Something Changed

THE SYMBOL OF CHALCEDON

consubstantial with the Father as touching his Godhead, and consubstantial with us touching his manhood

A theological question often surfaces concerning the question of the human body, whether it be evil or good. The presupposition is always that the body is good based on a pre-fall text of Scripture by the popular and traditional opinion (of men). But this is trying to answer the question based on the presupposition of a single verse and avoiding others in the neglect of the totality of Scripture that speaks on this question of the “spiritual” law (Rom.7:14). I want to ask and answer this question on the presupposition that “something changed.” In other words, I want to ask this question under the condition and presupposition of the fall of Adam into sin, which is said to have corrupted the whole world and the whole man in body, soul, and spirit, changing the “spiritual” law of God’s view of the world as His own creation (1Jn.5:19). This presupposition is that man is totally corrupt, nor to be understood as basically good but is now counted as evil in every part of body, soul, and spirit (Jer.13:23). Some give lip service to this fact (Ps.51:5-6), however, all the while believing the body is good based on pre-fall conditions and teachings of the spiritual law (Gen.1:26-27, 31; 2:15-17).

So let’s think more deeply on this question than what the spirit of the world loves to rest its peace upon when using the surface of this as the pillow of their own presupposition (Gen3:1-7, 21-24). It is true that Adam was made in the image of God, which is clarified by the likeness of God’s spiritual knowledge of truth in the inward parts (Ps.5:9; 51:6; Lk.11:39). That image was based upon the likeness and fellowship of eternal life under the conditions God set for Adam to represent this quality of life before his wife and the hope of his posterity. The human body, under those conditions, was created for God’s good purpose, but the body was made weak even under the pre-fall conditions (Rom.6:19; 8:3-4). Therefore, in weakness, the body depended on conditions that provided eternal life (Gen.3:22-24). It was made perfect for that environment, but the weakness is exposed under the conditions of sin (Rom.5:12-21). Therefore, when Adam sinned, and those conditions were removed, the image (to represent) the likeness of God was lost (Ps.82). If the likeness was lost, the image also must be lost. While Irenaeus may not correlate to what I am aiming to illuminate through the selected Scriptures, he is correctly concluding in his work “Against Heresies (5.16.2)” that the “similitude” or likeness was easily lost because it was not truly revealed what the image was and because it was still invisible after whose image Adam was created (Rom.1:20).

So when the Word becomes flesh (Jn.1:14), the image is then made visible in whom Adam was created to represent under the good purpose of the weakness of the fall to perfect him according to the glory of the resurrection life of Christ under the better conditions of the “everlasting” covenant, for Ireneaus concedes that Jesus re-established the likeness after a sure manner of the Father’s invisible love through the visible means of Christ’s love (Rom.1:18-21; Mk.15:34; 1Jn.3:1-3). So the purpose of Christ becoming flesh, then, was to come by means of the “same” image (Heb.2:14-15), but with the true likeness of God (Phil.2:5-8; Col.1:15-20), to do away with the image that is now cursed (1Cor.15:50), representing death as a judgment of God (1Jn.3:8; Rom.6:2-7), for in Adam “another” father is proclaimed (Jn.8:44), who is the author of evil through the law of sin and death by virtue of “the good purpose” of the tree called the knowledge of good and evil (Rom.6:23; 7:24-8:2). In Adam, the law renders the body, soul, and spirit of the world as evil and the whole man a sinner through the sheer act of conception of the serpent’s seed (Ps.51:5; Rom.5:19). In Adam, the whole world is condemned (Rom.5:12-21; 1Cor.15:21-22).

Therefore, in correlation to the serpent’s headship (Rom.7:14), the image of Adam must be crushed (Gen.3:14-15). This is the image Christ took to himself in taking on the likeness of the flesh (Jn.3:14-15). But being in the very form of God (Phil.2:5-7), he could not be corrupted by the curse of the flesh (Heb.7:23-28; Gal.3:10-14). In the flesh, Christ is tempted at all points as we are (Heb.4:14-16; Rom.7:18, 21), but in the soul and spirit of the everlasting and incorruptible image (Ps.16:10; Acts 2:27, 31; 13:35), the power of its death could not restrain him from the power of life of very life as God in the flesh (Jn.1:1-2, 14). Therefore, flesh and blood does not inherit eternal life because the image of its likeness was destroyed, not marred in Christ’s death (Matt.16:17; 2Cor.3:14-16). The image of the flesh has no good purpose beyond the grave (2Cor.3:17-4:6), for it is not yet revealed what we shall be (1Jn.3:2; Rom.8:18-19), and therefore, we should take no confidence in the flesh when we are led to walk by the Spirit of his grace (Phil.3:1-11). “Something changed.” That is the presupposition of the manner of my question and answer regarding the body.

Christ testifies of this when he is confronted with this question in a different form (Matt.19:16-17). Paul bears witness to this according to the revelation of his doctrine (Rom.8:3-4). Therefore, in the separation of soul and spirit (Heb.4:12), the body is under the curse and profits no good thing (Jn.6:63), not even in revealing salvation to us beyond the fulfillment of the spiritual law in its death and destruction (Rom.8:3-8). While under the law of sin, the body only adds to the wrath stored up for those prepared for the day of wrath (Rom.2:3-6; 9:21-24). Therefore, it is rightly called the body of sin and the body of death until it is reconciled into the new lump of sanctified soil by the new and living tree (Rom.11:15-18). There is no good thing in the flesh that pleases God (Rom.8:8; Ezk.18:32; 33:11). Under sin and death, because of the curse, the flesh can serve no good purpose (Gal.3:3, 10, 19; 4:3-5). However, the original good purpose of the body can be restored through the gift of reconciliation (Col.1:19-20; 2:11-15). The body, then, is not made a moral good (Rom.6:2, 6; 7:4-5, 13-14), but its good purpose is restored through sanctification and the glory of God’s truth abiding in the inward parts (Rom.7:15-8:2; 8:28-30).

Therefore, being reconciled by the life-giving spirit of Christ (Rom.5:8-11; 1Cor.15:35-49), we no longer know Christ according to the image of the flesh because He died (2Cor.5:14-16), but we live by His incorruptible soul because He lives by the Spirit of His resurrection image (2Cor.5:17-19; 1Pet.1:3-5, 22-25; 3:3-6), which is not according to the flesh (2Cor.3:17-18; 4:7-14, 16-5:8). So then, the motivation of Christ coming in the flesh is clear (Eph.5:24-27), for it was to fulfill both the letter of the law of sin and death in us who believe and the promise of eternal life in us who are changed by His appearing (2Tim.4:6-8). Something changed in the creation so that something would change our predestination in the fall of Adam into the law of sin and death (Rom.8:20-23). Something, therefore, must change in us who are dying men testifying to dying men (1Cor.15:50-58).

So then, if Jesus of Nazareth is not both God and man, we are without a Mediator between God and man who are most of all to be pitied because we are still in our sins of which our conscience cannot deny (Rom.1:18-25; 1Cor.15:13-19). Therefore, our hope is not in the body of this natural life but in the life of God, who poured out the glory of the flesh to exchange for us His eternal crown, which carries a greater weight of glory to be expressed in us predestined to believe the promise of eternal life by Jesus Christ’s honor and weight. Therefore, the image of Jesus is the standard by which a man stands or falls in the judgment of body, soul, and spirit (Jn.1:3-5, 51; Lk.2:34-35; Rom.14:4, 10; 1Cor.4:5; 11:29-32; Heb.4:12-13; 2Cor.5:10). Notice, it what is done in the body and what the body is used for that determines the immorality or morality of the act not the body itself (Matt.15:10-20; 1Cor.6:12-20). The body is an amoral evil, like a calamity given over to the unchangeable judgment of death (Isa.45:5-10; 1Cor.15:22; Heb.9:27-28). Therefore, the body itself produces nothing spiritually good and has no eternal value beyond the value of the purpose to care for itself (Jn.3:6; Eph.5:28-30; 1Cor.7:32-35). Therefore, when the body is reconciled to its original purpose, then it is counted as good to do those things fitting for godliness, treasuring up for the soul the eternal reward of Christ’s godliness (Rom.12:1-2; 1Tim.4:1-5; 6:17-19; Rev.22:12-17).

So then, those who are in Christ are reconciled to the good purpose of the body while the body is counted as dead and an evil crucified with Christ (Gal.2:20; 5:24-25), being conformed to the image of Christ that is preserved incorruptible and waiting in glory as a better promise of the weight His own glory (Rom.6:8-12, 16-17; 8:9-14; 2Cor.4:17-18). Therefore, when looking into the natural mirror of the carnal image, we have no hope or confidence in the beauty that is clearly fading as the result of God’s wrath in the flesh (Jn.3:18, 36; James 1:23-24). We must look to the resurrection image of the glory that does not fade, for that image is incorruptible (James 1:25-26). We are not saying that the body is useless but that it offers no eternal goodness (1Tim.4:8). We see ourselves in the spiritual mirror as dead already (Rom.6:11; 8:10-11), and therefore, we must be managers of the body of death because we only get one body to use for this life (Rom.6:12-14), but the body, when reconciled to the good purposes of God, is not for the flesh but the Spirit of God (Rom.8:12-13; 1Cor.6:12-14). Some are better managers of the body than others (Rom.7:24-25), but this does not guarantee an eternal reward if that management is done to the neglect of the soul that has its attachment to the body rendered unclean by the evil spirit that dominates the soul (Jn.8:14-18, 21-24, 27-29, 32-36, 38-51).

Therefore, the unclean or evil spirit must be cast out so that the soul learns to live in harmony with the fear of the Lord according to the wisdom of the Word and the life of the Holy Spirit that sanctifies body and soul for the day that the soul and body separate and the redeemed soul unites with the redeemed body of the spirit prepared for the glory of the new heavens and earth. No one returns to the Spirit of God the Father whose soul has not been redeemed by the Spirit of Christ (Ecc.3:16-22). The flesh is of the animal spirit that has its life laid in the dust and is whatever he eats (Gen.3:14-15, 17-19). Adam and the spirit of the serpent are one spiritual body according to the lusts of the flesh (Eph.2:1-3; 2Cor.7:1; Jn.3:14-15; 1Pet.4:1-2). But when the animal spirit is sanctified by the Word of God and the image of Christ (Jn.10:35-36; Heb.10:5; 1Tim.4:1-6), the unclean and evil spirit is cast out, and the soul is free to submit to the Spirit of Christ and call upon God as his Father (Acts 10:9-16, 28; 11:10, 15-18; Lk.11:15-28).

Now, all of this is to demonstrate that if Jesus of Nazareth is not truly God and truly man, we do not have the forgiveness of sins and to support the fact that it is an antichrist spirit that denies that Christ did not come in the weakness of the sinfulness of human flesh as the truly incorruptible soul and form of God who is always in the glory of the bosom of the Father (Phil.2:5-8; 1Jn.2:18-23; Jn.1:8; 3:13 NKJV). Christ is one substance with God and one substance with humanity according to the flesh yet without sin in the personal existence of the two natures of His earthly identity, but again, we no longer know Him according to the flesh but by the Spirit of His resurrection (2Cor.5:15-21). Therefore, it is not yet revealed what we shall be according to the glorious nature of the new creation of the new body, which also cannot be denied (Heb.11:1-3, 6, 39-12:4, 7-10, 14-17, 22-29; 13:14-15; 2Pet.3:10-13). So then, though we don’t deny that He came in the likeness of our sinful flesh, neither do we pursue to know Him according to the flesh but according to the incorruptible image of His life-giving spirit by which we must be changed from mortality to immortality and from corruptible to incorruptible (1Cor.15:35-58). Has something changed in you that you may see this and enter into the glory of the new covenant of His death and resurrection life (Jn.3:3-12; Ps.2:7-8; Jn.11:22-26)?

If you cannot see that Christ’s death and resurrection image is begotten of the Father as the means of your adoption of the Spirit of God (Jn.1:12-13), then surely nothing has changed for you in the predestination of the destruction of your body in your death when the life and pleasures of sin run out of giving an account for the Lord of mercies upon your unclean soul (Matt.25:31-34, 41, 46; Rom.9:21-22; Pr.16:4). That’s how important this doctrine is to the life of your soul (Matt.10:28; 16:24-26; 1Jn.3:4-15; Eph.4:20-25; Rom.1:18). There is no truth apart from the truth of Christ (Jn.14:6), and to lie to a neighbor is to murder your neighbor’s soul who is a brother or sister according to the flesh (Eph.6:5; Col.3:22; Rom.9:3-5), and no man ever hated his own flesh but loves and cherishes it with the honor that it is due (Pr.12:9-10; Rom.13:7; Matt.22:17-21; Acts 19:34-37). But there is a greater honor placed upon the image of Christ (Matt.12:31-33; Jn.4:24-26), which to sin against is a greater evil (Matt.25:45; Mk.9:37, 42; Jn.19:10-12, 19-22; Acts 9:1-4).

Rufinus’s suggestion that it meant a token or emblem is nowadays under a cloud in some quarters, mainly because of the lack of evidence that the creed was ever used as a secret password. Yet it should be pointed out that what Rufinus emphasizes is the creed’s role as an instrument for identifying people.

it has recently been argued with considerable force that the reference lurking in the word is really to the great contract or pact between God and man accomplished in baptism, of which the baptismal questions, assents and immersions could, taken together, be regarded as the seal or token. This account of the matter would harmonize with a number of factors, notably (a) the regular use of symbolum with the meaning of warrant, contract or seal in Latin secular writers, (b) the repeated description of baptism as a pact and the association of symbolum, in the sense of the creed, in a whole series of Fathers, with the same idea and (c) the close analogy of the action of baptism, involving questions formally put and assents made, to the making of an agreement in proper legal form.

 J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, Third Edition. (London; New York: Continuum, 2006), 58.