Two Men in History – Only Two - by Pastor Doug Riggs
by John Mark on 10/09/24
This was originally recorded on February 5, 2017.
My notes:
"Anyone
that's trying to live by the law is living in a shadow. Anyone that's trying to
press into the Kingdom by observing the Torah is still in the shadows... still
practicing a religion that does not have its source in Jesus Christ Himself,
who is the perfection as man for man in obedience to that law. And Christians
are just as much under law as these Jews were today. Any Christian that's
trying to live by rules, trying to live by outward observance to the law is
under 'Christian' law... Anything that is not Christ Himself is a shadow
religion... it's bondage."
As we
will see, there are only two men - two species of humanity, the first man,
Adam, and Jesus Christ, the second man. "The law is one hundred percent
addressed to the man in Adam, what we are by nature in Adam. The law is not
addressed, and not even given, to the new-creation person in Christ." The
only law the new man in Christ is under is the law of life, the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
God
sees us as who we are in Christ and doesn't relate to us in the old man.
"The cross is the only place He (God) can meet us to whatever degree we
still experientially have not made the transition from the outer man to the
inner man... The short time that we've been given on this earth is for us to
experientially make the transition from Adam to Christ."
How
do we make this transition between the old man and the new? There's only one
way: the cross; dying daily. "I die daily; I pick up my cross; I deny
myself; and I'm following Jesus." Recently we listened to a message by
Lance Lambert. Speaking of our crosses, he made it clear the cross is not our
spouse; not our children; not our job; not our aches and pains. "The cross
is THE CROSS." The cross is what we die on. It's not an attractive piece
of jewelry; it's not a statue of a dead man hanging on it. The cross is where
we say "No" to our soul-life and "Yes" to what it means to
follow Jesus.
Doug
challenges us to be those who want 100-fold blessing and reward from the Lord.
It's not about those who tried, strained, or sweated the most to earn the
100-fold. It's "those who understood and appropriated the most grace in
this life."
Speaking
of the old man, Doug says, "That race cannot be redeemed; it has to be put
to death." When first hearing that, it didn't sound right to me. But as
Doug went on to explain it, it made more sense. God did not redeem the old man
to make it better - to improve it - to get it good enough to save. He put it to
death on the cross in Jesus Christ, the representative man in Adam. Instead of
resurrecting that old man, he buried it. It's still there in the tomb. It
wasn't raised. Jesus Christ as the last Adam was crucified and buried. Jesus
Christ as the second man, the Lord from heaven, was raised and we His body as a
new man were raised in Christ. We are a new creation in Christ, not the old
creation redeemed, resurrected, or glorified.
Jesus
Christ didn't spare us, the old man in Adam, from the cross; He didn't die
instead of us; He didn't take our place so we didn't have to die. No, He took
us with Himself on the cross and we in Him died. "I am crucified with
Christ!" says Paul (Galatians 2:20). He wasn't crucified instead of me; He
was crucified as me. Jesus died for our sins, paying the penalty we owe; Jesus
died AS us, taking the entire human race in Adam with Himself into death.
"There is a cross that says that which has its source in Adam cannot
inherit (the kingdom of God)."
"God's
epitaph over the race in Adam; it's a dead loss. That race cannot be redeemed;
it has to be put to death. And redemption is realized in union with Him in
death and burial, and out into resurrection when we become a partaker of that
new creation of that inner man, who is the second man."
For
those who think we receive the Holy Spirit at some subsequent time after we are
born again should reconsider. The godhead cannot be divided. The three persons
of the godhead are not independent from each other, though they are
three distinct persons. "The Lord Jesus, who is now present and active in
the person of the Holy Spirit - so, the whole of Jesus, all of Jesus, and all
of the Father in Jesus, one hundred percent of the godhead is in every
believer. The godhead is not divided."
"The
soul ... still has its roots in Adam; it has to go into death, it has to die to
make way for the inner man, the hidden man of the heart, so that can come into
ascendency, and represent the second man from heaven. God's going to transition
us from our roots in earth to be rooted and grounded in Christ in heaven... the
law giver and the law fulfiller. Then we become heavenly people."
"That
sharp two-edged sword that's coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ in
Revelation Chapter 1, that sword touches the churches first (Chapters 2 and 3)
before it touches the nations, Revelation 6 through 19. That sharp two-edged
sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ, Revelation Chapter 1, has been
dividing asunder soul and spirit in our lives since the day we were born again
to the present." Doug had often said, "Whatever will not appear in
the resurrection, I want it gone in this life." Often many of us prayed
that we want everything that can be burned to be burned off here in time, so
when we arrive at the judgment seat of Christ (the bema), as the fire tests our
works, there will be nothing to consume, and it will all be gold, silver, and precious
stones... full reward. "We shall all pass through the fire."
Comparing
the church age to the age of Israel, "In our dispensation, there is a step
further than walking with God. It's called walking in God; and Him walking in
us in the person of Jesus Christ." God was with those in covenant
relationship with Him; God is in us in the person of Jesus Christ through the
Holy Spirit, and we are in Him."
Doug
does a deep dive into the mystery, the sacred secret. The mystery that was
hidden from everyone until revealed by the Apostle Paul was not that Gentiles
would be saved. "God's secret is a Person (Colossians 2:1-3), the mystery
of the Christ." The mystery Israel knew nothing of was that there would be
a whole new race of humanity that would be created and completed before they
would be able to reach their foretold destiny. It included the reality that
their Messiah would not only be one single person, but that this Messiah would
include a corporate man, a many-membered body of Christ with Jesus Christ as
its head.
"The
mystery of Christ; the mystery of godliness; that's what birthed our assembly,
the revelation of that mystery which was hidden in God, but has now been
revealed through His saints, through the apostles and prophets... has been
revealed."
Link
to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/2-5-17%2Bsunday.mp3
Link
to Transcription: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2017_02_05+Two_Men_in_History-Only_Two.pdf
Link
to Discussion: http://d1kefhswa49zcj.cloudfront.net/assemblies/2-5-17+discussion.mp3
Resource
Recommended: The
Great Transition from One Humanity to Another by T. Austin-Sparks (http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/great_transition_from_one_humanity_to_another_the.html)
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!