“Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
The letter to Pergamum was written by the one who has “the sharp two-edged sword.” This sword is wheeled by The “I AM;” He is a jealous God!
God redeemed us by demeaning Jesus into our own created flesh. Why? Agape Love!
His love is the deep agape love penetrating into our pride with injury to self and acute discipline to our soul. The issue is our flesh, this “jar of clay.”
Pergamum illustrates the provocative influences of the world, the flesh and the devil in our temporal experience. The prince of the power of the air still reigns in our contemporary world and flesh. God uses Satan’s contemporary reign to test our agape love and Spiritual maturity. Satan’s power is delegated by God Himself; God is totally in control! God’s grace provides our fleshly beings visibility into His divine control of our personal world of flesh and Satan. We are in this world but not of this world.
Our flesh and this world are active warriors hating our holy identity in Christ Jesus. If we do not take steps to manage these constant agitators, our Lord Jesus will!
The sword of His mouth is able to wound our mortal flesh by way of reminders, or if necessary, refresh our mind with prompts of fragility and inept frailty. We are the consequences of being sinners, living in a sin culture where Satan still is at large!
Yes, we are forgiven! Yes, we have God’s grace because we have His resurrection life and its power! Yes, there is victory in Jesus but victory comes with deliberate participation on our part! We need to be Spiritually intentional!
We don’t seem to realize, once we are created again in Christ Jesus, we have the resurrection power of Jesus; we are to live in the Spirit while crucifying the flesh. In fact, sin has been put to death in us … but …. we have to be “in the Spirit” to have victory over our world and our flesh. Many born-again Christians just plain enjoy the flesh and don’t want to give it up even though it is dead, in the heavenly eyes of our faithful all-knowing Father.
In God’s eyes we are in the Spirit because He, not only birthed us a-new, but blessed us with “much more” grace. F.J. Huegel reminds us that our “participation” in Jesus’ life must replace our “imitation” of Jesus. If we are to choose the fulness of the Spirit, we must live above the world, the flesh and the devil putting it all to death in the resurrection power of Jesus, I have been crucified with Christ.
We are participants in God’s holy, divine body. There is so much more in grace than most of us have tapped into; although in our fleshly jars of clay, we are human, but since we have been twice born into Christ Jesus, we are a resurrected Spiritual person; we are called to live and be Spiritual! We are twice born, first physically then by grace, Spiritually. It is in this new spiritual creation within us, we are to live and have our being.
This is our prime focus! It is our calling! In Christ Jesus we are more than conquerors, much more! We are to put away every unclean thing and be holy! Remember the words of Jesus to the church in Laodicea: “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” We are to separate ourselves from worldliness and touch not the unclean things because we are the temple of the living God.
Do we chose to enjoy the flesh for a season because we are under grace?
This temporal life we now experience will pass away. Jesus’ purpose is to allow us to recoup our original identity, a permanent relationship fellowship with God Himself and “so much more.” In this world we have tribulation but also in this world we have, if we are in Christ Jesus, victory in Jesus. He has already overcome the world provisioning us with His grace and truth! Victory belongs to us since we are in Jesus by grace through faith. But, we must discern it, desire it and claim it! We are to be intentional.
Remember Jacob’s permanent limp after wrestling with God. It is not always physical, more likely, it is a wound into our soul. His agape love may express itself with handicaps reminding us of our sin and bad choices! Our God is not only jealous, He is faithful, nurturing us as a member of His own body so that we function in harmony with His total, divine, sinless Self.
Love is not all about cookies and ice cream; it is about truth, holiness, righteousness, joy and peace. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel at Peniel and he had a limp for the rest of his earthly life.
Our Spiritual learning curve takes us much deeper into our self-awareness so that we experience the substance of faith. Our born-again identity is no longer in our flesh … but in His Spirit. Our spirit is joined to His Spirit. God creates us new Spiritual persons … but living in flesh! The deeper we go into our selfness, the more we surrender in victory to our resurrected Lord and Savior. “He must increase and I must decrease,” John the Baptist reminds us because God gives to us the Spirit without measure.
We are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in us. How bold is Romans 8 and yet it is as true as God is God! God provides grace into us making possible our abundant living in Him. This is the workmanship we read about in Ephesians 2:8-10, making us overcomers in Christ Jesus.
This is the lesson Pergamum had not learned but it is written here in Revelation for our learning. Not only are we to discern this spiritual lesson, we are also instructed concerning the blessing that follow when we do learn! Listen to what Jesus promises:
To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.” -Revelation 2:17b.
Jesus desires to give us our own private intimate name; He desires giving us hidden manna to feed our spirits; He intercedes for us in heaven now while we are in flesh!
Pergamum was certainly living in the flesh! Compromise is allowing sin’s participation
into our divine creation. Pergamum was choosing the flesh rather than faith in our resurrected Jesus. They had the light of Jesus but were beguiled to walk in darkness. If we say we have fellowship with Jesus and are walking in darkness, we lie and are not doing the truth.
While we are on earth, in Christ Jesus, we are in Spiritual boot camp! We are in Spiritual training; we are learning faith, learning to live in the resurrection power of Jesus who is both Son of Man and Son of God. The Son of Man is about to render devastating, horrible judgment on earth such as mankind has never seen nor imagined but the Son of God is about to remove His body (us) from the face of the earth. Either way, our time is short!
Faith is experiencing the unseen active presence of the Lord Jesus personally within our soul. It is unseen, yet it is a viable force expressing itself within our own personal awareness! It is the natural flow of being “born again not of corruptible seed” but a new creation in Christ Jesus. It is natural for a new born to grow in his new Spiritual life while shedding off the old life of the flesh and putting on the Lord Jesus.
“You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God: for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” -1Peter 1:23-24.
We are set free from sin’s bondage! We have to choose to be set free in our daily intentional choices! If we cling to the sins we like, we lose Spiritual freedom we already have! We need to choose freedom out from the sinful mess we continually put into our own selves. We don’t need to blame Adam; we can teach Adam a thing or two about sin; we have become expert sinners!
Jesus is the founder and perfector of our faith, sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. It is this same Jesus who by the sword of His mouth shakes the earth and will once again shake the heavens also. He is our bridegroom who is preparing His bride for an eternal reign by His side. He has provided us His two-edged sword so that we might overcome, walking in faith, not by carnal earthly vision, but by His Spirit.
This is only possible because we have a new spiritual identity replacing the physical self-ruling sin nature of our temporal being. Redemption has set us free from the power and reign of sin, so that, we now live in the resurrection power of His divine nature through the Holy Spirit who has joined our spirit in Christ Jesus. The sharp two-edged sword is now, not only growing us in grace, but is also in our arsenal through His living presence. It is through the sword of His word we are able to reckon our own selves dead to sin replacing it with His resurrection Life, the Life of Jesus Himself. This is our abundant life of living water poured into our soul by our Holy Spirit who lives within us! We are the temple of our living God.
Yes, the edge of His two-edged blade is for us to use … as conquerors. Those of us who do conquer, will receive secret manna, that is, the spiritual glory of being so close to God Himself, we share the intimacy of our own private name on our own personal white stone with Him! It is death in us that produces life in others. We, like Paul, walk in newness of life.
What God has done is huge. He cut us free from the tyranny of sin, equipped us through His own righteousness, glorifying Himself in us with resurrection power to overcome.
We are sanctified while being sanctified!