The Body and Blood of Christ.

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There is a very great difference between the written Word and the living Word. There is a great difference between doctrine and the Man, Christ Jesus. There is a great difference between religion and eternal life. The Pharisees knew the Bible, but the Lord Jesus said, "You won’t come to me!" The Greeks who came to Philip wanted to see Jesus. The did not come to learn about a new religion. Mary wanted to know where they had laid her Lord, not where they had laid her Bible.

(8/27/2007) The expressed goal of the Apostle Paul, and it ought to be our goal, was to attain to the resurrection from the dead. It appears we know virtually nothing about the resurrection of our body, although the resurrection of our body is among the central goals of the Divine redemption.

Since the last century there has been tremendous emphasis on the ascension which follows the resurrection of our body. This is human thinking. We want to escape trouble. So we picture that any day now we all will be caught up to Heaven and never have any more trouble. There is no scriptural support for this familiar doctrine. It is not the way God works. God saves us in the lions’ den.

Actually the Scripture does not emphasize our ascension to meet the Lord in the air (not in Heaven, as is supposed, but in the air, in preparation for our descent to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth).

What is not commonly understood, it would seem, is that we have to experience resurrection before we can be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Our body will be raised from the dead, just as was true of the Lord Jesus. However, this is not something to be taken for granted. It is the product of effort on our part, just as Paul pointed out to us as He pressed forward toward the mark.

Before we can experience immortality in our body, our inner nature must experience resurrection.

What is the nature of resurrection life in our inner nature? The resurrection of our inner nature is the body and blood of Christ. Christ is the Tree of Life. It only is by eating and drinking of Him continually that we grow in resurrection life so we can be caught up to meet the slain Lamb in the air when He descends from Heaven.

How do we go about feeding on the body and blood of Christ? Only the victorious saint is authorized to eat from the Tree of Life. It is not a matter of correct doctrine or of theologic belief. It is a matter of overcoming sin. We gain access to the Tree of Life by overcoming the forces that would keep us from doing the will of Christ.

Let us say we are bound with a spirit of unforgiveness, of revenge, of getting even. There is someone we hate. The Apostle John would say we are a murderer, and no murderer has eternal life in him.

So what do we do? We call upon Christ for deliverance. We confess our spirit of hatred and murder and turn away from it. We ask Christ to remove this spirit from us. This He will do if we are sincere. Once that spirit leaves us we receive a portion of the body and blood of Christ. This is our inner resurrection that absolutely must precede our resurrection to life when Christ appears.

The same program pertains to pornography, to gossip, to pride, to arrogance, to alcohol, to drugs, to fornication, to every form of sexual perversion. Every time we seek deliverance from these spirits of death, calling upon the Lord for help in turning away from them, we are nourished with the "hidden manna," with the body and blood of Christ.

There is a world of difference between correct theology and feeding on the body and blood of Christ. Belief is belief. Reading is reading. Knowledge is knowledge. But eternal life comes from none of these, only from feeding on the Tree of Life.

Correct theology will bring us to the Man. Reading should bring us to the Man. Doctrine should bring us to the Man. It is the Man who is Salvation.

Religion should be a school that brings us to eternal life, that is, to the Man, Jesus Christ. Oftentimes, however, religion becomes an end in itself. It is seductive. How many wars have been fought because believers desired to propagate or defend their religion. All violence in the name of religion is for the purpose of defending or propagating the religion; it never is for the purpose of defending or propagating the Man, Christ Jesus.

Christ never, never, never condones violence. He stands courteously at the door of the heart and knocks, whether we are a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, or an agnostic. If we are willing to open that door, we will dine with Him—He on our obedience and adoration; we on His body and blood.

Let us by all means meditate in the Old and New Testaments every day. And then let us look up from the printed page and gaze on Him who alone is Eternal Life.

You can hear the morning sermon at morning. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

You can hear the evening sermon at evening. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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