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Manifest Sons -
Overcomers and the Manchild
Part 2
By John Gavazzoni
When God selects out a man, a woman, or a collective minority from within, and out from mankind in general, if that selection is not understood in the larger context of the economy of God, as clearly outlined in scripture, inferences can be, and most often are drawn forth that effectively so distort an understanding of the motive and meaning of that selection, as to leave one with a religious mind-set hopelessly misaligned with that of God, that is, until He intervenes by sovereign grace, to set our thinking straight.
We see dramatic representations of divine selection all through the Bible record: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Deborah, Ruth, Gideon, Israel, Mary and Joseph, the church, the Twelve, Paul, and so many others - and let's not forget the likes of Pharaoh. Properly understood, in every case when God, to the exclusion of others, chooses out one individual, or a grouping of individuals, toward the fulfilment of His purpose, that selection, that choice, that election is secondary to the one all-inclusive delineation that gives all the others meaning.
What might that one be? Why none other than the oft-maligned progenitor of our race, Adam. He, inclusive of Eve, was chosen by God, formed of/out from the dust of the earth, out from all God's creation and creatures, most essentially to be God's fullest self-providing expression, by the only means whereby one can fully express God - by being made a full participant in the Divine Nature..
If you have some insight into that truth, maybe, as I have, you've asked yourself, "to whom was/is the Lord so intent upon expressing Himself?" Since no man can see God and live; since only God Himself can survive the expression of Himself, we are left with the Lord expressing Himself to His own Humanity.
He brings forth the magnificence of Himself out of the depths of Himself, and then causes That which He has brought forth to be deprived of the light of His glory, so that His own need calls forth out of Himself the full radiance of that glory. Provision and deprivation are the perfect mutual complements by which God gets the best of Himself out of Himself. Enter stage right: Adam, the man who is the glory of God, inclusive of all who were in his loins, who existentially is, more than anything else, the personification and embodiment of God's deprivation.
Only Adam, in collective oneness, and in collective, consummate neediness, is the all-inclusive choice of God for the fulfilment of the Divine passion. All of God's secondary selections have only the purpose of restoring us all to that primal election. It is in God's commission to Adam, and the whole race that sprang from him - "Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, and conquer it" - that we see God's choice that gives meaning to, and makes relevant all secondary callings-out from among men.
This explains why "the Son of Man" (=Son of Adam) so effortlessly rolled off the tongue of Jesus as His favored self-identification. It is man, mankind, Adam, from beginning to end; Adam as first (the Beginning), and Adam as Last, (the End). It is by man, in his first presentation as one with, and capstone of all creation, and by Man in His second presentation, as Lord of all creation, that God will do all His good pleasure.
So, dear brethren, be careful of how you perceive whatever has been your particular experience of election. As I once blurted out in a message on this subject, "you have no idea how connected to, and how you are dependent upon that man hunched down in an alley in Skid Row, sucking on a bottle of Muscatel. You, without him, dear one, shall not be made perfect. He, as much as you, is a member of that elect "company" which is Adam/humanity.
It is our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom this humanity, and its destiny is gathered together. The best of Himself, as the Son of God, came forth, born of a woman, as the Son of Man. This is why there have been occasions when I have questioned whether or not to continue studying the Bible, for it has been my experience with that blessed Book, that at every turn of its pages, at every turn in its record, there is only one message:
God's desire is for the One New Man. There is no purpose outside of himself, for which man was created. Man, in Christ, is the purpose, the goal, the satisfaction of God. Man, out from the loins of God, by His One Seed, the Christ, is God's very destiny.
Go to part one, part two or part 3 of this series - Manifest Sons - Overcomers and the Manchild
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