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.
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Oh BliSS
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