The Manner of Christ’s First Appearance to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road and its Impact and Significance to the True Gospel of Grace Revealed by Paul the Apostle.

By newparadigmthinkers

While visiting a Wild Bird Rehab Centre in South Africa, I learnt a most astonishing lesson.
The now nearly extinct Falcon, while being bred there in captivity, displays very interesting and unusual behaviour for a raptor.
When a little baby Falcon (“eyasses”) is hatched the very first living species its eyes focus on, it will instantly adopt and become in its own mind!
It immediately identifies and assumes as its very own the nature, that of this particular species.
In other words, if the very first thing it sees is a human being, it will fixate upon and consider itself to be a human. It will completely disregard its own genesis of origin as a bird of prey and emotionally and mentally bond with, and even begin to imitate human behaviour patterns. It ignorantly denies and overrides its own original nature and becomes instantly a double product of captivity, not only as one born into captivity but also the victim of a mind imprisoned and held in bondage for a lifetime by the illusion of a false perception.
It appears that there is a parallel between this phenomena and the way many Christians manifest the same pattern in their spiritual life. The seeds of the destruction of their spiritual potential are often sown at its very inception.
Christians absorb and internalize very early in life a picture produced by the religious environment and spiritual ecology within which first open their eyes. Received either by tradition, heritage or subsequent spiritual experience this internalized construct immediately and unconsciously cements the picture of what a Christian is expected to be and sets the limitations end expectations in place for the future.
Not unlike the misguided baby Falcon, the Christian now begins to emulate a superficial and false man made external religious cultural identity. He lives mesmerized and in ignorance and denial of his/her divinely ordained design function as one who has been given the power to believe and live a son of God.
Hence, as people representing different denominations i.e.: Pentecostals, Methodists, Baptists, Charismatic’s, Word of Faith, Catholics, etc., we act out, and strive to excel in imitating this internalized construct of the religious system which first represented Christianity to us, with its peculiarities and unique trappings!
Most Christians live from the cradle to the grave without awakening from the trap of this hypnotic condition.
They never discover the truly liberating nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the revelation of the Divine Mystery of the unique union between humanity and Divinity it proclaims. They live with little or no awareness or experience of the true character of their own spiritual nature as being partakers of His Divine Nature.
Saul of Tarsus, a man divinely destined to become Paul the Apostle, to whom the mystery of God in Christ with its deeper and fuller implications for mankind was first revealed, was once himself besieged and driven by the perceived demands of a severe and uncompromising external religious system.
When Paul encountered the Resurrected and Glorified Christ on the road to Damascus, his first vision and attachment was not to a religious system or body of doctrine, but the presence and power of His Divine Personage in human form.
This crucial vision and decisive and dramatic internalization of the first impression of the resurrected heavenly Christ Jesus as the Head of His earthly Divine Body at once became the uncompromising foundation and intrinsic essence of Paul’s Christian life, experience and teachings.
The divine revelation of the super-natural impartation of a new internal spiritual reality, namely, Christ in us, the Hope of Glory! , transformed Paul, and henceforth became his outward expression of life.
This new revelation given to Paul by the Cosmic Christ Himself is the very antithesis of all other failed external religious systems required to be internalized by human striving and self-effort.

Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World……an idea which time has come!

There exists an unfortunate weakness within the contemporary Christian Church!
Measured against her opportunity and potential for relevance within this desperately needy world we live in, the Church in my opinion, has become tragically irrelevant.
Her flaw lies in the fact that she has lost her unique and distinctive birthright; she lacks a vital revelation and clarifying explanation of the divine‘Living Logos’!
Hence, she is now become largely impotent in fulfilling her mandate and silent in prophetically describing and prescribing the over arching paradigm concerning the One in Whom is found mankind’s single spiritual solution.
The eternal objective reality and absolutelyexclusive status of the only unique Son of God, and simultaneously the implications of the all inclusive Cosmic and Universal nature of Jesus Christ, has become lost in our limited collective and individual perception of reality and religious sentiment, bred from our subjective experience.
The true message and correct representation of Who Jesus Christ actually is within the Trinity, and the far reaching claims He Himself has made and rightfully asserts, have become diluted, corrupted and confused by human reasoning.
Most Christians are blissfully unaware that there is a distinction between the Bible, also referred to as ‘God’s Word’ and the One who is referred to as the ‘Living Word’, the Manifest member of the Triune Godhead!
Many battle to distinguish the ‘Living Word’ out from the collective man made ecclesiastical structures, human doctrines, religious ethics and moral creeds that we consider to be Christianity.
Because the original and authentic apostolic vision and message of Christ Jesus as Himself being the Living Word, is lost in the Church…. she has become partially ignorant of the very reason for her own existence!
Consequently has no truly relevant message about the One Who is in Himself  the very Divine Hope for a religiously confused and spiritually dumbed-down humanity desperately seeking the answer for its pain and turmoil!
A humanity, to use the cliché, who has since its inception, been driven by fear and ignorance to look for love in all the wrong places!
The very reason for our existence as the ‘Ecclesia’, the ‘Church’, the human Body of Jesus Christ in the earth, is not to present to humanity a Jesus as the mere figurehead of a more desirable replacement religion called Christianity!
Jesus is not competing for numbers with the major religions of the world, neither is He seeking their vote of approval or the endorsement of His Supremacy. He is already confidently established as The Christ of God, theover arching spiritual paradigm, in whom all of mankind exists and consists
We are not merely to make  ‘converts’ and pseudo disciples for the religion called Christianity.

"All authority has been given me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.."

Jesus Christ exists and operates in a sphere far superseding and superior to the institutions and formalities of all the religions of the world.
We are  to persuade and win over all the peoples of the earth under the ‘discipline’ of the certain knowledge of supreme Lordship of Jesus Christ and Good News of their inclusion into the life and love of the Trinity through Him.
Indeed to confidently announce Jesus as the very Christ of God!
Unequivocally proclaiming Him not only as the sole Saviour of All Mankind but indeed the Supreme Lord over all the Earth!
Pronouncing His legitimate claim of ownership over all of Humanity!
Jesus Christ is indeed the Saviour of the World……this is now an idea which time has come!

 

 

Rate This

The Eternal Divine Mystery….revealed in History ….but hidden to Humanity!

 

The eclipse of the sun.

For the last 2000 years various unbalanced and imperfect expressions and forms of religious activity have presented themselves under the name of Christianity.

Many of the graces and endowments of the Christian Faith, intended to be a blessing, have in fact become a snare and a spiritual death trap to many.
All ‘truth’ exists within the tension of two opposing and often seemingly contradictory polarities. Pulled to far towards any extreme, the very ‘truth’ itself, now out of balance, biased and distorted from its context now becomes the ground for error.
The Apostle Paul in his magnificent exposition of Love distinguishes between the outworking of the Life-giving Spirit of Christ and these fleshly religious aberrations.
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels”……referring to the religion of ecstatic emotionalism.
“Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge”……..religion as theological intellectualism.
“Though I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains……..an active energized faith for overcoming and achieving great results in the name of God.
“Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor”……. religion as humanitarianism.
“Though I give my body to be burned” – asceticism, the religion of self-sacrifice and self-denial.
And also the fleshly expression of legalism …….producing a judgemental religion that spawns boasting, arrogance, pride and is devoid of love.

The Apostle Paul.

Paul explicitly repudiates all these distorted and inadequate representations of the outworking of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in peoples lives.
Yet ironically, by the strange twist of fate, Paul himself the lover of Christ and champion of Grace was at times himself the very embodiment of the elements of religion expressions he refuted.
We see Paul as the chosen revelator of divine mysteries. Yet we encounter Paul as the moralist and judgementalist, Paul the ecstatic visionary thinker. Paul the speculative theologian, often the enterprising organizer and clergyman, Paul the humanitarian, Paul the ascetic.
Unfortunately, of the different depictions of Paul, the one that has historically been the most prominent is that of a dogmatic thinker, the creator of a curriculum of theology, of religious philosophy, of a system of ecclesiology.
This historical misperception and ecclesiastical blunder has done much injury to this great spiritual visionary giant and has ruined Paul revelation of the eternal mysteries of God for many throughout the centuries.
A man of God’s worst enemy is often himself, ruining his own legacy and influence. However, Paul’s greatest ministry adversary, opposing his purpose and influence most down the centuries was not Paul himself…….but Paulinism.
Overlaid by elaborate religious systems and daunting theories and interpretations and forbidding theologies of generations the essence of Paul’s message……..the vital reality of God’s eternal intention of the ‘adoption’ of humanity unto Himself and into union with Him in Christ is mostly denied or treated as common truth.
If mentioned, his great insights into the Mystery of God, of both the Father and of Christ, are projected as a future heavenly destination, instead of presented as our point of departure! 
At the heart of Paul’s teaching was the revelation of at least three remarkable eternal mysteries.
Sadly, not unlike a solar eclipse, where the moon strategically becomes superimposed over the sun, obscuring its brightness, man made religious institutions and dogmas have eclipsed and  dimmed from view  these transforming realities.
Firstly that In Christ Jesus, all the Fullness of the Divine Godhead dwelt bodily. He envisioned Christ as both the genesis and fulfilment of all things.
He described the glorification of His humanity as forever reconciling humanity and divinity within Himself, perfectly satisfying both God and man. As Mediator and Guarantor of an eternal Father and Child relationship contained within the One perfect and unique relationship, the bond between Christ the Son and the Eternal Father.
He saw in the coronation of the Son of Man, withinn the Royal Throne Room of Heaven, at the Right Hand of God the Father, in the very Seat of All Rule and Authority as establishing the Man Christ Jesus as indeed the Cosmic Ruler and Supreme Universal Head over all existence, with an undisputable claim on all Mankind.
Secondly, a divine initiative of abounding and amazing grace, conceived by Divine Love in eternity past within the Godhead, and successfully executed by the Son of God in creation, within matter, energy, time and space, a perfect act of both  reconciliation and adoption between fallen man and his Maker.
Thirdly, Paul saw the resurrection of  Jesus Christ as the First-born and Corporate Head of a New Creation, a new species of Humanity, unlike anything that ever existed before. Jesus Christ now, through the Resurrection from out of death, transcending the limitations of human form … having now become also the  Life- giving Spirit who is all and in all, and fills all in all.
He saw the mystery of the special  ‘ecclesia’ of Jesus Christ, within humanity, of those responding to the ultimate ‘truth’ of their inclusion and infusion in His Life, Those believing and walking in the reality of their participation as being en-Christed men and women, their very life  hidden in Christ in God.
A realization that Christ within man is the very hope of the realization of God’s opinion of man, and the manifestation and completion of our original design!
Like a priceless masterpiece by a brilliantly talented painter, stuck away in the attic of time and completely forgotten, covered with accumulated layers of dust of centuries, such is the greatest Divine mysteries of all the ages and generations!
Victor Hugo once said, …“Nothing is as powerful as an idea which time has come!”
The revelation of these mysteries were known and penned by the Apostle Paul 2000 years ago.
Yet, if there ever was an idea worthy of acceptance, this ancient hidden truth, that Jesus Christ is their completion, their Saviour and also Lord, is indeed the birthright of every every member of the human family.
That Jesus Christ is the Lord and Saviour of all mankind,………….. is an idea which time has come!