This is how you know Jesus is an amazing designer. (The Bible says he’s the creative genius in Genesis. John 1:3). As mechanically complex as Adam was his interface with the physical world was just five senses. Think about that. All the complexity is hidden – the computer system (brain), the plumbing network (intestines, blood vessels), energy conversion engineering (digestive system), the waste disposal system (intestines)… Everything is hidden from view. It’s the same philosophy that guides design of Apple products – simplification and minimalism. It’s one of the reasons the products are enormously successful.
But what is even more amazing about the design of Adam is that he was regulated by just one protocol – “Obey God’s command.” Product designers understand how difficult it is to come up with just one regulatory protocol. It’s a major intellectual challenge. Jesus would reprise his minimalistic design philosophy in the New Testament. He reduced the entire 613 commandments under the Law to just two commands – Love God, love your neighbour. Luke 10:27. He’s very fond of simplifying stuff, Jesus. Thinks conceptually.
When Adam breached the Genesis protocol at the urging of the serpent he unleashed latent laws. One of those laws is the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2. That sent Jesus back to the drawing board. How does he salvage his creation? The answer he came up with was an upgrade to man. He didn’t scrap Adam. You see, Adam was an intermediary product between angels and animals. He had higher capacities than animals but lower capacities than angels. But having subjected himself to an animal – the serpent, his generations took on bestial mode. They started behaving like animals, turned predatory. They began to obey base laws. Romans 6:16. His first son slaughtered his brother for instance. That was unprecedented. It was as if he was crazy. He was even insolent to God, which is proof of craziness actually. Genesis 4:9. How do you fix such a bug? Man was malfunctioning.
The new specs were high. The upgrade Jesus ordered gave man higher capabilities – something closer to the capacity of angels. To make that possible God salvaged his spirit. (His body could not be salvaged). He gave him extra DNA code. But some work was still done on the body. A higher immunity system was developed. It’s triggered by faith. The new man (as we shall call him) can thus ingest poison and nothing will happen. Jesus said that in Mark 16:18. The new DNA code was powerful. It gave man capacities way beyond his old self. His messed up mind also required salvage. What was required was reprogramming. But the new man has to do that himself. It’s mechanical. For radical transformation he needs constant exposure to God’s word. Paul called the program “renewing of mind” – “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2.
Jesus gave the new man transcendent capacities, like angels. He can actually dematerialise and reappear in another physical location, just like in Star Trek. He can be beamed up. A gentleman named Phillip did just that. He disappeared from Gaza express road and reappeared at Azotus. That’s a distance of about 60km. Acts 8:39. The new man can be in multiple locations at the same time. That sounds crazy, right? But the Bible says he can be in heaven and be on earth at the same time. That though on earth, he’s seated in the heavenly places. Ephesians 2:6. Because he has interdimensional authority, the new man has control over rebel demons. The serpent controlled man in Genesis, now he can control the serpent. “In my name they will cast out demons,” Jesus said. Mark 16:17. But perhaps the most mind blowing of all the capacities of the new man is the fact he can transmit energy in raw form without being incinerated. It’s like he has insulation from radiation. He can heal the sick by just laying hands on them. He can even store energy on physical materials and when those materials are laid on the sick they’ll recover. His shadow can heal! Acts 5:15-16. He can even raise the dead. This is Man version 2.0.
All these seem unbelievable, except for the fact they’re validated by history and some of us have actually seen manifestations of these things, even experienced them. This new man has higher processing capacity. He has incredible insight, can process information at blighting speed, can come up with ingenuous solutions to problems and switch to predictive mode. We call this prophecy. But the facilities are not resident in him. They’re facilitated by the mentor-designate, the Holy Spirit. He can function in cloud computing mode, among other capabilities. He functions as external server for the new man, who nonetheless retains the local mainframe computer of the old man – his brain.
The Holy Spirit is the key to the extra dimensional capabilities of the new man. If a man can plug into him he will access those capacities. And so in terms of architecture Man version 2.0 is a dualism. There is the mechanical framework of Man version 1.0. But there’s also the extradimensional layer of new capacities from the upgrade. Think of a Tesla car upgrade, say for auto drive. Same car, same chasis but new capabilities through software upgrade. That is essentially what this born again thing is all about from a product perspective. There are other perspectives of course, including political perspective. It’s why Jesus said the class of humans who receive the upgrade belong to another kingdom – the kingdom of God. They possess certain rights as members of that kingdom. Those rights are encapsulated in a sovereign vehicle called “righteousness.” Righteousness is God’s bill of rights in his sovereign capacity. These beings are gifted with those rights; the rights cannot be earned. That righteousness also gives them VIP access. They have access to God’s throne room. They get to leverage on God’s power. They’ll always find help in tough situations. Paul captured it succinctly with this statement: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16.
The cultural expression of their new citizenship is a new language system called “tongues.” It’s pluralised because it’s not exactly a homogenous or single language. It’s actually some sort of code. Not even the speaker understands it, unless he’s given a special ability called “gift of interpretation.” 1 Corinthians 12:10. The code is scrambled at the human end but then unscrambled by God in Heaven. 1 Corinthians 14:2. Because it’s not static code Satan’s counterintelligence service can’t break the code. What a neat idea! From all indications the central figure in the new man protocol is the Holy Spirit. He’s the engine room of the new man. Without him there’s no function. To avoid the mistake with the first Adam in which one fallible individual gets to set off a horrendous chain of events, all the enablements of the new man are resident in the Holy Spirit. He controls the energy system, controls the intelligence networks, controls the programming of tongues. He fully controls the modalities of the new life. Without plugging into him we’re mere men.
In essence the new man is metahuman. His DNA is radical. He’s born of the Spirit and not of the flesh. John 3:6. But design is one thing, execution is another. To facilitate the new man there was the need for proof of concept. There was a need for prototype. You don’t roll out a major upgrade across a vast product line without testing the idea. Who else to volunteer for the experiment than Jesus himself! And so he came to earth and functioned in all those new capacities as a man – raising the dead, healing the sick, metamateriality, clairvoyance, intelligence, exploration of inter-dimensionality… Those performances we call “miracles.” The people didn’t know what to make of him. The authorities of his day assigned the capacities to Satan. They said he was casting out demons by Beelzebub. Matthew 12:27. There were intellectual challenges of course. So many intellectual challenges to the execution. For instance, how does Jesus become human and yet retain Godliness? How does God enter a womb, grow in a belly? How does he avoid contamination with sin? How does he containerise his dimensionlessness? How do you circumscribe eternity with time?
The solution God came up with is what we call hypostatic union – a creature that’s 100% God and 100% human at the same time. It’s what Paul was talking about when he wrote, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Colossians 2:9. To function in that capacity however required constant switches. When Jesus was hungry that was the man. Mark 11:12. When Jesus said he’s the bread of life that was God talking. John 6:35. When Jesus fell asleep on the boat that was the man. Matthew 8:24. When he commanded the sea to be still that was God. Mark 4:39. As a descendant of David that was Jesus the man. Romans 1:3. When he said, “Before Abraham was I am” that was God talking. John 8:58. When Jesus wept when Lazarus died that was the man crying. John 11:35. But when he said, “I am the resurrection and the life” that was God taking charge. John 11:25. That switch system was incredibly ingenious. It was an incredibly brilliant innovation.
But then God also had to die. How do you kill God? The only way was for God the Father to cut off the man. The man died. It was at that moment Jesus cried on the cross, “My God, my God why has thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46. Then Jesus “yielded up the ghost.” Matthew 27:50. Nothing could kill him before then. Not the spears, not the horrible flagellation, not the rusted nails… Nothing could kill him until that moment the umbilical chord of divinity was severed. Which was why Jesus said, “It is finished”. John 19:30. But on the third day he rose from the dead. Death could not hold him down. He resurrected. That these words might be fulfilled, “I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:5. The experiment was finished. Man version 2.0 was feasible. Because Jesus rose from the dead bodily, the new man will rise from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:13,16.
Deployment soon began, in the Upper Room. The zero hour was when the Holy Spirit alighted on Peter & Co. There were 120 people in that Upper Room. They were the first batch of Man version 2.0. On that day human calendar was recalibrated to zero. BC ended, AD began. A new era on earth began. Posthuman civilisation was launched.
If you’ll like to upgrade to the new man please pray this prayer: “Father I acknowledge that I am a sinner, that Jesus died for me, that you raised him from the dead. Father please forgive me. I accept Jesus today as my Lord and my Saviour. Amen.”
Theology Trivia: The Holy Spirit is the new man’s advantage. What does this mean to you?
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© Leke Alder | talk2me@lekealder.com.
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