Ordained by His Word
As for Jude 1:4; For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. The ordination of all men is contained in the word of God and not in man. It is His word that is ordained to perform His will in the earth. Men who hear and are obedient to His word are ordained to be glorified in it. Those who refuse to hear and are disobedient to His word are ordained to destruction. Man’s response to the word determines what he’s ordained to become. If this were not so, Christ’s admonish to hear would be pointless.
Therefore its the hearing of wisdom that leads us to Christ and the refusing to hear that keeps us under condemnation. Even as it is stated in Matthew 13:15-16, For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
The wicked and the righteous are both framed by the same Word of God. Whether men hear and receive God’s Word or they close their ears in resistance determines what vessel they become. The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil (Proverbs 16:4). Although the LORD made the wicked man, He did so by introducing him to His Word. In the turning of his back to God’s Word the wicked man’s heart began and continued in the hardening process. By God’s good will was man created upright and by His acceptable will he became wicked. Whether upright or wicked, God takes credit for both, for His word is the source of all things; I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things (Isaiah 45:7).
Deuteronomy 30:19 states, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. Yet because of our carnal nature we all failed to choose life and instead pursued our own way unto death, even as Paul stated in Romans 7:10, And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
From Soul to Spirit
Man, created as a living soul, is sustained by the Word of God in the same manner as the rest of creation (Hebrews 1:3). God’s intent however is for man to become a self-sustained son of the living God, even as John 5:26 speaks of; For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. That life was administered to Adam hidden within the commandment. That life is the nature of the intent in which the commandment was given. That intent was for man to consent to a relationship with the Almighty using his free will that was given him by the commandment. Yet Adam through his disobedience resisted it’s conception and started down the path of corruption leading to destruction. The Word of God is His Seed and contains the Life of His intent, which is His nature or His Spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:47 declares; “The first man is of the earth, earthy.” Romans 7:14 states that the law is spiritual. Paul tells us in 1Corinthians 2:14; “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Adam subjected man to a natural carnal state, which blinded him to the things of the spirit. Christ, However came to transfer mankind into a spiritual state. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life (John 5:24). The commandment was a covenant that provided the means to initiate man’s will and establish a relationship between God and man. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
The commandment is the Truth and the intent contained therein is the Spirit (or nature) that empowers one to perform it. Adam, being a living soul, lacked his own internal inspiration (nature) to fulfill the commandment (truth). Yet that nature he lacked was given within the very commandment Adam rejected. Therefore God’s relationship with man remained a relationship between the Creator and His creation rather than between Father and Son.
Adam fell from his calling to be a son by his disobedience. Therefore Christ Jesus was sent to redeem man through His obedience to His Father’s will. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous (Romans 5:19). Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him (Hebrews 5:8-9). Whereas Adam failed in disobedience to God, we can overcome by our obedience to Christ, Who restored our calling to become sons.
Although the way man has chosen is contrary to God’s Truth, God is sustaining him by His mercy during this time of His acceptable will, until His perfect will is revealed, “Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). How could man be the image of an immortal and incorruptible God without first overcoming corruption and mortality? Such an endeavor is impossible for man to achieve, As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10).
Therefore this task has not been subjected to man’s ability to accomplish but upon God’s impossibility to lie. For God who cannot lie has promised before the world began everlasting life (Titus 1:2). And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent (John 17:3). For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure (1 John 3:2-3). For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest (Hebrews 8:10-11). This is worth stating again; this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ (John 17:3).
The Dawn Upon Us
When the Standard of Truth is revealed to this world, then there will be a transition from God’s acceptable will into His perfect will. In this coming age there will be nowhere to hide from the Truth, for the Truth will dwell among the nations of this world as the corporate body of Christ, His firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:23). For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them (Revelation 9:6). For the knowledge of the Lord is not death but Life eternal.
There will be no more need for the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors or teachers in this coming age called Tabernacles. For unto the angels (messengers) hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak (Hebrews 2:5). For the Lord will be present within His saints who illuminates His visitation upon the world. Even as stated in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; WHEN HE SHALL COME TO BE GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed ) in that day.
Peter described in 2 Peter 3:10, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. This will be the baptism of fire which John spoke of in Matthew 3:11. For our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). This is when those who know not God come to know Him in a sudden manner. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape (1 Thessalonians 5:3).
The Apostle Paul refers to this same purifying fire (truth) in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Fire consists of heat, fuel and oxygen which is the spirit (oxygen) administrating truth (heat) to the flesh (fuel) or in other words, God visiting His people.