Seeing the Heavens Opened: The Meaning of Being Born Again in Christ (DCLC 1984)

And the other one is, how many of you worried today about how many poor little fishes died in the bottom of the ocean? Would you please raise your hand? How many of you are really, really laid out flat over the fact that the rhinoceros has disappeared in one part of India, and it is on the list for extinction? This has really laid you out flat. Will you please raise your hand? And there may be someone here who is concerned about the rhinoceros. Well, there’s not. It seems okay.

How many of you have really just been disturbed deeply over the fact that there was grass cut all over the earth today? Okay. How could you be? None of us, ever with rare exception, is concerned that much about the final state of lower forms of life. Brothers and sisters, you must realize that you do not belong to the same species as the man who is not saved. You are not the same biological species. In order to be the same biological species, you must be identical genetically and in your internal composition.

My dear friend, you are a new species. You are a species introduced after creation, which is, in fact, impossible. A species that has only been on the earth for 2,000 years. You are the only species on earth that is spirit, soul, and body, with a spirit that’s alive with God in you. You are a different biological species, and you have been that, either predestined to be, or in fact that in time and space, but you’ve been predestined for that. Therefore, I will say you have been that for all eternity.

It’s different. It’s a matter of different life forms. Now, if you wish to be concerned really deeply about other life forms, that’s fine. But remember, the Lord was very sparing with whom He called brother…extremely. The Bible tells us to do a lot of things, like visiting people in prison and taking care of the sick, and all that. And you’ve had a lot of charities started after that. But you watch very carefully – the word “brothers” appears in those passages. That’s getting after a specific form of life. Now then, I’ve laid aside one of the great theological problems, and we have laid it aside forever. Isn’t it wonderful?

Now, I want you to know that Jesus Christ is sitting in a carpenter shop. He is about to close the doors on that shop forever. He is now 30 years old. He has had 30 years plus eternity to prepare for years of life. Nobody has ever dreamed of Him being a prophet or anything else. He is now in a carpenter shop. He is leaving, but He has now gained total divine consciousness. He is as aware of His past as if He were the Father. He now knows the past. That’s one thing.

He is in total fellowship with a Father who dwells within Him. He is also about to undergo an insuperable, superhuman test. He will not remain the Son of God if He fails any of them. And each day the test increases. But if He passes them all, He remains the Son of God. Is crucified and risen from the grave. There are no more tests. There are no tests left for Jesus Christ. Then He is declared to be the Son of God without any test left. Every day the angels declare He is the Son of God, and every day He is the Son of God, and He passed the test, but at the end there’s no more test, and He is declared by the Father to be the Son of God. I don’t know what that means, but that’s what happened.

Now then, He is not only aware of an indwelling Father as completely as He was when He lived in the bosom of the Father, when He was there in eternity past in the Godhead. That awareness is fully within Him. But I also want you to know that He can see the unseen. As Adam could until the fall, He sees unseen things. He is in complete fellowship with the Father. He is totally aware of all past history and all past eternity. And if that is true, He is also aware, and the Father tells Him who is and who is not chosen. And if you’ll read the book of John, you will see that He says, “I know whom my Father has chosen because He tells Me.” He has this deep internal awareness. There is within Christ in all of this billowing light within Him; there is literally a tunnel that goes all the way back through time and eternity. He has access to all that is past, and He hears everything His Father speaks or thinks, or any revelation the Father has is His own.

Now, when He steps out of that carpenter shop, He is one very armed individual, yet at the same time He is fully matured in divinity; He is fully matured in His humanity. He is going out not to have His divinity tested, but to have His humanity tested, so He might become that living sacrifice and deliver those who are chosen. And there are many, many; nonetheless, I want you to watch Him leave.

Now, I want you to consider one other thing: He has a memory of everything He’s picked up over the last 30 years. In my judgment, virtually every sermon that He preaches, every parable He will tell, virtually everything He will speak to the people for the next four years, He already has made up and prepared out of His human experience on the earth. The sparrows have not only taught Him, but He has entered in with His Father in the fellowship of the sparrow… what the sparrow is. He has seen the lamb. As I said to you, all the many things that He speaks of: the wheat, the tear, the sea, the light, the different human events…What’s this interesting thing He tells about: somebody dies because part of the temple fell on them? Do you know the story I’m talking about? Yes, it has fallen on somebody, and this event has probably already taken place, and He remembers it, and from it He draws forth a point of wisdom.

He has also been watching black-robed men for the last 10, 15, 20 years with great interest. He has been watching people reading a book he wrote and has been fascinated by their interpretation of it. Fascinated by their attitude that they have built up toward that book and the way they have corrupted it. He’s interested in the liturgy that He gave a group of people and what it had become to them that He never intended it to become. I’m sure He is absolutely awed by the scribe who can quote every verse in Hebrew scripture and, with each verse, give as many as five interpretations—maybe more. There are more. He must be really awed by that.

When He was 20 years old, He began serious preparation for the priesthood as a Christian worker. At the same time, other men born the same year as He were also preparing for the ministry, and they went to Jerusalem and lived in the temple there for the next 10 years. He went to a carpenter shop and worked for 10 years in His preparation for being a minister of the gospel. You Christian worker, put that in your pipe and smoke it. He leaves the shop armed with all of this. And if we leave the shop with Him, I want you to remember one more time, please. He sees things unseen. He knows who are is His own the moment He meets them.

I should emphasize the point because it comes out later. He is really up on… He is really up on the religious system as it existed in His day, and He’s totally aware of its complexity, its nature, its expressions, and its fascination. I made it. Alright, I’m past it now; everything’s okay. You can relax. It’s the first time I ever did that.