There is nothing comprehensive about
this Paper. Rather, it is a mild exhortation, expressing a deep and serious
heart-plea.
In general, the Church today (and
since Paul’s Homegoing) is characterized and dominated by one man, and his
name is Adam. The Church has rightly chosen the Saviour for her justification
from the penalty of sins and her reconciliation to God (Rom. 5:9-11), but she
is wrongly seeking to live the Christian life by the first Adam.
As always, there is a doctrinal
reason for this tragedy. The leadership of the Church has failed to take her
beyond substitution--beyond Romans Five (vs. 11). But substitution
is no substitute for identification! From Romans 5:12 the Word speaks of
our identification with the two Adams, both of whom are involved in the
Church, and therefore in the believer's daily life and walk.
The first man, the first Adam, is the
fallen head of the thereby fallen human race. He has been judicially condemned
and crucified at the Cross, including the race he has spawned. "As in
Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22a).
God's Second Man, His Last Adam, His
Beloved eternal Son, is Head of His Body, the Church--which is composed of the
new-creation race of Christians. "In Christ shall all be made
alive" (1 Cor. 15:22b).
The scriptural key to the life of the
Church is Paul’s admonition, "Study to show thyself approved of God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of
truth" (2 Tim. 2:15).
On the basis of this central truth
Dr. Charles Ryrie correctly wrote, "The essence of
Dispensationalism is the distinction between Israel and the Church" (Dispensationalism
Today, p. 47).
But Dispensationalism, from seminary
to layman, has failed to maintain this vital biblical distinction. Slowly but
surely, Israel and the Church are being "exegeted" closer and closer
together, and that by means of Israel’s New Covenant, and Synoptic kingdom
(and Sermon) teaching.
The heavenly Church is brought down
to Israel’s earthly level, and it is as though Paul had never written
Galatians, to say nothing of Ephesians. The main cause of this shameful
dethronement of the Bride is the relentless pressure of, and even
collaboration with, Covenant theologians.
An official of Ligonier Ministries
(The Teaching Fellowship of R. C. Sproul) wrote last week:
As for the coming New Geneva
Bible, the general editors are: Dr. R. C. Sproul, Dr. Ed Clowney, Dr. J.
I. Packer, Dr. Roger Nicole, Dr. Bruce Waltke, Dr. James Boice, Dr. Moises
Silva, and Dr. Luder Whitlock.
There are a number of contributing
editors [Dr. John MacArthur?], each assigned a specific book (or books) of
the Bible according to their particular area of interest and acumen. The
publisher will be Wolgemuth & Hyatt, and the expected date of
availability is the Fall of 1992.
This Study Bible is designed to
counter the great influence of the Scofield Reference Bible. This
will be the Reformed (Covenant) Reference Bible, making popular the
views of Reformed Covenant theology.
This coming weekend (Oct. 24-27) Dr.
MacArthur is to be the featured speaker at a large Ligonier Ministries
conference, in San Diego. As far back as five years ago, during a taped
lecture series at Geneva College, Dr. John Gerstner stated:
It looks as if John MacArthur is
getting out of the vine (Dispensationalism). He has a very special place in
my heart. He is a man of real ability, and he is one of the
dispensationalists who, in my opinion, is realizing the burden of that
doctrine.
And I think he is trying to get out
of it. I am only mentioning this because this is essential to the
dispensational way of thinking, and John MacArthur, as far as I know, is
getting as far out of that as any person who can still be called a
dispensationalist is out of it--but not all the way yet.
Some time ago a pastor wrote:
Being a Dallas grad, I have a
number of faculty friendships, two of whom are presently in my SS class.
Having sounded out these professors concerning this very serious
dispensational problem, I can assure you, brother Miles, that you are
probably too late to influence the direction of Dallas Theological Seminary.
More recently (yesterday) a pastor
stated in a letter, "There are those of us traditional dispensationalists
out here on the battle front who have grown weary of trying to be
'missionaries to the institutions."'
Dr. Ryrie's essence of
Dispensationalism (held by all traditional dispensationalists), that of
keeping Israel and the Church separate, has proven to be inadequate in the
face of Covenant theology. The doctrinal foundation has not been laid deep
enough. (Essence: "Inward nature--true substance.")
What the Church in general, and
Dispensationalism in particular, have stopped short of, or in some cases run
blindly over, is the quintessence of the rightly divided Word, i.e., the
doctrine of the two Adams! (Quintessence: "The most perfect
manifestation or embodiment of a thing.")
Classic Pauline Dispensationalism is
based upon the division of life, not simply that of economies. Once
that total separation of the two seminal lives is seen and maintained, the
economies will never coalesce.
The Last Adam is the very Life and
Head of the Church. Every member of that Body is heavenly, one spirit with
Him. Israel is not, nor will she ever be, in Christ. The Church will be
completed, a totally exclusive organism, at the Rapture. The nation of Israel
will be forever kingdom-oriented under the reign of her King. She will have
life from Christ, but not the life of Christ.
It is not essential
to know whether Israel will be in or outside of the first Adam. But
what is absolutely essential is to know scripturally that Israel is not, nor
will she ever be, in Christ. No matter how close she will be to Him as
her King, she will never know Him as her Life and Head. She will ever be in a
position of subservience to Him, never in that of oneness of life and nature
in Him.
Traditional or
contemporary dispensationalists who would to any degree equate the Church and
Israel, or lower the heavenly Body to Israel’s level on earth, have missed
the quintessence, the life-factor.
What dispensationalist, who knows who
and where he is in Christ at the Father's right hand, would ever to the
least degree relate himself to the earthly kingdom Jew? Or seek to draw the
heavenly Church down to that earthly level?
Several months ago a long-time doctor
friend wrote:
I don't think these contemporary
dispensational leaders really understand what classic Dispensationalism is
and what it really means in all aspects of grace. I suspect that the reason
is because they simply have little or no personal experience with the
identification truths, and what sanctification means in the dispensation of
grace.
Since the death of Pauline
dispensationalists such as Dr. Chafer, Dr. McCarrell and others, the
teaching of the Word of God from a purely dispensational position has
floundered. No one that I know of in the Chicago area preaches
identification truth and sanctification as you so clearly describe it.
Keep the two Adamic lives separated
as far as heaven is from earth, and there will be no affinity between Israel
and the Church, law and grace, heaven and the earthly kingdom.
Some brief nomenclature may help to
bring out the necessity of rightly dividing the two Adams, hence Israel and
the Church.
FIRST ADAM--IMAGE OF
GOD -- "And God said,
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "So God created
man in His image, in the image of God created He him" (Gen. 1:26,27).
Ruth Paxson makes it clear as to what
God's image in Adam consisted of:
Adam was made in the image of God
in the sense of a personality patterned after God's ability to think
(intellect), to love (emotion), and to will (volition) (Life
on the Highest Plane, p. 27).
It must be understood
that regardless of what God's image amounted to in Adam, it was not the
ultimate image in which He was to create man. Adam was but a type,
"...who is the figure of Him (the Last Adam) that was to
come" (Rom. 5:14).
Adam, both fallen and unfallen, was
natural, of the earth--he was not spiritual, of heaven. "The first man
Adam was made a living soul." "The first man is of the earth,
earthy." "As is the earthy, such are they also that are
earthy." "As we have borne the image of the earthy" (1 Cor.
15:45, 47-49).
Fallen Adam was the federal
head of the human race. That is, he was representative of all in him. "As
by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men, for all sinned (in him)" (Rom. 5:12).
It can also be said that Adam was the
natural, the seminal head of the human race. All in him received his life
and nature, and his condemnation. "As by the offense of one (Adam)
judgment came upon all men to condemnation" (Rom. 5:18). All in him were
ultimately born "dead in trespasses and sins"; "condemned
already" (Eph. 2: 1; John 3:18). Yes, "in Adam all die" (1 Cor.
15:22).
When Adam sinned he died unto God,
His image in him was obliterated. He might have retained that image to some
degree from man's standpoint, as James says, "... men, who are made after
the similitude of God" (3:9).
There are those who say that God's
image in fallen man is only "marred," or "distorted."
Many, as in Covenant and Arminian realms, believe that fallen human nature is
to be fully restored via the atonement. But fallen man cannot know God, or think
His thoughts after Him, he cannot love Him, and he will not obey
Him. Besides, God would not allow any vestige of His image to be in hell.
THE OLD MAN
-- The life and nature of the "old man" [KJV, NKJV, ASV, Darby] is
that of the first Adam, who has been superseded by the Last Adam, the New Man.
"Knowing this, that our old man was (judicially) crucified with Him
(Christ)" (Rom. 6: 6). [Old man is translated "old self" in the
NASB, RSV, and NIV.]
SELF
-- The life and nature of the fallen man is that of fallen Adam. It is the
only life that he has, it is himself--he is Adamic. That life is
characteristically anti-God, selfish, and self-centered.
ONE NATURE
-- The old nature has the characteristics of the old Adamic life. They are
inseparable; they are one. There cannot be a life without a nature, and vice
versa.
FLESH
-- There are a number of connotations of the term flesh. For one, the
[physical] body is composed of flesh. But where Adam is concerned, he is flesh
by life and nature--his character is fleshly, sinful, carnal, earthly.
"And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that
he also is flesh" (Gen. 6:3).
Since the fleshly Adamic life resides
in the Christian's body, there is the manifestation of the flesh, a carnal condition,
when he yields to that sinful source. But as to his position, who he
actually is in Christ, he is not in the flesh. "But ye are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you"
(Rom. 8:9).
BODY OF
SIN--INDWELLING SIN --
"Our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed (rendered inoperative)" (Rom. 6:6). There are those who
consider this body of sin to be the believer's body. But that is heresy.
Covenant theologians teach that the body is sinful. Since they have eradicated
the old man, they must have some source for sin in the life.
The believer's body was redeemed at
the Cross--which redemption will be consummated at the Rapture. In the
meantime "we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption,
that is, the redemption of the body, that it may be fashioned like His
glorious body" (Phil. 3:21).
"Know ye not that your bodies
are the members of Christ?" (1 Cor. 6:15). "Know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you... for ye are bought with
a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are
God's" (1 Cor. 6:19,20). The body's members are to be yielded to God as
instruments of righteousness, and the body is to be presented unto God a
living sacrifice (Rom. 6:13; 12:1). God does not ask for or accept a sinful
sacrifice.
The "body of sin," the
totality of the sinful Adamic life and nature within, has been positionally
crucified at the Cross, that its power over the believer and his body may be
nullified, via faith. "Let not (the body of Adamic) sin, therefore, reign
in your (neutral) mortal body, that ye should obey it (Adam's sin) in its
lusts" (Rom. 6:12).
LAST ADAM--NEW
MAN--EXPRESS IMAGE OF GOD --
"God...hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who, being the
brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person..." (Heb. 1:
3).
In infinite contrast to the image and
likeness of God in the created first Adam, we have as the Last Adam, God the
Son--uncreated and eternally in the bosom of the Father, the intrinsic,
essential image of God. The believer was elect in Him before the foundation of
the world, before the first Adam was created.
The Son is God, and the Father is
God--identical image. "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father"
(John 14:9). He is never said to be in the "likeness" of God, as
Adam was. He was sent by God "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom.
8:3), but He was not sinful. Nor was He in the likeness of God--He is
God. "The Last Adam was made a life-giving spirit." "The Second
Man is the Lord from heaven." "We shall also bear the image of the
heavenly" (1 Cor. 15:45,47,49).
On the Cross God the Son was made to
be Adamic sin, our sin, for which He was (and we in Him) condemned, and He
died unto (out of the realm of) sin. In this judicial death He
freed us from Adam, his sin, and his obliterated image. "Therefore, if
any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old (Adamic) things are passed
away (positionally); behold, all things are become new (in Christ)" (2
Cor. 5:17).
As a result He, the express image of
God, re-created us in Himself--we are His Body, His Bride, His Church. As such
He took us to the right hand of the Father as our eternal seated position,
"hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).
SELF
-- The Lord Jesus is our new
self, our only life, our very Christian life. And He is in the process of
conforming us to His image, not that of Adam. Although we are
responsible for his actions, the indwelling Adam, our old self, our old man,
the flesh, is no longer our "self". He is in us, but we are not in
him, nor related to him in any way. Our death on the Cross solved that (Gal.
2:20).
CHRIST, LIFE OF
THE CHURCH -- The glorified
Lord Jesus Christ is Head and Life of the Church, and of each member in that
heavenly Body. He is the federal Representative of the Church; she is
co-heir with Him.
More intimately and significantly, He
is the Church's seminal Head, her germinal, originative Seed-source.
She has His very life--one spirit with Him, of His flesh and bones. Intimate
life-identification of spiritual birth, not adoption. Each member of
His Body is the "righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). He is
our Righteousness, He being our Life (1 Cor. 1:30).
"Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if
it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24). In His death and
resurrection, the new-creation life of the Seed is reproduced in us, His
Bride. "For whom He (God) did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many
brethren" (Rom. 8:29).
This is the Church, totally
unique in all the universe, with life and position in Glory. None of the
things of the heavenly Body can ever be said of earthly Israel. Hence there is
eternal separation--a separation of life, of Church and Israel, of Law
and Grace, of earthly kingdom and heavenly position.
Rejoice in your quintessence! Stand
up for who and where you are, in Christ Jesus! For He "hath raised
us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus;
that in the ages to come He might show (Israel et al) the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus" (Eph. 2:6,7).
"Since ye, then, be risen with
Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ (and you) sitteth on
the right hand of God. Set your affection (heart) on things above, not on
(Israel’s) things on the earth. For ye have died, and your life is
hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:1-3).
Abide above, "partakers of the heavenly
calling" (Heb. 3:1). Vive la "differentiation,"
dispensationalist!