Made In Heaven

Tony and I have some friends from China visiting our family for a few weeks. One day, while out having a picnic lunch, Jeremiah began singing a funny song he and Gabriel made up about “everything being made in China.” It goes something like: “all the toys are made in China. …. .. all the dishes are made in China. … . .even our streets are made in China. . .”, and so on and so on.

Nancy, our new Chinese friend, retorted with a funny song of her own: “Nancy was made in China!” Everyone laughed except Jeremiah. He sat very quietly and thought deeply.

“No, Nancy,” he said with very sober authority. “You were born in China, but you were made in Heaven.”

My mind immediately drifted to the scriptures. I thought of 1 Peter 1:23:

“You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God. (AMP)

I thought about what it means to be born again. Born from above. With paternity established by and from the Father of Eternity. Not of a natural seed, but born and regenerated supernaturally from The Word of God, The Gospel-- the most powerful seed in the universe. This Seed is so powerful, it is able to destroy what we used to be and raise us up again to be another—belonging to Another.

“Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.” (Romans 7:4 AMP)

The Nancy born in China, was brought through a death with Jesus Christ on the Cross, experienced His burial, and was raised to life again with resurrection power in perfect union with the Son of God. Nancy was indeed made in Heaven. She doesn’t have a mortal origin any more. She was not formed from a human seed, or created on the basis of a human decision. She was regenerated from the ever living and lasting Word of God.

The Nancy born in Shan Dong Province, China, was born from a mortal seed. A Husband’s will. A family’s decision. The fruit of a human union. This seed was more than just corruptible. It was already corrupted. Since Adam ingested the temptation of independence and separation from God, and took sin into his self, the entire human race has suffered from the most incurable, horrible disease. The disease of being born of a mortal seed with a sin nature. When we were born into this world, we were not given a fresh start. Being born into this world doesn’t mean a new day for us or a clean slate. If that were the case, Jesus Christ would not have had to intervene on our behalf.

No parent in the world can produce a son or daughter that is Holy in their own ability. You could fast all you want and pray the most holy prayer you can muster up, but it still won’t make this new person Holy. At some point, this little person is going to have to face a very real choice:

“To remain in this mortal state of creation--with a mind, will, and emotions, open to the supernatural forces of evil—or receive the Ultimate Seed of Power.”

This Seed is the very Gospel itself. The only, very only, remedy for a soul subjected to sin.

If someone came into my garden and handed me a flower-- a beautiful flower full of fantastic aroma; however, it was completely infested with worms, gnats, and deadly plant fungus---would I be wise to receive this into my garden?

No way! I would put that rancid thing in the fire where it belongs, so that nothing would be left of it to infect the rest of my garden. I would want to make certain that there is NOTHING LEFT of this corrupted thing to infect the other living plants in my garden. The only answer would be to completely destroy the plant. Even though the flower still held some sort of beauty, in its corrupted, infested state, it would only be able to produce evil in my garden. God created it to be beautiful, but it was infested from germination with fungus that attracted all sorts of nasty creatures and infections throughout its life. There is no hope for it now, except complete destruction. To rid this plant of its own life would be the only merciful thing to do. How horrible it would be to allow it to flourish in an infested state in my garden. Slowly giving itself over to fungus, and worms, that only stay to destroy. It would be better to see it burn in the fire than to keep on living in torment.

This is what happened to Nancy, Me, and everyone else that has found themselves at the precipice of the ages—to receive The Seed, or not to receive The Seed. The Seed I am talking about is the ultimate Seed, The Word of God, The Truth, The Gospel. The greatest news ever told to the human race---that there is a solution for the sinful nature.

You see, the old Nancy, in her unregenerate state of sin, upon hearing and receiving the Gospel, received the greatest gift ever given. Her sin nature was destroyed through the merciful and supernatural death of Jesus on the Cross. The very Son of God graciously, mercifully, and lovingly, received the corrupted seed of her sinful nature up into His body. Then she received the greatest act of kindness the human race could ever and will ever know. Her old life was drawn up into the Son of God, and her sinful nature experienced the same putting to death that Jesus experienced on the Cross. It experienced the judgement sin deserved. The Wrath of God.

In Jesus’ bleeding, tortured body, Nancy’s sin nature died. It was completely and utterly and eternally deprived of life. It was denied existence. It was executed. It died until the life drained out with the blood. Her unregenerate self became impotent for storing, enjoying, and functioning for evil. Every sin pattern learned from parents, generational curse past down to her from ancestor’s sin, inherited disease, and any material that gave free-play for the enemy, suddenly became useless, dead, and ultimately free in the broken body of Jesus on the Cross. This death set us free.

Ephesians 2:1-10 describes our former, mortal condition:

“You however were deprived of life, involved in transgressions and contradiction of the law, in sins and errors, living merely as members of an age, a universe not under God, but under a power working invisibly in the air as ruler of the world by means of a spirit, a leaven that handles the minds and souls of those who exist in disobedience. More condition which you shared with the rest of the blind world, a condition to which are attached all the desires of the flesh, motions of the will and thoughts, belonging not to the children of God, but the children of the wrath of God, denizens of a misbegotten state.”

This is the condition of our former self, our unregenerate, human self. Our sinful nature was not unlike that corrupted beautiful flower I described in the analogy above. We were totally infested with sin and misbegotten from germination.

Jesus, in the most insurmountable act of love the world will ever know, stepped out of a timeless and Holy existence, into a world completely corrupted and infested with sin. The world didn’t recognize Him. They didn’t receive this beautiful Seed from heaven. Not even when He stood in their presence and released the great miracles, signs, and wonders of Kingdom from which He came.

Instead, The very Author of our salvation—Jesus Christ-- allowed Himself to be treated like that flower from my garden story. Although He had known no sin, was conceived by The Holy Spirit, He allowed Himself to be exterminated like a sin-infested thief and evil transgressor. He allowed Himself to be publicly scorned, despised, and rejected—like an infested plant worthy of being thrown into the fire. Why would He do such a thing?

Jesus Christ, our Savior and King, was doing more than what the public eye could see that day. He was accomplishing all things, in and throughout all the ages, in and outside of time. He was taking on the full extent of the penalty of law and wrath for the whole world—past, present, and future. He was doing more than just making a public statement about who He is in heaven. His all-inclusive plan wasn’t even just go there to prove He could die and be raised from the dead. Jesus allowed Lazarus to experience that.

No, Jesus Christ, for the joy set before Him, endured the full penalty of the Wrath of God and the punishment for all the sins of humanity on the Cross. The full penalty! But not without first drawing all men---ALL MEN—in their unregenerate, sinful, evil-infested state, fully into Himself. It was there, He fully united Himself in a feverish punishment, with a broken humanity that could never save itself from out of the corruption in which they could never find relief. The only solution was the perfect sacrifice of Himself, encompassing all of humanity’s broken and unregenerate condition in His own body, and bringing both to a perfect end together. He united Himself to humanity in a perfect union in death.

But He didn’t stop there! Not only did He deliver the ultimate solution to the sinful propensities of the human race--this ugly mortal condition--He brought a struggling mortal condition of men and woman to the most perfect place of rest. The Holy Place of God Himself.

Although the world did not recognize and receive this Heavenly Seed from the Father when He came, Jesus received us into His body while he died and identified fully with our evil, sin nature. He did this, so that we could escape the judgment and wrath the world is under because of sin. Instead, he, by taking us in his own body through this death, caused us to enter the most Holy Place--united to God Himself. Jesus became for us, the perfect resting place of union and holiness. We entered death with Him, and so we entered the tomb with Him. We rested together, united in death.

This rest is the ultimate freedom from evil. Freedom from our humanity. Freedom from all the power of the devil. For a dead man is free from sin and thus, we rested in burial in this restful condition of freedom and union until our Father—OUR FATHER—who is in heaven, raised us up in the Spirit of Holiness. We then, are born of the Spirit. We now share this beautiful union as a completely different creature. A new creation. A new beginning. A Holy-begotten state of existence, completely united with the Son of God.

So, yes, Nancy was born in China....but she was made in heaven. She was born from above, when she received The Seed. The Gospel. The most powerful seed or sperm in all of eternity. It isn’t human. It doesn’t come from the world. He came from heaven and united us with His death on a Cross, so we could have His new life and existence to enjoy.

Nancy, me, and anyone else who receives This Seed, will find themselves embracing the most awesome and merciful death the world ever needed to solve their sin condition. We who receive this death, receive a complete and total and final destruction of who we use to be and we trade it all in for the gift of being created anew through the supernatural rebirth through the Son of God—Jesus Christ.

“For if we have become planted together to the likeness of his death, [so] also shall be of the rising again; this knowing, that our old man was crucified with [him], that the body of sin may be made useless, for our no longer serving the sin; for he who hath died has been set free from the sin. And if we died with Christ, we believe that we also shall live with him.” (Romans 6: 5-8, Young’s Literal Translation)

Our Father made us in heaven. When we received His eternal seed, The Word, we received His sacrifice for us. We no longer belong to the world under wrath. We belong to Another. We are registered as citizens of Heaven—registered with the very blood of the Lamb. Our paternity has been established in the Father of all Life and Eternity. Our testimony is that we died. We have been born from above. Born of the Spirit. We are born again.