Isaiah Roman

From Darkness Into Light

God is perfect order. He is eternal in that he had no beginning and has no end. In His eternal estate he is complete and is perfectly content. He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; He desires only love, because He is love. This He does not lack as He is sufficient within Himself in the expression of the Trinity. The expression of love is only expanded, as He is able to create for Himself whatsoever He chooses. It is impossible for Him to do wrong. “He is light and in Him is no darkness.”

He chose, through creation, to provide objects toward which and through which He might display His love and justice. He desires, but does not demand, to receive praise and thanksgiving, (worship). These things are not only due to Him by right of ownership through creation, but also because of His righteousness. He is worthy.

Mankind was created in God’s image. Mankind’s physical form is a result of the rest of creation. It is a support system which God gave man dominion over. All of creation, including it’s living creatures, were given to be the responsibility of man. All, that is, except for one, which God reserved to Himself.

A creature of a fallen angelic order succumbed to pride and jealousy and transgressed God’s law. As part of this rebellion, he sought to steal from God. Because of this he came and tempted men with pride and jealousy. Man succumbed to this temptation and transgressed against God. Through these acts man and angel left their first estate and creation was corrupted.

Before creation, before time itself, God provided a sacrifice sufficiently capable of reconciling man, to remove him from his fallen estate to return him to his former created state. God Himself became that sacrifice. He condescended to become as a man,1 live without transgression of God’s law and voluntarily give his perfect life so that imperfect mankind might be redeemed from slavery to their own transgressions and live eternally.

That redemption, reconciliation, salvation took on the following form:

1. Capitulation: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7) “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”(Romans 12:1b)
2. Conversion: “Jesus is God and christ! “Open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God”.(Acts 26:18). “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9)
3. Justification: “Therefore, say to the house of Israel, So says the Lord Jehovah: I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but only for My holy name which you profaned among the nations, there where you went.” (Ezekiel 36:22) “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.(Jeremiah 31:33) “…Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
4. Regeneration: “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:10-11) “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” (I John 3:3-6)
5. Sanctification: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2). “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” (Hebrews 10:14-16)

1. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32). “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:” (Philippians 2:6) “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”(I Peter 2:24)