In this article/post I will demonstrate from the New Testament that the gospel (or good news) is basically the proclamation or glad tidings that God has begun seeding his new spiritual Garden (or Eden) in the form of transformed Christians or holy ones (meaning set-apart ones) who produce God's Garden: in the form of basically a good and just culture of fair-minded individuals who esteem each other as themselves. See the short online article God's Garden by Jonathan Mitchell, which provides a good outline for the following.
The First Protoype to Godhood (Theosis): From the Only Monogene to Christians as the Seed of Christ with Star-like Celestial Bodies
Note that the word seed in the New Testament is often in the Greek the word sperm, so when God refers to Christians as the "seed of Christ" it reads in Greek the "sperm of Christ," meaning they partake/share the divine genome by receiving the supernatural seed of Christ (his divine DNA code): through the nooma which pours into them the divine DNA making them immortal divine beings upon death and resurrection.
After God formed his divine heavenly-made genome and duplicated his genome as his twin image (in the form of the earthborn Jesus), God sought to further expand his DNA Image beyond Jesus: by further generating other "divinized imagers" with humans also partaking "of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), i.e. humans receiving a portion of his DNA through Christ first breathing his divine image of immortality (his divinizing DNA) into his first disciples making them immortal with a portion of God's divine DNA as "Sons"; so when they die and resurrect they would inherit divine life with God and Christ. As this article explains:
The word Paul used when he said, “God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4), is the same word he uses two verses later: “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:6). ...
... we have true, lasting, other-worldly prosperity — a divine inheritance kept in heaven for you. “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” (Galatians 4:7). It’s no mistake that, when Paul compares sons with slaves, he calls the son “the owner of everything” (Galatians 4:1). He’s speaking about sons in general, but he means for us to see something about what it means to be God’s son. All that he has — and he has it all — he wants to share with his redeemed and adopted children.
So that Christ is the firstborn among many Brethren or Sons (as Paul explains), that is many images of the Divine Image. But only Christ was an exact twin copy of God the Father. Only Christ is the Monogene of the Father. Christians in turn, while alive and human, keep their human DNA when still alive and are grafted into Israel through the DNA of Christ, just like plants are grafted into other plants, compare the information in the article Grafted plants’ genomes can communicate with each other by Salk News.
In Joseph Smith's Bible Translation in Moses 6: 63 we read:
And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.
And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.
The Christian is spiritually begotten/reborn as a literal "child of Christ" because their human genome has begun the process of being replaced with the divinizing genome of Christ (which gives eternal life in abundance); and thus Christ is literally the new Christians "father" as Christ is fathering within them a new spiritual/noomatic body (mixed in with their human genome); so that upon death and resurrection the Christian will discard their human flesh into the grave and sprout into a new spiritual (noomatic) body as a literal child of Christ's immortal genome. They will be fully reborn by being resurrected into a new noomatic celestial body (as explained in 1 Corinthians 15 and D&C 76). So that just as God the Father fathers Christ, i.e. replicates his divine image (genome) by forming Christ (by Father-Jehovah duplicating his genome in the form of Christ), the Godhead (Father and Son) then further replicates the Divine Image/Gene of God through Christians who are adopted into the Divine Family (Holy Species) by adoption, by receiving the DNA of Christ. As Michael Heiser explains:
... in the spiritual world, just as in the human world, while divine beings (save for the unique Yahweh) are all of the same “species,” some have higher rank than others. ...
Also see this link to the PDF of Naked Bible Podcast Transcript Episode 226 on Colossians 1:1-13 (for July 28, 2018) with Dr. Michael S. Heiser and host Trey Stricklin. Wherein Heiser explains the true meaning of the word translated "saint” in most New Testament translations, which is better translated holy ones; and that the term holy ones is the same term used to describe the angelic beings in God's heavenly divine household or Divine Council; so that Christians being called holy ones means that they are being adopted into the Divine Species of God's Family in Heaven.
This is why in the Book of Mormon, Jesus basically says to God the Father to make his disciples one as he and the Father are one. This is explained in the Fifth Lecture on Faith, wherein it basically explains that the divine fullness Christ receives from the Father -- fullness meaning the Father's splendorous fluid spirit (nooma) and DNA (which makes the earthborn Jesus fully divine) -- is to be passed on and literally poured into human Christian disciples so that they too can become divine, as explained in Lecture #7; and this is why the Book of Mormon early on in 1830 talked about the seed of Christ in Mosiah 15: 10-12, which states (with emphasis added):
10 ... when his soul [Christ] has been made an offering for sin he shall see his seed [i.e. his genus or species]. And now what say ye? And who shall be his seed? 11 ... I say unto you, that all those who have hearkened unto [the prophets] words, and believed that the Lord would redeem his people, and have looked forward to that day for a remission of their sins, I say unto you, that these are his seed [genus], or they are the heirs of the kingdom of God. 12 For these are they whose sins he has borne; these are they for whom he has died, to redeem them from their transgressions. And now, are they not his seed?
Compare this wording to Paul saying "God giveth … to every seed his own body" (1 Cor. 15:38), and how a Christian is "born again, not of corruptible seed" (1 Pet. 1:23). In other words, the human Christian is replacing their mortal human nature (as the seed of Adam) with a new immortal image (as the reborn seed of Christ): which "seed" is the divine sperma or immortal DNA of God the Father. Thus we read in 1 John 3:9 (EXB), with words highlighted in bold for emphasis:
Those [All] who are God’s children [that is born of/begotten by God; 2:29] do not continue sinning [or sin], because the new life from God [or God’s message; or God’s Spirit; his seed/sperm] remains [abides] in them. They are not able to go on sinning [or sin], because they have become children of God [i.e. are born of/begotten by God].
So again, Joseph Smith was teaching as early as 1830, that God the Father had an immaterial (non-fleshly) "body/personage of spirit/nooma" which was a heavenly-material formed (i.e. a noomatically formed) personage, molded in the exact image of the future earthborn Jesus; but the Father's spirit/noomatic body was made in the heavens from heavenly material, not flesh; with the Father and Son (Jesus) thus being two separate individuals with Jesus having his own separate human experiences apart from the Father; yet the Father and the Son are the same God as they are the exact same divine genome as identical twin copies of each other. This point of view is consistent all throughout LDS Scripture.
The original Great God had thus created a "noomatic genome" (personage of nooma) in the heavens (as the Divine Image or Divine Prototype of all other gods, again see Lecture 7:16) prior to the creation of mankind on earth. The Father God's personage of spirit/nooma was then duplicated as Jesus Christ who became the first prototype of a saved human being (i.e. a god or God), as explained in Lecture 7. When Jesus was born and resurrected as the Only Monogene, Lecture 5 explains that the Godhead was then constituted by two personages, Father-Jehovah and Christ, for the Father's "personage of nooma" (as a divine genome) was duplicated to form the bodily image of the Son (Jesus): making/constituting two personages in the Godhead but there still being only one Deity (as Moses 1: 6 and Lecture 2 make clear). Thus, in the year 1835 when Smith published the Lectures on Faith as the doctrine bound in scripture, he had not yet incorporated his knowledge gained from the study of the Hebrew Bible in the original Hebrew language. So that Smith realizes after 1835 that in the heavens there was a Head God in a Council of Gods, just as the Protestant scholar Michael Heiser would later explain as well. So D&C 121: 32 (dictated in 1839) is explaining that the first God, the Deity of Lecture 2, was the first and only God that existed before and over all the other gods organized in the council of gods, or the "the head God—[who] organized the heavens & the Earth—The Head one of the Gods" (as Smith puts it in the 1844 Sermon in the Grove). For all the other gods were formed from the noomatic substance of the one omnipresent "supreme governing power" described in Lecture 2.
We know that this is likely how Joseph Smith understood the Godhead and the lesser gods under the Head God in the Council, with the Head God being the first God (Father-Jehovah), because in 1844 Smith read and edited and republished the Lectures on Faith as the official doctrine of the LDS Church. So that the Head God over the Council of Lesser Gods, first formed for himself a prototype body which was the image of Jesus born of Mary, and this Image was to be the genome that saves humanity with divine genes; so that they can join the divine family (similar to Michael Heiser explains it).
Holy Ones
Note again that the most common way Jesus-followers are labeled in the New Testament is not as "Christians" but as holy ones (often translated saints). Christian author Addison D. Bevere, even wrote a book on the subject titled, Saints: Becoming More Than "Christians."
Dr. Michael Heiser explains how this term holy ones to describe Christians by Paul, is deliberate in the New Testament; as it's a direct reference to God's Divine Council, composed of Jehovah (God) and his holy ones (the divine beings or lesser gods and angels, meaning messengers under God); so that Paul is talking about Christians as those who will inherit a divine status among the heavenly holy ones (gods). For more details see the Naked Bible Podcast Transcript for Episode 226 on Colossians 1:1-13 with Dr. Michael S. Heiser and Host Trey Stricklin (link to PDF here).
So what Paul is saying is that a Christian, in becoming a holy one, by partaking of God's divine nature, is in the beginning process of eventually becoming a fully divine being after their resurrection; and so they are no longer subject to the Mosaic religious laws and ordinances (like circumcision), which are for mortals not divinized holy ones.
Why this matters for the Latter Day Saint is because one will realize, as we progress, that LDS Scripture itself does not support a merit-based performance model of earning one's exaltation or working to become a "holy one" by being deemed "worthy" by Brighamite leaders. Instead we see that holiness is the nature of the Deity, who is named "Man of holiness" in Moses 7:35; and the origional doctrine of the LDS Church, as found in The Lecture on Faith, basically explains in Lecture #5 that God the Father's holiness (as Man of holiness) is his divine nature as a "personage of spirit, glory and power." The saints (LDS Christians) in turn also share in his same power and glory (i.e., they partake of the same divine nature) by recieving the same divine nature (emanating glory) through the sacred spirit (nooma): which glorifies them, making them instantly holy and a saved being just like Christ who is the prototype of a saved being (see Lecture 7). Thus instead of a perfectionist worthy-seeking, purity-policing, shame and tame system, instead we have LDS Scripture actually teaching that we are already made holy (thus already worthy by grace) via the "baptism of fire" (as described in the Book of Mormon); and we are simply growing up and maturing into the completeness of our already noomatically gifted holiness status.
This is why LDS scholars Terryl and Fiona Givens prefer Wuest's translation of Matthew 5:48 as not "Therefore you are to be perfect, ..." but instead, Wuest translates it more accurately as, " Therefore, as for you, you shall be those who are complete in your character, even as your Father in heaven is complete in His being."
Seeking to earn "perfect holiness" and a "worthy" status (worrying about being labeled "unworthy") can lead to feelings of inadequacy from failing to measure up to high demand religious policies and bad luck during "Leadership Roulette": where you could "roll the dice" and get unlucky with a controlling puritanical Brighamite leader over you in a culture already fostering unhealthy perfectionism a lot of the time. Instead, one will find greater peace and existential relief in realizing that the goal in the actual Scriptures is not to meet a perfect standard but to mature into wholeness: by embracing one's already-accepted status of belonging to God's Divine Family having already partook of the divine nature through the baptism of fire. So it's not about "checking boxes" seeking a worthy status but realizing you've been gifted Divine DNA and are worthy already. So that it's not about performing perfectly but growing into your gift of immortality maturing toward greater wholeness like a branch naturally grows more healthy on a tree with a flow of sap toward bearing ripe fruit as part of its nature.
This is why the New Testament describes Jesus as the true vine (i.e. holy vine), and the holy ones (Christians) are the branches on the vine, who are infused with divine fluid glory and power like sap flowing in a tree. It is an an inside-out transformational model of growing into a luminous star-like glowing status as a divine identity, already freely gifted with holiness by receiving divine DNA from Christ; like a pot gifted with a seed growing a plant body within it; so that rather than seeking to perform perfectly in order to earn the status of purity or worthiness, one realized they are growing towards maturity and completeness over time on the true vine. So that rather than thinking oneself "a self-made holy man," and a perfected being (through your own merits), you are instead gifted an inherited holiness by grace (gifted) as a co-heir with Christ. It is this not about earning exaltation but growing into it like fruit becoming ripe through the sap of the Vine. The only thing scripture calls the born anew Christian to do is love others just as Christ loved them; and to "endure to the end" meaning enduring persecution end suffering as a Christian, "taking up your cross daily," and growing into the gifted divine nature already implanted within you. As the Book of Mormon puts it, Christ's "grace [is] sufficient for you, that by his grace you may be perfect in Christ; ... then are you sanctified [made holy] in Christ by the grace of God ... which is in the covenant of the Father ... that you become holy ..." (Moroni 10:32-33). So that you simply step into that already gifted status as a divinized holy one, through acting out that enlightened and loving holy status already gifted to you as a co-heir; so that ideally one's gratefulness and appreciation for the grace-gift makes one want to reciprocate the gift by doing what the gifter (Christ) asked of you: which is to simply shine with loving kindness and generosity from the inside out as a shining star-like glory-filled being; just like the bright tree of glowing "white" lighted fruit in 1 Nephi 8, which is an allegory of Christians maturing/growing into smiling and luminous holy ones: which I interpret as a midrashic metaphor, building off of the gospel of John's description of Jesus as the True Vine and Christians as the holy branches on said Vine that are maturing into a complete loving character; as branches already gifted with the divine nature symbolized as Christ as the Vine of Bright Holiness; and grapevine sap as symbolic of the pneuma (pronounced nooma) poured into holy ones (saints) so they can shine with good fruit into "wine": as a metaphor for "noomatic contagion,": as in God's "fluid light" is a contagious fluid energy poured out and into people through acts of loving kindness and generosity by "doers of the word" (James 1:22-25); planting seeds of a "good example" which spreads and ideally produces God's Shining Garden. A picture is worth a thousand words and so here is another Christian's illustration of what I'm saying:
Click Image to Enlarge
We will see below that all the horticulture images of planting and harvesting, are metaphors for God implanting his spiritual "energy" (spirit/nooma) as well as His divine sperma (seed/divine DNA) into Christians; in order to grow a spiritual Garden (a New Eden), by producing those who partake of his divine nature (see 2 Peter 1:4); as he literally seeds a new divine species. As author Robert Orlando puts it:
"Paul believed the Messiah, Jesus, had given him a revelation that the Kingdom had come and with its arrival, old human distinctions had passed away, (2 Cor 5:17). This was a vision of Christ and his Kingdom, with no “men or women,” “masters or slaves,” or “Jews or Gentiles” (Gal 3:28). Human bodies (earthen vessels) would be transformed (Phil 3:21) and nations themselves (Romans 13:1) would be engulfed by God’s Kingdom, where Paul and other Apostles would reign over the angels (1 Cor 6:3)"
(Source, Retrieved 10/10/18)
So if Christians, as holy ones, are gifted with holiness by being gifted the divine nature, they don't earn the divine nature (heavenly status) by chasing a worthiness status in a religious organization; instead, they are already gifted the divine nature and celestial status already, and simply seek to grow into it like a seed growing into a plant body and bearing fruit as part of its nature.
We will now explore what the New Testament means by partaking of the divine nature and we will see that this means that God literally implants his divine seed (sperma), so that Christians are literally in the beginning process of a later full divine transformation into a divinized holy one (into a completed new creature/creation, i.e. a new species) at their future resurrection (see 1 Cor. 15). So the idea that you could make your own self perfect or you should earn a status of being "worthy" before the eyes of clergyman is nonsense and contrary to all of Scripture. You can never be perfect (or so-called "worthy" or "pure" in the eyes of any human being), because only upon death and your resurrection do you fully shed your fallible mortality (according to Scripture). You are only slowly growing toward divine wholeness which is not fully completed until you die and are resurrected. This is why paul says the following:
Romans 3:22-24 (EXB): 22 God makes people right with himself [This righteousness comes] through their faith in [or the faithfulness of] Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same [there is no distinction/difference; between Jews and Gentiles]: 23 [For; Because] Everyone has sinned and fallen short [or is not worthy] of God’s glorious standard [or glorious presence; glory], 24 and all need to be made right with God [justfied; declared righteous] as a free gift by his grace, by being set free from sin [through the redemption that is] through [or in] Jesus Christ.
In other words, everyone has and will, as a mortal, continually make mistakes and will error. Everyone will "fall short of perfection" and are never able to make themselves perfectly "worthy" of God’s glorious presence as fallible human beings. God's glory is like the radiant sun and no human can stand in God's luminous presence unless they are temporarily transfigured like Moses was; or the mortal human body (they inherited from Adam) is replaced with immortal genes and a noomatic-body gifted to them from Christ; as Paul explains above, that complete righteousness comes through the faithfulness of Jesus, not one's own attempts to be perfectly pious. In other words, no human can earn a worthy status or be perfect and pure, only Jesus was perfect and pure on Earth; and Christ donates that perfectly lived life to you through the grace-gift of his divine nature: gifting you with acceptance before God without needing to be perfect. The Book of Mormon confirms this in the following verses (emphasis added):
Moroni 10:33:
... if you by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are you sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that you become holy, without spot.
Moroni 6: 4:
And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith.
You are saved and exalted as a co-heir with Christ through receiving a noomatic body once you repent (change course) and are born anew. As we read in Mosiah 27:24–27 (emphasis added, words in brackets my own):
24 For, said he, I [Alma] have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit.
25 And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind...must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state [Adamic-bodied state], to a state of righteousness [through the righteousness of Christ], being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters [i.e. the seeded children of Christ, see Mosiah 5:7];
26 And thus they become new creatures [this is likely a midrash on 2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV]; and unless they do this [become reborn, born of God's DNA], they can in nowise inherit [as co-heirs] the kingdom of God [i.e. eternal life].
As you can see the Book of Mormon is talking about somebody simply repenting (changing their mind) and getting baptized and then being permanently gifted with the divine nature. The only thing you do after that is love others as Christ loved you, and endure the trials of your faith to show loyalty to your divine Benefactor (God).
You do not earn your exaltation but God is refining you himself. As we read in 3 Nephi 24:2-5, Malachi 3:2-3:
2 But who may abide the day of his [God's] coming, and who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap.
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
This refining of metal with fire to mold it anew is a metaphor for the Christian with a gifted noomatic body willingly suffering challenges and enduring in the faith which further grows to fruition their new noomatic body within them as a form of "spiritual anti-fragility." As we read in 1 Peter 1:6-8 (EXB):
6 This makes you very happy [or Rejoice in this], even though now for a short time different kinds of troubles may make you sad [you have had to suffer various kinds of trials/testings]. 7 These troubles [trials; testings] come to prove that your faith is pure [to test and prove the authenticity of your faith; a test that proves the genuineness of a valuable metal]. This purity of faith [or tested and proven authenticity] is worth more [more precious; more valuable] than gold, which can be proved to be pure [tested and proven authentic] by fire [Ps. 66:10; Prov. 17:3; 27:21; Zech. 13:9; Mal. 3:3] but can [or will] be destroyed. But the purity [tested and proven authenticity] of your faith will bring you praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is shown to you [at the revelation of Jesus Christ]. 8 You have not seen Christ [him], but still you love him. You cannot see him now, but you believe in him. So you are filled [rejoice] with a joy that cannot be explained, a joy full of glory [an inexpressible and glorious joy].
So the New Testament and Book of Mormon both emphasize that one is to endure to the end and take upon oneself the name of Christ and be a "doer of the word," but the finishing product (manufacturer) of your becoming a glorified being is God through the merits of Christ alone, the author and finisher of your faithfulness (who exalts you despite your best efforts); as you are only perfected in Christ. In other words, you are only fully transformed into a luminous noomatic body at your resurrection, and then you are able to rest in the presence of the Lord (as the Book of Mormon puts it). Before that everyone "sins" and falls short of the glory of God.
Before we begin discussing the Bible’s conception of God's sperma (or seed) growing a New People as God's Garden, I found a Christian named Michael Pearl who explains it really well (emphasis added):
When Adam sinned he was the head of the human race [genus]. He was appointed by God to be the number one. And the soul that God breathed into Adam—he breathed the breath of life into him—was God’s soul [or breath]. And that soul Adam passed on to future generations. Whatever Adam did, the whole human race [genus] did because the whole human race was in his body. . . . Now, whenever Adam sinned you and I were in his loins.
... Now, the Bible said that death passed upon all men. . . . That is, when Adam sinned all of us were participants in Adam’s body and all of us received the same death sentence that Adam received.
... Jesus was born with God’s sperm. God artificially inseminated, created his generated sperm into the womb of the virgin Mary.
The article I retrieved this quote from goes on to explain that “this fits in perfectly with the historical understanding of procreation”:
Until the late 17th century it was believed that a new individual was entirely preformed in the sex cells of its male parent. Indeed, some scientists of the day claimed that by using microscopes, invented in the early 17th century, they could actually see tiny preformed people – called homunculi – in sperm cells ... The female was thought to act only as an oven in which the baby could grow until it was large enough to survive birth.
(Source, Retrieved 9/25/18)
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman explains that:
In Genesis 12:7, 13:5, etc., God makes promises to Abraham and his…— sperma (in Greek; also singular) or “descendants” / “offspring” / “progeny” in English. …. in Galatians 3:16, Paul refers to the grammar of the word itself: “The promises were made to Abraham and his sperma [“seed”]. It does not say spermas [“seeds”]” but “sperma, who is Christ.” … sperma in Greek can refer to one descendant or to many.
(Source)
So as we can see, the Bible teaches that through Adam’s sperma (or seed), all of humanity was cursed with death, while another man’s sperma (Abraham) can lead to a chosen people (Israel); and then another sperma implanted from Christ can lead to a new population of what Paul calls “new creations”: who even though they inherited mortal Adamic-bodies, as born of God holy ones they become a new genus with immortal spirit-bodies implanted into them through the pneuma. Again, this word is pronounced nooma and I will use the word nooma from now on for ease of communication. This is why the NASB Lexicon gives this definitional translation of John 20:22 as Jesus essentially implanting the divine seed through the nooma (pneuma: holy wind/breath), that is supernaturally God's divine nature is poired into his disciples. So that John 20:22 reads: “He breathed into or upon [them]... ([i.e. to blow [into them or onto them]) [as in for them] to take, receive [the] sacred wind, …” (source, my words in brackets).
The "sacred wind" is the nooma (pneuma) carrying the divine nature, the holy-making DNA, that transforms a person into a pre-celestial holy one. This is not a metaphor but is meant literally. Because one is no longer of Adam's genus/human-race but implanted with a new genus, Christ's divine genus, then one can't "sin" religiously, because religious sins in say the book of Leviticus are committed by mortals of Adam's genus (who need Mosaic laws and ordinances to become sanctified). But in Christ one is already sanctified through the merits of Christ alone and His implanted holy divine nature into you: which absolves you of needing to obey additional religious laws and ordinances. The resurrected Christ, replaced religious legalism, by instituting simpler, more easy to follow, ethical codes of conduct: with Christ teaching that by simply acting more compassionately and hospitable towards others, you fulfill the heart of the biblical law code.
As a holy one, the Christian is not subject to the Mosaic religious law that makes people religious "sinners." The religious law code holds that Gentiles for example are unholy and "sinners" (if they joined Judaism but didn't become circumcised); and so Paul is saying that Gentiles are made holy without the religious law and ordinance of circumcision (and other religious rules and rituals designed to earn holiness as a Jew). Paul was teaching that as a gentile the gentle Christian does not need to follow the laws and ordinances of the "Gospel of Judaism" (so to speak); but instead, they are made righteous by Christ already living out the Mosaic law code perfectly on their behalf. So that to be in Christ one can't sin as "sin" was defined in the Bible as breaking the law codes of Moses which Paul argues were made for mortals and applied only to mortals and particularly for Jews, not for Gentiles. Paul had a clever way of getting around Gentiles needing to fully convert to Judaism and do things like get circumcised. Paul taught that when the Gentile was baptized he literally died, as in baptism itself was symbolic of being buried and rising again from the grave. So that in baptism the Gentile's flesh supernaturally died and he was infused with a new immortal spirit body from Christ's divine seed/nature. Of course, the Gentile Christian was still mortal after baptism, as the new spirit body growing in him would only fully sprout forth until after his human body died in the grave; so that the gifted spirit body (from Christ seed) within them could sprout forth after their death. In other words, Paul taught that Christians had died to their mortal nature (Adamic nature) by being seeded with Christ's immortal genus, so that the religious laws and ordinances for mortals no longer applied to them.
This was not an excuse to commit the "unloving sins" of cruelty and unkindness, for love fulfills all of the law. But it did mean one was not bound to follow the laws and traditions of the dogmatically religious: who went around policing everyone calling nearly everything a "sin." So Pauline and Johanine Christianity liberated people from that. Thus we read in 1 John 3:9, in the NET Bible translation:
“Everyone who has been fathered [31] by God does not practice sin, [32] because [33] God’s [34] seed [35] resides in him, and thus [36] he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God.”
The footnotes 31-36 read:
31 tn The imagery expressed here (σπέρμα αὐτοῦ, sperma autou, “his seed”) clearly refers to the action of the male parent in procreation, and so “fathered” is the best choice for translating γεννάω (gennaw; see 2:29).
sn Does not practice sin. Again, as in 3:6, the author is making a clear distinction between the opponents, who as moral indifferentists downplay the significance of sin in the life of the Christian, and the recipients, who as true Christians recognize the significance of sin because Jesus came to take it away (3:5) ... This explanation still has to deal with the apparent contradiction between the author’s statements in 2:1-2 and those here in 3:9, but this is best explained in terms of the author’s tendency to present issues in “either/or” terms to bring out the drastic contrast between his readers, whom he regards as true believers, and the opponents, whom he regards as false. In 2:1-2 the author can acknowledge the possibility that a true Christian might on occasion sin, because in this context he wishes to reassure his readers that the statements he has made about the opponents in the preceding context do not apply to them. But in 3:4-10, his concern is to bring out the absolute difference between the opponents and his readers, so he speaks in theoretical terms which do not discuss the possible occasional exception, because to do so would weaken his argument.
33 tn Both the first and second ὅτι (Joti) in 3:9 are causal. The first gives the reason why the person who is begotten by God does not practice sin (“because his seed resides in him).” The second gives the reason why the person who is begotten by God is not able to sin (“because he has been begotten by God).”
34 tn Grk “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
35 tn The closest meaning for σπέρμα (sperma) in this context is “male generating seed” (cf. BDAG 937 s.v. 1.b), although this is a figurative rather than a literal sense. Such imagery is bold and has seemed crudely anthropomorphic to some interpreters, but it poses no more difficulty than the image of God as a male parent fathering Christians that appears in John 1:13 and is behind the use of γεννάω (gennaw) with reference to Christians in 1 John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, and 18.
36 tn “Thus” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to bring out the resultative force of the clause in English.
Source: https://net.bible.org/#!bible/1+John+3:7
"every one who hath been begotten of God, sin he doth not, because his seed in him doth remain, and he is not able to sin, because of God he hath been begotten."
1 John 3:9 in the Amplified Bible (AMP) reads (emphasis added):
... God’s seed [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] remains [permanently] in him [who is born again—who is reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] ...
Footnote [1] reads:
in human terms, God’s seed is like a divine “genetic code” which is passed on to His children and produces in them the desire to live in a way which pleases Him.
God implants His seed (sperma) in two ways: through the Holy Spirit (Sacred Nooma) which implants the "faithfulness of Christ" and a literal implanting of Jesus' divine genes. This is why Jesus tells parables which are often metaphors about planting/seeding the Word (i.e. the Logos) and it (the divine seed as also the heart of God's loving ethic) growing in good soil (receptive human souls or psyches). So that humans are the soil and the Word (the Logos embedded in Scripture) is also the seed of the Messiah.
This also makes sense of why the church (in Greek meaning the assembly of Jesus-apprentices) are called the “bride of Jesus.” What does a husband do? He implants his sperm in his wife to produce a family; and that is what Jesus is portrayed as doing metaphorically in the New Testament: that is God's Logos (Christ) is implanting God's "seed" (a kind of "ethical software" in a way) into the soil of the souls of converted Christians in order to produce those with Christ's character; thus growing a spiritual Garden (i.e. a Bright & Healthy Culture).
The implanting of God's sperma as the Logos in you, is thus both literal (as an actual delivering of divine DNA) and as metaphorical: as the process of implanting the Logos described in metaphorical language, like God's Sacred Breath being breathed on the disciples in John 20:22, presented below from The Passion Translation (TPT):
22 Then, taking a deep breath, he blew[a] on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.[b]
Footnote [a] reads: The Greek word used here does not appear elsewhere in the New Testament, however, it is the same word found in the Septuagint for God “breathed” into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). The beginning of new creation life came from the breath of Jesus. The mighty wind of Acts 2 was for power, the breath Jesus breathed into his disciples in this verse was for life. [Footnote b reads: Or “accept the Sacred Breath.”
So we saw that the breath of God or God’s “Image” was breathed into Adam so that he became a living soul, that is a breathing being (God’s breath/soul makes a human-soul). So God’s divine powers is exported through the breath, the breath of life. Yet Adam lacked the divine genus as a mortal and human mortals are subject to the Law of Moses. So when Jesus breathes on his disciples, he is breathing his actual divine DNA onto/into them, his divine Logos containing his immortal nature (replacing their Adamic/mortal nature with the divine gene) and also the encoding of Jesus' high character and complete life as a Jew perfectly fulfilling the Mosaic Law (so they don't have to as Gentiles); so that Christians are exempt from performing all of the Mosaic Law with Christ's Logos implanted in them.
The Book of Mormon explains this by saying we are saved through the merits of Christ and perfected through Him alone. What this means in context, as we can see, is that when Christ was resurrected and breathed His divine nature into the early Christians they began developing a noomatic body through his merits alone.
I tell you the truth [Truly, truly I say to you], a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die to make ·many seeds [much fruit]. But if it never dies, it remains only a single ·seed [grain].
God's Sperm/Logos Implanted through the Sacred Breath:
John 4:24, in The Passion Translation reads, “For God is a Spirit, [Or “God is breath,” or “God is wind.”] ….” In the Orthodox Jewish Bible it reads “Hashem is Ruach (Spirit) and it is necessary for the ones worshiping Him to worship in Ruach and Emes. [Ezek 36:26-27; 37:14].” Ruach means wind or breath. So when we look up those passages in Ezekiel 36:26-27, in the Tree of Life Bible Translation we read:
26 Moreover I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the stony heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [a] 27 I will put My Ruach within you. Then I will cause you to walk in My laws, so you will keep My rulings and do them.
A commentary on John 4:24 states:
“God is a Spirit”; … like the wind therefore, to which He is likened, breathing and blowing where He will, penetrating everywhere, owning no circumscriptions, tied to no place, neither to Mount Zion nor to Mount Gerizim; but rather filling all space with His presence (Psalms 139:7; 1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah 66:1) …
(Source)
Again, the Holy Spirit literally means Sacred Breath/Wind; and this would explain why in New Testament thinking, Mary was impregnated by the Sacred Breath (Holy Spirit). The Sacred Breath delivered or "inseminated" Mary with the divine sperma (God’s genus) so that the Word/Logos was made flesh (Jesus).
God's Grace as God's DNA
So we see from the TPT that the same metaphorical process of God breathed in Adam’s nostril is repeated only with Christ then breathing into Christians so that they become a new species; not an Adamic species (with Adam’s sperma) and cursed to be human and die as mortals, but in-breathed with a new divine-genus (being of Christ); so that they become a new Messiah-species that is immortal and it makes it so one no longer “sins,” meaning breaking the Mosaic rules, the religious laws and ordinances, as such religious rules were for mortals of Adam's genus; but upon receiving the nooma, through Christ the divine genus, they are dead in Christ as Paul puts it and made immortally alive though God's DNA. A religious Jew might sin (error) when he fails to perfectly obey the Mosaic Law, as "sin" simply means going against the Mosaic Law and the Laws like in the book of Leviticus and most of the Laws applied only to Israelites of Abraham's seed/sperm. For example, the Law of being circumcised applied to those of Abraham's sperm/seed. But not those who are implanted with the sperma/DNA of Christ. Those implanted with the DNA of Christ have God's law written on their hearts (see Romans 2:12-16), i.e. Christ's character is implanted in them and they are to imitate the example set -- as in 1 Corinthians 11:1: "You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ" -- by downloading the Scriptures into one's mind so that they have the mindset of Christ (see Romans 12:2; Philippians 2:5; 1 Corinthians 2:13-16; 2 Corinthians 10:5; 1 Peter 3:8; all These verses can be read here). Can one see how an early first century Gentile who is attracted to Judaism would find this good news or glad tidings, that by partaking of the divine nature they are no longer subject to the 600+ Mosaic laws and ordinances (like circumcision)? The same ideas can liberate LDS Christians who might feel burdened by a culture of perfectionism and feeling perpetually inadequate from man-made traditions not found in Scripture.
What better way to sum all this up than by quoting Paul. I have pasted Romans 8: 9-25 (TPT Translation) below but have placed the TPT footnotes that are relevant to this subject within brackets for ease of understanding (words in [[double brackets]] are my own):
9 But when the Spirit [[Nooma]] of Christ empowers your life, [Or “makes his home in you.”] ...
10 Now Christ lives his life in you! And even though your body may be dead because of the effects of sin, his life-giving Spirit [[Nooma]] imparts life to you because you are fully accepted by God. 11 Yes, God raised Jesus to life! And since God’s Spirit of Resurrection lives in you, he will also raise your dying body to life by the same Spirit that breathes life into you!
... 13 For when you live controlled by the flesh, you are about to die. But if the life of the Spirit puts to death the corrupt ways of the flesh, we then taste his abundant life.
14 The mature children of God are those [The Greek is quite emphatic: “those and only those.”] who are moved by the impulses of the [Sacred Breath]. 15 And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” [Or “spirit of adult (complete) sonship.” The Aramaic can be translated “the spirit of consecrated children.”] enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!”[... Abba is the Aramaic word for “father.” … It is hard to imagine a closer relationship to have with God than to call him “Abba, our Beloved Father.”] 16 For the [Sacred Breath] makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!”
17 And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has. We will experience being co-glorified with him provided that we accept his sufferings [Or “accept his feelings” (of pain), or “things” (he experiences). By implication, “sufferings.”] as our own.[Or “if we suffer jointly we will enjoy glory jointly.”]
18 I am convinced that any suffering we endure is less than nothing compared to the magnitude of glory that is about to be unveiled within us.19 The entire universe is standing on tiptoe,[The Greek word used here means “intense anticipation,” or “anxiously anticipating what is about to happen” (with an outstretched neck)] yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious[Or “the manifestation of the sons of God.”...The verb tense in the Greek text is clear that this “unveiling” is imminent, soon to happen, and destined to take place] sons and daughters! 20 For against its will the universe itself has had to endure the empty futility resulting from the consequences of human sin. But now, with eager expectation, 21 all creation longs for freedom from its slavery to decay and to experience with us the wonderful freedom coming to God’s children. 22 To this day we are aware of the universal agony and groaning of creation, as if it were in the contractions of labor for childbirth. 23 And it’s not just creation. We who have already experienced the firstfruits of the Spirit[[Nooma]]...The Aramaic can be translated “the awakening of the Spirit.”] also inwardly groan as we passionately long to experience our full status as God’s sons and daughters—including our physical bodies being transformed. 24 For this is the hope of our salvation. ...
I have now pasted 1 Cor. 15: 20-57 (TPT) below but have placed the TPT footnotes that are relevant to this subject within brackets for ease of understanding:
20 But the truth is, Christ is risen from the dead, as the firstfruit[The first part of the harvest is called the firstfruits. Jesus’ resurrection is the firstfruit of those who will be raised in resurrection power, never to die again] of a great resurrection harvest of those who have died. 21 For since death came through a man, Adam, it is fitting that the resurrection of the dead has also come through a man, Christ. 22 Even as all who are in Adam die, so also all who are in Christ will be made alive. 23 But each one in his proper order: Christ, the firstfruits, then those who belong to Christ in his presence.[Or “appearance” (Gr. parousia).]
24 Then the final stage of completion comes, when he will bring to an end every other rulership, authority, and power, and he will hand over his kingdom to Father God. ...
... 31 My brothers and sisters, I continually face death.[Some translations render this “I die daily,” implying a dying to sin. Yet this is not in the context at all. Paul faces death day by day because of the danger of preaching the gospel in a hostile culture. He is not referring to dying to sin daily, for our death to sin took place on the cross. We died once and for all to sin. See Rom. 6:6-11; Gal. 2:20.] This is as sure as my boasting of you [This statement by Paul may contain an ellipsis that could be supplied by saying, “I swear by the confidence I have of your salvation that I am confident also of a coming resurrection.”] and our co-union together in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives me confidence to share my experiences with you. ...
... 35 I can almost hear someone saying, “How can the dead come back to life? And what kind of body will they have when they are resurrected?” 36 Foolish man! Don’t you know that what you sow in the ground doesn’t germinate unless it dies? 37 And what you sow is not the body that will come into being, but the bare seed. And it’s hard to tell whether it’s wheat or some other seed. 38 But when it dies, God gives it a new form, a body to fulfill his purpose, and he sees to it that each seed gets a new body of its own and becomes the plant he designed it to be.
39 All flesh is not identical. Animals have one flesh and human beings another. Birds have their distinct flesh and fish another. 40 In the same way there are earthly bodies and heavenly bodies. There is a splendor of the celestial body and a different one for the earthly. 41 There is the radiance of the sun and differing radiance for the moon and for the stars. Even the stars differ in their shining. 42 And that’s how it will be with the resurrection of the dead.
43 The body is “sown” in decay, but will be raised in immortality. It is “sown” in humiliation, but will be raised in glorification.[The Aramaic can be translated “They are buried in agony, but raised in glory.”] 44 It is “sown” in weakness but will be raised in power. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual [[noomatic]] body. 45 For it is written:
The first man, Adam, became a living soul.[See Gen. 2:7]
The last Adam [The last Adam is Jesus Christ. As the last Adam, he ended Adam’s race and began a new species of humans who are indwelt by the [[Sacred Breath]] and carry the life of Christ within them.] became the life-giving Spirit [[Nooma]]. 46 However, the spiritual didn’t come first. The natural precedes the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the dust of the earth; the second Man is the Lord Jehovah,[As translated from the Aramaic.] from the realm of heaven.[In God’s eyes there are only two men, Adam and Christ. Every human being is a copy of one or the other. To be in Adam is to be lost and merely human, but to be in Christ is to be wrapped into the Anointed One as one who carries the life of Christ within.] 48 The first one, made from dust, has a race of people just like him, who are also made from dust. The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like him. 49 Once we carried the likeness of the man of dust, but now let us carry the likeness of the Man of heaven.[That is, just as Jesus now has an earthly body transformed into a spiritual body, so we will have our bodies transformed into heavenly bodies.]
50 Now, I tell you this, my brothers and sisters, flesh and blood are not able to inherit God’s kingdom realm, and neither will that which is decaying be able to inherit what is incorruptible.
51 Listen, and I will tell you a divine mystery: not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. 52 It will happen in an instant—in the twinkling of his eye. For when the last trumpet is sounded, the dead will come back to life. We will be indestructible and we will be transformed. 53 For we will discard our mortal “clothes” and slip into a body that is imperishable. What is mortal now will be exchanged for immortality. 54 And when that which is mortal puts on immortality, and what now decays is exchanged for what will never decay, then the Scripture will be fulfilled that says:
Death is swallowed up by a triumphant victory!
55 So death, tell me, where is your victory?
Tell me death, where is your sting?[The Aramaic can be translated “your scorpion sting.” See Hos. 13:14.]
56 It is sin that gives death its sting and the law that gives sin its power.[In reading vv. 55 and 56 together, we can see that the victory of v. 55 is the total victory over sin at the cross where we were co-crucified with Jesus Christ. The sting of v. 55 that is removed is the empowering of sin by the [[religious law]] 57 But we thank God for giving us the victory as conquerors through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed.
So to recap:
God's Ruach (Wind or Breath) was breathed into Adam’s nostrils making him a breathing-clay-man.
God's Nooma implanted into Mary God's only unique divine DNA via the Sacred Breath so that Jesus became the Father (twin gene) and the Son (flesh)
The resurrected Jesus breathed on his disciples, giving them divine DNA through the Sacred Breath; thus spiritually "immortalizing" them with new divine-DNA making them immortal upon death and resurrection and with "immunity" from the Law Moses and its performative religious laws and ordinances.
Partaking of the Divine Genus
We see all this spelled out in 2 Peter 1:3-4 (words in brackets are the footnotes from the TPT):
3 Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power[...Everything we need to reflect God’s true nature has already been given to us. See Eph. 1:3]. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing him who has called us by name and invited us to come to him through a glorious manifestation of his goodness. 4 As a result of this, he has given you [or us] magnificent promises[The Greek sentence that extends from vv. 3–5 is somewhat ambiguous. It could also be read as “Through a glorious manifestation of his goodness he has imparted to us his magnificent promises.”] that are beyond all price, so that through the power of these tremendous promises you can experience partnership with the divine nature [The Greek word koinonos means “to participate as a partner, to partake of, to be a companion with, to have fellowship with” the divine nature. This is one of the great mysteries of our faith, that God shares his nature with us. We are given birth by the Holy Spirit to be God’s true sons and daughters, and every father imparts his DNA and his “nature” to his children. The Greek word physis (nature) is taken from the word phyō, which means “to give birth, produce, bring forth, or to grow up.” Christ lives in us and transforms us into his very own likeness. In Christ we share with him the divine nature. We will all bear the image of the Man from heaven, Jesus Christ. See Rom. 8:9-25; 1 Cor. 15:12-57], by which you have escaped [The Greek word apopheugō also carries the connotation of being “acquitted”] the corrupt desires that are of the world.
From this we can see that the New Testament is presenting truly good news as a proclamation or glad tidings, a positive message that God has begun seeding a new spiritual Garden in the form of transformed Christians or holy ones (meaning set-apart ones) who produce God's Shining Garden (the New Eden). Again, see the short online article God's Garden by Jonathan Mitchell.
