FIVE
BACK TO BUSINESS
What happened moment by moment in Tarturos is open for debate. There are just as many theories as there are Bible commentators or theologians.
If you have read everything to this point, whether or not you agree with it, you will understand why I have come to these conclusions. I bring the following viewpoint and is nothing more than conjecture as to what happened in the prison.
In Tartaros
Because he hung on the tree, the Father forsook and cursed him thoroughly, Spirit, Soul and Body. The spirit of Jesus passed into a fallen state. What is the fate of a fallen deity, a God-man hybrid? The only place for him is with other fallen spirits who were created perfectly and should have known better.
Remember the meaning of the word ‘Preached’ is to inform or bring news as a town crier and not as an Evangelist.
While Jesus suffered in his fallen condition, all that needed to be said while ‘Preaching’ was:
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Psalm 16:10
I don’t think Jesus stood in that furnace with a Bible in one hand and waving his finger shouting a fiery three-point sermon on the coming judgment and the need to repent.
The reality of being in Tartaros gave witness to who he was and why he was there. Though he was the perfect Son of God, he allowed himself to be hung on a tree. He was now a fallen deity, separated and suffering. He didn’t need to do a whole lot of speaking or proclaiming anything. He only needed to quote the promises, just as he had always quoted them.
He would only need say, ‘IT-IS-WRITTEN’:
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Psalm 16:10
Jesus Christ, being there in the same prison testified of God’s just and fair judgment. It also testified to the FALLEN ANGELS of their failure to corrupt the seed of Adam. Now before them was the very person whom they tried to prevent from being born. In essence, He was proclaiming, or informing them:
“Whereas you were called Sons of God, you are now cursed and chained in everlasting darkness.
‘You attempted to destroy the genetic code of the human race.
You spawned the era of the giant. However wicked it was, you almost succeeded!
It corrupted all flesh except Noah and his family. And now…
HERE I AM, born of the pure Seed of Adam, of Abraham, of David.
I am the sacrificial Lamb of God and have borne the sin of the world. I am now suffering on the behalf of all mankind.
BUT…
In three days and three nights I will be born again and leave this place, for the scripture must be fulfilled, ‘Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.’
I will ascend to my body in the sepulcher as it is written, ‘you will not suffer thy holy one to see corruption.’
I will enter my body and it will change into a genetically super-human natural body that will exist for eternity.
And all who believe in me I will raise from the dead! They too will receive a perfect, genetically pure body that will be eternal! And they (you and me) will be my bride, forevermore.
And unlike you losers in your sick, twisted, perverted egotism, it is written of me:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Luke 1:33
‘There! Angels! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!’
I suspect the fallen angels were bewildered. Especially, what DID he mean when he said, ‘thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.’ None of their class ever escaped from this prison so how can this fallen God-Man proclaim otherwise?
He went to the cross, to Hell and Tartaros by faith. But since His Father is faithful, he could rely on the written word of Psalm 16.10 ‘thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.’
But what of Verse one of the same Psalm which reads:
Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. Psalm 16:1
The word preserve has the Hebrew meaning of ‘be my guard, my watchman’. Since God is faithful to watch over His word to perform it, He would be no less dependable to rescue him from the fire.
Resurrection
AND THEN, to the utter amazement of the fallen angels, LIGHT appears in the darkness. The Holy Spirit is there!
The Spirit offers His life. Himself.
Jesus receives the Life of God into his spirit, and voila, Jesus is born anew and begotten.
As he ascends, he rips the gates of Hell right off their hinges! Yahooo!
He then ascends to the sepulcher where his mortal body now dead is changed into immortality. He awakens his physical body to life everlasting.
Jesus suffered death and hell so we would inherit IMMORTALITY. The Greek word is Athanasia and means, ‘Deathlessness’ or ‘a negative or opposite death’.
SEED
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Galatians 3:16
29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29
ALSO,
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. Peter 1:23
ALSO,
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. John 3:9
I’m sure you will not be surprised to know the word SEED in Greek is SPERMA and means exactly what you think it means. Without seed, you would not be alive. We can all trace our DNA and linage back to Adam and Eve.
Seed is of immense importance in the Bible. The word shows up two hundred and seventy-nine times. Everything from plants and animals to fallen angels and yes, even to Our Lord Jesus.
To be born again we must receive the SPERMA OF Christ into our hearts, or spirits. 1 Pet 1.23 tells us:
Being born again, not of corruptible seed (sperma), but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So, to receive Christ is to receive God’s Seed.
Our lives consist of a physical seed and a spiritual seed. While we are born into this world physically, our spirits are dead because we are born separated from God.
When we are born again it means that our spirits have received God’s seed which is His Word. The Word is Christ. Because of the living Word, (SPERMA), OUR SPIRITS ARE RENEWED.
Our spirit becomes alive for the first time and we become the offspring, the true Sons and Daughters of God.
Jesus was of the seed of Abraham and if you are in Christ then are you Abraham’s seed. Yes, I am tying in genetics to our eternal salvation. First, to be born again, and second, to receive an eternal physical body.
The eternal life package God offers us not only comprises Eternal Life (spiritually), but it also includes an indestructible, eternal, physical body as well. Does that entail a genetic change? A DNA Transformation?
If our bodies are made up of flesh and blood and bone, but the resurrected body is spirit, flesh, and bone, (no blood) – then it is reasonable to think so. After all, we don’t grow wings and become Angels and we certainly don’t remain mortal humans:
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:52-53
We Christians often speak of going to heaven when we die and what it will be like when we get there. The Apostle Paul emphasized the resurrection and transformation of our physical bodies much more than living in heaven after death. Especially in 1 Cor 15.
The truth is, we will resurrect and transform into immortal beings and have glorified PHYSICAL bodies. After this, we will live right here on earth with Jesus for a thousand years which will be heaven on earth.
SO, piecing this together, we see Jesus, as a forsaken, lost soul, entering the prison with those who corrupted the genetics of humankind, shows them they failed, announces a new beginning for man, one in which all believers are transformed from:
SINFUL AND MORTAL to RIGHTEOUS and IMMORTAL!!!
So, it was more than fitting for Jesus to preach in prison, to set the record straight, and to proclaim the future life between Himself and us, His Body. His Bride.
Could there be a more fitting place to launch the New Birth and Immortality than the lower parts of the earth? Leaving the depths of hell and soaring to the heights of heaven?
If all of this is true, what does that make us? Wretched sinners, who are barely saved by the seat of our pants? Or does it mean we are the very Sons and Daughters of the living God? In the resurrection just what and whom will you be?
You will exchange your mortal, decaying earth suit for an eternal body of incorruptible, supernatural substance. You will live in euphoric bliss and harmony with God, the universe, and the angels for eternity. Golly Day! What a Great Salvation We Have!
SIX
BUT WHAT OF LUCIFER AND ADAM??
They both had the opportunity of living in the Glory and presence of God for eternity. They both rebelled; and were soundly judged and punished.
Lucifer was the being of light referred to in Isaiah 14 as the ‘Son of the morning.’ He and a third of the angels conscientiously, with malice and forethought rebelled against God.
Adam and Eve were made in God’s image and lived in the garden for what I suspect to be a very long time. I don’t believe for a moment that God created Adam and Eve on Saturday and by the following Friday they had already sinned.
Let’s give God a little more credit, shall we?
God warned them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they did, they would surely die. They ate, they died spiritually at that moment, then later physically. But thank God, there was a promise of redemption for them.
First Lucifer rebelled, then Adam. Who could conceive of the notion that these magnificent, created beings of grace and light could or would ever rebel?
But they did!!
God’s Dilemma
God had a problem on his hands. If he kept creating beings and civilizations to love and fellowship with, and they keep rebelling, what would be the end of it? He had created two civilizations that were temporary, relatively short-lived at best.
You may think it preposterous that God could make a mistake or be unsuccessful in anything he undertook. But God did not fail! He created Lucifer and Adam with free will. It was they who committed high treason and rebellion. God did not want automatons or robots to fellowship with, after all.
This set off a dilemma. God the Creator, the perfect being of holiness, power, and wisdom, could not create a spiritual being at the highest level, His level, who would faithfully and loyally love Him forever, world without end.
Key Phrase: ‘WITHOUT END!!’
Lucifer and Adam did love God and fellowshiped with Him but, just not forever. Eventually, over the eons, they fell from God’s good graces. First Lucifer, then Adam and Eve, who ultimately committed high treason. As the Apostle Paul states in Romans:
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Romans 5:12
What was God to do with Adam and Eve? He could have wiped them out as He did Lucifer and the pre-Adamites.
Instead, God would create a brand-new creation, but not as Adam and Eve. Not from the dust of the earth and breathing life into them.
This time He would create a new civilization and start with Jesus Christ as the Head. He would become the Head, or Lord, of the New Civilization.
Jesus is named the last Adam or second God/Man. Quickening spirit is the term Paul used to promote the idea that Jesus was not only a vital, living spirit-man, but he could also quicken or resurrect us from the very dust itself.
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Corinthians 15:45
Jesus, because he was born of a human mother who was a virgin, was human. Because his Father was God, he was God. He was not born with the tainted spiritual seed of a human father, he was sinless, and therefore had a perfect relationship with God the Father.
He was a pure spirit void of sin and death, and he lived in a human physical body. He was 100% man and 100% God. The perfect authorized hybrid, if you will.
We the Church are His body, and He is our Head. Together we make up the Body of Christ, We, along with Jesus, become the new creation!
We are the eternal people born into the family of God!
Paul instructs us in Ephesians five that husbands ought to love their wives, even as Christ loves the church. In that sense, we are joined, or united into one body with Christ.
This would now be the third attempt at creating a civilization that would live in harmony with God for eternity. And Guess What? This Time We Make It!
THE BODY OF CHRIST BECOMES THAT NEW CIVILIZATION.
When Jesus cried out, ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’, he was stating that God had cut him off and that, like Lucifer or Adam, he was no longer in good favor, or fellowship with God his Father.
But now, after the resurrection, He is begotten as a New Creation. He becomes the New Adam and is the head of everyone who is reconciled to God. That makes us His new EVE!
CONCLUSION
FAILSAFE OF THE CROSS
I hope your little gray cells have been thoroughly exercised!
The failsafe of the cross then is this:
Throughout eternity Jesus will never go rouge or mount up any insurrection whatsoever against God the Father. And because He will never rebel, neither shall we.
This is true eternal security.
How could Jesus ever rebel if he will always be reminded that he escaped Tartaros and would never want to return there – ever again?
He will never forget that he was begotten, raised, AND redeemed from the dead solely by the mercy and grace of God the Father! He could not raise himself from the dead but needed to trust God for deliverance!
13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Hebrews 2:13
In this verse the ‘I’s’ have it. It is Christ who declares, “I will trust in him.” To paraphrase, this verse is saying, ‘I and we…me and the children…all of us together will and must depend on God for salvation.’
God raised him from the dead and He becomes the new, or last, Adam.
Throughout eternity Jesus and His Bride, the Church, will know of a certainty that without the grace and mercy of God, we would all be in hellfire and damnation.
That is why we cannot be saved by works. It must be by grace through faith. Not of works lest any man should think that he was deserving of eternal life.
Lucifer and Adam were perfect until they experienced the hardship of being separated and destitute. No doubt they regretted their decisions to become renegades.
Jesus experienced the punishment of rebellion but never rebelled. He took the fall before he took the throne. He experienced death, hell, and the grave before he became the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Get it?
Because of GRACE AND MERCY, there will never be another rebellion; Ever! Period! Over and Out! Now, there is a Lord and a created civilization that will love and adore and fellowship with God the Father world without end, AMEN!!
THAT CIVILIZATION IS US!!!!
GLORY TO GOD!!!!
At the coming of Jesus all who are alive, and born again, will receive brand new glorified bodies along with those who are in Heaven now. We will live for eternity with Jesus the Lord.
We are his body; He is our head. Think about it! We will live forever! and forever! The thrill of knowing this goes beyond words!
How awesome and astounding is the reality of having eternal life AND that there will never be another rebellion, World Without End, Amen.
Hallelujah to Jesus!!!
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be
NO END
Luke 1:33