An Undivided Soul
Part II
2014
Paul writes of the natural man being one of wrath. He is one
because he is captured by the knowledge of good and evil living in frustration in
his attempt to achieve the supposed good or living in fear of the supposed evil
or ultimately even being deceived into thinking he has achieved the good or the
evil as a self appointed god or goddess.
Once inside the pale of faith life becomes different. With
growth in faith over time this nature of wrath loses its power to drive the
soul.
Based on the singular sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Paul writes
that sin, the root of sins, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is
not imputed to the person of faith in Christ Jesus. Once this dichotomy between
evil and good is recognized as personally powerless then one becomes free,
gaining sustenance from the tree of life.
Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life
John 14:6
But, outside the pale of faith, through use of the ever
shifting wiles of the knowledge of good and evil, this world rages onward
seeking to invalidate that emanation of faith.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: I Peter 1:6,7
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. II Corinthians 6:17,18
It is the scale between the good and the evil that many
times drives a person to cover their selves in attractive flesh and its
accomplishments like Adam and Eve, who, after the fall, covered themselves in
dying self conceived righteousness.
Shortly after the “fall” God gave the serpent a new
commission - that is the one of dust eater. (Isaiah 54:16) His lot is in
accordance with the old funeral benediction: “dust to dust and ashes to ashes”.
He can eat the dust of flesh and/or its influences but he cannot eat the
signature of soul that becomes etched in time and is the seed that initiates
resurrection: either in that of the first and better resurrection or that of
the just and unjust.
At times, even inside the pale, Satan is permitted to work
in various manners and to various degrees for the ultimate purpose of God. As
Paul and Isaiah wrote, God is the potter and we are the clay both individually
and collectively. By such God exerts formative pressure and at times even
throws amounts of unneeded clay on the floor and lets the serpent eat it. What
remains on the wheel are refined love, hope and righteousness by faith in him
through grace.
Is it good or evil that God would do this? It is neither; it just is; as God identified himself to Moses – “I am that I am”. Similarly, Paul wrote that for those in Christ all things are of God.
And, God is love and light, for, according to the oaths of
scripture, by the conclusion of his sequenced plan, every knee will have bowed
and all men will have been
saved and the Lord Jesus Christ will have delivered all up to the Father of
all things.