Jesus - In the Days of His Flesh - by Pastor Doug Riggs

by John Mark on 08/04/24

This message was originally recorded April 4, 2016.

My notes:

Doug continues his theme of the transformation we take from the outer soulical man to the inner spiritual man. "The word of God, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, divides soul and spirit, and that makes a way for the outer man and what we are in our soul-consciousness to pass from the outer man into the inner man through the veil of the flesh that has been rent, and into the most holy place... And now, as a High Priest, He (Jesus) is there to mediate what He has gained as Man for us."

"There has to be the eyes of the heart opened to be able to see Jesus in His humanity as the one that is actually veiling the Godhead... how that humanity has to become our life. The humanity is the medium - the vessel - for the impartation of the very life of God that He lived as Man here on Earth."

Hebrews speaks of Jesus' flesh being a veil. However, "In Jesus, there's no veil between Him and the Father. But His flesh represents a veil between the generation from which He came and who He was as Man."

So what is the flesh of Jesus Christ? Vine's Dictionary defines it as "the holy humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ in the totality of all that is essential to manhood."

The perfected life Jesus lived in the flesh qualifies Him as mediator to impart His resurrection life into us. Naturally we don't recognize we need that life until we realize that ‘apart from Him, we can do nothing’. "The Lord's strategy is to continue to weaken and break us down so that we can't even live in the natural apart from Him. That veil (in us) gets thinner and thinner and thinner until the veil is rent within us... And the veil represents that which is over the hearts of mankind, and especially the Jews in this generation, that was between Jesus Christ and their hearts - there was a veil, and that veil represented the Old Covenant - living by rules; living by principles... There are no principles that will help anyone live the Christian life. Why? Because Jesus Christ IS the Christian life."

What is "the testimony of Jesus"? "The testimony of Jesus in Revelation 1:9 is this: the Word has become flesh in His members... To whatever degree the Word has not become flesh in us in our humanity, the testimony of Jesus is not there."

As we consider the differences in glory ("star differs from star in glory" - 1 Corinthians 15:41), what we become here in time is reflected in who and what we are in eternity. (Note: I was so pleased to hear JD Farag refer to this in his recent message on Daniel 12 – he’s finally getting it!)

"There is a correspondence between the future spiritual body and the degree of glory, to the degree that the spiritual man becomes a spiritual man in this life. To the degree that the Word becomes flesh in us will be the degree that there will be a spiritual body that will adapt and manifest that spirituality in the ages to come." "Your intimacy with God is in the measure in which Jesus Christ has actually been formed in you and people can see Jesus in you." This is the testimony of Jesus... Jesus in expression through His body, the church. "Evidence of a spirit-filled life is an evidence of Christ manifesting His life."

Doug asks the question: "Is perfection capable in this life?" "Yes, absolutely! We can attain perfection experientially in this life; and we'll still have a sin nature - but the sin nature will not be ruling. It's there; but by living by the life of Another, perfection has been attained... What does it take to live a life of godliness? It takes Christ! ... God manifest in the flesh! That's who He is to be - God manifested in our flesh... revealed in the flesh in His church. And when that is a completed testimony - taken up in glory."  

Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/4-3-16+sunday+assembly.mp3

Link to Discussion that followed: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/4-3-16+discussion.mp3

Resources mentioned:

Spiritual Fruitfulness by T. Austin-Sparks

https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/spiritual_fruitfulness.html

Doug's assembly reading/commentary (Spiritual Fruitfulness): https://www.dougriggs.org/Ministry-Archives-2016.html (half-way down the page)

Disciplined by Grace by J.F. Strombeck

https://www.dougriggs.org/disciplined_by_grace.pdf

Maj. Ian Thomas: The Saving Life of Christ

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!