Hebrews
13:3
"Remember
them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer
adversity, as being yourselves also in the body."
So
even these Jewish believers, to whom this Epistle of Hebrews was
addressed, does not make reference to the Church, as the Body as Paul
does in the Church Epistles, nevertheless these Jewish-Christian
believers were considered by the Apostle as members of the One Body
of Christ, just as the Corinthian believers were.
We
do not put the Old Testament saints who were believers into the Body of Christ. We know
there are some that would disagree with that, but we just can not see
them in the Body. Why? Because though they may have had a vision of it, it was still just a far off object. For they saw only a shadow of it, not the tree
itself. They are saved, and in a division all their own, and of
course that is why we make the separation as we teach that God dealt
with Israel on the one hand, but He is dealing with the whole world’s
population over here, on this side of the Cross in the calling out of
the One Body of Christ. These are two separate entities, and even in
eternity, we do not have two but one because we will forever lose
that individualized identity. For this is the meaning of the parable of the days
wages given to all the laborers being the same amount at the end of
the day. The Body of Christ, and the Covenant people of Israel will
always be separate. Or will they? Because of the parable just
revealed. The individual, Hebrew who comes out from among them and
puts his or her past to death. These people all become members of the
One Body through the same gate through which we are all required to
enter by faith. For God has only one way for us all and Jesus reveals
this way for all to follow Him in like fashion. Starting at the Last
Supper on through His ascension. God has a special role for each of
us, and we can find nothing in Scripture that refutes that. But our reward is the same, union within the kingdom, the kingdom life is our only reward. For God the Father of the spirit life, is the Master of the kingdom, and He paid all the same wage, a penny for the day mattered not whether I was first hired or the last one hired I received the same wage.
There
are seven unities of the Church, let us point out again that this is
another one of those times that the Apostle Paul ends up with seven
distinct items. Remember back in Romans we had one of those, and
again in the Corinthian letters, if we recall correctly. We made the
point when we were back there, "Do you think the Apostle Paul
sat there and put all his notes together, trying to figure out how he
could make a letter that would make sense? And some how or other he
had to make it sound supernatural so he had to get groups of seven
every so often? Do you think he did that?" No way! We do not
think he ever put a note down, we do not think Paul ever made an
outline in his life. He dictated as the Holy Spirit gave him
utterance, just as Jesus spoke as He was given utterance by the same
Spirit. For He said that He did nothing of Himself. For during His
forty days in the wilderness He learned obedience to the Spirit
within Him, just as we are to also do.
All of the prophets warned Israel of her falsehood and deception through it's dependency on the material and external realm. For she neglected the weightier things of the forefathers teachings as Psalm 78 states. The fathers referenced in this Psalm are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Not Moses though he had revealed them, he did not set the foundation Abraham did. That is why God when He spoke of him said that he was alive or in a present tense, that is to say, I am the God of Abraham, I am the God of Isaac and I am the God of Jacob. No! He said that He was the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, God of Jacob and the God of Israel for in Malachi 2 He states in verse 16, "For the LORD, the God of Israel, said that He hates putting away: for one covers violence with his garment, says the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that you deal not treacherously." This is and was the teaching of Jesus as He reveals that all mankind has but one common Father who resides within the soul of all. And that He has to be acknowledged first and foremost, as the source of Life before true Life can be experienced by anyone. That this is the reason that the first commandment says, to Love the Lord your God with all your strength and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. For within these two are all the prophets and the Law fulfilled. Mark states it best in,
Mark 12:30-31 "You shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. The second is like, namely this, you shall (will) love your neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." But before Jesus made this statement He said this, "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:".
Remember
Paul always used a secretary except when he wrote the book of
Galatians, so he always dictated, and we can just see the little
apostle as he paced up and down the floor, can you imagine how hard
it was to keep those thoughts flowing, and yet slow enough so someone
could write it. Well, of course that was the work of the Holy Spirit,
that every word that came from the man’s heart and mind was Holy
Spirit directed. So here is another one of those unique situations
where he comes up with seven distinct qualities of the Church. Let’s
look at the second one of these seven.
Ephesians
4:4b
"...and
one Spirit,..."
No comments:
Post a Comment