Review-
We have seen, therefore, that there are at least nine aspects of "Christ in you, the hope of glory." As Christ is formed in us, and the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit come to dwell in the new creation that has been formed in us, we become the eternal Temple of the God of Heaven. The Father will dwell only in Christ. If we would have the Father dwell in us we must have Christ formed and dwelling in us.
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)
"That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."
1. The blood of Christ protects, pardons, purges, and nourishes the believer.
2. The Word of God is planted in the heart.
3. The believer is raised spiritually in and with Christ.
4. The Holy Spirit becomes the life of the believer.
5. The Word of God is nourished and grows.
6. The deeds of the body are put to death.
7. The Word of God comes to maturity.
8. The Father and the Son make Their abode with the believer.
9. The resurrection.
All of redemption is founded on the blood of the cross. God will meet man only at the "door" of the Tabernacle, that is, only at the Altar where the blood of sacrifice is shed.
The Passover blood of God’s Lamb, Christ, protects us and our household. The shed blood of Christ satisfies God’s justice concerning our sins. The authority of the blood working with the power of the Spirit of God purges from our personality the works of Satan.
Also, we drink the blood of the covenant. The blood of Christ is eternal life in us.
The eternal Temple of God is being constructed from the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus.
The Word of God is living Seed. It is sown in our heart. If it germinates, and we carefully watch over it, it will bring forth the Substance, the Nature, the likeness of the Parent from whom it came.
To be born again is to have the Seed of God germinate and grow to maturity in us. We can neither see nor enter the Kingdom of God until we have been born again because the germination and growth of the Divine Seed is the germination and growth of the Kingdom of God. It is Christ, the Word of God, growing in us. It is the incorruptible Seed that comes from God.
Our task as believers is to allow the Seed to take deep root in us so we will not die spiritually in the time of temptation and tribulation. Also, we must be careful that the cares of life do not choke out the Divine Life that has been planted in us.
Some saints bring forth fruit a hundredfold; some, sixtyfold; and some, thirtyfold. How much fruit we finally bear depends on our willingness to allow the Lord to prune us.
In the Seed of God is the potential to bring forth a new creature in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. God desires to bring many sons into the fullness of His Glory.
The sixth chapter of the Book of Romans describes the attitude of faith we must adopt toward our baptism in water. We have entered the death of Christ on the cross, having died to the world. We have entered the resurrection of Christ and now our life is hidden with Him in the Father.
We are to resolve firmly that we have died to the world, to sin, to our whole first life and personality. Our death in Christ frees us legally so that the Holy Spirit can begin the work of removing the sin and rebellion from us.
After we have believed in Christ and been baptized in water, and have been born again of the Spirit of God, we now are free to choose to serve either righteousness or sin. We make the choice.
If we choose to serve sin we will die spiritually. If we choose to obey righteousness, we will receive eternal life.
There can be no sin or self-seeking in any living stone that is part of the eternal Temple of God.
Those who are sons of God learn to follow the Spirit and live in the Spirit. The law of the Spirit, the indwelling Divine wisdom and power, gives us the ability to overcome the law of sin and death that strives continually to keep our flesh a prisoner of Satan’s will.
No human being possesses enough virtue and strength to overcome the lusts and self-will that reside in the appetites of the flesh. When we walk in the Spirit we are able to keep from fulfilling the lusts of our flesh.
God has not called us to struggle helplessly against the sinful appetites of our spiritually dead body. He teaches us to put to death the deeds of our body by the wisdom and power of His Spirit.
Our body is dead because of the sin that abides in it. The Spirit who has been given to us is righteousness and resurrection Life in us.
Being spiritually minded brings life and peace to us.
It is our responsibility to keep ourselves in the position in which the Lord Jesus can come to us in the Spirit and nourish our new inner man with His own body and blood. Christ has been born in us. Now He must continue to be formed in us.
The gifts and ministries given to us through Christ by the Holy Spirit keep on adding glory to our born-again nature. Prayer, meditation in the Scriptures, and fellowship with the saints lend strength to the new inner man.
The Divine Life is in us. It is our responsibility to make sure it is not choked out by the enemy of our souls.
The new Jerusalem is the holy city. The Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is first, righteousness. Wherever Jesus is there is righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God. The greatest error in Christian thinking is that an unrighteous, unholy, disobedient person can have continued fellowship with God on the basis of grace and mercy.
Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. (I John 3:7,7)
If we choose to walk in the Spirit of God, the Spirit will lead us in putting to death the practices of our flesh. Lust, wrath, occult practices of all kinds, covetousness, riotous living, stealing—all must be driven from our personality by the Holy Spirit.
The Temple of God is holy. We are that temple.
There is an omega . There is a place of maturity where we have been formed in the image of Christ in spirit, in soul, and, finally, in body.
There shall come a moment when the almighty God declares: "It is done." Can you imagine that, after all these years of faith and hope?
The eternal Tabernacle of God will come down from the new heaven to reside forever on the new earth. It will be perfect. It will be filled with all the fullness of the Glory of God. It will be the dwelling place of God and the Lamb. It will be an unblemished bride.
The nations of saved peoples of the earth will walk in the light of it.
It will not be an incomplete, imperfect, compromised creation. It will be the workmanship of the God. What God commences God completes—to perfection.
We have spoken of the two end-time comings of Christ:
To the individual believer in fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.
In the clouds of heaven with the saints and holy angels.
The first coming has begun now. It will increase in revelation until it climaxes in the worldwide coming, the Presence of Christ—the appearing of Christ in the air for all mankind to behold.
The perfecting of our redemption will continue until the last enemy has been destroyed and our mortal body has been released from its place of sleep in the dust of the earth.
The Lord’s conquerors will descend from Heaven with Him, coming down in the Spirit to the earth to take up their bodies. When they have been made complete again in their personalities they will be clothed with their glorious reward—the incorruptible house from Heaven.
God has planned His Temple from the beginning.
God has a plan, a blueprint. He knows what He is doing.
You and I have been invited to be living stones in the eternal Temple of God. There are many rooms, many places of abode in that house.
Whether we are saved as by fire without reward, whether we have an abundant entrance of staggering proportions into the Kingdom of God, or whether we are lost forever to the purposes of God, depends upon the faith and diligence we apply to our calling.
By our behavior in the present life we are forming that which will be given to us when we are raised from the dead. That which we are sowing we will surely reap in the Day of the Lord.
God has completed His work and is resting. Let us make every effort to enter His rest, to become an integral part of that majestic wisdom and power that are forever flowing in order to bring to pass all that was spoken during the six days of creation.