The 2 Levels of Holiness

[Episkopos]

OK....so this is going to be difficult for some people here. Since this isn't taught in sunday school this will not be understood or accepted so easily. :) But to those who love the truth and want to go deeper than sunday school...here is a thread that will take you deeper (by faith of course)

I want to show a teaching that is hidden in the Torah. Jews can't perceive it because they lack the experience of a holy walk with Jesus. Christians won't get it so easily unless they have in fact walked in heavenly places with Christ.

But the word speaks for itself. Let those who have eyes to see read the truth for themselves.

I want to compare 2 verses in the OT that say the same thing...but on completely different levels. The translation just re-iterates the same words in both cases. The translations MISS the depth of the message, as is so often the case. Naturally, a pre-requisite to being a bible translator is NOT that one walk in the holiness of God in Christ. It's more about language and trying to make sense of the verse for the sake of most people and in a sunday school kind of way. To go further than this one dimensional approach one will have to deviate from the wide road to follow eternal paths that are hidden from the casual observer.

The 2 verses I wish to compare are Ex. 21:23 (a life for a life) and Deut. 19:21 (a life for a life)

If you are interested in going for a spiritual ride....check these passages out BEFORE going to my next post. :) Can you see anything that changes everything? ;)

 

[Episkopos]

So here is the first mention of the law of redemption.....a life for a life. Now we know we have been redeemed through Jesus giving His life for us. This satisfies the first level of redemption....a life for a life. It is a balanced and righteous standard that while not precluding God's ability to forgive, provides a righteous law that gives order to the universe.

Ex. 21:23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

By His stripes we are healed. This also has 2 levels of application...but we'll get back to that later. For now we will remain focused on the concept of "a life for a life".

In the Hebrew this reads like so.

וְאִם-אָסוֹן, יִהְיֶה--וְנָתַתָּה נֶפֶשׁ, תַּחַת נָפֶשׁ. כד עַיִן תַּחַת עַיִן, שֵׁן תַּחַת שֵׁן, יָד תַּחַת יָד, רֶגֶל תַּחַת רָגֶל. כה כְּוִיָּה תַּחַת כְּוִיָּה, פֶּצַע תַּחַת פָּצַע, חַבּוּרָה, תַּחַת חַבּוּרָה.


I'd like to focus in on three words...Nephesh tachat nephesh (a soul for a soul)

So then the first level of holiness for us is to be bought by His blood...a soul for a soul. The rest of the text continues in the same vein...an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.....etc

The context of this chapter (Ex. 21) is the willingness of a servant to be devoted to his master through the piercing of an earlobe with an awl. So then as we commit ourselves to Christ HIS sacrifice is applied to our lives so that our failures are swallowed up in HIS sacrifice on the cross. We are bought by the blood (life) of Christ. We are now His. A life FOR a life.

OK so far? :)

 

[Episkopos]

Now just an aside to explain why life and soul are synonymous....and when speaking of life in the singular sense it is rendered as soul.

This is due to the fact that in Hebrew, the word for "life" is plural for we humans. We were created to live on 2 levels from the very beginning...having spiritual senses as well as physical senses. This is important to consider when trying to understand the words that come from God. When Adam sinned, he lost his spiritual life...one of the lives...yet retained, at least for a time, his carnal physical life.

Although we have 2 levels of life (in Christ) we ARE a soul. We are singular in that respect. The levels...or lack of levels... are contained in the soul. We are a container.... a container for life from God.

 

[Episkopos]

Now, here is the kicker...

The second reference to "a life for a life" is found in Deut. 19

Deut. 19:21 Your eye shall not pity: life shall be for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Sound the same??? But it is not the same at all in Hebrew.

כא וְלֹא תָחוֹס, עֵינֶךָ: נֶפֶשׁ בְּנֶפֶשׁ, עַיִן בְּעַיִן שֵׁן בְּשֵׁן, יָד בְּיָד, רֶגֶל בְּרָגֶל

The Hebrew says....a life IN a life....an eye IN an eye...etc.

We go from nephesh tachat nephesh (a life FOR a life) to....nephesh BEnephesh (a life IN a life). In Hebrew the prefix Bet means inside (as in a house).

The context of this chapter is in false accusations....where the penalty is meted out on a person who falsely accuses another.

Here we see an inversion taking place. I will attempt to explain this.

Whereas the first reference to the law of "a life for a life" was based on something OUTSIDE of us...an external sacrifice., now we see there is a life WITHIN a life. As I have stated before the truth is like a wheel within a wheel. So here we are met with a life IN a life. Of course this is the spiritual kind of life that is restored to us in Jesus Christ. It is HIS life in our own. It is HIS soul in our soul. That brings the restoration of life on the 2 levels. Jesus then becomes our spiritual faculties from within us. (And this is in the Mosaic Torah)

 

[Episkopos]

The context of the life in a life statement in Deut. 19 is that of people not understanding that Jesus is living in a person....and is treated as if this were false.

Paul says...the MORE I love the less I am loved. This is the inversion that takes place according to the deeper level of holiness. Jesus said ALL who would live godly in Him would suffer persecution. And it isn't just the world that hates the disciples of Christ.

So the first level separates us from the world. But the second level of separation is from one another among believers.

How so?

Ever since the beginning, there has been trouble within the same family...we have the brothers Cain and Abel. Cain was jealous and slew his brother. We have Jacob and Esau. Both brothers again.

There is coming a time where brother will rise up against brother. But first the ones who are meant to walk in holiness need to do so. Then we will see brother sell out brother. It is always the lower natural order that seeks to destroy the higher spiritual order. It is pride that causes this hatred.

Do you see why this is not taught in sunday school? ;)

 

[Episkopos]

By His stripes we are healed. This also has 2 levels of application...but we'll get back to that later.

How are we healed initially by His stripes? We are healed by a substitutionary taking on of a punishment due to us. We receive the love that this means as something that heals us. So we are healed by His love taking our place.

But there is a deeper level to those stripes. It is about a deeper love than that in the one who received love. It is being healed of our own selfish ways through the suffering of Christ. So that WE take on His stripes...so that we are healed and weaned of ourselves. The Christ in us can then take over.

The same goes for the cross. The deeper work of the cross is that we allow the death of Jesus to become a reality in us...so that HIS cross and suffering becomes our glory. Through His suffering we enter into His fellowship on that deeper level.

In truth, we can't walk in His life unless we also carry His death in us. That is the deeper holiness of "no longer I but Christ in me."

 

[Episkopos]

This is why don't usually post any of the deeper truths here.....people don't understand them. Or want to...

It is a sign of the times.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

This is why don't usually post any of the deeper truths here.....people don't understand them. Or want to...

It is a sign of the times.

Keep going.

 

[Episkopos]

Keep going.

I have posted the opining statements....now I wait for comments or questions.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

I have posted the opining statements....now I wait for comments or questions.

I know. Only wanted you to know you are not talking to air. It is a lot to take in.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

But the re is a deeper level to those stripes. It is about a deeper love than that in the one who received love. It is being healed of our own selfish ways through the suffering of Christ. So that WE take on His stripes...so that we are healed and weaned of ourselves. The Christ in us can then take over.

Healed by and through His stripes is active? A dying to self?

 

[Episkopos]

Healed by and through His stripes is active? A dying to self?

As in....always carrying the death of Jesus so that His life is made manifest through us.

God wants to bring us to a narrow place....a place that none of us would go because of self-preservation. So God has to convince our inner person that He is safe and can be trusted. Once faith is begun in the inner man....God can deal with the outer natural man. The cross of Christ takes what is natural out of the way to have a direct link with us.

So we embrace the stripes to get the link with God.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

As in....always carrying the death of Jesus so that His life is made manifest through us.

God wants to bring us to a narrow place....a place that none of us would go because of self-preservation. So God has to convince our inner person that He is safe and can be trusted. Once faith is begun in the inner man....God can deal with the outer natural man. The cross of Christ takes what is natural out of the way to have a direct link with us.

So we embrace the stripes to get the link with God.

Have you seen God do this in your life?

 

[marks]

How are we healed initially by His stripes? We are healed by a substitutionary taking on of a punishment due to us. We receive the love that this means as something that heals us. So we are healed by His love taking our place.

1 Peter 2:24-25 "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."

The healing according to Scripture is the healing of our relationship with God.

But there is a deeper level to those stripes. It is about a deeper love than that in the one who received love. It is being healed of our own selfish ways through the suffering of Christ. So that WE take on His stripes...so that we are healed and weaned of ourselves. The Christ in us can then take over.

Another "2nd blessing"? We need to be beaten to become holy? Is that what you are saying?

His stripes become our stripes? His beating becomes our beating? What Scriptures are you looking at for that?

Much love!
Mark

 

[bbyrd009]

This is why don't usually post any of the deeper truths here.....people don't understand them. Or want to...

It is a sign of the times.

well, I guess you are still presuming wadr

 

[marks]

As in....always carrying the death of Jesus so that His life is made manifest through us.

Exactly. The death of Christ brings life in us. What is wrong with leaving this where Scripture leaves it? This is the death of Jesus, not the brutal tortures He also endured.

We were co-crucified with Jesus, but not "co-beaten" with Him.

It seems to me that these "deeper truths" you are so fond of are what I think of as the basics of salvation, taught in our churches, but using the actual passages that teach them.

For instance,

That is the deeper holiness of "no longer I but Christ in me."

There is no "deeper holiness" here, in my estimation, simply the reality of what Jesus did.

I've died but I'm still alive! But it's not me, it's actually Jesus living in me! And the life I now think of as me is actually faith from God in me, bringing His life into me.

Isn't this plainly stated? Don't we just need to accept the reality of the words we can readily read?

I remember this from flannel graph boards in Release Time Education in 2nd grade where they had a circle with a chair in it, with "Self" on the "throne". Then they put another circle with a chair, and that chair had a cross, to indicate Jesus now taking over in my life.

I wish I had got it then. I guess it was kind of deep!

But seriously, you make it sound like only the initiate can understand God's Word, and I don't think that is true.

Much love!
Mark

 

[Episkopos]

Have you seen God do this in your life?

Yes. And just when I thought I'd reached the depth of God's working in me....there was yet another huge step to take. Thw ways of God are deep indeed.

 

[Episkopos]

1 Peter 2:24-25 "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."

The healing according to Scripture is the healing of our relationship with God.



Another "2nd blessing"? We need to be beaten to become holy? Is that what you are saying?

His stripes become our stripes? His beating becomes our beating? What Scriptures are you looking at for that?

Much love!
Mark

The whole process of suffering in Christ is for the mature believer who is no longer trying to avoid everything but immediate blessings. The more we can give up of ourselves...the more we receive of Christ.

1 Pet. 4:13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

Yes. And just when I thought I'd reached the depth of God's working in me....there was yet another huge step to take. Thw ways of God are deep indeed.

Galatians 6:15-18
[15] For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. [16] And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. [17] From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. [18] Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

 

[Episkopos]

Exactly. The death of Christ brings life in us. What is wrong with leaving this where Scripture leaves it? This is the death of Jesus, not the brutal tortures He also endured.

We were co-crucified with Jesus, but not "co-beaten" with Him.

It seems to me that these "deeper truths" you are so fond of are what I think of as the basics of salvation, taught in our churches, but using the actual passages that teach them.

The modern teachings avoid the truth and the difficulties of the cross by turning into empty dogmas to be accepted as already applied by religious indoctrination.

It isn't HIS death (apart from us) that brings new life...it is as we walk in His death that we receive the power of life that Jesus was resurrected by. You are stuck on a historic and religious event....but lack the experience of it.