5th Part – Virtue, Knowledge, Temperance, Patience– Brotherly Kindness – Love

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” 1 Tim 3:16

Among the dozen mysteries relayed to us in the New Testament two are called great. One is about the Bride of Christ, the second concerns the mystery of godliness as described in the first letter to Timothy by the apostle Paul. We are told that this mystery of godliness is held without controversy. No debate, no argument or need for discussion is necessary as to whether this mystery is anything else than what follows in this verse. “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” One can take note that there are six elements that comprise the mystery of Godliness to make it whole.

Central to the call to be partaker of the Divine Nature is a call to enter into godliness, which is designated in scripture as one of the great mysteries of all the gospel. There are literally more than a dozen mysteries identified and enumerated in the New Testament. They are mysteries not because they cannot be known or because they are mysterious or incomprehensible magical things, but because they are mysterious to the nature of Man, that is, until they are revealed by the Savior, who among all that He is, is also the personification of Truth, Wisdom and Godliness. He is able to impart knowledge and wisdom to all those who come to Him with true and inquiring hearts; those who want not only to know the truth but live it in truth. Jesus is the essence of godliness. He and He alone. He is the harbinger of the Divine and living reality of those heavenly truths concerning God’s nature.

“God was manifest in the flesh.”
God came into this world to, among other things, manifest godliness in all its perfection. God became man in the person Jesus. All things that Christ did and said were an act of Godliness, for it was God’s Will that it be accomplished on earth by a man on earth, accomplished before all eyes to see and all ears to hear. Godliness had to be actualized on earth and it was deemed part of the mission of the Christ to prove that the person who is entirely submitted to God in any situation can be godly in the decisions made and the conduct of their actions.

It is imperative that the disciple (i.e. follower of Christ) be true and honest, without hypocrisy or deception. Jesus came to prove and show for all time that godliness could be performed, that this is the form of perfection of which the Scriptures so vehemently speak. The righteousness of God should not be left to speculation of preachers and conjectures of the proud. The righteousness of God is exhibited in Jesus for the clear understanding of Man so that we on this temporary earth would be instructed in the way of right and wrong, good and bad, holy and unholy doings. Jesus not only taught us the Ten Commandments and some of their finer nuances, he showed us how to live them. He walked the walked before all eyes to see.  He walked among us so He could show us the perfect way in which to walk, including what to believe and why we should believe it.

His primary mission, His greatest joy was to simply do the will of His Father in heaven. This pure uncomplicated love Jesus exhibited in many ways throughout His days of ministry, thereby putting on full display the purposes and essence of godliness according to God. Godliness cries out for expression and opportunity to help the needy and to set the course for what is good and true. Wherever it is called for to resolve or settle public matters of controversy Jesus was there. It is not simply a matter of Law; it is a matter of spirit in the highest realm of rightness. It is the sum and substance of the so-called fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. As the scripture declares – against such there is no law.

“Justified In The Spirit.”
The manifesting of godliness cannot be accomplished in terms of Man’s ideas of what may be correct or anything that has been devised as acceptable behavior by our laws and regulations. Not in the least. Godliness is, therefore, held to the standards of the Spirit of God only. It is His declaration of what is righteousness, what is true, good and pure. The philosopher David Hume, though wrong on many spiritual accounts, was right on this matter when he said, “That which is perfect is that which conforms perfectly to its own standards.” So the Spirit of God sets the standards of godliness by His own perfect knowledge of goodness and truth. Godliness is in no wise subject to Man’s limited and corrupt vision. Godliness exists merely because it is an expression of God. It is identified and justified only by what God is by nature and it is the definition and perfect expression of godly, declaring what is godly in every given situation down to the minutest degree of thought and life.

Jesus was declared just, or to put it another way, blameless and upright before God the Father, according to the Spirit of God, not by men or any other imperfect standard, godliness exists because God is godliness and it is nothing more than what He does, acts and walks.

When as a 12-year-old child he left Joseph and his mother without telling them and went to talk to the religious leaders at the temple in Jerusalem he was justified by the Spirit. No court of law, no social-worker, no neighbor or acquaintance would justify such a thing as Jesus did that day.  Mary was frightened and indignant, but Jesus was justified by the Spirit. The tone of Scripture tells us something contrary to our sense of right. We are informed by Holy Scripture that The Spirit of God in Jesus calmly said to Mary, almost chidingly, “You should have known I would be about my father’s business.” This was no smart-aleck remark, Mary of all people should have been trusting and not fearful, fine with Jesus’ addressing His Father’s business at any time in His life. She was the only one who knew who He was. She was not justified; being out of line, not trusting God who had always taken care of her against the ungodly self-righteousness of those who thought Joseph should not have married her. She had been saved from the self-righteousness of the attempt on Jesus’ life when two-years-old; her and Joseph having to flee to, of all places, Egypt to escape the king’s sword wielding merchants of death.

Mary was afraid. We are bound by fear, often it keeps us from understanding godliness and its unbound actions of faith. The manifestation of what is truly justified by heavenly province can only be allowed when it engages in a violent faces off with Man’s concepts of godliness and the true righteousness that is the sole province of the timeless wisdom of The Spirit of God overcomes what the flesh is trying to impose upon the spirit of Truth. Godliness must be manifested so that all can have a chance to understand it. It takes a battle in the spirit to allow it to be performed in those who can be used by God to perform the good works of spiritual salvation. It is justified because it is carried out in the light, imparted to our spirit by actual works in this world. Jesus became man to showcase the power of the Holy Spirit, to convert us from sinful ignorant creatures into those who conform to Christ through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

The process that must take place to enter into godliness is three-fold. One must first be reformed. That is to say, reformed in Christ, reformed from our old sinful ways and life to wanting to be like Jesus. Second; one must be transformed, conceding to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit by partaking of a new spirit to replace our old spirit, that spirit is the justifying Spirit of God. And third; we must be conformed to the Divine Nature that is Christ. We must conform to Christ’s godliness through the unction and power that can be infused into our being by the presence of the justifying Holy Spirit. – Reformed, Transformed, Conformed – Here is the transition path to the whole godly being. This is the means by which the Spirit manifests the change in a human from ungodliness to godliness. This is the justification of faith. It is not only our beliefs and actions on earth that are changed; but by reforming, transforming and conforming, our very nature is changed to the likeness of the Divine. This can never be done according to the genius, laws, wisdom or discretion of Man, but according to the life and actions of the living Christ who walked among us in this life. By this godliness is justified by the Spirit exclusively.

“Seen Of Angels.”
Jesus acted and spoke in the open so that all of creation could witness the manifestation of godliness on earth. This open show included all the angels, as well as those fallen with Lucifer. When it was done it was recorded in plain and universal language by simple and plain unrefined people, in the center of the earth so that north, south, east and west could digest the reality of godliness to understand that it was available to any who would listen and believe and enter into its perfect ways by allowing the Divine Nature to trump their own corrupted nature.

It is by no means acceptable that actual godliness should have been witnessed by a mere handful of people in a single moment of time. All of heaven must be made aware of godliness, that it is within the province of any creature through Jesus Christ whether in heaven or on earth. It must not remain theoretical, it must be seen, observed and realized by seeing and experiencing its behavior in the individual soul the way Man’s behavioral sciences observe and study the human condition in its carnal laboratory experiments. The reality of godliness and its behavior has been defined in Holy Scripture through the history of God’s relationship with Man, in particular Israel and the Church. Godliness had to be put on open display and it was the task given to Jesus by the Father to that He might establish godliness so that it might be imbedded in the believer. This is why he was crucified in the ‘center of the earth’ openly before all men, Jew and Gentile alike. This is why Jesus preached while dying on the cross.

 “Preached Unto The Gentiles.”
Christ was the first to preach godliness to the Gentiles while He hung on the cross in agony, saying: “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” This message from the cross was the start of a two thousand year effort by the Spirit of God to preach the observations and teachings of true godliness throughout the whole world. All methods have been employed by God: by pen, with voice, by martyrs, by governments, kings and presidents, by internet, by satellite, by events, by disasters, by prophecy being fulfilled and literally every conceivable means. The truth about the existence of godliness and its infusion into submissive followers of faith is proof that God’s message has filled heaven and earth. It has not been accomplished by Man teachings his ideas of rightness or our example of what is fair or good and charitable works, or by our achievements in science, religion or social science or medicine; but it has been done solely by what God has promised as salvation and a by his ability to actually change the nature of human beings into the Divine; which includes godliness as one of His most remarkable, even miraculous works within the soul of any malleable spirit of Man. It points to the future heavenly utopia that man can never achieve himself here on earth, in spite of all our efforts and naïve hopes to achieve the perfect society, either with or apart from God. Only those who concede to what God has revealed as justifiable godly behavior, only those who accept that there is only one path, that is, through Christ and His Spirit to gaining it, only those who concede to God can obtain to godliness. Therefore it has to be preached to unbelievers so they may come to believe.

Not only did Jesus come to fulfill what the Jewish prophets of God had foretold but He also came that all men might be saved, including the pagan and heathen ones called Gentiles. In fact (another mystery) God has blinded the Jews for the sake of the Gentiles that they might inherit with the Jews the promises God has made to mankind.

“Believed On In The World.”
Believing is thought to be simple and axiomatic; but it is an amazing miracle when a person believes God. That any mortal man in this life and in this un-Godly world would trust in, rely on and adhere to Jesus and his gospel of reconciliation to our Creator is the beginning of wisdom, the start of salvation.

It is not enough that we should see and be told about godliness, for there are many who have seen and heard but have not believed. That godliness can saturate the spirit of Man must, in the end, be believed so that it become part of the comprehensive Divine Nature living within our soul and spirit. It must, in the words of the Bible, bear fruit within us so that it has a dominating effect upon our thoughts and actions.

The living essence of godliness in a soul, as all things, is subservient to what one actually believes. For what a person believes will dominate and direct their behavior in any given circumstance subject. Belief persuades the Will and commands the decisions which are the cause by which one acts. They are the cause of our fears, true or otherwise. They coach our apprehensions which act automatically upon us to act ‘instinctively”.

Godliness must be worked within Man because our actions are subject to instinct, coached within us by what we believe. Godliness is proven by our actions, godliness is accomplished by deed not word alone; this is so that it may be “believed on in the world.” Believing that godliness is the way to live is necessary, for godliness in ungodly humans is unbelievable. Therefore it must be proven so that the miracle of godliness in us can be believed. It must be manifest by sight so that it can become manifest in the observer’s life for one has to believe that it is possible.

“Jesus said… If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes”. Mk 9:23 This principle applies to godliness which abiding in the soul of the individual by faith becomes acceptable to God as true godliness. It is not justified in its working by Man, but by the discretion of the Holy Spirit only.

Each of the seven parts of the Divine Nature are added together as single blocks one at a time being connected as one, by as it were, the enzyme of faith. Faith is that spiritual protein by which this new DNA of godliness is built and becomes alive in the individual believer. It is faith that allows the personal elements of Divine Nature to be made accessible to the person who desires God’s nature rather than their old nature to live. It is that ‘tower” of a new nature, God’s Nature, which can grow into a real, but godly tower of divine character which has been so wonderfully described for our faith in the letter written by the hand of God through the ministry of the Apostle Peter.

“Received Up Into Glory”
Just as Christ’s death would have been in vain had He not been resurrected and received into glory, so all acts of godliness are validated when God receives them thereby confirming them as godly. After Jesus was crucified God raised him from the dead which is the eternal validation before all creation that Jesus is the Christ and the very Son of God; the one who left heaven, became a human and by a perfect godly life paid the price for our sin when he became sin in our stead, thereby paying its price. God is just. The debt of sin must be paid. This is the law of godliness by which the angels, both loyal and fallen live by according to God’s stated Will and His declared godliness. Christ paid the price and was taken up not by rumor or suggested trust, or spiritual analogy, but in the flesh, in all actuality, before the eyes of men and angels, in a glorified state into Heaven where he now waits at his Father’s right hand for the command to come and gather up the first fruit of resurrected saints. This is why there were both men and angels at Christ’s ascension into heaven and why it was recorded in the Scriptures. It was dutifully recorded.

The first fruits of harvest of persons godly are otherwise known in Bible prophecy as ‘The Bride’. She shall someday soon be received into heaven in that electrifying moment euphemistically called the Rapture. Those who are godly, for the Bride is godly, will be “received up into glory”. The mystery of godliness will have been performed in humans within the infusion of the Divine Nature through faith by the process declared in Peter’s epistle. Its final validation is the receiving of it in heaven’s domains. Those that are partakers of divine godliness, having expressed and realized them in actuality in their lives shall find that they fit in with the spirit and society of heaven; and therefore they rightly belong in heaven and have an eternal home in paradise.

This composite work of God; that godliness be first manifested, then all its performance and acts be justified solely by the Spirit Himself, that it should be on open display for the eyes of the whole of creation, that it would be preached the world over, that it would be believed by humans and finally received into heaven’s realms as a finished reality, this is the mystery of godliness accomplished by the marvelous gospel of truth through the triune workings of the Godhead of The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father commanded that godliness should reign in heaven, Jesus brought it to heaven by His obedience to the Father’s will, the Holy Spirit as the judge and justifier of all things godly validated the work of salvation so that it could be received through the gates into paradise.