Christ, Out Life Ministries’ Scriptural Basis pt-4 by Sylvia Pearce Program 4 |more

Christ, Out Life Ministries’ Scriptural Basis pt-4 by Sylvia Pearce Program 4 A Universal oneness is virtually unknown except by an expressed particular form. Therefore God created Man in His image in order to express His own personal Glory. Man is not God, but is made a little lower than Elohim.—Psalms 8:4 & Heb. 2:6 Man was created to express and contain God, but not take God’s place like Satan tried to do. Man is a dependent being, and only a receiver. Man can not producer his own life, therefore has no nature or life of his own, but instead he derives his nature from the one who indwells him. God created man’s free will out of His sovereignty. # 1--Psa. 8:4 & Heb. 2:6—What is Man? The human has no power source of its own, we are an helpless expression of someone else. ! The Bible calls us: Vessels, of which liquid? (wrath or mercy) Romans 9:22-23 Branches, of which vine? (true or false) John 15:1; Romans 6:21-22 Temples, indwelt by which god? (true or false) I Corinthians 6:19-20 Slaves, owned by which master? (old or new) Romans 6:17-18 Wives, married to which husband? (Christ or Satan) Romans 7:2-4 Bodies, of which Christ is the head. Ephesians 1:22-23; Col. 1:18 Man, as we have stated before, is a wonderfully intricately complex spirit being. He is clothed in flesh (soul and body) as a means of expressing his ego “I”. God has equipped us with great faculties and capacities, but the human being has no independent nature of its own. There is no such thing as a “just I,” with powers of its own. Man is a neutral being void of its own nature. We are dependent beings derived from God Himself. Therefore we must derive our life from another source, other than ourselves. Before we were regenerated, we, through the Fall, derived our nature from Satan our former husband and master (Eph. 2:2-3). Now as redeemed people, we are derive our nature from our new husband and master, Christ (II Peter 1:4). The Biblical proof of man’s dependency is clearly seen by what the Bible calls us. The Bible calls us vessels. “That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy” (Romans 9:23). What is the function of a vessel? A vessel is designed to simply be available to contain liquid. The cup isn't the coffee, and the coffee isn't the cup. But we do speak of it in union terms—“A cup of coffee.” However, the vessel is a neutral container available to contain either water or poison, or Christ or Satan. The Bible calls us branches. What is the function of a branch? John 15:1-4 says that Christ is the vine, we are the branches, and “without Him we can do nothing.” It's obvious that a branch apart from the vine can not produce fruit, yet we Christians falsely think that we can produce good works apart from the Holy Spirit. Or, we also think that we can produce good works with God's help. This too is a delusion as well. God can't help us be the vine, we are the branches. A branch simple rest in the fact that it is a channel by which the vine produces the fruit. The Old Testament symbols were shadows of New Testament realities. 1 Cor. 3:16, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" What is the function of a temple? The temple in the Old Testament was the building that housed the Holy-of-Holies, which contained the Shekinah-Glory. It was not the glory itself, but it was the container for the Glory. Just like today we Christians contain the Shekinah-Glory in our “Holy of Holies heart,” but we do not become the glory, we contain it. The Bible calls us slaves. “Being then made free from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). What is the function of a slave? A slave has no freedom or life of his own, for he is bound to his master. He must do what his master tells him to do. II Peter says, "for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." The human has never been what we think of as an independently free agent. We have always been in bondage to our master, either Satan or Christ. The Bible calls us wives. We are “ dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God” (Romans 7:4). What is a wife? A wife is the loving coupled partner of her husband. The two are seen by God as “one flesh.” However a wife can not produce a child apart from being inseminated by her husband. Similarly, we contain Christ, and He produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit through us. And finally the Bible calls us “Bodies,” not the head. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, “And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church. Which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. When we think of a person, we don’t think that the head is one person and the body is another. We think of us as

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