Our Position in Christ–The Church as the Household of God

Eph. 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead (darkened, a walking corpse) in trespasses and sins,

2:1 Picture where God found us, we were in a death trap of an inferior lifestyle, constantly living below the blueprint measure of our lives. (sin, hamartia, ha + meros, without our allotted portion) Mirror

DEATH- Different kinds of death:

Seven types of death are mentioned in the Bible.

1.Spiritual Death/Darkness Eph. 2:1, Rom. 5:12, Rom. 6:23, 1 Cor. 15:22. I do not teach this, rather spiritual darkness. The spirit is eternal, cannot die. Gen 1:1, 2 Cor.4:6.

2 Corinthians 4:6For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has    shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

2.  Physical Death. The separation of the spirit from the body. Matt. 8:22, 2 Cor. 5:10, Rom. 8:38,39, Phil. 1:21. Many refer to this as passed away instead of death especially for the believer.

3.  The Second Death. The perpetuation of spiritual death into eternity; occurs at the beginning of eternity future. This is the final judgment of the non-Christian. Heb. 9:27, Rev. 20:12-15 . There are many questions arise as to what will happen here. I do not have the answers. Some say hell others say, they do not believe in a God that will kill billions at the end of the age.

4. Operational Death. The failure of the believer to produce divine good. Producing wood, hay, and stubble instead of gold, silver, and precious stones. James 2:26

5.  Positional Death. Part of retroactive Positional Truth. Rom. 6, Col. 2:12,20; 3:3. I would relegate  this to not knowing who you are.

6.  Temporal Death. This is the believer in a state of carnality, out of fellowship.
Rom. 8:6, 13, Eph. 5:14, 1 Tim. 5:6, James 1:15, Rev. 3:1, Luke 15:24,32

7.  Sexual Death. The inability to procreate. Rom. 4:16-21, Heb. 11:11,12

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Romans 5:18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.                

Gen.3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

 Some do not teach spiritual death but spiritual darkness.

Adam and Eve became spiritually darkened, in the state of the natural, or unregenerate man.  The unbeliever is spiritually darkened until he acknowledgesChrist. Then God says, “Let there be light, “and the spirit is recreated, renewed.

(Gen 1:3)  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

(2 Cor 4:4) whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

(2Co 4:6)  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

(2 Pet. 1:19)And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;

(Rev. 21: 23)The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

2^nd Death

Rev. 20:6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. The second death has no authority over these, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him a thousand years.

We have eternal life now in Christ Jesus.

1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you maycontinueto believe in the name of the Son of God.

We were much like the parable of the prodigal son.

The Prodigal Son, an Allegory (A View of the World)

A CALL BACK TO SONSHIP

Referring to Father God as Papa

The prodigal son imagines a selfhood apart from papa’s house. Now the Father/Abba/Papa is the ONE Creator and Sustainer of all that is. And the son, though prodigal, is made in Papa’s image, powerfully creative. And so, when the son imagines leaving home, he has no place to go for only the ABODE of the ONE PAPA exists. And so, the son can only imagine this madness.

The prodigal son is creative, made in the image of Papa, and next thing you know, the son has imagined a far country and wow! A finite counterfeit universe appears in his vain imagination–a virtual universe wherein the son and his fellow prodigals walk around on seeming hard ground, thinking they are wearing earth suits and calling themselves “persons.” They have forgotten who they were.

Soon the dream becomes SO real that ” Prodigal” is hypnotized by it, lost in it, a land of finitude, of death, of opposing powers, of hard edges, of discord, and disease, the “valley of the shadow of death.”

What appears in this land always rots, decays, dies. The prodigal’s dream becomes restless, uneasy. He becomes parched, starving for the infinite abundance and love of Papa’s house. Of course, Papa knows the son has gone dreaming (has left home) and is patiently waiting for him to wake up, allowing him to play out his fantasy, not interfering, allowing his son to choose Life once more when he is ready, yet knowing that what descends in consciousness will sooner or later return home to God-Consciousness. (There is, after all is said and done, only the ONE and Its will to LOVE–perfection).

Not wanting to rouse the son prematurely, before he has learned that he cannot have a selfhood outside of the ONEness with God, Papa utilizes his loving GRACE to gently nudge prodigal and then remind him of his loving home, knowing he will sooner or later return. Papa knows, and when “Prodigal” returns to God/ Father/ Abba/Papa, his name will again be “I AM.”, as He is; so am I.