Eph 153 11/17/85, 709 12/24/87; Spir Dynamics 587 2/26/95

DOCTRINE OF METAMORPHISMS

A. Definition.

1. Metamorphism is an English noun derived from a Biblical Greek word, the verb METAMORPHOO, which means to change or to transform.

2. This verb is used of our Lord’s transformation on the Mount of Transfiguration in Mt 17:2.

3. The English noun metamorphism is described as a striking or radical change of substance, structure, form, thought or action. It is also defined as a striking alteration in appearance, character, or circumstances.

4. There are six theological metamorphisms found in the Bible. They help us to locate the epicenter of all human history.

B. The First Metamorphism—Man Became Spiritually Dead.

1. Man and woman dwelt in the Garden of Eden in a state of absolute perfection. Yet environment never has been and never will be the solution to man’s problems.

2. Adam and the woman committed the original sin. There was only one way they could sin, and that was in partaking of the fruit of the tree, an act of disobedience. This is all taught in Gen 3:6.

3. So perfect mankind in the Garden of Eden became spiritually dead and sinners. Rom 5:12, “For just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, so death [spiritual death] passed upon all men for all have sinned.” Compare also 1 Cor 15:22.

4. Our Lord had warned the man and woman in the Garden, saying, “The day you eat from this tree, dying you shall die.” The first death refers to spiritual death; the second death refers to their eventual physical death.

5. Spiritual death means not only separation from God, but also in a state of total depravity and total helplessness. We are helpless to do anything by which we can gain a relationship with God or eternal life.

C. The Second Metamorphism—The woman became a childbearer after the original sin.

1. After the original sin, the woman became the childbearer by receiving a womb. 2. To the woman, our Lord said, “Multiplying I will multiply your pain in pregnancy; in sorrow, you will give birth to children, yet your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

3. The woman had rejected the authority of Adam in association with Satan who had occupied the serpent, her pet.

4. However, through the woman, the Savior would come into the world, 1 Tim 2:15.

D. The Third Metamorphism—God Becomes Man.

1. Jesus Christ as eternal God, coequal with the Father and Holy Spirit, in a moment of time became true humanity and entered into hypostatic union.

2. The birth of the humanity of Christ introduced the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union.

3. How could the Lord come into the world in a state of perfection? That’s what He had to do in order to be without spot or blemish.

a. The old sin nature is always passed down through the man’s twenty three chromosomes in copulation.

b. If there is a conception produced without involving the man’s twenty three chromosomes, that would be a virgin pregnancy.

c. In fact, the Holy Spirit provided twenty three perfect chromosomes to fertilize the ovum of the virgin Mary. In that way, our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world as perfect humanity.

4. As eternal and infinite God, Jesus Christ now becomes undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever; different from God in that He is perfect man, different from man in that He is perfect and eternal God. Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe.

5. This was the subject of Old Testament Scriptures.

a. Isa 7:14, “Therefore, the Lord Himself [Father] will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall become pregnant, consequently giving birth to a son. And she will call His name Emmanuel, that is, `God with us.’”

b. Jn 1:14, “And the Word [Jesus Christ] became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the unique One from the Father, full of grace and full of doctrine.”

6. At the virgin birth, perhaps there was a pause before God the Father actually imputed human life to the human soul of our Lord.

7. Because of the virgin pregnancy and the virgin birth, there was no genetically formed old sin nature, and therefore there was no imputation of Adam’s original sin.

8. Instead, there was born, as Adam was created, a trichotomous member of the human race, having a body, soul, and spirit. To His human spirit was given the first Christmas present: the prototype divine dynasphere. Our Lord was born entering gate #1, born filled with the Holy Spirit.

9. Jn 3:16, “God so loved the world that He gave His uniquely born Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting [eternal] life.”

10. The real story is found in a dialogue between God the Father and God the Son on Christmas Eve, found in Heb 10:5-10. This is the key to the third metamorphism. Heb 10:5, “Therefore, when He entered the world He said [Ps 40:6-8], `You [Father] do not desire sacrifices and offerings, but You have prepared for Me a human body.’”

a. Sacrifices and offerings refer to the ritual plan of God for the dispensation of Israel, teaching Christology and soteriology by analogy.

b. Jesus Christ had to become true humanity in a human body to become the Savior of the world. As God, He could have nothing to do with sin. He could not receive the judgment for sin as God. He had to become the lamb of God and true humanity, Eph 2:15; Phil 2:7-8; Col 1:22; 1 Pet 2:24, 3:18.

(1) Furthermore, Jesus Christ had to become true humanity to be the mediator between God and man. Job 9:2 asks who can be a mediator between God and man. It must be someone equal with both God and man; only Jesus Christ qualifies. As 1 Timothy says, there is only one mediator between God and man: “He is the man Christ Jesus.”

(2) Jesus Christ had to become true humanity in order to become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. A priest is a man who represents man before God. Our Lord Jesus Christ became true humanity for that purpose. There could be no universal priesthood of Church Age believers and no high priesthood of Jesus apart from this first Christmas Eve. This is taught in Hebrews 7.

(3) Jesus Christ had to become true humanity to fulfill the Davidic Covenant. For God had unconditionally promised to David that he would have a Son who would reign forever, 2 Sam 7:8-16; Ps 89:20-37. So Jesus Christ had to be a human king born from the line of David.

(4) So the ritual soteriology of the dispensation of Israel utilized animal sacrifices to portray our so-great salvation. But these animal sacrifices were shadows, not capable of propitiating God the Father.

11. Heb 10:7, “`Behold, I have arrived in history (in a scroll of a book [Old Testament] it stands written about Me) to accomplish Your will, O God.’”

a. The first Christmas Eve was the beginning of the Hypostatic Union of our Lord Jesus Christ, the beginning of the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, called the First Advent.

b. Then our Lord recognized the validity of the Old Testament Scripture.

c. “I have arrived to accomplish Your will, O God.” From the moment of the cradle, our Lord had absolute confidence with regard to His destiny! Our Lord had a personal sense of destiny on the first Christmas Eve when the uncertainties of history were about to reach a new high.

d. Just as Jesus Christ in Hypostatic Union had a destiny, so you as a believer in Jesus Christ have a destiny. The very fact that you’re alive and have received forty things at salvation mean you have a destiny. The very fact that God has promised that to those who love Him, He works all things together for good, means you have a destiny. The fact that the protocol plan of God and your own portfolio of invisible assets are available to you mean you have a destiny.

12. Heb 10:8-9, “After saying the above, `Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You been propitiated by them’ (which sacrifices are offered on the basis of the Law), then He said, `Behold, I have arrived to execute Your will.’ He has taken away the first in order to establish the second.”

a. In this statement, our Lord abrogated the Mosaic Law with its ritual plan for Israel, in order that He might establish the second: the protocol plan of God for the Church Age.

b. You are under the “second,” which is the Church Age and all that God has provided for us in this Church Age. This refers to all that we have because of who and what Jesus Christ is as the God-man, because of the first Christmas Eve.

c. The dispensation of the Hypostatic Union stands forever as the dividing line between the ritual plan for Israel and the protocol plan of God for the Church Age.

d. The dispensation of the Hypostatic Union establishes precedence for the Church Age.

e. The protocol plan of God supersedes the ritual plan of God. The new spiritual species for the Church Age replaces the new racial species of Israel.

13. Heb 10:10, “By which will [purpose, plan] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” This anticipates the fourth metamorphism, in which the sinner, through faith in Jesus Christ during this Church Age, becomes a new spiritual species and royal family of God forever.

E. The Fourth Metamorphism—Spiritually dead man becomes spiritually alive through faith in Christ.

1. The moment you personally believed in Jesus Christ, you went from being a sinner under spiritual death to a born-again member of the royal family of God, accomplished through the baptism of the Spirit and regeneration.

2. Regeneration is God the Holy Spirit at salvation creating a human spirit, to which God the Father imputes eternal life. In order to live with God forever, you have to be as God is good, so you receive the imputation of God’s perfect righteousness. You also have to have God’s life, which is eternal life.

3. Tit 3:5, “He saved us, not on the basis of the deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, but the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Compared with Jn 3:16,18,36; Acts 16:31.

4. So sinful man, through faith in Jesus Christ, becomes regenerate man. This causes man to become spiritually alive. We are saved, not by works, but by God’s mercy in regeneration.

5. The other part of this metamorphism is accomplished by the baptism of the Spirit, Gal 3:26-28. “For all of you are the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you have been baptized into union with Christ, and therefore have clothed yourselves with Christ. And there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for all of you are in union with Christ.”

6. At the moment of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, every believer is entered into union with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is the means of creating a new spiritual species, the basis for our destiny. We have a destiny both through election and predestination.

F. The Fifth Metamorphism—The immature believer becomes mature.

1. Through the four spiritual mechanics of the protocol plan of God, the Church Age believer can glorify God to the maximum as a winner believer. This is the great metamorphosis of the spiritual life.

2. When you reach spiritual maturity you become an invisible hero. This metamorphism is the attainment of spiritual maturity, the execution of the protocol plan of God.

3. The daily metabolization of doctrine changes the believer from a spiritual baby to a spiritual adult.

4. This metamorphism gives you a very personal sense of destiny. It makes you realize that no matter how uncertain the future events of history may be, you have a plan and purpose. You are sustained logistically by God’s grace. He provides everything it takes to keep you alive and to fulfill His plan, and to have a life of meaning, purpose, and definition.

G. The Sixth Metamorphism—The royal family in resurrection body.

1. The body of corruption is exchanged for a body of incorruption at the Rapture or resurrection of the Church.

2. The sixth metamorphism is the believer in a resurrection body forever. This is the eternal metamorphism of the royal family having a resurrection body exactly like our Lord’s, given at the Rapture of the Church.

3. Jn 11:25, “Jesus speaking to Martha said, `I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies.’”

4. We have a purpose now in time as believers. But we have an even greater purpose in the eternal state.

R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740

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