“He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high,…” Heb 1:3 Amp
If I were to ask you the time, where would you look? Would you refer to your phone, the clock on the wall, or would you look to the world clock which is the time-setter for all other time-keeping devices? Better yet, would you look to the One Who is the Creator of time, while even outside of time Himself?
This is where Adam and Eve were before the fall. When they wanted to know something, they looked to God. Watchman Nee explains it this way:
Before Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit their right and wrong were in God’s hand. If they did not live before God they knew nothing at all, for their right and wrong actually were in God. By taking the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they found a source of right and wrong in other than God Himself.” (pg. 21, Spiritual Authority, Watchman Nee.)
Before the fall if you asked Adam and Eve what time it was, they would have asked God. Afterwards, they could only try and figure it out themselves…
This is important for us to understand. The enemy, Satan, introduced into all of mankind self and independence from God: in other words, lawlessness and rebellion.
Yes he brought mankind into sin. Forever after the default setting of man would be under sin … until the Cross of Christ paid for that sin.
But also, he introduced into the heart of man, like a silent creeping poison, unregistered, unnoticed, the principle of lawlessness.
After the fall, every time man wanted to know the time … he would look to his own devices. His watch, his sundial, his self-sufficiency. He didn’t need God anymore to tell him the time. He could do it himself….
This lawlessness meant that not only would man not ask God the time, he would actually dispute God about what time it really was. The created suddenly knows better than the Creator about what time it is.
So Christ not only had to deal with the sin issue, but He had to somehow overcome the lawlessness that had been introduced forever into the heart of mankind. Legally, it had been welcomed into the heart, so Jesus couldn’t just kick it out. It had legal authority to reside there. Until, that is, Jesus purchased us….
What Jesus provided at the Cross, is not only miraculous, amazing, undeserved, incalculable, eternal, beyond comprehension! But it is ours, freely, if we will accept it!
As Jesus came into the world, He brought with Himself a new antidote to lawlessness. He brought the capacity to obey. Never before had the divine attributes of obedience been hand carried from the Heavenly realms to earth. But with a Baby Christ-Child, it came.
In Hebrews 10:5 and 7 it says:
Hence, when He [Christ] entered into the world, He said, Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but instead You have made ready a body for Me [to offer];
Then I said, Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will, O God – [to fulfill] what is written of Me in the volume of the Book.” Amp
Like never before His coming, now there was the ability to obey what God said. Now, not only could we let go of our own notion of what time it is… we could in humility acknowledge our need to know the time, face the fact we couldn’t even find the clock, but the also submit to God believing that He not only knew the time but was more than willing to give us the time!
Just like God created the universe out of the barrenness, He now through Christ created a capacity for our hearts to let go of lawlessness and to embrace obedience, thereby also embracing Him … the One Who is the emblem of Obedience!
Now like never before, we had a choice! Our innermost being, our heart and our soul could now operate according to obedience. We could let go of our old man compulsion to be a recorder of the time, and actually receive from God a life to understand the significance of time!
Interesting point in all this is Watchman Nee’s take on where things are headed:
Lawlessness is disobeying God’s authority; and this is sin. Sinning is a matter of conduct but lawlessness is a matter of heart attitude. This present age is characterized by lawlessness. The world is full of the sin of lawlessness, and soon the son of lawlessness shall appear. Authority in the world is being increasingly undermined until at the end all authorities will be overthrown and lawlessness shall rule.” (pg. 16, Spiritual Authority, Watchman Nee)
Of course we know, through the word of God in Thessalonians that this Man of Lawlessness will not be able to come until the Body of Christ is taken up in the rapture of the Church. But then it will occur, that authorities will be overturned and lawlessness will be unleashed on the earth.
We see the signs of this increasing lawlessness in every sector of society: from Government down to the individual scorning correction, championing their rights to be lawless!
Lawlessness is on the rise, but for us today, it is important to see the truth.
So I ask you, “What time is it?” Will you automatically look to yourself and your devices? Or will you look to God for the answer?
You may think in this moment, “I have a watch, I can tell time.” But that is different from the men of Issachar, who had understanding of the times to know what Israel should do (1Chr 12:32).
We live in a moment when we have the capacity and provision, in Christ, to again live as if all of our right and wrong is found in the Lord. Where like Jesus, our hearts are one with Him and the echo of our heart is, “Here I am coming to do Your will O God — and to fulfill what is written of us in the volume of the Book!” (Heb 10:7, Ps 139:16)
Will we look to ourselves after all, believing in error we can, and thus should?
Or will we humble ourselves before God, confessing our pride and independence is nothing short of the legacy of the fall?
Saints, what time do you have?
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