his website: https://thebiblejesus.com/

MY FAITH STORY AND MORE

 Reckoning self as “dead indeed unto sin”

by Oswald Chambers edited by Bruce Lyon

The only one who can reckon he/she is ‘dead indeed unto sin’ is the one who has been through identification with the death of Jesus. When he has been through that moral transformation, he will find he is enabled to live according to it; but if one tries the “reckoning” business without having gone through identification with the death of Jesus, one shall find oneself deceived; there will be no reality.

When I can say, “I am crucified with God’s anointed one: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but God’s anointed one lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” (Galatians:2:20) a new page of consciousness opens before me; I find there are new powers in me. I am now able to fulfill the commands of Yehovah, now able to do what I could not do before; I am free from bondage, and the old limitations, and the gateway to new age life has been opened to me because of the sin offering the sacrifice of God’s anointed one, Jesus.

Galatians 5:1: Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith God’s - Yehovah's anointed one has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Romans 8:15:  For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Notice:

Luke 11:13: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

He says, “If you then, being evil.” Notice the significance? Why did he not say, “If we then, being evil?” He did not say it because he knew he was essentially different from them as the only perfect man.

The speaker is the son of God; not just a man who is called Jesus, but the lord Jesus God’s - Yehovah's anointed one who lived his entire life without sin. God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, the uniquely begotten son of God. He does not include himself in that “you”. But He does include the whole of mankind. “You being evil” means that we not only do evil things but that we are evil. Our natures are corrupt and evil, and those who are essentially corrupt and evil are not the children of God. That is why in the prayer to our Father we ask to be delivered from “all evil”.

Jesus speaking to the religious leader of his day says:

Matthew 12:34: O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

The following applies to all of us.

Jeremiah 17: 9: The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can understand it?

My nature before baptism/regeneration was selfish, sensual, self-satisfied, all wrong and out of order, and as a result not fully committed to obedience to the lord Jesus God’s anointed one. That was my condition for almost 50 years all the while calling myself a Christian, committing perjury before men and God - Yehovah, and lying to others before God. As Jeremiah has stated in Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? The heart is capable of great self-delusion and deception.

Jesus said: “IF any man/woman will come after me”… the condition is that he/she must leave something behind. His/her right to himself/herself.

Our cross is the sign that we have denied our right to ourselves and are committed to manifesting that we are no longer our own; we have given away forever our right to ourselves to the lord Jesus God’s - Yehovah's anointed one.

Unless the lord Jesus, God’s - Yehovah's anointed one is the lodestar there is no benefit to any sacrifice on our part. Self-denial must have springs from a personal outflowing love for our lord Jesus which will show itself in obedience to his word, the word his God and Father Yehovah gave him to give to us. We are no longer our own; we are therefore spoiled for every other interest in life except we can win men/women to the lord Jesus, God’s - Yehovah's anointed one.

The cross is the gift of Jesus to his disciples and it can only have one aspect: “I am not my own.” The whole attitude of life in following “THE WAY” is that I have given up my right to myself. I live like a crucified man in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one. Jesus made it plain that these are the conditions for following him.

It is a slander to the cross of God’s - Yehovah's anointed one Jesus to say we believe in him and then go about pleasing ourselves all the time, choosing our way to live our lives, instead of living the way of Jesus, as he said he is the way, the truth, the life, the light, etc.

Jesus said; “IF any man/woman come after me – follow me.” The word “IF” means, you don’t have to unless you want to, but you won’t be of any account to him in this life unless you do!” Wherever the spirit of Jesus is still battling around this one point – my right to myself – and until that is deliberately given over by myself to Jesus in recognition that he is my lord, I will never have the relationship with him that he asks for!

Our cross is something that comes only with a peculiar relationship of a disciple to Jesus, God’s anointed one; it is the evidence that we have denied our right to ourselves and made a full faith commitment to following him as our lord and master, realizing that we have been bought and paid for by his shed blood and as such we are not our own. It is only in him that we can become the slaves of righteousness, doing what is right according to the will of his God and our God, his Father, and our Father Yehovah.

Do you know what the third commandment is? “You shall not take the name of Yehovah your God in vain.” (Exodus 20:7) What does that mean? It is not only a question of swearing with the mouth; it is a question of swearing with the life. If you are a Christian, you are taking Yehovah's name in your life. The commandment says, “You shall not take the name of Yehovah your God in vain”, i.e., falsely or unworthily. If you take the name of the only true God - Yehovah in your life, and in your lips, and you then turn around and deny Him in your life, by your actions, you are guilty of perjury.

Nobody should take the name of Yehovah in their life or take the name of the lord Jesus upon themselves, who are not prepared to obey their words, the truth.

We must realize that we are always in the presence of God - Yehovah. Let us remember that everything in our lives and conversation is in His presence, and may indeed be the thing which will determine what others will think of Him.

Notice:

Popular teaching tells me that my sins are forgiven even if I am still enslaved to sin and my sinful nature. My sins are forgiven even if, in reality, the debt of sin is piling up, so that every day I come back to God for forgiveness: “Lord, I’m sorry I failed you, yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow.” Is this the Christian life? No!

Some Christians want to forget about sin because it is tiring to ask for forgiveness again and again, apologizing to Yehovah our God day in and day out. Shouldn’t this come to an end? Isn’t God - Yehovah tired of listening to our endless apologies? In what way does our incessant asking for forgiveness differ from the need to offer sacrifices endlessly under the Law?

Sadly, many Christians have never crossed over from the bondage to sin described in Romans 7 to the freedom from sin, available only in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one Jesus, described in Romans 8.

Sadly, many Christians identify with the description in Romans 7 as correctly portraying their failed “Christian” lives. Scripture, however, must not be interpreted according to our failures in such a way as to exonerate them. On the contrary, our failures must be examined in the light of Scripture, and our lives must be made to conform to what Scripture describes as being “Christian” or as being “in the Messiah”. That life should be one of victory not failure!

Notice a statement which the great George Muller once made about himself: `There was a day when I died, utterly died, died to George Muller and his opinions, preferences, tastes and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame of even my brethren and friends; and since then I have studied only to show myself approved unto God - Yehovah.'

The key to it all, as George Muller reminds us, is that we must die to ourselves. George Muller died to himself, to his opinion, his preferences, his likes and dislikes, his tastes, and his will. His one concern, his one idea, was to be approved by God - Yehovah.

A man must be born from above and become a new creation in the Messiah Jesus before he can live like this. No man can die to himself except he has the spirit of the lord Jesus in him, and then that man who can say, `I live; yet not I, but God’s - Yehovah's anointed one lives in me.'

That attitude of heart and mind is only possible for one who is regenerate and seeking to be renewed daily; who has received the spirit of the lord Jesus.

Examine yourself and your life, your ordinary work, the things you do, the contacts you have to make with people. Reflect for a moment upon the extent to which self comes into all that. It is an amazing and terrible discovery to note the extent to which self-interest and self-concern are involved, even in the preaching of the gospel.

Have we come to realize the extent to which the misery and the unhappiness and the failure and the trouble in our lives is due to one thing only, namely SELF?

Man, according to the Scriptures, was meant to live entirely to the glory of God - Yehovah. He was meant to love Yehovah his God with all his heart, with all his soul, looking towards God - Yehovah and seeking His honor and glory. It is the self-centered nature of man that God - Yehovah condemns. It is that self-centered nature [the self-ish nature] that is under the curse of God - Yehovah and the wrath of God - Yehovah. And as I understand the teaching of the Scriptures, holiness is deliverance from a self-centered life.

Jesus said: `I have come to do Your will, 0 God - Yehovah,' and he was wholly dependent upon God his Father Yehovah for everything, for the words he spoke, and for everything he did. The son of God - Yehovah humbled himself to that extent. He did not live for himself or by himself in any measure.

Paul says: `Let this mind be in you, which was also in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one Jesus.'

The cross of the lord Jesus is the supreme illustration, and the argument of the New Testament is this; if we say we believe in the lord Jesus and believe that he died for our sins, it means that our greatest desire should be to die to SELF and serve him in newness of life as one bought and paid for by his precious shed blood.

Jesus is the beginning of God’s New Creation, and he became a sin-offering sacrifice so that a new people might be formed, a new humanity, a new creation, and that a new kingdom would be set up, consisting of people like him. He is `the firstborn among many brethren', He is the pattern. God - Yehovah has set for us, says Paul to the Ephesians: `We are His workmanship, created in His anointed one Jesus.' We are `to be conformed to the image of His son'.

That is the life to which God - Yehovah calls us to have in the lord Jesus His anointed one and He enables us to do so by the power of His spirit and the spirit of the one who died for us, so that you and I might live it.

I have been saved = regeneration

I am being saved = renewal in mind and heart

I will be saved = the resurrection!

How do you become the son of your Father, placed in His household? By being utterly renewed, transformed! Paul says the same thing, as we have seen before in Romans 12:1-2, especially v. 2: “that you be transformed in the renewing of your mind”. Becoming a Christian is to become utterly changed.

Baptism is essential, for unless you are transformed, you are not saved.

The challenge is enormously high, but it is accomplishable only by God’s - Yehovah's power.

The lord Jesus is saying, “I want you to move into this new land, a Promised Land.” See it? We come out of Egypt, what for? To stay in the wilderness like so many Christians do? Not at all!

To enter into the new country, the new land, the atmosphere, the new area, the kingdom of God - the atmosphere of love. In there, you will find all God’s - Yehovah's promises, but only there.  So we are moving out of the old way of life dedicated to SELF, out of the wilderness of this world, and into the land of Promise.

By faith, I have entered into the land of God’s - Yehovah's promises. 

1 John 4:16 says, “So we know and believe the love God - Yehovah has for us. God - Yehovah is love, and he who lives in love lives in God - Yehovah, and God - Yehovah lives in him.”

God - Yehovah, as to His character, as to His nature, is love. And he who abides, that is, he who lives in love, who conducts his life in love lives in God - Yehovah, and God - Yehovah lives in him. 

He who lives in love will find that he is living in God - Yehovah and God - Yehovah is living in him.

Remember: that only as new creations in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one will we experience the promises of God - His saving power, new age life, age upon age lasting life!

It must always be borne in mind that those who are saved are those who “have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). And what is that purpose? It is stated in the very next sentence, “To be conformed to the likeness of His Son” (Romans 8.29).

Jesus says, “You, therefore, must be perfect, as Your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This is both a call and a command, so anyone who refuses to obey it is defiant, insisting that perfection is irrelevant to salvation.

He also says you cannot be his disciple unless you deny SELF, and hate our SELF which is how you take up your cross daily, and follow him in the newness of life. (Luke 9:23; 14:26-27).

The lord himself made it clear that “The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it” (Matthew 7:14). That is precisely why salvation is by grace, but also in this sense: that without God’s - Yehovah's empowering us, enabling us, by the His Spirit, it would be impossible for us to live the new life to which He has called us.

Is God - Yehovah truly at the center of our lives, or are we still at the center? Are we still subtly running the show; or are we allowing the Spirit of God to guide us and direct us in the way we should go?

We start with regeneration because only that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and therefore spiritual. We are made spiritually becoming a whole new person in God’s anointed one, Jesus, not by human effort or zealousness, but by God’s work of new creation transforming us. 

Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says Yehovah of hosts.

When we become spiritual, our new life will grow and develop, moving towards a definite goal: the fullness of the image and stature of God’s - Yehovah's anointed one Jesus.

Paul’s life, heart, and thoughts are all centered upon God’s anointed one, Jesus. That, according to Paul, is how perfect people think. Spiritual or inner perfection is governed and motivated not by earthly and external things but by the lord Jesus, the One who sits at the right hand of the Father, who indwells us by his spirit. If we have been crucified with God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, Jesus, we will no longer live according to our own self-centered lives, but because God’s anointed one lives in us, we will no longer look at things from a human point of view, but with the “mind of God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, Jesus” (1 Corinthians:2:16), see things from his point of view. This way of living and looking at things is what constitutes the inner perfection that derives from the indwelling Spirit of Jesus which provides us with a heart attitude centered on God.

God - Yehovah leads us, His children, at times when we are not fully aware of it. Often we only realize it in hindsight. Who are the children of God - Yehovah? They are those who are led by the Spirit of God - Yehovah (Romans 8:14).

Holiness means to be separate and distinct from this world and its carnality. Paul exhorts us to move on to the attitude of heart that Jesus had and has (Philippians 2:5), which is the essence of perfection.

Biblical perfection means one’s heart is wholly centered on God - Yehovah. His/her whole life revolves around Yehovah, not on himself/herself. His/her heart and mind are focused on Him as the goal of life.

We know that we are nowhere near the absolute perfection that we observe in the lord Jesus, who has never failed in any action whatsoever. This kind of perfection is unattainable at present, but it is what we ought to strive for until the end.

“We know that when he appears, we shall be like him;  for we shall see him as he is” (1John 3:2). Only then will we become fully like God’s - Yehovah's anointed one Jesus.

The flesh obscures the vision of God - Yehovah at present and will continue to do so until the day we will be granted to see God’s anointed one face to face and become transformed into his perfect image and likeness.

We are waiting for the transformation of the body, “the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). 

Paul’s fervent aspiration is that “I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on…” (Philippians 3:11,12). Here is an explicit link between absolute perfection and the resurrection from the dead.

So we understand that only spiritual perfection concerns us in the present time as people who have become new persons, as “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:17), in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one Jesus.

We discover that pursuing perfection leads us to walk on the “narrow road” (Matthew 7:14) on which we are called to take up our cross [deny self completely] and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24;  Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). Anyone who declines to bear his cross [deny his/her self completely] will find that he will be unable to walk this narrow road that leads to new age life and, consequently, cannot be Jesus' disciple. For so many, many years I declined!

Why is this so? Precisely because human nature with its earthly appetites, pursuits, and aspirations will oppose the call to spiritual perfection with tooth and claw because it sees its security and its interests being threatened. That is why when we become new persons in Jesus, it is absolutely necessary to settle the question of what exactly our attitude towards our earthly physical) life is going to be. Failing to do so is to court certain defeats right from the outset.

Are eternal things the main concern of our hearts? Do we look at our health, our occupation, and the like, through the eyes of a faithful steward who serves God - Yehovah as the center of his life?

The Christian life is very practical; it comes to grips with these concrete realities of everyday life. It is within the sphere of daily life that we come to experience the fact that perfection has to do with the enduring spiritual quality of our lives. That is what salvation is about.

Notice:

To have “little faith” really means a failure to realize the implications of salvation, and the position resulting from salvation. My trouble was because I did not realize to the full implications of the doctrine of salvation…..

Ephesians 1:18-19; 2:1,4-5:  ……. being enlightened;  that you may know what is the hope of Hs calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power… You He has made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins… God - Yehovah, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us…. Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with His anointed one, (by grace you are saved;) and has raised us together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in His anointed one Jesus: 

God's - Yehovah's children are destined for glory. All the purposes and the promises of God are meant for us and designed concerning us; and the one thing we have to do is just to realize what God has told us about ourselves, as His children. A man then begins to apply the logic that argues: `If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God - Yehovah by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life' (Romans 5:10).

Whatever happens to us, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, shall He not with him also freely give us all things?”

The vital thing is to see ourselves as His children.

The children of God - Yehovah had their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. There is nothing contingent about this. It was “before the foundation of the world” that we were elected (Ephesians 1:4-5). His purposes are immutable and changeless, and they envisage our eternal destiny and nothing less. This is constantly expressed in various ways in the Scriptures. “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God - Yehovah,” “separated unto God’s - Yehovah's anointed one Jesus,” “sanctified, set apart by the Spirit.” When people believe things like that they can face life in this world in a very different way. That was the secret, once more, of the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11. They understood something about the immutable purposes of God, and, therefore, whether it was Abraham or Joseph or Moses, they all smiled at calamities. They just went on because God had told them to do so. After all, they knew that His purposes would surely come to pass.

God - Yehovah never contradicts Himself, and we must remember that He is always behind, beneath, and everywhere round about us. “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

When we come to know the love God - Yehovah has for us and rest in it (1 John 4:16) our whole lives will be different.

Ephesians 3:20: He `that can do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us'.

Romans 6.17, affirms that “you became obedient from the heart” to the teaching of God’s - Yehovah's word, and as a result, you were set free from sin and became slaves of righteousness (v.18).

What does this mean? It means that obedience is the basic reality of the spiritual life because the hard reality is that everyone in this world, without any exception, is a slave. But there is good news: God - Yehovah has given every one of us the freedom to choose whose slave we will be; slaves don’t normally have such a choice. We can choose to give our allegiance to sin or to righteousness in the Messiah, to obey one or the other. This ultimately involves a choice between life and death.

What does obedience of heart mean? It means rather a conforming of our hearts to God’s heart. That is why Paul says, “Be imitators of God - Yehovah, as beloved children” (Ephesians 5:1). “Be” is in the imperative mood; it is a command or exhortation. The call to imitate God - Yehovah is issued to all who are born anew, who are regenerate, and who have God - Yehovah as Father. Every true child of God - Yehovah will not only see it as an obligation to imitate his Father with his heart but also have it as his heart’s desire to do so.

In giving His Son, “God - Yehovah was in His anointed one reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Will we follow him in reconciling the world to God - Yehovah? In the call to imitate God - Yehovah, our life mission has been marked out for us. God - Yehovah, by His example, sets before us the scope and the standard of what we are called to imitate, to reproduce in our lives, to put into practice—and it leaves us breathless!  But His Holy Spirit (pneuma, the word also means “breath”) will sustain and strengthen us as we follow Him.

In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way.” For that reason, in the book of Acts, the church or the Christian community is described as those “belonging to the Way” (Acts 9.2); while the gospel, of which the Messiah is the center, is called “the Way” (Acts 19:9,23; 24:14,22). The called-out assembly or people who live faithfully according to God’s - Yehovah's word thereby embody “the Way” in their lives.

Disciples are followers of the Way. We must walk in the way, and follow it. Salvation has to do with a commitment to follow Jesus wherever he leads. This specifically means that our lives conform to his as our way of life. Jesus is the model, the pattern, the template, according to which the Holy Spirit daily fashions us so that we will finally be fully conformed to his image (Romans 8:29). God - Yehovah saved us, put us through a new birth, and made new creatures of us precisely so that we may have His life and bear His glorious likeness. But this requires that we faithfully follow Him.

We are not saved simply by believing that Jesus died for us as a sin-offering sacrifice. He has indeed died for us, but equally important is that we die with the lord Jesus; for unless his death takes effect in me, it cannot be effective for me. To be saved and become a new person is not merely a matter of an external transaction but of an inner transformation. Jesus gave his all for us so we should give our all to him!

The Apostle declares, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is lord,’ and believe in your heart that God - Yehovah raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

Here several other important things are stated as necessary for salvation:

(1) public confession of Jesus’ lordship,

(2) believe in your heart,

(3) believe in his resurrection by God’s power. 

These words won’t mean much to us unless we identify with him by following him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In other words, we “work out” (through following him) what God - Yehovah “works in” us (Philippians 2:12,13) through our union with the lord Jesus. In the process of salvation, the outworking must necessarily follow from his in-working.

What does this “in-working” mean in experiential terms? Does it not mean that the Holy Spirit is transforming our “inner man” into the likeness of God’s - Yehovah's anointed one in every way? What does our “out-working” of it mean? Does it not mean that we, on our part, conform all our thoughts and deeds to that likeness which God - Yehovah is working in us; which is exactly what “imitating God’s - Yehovah's anointed one” means?

John epitomizes identification with the Messiah Jesus in these memorable words, “As he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

Three things are firmly linked together here:

1. perfection (of love),

2. salvation(confidence at the final judgment),

3. and identification with God’s anointed one.

Peter uses the expression “follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Where the lord Jesus takes a step, there we put our foot; when he takes another step, we follow him in that footstep too. We are inseparably associated with him in everything he does, thus learning to become like him under the teaching of God’s Spirit.

A true Christian disciple follows in the footsteps of the lord Jesus. What does Jesus require of his disciples but to imitate him? The lord bore his cross and said to us, “Come with me, go where I go, and do what I do; carry your cross as I carried mine, and thus you will be my disciple.” To follow him is to imitate him in everything but above all his attitude. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

From the first day of our Christian life, we are called to take up our cross daily [deny SELF]  (Luke 9:.23). The cross is the instrument of the death of our old person or ego, allowing us to follow the lord Jesus in newness of life, as a new person in him. The cross is the indispensable means by which God fashions us into His anointed one’s image. Being liberated from sin (justification) and being transformed into his image (i.e. renewed towards perfection) are what constitute the Christian life, and this life is a great and wonderful experience.

It costs us nothing to believe, but it costs us everything to follow and to imitate him. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John:10:27).

If the Messiah Jesus is our Shepherd (lord and savior) and we are his sheep, the question is not whether the cost of following him is too high but, rather, “What is the cost of not following him?” It is a question of surviving or perishing, of life or death. We simply cannot afford not to follow him.

We were buried together with [gr. Syn] him through baptism into death, so that as God’s - Yehovah's anointed one was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united together with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified together with him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died together with God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, we believe that we shall also live together with him [in a bond of union and identification]. (Romans 6:4-8)

If we are united with him, how can we not follow him? If we are united with him, how can we not conform our lives to him? Those who are truly united with him will certainly imitate him (conform their lives to his).

Many profess to have been Christians for a long time, yet have never experienced the reality of the new life in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one. They know they are still enslaved to the power of sin, to the self, to covetousness, to worldliness. Not having experienced the reality of the Christian life, they finally realize that they are unregenerate. Why then are they still unregenerate? Beloved, it is because they have never died with him. They haven’t been united with him in his death and therefore cannot enter into the new life in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one.

Is this true of us as it was for the lord Jesus:  “The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God - Yehovah.” “If we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” The word “likeness” here refers to our being made to imitate him in his death and resurrection.  Our old man was crucified with him; so now we are called to work out what God has worked in us; that “working out” is what imitating the Messiah means.

We thus arrive at the striking realization that salvation has to do with “imitating Jesus” from beginning to end. God - Yehovah our Father began that salvation process in us, and will complete it in us when He brings us to final perfection through the lord Jesus. Now we see why Jesus is called “the author and perfecter of faith” (Hebrew:12:2).

For our part, although we cannot die Jesus' death, we can die “in the likeness of his death”. What does that mean? Just as he died to sin (v.10), so we die to sin. In this way we share in the likeness of his death to sin; it is a death to sin like his.

The counterpart to “the likeness of his death” is “the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans:6:5). His resurrection is what makes the new life not just a possibility for us, but a reality in us. Dying with him is not an end in itself but the doorway into the new life in God’s anointed one. In this new life, we are like God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, in that the life we live we live to God (Romans:6:10).

Faith commitment that doesn’t respond in total obedience to the lord’s call is not a faith commitment that leads to new age life. If we die with God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, our lives won’t be the same. Our relationship with the world will change beyond recognition. Believing by itself changes nothing. Following God’s - Yehovah's anointed one will change everything. Identifying with God - Yehovah's anointed one in his death and his life will turn your life upside-down. It will sever your link to the world. You will view the world with different eyes. To be “in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one” always refers to life, the new life in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, which will be brought to its full consummation at the Resurrection (1 Corinthians:15:22). God - Yehovah won’t finish His work in us until He has changed us so completely that we won’t recognize ourselves! If we have died with God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, we now live in him, and experience the power of the resurrection life as we “walk in newness of life” (Romans:6:4).

The true Christian, the one who lives in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, follows him and models himself on him, imitating his holiness, his mercifulness, his wisdom, his single-minded focus on his mission, and his communion with the Father. He patterns his whole life on the Messiah Jesus and follows in his footsteps from the first step to the last. That first step is to walk into the grave, into death, having been crucified with him.

The command to be perfect is a call to be like God - Yehovah's anointed one, to follow in his steps, and to identify with him in every aspect of our lives. It is a call to take up our cross [denial of self] and follow him daily (Luke 9:23) Day by day the cross [death to SELF] will transform our thinking. We are being made conformable to his death (Philippians 3:10). As a result we experience his power and victory in our Christian lives. We will follow the lord Jesus day by day, learning to think his thoughts, and going in the direction of his spirit as he leads us. We learn to do all things with the salvation of others in mind, for Jesus died not for himself but for others.

If we have not died with the Messiah Jesus, we cannot avoid being the center of our own thinking. But when we imitate him, he will be the center of our thinking. That is why we look to Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). The purpose of looking to Jesus is to imitate him and the pattern of his life. As we progress towards perfection, our focus will move away from ourselves to God, the Father of the lord Messiah Jesus. If we are still the focus of our own lives, then we are still unregenerate. But if we focus on God - Yehovah in all things, remarkable things will take place in our lives. When we forget about ourselves and focus on the Messiah Jesus as the pattern of our lives, amazing things will happen; we will experience God’s - Yehovah's work in us and through us to others. We now pursue a goal that transcends ourselves. If we follow Jesus' example, living for the sake of others, our lives will be focused.

It is in that focusing on him that we are being changed into his image by God’s power. Moreover, imitating Jesus keeps him in the center of our hearts and minds constantly. “If any man is in God’s - Yehovah's anointed one, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Quotes from “Becoming a New Person” by Eric Chang. Edited by Bruce Lyon

God’s salvation is not unconditional. It is conditioned on obedience to the truth.

Hebrews 5:9: being made perfect, he became the author of age upon age salvation unto all them that obey him.