“Deliver such a one up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the Lord’s Day.” 1 Corinthians 5.5
Paul had these words to say about dealing with people at large who associate and identify with the body of Christ, of what people in general call the church. We would however like to lay some ground work that church today is generally associated with in a with an affressy where people congregate, but more truly applied it is in any setting where “two or more are gathered in My name, there I am in their midst” were the words of Christ defining what church is. It is a people and not a plac. And however there may be outreaches and gospel sharing to the scattered and unbelieving, when it comes to assembling in worship to commune, which means to have all things in common with the Father, it has to be done in holy sanctification by the Spirit. As the Father said “be ye holy as I am holy”.
In Old Testament nomenclature they called it a general assembly or a solemn assembly, which is essentially a dress rehearsal. As we always say that what the Israelites did over and over in the wilderness, was done in a physical way to play out eternally constant realities, portraying things that exist in a completed form in the spirit. For the first six days of the week they prepared in a physical way and on the seventh day they practiced them as a dress rehearsal to learn of the never changing, constant eternal things of God in the spirit. It was necessary to play them out over and over because the gospel is progressive, and each one learns in their own order. As the gospel says that God has entered His rest on the 7th day and calls us to himself there saying “there remains a rest to the people of God so they may cease from their works and enter there rest as God entered His”. (Hebrews 4) To enter His rest is to have victory over the obstacles of the age of creation, by retaining your stature renewed in the Spirit.
Paul spoke to the Corinthians who had assembled together as the body of Christ (not a building) on a regular basis for worship, where they were scolded because of the man boasting of his affair, because that man was violating their sanctification in holiness and putting them all in harm’s way by being implicit. Because of them ignoring his boasting they insulted the Spirit of Grace and were sleighted for judgment. And of the one who was flouting his hubris about the infidelity of having another man’s wife? Paul made it clear that their ignoring and turning from acknowledging this mans blatant sin. He had not been rebuked and put out of the assembly. They had insulted the Spirit of grace. This is NOT where you want to be.
We have a picture of this in Exodus with the Korah and his son’s.
24 Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up away from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.
26 And Moses spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of their’s, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.
31 And it came to pass, as Moses had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them:
32 And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.”
And again from Paul, 11 Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”
And, “16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.”
19 What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?
20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
With the account of Korah and Paul’s commentary, we can see what was at stake for those assembled in Corinth, and with that man’s sin of being joined to another man’s wife and being joined to the body of believers meant that Satan would’ve had access to polute what is to be a holy setting.
It was because at the cross sin was removed from the saints “as far as the east is from the west”. To associate with that type of sin again puts them out of range of Gods protection. Therefore they were instructed to “give such a one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved to the Lord’s day” for the man’s benefit and their own. At least his invisible part had a chance. For Korah he likely did not because of his role in leadership.
Part 2.
If we understand the gift of eternal life correctly, Christ paid for all the sins of humanity, the good and the bad. That He also took on the ill consequences of that collection of sin. The whole mass for all time. Because of the immensity and the size of who Christ is, He could take on all our pain sin and the byproducts that lead to sickness, death and destruction, all at the same time, with no leftovers or lapse of coverages.
So for us to keep from insulting the Godhead, we need to know that there is not one of us that could endure the death penalty due for ourselves, let alone the totality due to the whole human race through out their successive generations. So let’s respect what Christ did at our saving lest a worse thing happen to us.
Hebrews 10 has this to say, 26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” [g]says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.“ And God the Father can take action at anytime.
So then because of the Fathers grace, if Christ did NOT take on our sin and death, each one of us would have to endure and bear the brunt of paying for our own dying for ourselves alone and the rectification of each of our sins. In the end you will find that out that all the excruciating, gut wrenching, agonizing shrills of pain and suffering associated with death and dying, was taken care of and neutralized and marked “paid in full” because of the cross. This was all done to nullify your fear of suffering, pain and death and dying. Yes His saving us was from that unavoidable horror due to each one of us, that He took on Himself so that we wouldn’t have to. This is the Gospel of Grace.
As un-comprehendable as that may seem, there are many still who will NOT receive that payment gifted by God through the sacrifice of His Son, and given to all would be believers on their own behalf as described in the gospel, to turn and have to endure death by themselves and whatever pain meds and drugs they can get their hands on. Your dying is what you could have bequeathed to Christ Almighty. Isn’t that what He advertises to do? “On Him was laid the inequity of us ALL and by His being stricken we were healed”.
It is not as though just any another man paid this debt for your reconning (reconnecting). The Only Begotten did this Himself. As scripture says “God made Him who knew no sin, to become our sin (with all the judgment due from a holy God and our condemning view we have of ourselves) for us to become His righteousness (that we see) in Him. Meaning “in Christ”. Which is a place, a country and a Kingdom as much as it is a person. Christ is the promised land scripture spoke of because in Him “the Kingdom of God is at hand” because “in Christ all of the promises from God have their fulfillment”. That is why you must recon (account) your old self dead to be born again “in Christ” and no longer subject to in the order of the old man like Adam”.
And if you correctly understand the heart of our Heavenly Father, when He said “Adam where are you”, it was because Adam had turned from God in the spirit of His mind and instead of reflecting Gods Glory back to Him like we the redeemed can do (2 Corinthians 3.18). Adams spiritual focus vacated and opened up to be dispersed in a fog and a haze that increases into total utter outer darkness. And because God in the beginning said “let their be light”, and that is the light before He created the sun, therefore you know there is a light that precedes creation that they are deprived from. Paul described it as “seven times brighter than the sun” at his conversion. We call it revelation of Jesus Christ because “He is the light that comes into the world”. And “the gospel we preach did not come by man nor was it taught by man but by the revelation and illumination of Gods Son called Yeshua the Messiah…
That would not be so if Adam had not been made in the image of God because Adam would not have been made with an eternal internal hole to fill, but he was. This amplifies the debt of death, not as a singular act of dying, but as a condition of existing in the excruciation of NOT just the absence of all that’s good but the presence of all that is wicked, vile, uncompassionate, loveless, an increasingly smothering, heavy weight.
As we always say that when one rejects God, they don’t get the next best thing but the exact opposite. The perfect balance. This is why there are only two choices. “Choose you this day whom you will serve”, the God of light, or the fragmented, splintered, diminishing powers of darkness that can agree only on one thing, your demise…
This is what is at stake when we, especially the leaders compromise with the call to sanctification. Therefore “deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (the thing that is temporary) that the spirit (the thing that is eternal) may be saved in the Lord’s day” because however unfortunate it may be that Satan would take this mans body till death, God the Father would recuperate what He invested, a soul. Even as He said “The Souls are mine”. It is the flesh that returns to dust, and Satan was cursed by God saying “and dust you shall eat all the days of your life” showing you how the Father cycles away what He doesn’t want, so hold on loosely.
We know that when we disappoint the Holy Spirit we can feel terribly alone and face certain scorn and rebuke. And however forgiving the Godhead personages of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit may be, that should not be to misconstrue their patience and forgiveness for tolerance for sin. For even the Old Covenant pictures show the judgements of God within the community of those who are “the called”. The Greek word for this is “eklesia”. Ek means to call, and klesia are the called and in scripture this Greek word is translated as church.
So when Paul said to “deliver such a one to Satan”, there was a man flouting his acts of adultery, and people may have thought this to be okay, maybe he needed more time to learn? But to come together for communion , meaning our focus and “union”, and joining in worship and adoration collectively to the Godhead, we are do do this with purity. We have been given the cross in which to come clean to approach the Father, but do not take this for granted for He has said “be ye Holy as I am Holy”, without mixture of impurities of un-wholesomeness.
So the instruction was given for the adulterer “give such a one up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved to the Lord’s Day.
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Ezekiel 18.4
David lost his new born son because of his affair with Bathsheba. and this is what David said. But now my son is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” showing us that his son’s spirit was saved in the Lord’s day. (2 Samuel 12.23)
Revelation before the throne were thousands and ten times
The second death
We have this promise at the beginning of the book of Christ’s Revelation, that “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”
By faith we have been saved from the death we inherited from Adam and Eve of being dead to the things of God but alive to carnal senses and appetites, then to be made alive again to God through a rebirthing in spirit through accepting the gospel of truth. We are now reconned and reconnected to God for godliness showing our new association.
For this reason it is said of Heavenly Jerusalem, that nothing unclean shall enter Her. This is our key to understanding our need for spiritual cleanliness and why it is said that “no unclean shall enter…. quote” outside are the abominable, because if you let them in, in truth you are putting yourself out. And that is reprehensible.
The second death
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.