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The Great Exchange

Part VIII

The present series, using the formula of the Shadow and the Substance, has demonstrated that those whose lives have been touched by the Holy Spirit through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, exhibit evidence of the LORD’s presence in their physical existence. The Scriptures tell us this earthly realm is the “shadow” which is actually an image of the “substance” which is found in the heavenly dimension.

When a person has come to a relationship with Christ, the Scriptures tell us that he or she is “in Christ” and the LORD Jesus Christ dwells within us. Moreover, the New Testament explains that JESUS CHRIST is the “image” of God.

“[Rightousness is] the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God [that] should shine unto them” (II Corinthians 4:4).

Since every generation of believers have flesh and blood bodies that are hosting the Spirit of the LORD, the Word of God says that even though we bear the image of the earthy, we also manifest the image of the righteousness generated by the light of God.

“And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (I Corinthians 15:49).

Although the book of Genesis says that God made us in His image, after the fall, there are no Scriptures that speak of human kind as being in the image of God that do not reference Christ.

Instead, the text tells us the only begotten Son of God is the image of God – and His Spirit within us is conforming our lives to His image.

“[He] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature” (Colossians 1:15). 

Some have erred because the Spirit in them led to the faulty conclusion this verse indicates Jesus was created, due to the syntax found in the construction of this sentence. However, the verse states that Christ is the firstborn, and because of His priority standing as the only one who came down from heaven (as opposed to some anointed man who supposedly managed to climb up to heaven), the text is simply saying His resurrection precedes the rebirth of every created person.

The New Testament further makes the analogy that when we respond to His divine nature, it is like a reflection in a mirror, as His glory is progressively imparted to us.

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18).

The Apostle John, picking up on the same thought as the Apostle Paul in the writings to the Corinthians, tells us that when the Father decides, Christ will be fully revealed to us in all His glory.

“Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (I John 3:2).

In the preceding chapter of The Great Exchange, I noted how those whose earthly lives have not manifested any evidence that they are destined to “be like him,” will not be found in the kingdom of God.

To rephrase that thought, since this earthly existence is a “shadow” of the “substance” in the heavenly realm, anyone who is destined to spend eternity in Christ will undoubtedly exhibit some indication of that fact via their life in this world.

The old adage which says If Christianity were illegal, would there be enough evidence to convict you? comes to mind. 

On the other side of the equation, almost anyone can tell you that people who manifest striking examples of evil during their lifetime will, in fact, not end up in a good place in eternity. Intriguingly, as the Scripture has noted, we now know that their Spirits will ultimately be found in one of the two principalities revealed in Scripture.

At what is called the great white throne judgment of God, the earth, the heavens, and the sea are dissolved, and the souls of the unredeemed are brought to stand before God.

“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them” (Revelation 20:11).

It is interesting to note that because the earth has then “fled away” because of the awesome presence of God at this divine tribunal, at that point there is no trace of any earthly evidence that we ever even existed, because nothing is left of the world that was.

Nevertheless, the momentous judgment will still proceed, as the spirits of every unredeemed person who ever existed will be judged – and the Word of God tells us the soul of each individual will be retrieved from one of these two principalities:

“And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works” (Revelation 20:12).

Along these same lines, I previously noted how the Bible tells us when we are in Christ, it is because we yielded to His Lordship when the opportunity arose. Obviously, after the earth has “fled away” at the great white throne judgment, there is no longer any opportunity to turn to Christ.

There are no less that 72 verses in the New Testament which speak of being in Christ. In the same mysterious way, the verse just mentioned in Revelation declares that there are an untold number of the souls of men and women who are in Death or in Hell.

In fact, the Bible tells us these two principalities have a limitless capacity as receptacles for the spirits of the damned.

“Hell and destruction [a euphemism for death] are never full” (Proverbs 27:20).

Because vast numbers of Christians have been profoundly influenced by the voluminous number of False Prophets in the time of the prophesied departure from the truth – what the Scriptures call the Falling Away – most believers are unaware the Bible actually reveals significant data about the triune architecture of the heavens described herein.

All things are characterized by the three principalities we’ve already addressed. Those who are in Christ, are redeemed and eternally blessed in the kingdom of God. There are even hints about the singular unity of God in the trinitarian description of those who are one with Him, as we are described in three-fold terms:

“And they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:14).

In the most rudimentary fashion, the text tells us the very essence of Christ is life.

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

It is self evident the opposite polarity of Christ would be seen in the mysterious entity seen in Scripture as antichrist.

“Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist” (I John 4:3).

Thus, since Christ is clearly associated with life, antichrist would have to be the equivalent of death. Further, since we have already addressed the prophetic pair of death and hell, in symbolic terms, we see “hell” as conscious torment, where one who inhabits such a locale is not in Christ, but also is not in death.

At the Christian Media ministry, we routinely describe the totality of these three as the Triuniverse.

It’s a relatively simple matter to find the various terms in Scripture which function as euphemisms that identify the relevant aspect of the Triuniverse. For instance, the life of Christ is frequently tied to truth, or the way.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Note the fact that this is yet another verse which symbolically references the unity in the three-fold descriptions of the “I am,” that envelops the three stated attributes.

Earlier, in the passage cited to describe the infinite capacity of the two infernal abodes, I cited a proverb which said “Hell and destruction are never full” (Proverbs 27:20) – with “destruction” functioning as another word used in the same allegorical fashion as kill, murder, destroy, die, cut off, etc. Clearly, there are many other terms which equivocate with Death.

Hell is just as prevalent as words like torment, deceived, captive, beguile, disobey, sin, and many others which all characterize this mysterious menace. 

Two chapters back in The Great Exchange, we described this Perdition Engine, as a way of visualizing how these two phenomena function in a symbiotic fashion – with Hell feeding Death. In this regard, the book of Romans shows the astonishing wisdom of the Apostle Paul, who clearly grasped this formula two thousand years ago.

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).

We can find this equation in the Old Testament as well as the New Covenant and, incredibly, the entrance of righteousness into the world via the incarnation of JESUS CHRIST profoundly affected this cycle, but a further explanation of that amazing reconfiguration of the shadow and the substance will have to wait for the next installment of The Great Exchange.

-- James Lloyd

To Be Continued