Pt. 1 - The Foundation - New Birth

This will be a time of learning Christ. We will be following the theme of GREAT SALVATION, and we are going to look at the foundation of that now. Hopefully our diagram will bring this into view for us. We will be going to Hebrews 2. Now we have to understand something about the book of Hebrews. Every book in the Bible, and certainly every epistle in the New Testament is a presentation of THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. He Himself says "Search the scriptures, these are they that testify of Me." Not Him and anything else - just HIM! And we are going to find that Great Salvation is just that - it’s HIM! He has not brought us into relationship with something; He has brought us into relationship with Himself. Listen - we are not the Body of a religion. If you want to be the body of a religion...be a Hindu! Hindus have a religion, Muslims have a religion. Be a Buddhist - Buddhists have a religion. You are not the Body of a religion: you are The Body of Jesus Christ! And The Body of Christ is not a teaching, not a doctrine; The Body of Christ is people in a living relationship with Christ. He lives in His Body. He doesn’t just give His Body a teaching, and then go off somewhere. Buddha gave a teaching - and left. Mohammed gave a teaching - and left. BUT CHRIST DWELLS IN YOU! He did not give us a teaching and then go away!

The Teacher lives in you! The Word lives in you! The Son of God is in you; that’s why we are His Body. If Christ does not live in us, then The Body of Christ is a dead corpse. It is a Living Body because the Living Christ lives in it. So Salvation is not something He has given us; Salvation is a relationship that He has with His Body, and that His Body has with Him. We must come to understand that. I wish that Salvation was more to us than just a teaching. I wish that Salvation was more to us than just doctrines. I wish that to us Salvation was really relationship with The Person Himself, and that all of our teachings related to that reality; and that all of our doctrines related to that reality. CHRIST IN YOU - but do you really believe that? Do you really believe that Christ is in you? We’re going to deal with this - the reality called "New Birth". New Birth is part of Salvation, New Birth is a relationship with Christ. It is made possible because Christ is in you. Do you believe that? Because if He is in you, then where is He? He is in you! Then why would you look someplace else for Him? I wish our teachings and doctrines would conform to the reality of Truth. If we say Christ is in me, then we should quit looking for Him as if He is afar off. Is He in you or not? Are you His Body or not? Are we born from above or not? Are we a Christian religion or are we The Body of Jesus Christ? If Christianity is a religion then why is it any better than any other religion? It is better, it is greater - only because CHRIST LIVES IN YOU! It is not better simply because it has better teachings. It is better because The Author and The Finisher lives in you. I pray that as we hear with our spiritual ear and see with our eyes of understanding we would come to see this reality. CHRIST IS IN ME!

He is in you! That makes us His Body. Now it is here that we have our Oneness. We say we are One - and we are. But why are we One? Are we One because I’m white, because of the color of our skin, or any other physical thing? No, that’s what makes us different. See, our difference is in the dirt, but our Oneness is in Christ. His Body is not male, female, black, white, brown, Jew, Greek - none of that; but a New Creation by a New Birth. So, Salvation is Christ in you, but there is more to it than that. There’s NOT more than Christ, but there is a greater understanding of Christ. You ask, there is a greater understanding than Christ is in me? Yes there is; there is the ongoing learning of Him as He brings us from one relationship to another relationship to another relationship. And we are going to look at three of those relationships, a three fold relationship. It has its type in the Old Testament, and it has its fulfillment in Christ. So we’ll look at each of these types and bring them over into Christ.

Hebrews 2:1-3, " Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, How shall we escape, if we neglect so GREAT SALVATION; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him." Here is the term "Great Salvation" and it is this Salvation that we’re going to be looking at. The term "great" in the Greek language means "much more, abundantly above, beyond - much more." More than what? If it’s much more, it’s got to be much more than something. This is why we must understand the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is a book that in every chapter is making a comparison. And it is comparing the Testimony of Christ with Christ Himself; comparing what is said about Christ with Christ Himself; comparing the Old Covenant which is a type and a shadow of Christ, a prophecy of that, with the New Covenant which is IN Christ, the understanding of which IS Christ Himself. The first chapter of Hebrews tells us that. "God, who at different times and in different ways spoke to your fathers by the prophets, hath at the end of those days spoken IN SON." What’s the comparison? At one time God spoke through bushes, fire, thunder, prophets - the Old Testament. But at the end of those days He now speaks in His Son. In the one we have God speaking ABOUT His Son. In the other we have The Word Himself. The one is the first word, the other is The Last Word. This is what Hebrews is showing; that in the Old Covenant God did things in types and shadows, but now the writer is showing everything that was in type and shadow is fulfilled in THE PERSON OF HIS SON.

We no longer worship in a tent, a tabernacle of Moses; now we dwell in Christ Himself! Under the old order, the Old Covenant the church was a tent, the church in the wilderness. It was a building - a tent. But in the new order, in the New Covenant, in the New administration it is not a tent, it is not a building. Now it is The Church, which is HIS BODY! That’s what Hebrews is doing - comparing the first to the second, and the word "much more"says there is no comparison. The fulfillment is exceedingly, abundantly above that which speaks of Him. He not only fulfills the old, He is MUCH MORE than the old. The Old Covenant, the letter spoke perfectly of Him, but was not perfect itself. But now, The Perfect Word of God, The Eternal Word of God, The Living Word of God Himself dwells in you! The old could not make perfect. It could speak of it, but could not produce it. The New can! Christ can - that Living Word can bring you to completion! That’s what Hebrews is talking about. Great Salvation is The Salvation that is far above, exceedingly beyond, much greater than any type, any shadow or any other thing, even though those things were speaking of that very Salvation. This is The Salvation we have.

We are going to look at the first Testimony because there we see the type and the shadow, there we see the prophecy of The Great Salvation in Christ. And there are three major types of Salvation in the Old Covenant, three relationships in type and shadow. Christ Himself brings us into all three of those relationships. We must understand there are not three Salvations, but Salvation is three fold. There are not three Gods, but our God is three fold: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Salvation is three fold, and in the Old Testament we have these relationships in a type. And we will then see that each of those relationships are brought over into the reality of Christ, and what it means to you and I. (See diagram) The squares before The Cross represent the types, and the circles represent the types fulfilled in Christ. And this is One Salvation in Christ Jesus, but a three fold relationship; a three fold comprehension. We must come to comprehend Christ in every one of these relationships because in the Old Covenant it is called The Testimony of Him, and consequently these types are types of Him. He has fulfilled each of them. Consequently the relationship that they relate to, that they are a type of, can only be realized by you and I in the learning of Him. We have the type of Christ, and then we have the fulfillment. And because it’s Salvation it relates to you and I. It is not just Christ off somewhere, it is Christ as He relates to you.

The first type is from Adam to Noah. In that type we see a relationship, we see a truth concerning Salvation that can only be fulfilled in Christ. It did not find its fulfillment in Adam, nor did it find its fulfillment in Noah. There is a testimony in Adam, there is a testimony in Noah, but the fulfillment of what they speak of is realized in Christ. And it’s part of our Salvation, because the whole testimony and witness is of Salvation: that’s what the whole Bible is about - our relationship with Christ; God bringing a people into relationship with Himself through His Son. "These are they which testify of Me." So here is where we look for the Testimony. We look for the fulfillment of that in The Person of Christ Himself. We must understand that CHRIST HIMSELF IS THE FULFILLMENT of everything written in the Bible. We must understand that the written word is a Testimony of The Living Word. The written word is not fulfilled in itself; the written word is fulfilled in The Living Word! And the Living Word finds His Testimony in the written word. In this way they are one! One testifies of the other, and that other fulfills the one. So when we find a type and a shadow in the Bible, it is going to be fulfilled in Christ. If we find a prophecy in the Bible, it is going to be fulfilled in Christ.

The second type we’ll see is Abraham and Isaac, and the third type is Israel. Now the first type speaks of something; it speaks of God desiring a relationship with man. Man was created of God for purpose of divine relationship. Did God find that relationship with man? Was God’s desire satisfied in Adam? It was not! Was God’s desire satisfied in this first creation that began with Adam and was destroyed in Noah? Did God find full satisfaction there? He did not! Then we have to find the answer to this relationship IN CHRIST. He could not find it in Adam, the old man, so we have to find it in Christ as a New Man. Salvation’s answer to the old man is a New Man in Christ Jesus. So part of our Salvation is the divine realization that in Christ we are a New Creation, a New Man. What God could not get in the old man He gets in The New Man. How is it that we are a New Man? How is it that we are a New Creation? We are born from above: we’re not created of dirt, we are not simply a soul - we are born again of The Spirit of The Living God! The first man was a living soul, but the Second Man, The New Man is Life Giving Spirit! What does it mean to be "born again"? It means that we are a New Creation, it means that we are more than just a soul. It means that the very Living Spirit from The Almighty God and Father dwells in me, in you! New Creature - born from above! This is part of Great Salvation. So Adam represents a creation in which God could not find His full expression. But in The New Creation God could find His full expression. The purpose of this New Creation is to give HIM full expression; that’s the purpose of this Man - One New Man. The first creation is made up of men. The New Creation is One Man - One New Man.

When we look at Abraham and Isaac two words come to mind - SEED and LAND. God spoke to Abraham concerning His Seed and The Land, but it wasn’t fulfilled in them. Now Isaac was a natural seed and he was a type, a shadow, he was a testimony of a greater Seed to come, and a greater Land to come. God said to Abraham I’m going to show you the land, and the Hebrew text says just this: When God told Abraham I’m going to show you the land, GOD REVEALED HIMSELF. So regarding the Seed and the Land, Abraham and Isaac spoke of that, but God was looking ahead to a people in Christ, a people born of His Seed. Galatians 3:16, "He saith not seeds as of many, but thy seed, which is Christ." One Seed, filling One Land, filling the heavens up, filling the earth up. That Land is His very Own Body - it is everyone that is in Christ! And The Seed that is in you by birth is here filling up His Own Body, bringing forth an increase of Himself. So Salvation is not just a birth, but it is an increase of Christ in you. Paul says ‘til Christ be formed in you. Not just born in you: FORMED IN YOU! Until there be a transformation of the soul into the very image of The One Who lives in it!

We see that typed in Abraham and Isaac. Here is a relationship of a Father and a Son. That’s what Salvation has to become with you and me - a divine relationship between The Father and His Son, between The Father and The Body of His Son; The Son bringing His Body into relationship with His Father. There has to be a time in our spiritual growth, in our spiritual lives that we come to realize the Truth of what it means to be a son of God: not only born of God, but a son of God! That’s not talking about another Salvation. I’m talking about another relationship of One Salvation. We see these relationships even in the natural. Salvation - the whole thing is just one big marriage: it’s The Son married to His Body, who is One with Himself, bringing forth fruit to the glory of The Father. That’s what it’s all about, and there are many relationships in that marriage. Look, you start out with a man and a woman, and they are dating. That’s one relationship, but they move on from that. Soon they are married, and they are no longer boyfriend and girlfriend; they are now husband and wife. It’s the same two people - different relationship. Same Salvation - different relationship.

Three relations in type and shadow. God is showing in different ways a Great Salvation. But here in one way - in ONE CHRIST He is fulfilling that whole Salvation! So, husband and wife, but now that relation moves into increase. Then they are mother and father. Same marriage - different relationship. Then it goes on farther: their increase bring increase, and a household, a family is formed. Now they are grandparents. Same marriage - different relationship. This is what I’m talking about.

In the Testimony you can’t see the Salvation; you can just see the type and the shadow of the relationship. That’s all you can see. But in Christ you see the Salvation, and in that Salvation, in Christ, you find the reality of these relationships. The first could only be here in the flesh, pointing to something perfect, but themselves being imperfect. But here in Christ, what the first speaks of comes to reality. The question is going to be for you and I - how much are we comprehending Christ in any of these relationships? Are we really, by The Spirit, comprehending what it means to be born again? Because you can not come from one relationship to another until you have comprehended this one. We must comprehend what it means to be born again. Ground is formed in us, faith is formed in us, upon which we can comprehend what it means to be the increase of The Seed. And that comprehension lays faith in us, because we are coming from faith to faith to faith. And yet it is all the faith of The Son of God. One Faith - One Salvation - different relationships - growing up into Him!

The last type is Israel. It takes up the largest part of the Testimony. It starts at the very end of Genesis and goes all the way through Malachi. All of the other books of the Old Testament are about this type. Israel speaks of a tremendous relationship. Old Israel, Israel after the flesh did not have that relationship, but they were a type of that relationship. They sinned, they transgressed, and were put under the Law. But there is a relationship that is not by the Law, but it is by THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS! They were put under the law of sin and death, but now we come under the Law of The Spirit of Life and we are delivered from death! His Body, The Body of Christ shall never die! These vessels may go to dirt, but The Body of Christ shall never die! Now what are we serving? Are we serving these bodies unto death, or are we serving and living as His Body unto Life? That’s a big question that we’ll look at. There are many who are in Christ, who are His Body, but they are serving themselves, they are serving the flesh vessels - unto death; rather than His Body - unto the realization of Life!

Salvation is a Great Salvation, and the term here is REDEMPTION. If you’re going to define Salvation by Israel, Great Salvation as it applies to Israel is called Redemption. You don’t read about Redemption with Abraham and Isaac, you don’t read about Redemption in connection with Adam. Redemption is a relationship of Salvation that is only understood in the reality of Christ that Israel is a type of. Israel is a type of a reality, and Redemption is identified with that relationship. Israel was the Redeemed of The Lord; but you see, Israel is not a nationality, Israel is a relationship. We must understand that Israel was never a nationality in God’s mind. He dealt with a people, the seed of Isaac - but look what happened in the wilderness. They all died! God is not preserving a nationality, He was preserving a relationship. Israel stands for a relationship, and there’s an answer for that in Christ. There is a relationship in Christ called The Israel of God. A relationship - Redemption. We will deal with this, but you can not take this relationship and apply it to Adam. We must keep things in the right order so we can understand Full Salvation.

We are all in Him - there’s just One Salvation, but as we begin to know Him, walk in Him, it is these relationships that conform us to His fulness. The types are in the Testimony - we can see them clearly. The fulfillment of them is in Christ. In the scripture we are told that we must rightly divide the Word of Truth. That means that we are to have proper discernment. One thing that we are to have proper discernment of is the spiritual terms that relate to Salvation. There is a spiritual term that relates to this New Man - he is "born again". That defines a relationship. You can’t take that term that defines the relationship of New Birth to define the relationship of a son; because a son is born again, but a son is mature, he is grown up. The term "New Birth" does not describe this relationship, rather it is swallowed up in it. It’s the same way with each of these relationships. There are terms in the Bible that are describing and defining each of these relationships, and much of our problem is that we are applying the wrong spiritual term to the wrong relationship. And when we do that we do not understand the term, nor do we understand the relationship. We must rightly divide The Word of Truth.

One more thing: we should be familiar with The Tabernacle of Moses; how that God gave instructions to Moses. He said ‘see that you do it according to this pattern.’ That Tabernacle is just one big type of Salvation; you find Full Salvation as a type in the Tabernacle. It was important what the Tabernacle was made out of. Why? Because it was all a type of Christ. It was important how each piece of furniture was made. Why? Because each was a type of Christ, but each was a type of Christ as He relates to a people. The brazen altar said something about relationship; the laver said something about relationship. Each piece of furniture had its own name, and each piece of furniture had its own place. Now, what if you went into the Tabernacle and you decided that you were going to rearrange all the furniture? ‘I’m going to take the brazen altar and put it where the Ark of the Covenant is, I’m going to take the Ark of the Covenant and put it where the candlestick is. Then I’m going to take the candlestick and I’m going to put it where the brazen altar used to be. It really doesn’t make any difference where I put all this, just as long as I keep it in the Tabernacle.’

But that’s not right! You can’t rearrange the furniture and still understand the Tabernacle. In the same way you can not rename these relationships and understand Salvation. You can’t take spiritual terms that apply to Redemption and apply them to New Birth. It’s all One Salvation, but if you do that you will not understand Salvation, because it must be according to a divine order and a divine pattern, which means a divine comprehension. So we will take each of these types and show them to be fulfilled in Christ. We are going to put the proper terms to each of them so that when you read your Bible, you can find those terms and you will know what relationship is being spoken of. This is the purpose of our search, and I trust that the Lord will give us understanding because we’re not just looking for terms, but we’re looking for a COMPREHENSION OF CHRIST that will transform our souls.

Pt. 2 - The Greater Glory

We are looking at Great Salvation: Salvation as it is given to us in type and in shadow in the Old Testament, Salvation as it is given to us in the reality of Christ in the New Testament. There is not a third Testament! There’s a first and a second, an old and a New: the old is in letter, the New is in Spirit, the old is by signs and types and shadows, the New is in The Person of The Lord Jesus Christ. CHRIST IS THE NEW TESTAMENT. He is The New Covenant - He is the New understanding given of God. God hath spoken IN SON. There is no third testament. Then why do we consistently look beyond Christ for Great Salvation, for the fulfillment of Salvation? There is no testimony of anything other than Christ! There is no other testimony from Genesis to Malachi: the whole of the Old Covenant testifies of nothing but Christ - a New Creation in Christ, a New Seed in Christ, a New Land in Christ. It’s all there: a New Body in Christ, a New House, A New City, and because Israel is The House of God, Israel themselves are the City of God. If you know the Old Covenant, the Old Testament scripture then you know that Jerusalem is just another name for Israel. Yes, when God speaks of Jerusalem, He is not talking about buildings, He’s talking about a people, He’s talking about Israel.

When He speaks of His House, He’s not talking about a building: He speaks of His people. Israel represents that City of God, that House of God. The scripture says Abraham looked for a city. Did you ever read where God promised him a city? No, He promised him a Seed, and that Seed would fill the heaven and the earth. What He promised Abraham was Israel. And yet the scripture says he looked for a city; because Israel is The City of God, Israel is the Jerusalem of God. That’s why we in Christ are called The New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is not some place: it’s a people. The New Jerusalem is The Bride of Christ, The Body of Christ, The City of God. These are terms describing a relationship of a people with God. It can’t be one thing in the type and something else in the fulfillment. If in the type Jerusalem is describing a people, in the fulfillment New Jerusalem is describing a New Creation, a New People - The Body of Christ! The Church - my God, it’s not a building, it’s a people! But not just people somewhere, or just people anywhere: it’s PEOPLE IN CHRIST! So in the type, Jerusalem wasn’t just anywhere, Jerusalem was IN ISRAEL, and Israel was IN JERUSALEM. Now they, the tribes of Israel lived in many places, but when was Israel one house, one people? Three times a year they all came to Jerusalem: every tribe, every male came to Jerusalem.

Not only that, they came before the temple in Jerusalem; they were gathered up and God saw them as one. One City and One House. Why? Because it’s a type of Christ. Three times a year at the Feasts of Israel - Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles. Who fulfils those feasts? Christ fulfils them. So in type and shadow, three times a year, at three feasts, God saw Israel in His Son. All of this is in type, but what did we say before? Great Salvation in reality is exceedingly above - not less! If Old Testament Israel was that City of God, what do you think you are? You who are in Christ Jesus? The City of God, The House of God, The Israel of God! This whole testimony is summed up in Christ, fulfilled in Him. It doesn’t go beyond Him; there is not a third testimony. Then why do we look beyond Christ? Why do we look beyond what we now have in Him for the greatness of Salvation? What we should be doing is coming to the knowledge of the greatness of Him, rather than looking beyond Him. Anything beyond Christ is a figment of an imagination - there’s no reality to it. Do you want to know where the real City of God is? Look IN CHRIST! Do you want to know where the real House of God is? Look IN CHRIST! Do you want to know where the real dwelling place of The Most High is? Look IN CHRIST!

So we’re talking about Great Salvation. We’ve spoken of the three types which were speaking of a reality that comes to be fulfilled in Christ. And the first type is from Adam to Noah where we see the testimony of a Creation, but that creation failed to satisfy God. God could find no perfect expression of Himself in that creation. So to that creation, Salvation’s answer is a New Creation; not the first creation made better, waiting to go to yet another creation someday - that’s not the testimony. There is not a third creation: there is an old creation, and Salvation’s answer to that is a NEW Creation - there’s not another one in the future someplace. "Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today and forever." One New Man, One Creation, One Answer to a fallen Adam. The answer to a fallen Adam is a risen Christ, and He lives in you! New Creature in Christ Jesus. We must see that we need not go beyond Christ to find the fulness of your Salvation. You need not go beyond Christ to find the fulness of every promise of God! All things pertaining to Salvation, whether they be prophecies concerning Salvation, promises of Salvation, glories which relate to Salvation - all things relating to Salvation are gathered together in Christ Jesus!

Read it in Ephesians 1:9-10, "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the administration of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him." There are three words we need to notice here. The word "administration": in the English it’s translated as "dispensation", but in the Greek it’s translated "administration". Administration of what? The fulness of times. Is that something that hasn’t happened yet? Is that something in the future? The scripture says No! "But when the fulness of the time WAS COME, God sent forth His Son (Galatians 4:4), made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law..." Have we been redeemed? Have we been redeemed from under the law? Then the fulness of the time has come! What is the administration of the fulness of times? The Spirit Himself is the administration. In the first is the administration of the letter, the administration of the law. In Christ is the administration of The Spirit; He is the administrator of the fulness of time, where all things have been gathered up in Christ. What "all things"? What does "all things" mean? All things pertaining to Christ, all things of the Old Covenant, all things of the Testimony; all things have been gathered together in Him. Both those things which speak of heaven, and those things which speak of earth - have been gathered up in Him: a New Heaven and a New Earth - A New Creation in Christ Jesus!

You don’t have to look somewhere else for that which is in Christ now! You just have to give your whole heart and soul to knowing Him and walking out the fulness of Him. The carnal gospel, man’s gospel, the doctrines of men have reached into Christ and what the natural mind cannot understand, they have just taken out and put it in the future. Because the natural mind CANNOT understand the "all things" of Christ, but God hath revealed them by His Spirit. To those who will look here, they will find in Christ The New Man that Adam is a type of; they will find that New Creation in Christ Jesus! They will find The City that Abraham looked for. Where? In Christ! I guarantee you by the Life of God in me, you will not find that city anywhere else but in Christ Jesus...so you may as well quit looking for it anywhere but in Him!

The Salvation that Israel was a type of, The Elect of God, The Bride and Wife of Christ, The Glorious House - all of these things relate to Israel. These things are fulfilled in Christ. The mystery of His will is revealed in Christ, where He has gathered all things into One, and He has brought you and I into One. "Ye are come to Mount Zion, the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the dwelling place of The Most High, the church of the firstborn." Ye are come - IN CHRIST JESUS. I would very much like that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened, that we would quit looking with the natural mind, the natural eyes, but by the Spirit of God we would come to realize the greatness of our Salvation. Maybe then we would actually begin to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God! But one thing is certain: we will not fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory until The Glory is revealed in us! As long as you are looking for the glory off somewhere - in the future - you are not going to fill the earth with the knowledge of it. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "...with an open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Now what does that term mean: "from glory to glory"? Paul says that the old has a glory. In that same chapter he says the glory of the old is made to be non glorious by the greater glory of the New. The old glory came and went: it was a departing glory. That glory was a type - a smoke, a fire, a presence of God. THE NEW GLORY IS THE SON HIMSELF!! Christ in you and me - the hope of glory! Let’s look at two verses: Colossians 1:26, "...Christ in you, the hope of glory." Then we’ve got 2 Corinthians 3:18, "...coming from glory to glory..." In the whole chapter of 2 Corinthians 3 Paul is talking about you and I coming from the administration of Moses to the administration of Christ, which is the administration of the Spirit, which is the administration of the fulness of time. The administration of the fulness of time: that means that everything of time - seasons, harvests, feast times - everything of time has come to its fulness, its fulfillment. Everything that it meant, everything it stood for has come to find the reality in Christ. We don’t need to look beyond that for another feast or another day - any kind of day. It’s all come to its fulness, to its completion in Christ! This is what Paul is saying: we have come from the administration of Moses, which was glorious (it had a glory), but that glory was passing away because it only spoke of a greater Glory to come.

And when that greater Glory was to come, then the lesser glory which spoke of it was replaced, was no longer needed, it no longer spoke of anything: because what it spoke of had come. If that which spoke of Him continues after He is come, then instead of testifying OF HIM, it begins to take away FROM HIM. The Testimony is saying "He is coming, He is coming." Did He come? Now if you teach this testimony after The Cross and say "He is coming, He is coming", you are taking away from the reality that He is come. THE TESTIMONY ENDS WITH HIM. It has served a purpose in the old, but now - He is come! That’s what 2 Corinthians 3 is teaching: Moses had a glory, his house had a glory, but it spake of a Greater Glory. So Paul is saying the Greater Glory has come, The Greater Son has come. Remember when Paul said Moses was faithful as a servant in all of his house? (Hebrews 2) But Christ is faithful as a Son over all of His House, whose House you are. Moses had a house: Christ has a House. The House of Christ is more glorious, greater than the house of Moses. Why? Because CHRIST IS GREATER THAN MOSES! All of the first has glory, but in the second The Lord of Glory dwells in Person. This House is more glorious. The latter House is more glorious than the former house. And there’s not another house somewhere with more glory. No - here is The House that is more glorious.

So 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that by beholding the glory of the Lord, with the eyes of our understanding enlightened...because you can’t see that glory with natural eyes. What glory do you see with natural eyes? The type and the shadow - they saw that with their natural eyes. But the Glory of the Lord is greater - for the transforming of your soul! Beholding the glory of the Lord - we are changed into that same image. There’s a transformation going on here, and the transformation is just this: in our hearts, in our souls we are coming from the glory of the first, of the type and the shadow, of the letter, to the second Glory - Who is THE SON HIMSELF!! We are coming from the old to the New. Where? In our hearts! We’re in Christ; now the transformation is taking place in us. That’s what this is all about. You who are in Christ, beholding in Christ the reality of Christ - The Glory of The Lord. And you are being brought in your heart, in your soul, from the old to the New: from the glory that speaks of Him, that speaks of a glory to come - you are coming to The Glory Who is come! There’s not another glory out there somewhere yet to come, because The Glory has come, and is in The House! If The House will open its eyes and behold The Glory! HE IS NOT FAR OFF - HE IS IN YOU!

The whole Church today needs a transformation from the first glory to the Second Glory: from the glory that is to come, to the reality The Glory has come! Now let’s look at Colossians 1:26. Paul uses this term, "...Christ in you, the hope of glory." First, what does the word "hope" mean? It means "expectation" - Christ in you, the expectation of glory. It means eagerly waiting in expectation. See, a mother is pregnant and going to have a child. The child is there in the mother, and the father is there in expectation of a birth, of an appearing. The child is already there, but the child has not appeared openly, plainly, clearly. Expectation is based upon reality. Why is the father in expectation? Why does he expect a birth? Because his wife is pregnant! Because the baby is just right there - waiting appearing. Israel was waiting for the appearing, they were waiting for a coming of the glory of God, of The Son of God, of The One that was promised. Israel was like an expectant father - waiting for their glory to appear, waiting for The One God had promised, to appear. They knew He existed, they wanted to see His appearing, they wanted to see the glory that was promised to them. That was the condition of Israel, Old Covenant Israel.

The problem is when their Glory appeared, they refused it! But He is still their Glory, He is the Glory of all who will receive Him! He is the expectation of Israel, and HE DWELLS IN YOU! We must understand He is NOT the expectation of The Church - He lives in you! He is the expectation of Israel. Christ in you - the Glory that Israel expected is in you NOW! That’s what Paul is saying, because he’s writing to the Church. He’s not telling the Church that there’s another glory to be expected. The expectation was in the old, that’s where the hope was. BUT CHRIST IS NOW COME!

To many He’s still an expectation because they can’t see Him with the natural eyes. Israel wanted to see Him with the natural eyes, but He was hidden from the natural eye. And yet to those who would see Him, He was revealed, because right out of Old Covenant Israel came the first Christians. He appeared to all of Israel, and all who would receive Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God. To as many as...and that’s still going today. The glory hasn’t changed. The glory that Israel waited for, looked for, longed for, and in many cases died for - IS COME!

We have come by The Spirit to a full Salvation in Christ. Now, because of that, because of the Work of God, because of the reality of Christ, because we have come to a full Salvation in Him, we must - we who are in Christ, we must come from glory to glory. In other words, we must come to a full comprehension of Christ as our Salvation. We must grow up INTO HIM Who is The Head in ALL THINGS. All things - what does that mean? See, we can use our imagination, and we can imagine what "all things" mean, and we may come up with trees and rocks. Or we can use the scripture and see what "all things" mean. Grow up into Him in all things. Remember Ephesians 1:9,10: gathering into Him all things? Now "all things" wherever it is used in the New Testament means the same thing. In Ephesians 1 it means all things of the Testimony, all things of the First Covenant. See, those are the things of God. And so God gathers up the things of God into His Son. That means all things of The Testimony are fulfilled in Christ. Everything relating to Adam is fulfilled in Christ, everything relating to Abraham and Isaac is fulfilled in Christ, everything relating to Israel is fulfilled in Christ. All things gathered together in One, in Christ, things speaking of heaven, things speaking of earth - gathered in Him. All things - you’ve got to be able to define "all things".

All things does not mean ‘a bunch of stuff, a bunch of things’. No, "all things" has a particular meaning - the things of God, the things of The Testimony, the things of The Covenant - all thing Gathered in Him. What did Chris fulfil? All things. All things - what? What all things? All things of The Testimony, all things relating to Salvation, all things relating to God’s Eternal Plan and purpose. All of that had a type in the old, it had a meaning there, but in Christ it is a REALITY. Therefore now, according to Ephesians 4 we are to grow up into Him, Who is the Head in all things. That means we are to come to experience everyone of these relationships. If they are typed in the first, we come to experience them in Christ. As we grow up in Christ in all things we come to experience each relationship: the relationship of New Birth, the relationship of Father and Son, the relationship of The House and The Glory of The Most High. All of this is in Him for those who will know Him, for those who will grow up in Him - Who is The Head of all things!

You see, once a person has come to be in Christ, once we have come to be in Him, then the growth has just begun, the journey has just begun, the knowing has just begun. This walk is a walk of faith - faith being the result of God revealing His Son in you. The walk of faith - walking in the light as He is in the light. That’s what Salvation is - an ever, ongoing relationship, the fulness of which is Christ Himself! That’s why The Church, which is His Body, is called the fulness of Him - the fulness of Him who filleth all things! That’s because He has become the fulness in God’s "all things". He’s not the fulness of a brick - that’s not what "all things" are about. He is the fulness of all the things of God. He is the fulness of everything ever spoken, ever prophesied, ever promised, ever set forth in type or in shadow. HE IS THE FULNESS OF ALL THINGS, AND HIS BODY IS THE FULNESS OF HIM! But because of ignorant preachers and man made doctrines, The Church has been robbed of this fulness. This fulness has been taken out and cast into the future - so far away that it is but a figment of an imagination. This is true.

We have taken the very scripture that applies to Old Testament Israel - prophecies of her glory, the glory that is to come; and rather than seeing those prophecies fulfilled in The Church, we have taken those prophecies and applied them TO THE CHURCH, telling The Church you have a glory somewhere that hasn’t come yet. That’s what the scripture says to Old Testament Israel! But to The Church the message is - HE LIVES IN YOU! YOU ARE HIS BODY! Oh, that the Lord would open our eyes, that we would see in Christ True Salvation, Great Salvation, a Salvation that is greater even than what spoke of it. That should be the purpose every time we gather, because we’re not really gathered "to get something", we are gathered to realize what we have received already; that as we have received, we may give.

Beloved, we should be able to give something more than "hope". We should give the FULFILLMENT of that hope - the reality of that hope! For in you the reality has come! Now you and I, who are in Him must come to His reality. They that worship God must worship Him in Spirit, but also in Truth!

Pt. 3 - THE CROSS

It is time now to bring The Cross into the picture. We’ve been talking about coming from one glory to another glory, coming from The Testimony to The Fulfillment. And the thing that divides those two is THE CROSS. We’re going to look at the types and see how they are fulfilled in Christ, and we now must consider that The Cross is the judgment that stands between the two. To you and I who are in Christ, The Cross is a judgment - a judgment of Truth. THE CROSS DIVIDES THE DEAD FROM THE LIVING. That’s what The Cross did - it reckoned Adam to be dead. At The Cross all mankind was judged dead by the death of Christ, so that in Christ, all may live. And The Cross divides the two. But we have to understand that The Cross is not just an object, it’s not a piece of wood. The Cross is the death and the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The Cross is summed up and fulfilled in Christ.

I Corinthians 1:9 says " God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." Called into the fellowship. We have spoken of that. Everything in Christ. Salvation is a relationship. Relationship and fellowship in Christ is the same thing. We walk in the light as He is in the light. We come from relationship to relationship, seeing all things fulfilled in Him, and we have fellowship one with another. Not only do we have fellowship with Him, in Whom all things are fulfilled, but as we are growing up in Him, walking in the light, we have fellowship with one another. That’s where our true fellowship is - walking in the light as He is in the light - we have fellowship. True fellowship is not simply in a building, true fellowship is not in an organization either. I am part of an organization, I hold a ministry in an organization, but true fellowship is not in being in an organization. True fellowship is walking in the light as He is in the light. This is what God has called us to. The fellowship that He’s called us to is the fellowship of light, the fellowship of life. Light and Life! Walking in Christ, walking in the light as He is in the light. We need to comprehend that this is the fellowship to which we are called.

Are we walking in the light? That’s the question that faces all of us. We may all be in one building, but are we walking in the light? Our fellowship is not being in a building, but it’s the reality of Christ. "God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." THE CROSS is the door to that fellowship. We come by way of The Cross. Look at verse 10, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." The same judgment - The Cross is what he’s talking about. There’s only one judgment - that’s the one executed at The Cross. It is a great judgment - it brings all things into itself, but nonetheless it is but one judgment; and as we grow up in Christ, that judgment gathers into itself all things. All things pertaining to our relationship with Christ are gathered into this, and the end of that judgment, when we finally come to the end of that judgment, the full realization of that judgment will be just this: CHRIST AND CHRIST ONLY IS MY LIFE! Because the judgment is the dividing of the old from the New, the first from the second, the living from the dead. Christ did this as a Divine act of God. In us, who receive Him, that Divine act of God becomes a Divine judgment of God. It becomes an understanding by which we live. It becomes an understanding by which we have fellowship. We are joined in that same judgment, that judgment which has divided the first from the second. It takes place in our hearts, and we become joined in that judgment, and in that same mind.

This is what Paul is talking about. Verse 17, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect." Verse 18, "For the preaching of The Cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." Verses 23 and 24, " But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Paul is saying that you cannot preach The Cross without preaching Christ, and you cannot preach Christ without preaching The Cross. He says THE CROSS is the power of God to we who are saved; then he goes on to say CHRIST is the power of God to we who are saved. So the power of God, the power that brings us from an old man to a New Man is CHRIST CRUCIFIED! - The power of God. The transforming power of The Cross - where Adam is brought to death, and a New Man comes forth in The Resurrection. The power of God that transforms then our hearts is The Cross, because Christ here performed the act. He actually brought death to the old man, to the old creation. He gathered it up in Himself and put it to death. In our heart, The Cross, that same power of God is a judgment, a discerning. We see ourselves as related to Adam being dead; we see our relation to Christ as one of Life - not the old man made alive, but a New Man in Christ Jesus!

So this is one relationship out of the three that we are talking about. In 2 Corinthians 5:14 we read, " For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead." Now let’s understand that. Let’s look at it in the scripture. Romans 5:12, " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned;" Now 1 Corinthians 15:21,22 " For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." My point is just this: in Adam all are dead - all men, every soul in Adam is dead. Dead in sin, separated from life, but the fact is - dead! The scripture says, "As it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment." That’s Hebrews 9:27. According to the scripture, when did man die? God said, "In the day that you eat (of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) thou shalt surely die." What kind of "a day" was that? The scripture declares that the first creation, the old creation of Adam was "one day". I know six days, then the seventh day God rested, but if you’ll keep reading the scripture says "in the day that He created them." This is typology. God considers seven days as one complete day. Six days He created the old creation, the seventh day He ended, entered into His rest, and one day was complete. That’s the day where Adam died. Sin brought death into that day, and every man that is born of Adam is part of that day, part of that death.

Look at Genesis 2:1-2, " Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." You know that there were six days and then the seventh day completed it. Verses 3-4, "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created , in THE DAY that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." What the writer is doing here is simply summing up the whole creation as one day. And it’s a complete work, a complete time; it’s a complete day because it has seven days in it. Now there is a second day of the Lord according to the scripture, but I’m not talking about natural days. The whole plan of God is summed up in three days, three time periods called "a day" in the scripture. Each of those days has seven days in it. The first day is the creation of Adam, the whole Adamic creation. Adam sinned, and that day was filled with death. All men died - that’s a bloody day. We have wars all over the world, but not everybody dies; but in that day - all died! God said "Thou shalt surely die. If you do this, you’ll die." Satan said, ‘Oh, you won’t really die; you will continue to be an independent soul, you will know good from evil.’ But the only reason man knew good from evil was because he did evil. He believed the lie and all men died, all men were brought into that death. What a black day, what a dark day, what a bloody day!

Now the second day, according to the scripture - Israel is the second day. The day in which they were created; God speaks of the day in which they were brought into being, the day that they were called out from among the dead - Israel constitutes the second day. And in Israel over and over again we see seven days making up that one day. We see it in their worship, the Sabbath day - six days and then the Sabbath. We see it in the Feasts of Israel - seven Feasts. All of those feasts are considered to be a Sabbath Day, and yet those feasts were all summed up three times a year.

So Israel is a day. God had to have another day, He had to have a second day. Why? Because the first day is full of death! It’s man, and it’s waiting on judgment. That’s all Adam is doing - in darkness, in death, separated from God - waiting on judgment. AT THE CROSS THE JUDGMENT CAME! "In the day you eat, you will die." "All men died once, after that the judgment." The judgment came in The Cross, where these men who were dead, by The Death of One, who died as all - they were judged to be dead! The judgment came upon them. The judgment had to come, or no life could ever come, because it is by the judgment that the dead are divided from the living. So there had to be a second day, because the first day is full of death. They are just waiting for judgment. God had to have a day that testified of the third day - that Day which Christ is! He had to have a day full of hope, a day full of expectation. Why? Because in the first day there was no hope, no expectation - nothing! So God created a second day, and He filled it full of hope - in testimony, in prophets and prophecies, and the whole life of Israel revolves around the theme of "One Day", which to Israel is seven days, and it’s all summed up in the Sabbath, and it is counted as One Day of The Lord.

The day testifies of the "Last Day". The Last Day is the Third Day - there is no fourth day, just the third day. Jesus refers to this Himself when He says, "Three days I will raise it up." He fulfilled all of those days: those are the day of His death - that relates to Adam; the day of His burial - that’s where He fell into the ground as The Seed fulfilling Abraham and Isaac; the day of His resurrection - that’s the third day, that’s when He fulfilled all the promises of God to Israel. It is in That Day, that Third Day, that Great Day, that Last Day, that Day of Resurrection that you and I are born! We are the children of the day. What day? That Great Day of The Lord! That Day intended for man, but man sinned and died in his own day. The Son lives in his Own Day! He is the light of that day. There’s no fellowship in night - fellowship is in The Day! Walk in the light as He is in the light. The scripture is talking about a day. Walk in the light - what light? The light of The Day! The Greek translation of the word "day" is "a period of time wherein there is LIGHT."

Walk in The Light, walk in The Day, ye are children of The Day. One time you were darkness, but now you are Light in The Lord. We have come from death, the first day to the last day. Israel, the second day, was a type, a shadow that pointed to the last day. Jesus says in John 6 with regard to this day: verses 38-40, " For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again IN THE LAST DAY. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up IN THE LAST DAY." Verse 44, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him up IN THE LAST DAY." Now there is tremendous truth here, but the point I’m making now is that we are raised up in the last day. That’s what this says: I will raise him up - he who sees and believes, he who the Father draws, I will raise him up in the last day. Now if the last day has not come, then we’re not raised up, and our whole faith is in vain, and Christ doesn’t live in us. But if we are raised up, if Christ does live in us, then we are the last day - THE NEW CREATION IS THE LAST DAY! There’s not another day coming, there’s not another creation coming. This is it - IN CHRIST JESUS!

And these next verses will prove what I say. We continue in verses 53-57. " Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whose eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life: and I will raise him up IN THE LAST DAY. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." As I live by the Father, he that eateth me shall live by me. Jesus says "in that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me and I am in you." That’s the Last Day. It brings the day of Adam to an end, and it brings forth a New Day in Christ. Of that day Jesus Christ is the first and the last, and He now is in our souls, in our hearts dividing, discerning this day of Adam, the day of man, from the Day of Christ; that we are no longer of the first day which is dark and full of darkness, but of this Day which is Light and Life.

So Salvation as it related to Adam is a New Creation, a New Man, a New Day. But Salvation is much more than this, and we will continue in our comprehension of Great Salvation, in our comprehension of Christ; coming from the type to the fulfillment by the power of THE CROSS!

Pt. 4 - The Increase of Christ

We are looking forward now to another time in the fellowship of The Son. Our gatherings in Christ are purposed for fellowship; and our fellowship is not just among men, but our fellowship is with Christ and with one another. It’s more than that - our fellowship is as those who are ONE WITH CHRIST. It is the realization of this oneness that we are going to consider now - a relationship of Salvation which is purposed to bring forth in us the increase of Christ. Each of us must come to a time in our walk when Salvation becomes something more than ourselves, when Salvation becomes more than just you and I being born again, when Salvation becomes more than just a New Creation. We’ve talked about that relationship, but our relationship must get on beyond that, beyond being born again, to the point that we begin to realize that Salvation is purposed for the increase of Christ.

So we’re dealing with PURPOSE now. We are born again, as those who are alive from among the dead, we are a New Creation - these things are true. This is what you are because you are in Christ and because Christ is in you, but what is the purpose of that? Why is Christ in you as relating to purpose? We have looked by way of our diagram at the type of Salvation in the Old Covenant and the fulfillment of Salvation in Christ. The type of Salvation in the Old Covenant shows three relationships, and these relationships are all fulfilled in Christ as Great Salvation. Salvation answers to each of these types. We saw the first type as Adam, the type of mankind. What is Salvation to Adam? With regard to Adam Salvation says you must be born again - there is no other way. Why must Adam be born again? Because he is brought to The Cross in Christ and judged to be dead. And because he is dead by The Cross, dead by The Body of Christ, dead by the judgment of The Son, he must - in order to live - be born again! Not as the old, but as The New. So this first type is brought over to The Cross - One New Man.

The second type is of Abraham and Isaac. We’ll deal with that now. In Adam we deal with man as a creation - the first creation, a whole creation. The answer to that in Christ is a New Creation, and The New is altogether different than the old. The old is according to the flesh: The New is according to The Spirit - born from above. In the first the old man is seen as a soul, in The New Man, a life giving Spirit, and it is The Word of The Cross, the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified that is able to divide the one from the other, the soul from the Spirit. And The Cross is the only thing that can do that. That’s the reason Paul says we preach Christ crucified; the preaching of The Cross, to we who are saved, is the power of God. It is truth, it is able to divide the first from the second. Where does that division take place for you and I? In our hearts, in our soul. But the division that takes place in us, dividing in us the soul from the Spirit, showing us that as a soul we only live by The Spirit of God. It divides in us the living from the dead. That division that takes place in us is a judgment of Truth, and that judgment of Truth comes by a revealing of Christ as our New Birth. But that judgment that takes place in us is just as real, just as final as the act of The Cross itself!

So now we come to another relationship. The Testimony speaks of another relationship - The Seed and His relationship to The Land; Seed and Land. This is what we deal with in Abraham and Isaac. How does that come to be fulfilled in Christ? What relationship is that? What is it pointing to? ONE SEED FILLING THE LAND. Now, what does that mean? And what is the relationship of The Cross to that reality? We’re going to see the reality of the fulfillment by looking at The Testimony. Look at Galatians 3:16, " 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." To Abraham and his seed promises were made. The promises that were made to Abraham and his seed are fulfilled in Christ! Abraham and his seed represent a relationship that is only fulfilled in Christ. In Abraham and his seed there is a type of Salvation, a dimension of Salvation, a promise of Salvation, which is only realized in Christ. Paul here realizes and writes that when God was making His promise to Abraham and his seed, in the mind of God - that seed was Christ! Paul takes the mystery right out of the story. That’s why we’re reading this verse first. Now everything we see concerning Abraham and Isaac, we can automatically understand the fulfillment is in Christ.

But we had a word here - LAND; we’ve got to bring that into the picture, because The Seed was to be in The Land, and that is Salvation. That’s what we want to talk about. It’s a different relationship from what we talked about in Adam. This relationship of The Seed and The Land is purposed for INCREASE. Salvation as it relates to Adam; the fulfillment of that Salvation in Christ relates to a New Birth - we are born from above. But more than that - we are born with a purpose. In Abraham and Isaac the purpose is seen. In Christ and His Body the purpose is REALIZED; for you are The Land into which The Seed falls - dies, to bring forth the increase of His Life!

We’ll look at the type here, but let’s read some more. In Galatians 3:26-29 Paul explains his statement in verse 16. "...And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." Then Colossians 3:10, 11. "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him; Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." Look at verse 15, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful." My reason for reading that verse is this - IN ONE BODY. You are called unto peace in one body. There is no peace between two bodies. Sooner or later if you have two bodies, you’re going to have war - that’s inevitable. That’s why in Christ there is not two bodies: there is not even two seeds - there’s just One Seed, and because there’s just One Seed, there can only be, and there only is One Body. It doesn’t make any difference what we believe; the fact is - One Seed has only One Body. And if we’re going to relate to Him as A Seed, then we will have to relate to Him as One Body! You can’t relate to The Seed and live as bodies. You can’t do that. That’s what we’re trying to do, but we must comprehend Salvation as it is set forth in Abraham and Isaac, because as it is set forth in Abraham and Isaac, just so, it is fulfilled in Christ. It is no different; it is fulfilled according to The Testimony. One Seed only has One Body! That Body is One because of One Seed. We’re not talking about seeds (plural), and we’re not talking about bodies. There is no such thing in Christ!

Now if we understand that, then answer me one question - why are Christians divided? Do you know why? Don’t get angry, but it’s because we are ignorant and have no understanding! We’ve got "experiences" but we don’t have understanding! That’s the only answer. God is right in Christ - something is wrong with us! Christ is One Seed, He has One Body - something is wrong in us! We are not comprehending Salvation, we’re not comprehending Christ - something is wrong in the Land! We’ll come back to that. Jesus has a parable about that: there’s nothing wrong with the seed in that parable; it’s the ground that is the problem. We may need to work on the ground a little bit!

Turn to Romans 12:1-5, and we’ll pay particular attention to verse 1 and verse 5. We’ll look at two things here: first thing - bodies as compared to body. "Present your bodies as living sacrifices..." Submitting your bodies - to God? Yes, but also one to another. Submitting your bodies - not after your bodies die; while your bodies are alive - LIVING SACRIFICES. To what do you submit your bodies? According to these verses, you submit them to The Body - One Body. You submit the many to The One; understanding that the many are One. But you can only understand that by the renewing of your mind. That’s the second term - the renewing of our mind: being not conformed to this world. In this world you are BODIES - lots of different bodies: different colors, different backgrounds, different sizes, different appetites, different talents. But in Christ, all of that has to be submitted, surrendered - laid down! Now this is an understanding of Salvation that not too many like.

We all want to be "born again", born from above - New Creation. Okay, you are that. But the PURPOSE of that New Creation, that New Land that you are is for the increase of The Seed, the increase of Christ. One Seed - One Body. The first thing we have to do is submit bodies to the reality of The Body; and we become servants one of another. We become servants one of another; not serving ourselves, but The One Body of Christ! The bodies that we have are submitted to The Body that we are. Do you see the difference? We have bodies - dirt bodies, but we are eternally One Body - The Body of The Seed Who dwells in us, The Seed, of Whom we are born! But our minds, our souls must be renewed, because you see our individuality actually dwells in our souls. Adam was a soul. When he sinned and refused to submit to the will of God, he became an independent soul, having no life of his own; because he did NOT have the life of God, because he died. In that day, he was reckoned dead. He became an individual, and he developed as an individual. So out of Adam came many, many, many individuals. And we have many different kinds of bodies, but our individuality is not just in our bodies; it’s manifested in our bodies, it is visible in our bodies, but our individuality is in our souls.

That’s why the first comprehension of Salvation, the first understanding of Salvation must be the death of Adam. Until we comprehend that Adam is dead, has no life of his own (but we are born by The Spirit...not spirits, The One Spirit - born again and we live by One Spirit); until we understand the death of our individual self, we will never understand the relationship of The Seed and The Land. We will never understand the relationship of Abraham and Isaac, we will never understand the relationship of Christ and His Body, because we will try to live as bodies, rather than as His One Body.

So I’m telling you that this lesson will mean nothing to you unless you comprehend the death of Adam, because that’s the order of comprehension. Now Israel is the last type, the third type to be fulfilled in Christ. Here is a divine order; the Old Covenant sets forth an order of God. That order is not broken in Christ; it is fulfilled in Christ. In that order - Adam, Abraham, Israel - Genesis, Exodus to Malachi, we have an order of Salvation. It’s an order both of the work of Salvation, and it’s an order of our comprehending of Salvation. If The Spirit of God in Christ works according to a divine order, then the only way we can understand that order is by that same order. So Salvation is first New Birth. Therefore you must first understand The New Birth. That’s the first of the order. Salvation first answers to Adam. I’m speaking now of spiritual order. All of this is One Salvation, and as a Work of God in Christ it is finished, complete. But you and I must comprehend that Salvation according to a divine order.

First we are born again; first Adam is answered. The answer to Adam is - death. Now, you must be born again. So Salvation is a New Birth. But then according to this order of Testimony, Salvation takes on a greater purpose, because we are born from above for a divine purpose, but this can only truly be revealed by The Spirit. That’s why so many can read the letter, they can see the story, they can see the types, they can see the order, but they don’t understand what it’s talking about. They don’t understand that it’s fulfilled in Christ: they don’t understand that this is a Testimony of Salvation. Paul calls it Great Salvation. But they don’t understand each of these types are types of a relationship, types of an understanding, types of a reality that can only be found in Christ! The Spirit reveals that.

Jesus said, "Search the scriptures. They are they which testify of ME." So if we want to know about Salvation, we go to the Testimony, but we must understand that what is letter here, is reality of Spirit in Christ. What is a type and shadow in the first is a reality of relationship in Christ. First is a natural man - in Christ is a Spiritual Man. First is a natural seed - in Christ is an Eternal Seed, an Incorruptible Seed. First is a natural land - in Christ is a Spiritual Land. The Land God promised is NOT some place you are going: THE LAND OF PROMISE IS WHO YOU ARE! To every seed God gives a body. Over in Abraham and Isaac He promised the seed the land. In Christ HE GAVE THE SEED A BODY! Glory to God! What do you mean - you are looking for a Holy Land? I don’t understand that: you are The Land! And Christ is your Holiness!

You blaspheme the Word of God when you say you are looking for something beyond Christ. You make the promise of God to His Own Son of no effect. You say that Salvation is not real when we look beyond Christ for everything of The Testimony. We must come to understand that and we can only understand that by the renewing of the mind. The Spirit is ready and willing to reveal Christ in all who would truly turn to Him, but you see, there’s a cost involved, because this Salvation - The Seed and The Land - this relationship also relates to The Cross as well. So there’s a cost to this comprehension, but there’s a cost to each comprehension. If you’re going to comprehend that you are "Born again", you must reckon that the independent soul is dead. You must understand that at The Cross - you died; or you’ll never be able to truly comprehend New Birth, which is CHRIST living in you. So it is with every relationship: they all have to come to The Cross. They all relate to His death, His burial, His resurrection. Here in The Seed we’ll read it later on: He must increase, I must decrease. This is part of the cost of this realization, because with the increase of The One Seed - in you, there is a decrease of everything else.

Now turn to Genesis 12. We’ve been talking about the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham with regard to The Seed and The Land, so let’s look at those promises. Genesis 12:7. Now at this time Abraham has been called out of his land. " And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him." So here is Abram: he doesn’t know anything, he’s just called out by God. Let’s call Abraham a new believer; he’s just on a journey, obeying the Lord, walking by faith. And all of a sudden, THE LORD APPEARS to Abraham. Now remember something about the Apostle Paul: he’s just walking along the road, minding his own business, and a great light shines upon him. You know the story - he is born from above. And he starts his journey. Then Paul says, "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal His Son in me..." TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME - Paul experiences the appearing of The Lord! Because the word "revealing" is one of the words for the appearing of the Lord.

So here’s Abraham; he’s just on a journey, he’s a new believer, he’s called out, he doesn’t have any idea what it’s all about. He just knows he’s not where he used to be, he’s separated from all of that, and now he’s on his way somewhere. And The Lord appeared! Notice God didn’t send somebody else - The LORD appeared. We need an appearing of The Lord! You need The Lord to appear - right in the middle of your journey. You need The Lord to appear and say to you: "I am the beginning of your journey, and I am the end of your journey. I am where you are going. Your journey is to grow up in Me. Your journey is to experience My increase." The Lord appeared and told Abraham about a Seed, He promised Abraham a Seed. Abraham knew nothing about a Seed; God didn’t say anything about a Seed when He called him out of his country, but now he learns that his journey involves a Seed.

I didn’t understand this when I was born again, I didn’t understand this when I was called out of The Lord. But now The Lord appears and promises a Seed, and He makes sense out of the whole journey! He makes sense out of the journey: the whole journey now has purpose. That purpose is going to be found IN THE SEED. God’s will was not just to get Abraham out of his country - Salvation is more than that! God always had something else in mind. He had to get Abraham out of his country, Abraham had to obey God. He started on a journey, a walk of faith, but then The Lord appeared and said ‘here’s what it’s all about!" This is the message we need today! You are born again, you are in Christ - here’s what it’s all about! It’s about CHRIST HAVING HIS INCREASE IN YOU! It’s about One Body and One Seed! Here is the promise of God fulfilled. You and I need to understand this Salvation, this relationship - purpose and relationship, rather than division and strife about silly things.

I’m not angry with any one, but I’ll tell you I’m angry with a Christian system that divides the people of God and denies the promise of The Seed. I don’t want any part of it, I refuse to be part of it. Let me read some more because I want you to notice something. Genesis 13:14-16. The Lord has appeared again... we must see that there are MANY appearings of The Lord. "And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered." Then Genesis 15:4-7. " And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness."

We are going to look at the relationship between The Seed and The Land, and you’ll notice one thing: with reference to The Seed and The Land, the emphasis always relates to THE SEED. It’s The Seed that is important: we’ll see that. Abraham looks at the land, and he says - what good is it? I have no seed. Notice that ALL of the promises are to The Seed: "Unto thy seed, which is CHRIST." Are you going to tell me that God has not fulfilled His promise to His Own Seed? And remember this: we are joint heirs with Him in the promise. We are His Body! The relationship of The Seed and The Land is what we’ll look at next.

Pt. 5 - The Seed - The Increase of One

We’re in Genesis 12, 13 and 15. We have been talking about the relationship of The Seed and The Land, and we’ve said the emphasis is always on The Seed - never on The land. We need to think about that. We are not just a body: we are THE LORD’S BODY. We are not a body of people. I saw a sign on a building someplace, and it said "the people’s church". But we are THE LORD’S Church. I think that in most places it is the people’s church; I think there’s no comprehension of Christ there. There you will find strife and division, rather than THE INCREASE OF ONE. The Land belonged to The Seed! We will look at Salvation as it fulfills the relationship spoken of in Israel, which is the third type of Salvation in the scripture. And that comes to be fulfilled in Christ also. It’s a relationship that we have with Him, it is a relationship that He has with us, and it’s called REDEMPTION. And the emphasis of Redemption is POSSESSION - redeemed unto Himself, as His Own.

But you can’t understand what Israel stands for until you understand what Abraham and Isaac stand for. Each of these comprehensions prepares you for the next one. What is it? Learning Christ - growing up in Him! Each comprehension opens a new comprehension - faith to faith to faith to faith - the faith of The Son of God being worked in you, in me. The relationship of The Seed to The Land, the understanding set forth in Abraham and Isaac is fulfilled in Christ. And it is just this: The Land belongs to The Seed - by promise. Later we will see promise become redemption: coming from promise to redemption. THE LAND BELONGS TO THE SEED BY PROMISE. God promised His Seed, Christ, a Body for His Glory. 1 Corinthians 15:35-38: to every seed, his own body. Then you go right on to verse 44-49: there is a natural body, there is a spiritual body...As we have born the image of the natural, so must we bear the image of the spiritual. The Land belongs to The Seed by promise. Not the promise of man, the promise of God; not the covenant of man, the Covenant of God. This Land cannot be sold, because we will see that it is bought with the price of HIS OWN BLOOD!

So the emphasis in this relationship, Christ and His Body, is Christ Himself: the emphasis is Christ, the emphasis is The Seed. Why is this? Because it brings The Land to its purpose: without The Seed The Land has no purpose. The Land is to give The Seed full expression; so much so, that the two come to be seen as One. Let’s say you are taking a trip, and are driving along the road, and there’s a piece of land out there. Nothing is growing on it - just dirt. And you look at it and you can see the dirt, you can see the land. And you say, ‘Look there, there’s a piece of dirt, there’s some land.’ But you come along again after a planting season, and a watering season, and you see that same land, but somebody put corn on it. You’re driving along and you look out there, and you say, ‘Look at that field of corn.’ You don’t say look at that land AND look at that corn. The two have become one: look at that field of corn. The Seed gives definition to The Land: Christ gives definition to His Body! It isn’t just "some" body, it’s not just land: it’s HIS Body, because of the expression of Him. It’s The Seed bringing forth His increase in The Land. We must learn this one thing: the true increase of The Land is IN THE SEED. It’s not in buying more land. Without The Seed The Land is barren - whether it is one acre or twenty acres. The Seed is the true increase! ‘ Well, I’ve got one acre of barren land - nothing growing on it, no seed in it. I believe I’ll go buy me another acre, so I can say I’ve got more barren land.’

I look at that and I say, ‘Well, I see no increase here. What I need to do is get some more land." So I buy some more barren land. Now I’ve got three acres of barren land! The only thing I’ve done is increased my barrenness. I’m more barren now with three acres than I was before: I haven’t produced any kind of real increase. INCREASE IS IN THE SEED! Listen - the increase is not how many people are in a building, the increase is the measure of Christ in each of them! The increase is not in how much land you have, how many people are there: it’s how much of Christ, the increase of The Seed - that’s what is important. We need to remember that. Someone says I’ve got ten people in my fellowship. Somebody else says I’ve got fifty in mine, I’ve got twenty in mine. My question to all of them is just this: how much of CHRIST is there found there? Because the measure of The Body is not in the many, it’s in The One. The whole is measured by HIM. It is not measured by itself, it’s measured by Him.

Notice every time that God speaks to Abraham about a measurement He does not point to The Land; He points to The Seed. THY SEED shall be as the dust. THY SEED shall be as the stars. That Seed is Christ! He’s the true measure! He’s the measure of The Land. He’s the measure of The Body. He’s the measure of The Church. The Church is not measured by itself; it’s measured by Christ. The Body is not measured by its members; it is measured by Christ - the measure of Christ in those members. That’s the true measure.

In the type, the emphasis is The Seed. In the fulfillment, much more so. Well, look at Luke 8 where Jesus speaks of this truth. Now the parable is in verses 4-8, and then the parable is explained in verses 11-15. A sower went out to sow, and he sowed his seed. And then it talks about the condition of the land. There is nothing wrong with the seed: the problem is in the land - he explains that. Some of the land has no depth in it, no spiritual comprehension. It is not able to truly receive the seed so there’s no increase. Some other part of the land is choked with weeds and thorns - the cares of the world, the cares of this life. And it chokes the life of the seed: the seed can find no increase there. Until there finally is ground that is described as ‘good ground". Now, what makes it good? One fact makes it good - the seed can find increase in it. That’s the only thing good about the land. See, we want to look for qualities in the dirt. THE QUALITY IS IN THE SEED! And the land is called "good" because it allows for the increase of the seed.

When it’s all said and done - no matter what the quality of the land, unless there’s a seed in it, it’s going to be barren. It’s good ground because the seed can take root there and bring forth an increase of itself. The end of the story is in verse 15: " But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." What does that mean? Turn to James 5:7. Bring forth fruit with patience. "Be patient..." Luke 8:15 said you bring forth fruit with patience. Here in James 5:7 we’re going to see the increase of patience; we’re going to see what the ground is waiting on. " Be patient therefore, brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Now, we are talking about The Seed and The Land: a comprehension of Christ that relates to The Seed and The Land, that relates to Christ and His Body.

Why is the ground to be patient? What is the ground waiting on? The precious fruit! James calls it "the coming of the Lord". The word "coming" here means "the presence of The Lord." Be patient unto the coming of The Lord. He says it again in verse 8. Here’s my question with regard to this relationship; the relationship of The Seed and The Land. In this relationship - where is The Lord coming from? HE’S COMING FORTH IN THE LAND! He’s coming forth in his Body! He is appearing in His Body, His increase, He is coming in light, in Spirit, in Life, in the increase of Himself! He is coming, He is coming to fill His Body with the increase of Himself, that the ground be fruitful. In this relationship the coming of The Lord is in you! I told you, the scriptures teach many appearings of The Lord. He is revealed in you, His increase fills you! So here He is coming forth out from the ground, The Land, filling The Land. This is so that you look at it and say that’s not just a body, that’s The Body of CHRIST! That’s not just a field, that’s a wheat field. Maybe we should think about this.

But now I want to look at the mystery of This Seed: how does This Seed relate to The Cross? Jesus says, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." So His increase in you - this is the mystery of it - it is BY THE CROSS. For the Life of The Seed that is in you works in you death to the flesh, but Life in The Spirit. Yes, because the fulfillment of this is into His own ground that The Seed falls. See, this is fulfilled in The Cross, and to you and I it becomes a judgment, a realization of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 we see this. "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels..." Can you see this relationship? The Seed in the ground - earthen vessels. Why? "...that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." So that no flesh should glory in His coming, no flesh should glory in His presence. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:26-30 - no flesh should glory in His presence. That’s why The Seed is in the ground: the ground has no glory of its own! The glory of the ground is THE SEED! The Body of Christ has no glory of its own: we glory in his coming, in His presence, in His increase! Isn’t that wonderful!

Now in verse 12 in 2 Corinthians 4 Paul says this: " So then death worketh in us, but life in you." It’s THE DEATH OF THE SEED. In The Seed is Life, but when you put The Seed in the ground, the very life of The Seed works death in the ground. And out of that death comes forth the increase of The Seed. He must increase, I must decrease. It’s His increase that works my decrease. This is the relationship of The Seed to The Cross. To Adam, the old man, The Cross is death. To The Seed, The Cross is increase. There must come a time, there must come an understanding in us concerning Salvation when The Cross is not just to get rid of me. There must come a time when we understand that there’s more to The Cross than just getting rid of the old man, doing away with Adam. But rather, The Cross is to work in me the increase of Christ, and that’s another understanding of The Cross altogether!

This is the mystery of The Seed. John 12:24, we quoted that a while ago: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." The mystery of The Seed, which is revealed in Christ is just this: Salvation is not just One Seed, but the increase of One Seed. That’s what Jesus is saying. Except the corn of wheat, The Seed, fall into the ground and DIE, it abides alone. It’s still a seed, but it has no increase. And Salvation is the increase of Him! Salvation is Christ having increase in you! We must see this: it’s all about INCREASE: not increase of dirt, increase of SEED. It’s not how big the field is, it’s the measure of Christ in the field that counts. We must get hold of that! That’s Salvation. Now, what is the increase of Christ? Many SEED - not seeds - many SEED. Christ ALL and in all. Remember we read neither male nor female etc.... Christ all and in all.

Let me see if I can explain this. Picture in your mind an ear of corn. It’s got the husk on it, but here’s the ear, and the seed falls into the ground and it’s hidden to the natural eye because it’s a mystery. It’s a Seed in you - hidden to the natural eye. But The Spirit will reveal Him and bring understanding. This Seed begins to bring forth life in the ground. And you know the parable: it comes forth as a stalk, but finally it comes to a head and the fulness is there in the head. And when the veil is done away, when the husk is taken off - what do we see? This Seed fills it all: it’s This Seed - over and over and over. It’s not seeds, it’s This Seed - dwelling in you, and you, and you. It’s many, but it’s many SEED. This is the mystery of it, because in the natural we see the many, but God sees The One. And The Spirit desires to reveal in you and in me - The One. And when we see Him, we understand once and for all Whose Body we are. IT IS NOT THE MANY - IT IS THE ONE! This is a relationship of Great Salvation. Our relationship with The Father, and our relationship with one another is by This One!

Pt. 6 - Redemption

Continuing with our theme of Great Salvation, now we’re going to be dealing with the third type of Salvation, and seeing that type as it is fulfilled in Christ. It is the fulfillment in Christ with which you and I are related. We are not related with a type: we are related to the REALITY of Christ. But in order to understand the reality of that relationship, we look to the type, we look to the scripture. And the scripture declares the truth concerning our relationship with the Lord Jesus. So now we’re going to be looking at the relationship of REDEMPTION. What does it mean to be redeemed? Think about it. We may think of many things, but we’re going to see what the scripture says concerning Redemption.

We’ll start by saying: Redemption is a relationship with Christ. Redemption is not just a term, not just a doctrine. And Redemption is not just an act of God. As it relates to you and I, Redemption is a relationship. And we are either walking in that relationship with Christ, or we are not. And the facts are just this: you can not walk in a relationship unless you comprehend that relationship. So if you and I are not comprehending what Redemption is, then we are not walking in that relationship with Christ. We are redeemed of The Lord, but are we walking in that relationship? You are The Body of Christ, but are you comprehending that reality? Our Salvation is in Spirit and in Truth - Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth will make you free. So when we speak of Salvation we speak of learning Christ, knowing Christ, and growing up in Christ. Salvation is not merely an experience with God; it is a WALK IN CHRIST. Salvation is Life, and Life is RELATIONSHIP.

So, as we begin to look at Redemption, we shall do so as a relationship of Salvation. And here’s the point: we are redeemed... ARE WE COMPREHENDING OUR REDEMPTION? We are redeemed...ARE WE WALKING IN THE TRUTH OF REDEMPTION? Are we understanding our Salvation? Are we growing up in Christ? And this applies to all three of the relationships that we’ve been talking about. It applies to the New Birth - we are born from above. But are we comprehending the reality of Christ dwelling in you? Because to be born from above means Christ is in you. But He’s not asleep in you: HE IS LIVING IN YOU!! So the New Birth is a living relationship with Christ. We’ve also looked at the relationship with The Seed: The Seed working in you His very own increase. This speaks of relationship - the relationship of Christ and His Body, the realizing that This Body has one purpose, and one purpose alone - THE INCREASE OF CHRIST. "Til Christ be fully formed in you." That’s what Salvation is - a relationship, a marriage, designed to produce fruit. But the fruit is of The Seed, and NOT of the ground. It is not the increase of you, but the increase of HIM.

All of that is Salvation - GREAT SALVATION. Now we will look briefly, and in a very elementary way at Salvation as Redemption. What kind of relationship is Redemption? Are we walking in that relationship with Christ? Are we walking in that Truth, as that Truth is in Christ? Are we knowing the Truth of Redemption, and are we, by the Truth of Redemption, The Truth that Christ is: are we being made free? Free from what? This is what we will discover as we go along. From what are we redeemed? We say "we are redeemed" - from WHAT are you redeemed? The scriptures declare what we’re redeemed from.

Now our last type of Salvation is Israel, and it is with Israel that the term "Redemption" is introduced. Well, Israel stands for a relationship, a relationship that must come to be fulfilled in Christ. Abraham and Isaac stood for a relationship, Adam stood for a relationship. All of these relationships are to be fulfilled in Christ, and we’re looking at the last one now. Israel stands for a relationship. God was in a relationship with Israel, and it was different than any other relationship He had ever been in with any other man. It was a relationship that was unique or peculiar to Israel: and that relationship is defined as REDEMPTION. So Redemption is speaking of a relationship. Or we might say: we are brought into a relationship by Redemption. We are redeemed unto the Lord. We are redeemed from something, but we are redeemed UNTO SOMEONE. We are brought into a relationship with Christ. We are not related to something, we are related to someone. We are not redeemed unto religion: we are redeemed unto the Lord. We’ll see this more clearly as we go along, but we must think about this: OUR RELATIONSHIP IS UNTO THE LORD. We are brought into a very special relationship by Redemption.

Now everything that relates to Israel is fulfilled in Christ as The Church. Redemption relates to the Church: The Church is Redeemed. The Church is the called out, the taken out. Out of what? We’ll find out. So The Church is that relationship that answers to Israel. I want to emphasize that. If The Church answers to Israel, and the scriptures say that it does, then The Church is a relationship with Christ. The Church is not a building, The Church is not an organization, The Church is not a doctrine, The Church is not a teaching. The Church is not even just a people. It is a people IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST. If you take your relationship away, The Church disappears, and you’ve just got people left, or a building, or a doctrine, or an organization. But The Church is gone, because The Church is a relationship.

Israel was a relationship: it wasn’t just a people, it wasn’t just a nationality. It was a relationship with a people who are in a relationship with God; the blessings of The Lord were upon them. He blessed Israel. But when the people were not in a relationship with God, the blessings were taken away and the people were destroyed. Israel was never destroyed because Israel is a relationship. There was always a remnant saved because that remnant represented a relationship. When God first brought the people out of Egypt, they represented Israel. To God they were Israel, they were in relationship with Him. But what happened? Relationship was broken - forty years of wandering and all the people died. God brought forth a New: out of the death of the first, He brought forth the second. Out of the death of the old, He brought the New - a people who were in relationship, and He called them Israel, and He took them in.

We must understand that all through the scripture God’s thought concerning Israel is relationship - not just a people. I know He used a people, but His thought concerning that people was relationship. So it is with The Church - God’s thought concerning The Church is relationship and nothing less than that. Let’s read in Ephesians 1:19-23, " And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from (among) the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." The same power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised Him from among the dead is that power which worketh in us - relating us to Christ. As he raised up Christ, so is The Body of Christ raised up with Him. Paul is saying, ‘I would that you would come to understand your relationship with Christ. The same Spirit that raised Him up dwells in you!’ He was raised up that He might be The Head of His Own Body, The Head of The Church, The Church which you are, The Body which you are. This is our relationship. Our relationship with Him is in the power of His Resurrection! Yes, the power of His Resurrection - this is our relationship with Him as The Church.

What is it that we are raised from by The Resurrection? And Who is The Resurrection? Not what is - WHO? Who is The Resurrection? Jesus says, "I Am The Resurrection and The Life." Paul just told us something. Christ is The Resurrection. Who is raised up? Of Whom is He The Resurrection? His Body, The Church! He raises The Church! He’s The Resurrection of His Body, He’s The Resurrection of His Church. We just read that. The same power working to us-ward, by which God raised Him from the dead...that you would come to understand the exceeding greatness of that power. Paul calls it "the power of His Resurrection." "Oh, that I may know Him in the power of His Resurrection." This was the thing for which Paul pressed - to know Him by that way, to apprehend Christ as he himself had been apprehended of Christ. We as His Body, we as His Church have been apprehended of The Lord. Oh, that we would apprehend Him even as He has apprehended us! That’s what we’ve just read: that we would understand the exceeding greatness of His power toward us; that we would know Him in the power of His Resurrection.

From what has He raised us ? He has raised us from among the dead. We are no longer among the dead - we are among the living! We are The Living Body of Christ, we are The Living Church! We are The Redeemed of The Lord! THE REDEMPTION IS FROM DEATH. Redemption is from death. What was Israel redeemed from? You say, they were redeemed from Egypt. Were they really? They just walked out of Egypt! When did they walk out of Egypt? When they were redeemed. What were they redeemed from? Go back in the Bible to the night of Redemption: the plagues had come upon Egypt, but Egypt would still not let Israel go. Finally The Lord said, ‘You Israelites, take the blood of a lamb, put it on your houses, on the doorposts. Put the blood there, then enter into that house through the blood, and eat the flesh of the lamb.’ What was going on outside that house? What was happening? All the firstborn of Egypt was dying! Death - death was upon the land!

God redeemed Israel from DEATH, from among the dead. When death had no hold on them, they just walked out of Egypt! When death had no hold on them, they just walked out of their bondage. Redeemed - FROM AMONG THE DEAD - by The Blood of The Lamb! Made free by The Blood of The Lamb! The Lamb died for them, and they applied His death to themselves, they ate His flesh and they walked out. That night they became The Israel of God - a firstborn son unto The Lord. Are we understanding that kind of relationship with Christ? Are we understanding our redemption? That’s the question? Are you walking in that relationship? We must understand that The Church lives in Resurrection - raised from among the dead. The Redeemed of The Lord! Or are many of us still in bondage to Egypt, because in our hearts we have not been delivered from death? We are still waiting to die so we can "go be with Jesus". You are with Jesus NOW! You are in Him, and He’s in you, and you shall never die as His Body. I’m not talking about flesh vessels, I’m talking about The Church, I’m talking about The Body of Christ.

I’m going to tell you right now: most Christians I know are still under the power of death. They still serve the law of sin and death. They have no comprehension of their relationship with Christ as The Redeemed of The Lord. I trust that The Lord will open the eyes of our understanding that we will come to understand our Salvation is Redemption. We are not waiting to be redeemed; we are not waiting to be released from death - WE ARE REDEEMED! We are raised up! We are released from death! Christ is our Life, and more than that: He is The Living Who lives in me! We live by Him, as those that have passed from death unto Life. As The Church of The Redeemed is The Body of His Resurrection, this is our relationship with Him; if we will come to know Him in that way. Christians get so excited over their ignorance! They just clap their hands and feet, jump up and down, playing their music and sing their songs: "I’m going to be with Jesus SOME DAY." That is ignorance! You are in Him NOW! Why don’t we get excited about that! Why don’t we write some songs about that, and throw the old, tired songs away? Sing The Song of The Redeemed! Get excited about reality, get excited about Truth, and then fill up the world out there with The Truth! Quit telling worn out, tired fables and declare The Truth as The Truth is in Christ! If we preach The Truth, we ought to sing The Truth!

So, we are talking about The Church as it relates to Christ being the fulfillment of Salvation that Israel spoke of. The relationship that Israel was a type of, The Church is the fulfillment of, if we walk in Truth. Now Romans 9:6-8. We are still reading scriptures concerning The Church. "Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel; Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Paul was saying Israel after the flesh is no longer Israel, but rather The Israel of promise, The Israel of The Promised Seed. Paul understood Who The Seed was. "Unto Abraham and his seed were the promises made. Unto thy seed, which is CHRIST." We’ve spoken of this. Out of That Seed, which is Christ comes The True Israel. Well, what has come out of Christ? THE CHURCH. So, The Church is Israel after the promise, Israel after the Spirit. Now, in the Old Covenant the promises were good if Israel would keep the commandments. But here it’s not keeping commandments. Here in The Church it’s walking in the Truth as The Truth is in Jesus; worshiping God in Spirit and in Truth. Why? Because The Spirit is The Spirit of Truth!

Now, Galatians 6:14-16, " But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, not uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon The Israel of God." The Israel of God is neither the circumcised nor the uncircumcised, neither the Jew nor the Greek - but a New Creation in Christ. The Israel of God is The Body of Jesus Christ - The Church. But remember, The Church is not an institution, The Church is a relationship. Every term that applied to Old Testament Israel is fulfilled in The Church - and more. Now I’m just going to mention seven of these terms. These terms are actually seven relationships that apply to The Church. Some of these applied to Old Testament Israel, and we see that they are fulfilled in The Church. First, The Church is called THE BODY OF CHRIST. Secondly, it is called HIS WIFE. Thirdly, it is called HIS BRIDE. Fourth, it is called HIS HOUSE, Temple, Sanctuary, The True Tabernacle. Fifth, it is called NEW JERUSALEM, The City of God. Sixth, The Church is called ZION - ye are come to Mt. Zion, The New Jerusalem, The City of the Living God, The Church of the Firstborn. And seventh, The Church is called The REDEEMED OF THE LORD.

The Church is to be the true expression of all these relationships in the earth, giving Christ a full expression in all the world. That’s what The Church is designed to be; that’s what The Church is in the mind and heart of God. Is that the relationship you and I are having with Christ now? See, modern religion has The Church "waiting to go to a city". But The Truth says YOU ARE The City of God! And The Lamb is your Life - NOW! And God dwells in you - NOW! You have come to Mt. Zion. You have come to The City of God. You are not "going" to The City of God. Hebrews 12 says you are come to the City of God, you are come to The Church of The Firstborn, you are come to God The Father, The Justifier, The Sanctifier of those who come to Him by The Blood of His Son. Ye are come to Jesus, The Mediator of a New Covenant. You are not going there - YOU’VE COME THERE! That’s Who The Church is. That’s a relationship of The Redeemed!

My question is: you are The Redeemed - are we living as The Redeemed? Do we understand the relationship of our Redemption? That’s the question. The type is true to what I just said. When Israel walked out of Egypt they were The Redeemed of The Lord, they were Redeemed by The Blood of The Lamb. Did they walk in that relationship? For about five or six days - maybe!! And they came to some bitter waters. I can hear some Christians say today: we’ve come to some bitter waters, and we say, Man, that’s no good! But one day - over in glory land, we’re going to have good water to drink! You’ve got good water to drink NOW! You’ve got a well in you NOW! My God, what are you waiting for? Drink NOW! No? Then just go without - just be thirsty! But I’ve got a well in me! You’ve got a well in you - if you’d just drink. The Lord has taken the bitter waters and He has said IN YOU shall be springs of living water!

Israel got there to that place: they are The Redeemed of The Lord, and what did they say? "Well, let’s go back to Egypt. Let’s go back where we came from." Only Moses understood, and he said, wait a minute! We’re Redeemed, we’re not going back! No, we’ll make the waters sweet! Listen - HE’S THE SWEETNESS OF THE WATER! He’s The Living! You are Redeemed - are you walking in that understanding? You are Redeemed - are you living in that relationship? Do you know Christ as Redeemed? We call Him Redeemer, but do we know Him as our Redeemer, are we walking in that relationship? And it’s the same with the other relationships as well. In fact, until we comprehend the relationship of New Birth, we can not comprehend the relationship of Redemption. Salvation is a relationship with Christ and we must comprehend that relationship by The Spirit in order to walk in it.

What I’m trying to tell you is that Salvation is not an institution, it’s not just a teaching, it’s not just a doctrine or a belief, but a LIVING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LIVING CHRIST. It’s not just waiting to go somewhere; it’s understanding where we NOW ARE IN CHRIST. The world doesn’t need to know where I’m going; the world needs to know where I am! The Reality of being in Christ - Salvation is what we’re talking about!

Pt. 7 - The Relationship of Redemption

We will continue with the relationship of Redemption. And we’re looking in the scripture to see what the scripture declares concerning Redemption; then we’re seeing that fulfilled in Christ. That which the scriptures declare to be fulfilled in Christ is the very relationship into which we are brought through Salvation. We have a Great Salvation! Salvation as it relates to Israel, and as it is fulfilled in Christ for The Church is Redemption. The type is fulfilled in Christ in the fulness of The Spirit, because that’s what Salvation is: The Spirit of God working in you and me the fulness of everything that is in Christ, the fulness of everything that Christ Himself is. Salvation is nothing less than that. It is nothing less than the fulness of Christ being worked in you and I by The Spirit of The Living God. So Salvation as it relates to Israel is a type. And Salvation as it is fulfilled in Christ for The Church is called Redemption: the relationship of The Church with Christ is called Redemption. We are The Redeemed of The Lord. That’s what The Church is - a relationship by The Blood of The Lamb.

We are seeing that Redemption is from the dead. We are redeemed from the dead. By The Cross we are the firstborn, firstborn from among the dead. How are we the firstborn? By OUR RELATIONSHIP TO CHRIST: He is the firstborn among many brethren. Through our relationship with Him we are the firstborn from among the dead. Through our relationship with Christ we are born again - born from above. That is true, but what does that really mean? But through our relationship with Christ we are not just born again; we are born from among the dead! Listen - we are not born again to die: we are born from among the dead, never to die again! That’s the realization of Redemption - not just born again, but born from among the dead - never to return, never to die again! The Redeemed of The Lord - delivered from death, and raised up from among the dead.

The disciples came to the tomb looking for Jesus, and the angels asked them a question. "What are you doing here, seeking the living among the dead? He is not here!" The angels did not say, why are you seeking the living among the "tombs". No - among the dead. There’s a greater meaning to that question than most of us understand. The dead is not a hole in the ground, but it is dead in sin. Why are you seeking the living among the dead? He is not here. And because He is not here, His Body is not there either! You are raised up together with Him as the firstborn from among the dead. That’s what Redemption is. Let’s look at it in the scriptures. Redemption is from the dead. Romans 5:12. In reality, the dead is the body of a man - the first man, Adam.

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." So in reality, the dead... and that’s the way the scripture says it: That Christ is raised up from among THE DEAD. In reality, the dead is the collective body of one man - Adam. Whereas the living... Why seek ye THE LIVING among THE DEAD? The living is the collective Body of One Man - Christ Jesus, The New Man. But how are we His Body? By Redemption. We must understand what we are by Redemption. Now there are many terms to Salvation: New Birth is a term and has its own understanding. It describes a relationship, it describes a reality of Christ, but Redemption also describes a reality and a relationship with Christ. And Redemption does not just say that we are born again; Redemption goes farther and says when we were born again, we were born again from the dead. We became The Body of The Living - never to die again, but to manifest His Life. And to manifest His Life is to manifest Redemption.

There are not three Salvations, but there are three relationships in Salvation. That’s what we’re talking about - GREAT SALVATION. Those relationships are typed in the Old Covenant, fulfilled in the New Covenant - fulfilled in Christ. But because it is called a "Covenant", the Old Covenant required understanding and the New Covenant requires an understanding. The Old Covenant is the understanding of the letter, but the New Covenant is the understanding of The Spirit. So Salvation is Christ, but to you and I, it is comprehending Christ by The Spirit - walking in a New Covenant, a New understanding, walking in The Truth as The Truth is in Christ. In Christ we find The Truth of our New Birth, in Christ we find The Truth of relationship with The Father, and in Christ we find The Truth concerning Redemption. We are redeemed from the dead. Now there is much to this, but now we are just stating the fact of the matter. And I trust that The Spirit of The Lord will lead you into the fulness of the matter. But the fact is, our Redemption is from the dead. We are no longer part of the dead - we are The Body of The Living! We must understand this to understand Redemption. I pray the Lord will open the eyes of our understanding concerning Redemption.

1 Corinthians 15. This relates to the same thing we just read in Romans. Verses 20-23, and the verse we are most interested in is verse 22. " But now is Christ risen from (among) the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." Well, that pretty much says it all, because our Salvation is in Christ, our Salvation is Christ! So whatever He is, that’s what our Salvation is. And where He is, that’s where His Body is, because He’s not in one place and His Body someplace else. No, no, He lives in His Body, and His Body lives in Him. The scripture is very clear about that. Now Christ is risen from among the dead. When? NOW!! And He has become the first fruits, the firstborn among many brethren - all who would be found in Him; the many who are One. We’ve looked at that - the first fruit because He is The Seed; firstborn, because He is The Son. We are The Body of The Seed, we are The Church of The Son!

That’s Redemption. Verse 21, "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." That’s what we said awhile ago: the dead is the collective body of Adam, The Living is the collective Body of The Son, the firstborn. By man came death, by man comes life. We are either found in Adam and to death, or we are found in Christ and unto Life. How much are we one with that man, Adam? So much so, we are dead - because he is dead. That’s how one we are with Adam. But by Redemption, through The Resurrection, we are One with The New Man, Christ. How much are we One with Him? Much more - abundantly, far above! Why? Because in Adam the oneness is death, but IN CHRIST THE ONENESS IS ETERNAL LIFE! In Adam our oneness is death: Life is much more than death! In Christ our Oneness is Life Eternal! One dead body - One Living Body; body of death - Body of Life! Body of sin - Body of Righteousness; body of Adam - Body of Christ. So we have come from one body to another Body - that’s Redemption. Even the Redemption of our body. That’s what Paul is talking about in Romans 8; we are redeemed from the body of humanity unto The Body of Christ.

Then why are we still living as the body of humanity? Why are we seeking the living among the dead? Why? Because we don’t comprehend our Redemption, we don’t comprehend the greatness of our Salvation. So we still live like we’re white or black or brown. By that I mean we are trying to relate to one another like that. We are trying to find our fellowship among "bodies" rather than as One Body - The Body that is redeemed by The Blood of The Lamb. I tell you, we have come from the body of the dead, to The Body of The Living by The Resurrection. Jesus said, "I am The Resurrection and I am The Life, he that believeth in Me shall never die." But first He said, "he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet he shall live. I will bring him from among the dead. I will raise him up in the last days. And those that I raise up, those who live by Me, shall never go back among the dead; they shall never die." That’s what Jesus said. That’s what He meant when He told Martha, "I am The Resurrection and The Life. He that believeth on me, though he were dead, shall live. Those who believe on Me and live - shall never die!" We have come from one body to another Body through Redemption. And everything that is part of the dead, - we are redeemed from the dead - so we are redeemed from those things also. When Israel was redeemed from death, the power of Egypt could not hold them.

So in Revelation 5 The Redeemed of The Lord are singing a song. They are redeemed from the dead and they are singing their song: "Thou hast redeemed us unto our God, out from every nation, kindred, people and tongue."If you want to find nations and kindred, tongues, races, nationalities, tribes, you’ve got to go back among the dead to find them. So when we are redeemed from among the dead, we are taken OUT of that tribe, OUT of that kindred, OUT of that people, OUT of that nation. Where did we go? WE WENT INTO CHRIST! Christ redeemed us unto God out from... not "off of" - out from. We were in the dead man, in the dead. But you’ve taken us out from among the dead, and you’ve brought us unto God! That’s what Jesus said: "you’ll understand that you are where I am. I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you!" This is Redemption!

So everything that relates to the dead - we are redeemed from that. Now consequently, because of that, we are redeemed from many things, but we are only redeemed unto One Person, because in Him we have all things pertaining to Salvation. There are not many Christs - One Christ. In Him, not many bodies - One Body. Do we really believe that? Do we really understand that? Because that is the understanding of Redemption. And unfortunately most believers have not realized their Redemption. Christ has paid for it, but most have not accepted it. I’m not talking about sinners; I’m talking about believers. Most believers have not accepted their Redemption. I pray that God will help us to understand that, and will help us accept the fulness of what Christ has done, and the fulness of Salvation as it is in Christ.

So Redemption is from among the dead. Here are some verses that relate to that. First it relates to Israel. Exodus 12:1-7 speaks of the Redemption - one lamb for one house. That’s just wonderful! That’s all it takes - one lamb for one house! Redemption says that you are The House of God. Listen - New Birth, that’s a relationship of Salvation, it’s a reality in Christ. But it’s not all the reality. New Birth says you are born again, but Redemption says you are born again from among the dead. But not just that. Redemption - you are The House of God! THE BLOOD IS UPON YOU! We’ve listed those seven terms that relate to the Church, and one of them was The House. The whole issue of Redemption is blood. The woman with the issue of blood theologically represents Israel. The wife has also an issue of blood, but here it is The Blood of The Lamb. We’ve come from one woman to another woman; one wife to another wife, but we won’t pursue that now.

But the issue of Redemption is The Blood. With Israel it was the blood of animals; with you and I it is The Blood of Christ. So all these terms - the Bride, the Wife, the House - become a reality through Redemption. Are we living in our Redemption? Or are we still looking for it somewhere? IT HAS COME WITH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB! In Exodus 12 Israel was delivered from among the dead - every firstborn of Egypt died. Egypt is known in its firstborn, Israel is known in its firstborn; every country, every family is known in its firstborn. When the firstborn of Egypt died, Egypt was reckoned as dead. By The Blood of The Lamb, Israel was seen as being dead - not dead IN Egypt, but dead TO Egypt. Egypt had no more power over them. So they walked out!

Just so, we are delivered from the dead, we are delivered from death - by being made DEAD TO SIN. The power of this death is sin, but by The Lamb. His death was to sin. Look at Israel - they go in through the blood of the lamb - somebody had to die. A lamb had to die. REDEMPTION IS FROM DEATH - BY DEATH. It is from the death of Adam, the death of sin, by The Death of The Lamb which is TO SIN. Christ did not die in sin - He died to sin, because He knew no sin. So when He died, it was not because of sin, it was not because sin was in Him. No, He died to sin, that we, by His death, may be delivered from sin.

Israel entered into His death, The Death of The Lamb. The death of the lamb was against Egypt. It was dead TO Egypt they entered in. All around them was the death of Egypt, but they were free from the death of Egypt. They were free from the death of the Egyptians by The Blood of The Lamb. Now Redemption is defined as a purchase, a ransom. We are a purchased possession. Israel was released from Egypt - not to live on their own, but to live unto God, Who redeemed them. Redemption means ownership. It means we are a possession of The Lord. Now I’m showing you this in a type so that we may understand the reality. Israel was redeemed by the blood, from the death of Egypt, from the power of Egypt. Do you know what Egypt was to Israel? It was a grave! That’s the truth! They were released: they were not released because the Egyptians died, they were released because they died with the Lamb to Egypt. We claim His death as our own. We who are the dead hear His Voice, and we claim His death as our own. And by being dead with Him - to sin, to death - we are brought forth in The Resurrection!

So Paul says, ‘Likewise, reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:11. We know we are dead in sin. When Christ died as one, He told us that. When He died as Adam, that death said Adam is dead - all men are dead. We know we are dead: we are dead in sin. The Cross has judged us dead. But The Cross goes beyond that! The Cross is more than the judgment of Adam. THE CROSS IS THE REDEMPTION OF THE CHURCH! We must receive our Redemption by the faith of The Son of God. When Christ is revealed in you we will comprehend our Redemption. We were delivered from death - by being made dead to sin. We are made dead to sin - not by Christ dying as Adam; though He did that. We are made dead to sin by Christ dying as The Lamb. It’s the same death, but there’s three comprehensions of that death.

The greatness of The Cross! We must understand that I’m not talking about three crosses, I’m not talking about three deaths, I’m not talking about three lives, I’m not talking about three Salvations. I’m talking about a three fold comprehension. A three fold comprehension of The Cross, a three fold comprehension of Salvation, a three fold comprehension of relationship - I’m talking about growing up in Him. We must see Him as the death of Adam, because in The Cross He died that way. But He also at that same time died as The Seed of God to bring forth much fruit. But He also at that same time died as The Lamb of God to redeem all who would hear His Voice, all who would claim His death as their death and find their liberty in the living of His Life.

We are The Redeemed of The Lord! We are The Redeemed - are we walking in that relationship? That’s what it’s all about. The Lord give us understanding concerning our relationship with Him. If we come to understand this as it truly is in Christ, the door will open for a full comprehension of The Lord Jesus! Amen.