davidbowerkingwood

A New Beginning!

Last time we considered the wonder of the incarnation of the Son of God; the eternal creator, the second person of the Trinity, who became joined with a human body forever at the First Advent becoming the Second Adam. We now had  been given a Kinsman/Redeemer who was qualified to redeem mankind from the penalty of sin incurred when the first Adam disobeyed God.

A wondrous change had taken place where the creator joined with the creation in a union described as the “Doctrine of Kenosis.” At no time before in the history of creation had such a thing happened but that was just the beginning of all that God had planned!

In my essay “But What about your Crucifixion” I wrote: “Christianity is not primarily about what you do, it’s all about what was done to you; God’s relationship to mankind focuses on two men, Adam and Christ; in Adam you died, in Christ you can live.”

Something has been done, You have been Transformed!

When you were born again by faith in the Second Adam you were indwelt by God, the Holy Spirit, and transformed for all of time and eternity at a spiritual level; while none of this change was visible to the human eye it is eternal in consequences! The Lord Jesus Christ appeared as an ordinary man to those who saw him; his deity was hidden from view. With one brief exception the concealment of the divine would be continued in the Church Age; in Acts 2:1-4 we read:

“2 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.”

After this momentary display of divine power, those indwelt by the Holy Spirit resumed a completely normal appearance. One more time an exceptional occurrence was to take place and that is described in Act 10:44-48 where it is written:

“44 Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. 45 The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, too.”

While there is no reference to tongues of fire appearing on the Gentiles, God’s message was clear, the New Covenant was to be made with both Gentiles and Jews and so it has continued throughout this age of grace, the Church Age.

The New Descendants of the Second Adam!

I continue to marvel over the magnificence of the change that took place; God, the Holy Spirit, making His home in each new believer who receives Christ as personal Savior! The presence of the divine in each Christian was  to be concealed just as it was concealed in Christ. There was to be no visible evidence of this astounding change which created a new type of human being for which there had been only one previous example, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Born again Christians were being conformed to Christ, the “Second Adam,” in a most phenomenal way; they “possessed a full undiminished human nature and a full undiminished divine nature, which were not combined or confused into some new nature but were added to each other forever (yet remaining distinct) in the one person.” That, brother or sister in Christ, is a description of you!

Next time, more on God’s relentless determination and a not so small problem.