AN OUTREACH OF IOM AMERICA | INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF EXCHANGED LIFE
March 18, 2015 - In This Issue:
INFORMATION ON JIM FOWLER

Jim Fowler has been a pastor at the Neighborhood Church in Fallbrook, California for the last twenty-three years. His wife, Gracie, and their five children (Philip, Charis, Kirsten, Sarah and Sandi) have been very supportive in Jim's teaching, preaching, and writing ministries.

Jim's educational background includes Manhattan Christian College, Friends University, New College-University of Edinburgh, Bethel Theological Seminary, Palomar College, and Jubilee Theological Institute.

In recent years, Jim has spent much of his time writing, as can be viewed within the resources of his website. He is currently researching and writing several other articles and books.

 Feel free to contact him at jimfowler@christinyou.net 

 
Practical Studies
"The purpose of Jesus' incarnational advent and His ministry here on earth as a man was not to establish a new religion, nor to inculcate a new teaching, nor to lay down a new morality system. Jesus came to bring Himself, the presence and dynamic of His own divine being, expressed in the humanity of one perfect man, so that He might be expressed as divine, eternal life in the humanity of all men. The gospel that Jesus brought was entirely Christocentric. There is no message of "good news" apart from the ontological reality of the very Being of God in Jesus Christ who is the essence of Christianity. Christianity is Christ!" - Jim

 Learn More About Jim's Studies:
"This book details the primary discussion of this year's World Grace Summit. I considered the discussion of "Dialectic Formatting" to be of the highest priority of dispelling Universalism in its attack on the true Church of Christ."  
"When Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being "in Christ" or of Christ being "in them," this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them..." ("Mere Christianity" Macmillan Publishing. 1978. pp.64-65). -C.S. Lewis

HISTORICAL CHRISTIAN BIBLES 
For over a decade now, Jim Fowler has been collecting Bibles for an exhibit that shows "The History of the Christian Scriptures." A new website has been developed to show featured items in this collection. View at www.fowlerbiblecollection.com.   
The Cross of Christ (part 2)
By Jim Fowler

The Theological Significance of the Cross

 

The historical event of Christ's death by crucifixion has eternal theological significance because of the identity of the One who was crucified. Jesus Christ, God's Son, had become incarnated as a man, and came "to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45; cf. 1 Tim. 2:6).

 

In His death on the cross Jesus was taking the death consequence of sin for all mankind. This He could do in that He was the sinless Savior enacting a consequential spiritual solidarity with the whole human race. The first man, Adam, had enacted a consequential spiritual solidarity, when by his sin all men died spiritually (Rom. 5:12), were constituted "sinners" spiritually (Rom. 5:19), and were condemned (Rom. 5:18) to everlasting death. God had originally told Adam in the Garden, "In the day that thou eat from it" - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - "you will surely die" (Gen. 2:17). The consequence of sin was death in its various spiritual, psychological and physical forms.

  

Jesus, the Son of God, was incarnated as the God-man; who, as man, could experience the death consequences of sin; who, as sinless man, could take those death consequences vicariously and substitutionally for all man; and who, as God, could restore divine life to man spiritually, in order to restore functional humanity. As a man, Jesus incurred all the death consequences that had occurred in Adam. As a sinless man, death had no right to Him personally and could not hold Him. As God, He could thus save us from the consequences of sin and further expression of sin by becoming life within us. Jesus came "to give His life a ransom for many"

(Matt. 20:28). Jesus "came that we might have life" (John 10:10). The death of Jesus on a cross is the remedial action precedent to the restorative action of God's indwelling life in man. The remedial purpose of death and the restorative purpose of life are inseparable in the consideration of the theological significance of the death of Jesus Christ on a cross.

 

While still suspended from the cross and facing imminent physical death, Jesus exclaimed, "Tetelestai!" The word is translated into English as, "It is finished!" (John 19:30). [The perfect tense is used, indicating completed action in the past; the consequences of which remain unto the present.] To amplify the meaning, it could be translated "completed," "accomplished," "fulfilled," "brought to its intended end." Evidence exists that in first century, times this word,
"tetelestai," was inscribed on certificates of indebtedness when they were paid-off.1 The meaning would thus be, "completed," "fulfilled," "It is finished," "paid in full." This is enlightening when we consider Paul's comment in Col. 2:14 about the "certificate of debt" having been taken out of the way, having been "nailed to the cross."Sin presented an indebtedness of condemnation; the Law presented an impossible indebtedness of performance, a big "IOU" before God. In the death of Jesus Christ this has been "paid in full," "It is finished." There is no more death sentence. There is no more condemnation. There is no more indebtedness. There are no more performance requirements. Such is the "finished work" of Jesus Christ.  Read Full Article...

1 Lindsey, Hal. The Liberation of Planet Earth. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 1974. pp. 52-54. 

 

Jim Fowler
P.O. Box 1822
Fallbrook, CA 92088-1822

e-mail address:

jimfowler@christinyou.net 



The work of IOM America is viewed by readers 
worldwide - a growing list of 39,000+.