![[The Good Seed]](../images/thegoodseed.gif)
Waking the Sleeper
By Lloyd Ellefson
Greetings in the name of the Lord. I would like to share some thoughts on what it means to pass from death to life. Passing from death to life is passing from Adam to Christ, for death is in Adam and life is in Christ. Life in Christ is a present possession; it is not to be relegated to a future time.
"We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren." (1 Jn. 3:14) If Christ is our life, we know that life has come to us. But before we received life we were in death. Since in Adam ALL die, Adam includes men, women and children, and must therefore be a corporate mankind. Likewise, in Christ ALL are made alive, so Christ includes men, women and children, and Christ too must be a corporate mankind. The two mankinds or humanities express different images of God. In Adam, it is expressed in an earthy way through the natural man. This brings separation from God because the faculties of this humanity have been assigned to ignorance, death and sleep, which belong in the same category. They are brothers. In Christ, the image of God is expressed perfectly, for He is the exact representation of God; the rule of God was expressed perfectly in Him! When people are born again, they are regenerated into the rule of God!
When Adam, the first physical man on this earth, left the rule of God, he was separated from God and came under another rule. It is a delusion to think that he acted on his own initiative for he had come under another rule - and so are we! In Adam ALL DIE; this is an absolute! The reason all people sin is not just because they have been generated from Adam, but because they have received his consciousness. They are separated from God in their thinking and realization of who they are, and therefore walk in darkness.
Jesus, the last Adam, entered this world for us! The Son of God took on flesh! "For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh." (Rom. 8:3) God sent His own Son, veiled Him in flesh, to walk this earth and communicate God to man. He is the only Mediator between God and man. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross! (Phil. 2:8) You see death reigned from Adam to Moses even to them that had not sinned exactly like Adam had. Sin reigned - this rule was inherited. So when Jesus, in his identification with humanity, came into this world as the last Adam, He was exposed to the rule of sin that was identified by the law. Those who are under the law are basically in a sleep.
In the scriptures, the words DEATH and SLEEP are used literally and figuratively. In a figurative sense death and sleep are often spoken of as having the same meaning. They are used interchangeably by Jesus. Jesus referred to both Jairus's daughter and to Lazarus as having fallen asleep when in man's eyes they had died.
Today, we want to discuss the waking of the sleeper. Man's ignorance of God resulted in death - not only to the spirit but also to the physical body. Although Adam did not die physically until nearly 1000 years later, he was dead spiritually during this time because he had become separated from God. "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous." (Rom. 5:19) Adam's offense was disobedience; his disobedience was made evident when he ate the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve did not heed God's admonition because they were in a sleep. They were seduced by the delusion that the other voice (satan's) was offering them. It offered them something God had not offered them. Eating the fruit was the result of having listened to the wrong voice. This was their big mistake and sin!
Later on God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil..." (Gen. 3:22) God placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden. Since both good and evil, whether in a religious or evil setting, come from this tree, they come from the same seed - unbelief or disobedience. How can God know good and evil? He knows it in terms of sin and death - just like Jesus did. Jesus came to judge the living and the dead, so His judgment does not fall upon good and evil.
Adam and Eve took the fruit upon satan's suggestion, and his words are lies because he is an adversary of God. God's words to Adam were twisted and contradicted by satan. God said, "From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat." Satan brought doubt by saying, "Has God said you shall not eat from every tree of the garden?" Eve replied that they could eat of every tree but one - "lest we die". In other words, there was danger of dying. God said, "If you eat of it you shall surely die" and satan said, "You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Satan is the father of lies! Since Jesus said there is no truth in him, he is always deluded, and there cannot even be any partial truth in him. Therefore there was no truth - not even any partial truth in what satan said to Eve. Whatever he said was devoid of all truth! Adam and Eve were stimulated in their natural senses; the fruit looked good to them and they ate!
The serpent was a beast of the field, for it says, "The serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field." It left its mark on humanity when Adam and Eve received its thinking. I believe this is the origin of the mark of the beast. Just as satan was an adversary to what God said, so are we in our natural thinking. We think that through the knowledge of good and evil, by choosing the good we will not be evil, and through choice we will not die, but be as God. Humanity is seeking physical life on a full scale today. It is using all its energy and effort to sustain good and thus overcome evil and death. Behavior patterns are based on the psychology of choosing the good and rejecting the evil. But good cannot overcome evil, because good and evil come from the same seed.
For years people have been vainly trying to overcome the evil they detect in themselves. Man looks at himself with a microscope so to speak, to find some good in himself and to find the cause for evil. He tries to overcome his thoughts and experiences - the things that have been accepted in the natural mind. This knowledge does not come from God. God has not given us a revelation of all the bugs in sin. Jesus did not function in that kind of knowledge when He brought the presence of God to dispel disease, sickness and the wrong in man. So the mark of the beast is the human endeavor to do everything he can to sift the good out of evil and get life out of death. But this does not work, for the process is completely wrong! The same mind that has already accepted something, is being used to overcome it. This does not work! We need a new mind! It is not what goes in via the mouth of man that defiles him; it is that which proceeds out of the man that defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man proceed the evil thoughts which defile him.
"So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept..." (Gen. 2:21) Then in Is. 60:1 we read, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." A good translation reads, "Arise and be enlightened for thy light has come." Eph. 5:14 also refers to this, "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." The sleepers are those who are in the sleep of Adam! Awake and rise from the dead; Christ will give you light or enlightenment. This enlightenment is the union with God's word - the word that speaks to us. Man, being flesh and in sleep, needs to be awakened and quickened by a life-giving Spirit, so that he can operate in spiritual realization. Christ is that Spirit!
Since Adam died, we can safely say that he was not immortal. Immortality has no beginning nor ending. Therefore that which is mortal cannot become immortal. That which has died cannot receive immortality, for immortality does not have a beginning. Because Adam was mortal, he had a consciousness which was subjected to the temporal and to death. Times, days, seasons, births and deaths are all in the temporal realm. Adam did not really know what death was, for he did not seem to realize that he had received a wrong image of God; he seemed to think that he had the right to blame God for giving him a wife. Adam was deluded, and he is still deluded. He is sleeping and in ignorance. The Adamic man is a corporate man, for his death spread to all men.
Adam is the natural man who is engrossed in his "good" thinking, in his ego, his self, and in a false sense of being. It is of this man that Jesus said, "If you seek to save that, you are going to lose it. So it is better to give it up, for some day you will lose it anyway." (Paraphrased)
In contrast to Adam who lives in darkness, Christ lives in unapproachable light! By submitting ourselves to Christ, we accept Him. Jesus Christ was the word made flesh. He was born of Mary, and lived under the law for thirty years offering the required sacrifices. In Ps. 40:6 it says, "Blood sacrifices and meal offering Thou hast not desired; My ears Thou hast opened." Jesus fulfilled the prophetic utterances made of Him. He did everything for us. Although He was born the Christ, He was not manifested as the Christ until after the Holy Spirit came upon Him at His baptism.
As the last Adam, Jesus had to subject Himself to the reign of death that was ruling in humanity since Adam. The law was given to the carnal Adamic man so he could see who he was and why he was dying. He had been ignorant of that, just as the Adamic man still is. So in Moses, a new stage of realization came.
At the Jordan an important thing happened to Jesus. This did not affect His physical appearance. He did not get a new body, nor did it suddenly begin to shine; nothing physically distinguished Him from others. (Is. 53) But there at the Jordan He experienced what is called the ADOPTION - the coming out of the law. Jesus went through the transition of being ruled by the law to being led by the Spirit.
Everything Jesus did, He did for us. The reality of all He did was always present in God, but it was manifested in stages so that humanity could participate in it. At the Jordan Jesus awoke - He actually awoke from the sleep of Adam when the Holy Spirit came upon Him. The coming of the Holy Spirit gave Him a new consciousness and a new existence. It brought Him into a new relationship with God which caused Him to function in a unity with God in which He was not dependent upon the law.
When God spoke from heaven and said, "This is My beloved Son" it brought Jesus into Sonship. He came out of the river as a new man, a new image of God. He immediately began to preach a new conception of God. This quickly provoked the ire of the remnant of the Jews living in Israel. Most of the Jews had not returned from the land of their captivity. This remnant, consisting of some priests, Levites, and Jews of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, were chosen to bring forth the Shiloh, the Messiah out of the tribe of Judah. The physical heritage of Jesus was fulfilled first, then the spiritual when He became the Christ. As the Christ He had the consciousness of the Spirit in Him.
Passing from Adam to Christ is having our consciousness changed from the ignorance and sleep in Adam, to a consciousness of life given by the Spirit - which is Christ. Our union with God was disrupted by the disobedience of Adam and Eve, and it is re-established when we begin to walk in the Spirit. Sin brought a disruption of the rule of God in the hearts of people. That is why it says that Christ the Lamb was slain from the disruption of the world. Some translations read "from the foundation", but the Greek word KATABOLE used in this passage is correctly translated DISRUPTION, according to Young's Concordance. In the Concordant translation it reads DISRUPTION and means CASTING or LAYING DOWN. Some of the verses in the King James version which read FOUNDATION, but should read DISRUPTION, are: Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 1:20, Rev. 13:8 and Matthew 13:35. We were chosen in Him before the DISRUPTION of the world.
In Christ we have the rule of God. This rule was cast down or put to death when Adam and Eve sinned. Man began to believe satan's rule instead of God's rule. God's rule, which is Christ (His Word) was disrupted. Ever since then the rule of Christ or the kingdom of God has been disrupted.
This introduced another system of rule to mankind. It brought death upon everything - upon people, animals, fish, birds, trees, etc. In Adam all die!
The world system is a rule. Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." It is not of this order of things. He has another order. This world system is ruled by the god of this world. In 2 Cor. 4:4 we read that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so they can't receive the gospel and be enlightened. Adam was an earthy image of God in the earth, but the spiritual image is the true image of God. Therefore we have to waken to God's Spirit - Christ's Spirit; we have to waken to the spiritual things, for they are reality. Then we will be lifted out of the natural, earthy concepts. In Christ we receive a new realization of things.
Christ was slain from the disruption of the world. In other words, ever since the world was disrupted, the truth was killed, slain or crucified by the lie of the adversary. This lie was the seed that infected man. Man has continued in his ignorance, delusion, wrong sense of being and wrong conception of God. Unless we believe that, we will be on par with the Israelites who killed Jesus because they did not like the image of God He presented. There was a great difference between the image of God presented by Jesus and the one Israel had. The truth (the Lamb) is constantly being killed.
At the Jordan River Jesus awoke and began to manifest the Christ. Being in Adam does not negate the fact that Jesus Christ was the Son of God veiled by flesh during His earthly existence. He was Jesus Immanuel - God with us - in His life, but He was manifested in stages. He first lived under the law, but when John preached repentance, Jesus repented of that. After He was baptized God spoke from heaven and the Holy Spirit came upon Him and He began to walk in the Spirit. Now the Christ in humanity was glorified; He was no longer crucified! Man was raised from the death in Adam into the life in Christ! This is called resurrection! Jesus said, "I am the resurrection", so it has nothing to do with the physical body. He is the same yesterday, today and forever! He was the resurrection before He received a body and before He spoke in the prophets.
On the cross Jesus said to the repentant thief, "Today you will be with Me in Paradise." In Paradise, before Adam sinned, he was in a harmonious relationship with God. Even while Jesus was hanging on the cross, He was in a harmonious relationship with God. This means He must have still been in the garden, in Paradise, at that time. After Adam was infected with the lie, he was separated from God. This separation brought death first spiritually, then physically. This separation was in his mind, in his consciousness and sense of being.
The manifestion of the Christ did not take place in His physical body nor in His outward appearance. It took place in an inner realization - in His consciousness of being. The Christ is God's Word brought into our consciousness by the Spirit. The knowledge of God's Word in the natural mind will not bring us into that consciousness; that is why we need the Holy Spirit!
The death inflicted on the Adamic nature (the old Adam) was not a physical one. When we died with Christ, we did not die on the cross physically, but we did lose our sense of ignorance and darkness. It changed the desires of our heart. The Adamic nature was put to death by bringing in a new nature. This is what the regeneration or the new birth of the spirit is. The term, BIRTH, comes from the Greek word GENNAO, which means to procreate. To be born of the Spirit means that we have been regenerated by the Spirit. The redemption or the reinstatement, the restoration of God's rule in man took place when Christ sent the Holy Spirit. Man was now joined to God in harmony and oneness and realization in the spirit.
Let's see how redemption from the law affected Jesus. When He was subject to the law He never offended anyone. But after He was baptized, He began to make statements which were unacceptable to the Jews. He said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." (Mk. 1:15) God's rule in man, which had been disrupted from the beginning (as we read in Genesis), was now restored in Jesus Christ. In Matt. 21:43 Jesus said that the kingdom of God would be taken from them because they were not producing the fruit of it. In effect, He was saying that they were in darkness and in the sleep of the Adamic man, and therefore opposing the true expression of the kingdom as manifested in Jesus Christ. It would be given to a nation bearing the fruit of the kingdom. This fruit is a spiritual realization of our restoration, and of our union and oneness with God.
Various verses in the New Testament reveal a oneness that we have with Christ in God. This mystery had been hidden in God. "And to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places." (Eph. 3:9-10) "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Col. 3:3) "For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren." (Hebrews 2:11) There is a oneness. The mystery of God is the understanding that God is ONE. When Jesus is added to God, God is still one. When we are added to God, He is still ONE, because God is ONE. He is the only ONE there is. He is the only motion in life; He is the only Creator, the only Sustainer, the only source of energy. The devil's sense of being is not one of life; in fact he is an adversary to life, and his only power is in the lie.
"For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time." (1 Tim. 2:5-6) People were not receiving the mediation from God to man at the time Jesus lived on this earth because natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit! Although Jesus did many wonderful miracles of healing, etc., and showed tremendous understanding and wisdom, yet His confession of God as His Father eventually caused Him to be turned over to the Roman government by the Jews. Even His disciples forsook Him - Judas betrayed Him, Peter denied Him and all left Him. When the Shepherd was struck, the sheep were scattered; He trod the winepress of God alone. Pilate gave permission for Him to be crucified, but the Jews had the greater sin! Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified for His testimony! His mediation was not received at that time.
Jesus said, "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." (John 16:7) Since it says that the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), I believe Jesus is referring to His real coming again - His coming in the Spirit. Jesus can now mediate between God and men because the Holy Spirit within us can receive His mediation. That is why it was so important that He would send the Comforter. Now He can come to us in the Spirit! It is no longer necessary that He appears to us as a physical man.
That which God has accomplished in Jesus Christ has been taken care of! Christ's sacrifice for sin does not need to be repeated! His work is finished! He said, "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do." (Jn. 17:4) His work is spiritual. His mediation between God and men is spiritual. Because we have the Holy Spirit we can receive the same realization the Holy Spirit has! Israel had received all the prophecies of the Old Testament, but they did not have the needed enlightenment to know God. Since they did not know God, they could not know Jesus; God's word was not dwelling in their hearts. In fact, they thought they believed Moses, but they didn't! If they had, they would have believed Jesus Christ, because Moses spoke of Him. (Jn. 5:45-47)
The nation of Israel had received all these prophecies about the coming of the Messiah and about the anointing that would be upon a human being. Yet Israel did not understand that they were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Christ was the anointing on the man, but the man himself was not the anointing. I hope you understand! God has given us the same anointing that came on Christ. This anointing will also change our conception of God. It needs to change from that of Israel's (for it is the same as the world's religious church system) to that of Christ's. The mind of Christ gives us the same conception of God that Jesus had.
We notice that Jesus and the New Testament writers said things which were entirely different from things said in the Old Testament. Let's look at some of the differences as expressed by Jesus. He said, "I am meek and lowly of heart...you have heard `an eye for an eye', but I say unto you, `Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you...give them your cloak...if they ask you to go a mile, go another mile...if they hit you on the cheek, turn the other cheek...don't resist evil with evil; resist evil with good." This was a new way of living and a new way of overcoming!
Jesus Christ came as the express image of the invisible God! The invisible God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself; He was not imputing their sins and all their iniquities; in Christ our sins are taken care of! Christ was portraying the exact image of God when He said, "I did not come to condemn the world." There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. It is important to understand that. The classic way of trying to overcome sin by analyzing it and bewailing its strength, only gives energy to sin. This hinders us from being taken into the mind that was in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ never had a bad conscience, He never sinned nor did He have a consciousness of sin. He taught that His disciples were one with God even as He (Jesus) was one with Him! The adversary wants to put a wedge into this unity - he wants to bring a separation. Jesus prayed that we might know that even as He and the Father are one, we ALL might be one! What a glorious revelation! This is not a physical nor a geographical oneness in heaven; it is a oneness that comes by partaking of the divine nature.
Hebrews 12:24 says that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant. This is important! The old covenant is the same as the Old Testament. It is a declaration of what God is going to do. Sins are made known by the law, for through the law is the knowledge of sin. The law is a FORM of truth. Living under the law causes people to constantly deal with sin, and shows they do not understand that Jesus Christ has dealt with sin. If we do not recognize the new covenant, a veil still hangs over our hearts. "But their hearts were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ." (2 Cor. 3:14) Christ is veiled because of the hardness of man's heart. The new covenant is one of the Spirit, and the Spirit gives life! He takes away our consciousness of sins and gives us a new heart on which is written a new law! He tells us that we are His sons and daughters!
Let's see how sin is related to death. In Genesis 2 and 3 we see how sin came into the world, and we ask, did death come out of sin, or sin out of death? On the surface it looks as though sin produced death, because God said, "...in the day you eat from it you shall surely die." It also says, "By a man came death." However, it does not say that death came into existence at that time. 1 Cor. 15:56 says, "The sting of death is sin." It was the adversary (death) that caused man to sin, and sin produces death. Death, not sin, is the last enemy that shall be destroyed! As long as we just try to destroy sin, death is not done away with because death is only overcome by life!
Jesus Christ destroyed death by bringing life. Death could not do away with Jesus; it could not destroy His testimony in the natural nor in the spiritual realm. The adversary could not see the Son of God, for he does not have that discernment. Since his understanding is embedded in lies he cannot know truth. Therefore he is deceived, and so is everyone who has his nature. Had the devil known the outcome, he would not have crucified the Prince of glory. Let's not magnify satan and elevate him to godhood, thinking he knows everything, has all power, etc. Jesus Christ said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." He is seated at the right hand of the Father, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named!
It is interesting to see how Jesus overcame satan. When Jesus died on the cross it looked as if the world had overcome Him. Yet even before He died, He had overcome! Humanity rejected Christ's message and put Jesus to death. Since the Adamic man lives in deception, Jesus had to endure the fruit of sin, which is death. But death could not hold Him! He overthrew death! The world system is a product or fruit of death! By reappearing after His death, He proved that death is temporal - not eternal!
Jesus Christ could overcome death because He is the life and the truth; life and truth are stronger than death! Unlike natural man who cannot be like God, Jesus was the exact representation of God. By coming under the reign of death, then overthrowing it, He proved His power. After His victory over death, He appeared to the disciples and encouraged them to believe that they could receive the Holy Spirit. Enlightenment came to them after they had received the Holy Spirit - even as enlightenment came to Christ.
The mediation of Jesus Christ to humanity was not really accomplished in His earthly walk, for man still crucified Him. Neither would a second appearance in the flesh accomplish this; nor is He coming back in that form again. It would not bridge the gap, for His mediation is spiritual! The Christ (the Anointing) has now come to those that are called out - to those that have passed through the law and repented; they have been taken into the body of truth, which He is! Jesus said, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." (Jn. 20:21) What a wonderful commission!
"Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, `And to seeds,' as referring to many, but rather to one, `And to your seed,' that is Christ. The law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise." (Gal. 3:16-17) God sent His Son, the Seed, when the fulness of time had come. The promise was not for Abraham specifically, nor for the corporate nation of Israel, nor for a physical individual, but to the seed - the Christ, the Seed of God. Even though the law came 430 years after the promise was made, it did not make the promise obsolete. The law was added because of transgressions, and was valid until the seed should come. (v.19)
The law was ordained by angels through the agency of a mediator, namely Moses. Man did not understand the spiritual aspects of the law, but Moses could mediate the law to man in the natural realm, because it was a law of carnal commandments and contained only a form of truth. (Rom. 2:20) Therefore it was inadequate! Man tried to obey it, but he was unsuccessful because he could only receive it in his carnal mind. So he made excuses for himself, blamed others, and made things worse by adding a lot of his own laws.
"Now a mediator is not for one party only; whereas God is only one." (Gal. 3:20) Since a mediator is not for one party only, Moses mediated the law from the Spirit to the carnal man. When Jesus said, "In that day you will ask Me no question", did that mean He had ceased His mediation? (John 16:23) Not exactly, for His mediation has taken us into the realization that God is one, that Christ is of God and we are of God, and we are all of one! That is why Paul said, "God is only one." Therefore, everything we are is really God. This eliminates the personal sense of "I". The reason Jesus said, I AM, was because He was identifying with the only "I" there is - the "I" of God. There is only one God! All creation came out of one mind, and everything was created by one wisdom, one energy, and one light. All came out of God!
God gave the law and all the promises as a preparation for our redemption. Christ now takes us through these various stages to redeem us. He became the end of the law for righteousness to every man who believes, and He is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. The fulfillment of this mediation takes place in Christ Jesus. It does not take place by God talking to Jesus, then Jesus talking to us. The mediation is in our oneness with God; God mediates His presence immediately! Jesus Christ is not between us and God; no one is between us and God. That is why, when we pray, we do not ask Jesus for anything, but we pray "Our Father". This oneness comes to us in our consciousness; it is the same realization that was in Christ and that has always been in God. That causes us all to participate in the divine nature as one! So God is one, and Christ's mediation is in oneness - not in division nor separation. It is all one!
Why is it such a struggle for man to see this oneness? Why does the church system still teach separation - that God is in heaven and we are here? Why do Christians still expect Jesus to come back as a physical person? Since the sleep, separation or death that is in Adam, is separation from God, all human thinking emanates from this premise. So if God is up there and Jesus is there beside Him, we have two entities. Which one do we worship? If there are two Gods, then one must be an idol. If we think of Christ and God being in two different places, we are thinking carnally and looking at Christ as a physical person. This gives us a conception of God similar to that which Israel had - and the church system now has. They think they have no problem with their idea of God nor with their idea of Christ. Yet the Jews are rejecting the Messiah by saying that He hasn't come yet, and the church is saying He has come, but they are waiting for Him to come again. Both classes of people are looking at Him as being SEPARATE from them. They do not believe that the Messiah is an anointing; they think He is a man or the form of a man who is the Son of God.
"Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh." (Heb. 10:19-20) The flesh of Jesus was a veil. The Old Testament tabernacle had two veils. These veils kept the Adamic humanity from entering the tabernacle (the holy place) and experiencing a union with God. Our union with God takes place inwardly - in our consciousness. Jesus, our example, was not transformed from His identification with Adam to Christ and into oneness with God, by going somewhere, doing something, rising up, etc. He was not ruled by external laws. It all happened within Him because the kingdom of God (the rule of God) ruled Him spiritually.
Many think they cannot see Jesus because a veil is covering Him. But the veil is not over Him, it is over the unbelieving heart! Jesus Christ is free, like God; He is not hidden behind a veil. Just as God is omnipresent, so Christ is everywhere! Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God simply means He has been given God's authority. The veil is removed in Christ. (2 Cor. 3:14) The light in Christ removes the veil that is over the unbelieving heart, and He is exposed to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit.
God cannot come and go; He can't move because He fills all things. He is everything, and Christ is omnipresent like God; He is one with God so that wherever God is, He is. So Jesus Christ and God cannot come and go to us except in the expression and activity of God as He reveals Himself in the Spirit. Jesus is not revealed in a natural way. He would still be veiled, even if He did come back in the flesh again (which He is not going to do), because the flesh would veil Him again. His flesh veiled who He was, and our flesh veils who He is in us. So you see that Christ's coming again is not a historical event; it is not external, but internal!
Christ's coming brings us into participation in the nature of God. Our oneness with God comes to us in the Holy Spirit; He brings us revelation and resurrection. It has to dawn in us through Christ. Christ's redemption delivers us! The goodness of God expressed through this union, will eventually have an effect on our physical life, our personality, our beliefs, our treatment of other people and our hope!
"Awake thou that sleepest, rise from the dead, and Christ will give you life!" After that we present ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead! (Rom. 6) That means we are not to present ourselves to God as dead in Adam - not as sinners nor as natural human beings. Through our redemption in Christ we can present ourselves to Christ as those who are alive! Christ is performing this in us, but we cannot see it because He is invisible. Christ, the anointing, the Messiah, will teach us all things. He has come to us in the Spirit and so we are the Lord's Christ. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding. Amen!