Knowing the Son of Elohim (Yeshua)

Shalom Fellow Israelite,

One of the most important scriptures that ought to impact our lives, concerning others and ourselves, is the following. “For the love of Messiah compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.  Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Messiah according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”  (2 Cor. 5:14-17).  Just imagine if we were to fully embrace this view about others and about our own selves, believing and allowing it to become our life and reality!  By the same token, the opposite is true too. If we keep relating to the flesh and the world, they will continue to be our reality and experience.  The scriptures tell us that “ we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal”  (2 Cor 4:18).

If we believe the above scriptures, that when Yeshua died all men died, we can no longer look at mankind after the flesh, or judge according to our senses and/or perceptions. How then are we to view mankind?  It seems the only logical conclusion is that it would have to be “after the spirit” or, according to that which is not seen. Having grown up in this world we have become knowledgeable about that which we can see.  But now after coming into the faith, our eyes are open (or should be) to the unseen spiritual world.  Ignorance of this realm is a source of grief and concern:  “My people perish for lack of knowledge”, laments the prophet Hosea in 4:6.  Is it the knowledge of the seen world that we lack? The answer is a resounding “no”!  

Yeshua, as YHVH’s only begotten Son, brought to this earthly realm a testimony of the nature of His Father, and as a result many were healed, delivered from unseen spirit entities  (demons), raised from the dead, while He preformed also many other miracles.  Yeshua also pointed out the spiritual cause of man’s sinful condition, as He came to destroy these works of the Devil.  Having accomplished His work in the flesh through His death and resurrection, He no longer lives in that same condition.  This is very important to understand, just as our opening scripture declares, that we know Him no longer after the flesh and must know Him now after the Spirit.  So many today are relegating Yeshua to being a mere anointed mortal, and not the Son of Elohim!  After Yeshua was baptized, and again during his earthly ministry, YHVH pronounced these words concerning Him, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17; Matt. 17:5).

We received yet another letter this week from friends who are very concerned as to what is happening to those who are leaving the faith in Yeshua.  The following are excerpts from that letter: “We receive different newsletters and sometime ago we saw that there were a lot of notes warning brethren about those who are departing from Yahshua... We did not pay much attention [to that] other than to glance at the titles…  This didn't seem like something for us to be concerned with. Three weeks ago someone visited our Shabbat study, and on the margins of a conversation they mentioned they were receiving teachings … that are revelatory and convincing them that Yahshua was not divine. This was a seasoned believer, not someone young in faith. I quoted a scripture, and there was a twisted reply to it, and then simply the comment that we "must be open to all truth." This past week we received a call from a family… and they're studying (through expensive phone calls) with someone in Israel, and now they were saying that Yahshua was merely a "man" (Son of Man); yes he was the Messiah / "anointed" (just as King David was "anointed") and [they added:] "God cannot die" and so on. We tried to study some with them, and often they were hung up on a few verses such as John 10:34, where Yahshua quotes Psalm 87, that all are called elohim… it was actually confusing to us ... So all of sudden, what we didn't think would touch us, we are starting to run into at every turn.” (end of quote).

Our eyes would not have been open to spiritual realities had it not been for the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua.   Teachers, or others, who are introducing false doctrines, and those who are following them into the snare of the Devil, should review the whole second chapter of 2^nd Peter, especially if they fall into the category of those whom Peter describes in verses 20-21: “For if, after they have escaped the [spiritual] pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah, they are again entangled in them and overcome, their latter end is worse for them than the beginning.   For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

If we leave the faith in the Son of Elohim and the gospel, through which we received our righteousness and our new life, and go back to working it out in the flesh, we have no power to overcome our spiritual enemies.  Yeshua warned that if those spirits have been cast out and go back to their dry places, they will return to check if one who is stronger than they is residing in the house (see Luke 11:21-22).  We know that there is only one stronger than the Devil, and that is Yeshua: “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world”  (1 John 4:4). Yeshua, however, is ‘only’ in us by faith; if we reject His spiritual place in us, we are left to the mercy of those returning demons, which are accompanied by seven spirits more evil than themselves.  Please note how those evil spirits (demons) that departed view our earthly house: "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came'”  (Luke 11:24). Yes, they describe their vacated abode, which is our being, as “MY HOUSE”!   As believers we cannot afford to be ignorant of the spiritual realm of this evil world in which we happen to be residing.  Satan does not have to deceive non-believers, as they are already sons of disobedience living in communion with the spirits of that realm. It is we, who have tasted the power of the Spirit of Holiness and of the age to come, who must come into the full knowledge of our Lord and Savior Yeshua our Messiah and not be ignorant of the wiles of the Devil, for they are spiritually discerned: “These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:13-14).

  

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Messiah, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are in Messiah Yeshua, to the glory and praise of Elohim (Philippians 1:9-11).

Ephraim