The death and resurrection – the heart of everything

Dear Zerney,

Following on my last email to you, in response to your email to me on the Vine and the Branches, I wish to share with you further meditations on the subject.

Your question to me was whether the branches that wither away and are gathered and cast into the fire refer to peoples of other religions. The straightforward answer is, that the branches that wither away and die, are not merely those of other religions, but all those who have not grasped the deeper meaning of the death and resurrection and do not constantly abide in it.

They include even those who call themselves born-again Christians but whose faith is in Moses and the prophets, or in the literal word, rather than in the death and resurrection, and who feel the need to supplement their faith in the Risen Lord by going constantly to the prophets. This does not mean that believers must shun Moses and the prophets but that when reading them they should give thanks to God that in the Risen Christ, all of the promises of the prophets have been fulfilled. There is no Risen Lord plus anyone or anything else, no, not even plus the Bible or plus the literal word or plus the promises of the Old Testament (OT). In Christ Jesus all of those promises are fulfilled. He is our sufficiency and our completeness. He fills all things and therefore He is "our ALL", "our All in all" and He is "in all" and "through all" and "as all".

The death and resurrection is the heart not only of the Gospels and the Letters, but if only believers will open their eyes, it is also the central theme of the OT. Believers get caught up believing in and defending the stories of the OT literally and thereby miss their deeper spiritual meaning.

The story of Abraham giving up all and leaving the valley of the Ur in search of the Promised Land is really a story about death and resurrection. So is the story of the sacrifice of Isaac. So is the story of Jacob's conversion at Peniel where he wrestled with the angel of the Lord until he was permanently smitten and thereafter called Israel. So was the story of Joseph in the well as was the story of Moses and the exodus. So was the story of the crossing at the Red Sea. So was the story of Joshua's crossing the Jordan as was his experience before the walls of Jericho. So was the story of Jonah's 3-day sojourn inside a whale as well as the story of Noah's Ark.

All the animals of the world being crammed into the Ark is literally speaking, nonsense, but it is a very powerful parable or allegory of the entire human race being placed in Christ when He went to the cross. Evangelicals and charismatics in particular, and most Christians in general, get caught up defending or criticising the literal truth of the Noah's Ark story and thereby miss its powerful deeper meaning. Today, there are expeditions being mounted at enormous cost to look for the remains of the Ark, as if whether or not there was literally an Ark matters. And so on and so forth, the OT is full of the foreshadowing of the death and resurrection, but churches and pastors inculcate in believers an acceptance of these stories literally, rather than explore their underlying meaning, thereby missing the opportunity to reflect on the death and resurrection. It is rather like going in search of the Good Samaritan's address or researching the spot on the Jericho road where he met the man struck down by robbers in order to prove the truth and relevance of the Lord's message.

Christian worship is seriously impaired and weakened by its being distributed over a wide range rather than being focussed on the central truth of the Bible which is that God became man and died in order to deliver the human race. That is simply the story of the Bible. Everything in the Bible culminates in the death and resurrection. To give you a military analogy again, to get distracted from the death and resurrection, is like firing a number 4 cartridge from a 16-bore shot gun to stop a tank rather than a fire off a single rocket-propelled high explosive shell.

The world has yet to awaken to the deeper meaning of the death and resurrection. That is why there is still so much sin around us, so much illness, decay and death, and so much poverty, unhappiness and misery. The world prays and prays and receives not because it prays amiss (James 4:3). The world has not yet come into its inheritance obtained for us through the cross by Jesus Christ.

The churches, of whatever denomination, regardless of theology, will never open the minds of people to their true inheritance as long as they remain instruments of ego, opportunities for glorifying the wrong things and Satan's own invention for distracting peoples' attention from the central truth of the death and resurrection. The churches would do much better if they invited the congregation to contemplate every scripture, from the OT and the NT, that refers to the death and resurrection and then guided them in their meditations, instead of jumping up and down, waving their hands in the air and working themselves into a frenzy, or in swinging incense holders or jangling bells.

I admit that the deeper meaning of the death and resurrection is difficult to grasp; that is why that except on Good Friday preachers hardly talk about it, and even when they do, it is primarily to condemn Pilate and Judas and cry over the Lord's pain and suffering. But that is the death and resurrection at the most superficial, at its narrative level, like seeing Noah’s Ark literally crammed with animals.

If I were a pastor, in order to awaken believers to the deeper truth of the death and resurrection I would spend all my time with them asking them to contemplate and meditate on the meaning of:

“the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).  What is this ransom? Why pay a ransom? How? To whom? What constitutes the ransom? Is God demanding a ransom as a condition of forgiveness? Does He want appeasement like ordinary human beings, and if not, to whom do we pay a ransom? What do ransom and forgiveness mean in this context?

“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). What does it mean to "perish"? What is eternal life? How does belief in Him translate into eternal life?

“the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). What are the works of the devil and how did Jesus destroy them? And if He did destroy the devil and all his works why is there so much evil around still?

“God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). If we go along with those who claim to believe in the literal truth of the Bible, this statement is clearly false because I have never been crucified and neither has the world been crucified. In fact the world seems very much alive. So what does this scripture mean? How am I crucified and how is the world crucified?

“if One died for all, then all died …  Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh” (2 Cor. 5:14&16). Obviously, this is not literally true, because we can see that besides the two robbers no one died with Jesus. So then what do these statements mean? How did all die when Jesus died? And what does it mean not to judge according to the flesh?

“if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). " How is that possible? In what sense is this true?

“when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26) and “the Spirit of truth … will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). What is this truth that obviously Jesus Himself had not disclosed to His disciples, but only the Holy Spirit will? What are the things of Christ about which the Holy Spirit will testify?

Christ “fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23. See also Eph. 4:6, Eph. 4:10, Col. 3:11). Taking this statement literally, it makes no sense, but it is the heart of the death and resurrection. So what does this statement mean? If anyone can grasp this truth he will do all the things that Jesus did, and even the greater works!

“we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11). Again, if we take this literally, anyone can see it is not true, but again, it is the heart of the Gospel. So then what does it mean?

"Behold I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). Former things have passed away." Well! Jesus cannot be liar. So then what did He mean and why aren't all things new yet?

“Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). What does this mean? Obviously, Jesus meant this literally, which is why the Jews left Him in droves, saying this man was mad, but Jesus did not recall them and say that He was speaking only figuratively. So then, if Jesus meant it literally, how do we translate His command into practice?

If Christians would reflect on just one – just one – just any one of these questions (and there are dozens more of the same order) and REALISE its spiritual truth, the Kingdom would have already come.

Instead, Christians are spending their energies trying to increase their numbers, saying that they are carrying out the "great commission", and discussing whether the Sabbath is on Saturday or Sunday, whether the world was made in seven days, whether it is necessary for women to cover their heads in church, whether it is right to take medicine, whether it is necessary to talk in tongues to be saved, and so on and so forth. I am convinced that all these distractions are from Satan who has blinded believers with irrelevancies and effectively blinkered them from the truth, which is simply the death and resurrection.

I am also convinced, more than ever, that although many are called few are chosen and they are those who can focus their minds exclusively on the death and resurrection and mine its deeper meaning.

I have read enough of the mainline religions to say that the only thing that distinguishes the religion of Jesus Christ from all other religions is the death and resurrection. If the Holy Spirit had not opened my heart and mind to the death and resurrection I would have reverted to the teachings of the Buddha (not to Buddhism but to the teachings of the Buddha, which is something different) a long time ago!

However, now that the Holy Spirit has unveiled to me the truth of the death and the resurrection, I know there is nothing else in heaven or earth I need to know and I consider it my sole mission in life, under the hand of the Holy Spirit, to demonstrate the truth of the death and resurrection (and not just to talk about it or preach it) "so that many may see and fear and praise the Lord".

Praise God, one with God is a majority, and I am not looking for numbers. I shall, go on doing silently what the Lord has directed me to do, as long He gives me life.

Affectionately,

Neville