1 Timothy 3:16: "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh ..."
Godliness is a mystery!
If we fail to grasp that fact, we will never understand the nature of godliness.
God did not create us to have us to have an ape-like capacity to imitate God.
There would be a no mystery in that, nor would that lift us morally much above the status
of a monkey or a parrot.
The capacity to imitate is vested in the one who imitates, and does not derive from,
or necessarily share the motives of the person being imitated, who remains passive
and impersonal to the act of imitation.
The kindness and sheer generosity of a certain individual may be an act of pure benevolence,
a genuine, selfless expression of the love of God.
You may be tempted to imitate this person's act, to reproduce it in kind, or even to out-match it,
but your motives may be entirely evil, though the act would be identical.
Pride may persuade you "not to be out-done!"
Jealousy may compel you to prove that the other party is not the only pebble on the beach.
You may resent the gratitude or affection or respect that the other person, however unintentionally,
has justly earned and deserved, or you may feel that the regard in which the other is now held
may lessen your own influence over the future course of events!
In this case, you may deceive the undiscerning with your generosity, and achieve your ends,
but your "generosity" will not be godliness -- your "generosity" will be sin!
In direct contrast to this, godliness -- or Godliness -- is the direct an exclusive consequence
of God's activity in man.
It is not the consequence of your capacity to imitate God, but the consequence
of God's capacity to reproduce Himself in you!
This is the nature of the mystery!
Remove the mystery or try to explain it away, and the result must inevitably be disastrous,
for you will no longer be anchored to anything absolute; you will be at liberty to choose
your own God -- the object of your own imitation; and your "godliness" will be the measure
of your conformity to the object of your choice.
In fact, this is what has been happening all through human history since Adam repudiated
the basic principles of his own humanity and decided to go it alone -- without God!
Man may hide from God -- as Adam did -- but still the voice of God pursues him,
echoing within the spiritual vacuum of his home-sick, godless soul with all the relentless
persistency of a love that never fails, crying,
"Son of Adam, where art thou? -- Where art thou? -- Where art thou?"
This is what makes even the most degenerate individual incurably religious,
even though his "religion" may be most horrible in character and assume
the most hideous of forms -- sometimes even disguising itself as a political creed
as in the national socialism of Adolf Hitler, or as in the atheistic as communism of Karrl Marx,
which for all their political flavor and advertised contempt for religion, are none the less religions
in themselves.
It is one of the subtleties of Satan which causes men to flee from God and seek to silence
His voice in the very practice of religion.
So it is that man, to suit his own convenience, has reduced God to a fee logical formula,
an ethical code, or political program, a theatrical performance in a religious setting,
the hero worship of some vivid personality of noble -- or doubtful -- reputation,
or some dreamed-up image of his own better self; everything from a white cow
to the wind in the trees, or a "Christless Christianity" has been and still remains
the object of man's idolatry.
The moment we come to realize that only God can make a man godly, we are left with no option
but to find God, and to know God, and to let God be God in you and through you,
whoever He may be -- and this will leave you with no margin for picking and choosing
-- for there is only one God, and He is absolute, and He made you expressly for Himself.
Beware lest even as a Christian, you fall into Satan's trap.
You may have found and come to know God in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving Him sincerely
as your Redeemer, yet if you do not enter in the mystery of godliness and allow God
to be in you the origin of His own image, you will seek to be godly by submitting yourself
to external rules and regulations, and by conformity to behavior patterns imposed upon you
by the particular Christian society which you have chosen,
and in which you hope to be found "acceptable."
In this way you will perpetuate the pagan habit of practicing religion in the energy of the "flesh,"
and in the very pursuit of righteousness commit idolatry in honoring "Christianity" more than Christ!
Below is Colossians 2: 20-23 from the Amplified New Testament,
"If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped
from the world's crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism,
why do you live as if you still belong to the world?
-- Why do you submit to rules and regulations?
[Such as], Do not handle [this], Do not taste [that], Do not even touch [them],
Referring to things all of which perish with being used.
To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines.
Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] for wisdom,
in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight and self-humiliation and severity
of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh
-- the lower nature.
[Instead, they do not honor God) but serve only to indulge the flesh."
No man has seen God.
"And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: ... so God created man
in his own image, in the image of God created he him ..." (Genesis 1:26, 27)
This does not mean that man was created physically in the shape of God, nor that God looks like man.
We do not know what God looks like, for "No man hath seen God at any time ..." (John 1: 18).
The Bible declares expressly that God is invisible.
"Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory
for ever and ever. Amen
... Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;
whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen"
(1 Timothy 1:17 and 6:16)
The Bible is equally emphatic concerning the absolute deity of the Son, and His equality
with the Father which the Lord Jesus Christ never once repudiated; yet no man has seen God
at any time -- did no one ever see Jesus Christ?
This is part of the mystery!
"God was manifest in the flesh ..." (1 Timothy 3:16), and further,
" ... the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." (John 1:18)
Phillip said: "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us."
And the Lord Jesus replied, "Have I been so long time with you
and yet hast thou not known me, Phillip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, show us the Father?"
(John 14: 8,9)
To reconcile this statement of the Lord Jesus, and the fact of His own deity,
with the fact that no man has seen God at any time, would seem at first to present
an insuperable problem, for we are presented with the baffling conclusion
that in spite of His total equality with the Trinity of Deity, it was possible 1900 years ago,
for men on earth to look into the face of the Son, see the Father, and yet not see God!
The solution to this mystery is really remarkably simple -- for in Jesus Christ Himself
it has become an open secret, and one which He invites you to share with Him.
It is of paramount importance from the very outset, that we recognize the fact
that when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, He could be God and be man at one and the same time,
but He could not behave as God and behave as man at one and the same time.
Let us explain this, for to understand this is calculated to bring you untold comfort
and encouragement, and to give you an entirely new concept of the Christian life,
and a richer, fuller experience of Christ Himself.
Man was created in such a way that he could bear the image of God without God Himself
becoming visible, so that not his physical form, but his capacity to behave was designed
to be the means through which God intended to express His nature and His character.
As we have already seen, however, this godliness or God-likeness was not to have been
an imitation of God by man, but the direct result of the activity of God in man.
In other words -- God Himself behaving in and through you.
Man's behavior as the effect was to have been the result of God's behavior as the cause.
The former was to have been the "brightness" or the "out-shining"
of the latter's glory, the "express image of His Person. (Hebrews 1:3)
The image was to have been visible while the Person still remained invisible.
Had the Lord Jesus Christ been the source of His own godliness, as He could have been,
He would have been behaving as God only -- both cause and effect
-- and but the result would not have been visible.
He had the right to behave as God only -- for He was and is God, but He could not then
have behaved as man: He would not in point of fact been godly; or "Godlike,"
He would just simply have been God; but "no man hath seen God at any time,"
so that had He in this world both been and behaved as God, no one would have seen Him!
In order to be seen, He had to be made "in the likeness of men"
and be found "in fashion as a man" (Philippians 2: 7, 8),
and behave as man.
To perform in perfection on earth the role for which Christ as God had created man,
He had of His own free volition to accept the limitations imposed upon His own creature,
and to allow the Father, as God, to be the origin of all His own behavior as Man,
so that His godliness as Man was derived directly and exclusively from the activity
of the Father in and through the Son.
In His sinless and perfect humanity Christ became "the sole expression of the glory of God
-- the light-being, the out-raying of the divine -- and He is the perfect imprint and very image
of God's nature ..." (Hebrews 1: 3, Amplified New Testament)
Or as Paul declares: "He is the exact likeness of the unseen God -- the visible representation
of the invisible ..." (Colossians 1: 15, Amplified New Testament)
This will help us to understand more fully what the Bible means when it says,
"He humbled Himself, and became obedient ..." (Philippians 2: 8)
Not simply that He accepted the physical limitations of the human body,
but that He adopted an attitude of total dependence upon the Father,
and denied Himself the right to exercise all those prerogatives of deity which were undoubtedly
His by virtue of the fact that he was both God and man,
at one and the same time.
He deliberately made Himself of "no reputation," and consistently refused to be
the "cause" of His own "effect," declaring emphatically: "I can of mine own self do nothing." (John 5:30)
To use a simple illustration, no man has seen electricity at any time,
yet an electric light bulb is so designed that whenever it receives the invisible electric current, expression is given to the invisible in terms of light.
It would not be true to say that the bulb is giving light, for it has no power to do so
apart from the current which it receives: its behavior as a "light-giver" is the direct
and exclusive consequence of the electricity in it and through it.
The current is the cause, light is the effect, and so you can see the effect,
you still can not see the cause, though both represent the same source of energy.
You can enjoy the light, but still cannot say that you have seen electricity!
You can only say that you have seen a pure expression of it.
In the same way, your behavior was intended by God to be a pure expression
of His divine nature though He remains unseen, and you can no more produce
the effect of yourself, then a bulb can produce light of itself.
Try, and you will soon be exhausted, and at best you will only produce a shady imitation
of the real thing.
It may impress you, but it certainly will not impress anyone else.
It is only the Spirit of God acting within you, who can ever enable you to behave
as God intended you to behave!
"According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life
and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue." (2 Peter 1:3)
His divine power is all that it takes to be godly -- but it takes nothing less!
In other words, it takes God to be a man!
Man, that is, as God intended man to be!
God created man to be inhabited by God for God!
"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4)
The Light depended on the Life!
Once the Life was removed, the Light went out, for the one was the consequence of the other,
and man was plunged into the abysmal darkness of his own spiritual bankruptcy!
What of the "image"?
Without a cause there was no effect, and the attributes of godliness gave way
to the anarchy of godlessness.
"God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any
that did understand, that did seek God.
Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy;
there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
(Psalm 53:2,3)
That is why a spiritual regeneration, or New Birth -- "renewing of the Holy Spirit"
(Titus 3: 5) -- is absolutely imperative if man is to "put on the new nature (the regenerate self)
created in God's image, (God-like) in true righteousness and holiness."
(Ephesians 4:24, Amplified New Testament)
GOD CANNOT BE TEMPTED
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man:" (James 1:13)
If God cannot be tempted with evil, and Jesus Christ was God, how could He be tempted?
"For we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;
but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)
It is no explanation to suggest that though tempted with evil, but only in the sense
that He was tested -- for the statement, "yet without sin," clearly indicates that the nature
of the temptation was such that it would have led to sin had it not been resisted.
Indeed, we may safely assume that the temptations were as sinister and wicked and painful
as anything that the devil could devise, and for this very reason "in that He himself hath
suffered being tempted, He is able to succour those that are tempted." (Hebrews 2: 18)
This then is also part of the mystery, that inherent in His willingness to be made Man,
was the willingness of the Lord Jesus Christ to be made subject to temptation,
for strange as it may seem, inherent in man's capacity to be godly is man's very capacity to sin!
This may not at first be obvious, but we shall return to it at the appropriate time.
In the meantime, we are left with no alternative but to recognize the fact
that it was not as God that Christ was tempted, but as Man;
that the limitations inherent in His ability to be tempted, or the same limitations
which He had so willingly accepted as being inherent in His ability, though Creator,
to play the role of man as His creature and thereby to become
the Visible Representation of the Invisible.
It has been shown that the primary limitation imposed upon you as man,
in order that you may be in the likeness of your Maker and bear the image of the Invisible,
is that of total dependence upon God -- in that your behavior, to be godly, must derive directly
and exclusively from God's activity in you and through you.
Any activity, therefore, in which you may engage, no matter how to nobly conceived,
which does not stem from this humble attitude of dependence upon God, violates
the basic principles of your true humanity and the role for which you were created.
By independence (or the absence of faith), you eliminate God, and substitute yourself,
to become both cause and effect -- the source of your own "godliness," but only God
has the right to be the source of His own godliness, so that however unwittingly,
you are acting as your own God!
You will still believe or pretend that you are worshiping God; but as the object of your imitation,
even Christ Himself may only be an excuse for worshiping your own ability to imitate
-- an ability vested in yourself, and this is the basis of all self-righteousness!
It is startling to discover that even God may be used as an excuse for worshiping yourself,
and demonstrates again the satanic genius for distorting truth, and deceiving man
-- for it was to this temptation that Adam and Eve fell in the garden.
Satan said, "For God doth know that in the day that you eat thereof,
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3: 5)
Satan succeeded in introducing into human experience an attitude toward God
which he himself had already adopted, one of arrogant self-sufficiency,
at once hostile to God, repudiating both the indispensability of the Creator to the creature,
and the moral responsibility of the creature to the Creator.
In so many words, Satan persuaded man that he could be God-like without being God-conscious;
that he had an adequate capacity in himself for being good, without the necessity of having God;
that he could be righteous in his own right, morally adult without the need of being spiritually alive!
In short, that man could be independent -- both cause and effect!
Revelation 4:11 declares, "Thou art and worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power:
for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
If, then, man is to be true to the purpose of his creation, his primary responsibility will be
to please God; but the Bible declares emphatically that "without faith it is impossible
to please Him." (Hebrews 11:6)
So that the first requirement in man, if he is to please God, is faith.
Faith involves something more than an academic nod.
It involves that total dependence upon God which produces divine action in man.
Perhaps you may say, "Very well, I understand that faith is essential for those preoccupied
with pleasing God, but I am not preoccupied with pleasing God!
I do not wish to displease God, nor do I wish militantly to oppose Him.
Frankly, I am disinterested!
In my particular way of life, to me and to the circle in which I live, and to the ambitions
which I cherish, He is simply irrelevant.
So far as God is concerned, I intend to maintain a passive neutrality!"
This, of course, is a sheer impossibility!
Created for a specific purpose, you cannot adopt an attitude of neutrality toward the God
who made you, without being morally irresponsible.
God is not optional, God is an imperative.
For this reason, faith is not optional -- faith is also an imperative.
You either implement the purpose of your creation, by dependence upon God,
or prostitute your humanity!
"For whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (Romans 14:23)
The facts of the case are transparently clear: you were created to please God!
Without faith it is impossible for you to please Him, so that without faith, whatever you do,
no matter what it may be, is sin!
The only alternative to faith is sin!
That is why Satan will always present you with a reasonable alternative to faith,
for he knows that if only he can get you to act in other than dependence upon God,
you are defying your Creator, no matter how lofty your motives,
or otherwise commendable your actions.
God Cannot Be Taught.
God is answerable to no one but to Himself, for He is the Omnipotent Creator.
"O man, who are thou that repliest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to Him that form it, Why hast thou made me thus?" (Romans 9: 20)
God's authority is final, and He obeys no one, for to obey would be less than an act of God.
"Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Saviour." (Isaiah 43:10,11)
Yet herein is the Word, who was in the beginning with God and was God, and by whom all things
were made (John 1:1,2) and "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
... the head of all principality and the power" (Colossians 2: 3, 10), should come into this world
for your sake and mine, and do what as God He had never done!
He learned to obey!
He entered the school of obedience, for "though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered." (Hebrews 5:8)
Was it possible for God to be in the school of obedience?
Only if as God He was prepared to behave as Man!
Had the Lord Jesus Christ on earth not only been God, but also behaved as God,
not only would no one have seen Him, and not only would it have been impossible for Him
to be tempted, but it would have been impossible for Him to obey.
But because He was willing to be God and behave as Man at one and the same time,
He was able to say, "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me,
He gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak." (John 12:49)
As the "Sent One," the Son placed Himself at the disposal of, and submitted Himself
in total obedience to the "Sender," His Father, and "carried His obedience
to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!" (Philippians 2:8, Amplified New Testament)
He was willing to "taste death for every man," (Hebrews 2:9) and suffer as Man
for men what would otherwise have been impossible for Him to suffer as God behaving as God,
for God can never die.
God, "the King eternal," is not only invisible, He is immortal (1 Timothy 1:17)
-- "in the sense of the exemption from every kind of death"
(1 Timothy 6:16, Amplified New Testament)
But of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, it is written,
"For both He Who sanctifies -- making men holy -- and those who are sanctified
all have one [Father], For this reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
... Since, therefore, [these His] children share in flesh and blood -- that is,
in the physical nature of human beings -- He [Himself] in a similar manner partook
of the same [nature], that by [going through] death He might bring to naught
and make of no effect him who had the power of death, that is, the devil."
(Hebrews 2:11, 14, Amplified New Testament)
In this amazing way our wonderful Redeemer, though never less than our Creator God,
by His miraculous incarnation " ... made Himself of no reputation, ...
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death ..." (Philippians 2:7,8), and says to you and me now,
"As my Father hath sent Me so send I you." (John 20:21)
-- to learn to obey in the school of obedience, and to enter in to all the unspeakable privileges
and blessings inherent in the Mystery of Godliness.
