The Language, Madness and Mysticism of St. Paul-

The Language, Madness and Mysticism of Paul-

What does this new reality sound like from a mans lips? Oh, It is wonderful when this truth sets a heart free and gives him a new language to speak, when the language of the New Creation plants itself deeply into our hearts.

When you hear yourself saying things you’ve never said before and also not speaking the things that you used to, you can be sure that this transformation I have described in this book has taken hold of you.

Listen to the language of the Apostle Paul. How he speaks differs exponentially from any other New Testament (or old testament) writer.

The Apostle Paul was a raving madman, consumed in boasting about what Christ had accomplished on the Cross. He was forbidden to speak or to pride himself in any other thing save from that blissful Cross. Joyously and ecstatically he speaks and frolics in the revelation of Christ! Almost in a blabbering manner sometimes overcome by the sheer pleasure of it. Festus told him “his much learning has made him mad”. Oh, but if Festus only knew how mad he really was.

"If I am standing outside myself in ecstasy, it is because of God." (2 Corinthians 5:13, Ben Campbell Johnson Translation)

“If I’m off my rocker its for God” (Cotton Patch Translation)

But there was a glorious reason for Paul’s language and madness.

For the Love of Christ which he has for me presses me on all sides, prohibiting me from considering any other, it wraps itself around me in tenderness giving me an impelling motive, namely that one has died on behalf of all, therefore all have died. (2 Corinthians 5:14, Weust Translation)

The unstoppable love force of God discovered in the revelation that he had already shared Christ’s death drove his madness. The Love of Christ had overmastered him as the Weymouth translation puts it. It left him no choice. (2 Corinthians 5:13, New English Bible)

This was the fount of the ecstasies of Paul. This was the source of his madness and his shocking language.

Paul’s Mysticism-

Paul had been given a divine drive to spread to the entire world the mystical realities of the Gospel. He was a dispenser of a new dimension and a new world. This dimension was Christ and his New Covenant.

The Apostle Paul was the first Mystic Theologian.

“Mysterion appears twenty-one times in Paul's letters out of a total of twenty-seven NT occurrences. ... Paul normally employs the term with reference to its disclosure or its being revealed.” (Dictionary of Paul and His Letters).

So what is this mystic secret that has been revealed?

…Know more definitely and accurately and thoroughly that mystic secret of God, [which is] Christ (the Anointed One). (Col 2:2, Amp)

The basis of Paul’s mysticism is the reality of the believer dying, being buried and rising with Christ. His letters and language are crammed with this mystical union.

“Paul mystically identifies the believers with Christ and figuratively describes the process of salvation in the Christian man in terms of the saving deeds which procured his salvation- In an with the saving deeds- Christ's death and resurrection- the salvation of all believers is conceived of as accomplished, so that the believing world is described as dying (to sin) when Christ died, and as rising with him to newness of life. This method of thought is the supreme example of Paul’s mysticism,” writes George Barker Stevens in The Theology of Paul.

Even Paul’s ecstatic experiences were based on and were produced by a revelation of the truth. “Fourteen years ago I was the subject of an incomprehensible ecstasy, in which truths too great for human language were imparted to me. I will base my boast on such experiences in which I was but the dependant, passive instrument of the Lord.” (2 Cor 12:2, George Barker Stevens Translation)

Yes, Paul was a mystic and an ecstatic, but his mysticism and raving ecstasies had their source in his revelation.

His language was one of a heart enraptured in full mystical union with Christ. One of Paul’s favorite phrases to describe this union is the phrase “in Christ”. In the language of Paul, believers are described as having already shared in Christ's death, burial and resurrection and are now enjoying mystical union in his glorious reign.

In Paul’s heart he was inseparable from the Lord. He was one Spirit with Him. (1 Corinthians 6:17)

Paul’s language is the new language for the New Creation. You won’t hear from Paul’s lips some of the phrases that are commonly heard from many Christian lips.

In the New Creation language you won’t find longing and wanting. You will find endless praises declaring that the waiting and wanting is over. It’s a language and song of blissful fulfillment and ecstatic satisfaction.

It is the New Song mentioned in the Psalms and in Revelation. It is the song of men made into the home of God, the song of mortals transformed and swallowed by Life.

The language of the New Creation is the inner realities of the heart spoken out loud for all to hear and be made jealous. It declares, “I have already been crucified with Christ”, it sings, “I am altogether new”. It boasts in the revelation of what Christ has accomplished.

Isn’t it heart wrenching that so many believers don’t know how to speak this language. They are stuck in the undone instead of floating in the finished.

Some of the phrases of the old language is this: “I must nail myself to the cross every day” or “I’m just a sinner saved by grace” or “Lord you saved me but now come and cleanse me” or “every day I’ve got to die to my flesh”.

Obviously the list goes on, and for the sheer fact that I hate hearing them I will say no more of these faithless jabberings.

This is a dead language! It should not exist for the believer. Our language should always be a boast and praise that Christ has provided a perfect cure to our once separated condition.

We should revel and frolic like Paul in our newly found union with Christ. We should be blabbering madmen filled with Gods kind of righteousness. We should be believers who can’t shut up about the New Creation Realities!

Those who speak this new language are captivated in the revelation that we were once for all nailed to His Cross, and this, not at our hand or by our will but by the sovereign will of the Happy God.

We were sinners, but now we are saints by Grace. Were weren’t saved and forgiven to remain in the sinful state we were in, but we were translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. If we don’t see this we miss salvations purpose, we have no clue what we were saved from and in turn cannot know what we’re saved into.

Listen to Paul’s words about the flesh and let it give you a new language.

In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a [spiritual] circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts). (Col 2:11 Amplified Bible)

The Apostle always points to the “you were” circumcised and the old “has been” cut away when speaking about the believers existence pre union with Christ.

Our language should not be a mixture of old and new but it should be like Paul’s, a pure and strong drink of the truth.

The reason why many still speak that old dead language that I described is simply out of ignorance. I say that in the sense that they have simply never heard the new language of the finished work of Christ spoken or sung. They just have never had a chance to believe it! This is a tragedy on the part of ministers of the Gospel.

“Let preachers of God's word take heed how they straiten the way of salvation, or render, by unjust description, that way perplexed and difficult which God has made plain and easy.” Says Adam Clarke in his Commentary.

So, listen with your heart. Listen intently to the sweet truth. Let the Lord minister to you the scroll that is sweet like honey. Let the realities stir you in the deepest parts of your heart. Let the new become real to you. Simply submit and surrender to God’s way of salvation.

The new language is the language of faith, which is trust. It’s the language of love, not longing. Yes, you were once lovesick but Love himself came and cured that disease. What you hungered for, Christ became and was given to you for your satisfaction. I ask, if we are not completely satisfied with Christ’s offering on the Cross, with what will we be? Know this, that God himself is completely and supremely satisfied with Christ’s sacrifice.

Listen to Paul’s words, “nothing can separate me from the love of God” and let them drive you mad like these words did to him.

Come joyously to the same conclusion that Paul did, “that one died on behalf of all, therefore all have died with Him”. For, when this reality hits you, it will instantly change your native tongue. You will blissfully forget how to speak the old, and you will be overcome with the new.

Then and only then will the true praises roll effortlessly off of your tongue. Baptized into the love cloud, you will have no choice but to sing like ones whole existence is to love and be loved by Christ.

Frequencies of heavenly bliss are yours, and as a New Creation you must respond to the revelation by singing them. 

The Happy Gospel

In 1 Timothy 1:11 in the Rotherham translation we see what the Gospel really consists of:

... according to the glad-message of the glory, of the happy God. 

Yes, the message is one of extreme gladness and God is an extremely happy God!

The focus of the Happy Message, which we call the Gospel, is and will always be; the Nature of God and the nature of what He has accomplished for humanity through His Son Jesus the Christ.

This message to humanity is infinitely blissful and glad, for in it we find the cure for fallen mankind. The Gospel itself is the drink every heart longs for. It lifts man from his wretched, sinful state into the limitless heights of happiness and holiness found only in salvation.

The Good-News is centered in God’s son, and tells of a new existence given graciously to all who believe and trust in it’s power.

There are many non-gospels as the message bible puts it, in Galations chapter 1, that pretend to be Gods message but none of these can or will have the same effect as the True Gospel does upon the heart of the believer. None can produce the heart satisfaction and endless peace that only the true Good- News can procure.

When this message is declared it does not leave a man feeling unworthy and pitiful. In fact, when preached, the glorious Gospel leaves man with the realization that there was an infinite cost paid to make him worthy. It opens a door to a new reality. It leaves us with beauty in trade for ashes. Tears are turned into wine and the sound of rejoicing is heard instead of the sound of weeping.

The Gospel leads men to repentance not because of the fear of eternal punishment, but because of the promise of eternal bliss! It is the goodness of God, the divine pleasure, which leads man to repentance.

In the Gospel we see the greatest gift given to the universe, sent not to condemn but to save. Sent to save the human race from a lifeless existence separated from God. To save from sin and its sting in this life!

The Gospel is the declaration of freedom from all sin, sickness, disease, depression and death and it is the voice of the Lord that speaks to the darkness and turns it into light.

To know the Gospel as anything less than this is tragic. Unless it is known and drunk down in its entirety, its benefits will never be realized.

Next time someone preaches to you "the gospel" check your joy meters; because only the true Glad-Message of Christ's' finished work on the cross the can tip the scales! 

+A New Creation in a New World+

At the first sip of the Good News we come face to face with the realities and limitless possibilities of the the New Creation. A Christian is all together New and enjoys a new joy filled Life in a new world.

“I consider myself as having died and now enjoying a second existence which is simply Jesus using my body.” Galatians 2:20. - Distilled Bible.

There are two greek words used in the New Testament for new. The first is “neos” which means new of the same kind and quality. The second, which I will spend exploring in this chapter is “kainos”. “Kainos” is one of my absolute favorite words in the New Testament. The definition of “kainos” is this:

KAINOS: of a new kind and quality, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of.

Another great explanation of “kainos” is: “ … new in kind and in contrast to what previously existed, so taking the place thereof.

If something is “kainos” it is superior to what it succeeds.

Without a doubt, one of my most cherished verses in scripture where “kainos” is used is in 2 Corinthians 5:17.

“So that, assuming that anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation in quality.” - Weust Translation

“Therefore, if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new being.” - TCNT

“For if a man is in Christ he becomes a new person altogether.” - Phillips Modern English

“When anyone is united to Christ, there is a new world.” - NEB

We are not the same distorted and corrupted humans we once were, subject to the chains of sin and death. We are new, we are “Kainos’ new! We are new in quality and in kind, and superior to what we were in our fallen state.

The scripture goes on to say, in the next verse, that not only are we new creations, but that the old being or person we were before we came to Christ has also been made extinct.

“His old being has passed away.” - Con

“His old life has disappeared, everything has become new about him.” - Knox

“The past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new.” - Phillips Modern English

“The old order has gone, and a new order has already begun.” NEB

The old order is gone and everything is New! The greek word here for old is “arkhayos” and is defined as: the original or primeval. How amazing! Christ and his Cross have destroyed the original corrupted humanity and created us anew in him.

“Numerous popular explanations of Paul’s doctrine of the Christian life argue, or assume, that the Apostle distinguishes with these phrases two parts or natures of a person. Following this misguided thinking is the debate as to whether the “old nature” is replaced by the “new nature” at conversion, or whether the “new nature” is added to the old.

The interpretation that ho palaios anthropos and ho kainos anthropos refer to parts is wrong and misleading. These terms rather designate the complete person viewed in the corporate whole to which he or she belongs. Thus these terms are better translated as “old person” and “new person”…The translation “old self” and “new self” is too individualistic, since the idea certainly means the individual Christian (Rom 6:6), but is much more than merely individual.

The “old person” is not the sin nature which was judged at the cross and to which is added a “new person”. The “old person” is what believers where “in Adam” (in the old era). The “old” points to everything connected with the fall of humanity and with the subjection to the distress and death of a transitory life, separated from God.

The “new person” is what believers are “in Christ” (in the new era). Paul directs us to the completely new, to the salvation and healing that believers receive when they are crucified with Christ and raised with him.”-The Dictionary of Paul and His letters.

Everything that we were “in adam” has been shattered and destroyed! We have been completely disconnected from the fallenness of humanity and it’s curse, which is separation from God, and have entered into a new world altogether. We enter into a new era. This change is not just a change in the nature of a man it encompasses far more!

In this new era, a Kainos era, a whole new reality and dimension opens to us. I call it the “kainos dimension”. It’s a whole new world! In our union with Christ we have entered into new existence in a new world of endless bliss. This is the realm and reality believers enjoy as a gift when they drink freely of the new covenant.

So, if we suppose that this new creation reality is truly what Paul writes it is, in the divine word, we must conclude to a few glorious truths available to us.

First lets explore a bit about a few assumptions about the human body. Without a doubt most view it as a vile and evil entity that must be subdued by much effort of the believer. This I believe is not the reality that Christ leaves us in His infinite love and with his perfect sacrifice.

The body is not in and of itself evil at all. It is a creation and master work of art by the Master of Holiness created to carry the life of the spirit!

The body is designed by the Lord to be subservient to whoever its master is. It is under the dominion of whoever owns it, whether it be darkness or light, sinfulness or righteousness, life or death. When owned by darkness it is enslaved to its purposes.

But, when owned by Christ, the body is gloriously enslaved to love and to be loved by Him! It is employed to express and demonstrate the radical love of Christ and to be put on display for all to see the divine life flowing through it. It is given totally over to His life and His righteousness. The one whose body is owned by Christ has His very eternal life flowing through their veins!

This is why we can believe and trust in Christ’s sacrifice to be perfectly sufficient for perfect divine health all of our lives. When in union with Christ life and not death is the ruling factor. The Christian body becomes is the glorious carrier of Christ himself! Believe it, drink it, and feast on the New Realities of the New Creation!

+Feasting on the Evidence+

+Feasting on the Evidence+

As we are now absorbed into a new Kingdom with a new King that reigns in our new hearts, I feel it wise for us to know what this Kingdom consists of. After all, if one never knows, how can one experience its treasures?

The Apostle Paul is genius in communicating this kingdoms ingredients and I feel it necessary to add nothing to His words. Romans 14:17 "[After all] the Kingdom of God is not a matter of [getting the ] food and drink [ one likes ] , but instead it is righteousness [ that state which makes a person acceptable to God] and [heart] peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.-amp. Righteousness, peace and joy, amazingly, are the evidence of the Kingdom of God.

The Great Gospel of imparted righteousness is in continual orbit around this glorious King and His Kingdom; Like the living creatures surrounding the throne continually singing, "Holy, Holy, Holy". All of heaven is enraptured in the ecstasy of His holiness and astonished that this holiness has been graced to us!

This holiness and righteousness is not attained by self-submission and self-obedience. No, this righteousness can only be drunk down as a gift. For no other kind of righteousness can stand before His presence. No other dance floor can hold His Joy and His Glory. Nothing but an unearned, unachieved, glorious gift!

In turn this Happy Message produces in a man such heart filling peace and enamoring joy that he realizes that he need nothing else. This man, that receives such a glorious existence given only by such a glorious God, becomes completely satisfied!

This is the state of Kingdom existence. Ecstatic satisfaction! This is what the Gospel affords and imparts to those who believe.

Many other things are mistaken to be evidence of Kingdom fullness. These are twisted ideas that measure a mans nearness to the Lord by a mans gift of miracles, encounters, ability or works. Such notions that leave room only for self-achievement, self-attainment and eventually lead to self-disappointment. When one gives his heart over to such a system of believing he forgets the very heart of the true Gospel, which is simple childlike faith. Instead of trusting in the ability of God, one finds himself in a place where his efforts are needed to produce the desired result. Whether it be miracles, holiness or any other good thing.

Language, then, also follows suit and what is heard from the mans tongue is no longer the glories of The Gift, but rather a boast in the need to pursue and to press. The song sung to the well of salvation is no longer heard.

The Jews were guilty because they demanded signs and wonders but missed the scandalous Grand Miracle, which was Christ coming to dwell in their hearts. The crime I believe was not the wanting of the miraculous but missing it when it came. The Greeks were equally guilty in their want for wisdom but again they missed Christ, who is the manifold wisdom of God. All of us are guilty of this subtle mesmerizing of the soul, but as subtle as it may be it leads to a polluted and stagnant pool. Surrendering to such ideas build up for ourselves a kingdom made of salt and castles made of sand, which inevitably fall with the changing of the wind.

Religion always wants something additional to simple faith and trust. Of course miracles do come, but they come at the call of faith. Jesus said that the signs would follow those who believe upon the Gospel. Believing upon the joyful message of what Christ has done is all that God really wants.

Let me put forth a simple truth. God does not need our help! This is a simple yet revolutionary truth. He does the miraculous sovereignly and independent of our striving, achieving or lack thereof. Paul in Galatians 3 reminds the bewitched Galatian church that Christ did miraculous and wondrous, supernatural things not according to their law rituals of fasting and self denial, but according to their clinging to and trusting in the message of the Gospel.

Yes, let us desire miracles and the endless, wondrous realms of heaven. But don't forget that heaven is at our hands. Forget not that heaven has invaded our hearts like a king conquering a foreign land needing permission from none. Forget not that Jesus is heaven and that He does not come and go. He abides with us and in us always. He, once and for all, opened heaven for all to taste and to drink their fill.

It's not just the for few who can press in for it. No, it is for all who believe! Don't take your eyes off of the Grand Miracle of a life possessed by God.

Scour the scriptures if you dare and see what you find. But be carful, major foundations of what you believe may be shaken and may even fall to their knees and bow to the Majestic Gospel.

The true evidence of fullness of the Kingdom and its realities is childlike faith being empowered and expressed by love. When this simple truth arrests a mans heart he sets sail on an endless ocean of bliss. The measuring rod of comparison is tossed overboard. The storms of un-fulfillment and disappointment disintegrate into nothing. No longer let down by the lack of seeing the miraculous, he is absorbed in a gaze at THE Miracle. Heaven is the wind in his sails and signs and wonders ripple endlessly behind. This man sings the melody of faith endlessly and joyously, like a drunken sailor singing after having too much rum. This is the true evidence of the realities of the Kingdom.

Let this be your song, let it drip from your lips like sticky honey dripping from the comb. Let all who hear it taste its sweetness and be addicted to its effects upon their soul.

+Christ Bursting From the Shadows+

Christ Bursting From the Shadows!

Inside of the Old Testament we find endless hidden rivers running wildly through every page. All of them flowing and secretly drawing us into the vast ocean of the reality of Christ. Every word written screams his glorious name.

Absolutely every character and story a shadow cast by the One who was to come and his kingdom. Characters, though before the time of Christ, entered into Faith and saw Him. Every miracle, sign, wonder and prophecy reverberated his approaching.

They all looked toward the future when the coming of the Messiah would usher in a new age of God among us, a day when Immanuel would come to the hearts of men.

They saw and declared what was to come, yet we declare what is here.  He has come! They saw and emulated as types and shadows what we now enjoy the reality of. The Christ has emerged from the shadows and has publicly declared his undying love for all mankind through his death upon the Cross.

With his explosion out from among the dead in his resurrection he has begun His glorious kingdom to reign sovereignly in our hearts. A marvelous new kingdom centered in a people consumed by the King of Glory. A people indwelt by God!

Wow, what a glorious existence we have. Abraham saw this day, Christ's day, and rejoiced. Moses sang of His coming, David wrote of His mercies, all the prophets trumpeted His arrival. Yet, we have drunk of Him. We have drunk the life-blood of this New Covenant that was shed without reserve for us. We have drunk, and we are satisfied.

+The Real Reality of Christianity+

Many have taken on the task of describing the Christian life some with success and some not, and so I will also put forth my deepest hearts beliefs about such. 

What is a Christian? A Christian is one who’s heart once mastered and owned by desires contrary to the nature of God, has been extracted by the Divine and replaced with a heart and nature so fully filled and flooded with light and love that the former is eclipsed to absolutely nothing more than a bad memory. So much so that the past life of this heart is only called upon as a cause for rejoicing that it has departed. Like an empty prison cell only remembered by the former resident as a reminder of how fantastic freedom from that cell really is.

The only struggle found in the absolute finished work of Christ is the struggle of one trying to describe it.  It’s like trying to describe to an infant the complex biology of how a mother produces milk. Yet infants nurse at its simplicity. Or like trying to explain to a child why air is invisible or how many stars there are in the sky. The child simply breathes the air and watches the stars twinkle. The reality is that this Grace can only be illustrated by inward affections outwardly expressed by the one ravished by it. It speaks through experience. This glorious Gospel was intended and can only be perfectly communicated in this way, in public displays of divine affection. I am convinced that reason or witty debate never won a single person to salvation. The seed might have been planted but it was God himself who made it grow. It is Christ and his infinite Love alone that draws men to Himself and this very Love permeates and flawlessly communicates its irresistible nature through all who drink of its goodness.  There is nothing more persuasive than a believer enjoying God.