Easter 2022; The aeon of new life is the aeon of the righteousness of God given to men.Sunday April 17,2022The pinnacle of the Book of Romans is 5:12-21. The entire book, all 16 chapters, is about this one idea. The idea is developed in several ways, but the theme runs throughout, the righteousness of God has been given to men.
Rom 5:12-21 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — 13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We will use this passage as our home base and briefly develop it from other revelations. This is certainly the Rock foundation of Christianity. It is the garden in full bloom in which the Lord and His own walk in sweet, fulfilling fellowship.
First we should note a term used in the Bible which is seldom used in our secular world – aeon (chiefly British spelling of eon, but is closer to the Greek spelling).
Aeon (Greek: aion) – one of two dominions (oft translated “age”).
There are only two ages. Which one you’re in determines your destiny as well as your origin.
Luk 18:29-30 "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who shall not receive many times as much at this time and in the age [aion] to come, eternal life."
There is the age of death (Adam) and the age of life (Jesus – the last Adam).
Believers in Christ are born again and not of the first age, but of the last age. Christians are of the age of life and light.
The first Adam stands at the head of the old aeon. That world is shrouded in death. God told him that if he ate, he would die. He did and so did all who were born in Adam. “In Adam all die” (1Co 15:22).
Christ stands as Ruler and Perfecter of a new aeon of mankind, by reason of His resurrection – a dominion of life and glory.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
The use of aeon is better than age. Age might make us think of fragments of human history, but aeon speaks of two different orders of existence, one under the dominion of death and the other under dominion of life.
In the last several centuries, western civilization has looked at itself more and more in the sphere of secular thought, the idea that man is stuck in this world, that he is imprisoned and enmeshed in the mundane. Hence we find mankind twisted all up in a self-made knot over concerns for making this world (age) a perfect one, or at least as close as he can get it. God has allowed this pursuit, and the irony is that it only leads to elite classes of people ruling over a world of death. History has born this out over and over again.
The result of “this-world-only” thinking has been an unprecedented foreshortening of man’s perspective – in churches also.
Sadly, this same narrow view has been held by some churches who seem only to know this world and the toil of man in the old aeon of Adam. They are busy trying to make the world better rather than trying to saved people from it.
Jud 23 save others, snatching them out of the fire;
But this day, no matter what is happening anywhere, is a day of rejoicing. If Jesus left that tomb, then death no longer has a hold on anyone who attains life through faith in Him.
Christianity is alive in the new aeon of Christ, a dominion of life.
Joh 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Jesus rules over both aeons.
Eph 1:19-23 These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
We are not waiting to die to see it.
Phi 3:9-11 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
“God’s righteousness is a gift from Him. For just as the kingdom of God can come only through God’s mighty intervention, so God’s righteousness can become man’s possession only in that he receives it as a gift from God.” [Nygren]
Paul knew another righteousness very well.
Phi 3:4-6 If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.
Every believer now possesses righteousness and eternal life as a gift from Christ. This is the grand, good news of the gospel. Eternity, the new age, the new man, the new self, the righteousness of God is given to mankind as a gift through Jesus Christ our Lord. What more could we want for. His kingdom came into this world, this world said no to it, so He took the members of His kingdom from this world.
Rom: 8:31-39 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 8:33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; 8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 8:36 Just as it is written, "For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The world naturally would have said no to Him, for His kingdom was not of this world. And the world has been in the business, for the last twenty centuries, of trying to forget Christ. Thankfully, His footprint lingers, despite all the dust and refuse the world has throne over it.
Phi 3:7-8 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,
Sadly, Christianity itself has lost its life in many gatherings and in many beautiful cathedrals. Secularization has invaded the church to the point where the supernatural wonders of new life in Christ have been set aside for a better and more improved humanity. Don’t get me wrong. Christianity is to make better people, but not only better morally and ethically, but extraordinary people who are from another world. One of Satan’s schemes has been to serve the church her small changes while preventing the church from basking in her very large and other worldly changes.
The result has been that the gospel has for many come to have importance only for the earthly scene. It has been regarded as one view of the world, side by side with other views. The life of Christ has become one of several options. All gods are the same, as many think, and think that stupid thought absolves them or all responsibility to the wonderous Creator of this cosmos.
The gospel is not a subjective experience of the soul, it is the very invasion of heaven into the dark earth and the very doing of things that have set man free.
The gospel is not merely a doctrine about the nature of God, a high ethical standard, or the way to an enriched and refined spiritual life, or the like. It includes that, but the way of life is secondary to the gospel. Life must be granted first before it can be lived. The way of life follows the life itself. The life is of a certain type, the only type that is in the Creator, the Almighty. The type of life is secondary to the gospel which is the gift of life, not by works, no earned by man, but earned by the One who came from the living aeon into the dead aeon.
The gospel is the proclamation of the work wrought by God when He sent Jesus Christ into the world to give life to the dead (set the captives free).
It is the message about the dynamic activity which God thereby introduced into our existence. The gospel is the declaration that God brought something wholly new into this age, that through Christ he brought the new age among us - an age begun in our midst, but to be fulfilled in glory.
We are to live righteously in the present age (aion) because we are born of the last age – the kingdom of God (Tit 2:11-13).
Paul writes to Titus that “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age (aion) …” (Tit 2:11-12). And then adds that we are “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Tit 2:13). That is a reference to the aeon to come. It is obvious, but without a resurrected Lord, that new age has no King and therefore cannot be.
There are two ages in the Bible, the current age which is under the judgment of death and the second one, or final one, which is life and light. Every man and woman are a part of one or the other.
This age and the age to come are not different periods of time, but are two different worlds.
They are not two different periods of time. They are two different worlds.
Joh 20:11-18 But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she beheld two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." 14 When she had said this, she turned around, and beheld Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren, and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'" 18 Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said these things to her.
When Jesus came to earth, the kingdom of God was at hand, as He said. The eternal age walked among the age of death. When He died, there were three days of unknown. I don’t know enough to talk about this with any certainty, but His body was in the grave and His spirit was committed (place alongside) His spirit. The stone over the tomb was not a curtain to God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, but to us from the old age, the age of death, it was in impenetrable barrier. But then, it was rolled aside and we looked inside (Mary, John, and Peter looked for us) and we found it empty with the death clothes neatly folded.
The resurrected Christ, from the age (dominion) of life and light walked among us in a body that was not of this age (dominion).
His initial body was of this age, but it was different from every other. He was born of a virgin and remained sinless. He possessed a body of the age of death, but it was not sinful. This, needless to say, was unique.
The work was completed. The Lord would not be the only man in the age of light and life.
Mat 27:52-53 the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The first aeon (from the Greek word aion meaning age or dominion) is the age of death.
Rom 5:12-14 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — 13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Rom 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
Now comes the greatest words that have ever been written.
Rom 3:21-26 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. |