The Inheritance

Next Part: Peter describes the wilderness of testing:

There are three concepts, three platforms of redemption that appear as we commence the study of the parallel between the redemption in Christ and the journey of the Hebrew people from Egypt to Canaan.

The first concept is that of God’s chosen people in slavery in Egypt, and their coming out, in fulfillment of God’s purpose, in accordance with His eternal wisdom and strength.

The second concept concerns the pilgrimage of God’s chosen people through a barren wilderness.

The third concept involves the battles of the people of the Lord as they make their way into their inheritance, "the land of milk and honey."

The first of the three platforms of redemption, which is God’s chosen people coming out of Egypt, is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God when an individual, through Christ, escapes from bondage to the spirit of the evil age in which we live.

The bondage of the unsaved man or woman, boy or girl, is not that of the physical earth. Until we understand that the land of Egypt is a type of the spirit of the age and not a type of the planet Earth itself, it is difficult for us to understand the events and the goal of our Christian discipleship.

The land of Egypt is not a symbol of the physical earth. Egypt is a symbol of the spirit of the world. Pharaoh is a symbol of Satan. People are not in bondage to the earth itself.

The earth was created by the God of Heaven and He declared that it is good (Genesis 1:10). The earthis good. There is nothing wrong with the earth except the curse of thorns and wearying labor that God placed on it because of sin. Rather it is the spirit of evil dominating the earth that is producing the repulsive fruit of sin. The blood of Jesus has the power to cleanse us from this filthy spirit.

During the process of becoming a Christian we accept the blood atonement made by Christ as the payment for our sins. We are baptized in water as a sign of our forsaking the world. The Lord God gives us a new heart and spirit. God plants the Divine Seed, Christ, in us and gives us His Holy Spirit. We are born again of the Divine Nature. By these acts of redemption God rescues us from the authority of Satan and moves us into the Kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13).

God does not move us from theearth when we are saved. He moves us from thespirit of the world. It is important that we grasp the difference between being redeemed from the earth and being redeemed from the bondage of evil. If we remain in the belief that God is performing His works of grace in us so He can move us from earth to Heaven we will not understand the plan of redemption.

The purpose of redemption is not to move us from the earth to Heaven. The purpose of redemption is to move us from the kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of Christ.

The redemption of the Christian believer is not to move from the earth to Heaven. Rather, it is to move from the control of Satan to the control of Christ. An understanding of this distinction makes a great difference in the way in which we view God’s working in us. For if we regard Heaven as the land of promise and the earth as Egypt, we will sit down spiritually and wait for Jesus to come and take us to the land of promise in the sky.

If we regard the fullness of our inheritance in Christ as the land of promise, and bondage to the will of Satan as Egyptian slavery, we will take up our cross and follow the Lord. We will put on an attitude of battle and of overcoming the enemies of Christ until we bring ourselves and our environment into subjection to God’s will, as the Holy Spirit enables us.

Waiting for Christ to carry us to Heaven, and bringing ourselves and our environment under subjection to the will of God in Christ, are two very different approaches to the Christian life.

As we have stated, the first area of conquest is that of God’s chosen people enslaved in Egypt, and their coming out of Egypt in fulfillment of God’s purpose for them, by His wisdom and strength.

When we receive Christ as our Savior we are declaring that we desire to leave the bondage of Satan and enter the Kingdom of Christ, the rule of Christ. God in His love and mercy has made it possible for us to do that. God points us toward the land of promise, the land of milk and honey: perfect rest in God in Christ, freedom from sin and rebellion, conformity to the image of Christ, and authority and responsibility as one of God’s eternal kings and priests.

There is a land of tremendous glory and joy toward which we are pressing. The land will be ours in solid reality one day if we do not remove our eyes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

The second of the three platforms of redemption is that of God’s chosen people wandering in a barren desert.

What is the Christian counterpart of the wandering of the Hebrews in the wilderness of Sinai? Any experienced disciple of Christ can give the answer. It is the period of transition from obedience to Satan to obedience to Christ. It is the time when we are endeavoring to master the Divine curriculum. The wilderness is the school of the Holy Spirit.

As soon as we receive Christ as our Savior we are brought out of Egypt (the authority of the spirit of the world) by the power of God. But we are not immediately in the land of promise. Rather, we find ourselves in an intermediate position.

We know from the Scriptures and we feel in ourselves that God has accomplished something for us and in us. Our life has been changed. The Scriptures have become understandable to us, although not all at once. We possess the certainty that God has called us out of the world spirit and that we have a new heart and a new spirit with which to serve Christ.

There still is much confusion, a multitude of problems, doubts, fears, unbeliefs, dilemmas, whereas the Scriptures promise peace that passes understanding, a light burden, joy such as the world cannot give, miraculous power, and rest in Christ. The transitional area, in which the Christian has been delivered from the spirit of the world but is not as yet enjoying the fullness of victory in Christ, the fullness of resurrection life promised to us by the Lord Jesus, is the Christian wilderness wandering.

The wilderness is a place of necessary lessons and experiences for us. We have much to learn about God, about ourselves, about the enemy and his ways. We learn God’s laws and God’s ways while we are making the transition from the life of the flesh to the life of the Spirit.

The wilderness is not an enjoyable situation in which to be, and attempts to make it enjoyable can remove us from God’s will unless we are following the Lord closely.

When God imprisons us by circumstances, as He often does with His saints, we cannot escape from God’s prison before God’s time without breaking God’s laws. To attempt to live in a paradise in the world requires that we do so at the expense of other people. But to take what we want when it brings pain to other people is not acceptable to the Lord. We will be judged and punished for our selfishness some day—as indeed we should be.

The Lord understands well that if we were brought immediately from Egypt to the land of promise we would never learn aboutHim because of the multitude of enjoyable circumstances and things that would then be available to us. Also, we would not be able to stand in battle for the possession and maintenance of the land.

God keeps us in difficult circumstances for a considerable period of time because of the transformation that must occur in us if we are to lay hold on the fullness of our inheritance in Christ. Every pain, every tear, every doubt is necessary. God is loving and never for one moment allows us to suffer without a reason. All things and experiences are bringing us toward an unimaginably great inheritance in and with Christ. Our task is to be patient and to follow the Holy Spirit as He administers the necessary experiences and blessings to us.

Next Part: Peter describes the wilderness of testing:

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