Nine Aspects
CHAPTER II NINE ASPECTS OF THE DWELLING OF CHRIST IN THE BELIEVER
The dwelling of Christ in the believer can be described in nine aspects. It should be kept in mind that these nine aspects are not experienced in order of progression like the grades of an elementary school. Rather, they are nine dimensions of the one plan of redemption in Christ.
The nine aspects are as follows:
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.
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:13)
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25)
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (I John 1:7)
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:54)
The habitation of God is being constructed of people—the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is the Cornerstone of the building (I Peter 2:6).
Every one of us has a sinful nature and commits sins of imagination, thought, word, and deed each day of his life. God is holy beyond all our ideas of holiness. His absolute perfection of purity and righteousness makes it impossible for God to be with us or work with us while we are committing sin.
God’s solution to the problem of our sinning is the blood of Christ, the sacrificial Lamb of God.
The blood of Christ works powerfully in the life of each believer. First, the blood covers us during the times that God executes judgment on sin.
God poured misery and destruction on the land of Egypt. When God determined to take the life of the oldest child of each family of the Egyptians, God instructed the Israelites to smear blood on their door posts.
While you are studying the plagues that came upon Egypt (Exodus, Chapters Seven through Twelve), notice that God made a distinction between the Israelites and the Egyptians such that the Israelites were not afflicted by the plagues. The Israelites were the descendants of Abraham, who was the called of God. They were not struck by the plagues that preceded the Passover even though the blood of the lamb had not as yet been smeared on their doorposts. However, the males had been circumcised.
During the greatest plague of all, the slaying of the firstborn of man and beast, it was necessary that a blood-covering be placed over the Israelites. The wrath of God was so fierce and the judgment on the gods of Egypt so devastating that the Israelites would have been swept up in the execution of the sentence of death.
Life was being taken from the earth by the Lord God. The Divine vengeance was falling on the cursed demon-worship of Egypt.
Divine holiness and righteousness were being renewed before the Face of God Almighty and the Israelites were in jeopardy of their own lives. It was necessary that the blood-sign be placed over the dwellings of the Israelites, anticipating in type the atonement made by the Lamb of God who was to be offered over a thousand years later on the cross of Calvary.
When God passes through our land today to strike the gods of lust, of violence, of covetousness, of murder, sorcery, self-indulgence, trust in secular knowledge and wisdom, lying, stealing, perversity, love of pleasure, we must claim the Passover blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as the blood-shield over our household.
Terrible judgment comes upon a nation when its citizens turn away from God and look toward satisfying the lusts of the flesh, and toward the astrologers, witches, fortune tellers, and mediums, in order to fulfill their needs and desires.
When the sword of the Lord begins to renew His way on the earth (and it always is God who directs the judging and destroying—Satan has no authority or power in destruction except as God commands—Isaiah 54:16; Amos 3:6) the only protection available is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood alone can prevent the destroying angel from coming into our household and executing the Divine sentence on us.
As our characters are in the process of being formed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ, the Passover blood continues to protect us from the destruction that is falling all around us (Psalms 91).
The blood of Jesus does more than shield us from God’s judgment. Included in the authority and power of the blood of the Lord Jesus to make an atonement for sin are the following effects: covering, forgiveness, cancellation, mercy, reconciliation, propitiation, annulment, adjustment to differences, justification, restoration, remission, cleansing, purging. The blood covers us until we have been made perfect in Christ.
There may be no one English word that carries the complete meaning of the expression make atonement . The phrase restore completely to Divine favor comes fairly close to the meaning of "make atonement." The reconciliation of man to God is the key thought.
The blood of Christ protects us, covers our sins and shortcomings from God’s sight, is the basis for God’s forgiveness, satisfies the demands of justice when the laws of righteousness are violated, and has the power to purge all unrighteous behavior from us.
In addition, the blood of Christ is our life. Jesus invites every human being to drink His blood so that he or she may live by Him as He lives by the Father.
There are two areas of redemption involved in making an atonement for our sins. The first area is that of forgiveness of our sins, the wiping of the record clean. The second area is that of deliverance from the power of sin so that we do not keep on committing sins while we are serving God is this life and in the life that is to come.
The Temple of God, the Body of Christ, always must be in a state of guiltlessness (justified) by confession and repentance; and also must be morally strong—moving consistently toward righteous, holy, and obedient behavior so that sin no longer has any part in it.
The making of an atonement includes two major actions: (1) the satisfying of justice because of the violation of Divine law; and (2) the removing of the tendencies and consequences of sin from the believer and the repairing of his whole personality.
Forgiveness and cleansing, cancellation and deliverance, freedom from both the guilt and the power of sin, remission and purging, mercy and healing—these are the two effects of the blood of Jesus, the two areas of grace that work together as we humans press on toward the fullness of the indwelling of God and Christ through the Holy Spirit.