In Adam ALL Do Die – Sin & Death
Capitulation (Captivity, Condemnation & Corruption)
Due to the disobedience of God’s commandment and capitulation of the first Adam to the serpent (Adam’s capitulation), Sin entered the world and Death as the wages of sin pass upon all men; Adam’s progeny. In Adam’s capitulation He brought us all under the dominion of darkness, Sin, and Death.
Why?! because Adam was the federal head of humanity and we are guilty in Adam as if we had transgressed? No! Or is it because Adam was now infected and passed the fatal sin virus down to all his seed? No! Adam’s progeny are born under the dominion of sin and death, since Adam as our father sold us all into captivity. (Ezek. 18:2 ; Heb. 2:9-18)
We then, one and all, from our youth upon coming to the knowledge of the Light (God’s commandments), choose to shun and reject the Light and Sin. Therefore, all of us are individually culpable, corrupted and under condemnation by choice and not by the necessity of our nature. Therefore, we all receive our own wages for the sin(s) we have committed in defiance of God’s Holy commandment. We each have become the Adam of our own soul. We each have capitulated as Adam and bowed the knee to the serpent. We all chose affinity with the darkness.
It is not the guilt of Adam or some ‘sin substance’ communicated to Adam’s seed (this is a neo-gnostic notion brought into the church from the Manichaean influence of Augustine), but the influence of Sin, the World, and the god of this world (the tempter) upon fallen man who is born estranged, alienated, and cut-off from the Life of God (without strength). Therefore ALL are held under the just condemnation of Sin and Death.
Condemned under the Dominion of Sin and Death, we all are slaves to the lord of Sin and Death namely the Devil. It is due to our circumstance and condition (captivity) – we are weak and without strength, alienated from the LORD God from our youth we all are become slaves of sin by our own choice and have separated ourselves from the Holy One, the author of Life.
In Christ All May Be Made Alive – Holiness & Life
Re-Capitulation (Ransom, Reconciliation, and Regeneration)
Jesus the Christ is the second Adam, the LORD from heaven. The Son of Man having come down from heaven took on flesh and blood through the seed of the woman (Eve), He recapitulated Adam’s disobedience but instead in obedience to the Father (recapitulation) and defiance of the Devil He fulfilled all righteousness and destroyed the works of the Devil. In Christ’s re-capitulation, He broke the power of captivity to darkness and opened the way for all who would be reconciled, to enter the Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of God and Christ, and receive Justification to Eternal Life.
The prevalent understanding of the atonement today is one of penal substitution. This is indeed a ‘theory’ and theological innovation that did not arise until the middle ages with Anselm of Canterbury and was not taught or in the mind of the early believers and certainly not a part of the faith once delivered.
We are certainly living in the age of a progressive, broad-path approach to Bible Truth and Doctrine. Many hold to an eclectic idea that there are many atonement theories – all equally valid. This is plainly not the case. There is a faith once delivered. (Jude 1:3) There is sound doctrine, false doctrine, doctrinal error, and doctrine of devils. Post-modernism has many walking in a haze.
We must start and finish with scripture. What is the nature of the atonement ? What were the obstacles overcome by the atonement? How is the atonement received? What is its extent? The primary emphasis in the minds of many is looking at the atonement in a legal scheme. The LORD by the Apostle Paul brings this legal aspect into view with this:
Rom. 3:21-26
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God [which is] by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, [I say], at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
The dilemma that God through Paul addresses is with regards to how God can be just and forbear (not judge sin). This is at the heart of a proper and biblical understanding of what atonement ‘is’. God is at once all loving and all righteous. You see, God is the perfection of all His attributes. Therefore, the Atonement IS then the righteous and loving means by which God may justly forgive, cleanse and deliver the fallen from their captivity to sin and death without violating either His righteousness or His love. At the cross Righteousness and Love have kissed. God in Christ becomes the Justifier (agent) and He is at one and the same time the Just judge (Object) the Righteous Sovereign whose Law we have violated. The way of loving-righteous forgiveness is made through the body of His flesh.
How is this just you ask? God in Christ condemned sin in the body of His flesh on the cross. How? By entering into creation and putting on flesh and blood and walking in obedience to the Father (recapitulation), then suffering the contradiction of sinners poured out His life’s blood as our ransom. The just died for the unjust to bring us to God. (Jn. 15:13)
How then do we receive this loving and righteous amnesty? By conceding (capitulating) to God’s loving – righteous redemptive work or the Gospel of the Kingdom. We concede by means of repentance and faith and in this His cross then becomes ours. (2 Cor. 5:14-21 ; Rom. 6:4-11 ; 1 Cor. 15:31 ; Gal. 2:20)
Are you beginning to see how this is not a substitution? The atonement is a ransom, a rescue, and a redemption; not a substitution. Christ died for our sakes – NOT in our place to make the way for His loving-righteous forgiveness and restoration to Life available to whosoever will be (recapitulated) in Him. This deliverance from captivity is ‘In Christ’ presently and will be fully realized in those who endure to the end. (1 Jn 3:2)
This great salvation does not divide the Father and the Son in the sense that the Father required that someone MUST be punished so that He could forgive (self-refuting). You see, from the motif of debt, if someone else paid it (Christ) then the Father has not forgiven a thing. Neither is it gracious at all. (2 Cor. 5:19)
The Bible reveals this salvation is of Love and Grace and from this aspect of justice how all of God’s Heart and Wisdom are realized in the incarnation, atoning work, and resurrection of Christ.
You see, the full Biblical portrait focuses with laser precision on the triumph of the cross and the breaking of the chains that held us in bondage of condemnation and corruption. For this purpose the Son of God was manifest – To destroy the works of the devil. He came to set the captives free. That they may abide in this freedom. That each and everyone who IS liberated be ambassadors of His Kingdom, endure hardness as good soldiers, gather as faithful laborers, and continue the redemptive work as His body in this present world; as those dead to sin and alive to God walking in the power of His Holy Spirit – faithful stewards of the grace of God.
To be free from sin is to be alive to righteousness; keeping His commandments. We are forgiven and cleansed of sins past by means of repentance and faith. We received this amnesty by means of our recapitulation ‘in Christ’. We will receive the promise and our full inheritance ‘in Christ’ if and only if we are found ‘in Him’ at His coming.
This is the Biblical atonement and Gospel of the Kingdom according to the scriptures. It is not a ‘theory’. It is the Word of God and the Word of reconciliation that I am proclaiming to you.
Rom. 5:1-21 ; 1 Cor. 15:22 ; Jn. 3:36 ; Rom. 3:21-26
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