<< The Mirror Translation >> Romans Revealed - Introduction

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ROMANS REVEALED
Introduction

The free eagle
While we were on honeymoon at Blydepoort, Mpumalanga (in January 1979), Lydia and I met an official from Nature Conservation who told us of a fascinating incident; she witnessed the dramatic release of a Black Eagle a few weeks prior to our visit. This eagle had been captive in the Pretoria zoo for ten years. She told us how thrilled they were with excitement and anticipation when the eagle finally arrived in its cage and the gate was opened. But only with difficulty did they eventually succeed to nudge the bird out of its cage.

It was one thing to get the bird out of the cage, but how do you get the cage out of the bird? In the mind of this eagle, it was still in the Pretoria zoo. Every one was holding their breath, but this once mighty bird remained the pathetic prisoner of an inferior mindset.

Nothing changed until much later when another eagle began to call in the area. The eyes of the zoo-eagle immediately lit up, and the next moment she took off in majestic flight to soar in unrestricted space. It needed no further flying instructions!

This dramatic story left a deep impression on my mind. I knew that in the light of Paul’s revelation of the good news, we are left with one urgent priority, which is to announce to the nations with bold confidence the truth about their original identity and mirror reflect the integrity of their innocence.

Paul’s Gospel
In His letter to the Romans, Paul gives radical and immediate relevance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a most distinguished fashion.

In studying this pivotal book of the Bible, one begins to understand why Paul would so emphatically speak of his gospel.

He erases any illusion that one could possibly add or subtract from this revelation. It concerns the total well-being of universal mankind; how the Creator succeeded in redeeming and restoring His image and likeness in human form.

Paul is convinced that whatever happened to the human race because of Adam’s fall is far superseded in every possible proportion by the revelation of mankind’s inclusion in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He places the fall of Adam and every act of unrighteousness that followed against the one act of righteousness that God performed in Christ as the final acquittal of humanity.

Any instruction that still places the emphasis on man’s contribution according to the prescribed rules of the law to improve himself and his conduct, limits man again to personal discipline and effort under the futile system of the law of guilt and condemnation; and ignores the completed work of God in Christ. “Even a little leaven leavens the whole lump” he says in his letter to the Galatians (5:9).

The revelation of righteousness by faith unveils how God in Christ succeeded in restoring man’s lost sense of identity and innocence. The etymological essence of the word, ‘righteousness’ in its root form, diké, implies the idea of two parties finding likeness in each other; with no interference of any sense of blame, guilt or inferiority.

In his Epistles Paul declares in no uncertain terms that he did not make any effort to learn or borrow his revelation of the gospel from the original eleven disciples of Jesus.

“For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that I preach is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

But God separated me from my mother’s womb and identified me through the revelation of His grace.
It pleased Him to reveal His Son in me, in order that I might preach Him in the Gentiles. I deliberately did not consult with anyone…” (Galatians 1:11,12,15-17).

One would think that Paul missed out on a golden opportunity immediately after his conversion in that he did not study first-hand the detailed eye-witness information which the apostles had to offer him about Jesus of Nazareth.

But the impact of his encounter had distanced him even from the value he had previously placed on his own noble birth. Whatever gain he felt that he might have had as a descendant of the prominent lineage of Benjamin is discounted against the revelation of the greater spiritual identity of man.

“From now on therefore I no longer know any man from a human point of view...” (2 Corinthians 5:16). “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, nor slave nor freeman, nor African nor Chinese, nor European nor American, neither male nor female...” (Galatians 3:28).

Nothing distinguishes an individual more than the revelation of his original identity as preserved, restored and revealed again in Christ. In Christ, the image and likeness of the invisible Creator is accurately displayed again in human form. “It is in Him that God gives a full and complete expression of Himself. Moreover, your own completeness is realised only in Him” (Colossians 1:15; 2:9-10 Phillips Translation).

“He is not far from each one of us,” Paul reminds the philosophers of Athens. “In Him we live and move and have our being; we are indeed His offspring...” (Acts 17:27,28). The inner mirror of Christ says it all. Our likeness to Christ revealed within us brings real transformation; this realisation is so much more effective than wishful thinking, mere ‘window shopping’ or the exercise of our willpower. (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Not once in Paul’s Epistles does he make mention of any miracles performed by Jesus, neither does he refer to any parable told by Him.

His mission and message was not to proclaim Christ revealed in history, but Christ revealed in us. (Romans 8:10). He celebrates the harvest revealed in the single grain of wheat that would have remained alone, had it not been sown into the earth and died. (John 12:23,24).

The mystery that was hidden from generations of people was not understood by any of the rulers of this world. God documented this mystery in Christ’s incarnation for man’s glorification. Had they understood this they would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:6-9). But they did not understand the mystery of God’s plan, how mankind was to be fully represented and included in Christ; how one would die for all, and how simultaneously all indeed died in His death (2 Corinthians 5:14). They did not know that all of humanity would be represented in the single act of one man and thus disarm the claim of darkness and ignorance over all people. “God has overlooked the times of ignorance” (Acts 17:30). History recorded the death and resurrection of one individual, eternity recorded the death of mankind and the new birth of the human species.

We have in our ignorance given far too much credit to the devil. He is defeated and disarmed. In the revelation of the gospel, he is brought to nought and rendered completely powerless. (1 Corinthians 2:6-8; Colossians 2:14-15). His sole aim has always been to keep mankind as ignorant as he himself was concerning their inclusion in Christ. It was our ignorance and unbelief that empowered him to do so.

The only reference in the Old Testament to the resurrection on the 3rd day includes us! “On the third day He will raise us up.” (Hosea 6:1,2). This is the scripture which ignited Paul’s understanding that we are all co-included in His death and triumphant resurrection.

On whose terms were we qualified for inclusion?

“All this is from God,” says Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:18; “Of God are we in Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:30) “The ends of the earth in their future generations will know that the Lord has wrought it!” (Psalms 22:31). This was accomplished on our behalf while we were still dead in our sins; while we were hostile and indifferent towards God (Ephesians 2:5,6). Because we were raised together with Christ, let us now engage and occupy our thoughts with Throne Room realities and not with the futile contradictions and distractions of a lesser life (Colossians 3:1-3).

After 3 years spent in isolation in Arabia, Paul visits Jerusalem for two weeks and deliberately sees only two of the Apostles - Cephas and James, the Lord’s brother. What was it that distinguished Peter and James, the younger brother of Jesus, from the rest of the disciples? Why was Paul attracted specifically to them? Both these men shared a rare revelation with Paul: they no longer knew Jesus from a human point of view; they had discovered their own true identity in Christ.

Paul refers to Peter as Cephas in order to emphasise the meaning rather than the familiar sound of his name! In Greek, the written language of his day, the word for rock was “Petros”, but in the spoken language, Aramaic, the word was “Cephas”.

In Matthew 16 Jesus asks the most important question in the Bible, “Who do men say the son of man is?” By revelation, Simon asserts in response that Jesus is not the son of Joseph, but the Messiah. He is the promise of man’s redemption, the image and likeness of God restored to and fully displayed in human form; the son of the living God.

Notice how Jesus responds to him: “Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father. If I am the son of God then so are you. Your surname is no longer derived from your natural father in the flesh but from the Rock that begot you. (“You have forgotten the rock that begot you and the God who gave birth to you...” Deuteronomy 32:18. “Look to the Rock from which you were hewn…” Isaiah 51:1) Upon this Rock, I will build My church (Greek, ekklésia).

The church is God’s answer to man’s lost identity. The word ‘ekklesia’ which Jesus introduces here does not refer to a building or an organisation, but to the original divine identity of mankind restored and revealed anew in Christ as in a mirror. The Greek preposition, ek, always refers to origin or source (see 1 Corinthians 1:30, Hebrews 2:11) and klésia, (from kaléo) means to surname or to identify by name. The essential meaning and purpose of the church then is to extend the ministry of Jesus Christ which is to unveil the true Christ-like identity of every man. “We were born anew into a living hope when Jesus was raised from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3).

Why, in addition to Peter, did Paul also visit James? (Gal.1:19). What had happened to James since the time when he had been standing distanced and indifferent to the ministry of his brother, Jesus? (“Even His brothers did not believe in Him…” John 7:5). What had brought him to write that our birth is of the Father of lights who brought us forth by the word of truth? Our true beginning is in God; we are God’s invention. And “if any man hears this word he sees the face of his birth as in a mirror.” He also states that it is possible to forget what manner of man you are, if you are being distracted from a faith-informed focus in the mirror of likeness, and revert again to the double-minded opinion of the flesh (James 1:17,18,24).

In 1 Corinthians 15:7 Paul specifically mentions that Jesus had also appeared to James after the resurrection. I believe that the meaning of the ministry of Jesus dawned on him there. He now knew that his brother was indeed the Messiah. He suddenly understood that just like Jesus, his own genesis began in God, and indeed every man’s true birth was now represented and revealed in the resurrection. Joseph and Mary could not parent their original spirit design.

Paul is convinced that something happened to mankind in the death and resurrection of Christ. The resurrection mirrors everyone’s new birth. This happened even before we knew about it. “He made us alive together with Him while we were still dead in our sins and raised us up together with Him” (Ephesians 2:5). When Paul preaches the resurrection in Acts 13, he uses Psalm 2 as his text: “Today I have begotten you.” (Acts 13:30-33). “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1Corinthians 15:22). Jesus was not the second but the last Adam. The old things (the old Adamic race), have passed away. “The first Adam became a living soul, the last Adam was a life-giving Spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45).  

“I am persuaded that because one died for all, therefore all have indeed died. From now on therefore I no longer regard any man from a human point of view; in Christ, man has become a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, everything has become new” (2 Corinthians 5:14,16,17). 

When did all of mankind die? In Paul’s logic, this happened when Jesus died. Jesus in His person represented all of God in human form and at the same time the whole of mankind.

Jesus did not come to start the Christian religion; He came to reveal every man’s true origin, identity and innocence. When the gospel was first preached to the Greeks, Barnabas was sent by the church in Jerusalem to investigate the reports. He saw the grace of God evident in them and instead of reporting back to the leadership of Jerusalem he immediately fetched Paul and gave him his first public pulpit. He knew and understood Paul’s revelation of Christ in man. It is no surprise to learn then that it was here in Antioch where for the first time believers were called Christians (Acts 11).

“Ask of me the nations and I will give you the ends of the earth as your inheritance!” (Psalm 2:7-8). The conclusion of the cross is that the ends of the earth shall remember (their forgotten identity, Deuteronomy 32:18) and turn to the Lord (Psalm 22:27).

“I proclaim Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which was concealed in silence in the sequence of timeless ages, but now is made publicly known, mirrored in prophetic scripture.” (“Surely He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him and by His stripes we were healed” Isaiah 53:4,5). And now the God of the ages has issued His mandate to make the mystery known in such a way that all the nations of the earth will discover the lifestyle (obedience) that the hearing of faith ignites” (Romans 16:25,26).

“The conclusion is clear: it took just one offence to condemn mankind; one act of righteousness declares the same mankind innocent. The disobedience of the one man exhibits humanity as sinners, the obedience of another man exhibits humanity as righteous. (Romans 5:18,19).
The principle of faith, then, is to see what God sees. God calls things which seem not to be as though they were (Romans 4:17). “While we look not at the things that the senses observe, but we look at the revelation of the unseen as it is unveiled in our understanding through the mirror reflection of the Gospel of Christ. (2 Cor. 3:18; 2 Cor.4:18).

Heb 2:8 “God's intention was for man to rule on the planet; He subjected everything without exception under his control. Yet it does not seem like that at all.
2:9 But what we do see is Jesus. In the death He suffered He descended for a brief moment below the lowest ranked angel in order to taste the death of the whole human race and thus fulfill the grace of God to be crowned again with glory and highly esteemed honor.
2:10 He towers far above everything in conspicuous prominence since He himself is the only relevance of everything’s true existence (all that is finds their true definition only in Him) He remains both the origin and the final conclusion of all things. He now summons every son of His to His own glory through a perfect salvation. The degree of the suffering He bore equals the perfection of the salvation He now heads up.
2:11 Because both He who performed the rescuing act and those rescued and restored to innocence, originate from the same womb, He proudly introduces them to be identified as His immediate family.”

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