I want to end this Rant series by taking a look at what makes the divine so... well... divine. And the best way to say it is: "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:6-7). Or, to say it another way, "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). The divine nature--which, again, is not just what we DO, but who we ARE--is the love nature. And love is giving. Giving everything you have and everything you are, no matter what the (perceived) results are. Not loving someone because they "deserve" it, but loving someone because you are so full of love you couldn't keep it to yourself if you tried. Jesus, literally God, made Himself of no reputation. He took on the form of a servant. He washed His disciple's feet. He gave His very life for us, and to us. And look at Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." When we had nothing to offer... Jesus gave it all. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins, Jesus gave us His life. He freed us from that bondage, and He equipped and empowered us to live a life of love. He gave it all... simply because He wanted us to have it. Simply because He loved us. That's how He SHOWED us His love. Jesus said the greatest love a man can have is to lay His life down for His friends. And then He went to the cross and did that very thing. He didn't just talk about love. He put His money where His mouth was. He even told His disciples, when they tried to defend Him when He was being arrested, "Thinketh thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53). My point being, Jesus gave His life willingly. He said in another place that no man could take His life. But that He laid it down so that He could pick it back up again. He did it... for us. Because we couldn't do it ourselves. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get ourselves out of the trouble with sin and death that Adam had gotten us into. And if we're being honest about it, we really didn't try that hard. We spent more time running FROM God than we ever did running TO Him. So He DREW us to Himself. He was lifted up from the earth on the cross. He did what we couldn't. And since He had drawn us into Himself, He didn't just do it FOR us, He also did it AS us. Justified doesn't mean, "Just as if I'd never sinned." Justified means I am a new creature in Christ and I HAVE never sinned. How can someone who is dead to sin live there anymore? Anyone born of Christ CANNOT sin because the incorruptible seed remains in Him. We have been completely transformed. From old to new. We have been CONFORMED to the image of God's only Son. As He is, so are we in this world. So now we CAN love God--by loving each other. Just as He loved us, we can love one another. Just as He laid His life down for us, we can lay it down for each other. If the root is holy, the lump is holy. When we partake of the divine nature, what we come to understand is that He is divine... and so are we!

We are partakers of the divine nature through the knowledge of Christ. To me that means Jesus has prepared a table for us in the presence of our enemies, and He stands at the door and knocks... just waiting for us to let Him in so that we can sup with Him. To me that means the Spirit and the bride say come. And they don't say, "Come... or else!" They say, "Come and get it! It's here! It's available!" To me that means, "...It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely" (Revelation 21:6). Look, I say this all the time: We have it all. We have been blessed with all Spiritual blessings in the heavenly Christ. We have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. What we need to do is stop trying to get something we think we haven't got. What we need to do is stop looking at what we DON'T have and start focusing on what we DO have. Stop trying to be someone we're not and focus on finding out who we really are. By finding out who JESUS really is. Because, as He is so are we in this world. Because, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the truth about God, and the truth about us. The truth about God IN us! That's who Jesus is--God in the flesh, love in a body. And that's who WE are because He is God in OUR flesh, love in OUR body. Knowing and believing the truth is what makes it true for us. Receiving and releasing the gift of God is what allows us to experience and enjoy that gift. You know the old saying: You are what you eat. And if that applies in the natural you better believe it applies in the Spirit. Especially when you consider that when the Bible says, "God is love" the word "love" means "love feast." The table Jesus prepared for us--through the cross--is the six course meal of His death, burial, and resurrection. He was Crucified, Died, Buried, Quickened, Raised, and Seated (see my book, "Six Steps to the Throne"). And we were in Him when it happened. So WE were crucified. WE died. WE were buried. That was the end of the old man. Then, three days later, WE were quickened. WE were raised. And WE were seated. Again, as He is, so are we in this world. Who we are in Christ is who Christ is in us. But if all we ever do is feed on the lie that we are merely sinners (more or less, and apparently usually LESS) saved by grace... that's what's going to manifest in our lives. We ARE who we believe we are, according either to the world's (false) report, or the Word of (truth of) the Lord. I heard a preacher say it like this, "I am who my Daddy says I am." Bingo! That's it, man. That's what will free people from the bondage of sin (unbelief) and death. Feeding on the truth of our heavenly Father's love for us is what will satisfy our appetite. When we know we can go to the source, we WILL stop looking for love in all the wrong places. When we get on the correct diet of the bread from heaven (the body of Christ), and the wine (the blood of Christ)... when we partake of that living water and the lamb... that's when the transfomation (that already took place 2,000 years ago) works it's way out from the inside. When the root is holy, the lump is holy. When we know who we are we will BE who we are. Not by trying, but by letting it happen naturally. Which is the whole point. It's a divine NATURE. It's not just what we do. It's who we are!

We are divine creatures. Godlike. Because we were made in God's image, and then--on the cross--confomed to the image of His Son. The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in A body when Jesus walked the earth. Now it dwells in OUR bodies. His corporate body. Because He dwells in us. And, I think, the key to all of this is understanding the two-way street of relationship. Who I am in Christ is who Christ is in me. He dwells in me, but I dwell in Him. Because I dwell in LOVE. I guard my heart--by keeping it open--because out of the heart flows the issue of life. Which, of course, is love. To live is to love and to love is to live. There is nothing more holy, or more heavenly, or more divine, than being loved by your heavenly Father and loving others with that same love. That's why we were created. That's our purpose. That's our calling. And when we do that, when we let God love us and when we love one another with that love... when we know and believe, when we receive and release, the love of Christ... that's when (and how) we partake of the divine nature. That's when (and how) we let the mind of Christ, that's already in us, BE in us. When (and how) we USE the gift we've been given. We experience love by giving it away. Because love is giving. We experience the gift we've been given (eternal life, which is knowing the one true God and the One He sent... knowing the Father in the context of being His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased) when we SHARE the gift. That's when things get real. That's where the rubber meets the road. And that's when things get exciitng. That's when you can stop struggling and start resting. When you know who you are, you can stop trying to be someone you're not. When you know WHERE you are--we are IN the Kingdom and we ARE the Kingdom--you can be content right here and now. And when you know what you've got you can stop trying to earn your bread by the sweat of your brow. You can be still and know that HE is God. That God is love. You can partake of the divine nature through the knowledge of Jesus. Through the knowledge that it is YOUR new nature. Not the beast nature that ruled the old man, but the love nature that controls the New Man! And I'm not talking about that "Christian robot" who is "controlled" by an external law. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Freedom FROM sin and death, and freedom TO live a life of love. The thing I like about that phrase in 2 Peter 1:4 (and I think this is where I'm going to focus all of my energy in tomorrow's Rant) is the idea of being a "partaker." Remember when we started this Rant series it was with the idea of eating something that was so good it was out of this world. It was divine. Well, you are what you eat. What you magnify is what manifests in your life. What you feed is what grows. So my point is, when the Bible says, "God is love" (1 John 4:8) the word "love" means "love feast." We partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life. The fruit of the Spirit. Love. And when we eat the right thing... when we know what's inside, when we know who we are... that's when it (Him, love) comes out naturally. We are divine creatures, and we were created to be loved and to love!

My mom has a poster in her house that says something along the lines of, "If we did everything we were capable of, we would literally astonish ourselves." And while I absolutely agree with that, MY poster would say, "If we really knew who we were we literally astonish each other." Because if we really knew that we were divine creatures fearfully and wonderfully made by the God who is love... if we really knew that our purpose on this earth is to be loved and to love each other... I think a whole lot of things would be a whole lot different. I mean, come on--all of creation is groaning for the manifestation of the Son(s) of God! Look at 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now we are 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." That's so vitally important to understand, because what we see is what we be. Seeing is believing, and what you believe defines your reality. (Again: Which report you believe defines your reality. You can't "believe" anything you want--which is really more like wishful thinking--and expect it to happen. But you can believe the world's report, or you can believe the Word of God. And whichever one you believe is the one that will manifest in your life.) If you believe you're a sinner, you're going to act like one. If you believe you're a Son, you're going to act like one. If you partake of the divine nature--the godlikeness, or the divinity, or the godhead--then everything you do will flow from that identity. If the root is holy, the lump will be too. Right believing leads to right living. If you see yourself correctly you won't need to try to be someone you're not. And the maturation process is FROM glory TO glory. We start at glory. We start at the Son(s). Even if we don't completely know what that means. We ARE complete in Him. Because HE is complete in us. And in Him dwells all of the fulness of the Godhead. Which means in US dwells all of the fulness of the Godhead. Which means we have everything we will ever need. It's available to us. We don't have to try to earn it by the sweat of our brows. We can rest in the loving arms of our heavenly Father and enjoy the fruit of HIS labor. Which is the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Tree of Life. Love. And love is enjoyed when you give it away. When you share the gift you've been given with those who need it. And, spoiler alert, "those who need it" are everybody. We have been equipped and empowered to love indiscriminately. It doesn't matter who crosses our path; we can love them. It doesn't matter if they "deserve" our love or not. Deserve's got nothing to do with it. Remember MY definition of "divine"? When something is so good that it's out of this world? Well, there's nothing better than a free gift. Because a gift CAN'T be earned. It comes guilt-free. Again: Deserve's got nothing to do with it. My point is, if we really understood what divine, out of this world, heavenly creatures we are... we wouldn't be running around trying to be someone we're not. We'd be perfectly happy being who we are. Not trying to get anything, but giving what we've got. Not trying to take advantage of people, but taking care of people. It would be such a monumental shift in our thinking. It would, quite literally, be divine...!

Have you ever eaten something and it was so good--so heavenly--that you said, "This is divine?" That feeling (and for me it's chocolate) is what I always think of when I see that word. But according to 2 Peter 1:4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust," the word "divine" is number 2304 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, literally, "godlike." It also states, "divinity, or godhead." Which, of course, takes us to Jesus. Colossians 2:9, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." And, of course, if we're talking about Jesus we're talking about... us. "...because as he is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17). Jesus is the truth. The truth about God, and the truth about you. If it's true about Him, it's true about you. The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in a body when Jesus walked the earth. When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And not the fulness of the Godhead dwells in YOUR body because, through the cross, God took it a step further. Rather than just dwelling WITH us, He now dwells WITHIN us. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). We are the house that the carpenter Jesus built for Him to live in. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. In us HE lives, and moves, and has His being. And here's my point: "...if the firstfruit be holy, the lump also is holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches" (Romans 11:16). Divine means godlike. It is the godhead. Which lives in a body. The corporate body of Christ. Your body. My body. He is holy, and as He is so are we in this world. We are the righteousness OF GOD in Christ. His holiness IS our holiness. His divinity is our divinity. And now that I've said all that, and before I really get to my punchline, I want to say this: I have a lot of thoughts about God. I think about Him almost all day every day. I'm kind of obsessed. Which means I'm obsessed with love. Which means I think about love all day every day. Because God IS love. But before I put something out there and attach my name to it I always think to myself: Is this something really deep that I could have a conversation about it with certain people and that would be that? Or is this something practical that can help people where the rubber meets the road? Cuz that's what, to me, public ministry is all about. Not choking people with the Word. Not swimming down so deep that people drown. But giving people what they need, in a way they can handle it. And my answer to that question, for this Rant series, was yes. This is helpful. Because in order to partake of the divine nature we need to know what it is. And we need to know what it isn't. I think this idea we have of "holiness" is WAY off base. I keep saying, "The most holy thing you can do is let God love you and love others with that same love." But it seems like everytime I say that somebody always wants to start talking about sin. As if you can't be holy unless there's something "unholy" in the picture. As if you can't be divine--or godlike--unless you're doing something entirely UNgodlike. So what I hope to do in the next few days is help us all (me included) understand what it truly means to be divine...!

I honestly don't think I'm doing this subject justice. Which is why I started this Rant series with a disclaimer. I truly don't believe we've even really started to understand what 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) is all about: "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" The KJV says we are new creatures. And, the verse I always kind of grasp at, Romans 6:4, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Something completely NEW came from the death of everything OLD. The old man died in a watery grave and we were transformed into a New Man. CONFORMED, not to the world, but to the image of God's beloved Son. It drives me crazy when I see people--sincere people, by the way--trying as hard as they can to "turn over a new leaf." Trying... and failing. Because it's not a new leaf that we needed. We needed to be grafted into an entirely different tree! Adam--the old man--ate from the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil), and on that day he died. And since he was representative of all of humanity, on that day WE died. Then Jesus came--the New Man, the Tree of Life Himself--and He was lifted up from the earth on the cross. And He drew us out of Adam and into Himself. And He died. Which meant that WE died. Again. The second death. Where death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. The death OF death. So that we could have life. And not just life, but abundant life! Eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life. Jesus' life! A life filled with love. Which is what it truly means to live. Because to live is to love and to love is to live. Not the same life that Adam had. Not trying to earn our bread by the sweat of our brows. Not listening to the lie (that says you have to do in order to be) and not looking for love in all the places. The old passed away. The old life is gone. A new life has begun. We can--and SHOULD--walk in newness of life. It's the idea of being "in" the world, but not being OF the world. It's the idea of being the window of heaven that God pours His blessings into, and through. It's loving others as He loves us. Not trying to get something, but HAVING something, and then sharing what we've got. Not trying to be someone we're not, but resting in the glorious truth of who we really are. And who we really are--because we are in Christ... because Christ is in us--is Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. We were born from above. Given the Holy Spirit--the love receptor--so that we might know and believe, and receive and release, the love of God. So that we can experience Jesus' life as HE lives it in us, and through us, and as us. So that we can love others. Because that's what it's all about. It's all about love. And love isn't about getting anything. Love is about giving. Because love IS giving. Jesus GAVE His life for us, and He gave His life to us. Now we have it. We have been born again. We can live. We can love!

First there was a death, when Adam ate from the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil). Then, there was another, second death, when Jesus was lifted up from the earth on the cross and gave His life both for us and as us. And then there was a new birth. See, in the eyes of God there are only two men who have ever lived: Jesus and Adam. Before the cross we were "in" Adam. He stood as mankind's representative. And then, through the cross, we were pulled (or drawn) out of Adam and into Jesus. Out of death, and into life. And not just any life, but Jesus' life! Look at 1 Corinthians 15:47, "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven." If I can say it this way, we were drawn out of the earth and into heaven. We see this picture in the Old Testament when Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt--bondage--and the Joshua led them into the Promised Land--freedom. We didn't get "raptured" to a planet somewhere three miles south of Mars called Heaven. No... Jesus brought heaven TO earth. He gave us the days of heaven ON earth. By giving us a new birth. A new life. Now look at 1 John 3:14, because I think this is what I'm trying to say. In fact, I think this is what I'm almost ALWAYS trying to say. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death." The difference, quite literally, between life and death... is love. If you know and believe that you are loved, that's when you CAN love. Because you can't give what you don't have, and you can only give what you do have. And to live is to love and to love is to live. Living and loving don't just go hand in hand. They are the same thing. So when we're Ranting about a new birth, we are talking about being born from above. Being born FROM love... so that we CAN love. And by "above," I don't mean physically. Remember--heaven isn't just somewhere you go when you die. Heaven is where you went when JESUS died. Because His death WAS your death. Your second death. The one that doesn't hurt when you stop working yourself to death trying to be someone you're not and instead just completely identify with Him and the finished work of the cross. I'm talking about above as in HIGHER. A higher realm of living, if I can say it that way. An abundant life. And what makes life abundant? Love! This new birth came to us because God loved us so much that He was willing to give us His only begotten Son. So that we might not perish but have everlasting life. He loved us so much that He would literally rather DIE than be without us. And after giving His life (both for us and to us), He picked it up again. So that we could experience it--not by trying to live Jesus' life, but by letting HIM live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. We were born again so that the things that used to hold us down and hold us back wouldn't have any power over us anymore. The Law only applies to you until you're dead. After that, you're free. Free FROM sin and death (the second death was the death OF death), and free TO live and love! Not as a slave, but as a Son. Not as someone trying to get something, but as someone who has everything (all Spiritual blessing... all things that pertain to life and godliness) and knows that what He has (in a word: love) is too good to keep to himself!

This is where it gets exciting. We're past the second death. And we weren't harmed by it because we know that Jesus died both for us and AS us. We know that HIS death WAS our (second) death. And now, because of that finished work of the cross, we have been born again. We received a new birth. Born from above. And with that new birth came a new life! Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life! And, remember, it is NOT about us trying to live Jesus' life. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. It is about Jesus living His own life in us, and through us, and as us. But before we go on I want to take a moment to kind of explain what I mean by "as us." Because we do NOT become "Christian robots" (which is what I think religious folk mean when they say "Christian soldiers"). We do not lose ourselves, or our measure of free will. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY. Freedom. Freedom FROM sin and death... and freedom TO live and love. Jesus living as us is simply the Word (LOVE) becoming flesh. What's inside of us coming out of us as we fill ourselves to overflowing with it. Letting God love us to the point where we love others without even thinking about it. Because here's the deal: You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So if you know it, you WILL throw it. Whatever you believe manifests in your life. If you know and believe the love of God--the ultimate truth of the universe that the Father loveth the Son, and that God is YOUR heavenly Father and YOU are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased--then you WILL love others. Naturally. Without trying, or really without even thinking about it. And when you embrace your new nature--the love nature that came from the the transformation, or conformation, into the image of God's Son--you partake of the Divine Nature. You experience Jesus' life. You stop trying to conform to the world. You stop trying to fit in. You are dead to sin (unbelief) and you don't even mess with it anymore. You stop struggling with it and you simply lay it aside. When you know the truth, you can ignore the lie. You can stop trying to do in order to be. And you can start to do BECAUSE you be. You don't try to live Jesus' life, or recreate the things He did. In fact, according to John 14:12, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." We can do the same stuff Jesus did--healing people, and feeding people and what have you. But the amazing part is... on His earth walk Jesus was one man. He interacted with a very small number of people, so to speak. But when His whole body (us!) starts to understand who we are... we can interact with literally millions of people. We can, in a sense, do greater works than He did. BECAUSE of the work that He finished on the cross. We can LIVE. Because of the death that we were involved in on the cross. Let me say it like this: Jesus walked on water. But we can walk in newness of life! We can love each other because He first loved us. Which is what it means to truly live. To live is to love and to love is to live. Adam was dead, even before he physically died. But because of Jesus we can live, because in Him we are alive!

Today I want to focus on the second death. Because you can't get to the new birth without it. When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about being born from above, Nicodemus asked about returning to his mother's womb (John 3:4). But with all due respect to mothers--and I really do mean that. Because without your mom there would be no you--the new birth is about your Father. It's about what happened on the cross. It's about God loving the world so much that He gave us His only begotten Son. And it's about Jesus loving us so much that He gave His life for us, and gave His life to us. Jesus sacrificed His life so that we could have it. He died... so that death could die. So that WE, who were ALREADY dead in our trespasses and sins, could die. Look at Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth 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." It is so vitally important that we understand that. Jesus' death wasn't substitutionary. I didn't avoid death because Jesus died. His death WAS my death. My second death. Adam's death--when he ate from the tree of death (the tree of knowledge of good and evil)--was my first death. Jesus' death--when He was lifted up from the earth on the cross and drew all men into Himself--was my second death. And look at what the book of Revelation has to say about the "second death." Revelation 20:14, "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." To me, that has always kind of closed the book on any discussion about whether or not hell is a lake of fire where "bad" people go when they die. Because if hell was cast INTO the lake of fire it can't very well BE the lake of fire, can it? And according to Hebrews 12:29, quoting Deuteronomy 4:24, "...our God is a consuming fire." Death and hell were cast into God. Cast into love. Life swallowed up death so that we could stop stumbling around as the walking dead and instead walk in newness of life! Now look at Revelation 2:11, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." And add this to that, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives to the death" (Revelation 12:11). What "saves" us from the pain of the second death is the revelation that it happened 2,000 years ago! When we let go of "our" lives and accept HIS life. When we stop trying to be someone we're not and we let Jesus live His own abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life in us, and through us, and as us! When we stop TRYING to overcome, and we see that--since Jesus already overcame--there is nothing LEFT to overcome. Being an overcomer doesn't mean you can overcome if you try really hard. It means you have already overcome, and now you can rest. Not because of what "you" did, not because you love "your" life, but because of what Jesus did. Because He laid down HIS life. Because He GAVE you His life. Because you were crucified with Christ. When He died, you died. And all that death and all that hell that you were dragging around was cast into the love of God. Which consumed it. Leaving nothing but... the love of God. Allowing us to partake of the Divine Nature of our heavenly Father. Allowing us to be born again. Born from above. Born from the Spirit of God. The Spirit of love!

I want to put this out there as a disclaimer: I don't understand everything. I agree with 1 John 2:20, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." I think we know, on a deep level, what's what and what's real. The NLT puts it like this, "But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth." We know the truth. The ultimate truth of the universe that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. But I'm readily willing to admit that I don't understand everything I know. There are some things that I don't even deal with, or mess with, because I really have no clue about them. So when I set out to Rant about death and rebirth, I'm not saying I have it all figured out. I'm simply saying this is what I believe... right now. I may get more revelation on it later on. Probably will, in fact. Because this everlasting life is a never-ending journey into the heart of the matter. And the heart of the matter is God's heart beating with love in our chests. Learning and growing is ok. In fact, it's encouraged. So. Having said all that I want to say this: According to Ephesians 2:1, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." We WERE dead in our trespasses and sins. Before the cross. Because when we were in Adam, he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and on that day he died. That was the first death. And in order to be saved from that death... in order to be born again... we needed a second death. Which is what happened on the cross. Jesus was lifted up from the earth and He drew all men into Himself. He drew us out of Adam. Because before the cross, again, we were IN Adam. Adam stood as representitive for all of humanity. That's why when he died... we died. The Message Bible says it like this in Romans 5:18-19, "Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right." The first Adam, and the last Adam. The first representative, and the last representative. We died because we were in Adam when he died. And then we died AGAIN when we were in Jesus because HE died. But the difference is that Jesus laid His life down so that He could pick it up again. So that we could have a new birth. So that we could LIVE! He has quickened us who were dead. By dying--the second death--and rising again. By giving His life FOR us, and giving His life TO us. Jesus brought us out of Adam and into Himself. Out of the realm of the earth--Adam was made from the dust of the ground, and he was earthy--and into the realm of heaven. We were born again. Born from above. Because the sacrifice Jesus made. God's judgment was not to kill anybody. His judgment was raising Jesus from the dead and giving Him (and us in Him) new life. Abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life! A life of love. Because to live IS to love and to love IS to live. Love is what makes abundant life abundant. Love is what makes life worth livng. Love is what makes it POSSIBLE to live. And it all came from a second death, and a new birth!