“He That is Spiritual” - by Pastor Doug Riggs
by John Mark on 10/02/24
This was originally recorded on January 22, 2017.
Resource Assigned: He That is Spiritual by T. Austin-Sparks (http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/he_that_is_spiritual.html)
My notes:
"The power of God is directly proportional to the holiness of God being a functional reality in our life." (Taken from Doug's opening prayer)
"New birth does not produce spiritual men. At new birth, we are still governed by the soul, that is, the mind, emotion, and will." The soul needs "to be circumcised and to come into union with Christ in His death, so that the soul, instead of being an instrument of sin, the soul begins to be the bondslave of the human spirit in union with the Holy Spirit... The inner man (the spiritual man) can only be released through the subjective and experiential work of the cross."
Back in the 70's, when the Lord really woke me up to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, my Mom warned me about getting too worked up being a Christian. "Getting too heavenly minded will make you no earthly good." Doug corrected that satanic lie, "Only to the degree that he's heavenly minded is he of any earthly good to God."
"God's triumph on the cross is the crucifixion of the old man on that cross in the Person of our other self, our great and glorious Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the last Adam and the second Man."
Jesus gives us the example of a spiritual man in exanastasis (out-resurrection from among the dead - Philippians 3:11) prior to His death on the cross and resurrection, ascension and glorification. The Apostle Paul stated his desire to attain this kind of resurrection before his life ended. Jesus "in a body that's resurrected by not glorified, was in out-resurrection."
When the Son of God took on the humanity of the first Adam, He took on a dead humanity. Jesus’ life of 33 years was a day-to-day moment-by-moment out-resurrection from among the dead. His death on the cross took dead Adam into eternal death. His spiritual and physical resurrection brought into existence that which was completely new in species, the new man, the second man, the last Adam. This life of out-resurrection from among the dead is what we are called to. "To the degree we've reached exanastasis state in our status and in our constitution, Jesus Christ as the morning star has risen in our heart."
2 Corinthians 5:15 says that Jesus died and rose again on our behalf. It's obvious He died for us - in our place - taking upon Himself the judgment of God against the entire human race guilty of sin. But it includes Him being raised from the dead on our behalf. Doug asks, "What do we know about that rose-again life?" - then explains, "It was not until He was glorified that the Holy Spirit was given to make possible to us His inner life that represents who He was as a heavenly Man in union with the Father during the incarnation."
We know that Jesus, when born as man, was different from the rest of humanity. We all are born with the sin nature of Adam passed down through our fathers. It is not passed on through our mothers, therefore Jesus, having a human mother but fathered by God through the Holy Spirit, did not have a sin nature. However, He did have an outer man, a soul, and therefore He had a soul-life, but it was not governed by the sin nature. But "the inner man, that spiritual man, continued to come into ascendency as the outer man died; and there's no sin in His outer man, but it's the soul-man in Him. That soulical life in Jesus Christ died - daily - died. And there's no sin."
Over the years we've heard from Doug the importance of the revelation of the mystery unveiled to Paul and given to the church. However, how many, especially pastors and bible teachers, can adequately explain this revelation? Is it that Gentiles will be saved? Is it that the church replaces Israel as God's people? Is it that America is the church's promised land? Is it that we are no longer under law but grace? NO!!! Not any of these! "If we do not understand the mystery of the Christ that Paul was commissioned to proclaim, our apprehension of God and His purpose, and the age in which we live is deficient."
Effective spiritual warfare requires spiritual maturity. Doug challenges Michael Lake's teaching about our need to appeal to a "divine council" when confronting principalities and powers in the heavenlies. "We (the church) are seated with Christ in heavenly places. In union with Him, we are the divine council. Whether we are functioning in that realm and in the authority of that realm, that's another matter." This kind of warfare requires that we "are grounded in the eternal purpose of God" (Ephesians 3:1-11; 1:9-11).
"Jesus Christ, as the last Adam, is the first man to be born again. When He was born again, He was born again as the second man; begotten from the dead; firstborn from the dead; born again from the dead... He's the prototype of that which represents who we are as those who have been born again." No one under the old covenant was born again. When Jesus told Nicodemus he needed to be born again, this would not be possible until after Jesus' death and resurrection. This explains why it was such a strange concept for him to understand, though he was "the teacher of Israel". "And every time someone is born again, they're brought into the abiding results of the new things that have come" in and by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God is the source from where all these new things come. As Jesus could not live His life apart from complete dependence on His Father, neither can any of us live the Christian life apart from the enablement and power of God in Christ. As Jesus "learned how to live out from God as man" even as we learn to live as God intended man to live.
God "releases Satan incrementally to touch anything in us that is not out from God... When you get in the hands of Satan, and he is touching that which is still uncrucified in us, it's nothing but sheer misery." This helps to remind us we need to "change our man". Instead of living out from the old man, we live out from the source of God in Christ - in the new man wherein the enemy has no ground. "There's a cross that separates the old from the new... the setting aside of that old humanity."
In Luke, Jesus spoke of the fact that "no one puts new wine into old wineskins. "In other words, the church is not going to become a 'Messianic church.' It will have no 'Jewish roots'; it will have no 'Hebrew roots.' It will only have its roots in a second man." Our roots are in the new species resurrected Man in glory, not in any way linked to or generated from the old species of man in the grave. "The law that was given by God at Mount Sinai ... could make nothing perfect; it took a perfect Man." "We fulfill the legal requirements of the law, not because we're under that law, but through the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, we manifest the nature of God, which is obedience to that law." The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). "Free" means we are not ruled by the Law nor are we under it's dominion. "Only by understanding the mystery of the Messiah, the mystery of the Christ - what Paul calls, 'my gospel', or 'the mystery of the gospel' - would liberate them from the bondage remaining in these old wineskins." "Everything that represents who you are in your Judaism, and who you are in your 'Hebrew roots' ends at the cross."
"The greatest enemy to mankind is religion - in all forms - Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Mormonism, all 'isms. True Christianity is not an 'ism; Christianity is a Person."
"That which is still under the rule and the dominion of the soul can be actuated and accessed by Satan himself. And if it's a dissociated soul-realm, he's got free access... That soul that is not under the government of the Holy Spirit in union with the human spirit in ascendency is the playground for the adversary... If we're living out of the life of the soul, if we're striving, that means we haven't entered His rest. If we enter His rest, we're living in union with the Heavenly Man... The work of the cross is God's way to secure for Himself and for you that which defines you in your eternal destiny... The solemnity of the bema seat of Christ will determine the measure in which Jesus Christ will be seen and manifest in each one of us individually forever."
Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/1-22-17%2Bsunday.mp3
Link to Transcript: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2017_01_22+He_That_Is_Spiritual.pdf
Link to Discussion: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/1-22-17%2Bdiscussion.mp3
Maranatha!
John Mark
...hereby committing this unto the providential care of the enthroned Head of the Church; whose Name is blessed forevermore, Yeshua Mashiach - Jesus Christ!