God's Servant Rules the Creation of God

And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people. (Isaiah 51:16)

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (Matthew 28:18)

That in the dispensation 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: (Ephesians 1:10)

Christ is the Servant of the Lord. As representative Man He has inherited all things. He possesses all authority and all power in the heavens and He possesses all authority and all power in the earth, and in the realms under the earth's surface. Jesus Christ sits on the highest throne of all, and we are there in Him and with Him.

Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from 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: (Ephesians 1:20,21)

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 2:6)

In the first chapter of the Book of Hebrews the Holy Spirit describes the glorious inheritance of the Son of God, Christ.

Then, in the last verse of the first chapter the Spirit suddenly changes from the Heir of all things to the "heirs" of salvation; for we too, in Christ, possess the authority to become sons of God. Wherever the promises of God appear in Scripture there is an interplay between the singular and the plural, between the Seed and the multiplying of that one Seed, between the Vine and the branches, between Christ and His saints.

Christ always is supreme, always is the Seed , always is the One to whom all the promises of God are directed. Christ is singular. Because we are one in Him the promises of God are directed toward us also. The single Christ becomes as the stars of the heaven and as the grains of sand in number. Christ is multiplied in and through us (Galatians 2:20).

The Spirit of God, in the Book of Hebrews, interprets the eighth Psalm for us.

But one in a certain place {the eighth Psalm} testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Hebrews 2:6)

What is man? Man is a new creation. No doubt the other creatures of God were astounded when God announced He was creating an order of beings in His own image. It is likely this never had occurred previously.

There are heavenly orders of angels and cherubim. Many of them are of such holiness, such size, such strength, such intelligence, such energy, such glory, were we to behold them we would faint.

But of all the heavenly orders, none of them has been assigned the status given to man. Man is destined to rule the creation of God.

No creature other than man possesses the inheritance of a son of God. No creature other than man has been created in the image of God. No creature other than man is an heir of salvation. No creature other than man is the dwelling place of Almighty God. All things have been placed in subjection to Christ-filled man.

Man is the supreme creation of God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the Members of the Divine Godhead. The members of the Body of Christ are being made one in Christ in God. Oneness in God never can be true of any creature of God other than man, so far as we know.

If we were to ascend into the heavens we would behold orders of personages that would overpower us by their glory and beauty to such an extent we would not be able to continue in contemplation of them without receiving a special impartation of strength from the Lord. Their number is so great and the heights of the heavens to which they attain is so far beyond our ability to grasp that we are the merest specks of dust in comparison.

But high above all such creatures and personages there is a supreme throne. There is no throne above that throne and no other throne on the same level as that throne. It is preeminent. It is over all. It has been established forever by the Lord God Almighty.

On that throne there sits a Man, not an angel, not a cherub, not a seraph, a Man! A Man who has nail prints in His hands and feet. A Man who at one time made His way through the pains and problems of the world.

We are on that throne - high above all other personages - in Him and with Him.

Christ is very God of very God. But His exalted position on the highest throne of the universe is not because He is the Son of God but because He is the Son of Man .

For the Word of God has assigned the rulership of the creation to man - not to man apart from Christ but to man nevertheless.

Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: (Hebrews 2:7)

Man's inferiority to the angels is temporary, for the angels are ministering spirits to the actual heirs of salvation.

Man is crowned with glory - the very Glory of the Father. Man is crowned with honor. God has created mankind to be the ruler of His creation.

Today the Church is struggling against the lords of darkness who have left their first estate; who have taken it upon themselves to govern the earth. But God has given to mankind, and only to mankind, the authority to exercise dominion over all the works of God's hands. Every other creature that attempts to exercise dominion over the works of God's hands is a usurper, a thief, a liar. It is man - the image of the Father - who is crowned with glory and honor in the sight of God.

Yet we must keep firmly in our mind and heart that the Seed of Abraham is Christ, and only Christ, and all the promises of God without exception have been assigned and always will be assigned to Christ.

The shuttling back and forth between the Heir and the heirs, the singular Seed and the multiplied Seed, is resolved by the fact that we are married to Christ and therefore are one with Him and identified completely with Him. We are nothing apart from the Vine.

Man was created male and female. Christ, the Head of the Servant of the Lord, is the Male. We, the Body of the Servant of the Lord, are the "female," in this context, and the glory of the Lord.

. . . but the woman is the glory of the man. (I Corinthians 11:7)

We are one with our Lord. Because of our oneness with Christ, all that has been given to Him by the Lord God Almighty is our inheritance also.

Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. (Hebrews 2:8)

To mankind has been given dominion over all things - things in Heaven and things on the earth. Man, being the offspring of God and the image of God, is destined by inheritance to rule the creation of God.

When the Spirit of God says "all things" He does not mean almost all things. All created works have been placed under subjection to man. Nothing is excepted. The Scriptures cannot be changed.

But we find that in many instances God's people are not ruling in Christ. Rather they are being ruled by evil spirits, by circumstances, by other people, by their own lusts, and by many other things and influences in their environment.

A considerable portion of our Christian experience consists of God gently but firmly removing our bondages and giving us dominion in Christ over things, relationships, and circumstances.

Sometimes the process of giving us dominion is painful. But God's salvation finally brings peace to us if we receive the instructions of the Holy Spirit in an attitude of meekness and obedience. We do not have lasting peace when any thing, person, or situation other than Christ is governing us.

God Almighty is the supreme Ruler of the universe. Directly under God, and part of God, is His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Directly under Christ, and part of Christ, is His Body, the Church, There is no power or personage between Christ and His Church.

God does not want His sons to be ruled by any creature or thing but only by His Son, Christ. God's sons are called to rule, not to be ruled. They are the sons of the highest King of all.

Throughout the entire heavens and earth there is no name, no title, no authority, no lordship, no power equal to that of Christ and His Body. The saints, having been born of God and created an integral, eternally indivisible part of Christ, have inherited the fullness of God.

The angels will be judged by the Church. The world will be judged by the Church. Judges possess great authority. The execution of sentence is determined by their decisions.

Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. (I Corinthians 3:21-23)

All things are in subjection to man when man is one with Christ. "He left nothing that is not put under him."

In the present hour the saints are under tutors and governors as is fitting for the royal sons of the Greatest of all emperors.

"But we see Jesus, . . . ." (Hebrews 2:9).

The only man (not to detract in any manner from His perfect Deity as the Word, Son, and Heir of God) who has received the dominion, glory, and honor promised to man, to the heirs of salvation, is Christ.

Christ is the perfect image of the invisible God. To Christ, the Father has assigned total fruitfulness in the heavens and on the earth. Christ has been given unlimited authority and dominion. Christ is the Judge of all. He possesses all power. He has been crowned with all glory. He has been crowned with all honor.

Christ alone has received the inheritance promised to "man," in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis.

The Lord Jesus, the perfect Son of God, is perfect Man.

In Jesus, man reigns on the highest throne of the universe.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9)

Jesus is our Redeemer, our Kinsman who redeems us (Leviticus, Chapter 25). If it were not for Him, people never could come into their inheritance as sons of God. Through Christ's obedience and atoning blood it has been made possible for us to enter the plan of salvation and to receive the Holy Spirit of God.

Because of our sin we are not able to overcome the power of death. Christ, being without sin, overcame death for us. In Him we too can overcome sin and death and attain eternal life as heirs of God.

For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 2:10)

God the Father is the One for whom are all things and by whom are all things. He is bringing "many sons" to the glory, honor, and dominion promised to mankind.

God brought Jesus along the pathway of suffering because to Jesus has been assigned the rule, under God, of the entire creation in accordance with that which God has promised concerning "man." Jesus learned obedience at the deepest level of His Personality through means of the pains and problems He suffered on the earth.

We also have to learn obedience; and obedience can be learned perfectly and completely only through suffering. It is not possible to attain our inheritance as "man" until God brings us through much suffering. We learn obedience to God in the school of suffering.

We must learn perfect obedience at the deepest levels of our nature if we are to be able to rule successfully under Christ, not seeking our own advancement but always responding to the will of the Father.

The cross comes before the crown. If we suffer with Christ we will reign with Christ. The Christian who never has suffered in God has not as yet received in himself the power of instinctive obedience that grows in the individual who obeys God in the unpleasant trials as well as in the more joyous experiences.

The Christian pilgrimage is a satisfying, a profitable walk on the earth. But part of our journey has to do with learning obedience in fiery trials so we shall be able to reign with Christ without destroying ourselves or others with whom we come in contact. (The unsaved also suffer fiery torments, but there is no profit in their pain unless their problems turn them to Jesus for salvation.)

Suffering plays an important part in the Christian experience. We are refined in the fire. Sometimes God places a desire in us for a relationship, a thing, or a situation, and the desire burns in us with intensity. It is so difficult to refrain from reaching out and taking that which, although perhaps lawfully ours, has not been given us as yet!

While we are in the wilderness of testing and waiting our faith and obedience are being perfected and we are learning to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Jesus.

If the reader is going through just such a season of trial, be encouraged. The test will not last forever. There is light at the end of your tunnel. Every part of your experience has significance in the purpose of God.

Do not force yourself out of the prison in which the Lord has placed you. If you do you may be captured and given a longer sentence. Commit the keeping of your soul to Him as to a faithful Creator.

After the Word of the Lord has tried you, you will come forth as pure gold. The King will send for you, not one second too late - punctually in God's time. Everything you have learned in the school of suffering will be used over and over again as you take your assigned place in the Servant of the Lord.

For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, (Hebrews 2:11)

"He that sanctifieth" is Christ. "They who are sanctified" are the members of His Body. Christ and the members of His Church are all of God, having been born of the one Father in Heaven. For this reason Christ is not ashamed to call us "brethren."

Until we have been born again, Christ cannot call us brothers. Creatures of flesh and blood, of the dust of the ground, cannot be the brothers of the Divine Christ. As long as we continue to walk in our fleshly nature Christ cannot call us brothers.

As the Divine Substance, the Word of God, is implanted in us, we become of the same Substance and Nature as Christ. We are born of God. We are partakers of Christ's broken body and shed blood. We have the same Father. Christ can now call us brothers.

Before His resurrection Christ was the only begotten of the Father. After His resurrection the Lord became "the firstborn from the dead" - the first of many brothers.

We Christians are being made the new covenant, the Word of God, the Arm of the Lord.

Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. (Isaiah 40:10)

The Servant of the Lord rules the creation under God Almighty. The Servant of the Lord is Christ, the Son of God. We also, being members of the Body of Christ, are integral parts of the Servant of the Lord. We share in His inheritance because we are one with Him, having been created from His body and blood and having His Spirit abiding in us. We are the fullness of Christ who is destined to fill the heavens and the earth (Ephesians 1:22,23).