Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed . . . 16

So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty. "What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!'" (Zechariah 4:6,7—NIV)

Putting Zechariah and Revelation together we understand that the building of the Temple of God, which is Christ—Head and Body, will be finished in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound.

We notice also that the work of completing Christ will be accomplished by God's Spirit, not by human effort.

We notice further that as the Headstone (the Lord Jesus Christ) is brought forth there shall be great Divine blessing given from the Hand of the Father.

Therefore we can expect in the present hour a wonderful amplification of the experience of having Christ dwelling in us and performing His righteous acts and His works of power.

The Prophet Isaiah indicates that the bringing forth of Christ in His people will occur suddenly.

In the following verse the Prophet speaks of the first coming of Christ:

Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. (Isaiah 66:7)

Then the Prophet announces the bringing forth of God's children when Zion travails. This means that in the last days a nation will be born at once. The holy nation spoken of is Christ in His Body.

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; (I Peter 2:9)

Compare:

Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. (Micah 5:3)

The travail of the Church to bring forth the Son in the sons is described as follows:

And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. (Revelation 12:5)

We see then that we can expect in our day a tremendous emphasis on Christ in us, producing righteousness in us and bearing witness of the soon coming of the Kingdom of God. We are in the time of the latter rain. The Lord Jesus will come to us as the harvest rain upon the earth.

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. (Hosea 6:3)

"He shall come unto us as the rain."

As we have stated previously, there are four aspects included in the way the new covenant operates. First is the goal. The goal is righteous behavior. The goal of the new covenant is to change us into the moral image of Christ (and finally into the outer, physical image with a glorified body) and also to bring us into total, untroubled union with the Father through Jesus. We stated that our transformed inner man is destined to become the eternal habitation of the Father through the Son.

To be continued. Except Your Righteousness Shall Exceed . . . 17