CHAPTER VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

The theme of our book is the three deaths and the three resurrections of redemption. Redemption through Christ is the central topic of the Scriptures. To redeem is to restore to the original or rightful owner something that is not in his possession.

God has given to mankind His own image, the ability to experience union with another person, the authority to multiply and replenish the earth with creatures having God’s type of personality and that look like God, and dominion over all the works of God’s hands.

The Divine inheritance was stolen from the sons of God by the deceitfulness of the devil. Christ came from Heaven to destroy the works of the devil and to restore to mankind what has been stolen from it.

Redemption is past, present, and future. We were redeemed on the cross of Calvary by the atoning blood of Christ. We are being redeemed now by the working of the Holy Spirit in us. We shall be redeemed in the future when Jesus appears and brings life to our mortal bodies. When Jesus comes, sin and unrepentant sinners will be destroyed and the earth will be redeemed. This is the promise of God’s Word.

We have labeled the first redemptive death and resurrection, salvation. It is to be understood that the word salvation is not used in such a limited sense in the Scriptures. The Scriptures employ the term to indicate not only the favor and deliverance of God but also the fullness of the inheritance given to the sons of God.

We are not making any special point of employing the terms salvation, sanctification, and conquest as we do. They merely are pegs on which we are hanging concepts. We are setting forth three concepts of redemption and are using these three terms because we think they are useful in conveying a broad understanding of the work of the Divine Redeemer.

In our book we may have covered some ground relatively new to the reader. Yet, if one stops to think about it, we haven’t said anything so new. Our point is that the Christian salvation consists of salvation through the blood of the cross, of holy living, and of obedience to God. This is in agreement with the writings of God’s saints of all ages. Nothing new or strange after all.

We have taught that we die to the world in water baptism, taking our place on the cross with Christ, and are raised into newness of life in Him and with Him. This is the first death and resurrection and is expressed in the sixth chapter of the Book of Romans. The person who has a clear understanding of the sixth chapter of the Book of Romans has a good grasp of the Christian salvation.

We have taught also that we are to die to life lived according to the lusts of the flesh, putting to death the deeds of our body, and are to be raised into holy living and into Divinely inspired, Divinely enabled service in the Lord’s vineyard.

When we walk according to the dictates of our body we die spiritually. When we walk according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit we live spiritually. It is as simple and direct as that.

We have taught further that God requires more of us than the covering of the blood of Christ, and more than righteous and holy conduct through the Holy Spirit. God requires a breaking down of our self-seeking, our Jacob nature, and the creating in us of a new person who walks in obedience to God rather than in the guileful ambitions of self.

If any man be in Christ there is a new creation. His old nature is passing away and his entire personality is becoming new, being re-created by the Lord in the Lord’s own image. The third death is death to self and the resulting resurrection is eternal life in the Person and will of God Almighty.

God has given us in His Word many illustrations of the three deaths and three resurrections of redemption. We have mentioned a few of these types. Each illustration adds a bit of insight to our understanding.

The occurrences of the phrases "the third day" and "after three days" are so numerous in Scripture that we have not attempted to list them all. We have set forth the interpretation of these expressions in two ways: in the personal sense, as indicating the bringing of the whole personality of the saint into subjection to Christ; and in the kingdom-wide sense, as portraying the Day of the Lord—the return of Christ to the earth to receive His inheritance.

Redemption does not proceed neatly in three steps, like the rungs on a ladder. Rather, the Holy Spirit sweeps back and forth, applying all the grace of Christ to us in each area, working the three aspects at the same time. All the grace of God is in Christ. When we have Christ we have all redemption and all of God. Christ is the All Things of God.

The three deaths and three resurrections we have presented are but one way of examining and thinking about our experience of following Christ and growing in Him. It is not necessary that we understand all the ways of the Lord in order to be redeemed. Many saints are incorrect in their doctrine but correct in the attitude of their heart toward Christ. Our responsibility is to love Christ and to be faithful to Him. The Spirit of God will do the rest whether or not we understand what is taking place.

We do not have to understand doctrine perfectly in order to love God and to be loved of God and received of Him. Yet we have found that unless people believe that God has something available for them they do not reach out and lay hold on it.

Those who do not believe in salvation are not saved. Those who do not believe in Divine healing do not, for the most part, receive supernatural healing. Those who do not believe in tongues or know about tongues usually do not speak in tongues. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).

Those who do not know what God has said about victory over sin do not obtain victory over sin. Those who do not know what God has stated about consecration do not proceed onward in obedience to God. As soon as we discover what God has written about a matter, and then mix faith with God’s Word, we move into the position where we can receive an added portion of redemptive grace.

The promises that have been set forth by us are in God’s Word. The reader can look up the references and determine for himself whether God has promised the glorious inheritance we have described. If he finds that we have been faithful to what God has proclaimed, the reader’s responsibility is to mix faith with God’s Word. If he does so, and is obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit, he most assuredly will receive all God has promised.

Look to the Lord in faith, believing all God has promised. You and I are dust of the ground, God does not expect good to flow from us. His desire is that we may know and understand His promise of redemption, that we may be pointed toward His land of promise.

God is not asking us for wisdom, strength, intelligence, riches, education, or any other resource or ability we may possess. All that God requires is that we believe what God has revealed and that He is able to perform what He has spoken concerning us. The question is not what we can do for God but what God has done, is doing, and will yet do for us, in us, and through us.

The only hindrance between us and the fullness of the land of milk and honey is our own unbelief and disobedience. No power in Heaven or on the earth can hinder one of God’s elect from entering the fullness of the inheritance. No present, past, or future situation, no economic or political condition, no material or spiritual obstacle of any kind, can stop us. The success or failure depends on whether or not we believe what God has stated.

If we believe the Lord Jesus and follow Him we will overcome all enemies and obstacles. If we do not believe the Lord and do not follow the Spirit we will be overcome by the world, by Satan, and by our own lusts and fears.

To God belongs the Kingdom, the power, and the glory. The first death and resurrection bring us into peace with God through the blood of Christ. The second death and resurrection bring us into life lived in the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. The third death and resurrection bring us into the highest glory—the fullness of fruitfulness, and power with God and with men.

We have mentioned four major types of redemption: the days of creation, the pilgrimage from Egypt to Canaan, the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and the feasts of the Lord.

Each of these four types contains seven areas that are combined into three major aspects. The three major divisions are easy to see in the three segments of the Tabernacle, the three convocations into which the seven Levitical feasts were divided, and the three parts of the pilgrimage of Israel (the exodus from Egypt, the wilderness wandering, and the entrance into Canaan).

It is not as easy to see the three divisions in the seven days of creation. The reader may observe that the first three days of creation had to do with the carving of the form of the earth and its environment. The fourth day had to do with a creation in the heavens. Then the fifth, sixth and seventh days found us back on the earth again. Actually the seventh day is universal, there was no evening and morning.

Isn’t this true of salvation? Salvation comes down to us from Heaven and redeems us where we are. Then on the fourth day we become oriented toward our heavenly citizenship. We learn to set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Although our body is on the earth our spiritual nature is with Christ at the right hand of the Father and we are commanded to set our heart and mind there.

The ministry of the Christian Church has been occupied, during the previous centuries, with turning the attention of the Lord’s people toward Heaven because our redemption comes down to us from Heaven. Christ and the Father are in Heaven and the Holy Spirit comes down from Heaven.

We know that no solution to the world’s problems will spring from the activities of people on the earth. The saints look toward Heaven as the only dependable source of wisdom, strength, renewal, blessing, provision, joy, peace, redemption, and every other thing, relationship, and circumstance of value.

Because of the efforts of the Christian ministry to point people toward Heaven for their treasures, their source of joy and hope, the tradition has developed that God created mankind to live in Heaven, that an eternal mansion in Heaven is the goal of the Christian discipleship.

Heaven is not the goal of the Christian discipleship although Heaven no doubt is a place of blessed relief where we can rest until the Lord brings the Body of Christ to the unity and maturity required for His return in glory (Daniel 12:13).

It is our personal belief that the saints go straight to Heaven, to Paradise, when they die, there to be reunited with their loved ones who have gone on before (Luke 23:43; II Corinthians 5:8).

However, the main hope of the saints, as expressed in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, is that Christ return from Heaven and set up His Kingdom on the earth. The New Testament Christians were awaiting the return of Christ, not that they might return with Him to Heaven but that He might establish His Kingdom on the earth and that they might rule with Him in glory.

We want to be where Jesus is, and He is coming to govern the earth. Christ is returning to sit on the throne of David on this earth.

His Kingdom shall come. His will shall be done in earth as it is in Heaven.

As we are approaching the return of the Lord we have arrived at the last three days of creation. We are coming back down from the fourth-day creation in the heavens, so to speak, and God is orienting us toward His intention to save the peoples of the earth.

The Lord God of Heaven has given to Christ the nations for His inheritance and the farthest reaches of the earth for His possession. We also inherit these because we are coheirs with Christ.

The Kingdom of God is at hand and God has promised to bring His Glory into the earth until the whole world is filled with people singing His praise (Psalms 96).

The Scriptures are filled with symbolic portrayals of Christ’s victory during the "third day," that is, during the thousand-year Kingdom Age, and of the three stages of overcoming that constitute our personal discipleship.

For example, there were the buds, blossoms, and almonds of Aaron’s rod (Numbers 17:8).

The buds portray the first signs of spiritual life, of Christ in us.

The blossoms represent the beauty of the sanctified life, the beauty of holiness and of Christ-likeness.

The almonds are the fruit, the Substance of Christ that is being formed in us. The Seed contained in the fruit will bring forth buds, blossoms, and fruit in other lives as God nourishes those other lives from the Divine Life that has been formed and is dwelling in us.

Under Levitical law, when the leper was cleansed, which is a type of redemption, the blood was placed on the tip of his right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the toe of his right foot. Then the holy anointing oil was put on the blood.

The blood and oil on our ear is the hearing and receiving of the Gospel of Christ, the work of salvation in us.

The blood and oil on our thumb is the sanctifying authority and power of the blood as the Holy Spirit puts to death the deeds of our flesh.

The blood and oil on our toe is the consecration of our walk so that we move in obedience to the will of God.

On the third day, the priests of Dagon decided not to tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod because the head of Dagon and the palms of both of his hands were cut off on the threshold (I Samuel 5:4,5). The cutting off of Dagon’s head and hands portrays the destruction of the devil and all his works.

On the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, speaking of the jubilation and rejoicing that will fill the Church at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven (John 2:1).

We now are nearing the end of the "second day," speaking in the kingdom-wide sense. We are entering the preparation for the glorious appearing of the King of all kings and Lord of all lords, Christ Himself.

In our day, many extraordinary events will transpire in the Church, in the world, and in the realm of nature. The interpretation and fruition of all that has gone before in history is at hand. Much of what has been prophesied in the Scriptures will be fulfilled in a few short years as the present age draws to a close.

Both righteousness and sin will come to maturity. Righteousness will conquer in the end.

The Day of the Lord is at hand. Some of the greatest of God’s heroes of faith will be brought forth from within the Church and will perform exploits of revelation and power. This will take place just before Jesus returns.

The knowledge of the Scriptures will be increased. Those who know their God will be approaching maturity in righteousness, wisdom and power. Many will be purified and made white in the fires of affliction and tribulation.

The double anointing, the "ministry of Elisha," now is coming upon the Body of Christ to serve as an advance proclamation of the appearing of the Kingdom of God. Ministries and gifts of all kinds will fill the Church, and the Gospel of the Kingdom will be brought to the ends of the earth in unprecedented power and glory.

It is time now for the holy "remnant" of the Lord’s people to press forward in the faith of Joshua and Caleb and obtain some of the "grapes of Canaan" to bring back and show to us so we may fix our hearts and eyes on the good land of promise toward which the Spirit of God is directing us.

The Spirit is moving among all Christians even now, seeking those who will serve the Lord in total obedience. Christ desires such for His army. The army of the Lord is in preparation now. It will descend with the Lord in awesome power, bringing judgment and deliverance into the earth.

Now is the time for saints everywhere to prepare "victuals" for themselves (Joshua 1:11). There are spiritual treasures coming forth in books, in home prayer meetings, in conventions, in local churches, in Sunday-school classes. Everywhere that Christian people are seeking the Lord the anointing of the Spirit is present and the meat of the Word is being handed out.

Days of tremendous revival, and of trouble and persecution, even now are coming upon us. Men’s hearts are failing them for fear. Only the conquering saints possess security.

The Body of Christ is preparing to go across the Jordan into its inheritance, and Jordan is coming to flood level. The coming of Jordan to flood level is a figurative way of saying judgment is about to break forth on mankind, especially on the members of the Christian churches.

The closer we draw to the coming of the Lord the more we can expect the fire of the Lord to test our imaginations, motives, words, and deeds. Judgment always begins with those who are closest to the Lord.

Crossing the Red Sea signifies our passing from the authority of Satan to the authority of Christ. Mount Sinai signifies death to the lusts of our flesh—death to that which is demonic in us, and resurrection into Spirit- filled life.

Crossing the Jordan River signifies death to human self-centeredness and self-will, and the fullness of Glory in the Presence of God.

We need to lay up rich spiritual provisions in the present hour, strengthening ourselves in Christ, because we must stand firm throughout the turmoil that is increasing.

God is teaching us we are not to fear what is taking place among the peoples of the earth. It is necessary that the latter-rain revival be brought to its foreordained fullness, and then that there be the worldwide falling away from the faith, before the Lord Jesus returns from Heaven.

Through it all, the godly, Spirit-filled remnant will be the source of deliverance for all who call on the Lord.

The way of the Lord must be prepared. The wall of defense against sin must be rebuilt in the churches. The highway of holiness must be constructed in the hearts of the saints.

There must come a clear division between the Church and the world.

The high places must be brought down and the valleys raised. The crooked places must be made straight and the rough places smoothed out. The hearts of the fathers must be turned to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

When we witness the disturbances in nature, the turmoil of the nations of the earth, the issuing of authority and power to the saints, the rise of both righteousness and sin until righteousness becomes exceedingly righteous and sin becomes exceedingly sinful, then we are to look up for our redemption is drawing near. All these events must come to pass before Jesus returns.

There will be no secret "rapture" before the return of the Lord Jesus from Heaven. This is a false doctrine and is to be rejected by those who love God. It is very destructive of the correct interpretation of the Scriptures.

The doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture is opposed to the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Whenever the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and of righteous behavior is presented, those who hold to the lawless-grace- rapture belief will rise up in protest and begin to talk about how much God loves us.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture come from two different spirits and therefore fight against each other. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God will prevail because it is of the Spirit of God. The doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture shall be swept aside for it is not found in the Scriptures.

We are to make straight the way of the Lord. Those who are wise will walk in righteousness and turn many to righteousness. The love of the majority of those who profess Christ will grow cold, but those who do know their Lord will be bearing witness of the holiness and power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is not the will of Christ that we live in fear but rather that we turn our attention and faith toward Him. He maintains a solid wall of protection around us, even when it appears as though everything in which we have trusted is falling to pieces.

The Lord remains in control of all persons, all events, all circumstances. Every moment of our life is known to Him, down to the smallest detail. He will provide our every need if we will put our hand in His and bring to Him our every need and desire.

Because the powers of the heavens are to be shaken, because the contest is between God and Satan, between Christ and Antichrist, there is nothing human beings can accomplish while acting in their own wisdom and strength. We are as dust, and the ancient authorities and powers of the spirit realm are perfect in cunning and of tremendous size and strength.

God desires to use us as a man would put on a glove. Because we are given to pride of wisdom and knowledge, being filled with personal ambition, a desire to please people, a sense of obligation put on us by others, sympathy, and other fleshly motives, God must very carefully bring us to the place where we cease acting in our own abilities and wait on Him in every matter no matter how seemingly unimportant. We can do nothing of ourselves.

Such dependence of God, such leaning on our Beloved, can come to us only through much suffering. We must come to the end of ourselves.

God permits Satan to put us in the prison of the cross. Will we attempt to save ourselves or will we put our trust in the Lord?

Christ asks you : "Will you be saved?"

If your answer is yes, He will bring down your old nature into crucifixion with Him and will raise you up in the likeness of His resurrection. You will be protected from wrath by His blood, received of the Father, made alive by the Spirit of God, and born again by His Divine Substance placed in you.

Christ asks you : "Will you follow the Holy Spirit in sanctification?"

If your answer is yes, the Holy Spirit will furnish you each day with the wisdom and power necessary to put to death the deeds of your body. Your fleshly lusts will be brought into subjection to the will of the Spirit. In their place will flow deeds, words, and thoughts that glorify God and testify of the redeeming authority and power that are in Christ. You will be holy and behave in a holy manner.

Christ asks you : "Will you lose your life for My sake and the Gospel’s?"

If your answer is yes, He will teach you obedience in the school of suffering. He may demand every one of your rights and privileges as a person and as a Christian. Will you allow Him to treat you in this way without grumbling and complaining? Is there any point at which you will refuse Christ?

God will keep on wrestling with you and asking your name until your true identity, your real motives, are clear to God and to you. From the bewildering confusion of the workings of Christ a true love for God will be created in you. You will not be able to explain how God accomplished His work in your personality. God is God.

You are learning to have faith in the goodness of God and in the dependability of Christ.

Father, we thank You for Your great love toward us through Christ, Your Son. We say yes, without reservation, to Your three questions because we love You, fear You, and know there is great reward in serving the Lord.

We realize we are the dust of the ground and You are the Creator. We do not try to meet Your standards by our own virtue, wisdom or strength. We turn to You for salvation, and rest with You in joyous contemplation of Your creation in Christ.

Our sincere prayer is that Your Kingdom shall come and Your will shall be done in earth as it is in Heaven. Send the Lord Jesus back to earth soon that He may enter the fullness of His inheritance as King of all kings and Lord of all lords.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

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