We are in Mark 8:38; where Jesus tells His listeners that "whoever is ashamed of Me and My words will be ashamed when He returns in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
We have taken up the doctrine of shame because of this statement and in that study last time left off in 1John 2:28-29; where we see that "abiding in Him" creates capacity righteousness that causes the believer to have confidence and not shrink away from Him at His coming.
We see from this passage that after salvation the objective for believers is to attain their own virtue righteousness through the function of their own spiritual life.
Spiritual capacity righteousness is the righteousness attained by the believer through learning and consistent function of the spiritual skills. This gives believers capacity for greater grace blessing while living on earth in the adversity of devil's world. James 4:6;
Believers who have this capacity righteousness will do the right thing in the right way at the right time for the right reason because he can. James 4:17:
Believers who fail to do this still receive encouragement blessings including logistical grace blessings and the wall of fire protection because they are in union with Christ and possess the righteousness of God, but they never develop the capacity for the greater blessings that God deposited in escrow for them in eternity past.
A spiritual birth demands a spiritual life, just as a human birth demands a human life. In each case, we are completely helpless and must grow up. The only difference is that in the spiritual life we have equal privilege and opportunity to grow up.
God never blesses the believer beyond his capacity, and the capacity is always expressed in terms of righteousness. Your capacity righteousness develops with the consistent function of the spiritual skills. Righteousness is the principle of God's integrity love.
The problem solving devices are your means of fellowship with God. Your fellowship with God is rebound recovery, the filling of the Spirit, the function of the faith-rest drill, being aware of the grace of God, having a personal sense of destiny, having personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind, sharing the happiness of God, and being occupied with Christ.
2John 8-9; "Watch out for yourselves that you may not destroy what we have worked for, so that you may receive a full reward.
v9 Any one who goes too far ahead (gets out of fellowship) and does not stay in the teaching of Christ, does not have (fellowship with) God; (on the other hand) he who remains in the teaching, this one keeps on having (fellowship with) both the Father and the Son." Net note 29
This passage tells us to watch out so we don't destroy what we have been working for and then goes on to tell us how we can destroy it.
The Greek word "apollumi" that is translated as "lose" in most translations also has the meaning of "destroy."
We lose or destroy what we have accomplished through the arrogance skills of self-justification, self-deception, self-absorption, denial, and projection.
We lose or destroy what we have accomplished by failure to persist in fellowship with God and the application of the spiritual skills.
We lose or destroy what we have accomplished by failure recover the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The consequence of destroying what we have accomplished is loss of eternal rewards and shame at the judgment seat of Christ.
Anyone who "goes too far ahead" is not remaining in the doctrinal teaching because they are functioning in the arrogance skills resulting in the function in the stages of reversionism.
When you are in fellowship, you are having fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Your fellowship with the Father and Son depends on your personal sense of destiny, your personal love for God the Father, and your occupation with Christ that avoids shame at the judgment seat of Christ.
Phil 1:20-21; "On the basis of my earnest expectation and confident expectation (a personal sense of destiny) that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but with all confidence, Christ shall even now (in time) as always (in eternity) be glorified in my body, whether by life or by death.
v21 For me living (is) Christ, dying (is) gain or to my advantage."
Confidence comes with spiritual self-esteem. Living and dying, prosperity and adversity, are equated with occupation with Christ and sharing the happiness of God.
Paul mentions the body because the body contains the soul. For Christ to be glorified in your body, the soul must have doctrine, the soul must be filled with doctrine by means of the Holy Spirit, and the soul must apply that doctrine by means of the problem solving devices under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
In eternity, you have a resurrection body. Christ is glorified in the believer's body when the believer's soul is functioning properly. Your soul was designed to overcome any pressure when you have metabolized doctrine circulating in your stream of consciousness.
"Dying is gain or advantage" because at the moment of our physical death we are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord in a place of no more sorrow, or tears, or pain. So when we are living in doctrine weather we live or die Christ is glorified.
Some concluding principles on the doctrine shame include:
The greatest embarrassment of all human history is for the believer to arrive at the judgment seat of Christ in a resurrection body and under the equal opportunity principle, discover that he failed to execute the protocol plan of God while on earth.
This is classified as shame that is experienced in the glory of a resurrection body, because his escrow blessings for the eternal state never be conveyed and will remain on deposit forever.
In contrast, the believer who executes the protocol plan of God not only has the benefit of his escrow blessings for time but also receives his escrow blessings for the eternal state at his evaluation.
These blessings are so great that they cannot even be described. Eph 3:20;
The believer who experiences shame has no excuse as he stands before the Lord Jesus Christ in his resurrection body because he had the same equal privilege and equal opportunity to fulfill the protocol plan of God, but he was distracted away from doctrine. Rev 3:11;
Therefore, to avoid shame at the judgment seat of Christ the believer must use the grace assets of his portfolio to fulfill his own spiritual life through consistent use of the three spiritual skills.
This means that the believer avoids shame at the judgment seat of Christ through the execution of the protocol plan of God. You and you alone are the only one who can live your spiritual life; no one else can live it for you. By living your spiritual life you avoid shame at the judgment seat of Christ.
Peace or prosperity at the judgment seat of Christ can never be possible until all three spiritual skills are in place. That includes the problem solving devices deployed on the defensive perimeter of the soul.
Phil 4:6; "Stop worrying about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God, and the prosperity of God which surpasses all thinking shall garrison your hearts and minds by Christ Jesus."
The cause of shame at the judgment seat of Christ is explained in 1Cor 3:11-16; "For no person can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
v12 Now if any believer builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
v13 each believer's production will become evident; for the day will reveal it, because it will be revealed by fire; in fact the fire itself will test the quality of each believer's production.
v14 If any believer's production which he has built on it remains, he shall receive a reward.
v15 If any believer's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
v16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and (that) the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
The issue at the evaluation is the quality of the production. Gold, silver, and precious stones correspond to the production of the three spiritual skills. Wood, hay, and stubble correspond to the production of the three arrogance skills.
Both structures are built on the same foundation of faith alone in Christ alone indicating that every believer is eternally secure in his salvation and that God provides every believer with equal privilege and opportunity to build a structure on the foundation.
Each believer's production becomes evident at the judgment seat of Christ. We each live our life as unto the Lord under the privacy of our priesthood. You will take responsibility for your decisions at the judgment seat of Christ. What other believers think or say is irrelevant.
The believer's production that remains on the foundation after being tested by fire is rewarded. The rewards are the escrow blessings for the eternal state.
Arrogance can only produce wood, hay, and stubble so any production from arrogance is burned up resulting in shame and loss of eternal blessings and rewards.
God the Holy Spirit indwells your body to provide a temple for the indwelling of Jesus Christ as the shekinah glory and the indwelling of God the Father as a guarantee of blessing.
That is a sacred trust. Jesus Christ as the shekinah glory indwells your body as a guarantee of your portfolio of invisible assets and the availability of these assets under equal opportunity to execute the protocol plan of God for the Church.
God the Holy Spirit also indwells every believer to establish a beachhead for the indwelling of the Trinity and the filling ministry of the Spirit.
The indwelling of the Spirit is permanent. The function of the filling ministry of the Spirit is dependent on positive volition to obey God's word. The indwelling of the Spirit is related to the believer's body (1Cor 3:16, 1Cor 6:19-20; 2Cor 6:16;); The filling ministry of the Spirit is related to the believer's soul. Phil 2:12-13; Gal 5:22-23;
It is the result of the believer's choice to live the spiritual life. When the believer is in compliance with God's Word the believer is experientially compatible with the integrity of God and the Holy Spirit controls the believer's life producing divine good that is called "gold silver and precious stones."
When we sin, we are out of compliance with God's Word and we are experientially incompatible with the integrity of God and the old sin nature controls our life producing human good that is called "wood, hay and stubble" until we recover.
The indwelling of the Spirit is never commanded, but there are many mandates to keep on being filled by means of the Spirit (Eph 5:18 Rom 8:4,14; Rom 13:14; Gal 5:16;). The fact that there is a mandate means that it is possible for the believer to fail to comply.
Our choices regarding the ministry of God the Holy Spirit determine weather we will have shame from the production of human good or reward from the production of divine good in the glory of our resurrection body at our evaluation.
This brings us back to our passage where Jesus said:
Mark 8:38; "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."