Should You Be In Agreement Part 2? Render Common, Becoming Reprobate

Last month I talked about how God will manifest Himself to us. The Bible speaks of the Godhead and we know that within the Godhead are three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Acts 17:29; Romans 1:20). We also know according to Acts 17:30-31 that God is not winking at ignorance concerning who He is and is calling man to repent of all wrong beliefs and notions.

Each person of the Godhead has the same divine nature or characteristics but will manifest themselves in different ways. When it comes to the Father, He is Spirit and has no form; therefore, He manifests Himself in light of relationship of being a Heavenly Father to us. We know all good gifts come from the Father and that He is forever extending His love towards us because He desires a relationship with us. However, that love is only available through the work of redemption that was wrought on an old rugged cross (John 3:16-18; 5:37; James 1:17; 1 John 3:1).

This brings us to the question of how does the Son and the Holy Spirit manifest themselves? Another question we must ask, is how important is it for us to ensure the integrity of the Biblical presentation of all three persons of the Godhead? The answer is simple it has to do with their glory and work. The main work of all three persons of the Godhead is reconciliation (Ephesians 2:15-18; Colossians 1:20). The foundation of that pattern was established up front by the Heavenly Father who desires a relationship with us as His children, but there can be no relationship without reconciliation.

Man was separated from God by sin and that sin had to be addressed. This is where Jesus comes into the picture. He is the one who established the bridge and ministry of reconciliation through His death for our sin, was buried with them in a grave, and rose up in newness of life leaving the old behind. We are told in John 1:29 that He is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. The symbol of the Lamb points to Jesus being our Passover Lamb, which also points to His work of redemption that was accomplished on the cross. The sacrifices of animals only made atonement or temporarily covered sin until the next sin, but the only one who could present the perfect, acceptable sacrifice that would take away sin forever was God and the only one who could satisfy His holy Law was God (Isaiah 53:4; 59:2; Romans 5:6-10; 6:23; 1 Corinthians 5:4-7; Hebrew 5:1; 10:4-24).

This required God to take on humanity in order to not only suffice the judgment of His holy Law, but to establish Himself as High Priest and mediator who would effectively stand between God and man until all was reconciled (Romans 10:4; 2 Corinthians 5:18-19; 1 Timothy 2:5). Think about it: The Creator of all became lower than the angels in order to take on the likeness of man to die in our place as a means to suffice the condemning judgment of death required by God’s just law. To be such a lamb that God would present on our behalf, Jesus had to be perfect in every way (Hebrews 2:9, 14-18; 1 Peter 2:21-24). This meant that He had to come outside of man and miraculously be inserted into our midst. This happened with His miraculous conception as recorded in Luke 1:26-35. (See also Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6-7)

So how did Jesus manifest Himself? Colossians 2:9 tells us “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Jesus did not come from the first Adam. He was not born according to man’s will but was sent by the Father; inserted miraculously within humanity through a virgin birth; therefore, becoming the second Adam, the first fruits of a new creation. As the God/Man, fully God and fully man, Jesus was in step with the Father’s will, in line with His plan of redemption, and executor of it to serve as the way to reconciliation (John 1:13; 1 Corinthians 15:20, 23, 45-49; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21).

The greatest attack Jesus receives against His person and work is leveled at His deity. Rather than being presented as God, Creator is proclaimed by John 1:1-5 and Colossians 1:15-20. He has been morphed into mere man, a created being such as the brother of Lucifer of the Mormon faith, Michael the Archangel of the Seventh Day Adventist persuasion, a New Age way-shower, a mere prophet as purported by Muslims or a good old boy put forth by The Shack and one who has to ask a man such as Matthew about a matter as portrayed in The Chosen.

For the Father, He is often “the man upstairs,” but for Jesus He fits in with the elite, the CEO of His kingdom, the best athlete or entertainer, and even among cartoon heroes who are superhuman. He can be adjusted enough to make Him completely human, prone to be entangled with all fleshly limitations and temptations. It is true He was tempted in every way but He did not sin, did not waver, and never sought man for advice and help (Hebrews 4:15). He is often made to stand out in popular ways to be made acceptable to the present generation, but each presentation is stripping Him of His deity. For the Father, when you strip Him of His glory in your mind, you have profaned Him and eventually you will not retain knowledge of Him and you will end up with a reprobate mind (Romans 1:20-28). Reprobate means “useless,” and a person who gives way to that which is useless will be given up to do as they will, which means there is no drawing from the Father, no conscience to bother them and no Holy Spirit to convict them of their sin so they will be inclined or see their need to be reconciled back to God through the cross of Christ.

When it comes to stripping Jesus of His deity, rendering Him to be nothing more than mere man, is to make Him common. A common Jesus is a false Jesus who is unable to save a person and will serve as a point of blasphemy when compared to the real Jesus. To possess a false Jesus is to end up with a reprobate faith. 2 Corinthians 13:5 states, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” To have a reprobate faith simply means you have another Jesus and that what faith you have towards this false Christ is useless because you do not believe in the one and only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

When it comes to the Holy Spirit, He is often presented as what we know to be the Hindu God of forces as mentioned in Daniel 11:38, a religious notion or concept that has no real personality and distinct work. When it comes to His work, it is often ignored, shunned, mocked, or abused such as when He is accredited with activities such as fleshly worship, or demonic false anointings or signs and wonders. The reason I mention the work of the Holy Spirit is because that is how He manifests Himself. These works produce precious fruit, but He is often stripped of His glory because He is rendered into a non-person who has no personality even though He can be vexed, grieved, quenched, and even lied to and tempted as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11 (Isaiah 63:10; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19).

Although the Spirit only does what He is told from the throne of God, He has a will when it comes to distributing His gifts and works according to the Father’s design. His works are represented by forms such as the breath of God that brings new life, a gentle dove who comes from above to identify Jesus, Living Waters that revive, regenerate, and revive; as winds that can refresh or judge; as an unseen teacher who leads to all truth about Jesus, along with being the oil that anoints God’s servants, priests, and temples; the Comforter that enfolds, and the cloud that leads by day and the pillar of fire that protects at night. However, He will never take on a form such as man or as an Asian woman as in the presentation put forth in The Shack, for there is only one person of the Godhead who will manifest Himself as man, and that is Jesus Christ, the Son of man (Exodus 14:24; John 1:32-34; 3:3, 5; 7:37-39; 14:26; 16:13; Acts 2:1-7; 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; 1 John 2:27).

It is also important to point out there is only one place of agreement for believers and that is on Jesus Christ, the only sure foundation. However, to bring forth that agreement, the Holy Spirit of unity must be present. Without the Spirit there is no place of fellowship in which others can walk in spiritual agreement, and without agreement there is no power to confirm a matter or touch heaven (Amos 3:3; Matthew 18:19-20; Ephesians 4:3-13).

We know that when we render the Father into a mere common image of His creation stripping Him of His glory in our minds, we will end up with a reprobate mind. When we render Jesus into mere man by stripping Him of His deity, we end up with a reprobate faith, but when we strip the Holy Spirit of His personality, rendering Him into a mere force or notion, we end up with reprobate works (Titus 1:15-16). This means our religious pursuits, activities, service, and worship are all useless to, and before, God.

To accredit the Holy Spirit’s works to the flesh or the devil is blasphemous. And, to accredit any works of the flesh and Satan to the Holy Spirit is blasphemous and both will be unforgiveable because we are in essence profaning the holy or accrediting the profane as being holy. To embrace the unholy proves we lack discernment and do not know how to test the spirits (Matthew 12:25-32;1 Corinthians 2:10-14; 1 John 4:1).

The question is simple, can we as believers come into any agreement with that which renders any of the three persons of the Godhead common or profane?