That Which Emasculates the Seed of God
By: Arthur J. Licursi
Christ Bearing The Father’s Life
We know from Scripture that it is Jesus Christ who is The Word of God. Words are used to express ones self. Jesus Christ is called the Word because He is the express image of the Father, the declaration, and expression of His Father, all by the one life of His Father within Him. He is the Word because He gives perfect expression to the Father’s life within Him. Jesus told Philip “if you have seen me you have seen the Father” (John 14:9) and also, “I and my Father are one.” John 10:30
Christ’s Life Given To Be In Man
Jesus Christ is now given to us that we might become partakers of the one eternal God-life and nature (2Pet. 1:4). Jesus, as the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit (1Cor. 15:45, 2Cor. 3:17). He now is the Spirit of Life (Rom. 8:2, 8-10). In that form, as spirit, He may be received into our human spirit, that we might have union with Him (Jn 3:6, 1Cor 6:17). Jesus not only gave up His physical life and His soul/self-life for us (Jn 10:11), but also He gave His Spirit of life to be in us, as our life.
One Seed
Christ is given to man as the Spirit of Life (Rom 8:2, 8-10), as the one … Seed of God the Father (Gal 3:16). Note that “seed” in Greek, is “sperma”, thus the born-again children of God have been rebirthed by the Father’s literal life (John 3:6, 16, 1Jn 5:11-12). We, as His birthed children, now, presently, have His eternal life in us, right now, as our life. His eternal life is not a reward to be received later, upon our death, as being separate from God Himself, but rather we have received the eternal Seed of God the Father, which bears His life and nature into us. Eternality is but one characteristic of His limitless life. We have “all” by having His Seed in us as our new life.
How was this accomplished that God the creator could righteously deposit His very life into the creatures that He created? It began with His promises to Abraham.
“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;” Genesis 22:17
God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and that his seed would be both as the “sands of the seashore,” and also as the “stars of heaven” (Gen. 22:17). In this God told Abraham that there are two aspects to his seed.
In Gen 22:17 we see that earthly Israel is of Abraham’s seed as “sands of the seashore”, a people upon the earth; to one day rule all nations in the earthly kingdom, under the King Messiahship of Christ, in the Millennium.
Scripture makes clear that Jesus Christ is the physical seed of Abraham.
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Galatians 3:16
This refers to the earthly human offspring of Abraham, those who sprang from Abraham’s physical loins.
In Gen 22:17 the word “seed” speaks of the stars of heaven, which are all those who have been regenerated by the Seed of God, Jesus Christ who came via Abraham’s lineage. Jesus was descended from Abraham’s lineage, including David and Solomon, to be born of Mary, who gave Him His physical body. Thus, Jesus was born of a woman made under the law (Gal 4:4). Thus Mary gave Jesus his body of His humiliation in the lineage of Abraham. In this way of incarnation Jesus could “be touched with the feelings of our infirmities” and “be tempted in all ways like as we are”.
The Fathers “stars of heaven” are those who have been regenerated of Christ-seed that came through Abraham’s lineage. This Seed is Jesus who now is the Christ (Acts 2:36), who is now the Spirit (2Cor 3:17) and Son of God the Father. He is the incorruptible Seed that indwells the human spirit of every rebirthed child of God. This seed came through the lineage of Abraham to be received by as many as will (Jn 1:12), in the time of the mystery Gospel, the unprophesied age of the dispensation of the grace of God. These are the “stars of heaven” promised to come out of Abraham. These are a heavenly offspring, a people above the earth, now already seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6). These “stars of heaven” also came out of Abraham’s lineage by Mary, Jesus’ mother, who received and bore the Father’s God-seed (Emanuel) to the world. By this Jesus, as the Christ-Seed, ultimately through death and resurrection, became the Spirit of life to mankind.
In 1Pet 1:23 seen below, the word “seed” (sperma) speaks of the kind or seed; its life and nature are incorruptible. This seed never decays or degrades. It is the eternal Seed of the Father - Jesus Christ Himself as the Spirit of life. Peter writes concerning the seed that those believing Jews who will receive the Christ-seed as their new life in the time of the tribulation. Though this book is written to the Jews for that time to come, its truth is also is applicable to all the regenerated, both Jew and Gentile children of God, born of the Father’s life in this day of the dispensation of the grace of God.
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed (Gk., sperma), but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:23
Since every kind of life has it own nature, we see that we’ve become partakers of Christ’s life and the divine God-nature that is in the Christ-seed. We bear the spiritual DNA of God our Father. By His Seed, that brought us the life of the Godhead, we are His literal birthed offspring of His spiritual loins.
“… Christ, who is our life” Col. 3:4a
“… that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” 2 Peter 1:4b
“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” Col. 1:26-27
The Seed of A Father
A seed (Greek, sperma) is only of a masculine source - a father. Fathers are progenitors of life. Mothers add physical substance; nevertheless, the life and nature are of the seed of the father. In the seed is all the vitality of that father. God is our literal Father by His One living Son - Christ, the seed of life; of whom we have been partakers, by His full and shared life in us (Col 3:4, 1John 4:13, 1Pet. 1:23). We one day received the Seed of the Father into the womb of our human spirit and new life came to birth within us. Our Father is not impotent, but rather He is the most fruitful and vital one. We bear His life, by His seed, in us, as our life (Gal 2:20). We are the many grains born out of the One Seed of which Jesus spoke in John 12:24. The Seed came into us bearing the One life of the Only Begotten Son of God, yet as the firstborn of many brethren, in order to bring to birth the many grains, or sons of God, to be the multi-membered body of Christ, which is the Church (Eph 1:22-23).
Christ is All, In The Seed
Christ is meant to be all that we can receive of our Father. Many pray for this and that from God but our Father has only one answer to our prayer - the all-sufficient life of His Son, as the grace of God in us (2Cor 12:9). As the Father’s all-sufficient seed, Christ bears in us all of the divine God nature, bringing into our spirit the very God-life (Col. 2:9-10), that has been processed through suffering earthly living, death and resurrection. His life has stood the test. This Christ is now literally our life. Now, as His offspring, we live and move and have our very being in Him. By this seeded life we enjoy all that we can be, as we come to know who we are by that indwelling seed that has birthed us to union with God our Father (Eph. 1:18).
That Which Emasculates The Father’s Seed of Life
As with Jesus on earth, there are forces that come against God’s plan and His birthed children who bear the Christ-seed of His life. Millions of born again believers possess the powerful Christ-seed without having it make a difference in their lives. This is often because the forces of religion serve to emasculate or render powerless the new Christ-seed.
Jesus spoke to the Pharisees saying; “You search the scriptures, which speak of Me, yet you won’t come to Me that they may have life” (John 5:39-40).
The issue for us is the life of Christ indwelling the believer’s spirit. Religion misses this vital point. Religion, that is the service of God that is based upon man’s independent self-effort and doing is Christ-less and thereby devoid of Christ’s empowering life. It is the “doings” of men that are lifeless. Lifeless religion, with its doctrines, precepts and principals (laws), that actually serves to emasculate or neuter the spontaneous living Seed indwelling the rebirthed child of God.
The Traditions of Religion
Jesus also said that the traditions of religion have made the Word (Christ) of God of none affect
“Making the word (Christ) of God of none effect through your tradition (Gk., paradosis, transitory laws)…” Mark 7:13
Traditions are religion’s lifeless outer substitute for our intended intimate, living, and fruitful union, which God has provided for us by the indwelling Christ-seed. Traditions are a testament of the past in which God does not live. He is the “I AM”, not the “I was”. Thus the Apostle Paul, referring to the time of this dispensation of the grace of God, saying there are no more special “days, months, and proper times” (Gal 4:8-10). We have no need of shadows any longer - Christ has come to dwell within us.
Crossless Religion
Cross-less religion is deathless religion. This is yet another force coming against the seeded life in believers. The way of life as demonstrated by Christ is that life only comes out of death (John 12:24). Those who accept Jesus of Nazareth, as only a WWJD standard of a “good man” to be imitated in outwardly seen good works, ignore His indwelling life that became available to them as the blood bought fruit of His death. They make Him only as “new (unfinished) cloth” (Matthew 9:16, Gk. “new cloth” is “unfulled or unfinished cloth”, the uncrucified cross-less fig leaf covering of the self-righteousness by self-effort).
They make the crucified Christ of no effect (Gal. 5:4). His death and resurrection is for our standing before the Father and He is our only source of true life for our living.
His cross is the place of both the termination of our old man and germination of His new life in us. Accepting only the “good man”, Jesus of Nazareth, but not the effectual cross of Christ to do away with us, in Christ (Rom. 6:3-6), prevents our receiving and effectually enjoying His potent life in us.
We are to receive the fully cross-processed Christ, who was incarnated, lived, died, and resurrected to become the spirit of life to indwell us as our new life. He is as our “fulled” garment (Matt 9) of righteousness. The cross is the basis of our old man’s co-death with Him, that we might be free to have and enjoy new life in Him (2Cor. 4:10).
The Super Emasculator
“Law keeping” or legalistic religion among the born-again children of God, as promoted by lifeless religion, is the most pervasive, most accepted, and most powerful emasculator of the Christ-seed in the believer. In Galatians 5:4 Paul says that Christ has become of “no effect” to those who are justified by the law. Clinging to any part of the lifeless law of the outer commandment, injunction or ordinance has the power to neutralize, emasculate, and render impotent the powerful Christ-seed. The law causes and empowers sin (1Cor 15:56b, Rom 5:20).
Thus, Paul also says; “if there was a law that could have given life (Zoë), then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 3:21). It is fitting that the Ten Commandments were written on tables of stone since stone is lifeless and has no power to offer us in living by law it contains. The issue is for man to receive and enjoy the Christ’s life as the real or genuine life, which spontaneously works in us as the normal “law (operation) of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus”, to will and to do of His good pleasure.
The Christ-Seed Vs. Religion
Every seed has life within itself, and reproduces after its own kind. Likewise, Jesus and His Father have life in themselves (John 5:26) and can only bring us to birth by the extension of that One life. Inanimate religion is not alive, and so it cannot father life in its subscribers. Jesus is declared to be the light and life as the water and bread of life. So also, we must see Christ as the seed of life, and also the sustainer or nurturer of that life in the believer. Contrarily, those lifeless religious traditions, and practices, prevent His seed of life from blossoming and becoming the glorious expression of the Christ’s life in the believer.
The aforementioned are the key elements of lifeless religion, which offers darkness for His light of life, dryness for His water of life and famine for His bread the life - death for life. It is no wonder that His birthed offspring are a seeking, searching, and desirous people, are never satisfied by seeing anything other than Christ Himself.
These negative religious forces, evil and vile as they are, are used by God to drive men to find the life that is real Life. Religion’s lifeless and hurtful product in a believer’s life serves to contrast with that which is the only genuine and vital life … the life of God, in Christ, as the Spirit of Life, dwelling in a man as his life (Gal. 2:20). <End>
Note: For more on this subject, see another article titled: “Our Organic Union With The Father By His Seed” by the same author.
