Before we progress I need to look at one or two other of Clements statements in the first book to the Corinthians again. I'm doing this to show the continuity of the Holy Spirit within those who have passed from life’s separation from God into oneness of unity in Christ to God. Who have by so doing acquired the mind of Christ and the activities of God restored to them through Love, Faith and Grace now being a receptive one again. We'll begin with chapter 14:
“We Should Obey God Rather Than the Authors of Sedition.”
“It is right and holy therefore, men and brethren, rather to obey God than to follow those who, through pride and sedition, have become the leaders of a detestable emulation (those within religions framework of idolatrous and profain activities). For we shall incur no slight injury, but rather great danger, if we rashly yield ourselves to the inclinations of men who aim at exciting strife and tumults, so as to draw us away from what is good. Let us be kind one to another after the pattern of the tender mercy and benignity of our Creator. For it is written, “The kind-hearted shall inhabit the land, and the guiltless shall be left upon it, but transgressors shall be destroyed from off the face of it.” (Proverbs 2:21-22) And again [the Scripture] says, “I saw the ungodly highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon: I passed by, and, behold, he was not; and I diligently sought his place, and could not find it. Preserve innocence, and look on equity: for there shall be a remnant to the peaceful man.”
From here now we'll progress a little farther with chapter 15:
“We Must Adhere to Those Who Cultivate Peace, Not to Those Who Merely Pretend to Do So.”
“Let us cleave, therefore, to those who cultivate peace with godliness, and not to those who hypocritically profess to desire it. For [the Scripture] says in a certain place, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8; Mark 7:6) And again: “They bless with their mouth, but curse with their heart.” (Psalm 62:4) And again it says, “They loved Him with their mouth, and lied to Him with their tongue; but their heart was not right with Him, neither were they faithful in His covenant.” (Psalm 78:36-37) “Let the deceitful lips become silent,” (Psalm 31:18) [and “let the Lord destroy all the lying lips,] and the boastful tongue of those who have said, Let us magnify our tongue; our lips are our own; who is lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, and for the sighing of the needy, will I now arise, says the Lord: I will place him in safety; I will deal confidently with him.” (Psalm 12:3-5)”
One more chapter 16:
“Christ as an Example of Humility.”
“For Christ is of those who are humble-minded, and not of those who exalt themselves over His flock. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Scepter of the majesty of God, did not come in the pomp of pride or arrogance, although He might have done so, but in a lowly condition, as the Holy Spirit had declared regarding Him. For He says, “Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have declared [our message] in His presence: He is, as it were, a child, and like a root in thirsty ground; He has no form nor glory, yea, we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness; but His form was without eminence, yea, deficient in comparison with the [ordinary] form of men. He is a man exposed to stripes and suffering, anti acquainted with the endurance of grief: for His countenance was turned away; He was despised, and not esteemed. He bears our iniquities, and is in sorrow for our sakes; yet we supposed that [on His own account] He was exposed to labor, and stripes, and affliction. But He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed [spiritually united to God]. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; [every] man has wandered in his own way; and the Lord has delivered Him up for our sins, while He in the midst of His sufferings opened not His mouth. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before her shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away; who shall declare His generation? for His life is taken from the earth. For the transgressions of My people was He brought down to death. And I will give the wicked for His sepulcher, and the rich for His death, because He did no iniquity, neither was guile found in His mouth. And the Lord is pleased to purify Him by stripes. If you make an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed. And the Lord is pleased to relieve Him of the affliction of His soul, to show Him light, and to form Him with understanding, to justify the Just One who ministers well to many; and that He Himself shall carry their sins. On this account He shall inherit many (from the nations, gentiles), and shall divide the spoil of the strong; because His soul was delivered to death, and He was reckoned among the transgressors, and He bare the sins of many, and for their sins was He delivered [ Isaiah 53:1-12. The reader will observe how often the text of the Septuagint, here quoted, differs from the Hebrew as represented by our authorized English version.].” And again He says, “I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All that see Me have derided Me; they have spoken with their lips; they have wagged their head, [saying] He hoped in God, let Him deliver Him, let Him save Him, since He delights in Him.” (Psalm 22:6-8) You see, beloved, what is the example which has been given us; for if the Lord has humbled Himself, what shall we do who have through Him come under the yoke of His grace?”(Matthew 11:25-30)
Now we'll jump to chapter 29:
“Let Us also Draw Near to God in Purity of Heart.”
“Let us then draw near to Him with holiness of spirit, lifting up pure and undefiled hands unto Him, loving our gracious and merciful Father, who has made us partakers in the blessings of His elect. For thus it is written, “When the Most High divided the nations, when He scattered the sons of Adam, He fixed the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. His people Jacob became the portion of the Lord, and Israel the lot of His inheritance.” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9) And in another place [the Scripture] says, “Behold, the Lord takes to Himself a nation out of the midst of the nations, as a man takes the first-fruits of his threshing-floor; and from that nation shall come forth the Most Holy". [Formed apparently from Numbers 18:27 and 2Chronicles 31:14. Literally, the closing words are, “the holy of holies.].”
And chapter 30 to complete the thought:
“Let Us Do Those Things That Please God, and Flee from Those He Hates, That We May Be Blessed.”
“Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy One, let us do all those things which pertain to holiness, avoiding all evil-speaking, all abominable and impure embraces, together with all drunkenness, seeking after change, all abominable lusts, detestable adultery, and execrable pride. “For God,” says [the Scripture], “I resist the proud, but give grace to the humble.” (Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; 1Peter 5:5) Let us cleave, then, to those to whom grace has been given by God. Let us cloth ourselves with concord and humility, ever exercising Godly self-control, standing far off from all whispering and evil-speaking, being justified by our works [of His Love and through the power of His blood in grace], and not our words. For [the Scripture] says, “He that speaks much, shall also hear much in answer. And does he that is ready in speech deem himself righteous? Blessed is he that is born of woman, who lives but a short time: be not given to much speaking.” Let our praise be in God, and not of ourselves; for God hates those that commend themselves. Let testimony to our good deeds be borne by others, as it was in the case of our righteous forefathers. Boldness, and arrogance, and audacity belong to those that are accursed of God; but moderation, humility, and meekness to such as are blessed by Him.”
Our hope by sharing these quotes is to help many to see and understand why we do what we do and hopefully you'll gain the more. For as we said above when there is true unity of Faith there is but one mindedness in those whom He rules, as the New Covenant Israel of God, in Christ. Now back to our study and picking up with the thought where I left off, so as not to leave it hanging.
In fact it won't be that long. All we have to do is watch some of our entertainers and some of our wealthy athletes, how long can they enjoy the fast lane? Not very long because the body can't take it. Then when they've reached 50, their health is shot and what for? Where as, we may shun those things (though we join them in there favorite watering hole or what ever, we don't indulge ourselves as is the habit of some) not because we're missing them although the world thinks we are. And the end result is our heavenly position comes to the fore.
Ephesians 1:3b
"...spiritual blessings in heavenly places (and how are we seated in the heavenlies?) in Christ."
Now we have to take you back to I Corinthians chapter 12 where Paul is back there in the area of the elementary things, but nevertheless it's all to be part of our Christian experience.
I Corinthians 12:12
"For as the body (the human body) is one, and hath many members, (hands, feet, toes, etc.) and all the members of that one body, being many, (being many) are one body: so also is Christ."
In other words He's made up of all of these receiving believers that have come into the Body of Christ ever since the beginning of the parenthetical period known as the New Covenant or Church Age, in which Grace is the operative functioning of God through His Love and our trusting of Him. This period of time between verses 8 and 9 of Psalm 2. Here we are in Christ, how did we get there? Look at verse 13.
I Corinthians 12:13a
"For by one Spirit (the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ) are we all (not just a few of the most spiritual but rather all) baptized..."
Now what does the word `baptized' really mean? To be inundated, to be completely inundated. Homer or Plato, one of the Greek classical writers, spoke of a ship being baptized at sea. Well if a ship gets baptized at sea, what happened to it? Hey it was sank, it went down, but it was baptized, why? Because the ocean water filled every nook and cranny of that ship as it went down. And that's what a baptism does, it just simply inundates the receptive person. But remember this isn't water, this is the invisible person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. Who makes us God-children by baptism into Christ's Spiritual Body as One Being re-birthed from the dead.
And He has inundated us in Christ. And when does He inundate us? The very moment we believe or receive this Gospel of our conversion through redemption and then our salvation. Salvation because it's within salvation that we're now God's-children or house of His rule known as the Israel of God, the apple of His eye. No longer part of the world or its religion and paganism, no longer separated from Him but ever present with Him, spiritually speaking. We don't feel a thing, I mean we're not going to shake our head and get the water out of our eyes or ears. We're not going to somehow say, "Ooh, something is happening to me." No it's a silent, unfeeling work of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ and how do we know it happened? By Faith! See again we come back to all these writings of Paul coming up through those epistles of doctrine, reproof, correction; they are all based on faith + nothing. They, the Corinthians, Galatians and Hebrew (those speaken to in Hebrews because remember they were Christians, not Jews) believers were reproved because they had lost sight of what God had instructed. In other words they had gotten blindsided by lack of faith. And it is the same way going back the religious legalism. Why were they leaving Paul's doctrine of faith + nothing? Because their faith grew weak, or stale, without strength and we come up into the Ephesian letter it's that way. How are we going to come close to comprehending that we are already seated in the heavenlies? By faith. We can work in that hole in the ground building a swimming pool for someone when it's 110 degrees and we don't feel like we're in Heaven. But yet we can stand there in that 110-degree heat and we can reflect on this and by faith where do we know we really are? In the heavenlies, now that's what faith does. It sees the unseen reality of God and His spiritual promises to us. So coming back to verse 13.
I Corinthians 1:13
"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles,..."
Not a body of Hebrews only but rather a body of Gentiles and Hebrews, that are rather One Body. For being in that one Body we've given up our identity and hold on the world, the spirit of the world, the familiar spirit which holds sway in the operations of mans religion and the like. We're going to see this really come to fruition when we get on a little farther in Ephesians. This is one of the great parts of the mysteries now revealed to this Apostle Paul in this particular Book, and that is the Hebrew and Gentile who looses his identify when he comes into the Body of Christ. Now finishing the last part of verse 13.
I Corinthians 12:13b
"...whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."
I mean it's so exciting when we sit down at that dinner table and we don't have to press the subject, as some of our guests do, or when we're the guest and what do you suppose we talk about? The Book, the Lord, and there's never any feeling of, "Oh, wish we could get these people to talk about the Lord." It just comes out so easily, because we're all members of the One Body of Christ. Now occasionally we may be in a home or some place else where it isn't that way. And in that case we can almost sense that the people do not have that love for the Word or more appropriately the Will of God. You can tell it right away. If it's a strain to talk about the things of God, if it's a strain to talk about Scripture, then you know there's something lacking, but that's not very often the case. Now looking at verse 13 again.
I Corinthians 12:13
"For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all (every last believer) made to drink into one Spirit." That One Holy Spirit. So now coming back to Ephesians chapter 1, let's look at verse 3 again.
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