Before we proceed I suppose that it must be said that all of Paul's revelation of Christ proceeds from the LORD's Last Supper or Marriage Feast of the Lamb of God and indeed all of His revelation beginning at Genesis 1:1. Because all that is of Christ and all of the revelation was hidden in the figures and types or shadows of the Law and the Prophets from the foundation of the world. It must also be said that much of what has become known as the "Jewish Religion", though it was not to be so called, was but a revelation of Christ from its beginning to its appointed end. For its origin is seen in Genesis 3:15 in "the seed of woman" that would come to bruise the serpents head and the serpents to bruise His heal. But the nation of Israel under the leadership of its Priest's did not see nor understand all the symbolism and metaphoric language because of the hardness of heart caused by unbelief, just as those trapped by the same obstacles or road blocks don't see or understand to this day. These obstacles are but figments of mans imagination and for the most part are also of his own making. That is to say mans intellect because through it Satan has a hay day by or through his false religion. Why? Because man, those so governed, see only the external, material, practical and carnal world which is temporal and passing away with its use. And therefore makes the Lord's Supper of no value through its usage in this manor or habit. Just as the assembly of the many is but a habit and custom of the many.
Ephesians 2:9-10
"Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
This takes us back to Genesis 1:26 and 27 but as is our habit we'll look at the full (26-31) of this passage: "God said, 'Let us (being more than one here speaking is implied) make man in our image, after our likeness': and 'let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth'. So God created man (singular but in many parts) in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
God blessed them, and God said unto them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth'. And God said, 'Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so'.
God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
For on the next day God is said to have taken His rest from creation and by so doing man was made for this rest also as a completion of the process. So this is how and why Jesus could say that the rest (Sabbath) was for our enjoyment (Mark 2:27) of God. For the two spirit and Spirit beings had open communion or fellowship with each other freely and without any hindrance what so ever. For man as such was created in Christ's likeness as a son of God, a spirit being. Which as the Son of man, Jesus could thusly tie all of this in a neat package. When He took the bread and wine as prefigured here as a remembrance of all that He is here symbolized.
Ephesians 2:11a
"Wherefore..."
And the thing we like to point out is that when Paul uses that word "wherefore" it's a flash back of what he has just covered. Paul repeats himself, not as much as we do, but almost as much, so what he's referring to is what he's just covered in these earlier verses of chapter 2. Where he's dealing primarily with the whole concept that we become a new persons in concept, we become a new creation, not by virtue of anything we have done, but rather it's all by faith + nothing. Now we know that rankles a lot of peoples foreheads and raises their eyebrows because they are still under the impression that you've got to do something in the energy of the flesh to merit salvation. Because of what they think that James is saying when he says that "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." in chapter 2 verse 17. The works which no one says is faith's receptivity of God's divine activity just as in creation no one saw Christ as God in creations activity. But if we would just study Paul's emphasis of how we enter into that salvation, it's not by what we do, but by believing and receiving what Christ has already done and God has revealed. We're not to be a doubting Thomas as Israel was and still is because of the blanket which covers them on our behalf. So looking back for a second at these previous verses and see what he says.
Ephesians 2:11a
"Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh,..."
Now immediately that reminds us then to whom is this Apostle writing? Primarily to Gentile believers. Now with these facts, us Gentiles, the non-Jews, we see that this is being so completely different than anything that had happened before, we want to remember that at the time that God called Abraham all most every last human being on the face of the earth were pagan, idolaters, Gentiles. The state into which man had fallen not only into death but through that death to God, sin and the very nature of Satan. But as Luke reveals there were those who were counted righteous by God, a few are listed in the third chapter of Luke's synoptic gospel in Jesus' genealogy, starting at verse 23. At that time there were not any Jews or Hebrews, no Israel and these pagan, idolater, Gentiles knew nothing of the one true God. Except the few who as only a few, a remnant worshiped the Most High God as He was known by the Gentiles. It was at that time God decided to do something different and appeared to Abram, who because he trusted God. God changed his name to Abraham and from him pulled out the Jewish race, and the nation of Israel. So scripturally, we now lump everyone who is not of the twelve tribes, of Jacob, as Gentile. So that includes most of us. Then the Scriptures also refers to us Gentiles as we see here in verse 11, as the uncircumcision. Now let's read it. It should be said that Paul in his letter addressed to the believing Hebrews reveals many of faith in chapter 11 which starts out with, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen". Which is a figure of the dark night of faith as we've been sharing herein.
Ephesians 2:11
"Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision (Gentiles) by that which is called the Circumcision (the Hebrews) in the flesh made by hands;"
The only reason we're going to take the time to do this, is believe it or not, we've had people tell us, "Well I mentioned some of this that you teach to my pastor or Sunday School teacher, and they'll just say, 'Well circumcision doesn't mean anything so far as identifying one group of people, but rather it was just a matter of the surgical process of the flesh. So that doesn't mean anything.'" Well we beg to differ with everyone who has that mindset. When teachers and preachers do that then they're putting everything back into that blender again and mixing it up real good to be able to spoon it out, and God never intended it to be that way. Come back with me to Acts chapter 10, and we're doing this just to show that when the Bible refers to the uncircumcised it's Gentiles, and when the Bible refers to the circumcision, then it's Israel, the Jew, the Hebrews. Right here in a few verses we can prove the point. The main reason we teach is not just for you to learn, but for you to teach others. We're finding that's coming to fruition in so many areas, especially on Face book or our blog spots. People are actually taking what they're learning and using the scriptures, and going out to teach others. This is the way it has to work. Its not being done by the churches so its up to those who the Lord has called out just as He did Abram but with this one difference. We're Spirit trained and lead just as our Lord as the Son of man was and then this Paul we're coping.
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