FIRSTBORN SONSHIP OF CHRIST
THE NEW BIRTH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
April 2005
Article 54, Part Two (Continued from March Issue)
TWICE DEAD
12 “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots,” Jude 12.
9 “For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble and fall,” 2Pe 1:9-10.
Proper covenant people (saved church members) do stumble and fall. God predestined that saved people in covenant standing in true churches will be cut off from the election if they do not give all diligence to make their calling and election sure by constantly growing in the virtues of the body of Christ.
Saved church members (proper covenant people, and there are many of them in this lukewarm Laodicean church age) are being cut off out of Christ, Jn 15:1-6; Rom 11:11-22; 1Co 10:1-12; Gal 4:21 thru 5::4; 2Jn 8-11; Rev 3:14-22l. We have our fair share of church and religious activities, hardly miss a church service, perhaps have family devotions daily, and are unaware that we are offering up our children and one another on the altars of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom. We present our bodies a living sacrifice to God; however, our lives are filled with things other than sacred holiness. Being filled with the pleasures of TV, sports, worldly manneof dress, etc., is not being holy. Satan is very wise, while we are naive, but God is keenly aware of the difference.
13 “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live,” Rom 8:13.
When we come to this verse, we would like to say that these people in Romans 8 were not true believers, but the continuity of the context of the whole chapter will not permit that. The chapter requires that these are true believers who are genuinely warned against walking or living after the flesh. Observe that this is clearly the reverse of being made alive in Christ.
Being made alive in Christ in this life is a metaphor, and the metaphor is that we are the body of Christ. Being the body of Christ, we were crucified, died, were buried, and raised again (born
again) into a deified body together with Christ as the body of Christ. Of course, we are not really the physical, now glorified, body of Christ. God is speaking of things which be not, as though they were, Rom 4:17. This is a major Bible doctrine, and the teachings of the elders have
completely missed the application of this very common metaphor in the Scriptures.
We were not and are not literally the body of Christ, and were not really crucified, dead,buried, and raised (born again) into a divine body together with Christ. This is a common
metaphor, and we make a major mistake by not recognizing the symbolic language. The human body of Christ was literally born again into a divine body in His resurrection, 1Co 15:44-50; 2Co 5:16-17.
But our bodies are only credited (counted, reckoned) as being born again in water baptism; at which time, in the metaphor, we were baptized into the divinely born again body of Christ, Rom 6:2-6. That which is born of flesh is flesh (Rom 3:6) but our flesh bodies will be born again of the Spirit into a divine body when Christ returns, 1Co 15:44-54. Currently, our mere flesh bodies are only credited as being divinely born again members of the divinely born again body of Christ.
We are therefore counted as dead to sin and alive to God. However, when one is put out of the body of Christ, he again becomes dead in sins, that is, twice dead. Of course, currently we are only counted to be dead to sin and alive to God. And that is evident by our sinful conduct, Rom 7:14-25.
6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned,” Jn 15:6.
While we are proper members of the Lord’s church, which is counted as His born again body, we are reckoned to be divine members of the divine body of Christ. However, when one is scripturally put out of the church (1Co 5), he is put out of the divine body of Christ, and therefore he is no longer counted as a divine member of the divine body of Christ. He is again counted by the covenants as dead in sins: twice dead, Rom 8:6-13; Jude 12.
9 “For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins,” 2Pe 1:9.
A Protestant tradition says that a person is purged from his old sins when He first believes. That is not true Bible doctrine. Acts 2:38; 22:16; Ti 3:5. Also a person is not saved from
hell by water baptism. Many, if not most saved people, were never be scripturally baptized. We will deal with that a little more in this article, and at length when we eventually return to the study of Gehenna.
Some will say these people were not true believers in the first place; however, the language throughout the Bible requires the metaphoric or symbolic application of twice dead in sins:
4 “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 “And have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 “If they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame,” Heb 6:4-6.
Again, it is clear that our “mind” belongs to our spirit, not our body, and stays with our spirit when we die. The “brain” dies when our body dies, but our mind lives on as an integral part of our
spirit. It is the mind of our spirit that gives direction to both our spirit and our body. Without the mind, both body and spirit would be completely unable to function. When a demon spirit possess the human body, and is stronger than the human spirit, it controls both human body and spirit. If the human spirit were divinely born again, a demon could have no influence on the human spirit or body.
The inner man of Rom 7:22 is the conscience, and we have a good conscience when our mind is taught correctly by the Word of God. Conversely, we have a carnal mind when our mind is not
taught and influenced correctly by the Word of God, 1Ti 1:18-20. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, Mt 4:4; Heb 4:12-13.
THE SECOND DEATH
12 “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots,” Jude 12.
8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death,” Rev 21:7.
We were conceived and born dead in sins (Ps 51:5; 58:3; Eph 2:3), but were not counted as dead (or held accountable for our sins) until we come to the age of accountability, Rom 7:9. When we were baptized into Christ, we were counted as being joined to Christ as members of His born again body, Rom 6:2-6. We were thus counted as being made alive together with Christ. When members of the body of Christ do not abide in Christ, they are cut off and die from the body of Christ, Jn 15:1-6; Gal 5:3; 2Jn 8-11. Then when one’s works are all burned and he has none, into which category will he fall? We cannot deny that he is saved (1Co 3:15), but from what is he saved? He cannot be saved into the firstborn sonship and inherit its divine birthright, but can be saved as a slave or servant son. He will not be divinely born again in the resurrection, but will remain an earth-bound slave under the elementary laws of the physical universe, Gal 4:3,8,19-31; Col 2:8,20-22.
FIRSTBORN SONSHIP OF CHRIST
THE NEW BIRTH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
April 2005
Article 54, Part Three
THE SECOND COVERING OF GOATS’ HAIR
14 “He made curtains of goats' hair for the tent over the tabernacle; he made eleven curtains.
15 “The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits; the eleven curtains were the same size.
16 “He coupled five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves.
17 “And he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in one set, and fifty loops he made on the edge of the curtain of the second set.
18 “He also made fifty bronze clasps to couple the tent together, that it might be one,” Ex 36:14-18.
GOATS’ HAIR
14 “He made curtains of goats' hair for the tent over the tabernacle; he made eleven curtains,” Exo 36:14.
26 “And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair,” Exo 35:26.
Here is the third covering from the top, which is the second one from the bottom. The first covering immediately over the tabernacle was called “the tabernacle.” This second one was called “the tent over the tabernacle.” The two top coverings were just called a covering of rams’ skin and a covering of goats’ skin.
The Ram was used often as an expression of worship, thanksgiving, and dedication, Gen 8:20-21; Ex 29. While the goat was chiefly used for a sin offering, Lev 9:3. Here, the Lord used women to
skillfully spin “goats’ hair” into a special covering to fully overlay the first cover of fine linen, which was colorfully embroidered with majestic angelic figures of blue, purple, and scarlet.
The “goats’ hair” appears rather striking, whether we understand it correctly or not. This is
“goats’ hair,” not goats’ skin, as in the top covering of the tabernacle. Therefore the goat’s “hair” is the matter of special emphasis with this covering. A man, especially with his beard, may have more hair on his body than a woman; however, the Scriptures specifically direct that
women have longer hair on their head than men, 1Co 11:1-16. Man was created before the woman, indicating God’s appointment that the man should be the head of the home, 1Ti 2:11-15.
Hair, therefore, was created by God to provide a constant and very important symbol of submission and obedience to God, first by Christ as Redeemer, by both men and women, and then by all
mankind. We cannot escape this special emphasis of God’s divine authority. Like feathers on birds, hair on animals and on humans serves for identification, protection, separation, and of God’s glory in other ways as indicated briefly here.
GOATS’ HAIR AS A GARMENT
God clothed His holy dwelling place, among His chosen people Israel, with a covering of woven goats’ hair. He used women, skilled in weaving, to weave goats’ hair into this large eleven part
covering over the tabernacle. Each covering of the tabernacle served as a testimony of redemption, by a holy separation to God from the sinful environment of the present evil world. The whole world, all of God’s creation, and indeed the image and likeness of God, was promised to man in the first covenant that God made with Adam. All of this was stolen by Satan in Adam’s sin
(Gen 3), and is still ruled by Satan, 2Co 4:4; Eph 2:2; 6:12.
Joseph grew a beard while in prison, as evidently all Jews did (Lev 19:27), but when summoned to appear before Pharaoh, he shaved it off, Gen 41:14. Jesus had His beard plucked off (Isa 50:6),
probably to disgrace Him as much as to inflict more pain.
The King of Ammon, with ill advise, cut off half the beards and also cut off the garments from about the hips down, of David’s peace envoys. When David heard of this, he sent word to them to remain in Jericho until their beards grew out again, 2Sa 10. This emphasizes the honored significance of the beard with the Jews.
A beard was a badge of honor to the Jews, but the Egyptians usually shaved the beard off. We would expect that God directed Joseph to shave his beard, as a step toward being elevated to the
highest authority in Egypt, next to Pharaoh. Thirteen years earlier, and probably later as well, God had revealed to Joseph that he would be elevated to this high authority, Gen 37.
THE HAIR OF HIS HEAD
9 "I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire,” Dan 7:9.
13 “And in the midst of the seven lamps stands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
14 "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire,” Rev 1:14.
Man was created in God’s image and likeness (Gen 1:26-27), and God is portrayed as having hair like wool. Whether that is true to fact or not, God created a variety of hair on both human and beast. But why was goats’ hair used as the second covering of the tabernacle? 1) Because redemption from sin is the basis of man’s access to God, 2) because the goat was a clean animal often required in sacrificial worship, 3) because the goat was commonly designated as a sin offering, 4) because hair is a covering for man’s head, to signify that he has authority over him, and 5) because hair is at least the symbolic covering of God’s head, Dan 7:9. Since there is no greater authority, it would appear that His hair, being as white as snow, would symbolize that God is without beginning and without end – from everlasting to everlasting.
GARMENTS AND HAIR, WHITE AS SNOW
9 “...the Ancient of Days (God the Father) was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool...,” Dan 7:9.
14 “...His (Christ’s) head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow,...” Rev 1:14.
5 “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: 'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me,” Heb 10:5.
Throughout the Old Testament, countless thousands (perhaps millions) of animals were sacrificed in worship of God. The body of each animal sacrifice represented the physical body of Christ that was crucified, died, buried, and raised from the dead in a born again, divine body. The body of those animals also represented the body of each and all the faithful covenant people as one body, in the same physical body of Christ. All those who are faithful (by grace through faith) in true local churches are counted as being divinely born again members of the divinely born again body of Christ, Rom 4:17; 6:3-6; 1Co 12:13; Gal 3:27.
A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME
5 “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: ‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 “In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.’
7 “Then I said, 'Behold, I have come In the volume of the book it is written of Me to do Your will, O God.’
8 “Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the Law),’
9 “Then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second.
10 “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,” Heb 10:5-10.
The myriads of sacrifices throughout the Old Testament, represented the flesh body of Christ being sacrificed as “the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world,” Jn 1:29,36. The covenant people eating those sacrifices, as properly done in the Passover and in the Lord’s Supper (Ex 12; 1Co 5:7-8; 10:16-18; Jn 6:27-67), prophesied of the faithful covenant people being made one with Christ in this life and in life to come. We will demonstrate this as follows:
EATING CHRIST’S FLESH DRINKING HIS BLOOD
40 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who is seeing the Son and is believing into Him may have everlasting (divine) life; and I will raise him up at the last day," Jn 6:40.
54 "Whoever is eating My flesh and is drinking My blood has eternal (divine) life, and I will raise him up at the last day,” Jn 6:54.
We eat Christ’s flesh and drink His blood by believing into Him, and believing into Him is done by believing and obeying every day the whole day through. We have faith in (toward) God before
scriptural water baptism, and by baptism we are symbolically baptized into (joined to) Him. And, in the metaphor, become as one of His divine body members. And, as one of His body members, we are counted as being crucified, dead, buried, and divinely born again together with Him in His resurrection, Rom 6:1-23.
However, believing into Christ is not a once for all experience. Traditional Baptist doctrine is not Bible doctrine on this point. We must continue believing into Christ or we will be cut off
and become twice dead to God and Christ. We will demonstrate this over and over from the Scriptures.
BELIEVING INTO CHRIST
29 “And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John.
30 “But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him,” Lk 7:29-30.
There are many false churches and their baptism and their works are not acceptable to God. They will point to their baptism and their many good works, but the Lord will not accept them, Mt 7:21-27. Apollos had John’s baptism, but he did not have the authority to baptize others. He did not know that Christ had already come, and had established the church and the New Covenan. Paul had to rebaptize those whom Apollos had earlier baptized, Acts 18:24 thru 19:7.
Apollos had to be taught the New Covenant and be accepted into a New Covenant church, which is counted to be the body of Christ and the embassy of the kingdom of God. Christ was ordained as
the New Covenant High Priest when He was baptized by John the Baptist. He thereby received the New Covenant anointing of the Holy Spirit and organized the local church as the official embassy of the kingdom of God.
The church received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost after Christ had suffered and died as the Lamb of God. He then arose out of the grave the third day, creating the new man, and perfecting the way for the church to receive the Holy Spirit, Jn 7:37-39; Gal 4:4-6;Rom 8:23. This qualified the church to be the embassy of the kingdom, as the divinely born again body of Christ.
But the church can lose its identity as a true church (Heb 3:6; Rev 2 and 3), and therefore become a false church. The further consequence is that the church and its members will lose the New Covenant standing and forfeit all the promises of the covenants and the firstborn birthright.
A BRANCH CUT OFF FROM THE VINE
1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned,” Jn 15:1-6.
Jesus is the vine and the members of the true local church are the branches. We must bear the proper kind of fruit in order to remain in Christ. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many branches in Christ are being destroyed. Comparatively few enter the narrow gate and fewer are traveling the narrow way. Satan is ever very busy helping those on the narrow way make the narrow way broader. The fact is that Satan succeeds in getting many to travel the broad way, thinking that all is well and they are just fine. They have been blinded and callused as to what the narrow way is and what the difference of the outcome is.
LET HIM BE TO YOU AS A GENTILE
15 "Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
16 "But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.'
17 "And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector,?” Mt 18:15-17.
A Gentile is one who belongs to the nations, not to the covenant people. When a church member is scripturally dismissed from a true local church, that person is no longer a part of God’s elect
nation. The covenants recognize only one nation as God’s elect people. That nation is Israel, and is under God’s punishment through the end of this age, which is not far away.
This is a major theme in the Bible, and we are always dealing with it, though we do not use the word nation very often. Covenant people is a term often used along with firstborn sonship, yet in all cases we have the great nation of chosen covenant people under consideration. God is preparing a great nation of divine people who will forever rule jointly with Christ over all other nations. These nations will forever remain in mere flesh bodies. The divine body is promised in the covenants only to the faithful covenant people,who diligently discern and endure God’s severe covenant discipline in this life. If the church does not faithfully pursue proper church discipline, we can be assured that God is doing such.
DELIVER SUCH A ONE TO SATAN
5 “Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,” 1Co 5:5.
This is worded very differently in God’s commission to Paul, and the explanation is clear.
15 "So I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
16 “'But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet
reveal to you.
17 “'I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you,
18 “'To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are
sanctified by the faith into Me,'” Act 26:15-18.
12 “Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 “In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,” Col 1:12-14.
These things are accomplished only in a true local church. How, then, can Paul say to deliver an unfaithful church member to Satan that these things may be fulfilled? The fact is, there is a little left out of 1Co 5:5 that we otherwise find all through the Scriptures. Paul had in mind here in 1Co 5:5 the same thing he had in mind in 2Th 3:6-15 and 2Co 2:5-11.
The grossly disobedient member is to be out of the church and fully admonished if possible. Of course, these things should be being taught all the time before the church and at home, so that every church member is aware of the glorious eternal benefits of being a faithful church member, and what the eternal judgments will be for unfaithful church members and all saved people outside true churches, or outside true covenant relationship in the Old Testament.
The church member who was delivered to Satan came to his senses and was received back into the church (2Co 2:5-8). Faithful obedience (by grace through faith) within a true local church is the
only way and the only place the sinful flesh can be destroyed. This is done by presenting one’s body a living daily sacrifice: bearing about in our bodies the dying of Christ that the Life of Christ may be exemplified in us, Rom 12:1-2; 2Co 4:7-12. The promise is a new birth into a
divine spirit and body when Christ returns, 1Pe 1:3-5; 2Pe 1:4; 1Co 15.
OLIVE BRANCHES IN THE BODY OF CHRIST
11 “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.
12 “Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!
13 “For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14 “If by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
15 “For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
16 “For if the
firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
18 “Do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19 “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’
20 “Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
21 “For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
22 “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off,” Rom 11:11-22.
These passages should strike terror into our hearts. If there is no terror in our hearts, then we are in an extremely dangerous state of being. We are the Laodicean church (Rev 3:14-22), and
are blinded to our real spiritual condition. We recognize that we are the Laodicean church, but we cannot understand that we are in this lukewarm condition. Observe that the Laodicean church is indeed very active and productive. It appears to be on fire for the Lord, but is doctrinally
deceived much like the Pharisees, Mt 23; Rom 10:1-3.
ABRAHAM HAD TWO SONS: A SLAVE SON AND A FREE SON
19 “My little children, for whom I labor in birth gain until Christ is formed in you,
20 “I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.
21 “Tell me, you who desire to be under the Law, do you not hear the Law?
22 “For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.
23 “But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise,
24 “Which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar.
25 “For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
26 “But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.
27 “For it is written: ‘Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.’
28 “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
29 “But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.
30 “Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? ‘Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.’
31 “So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free,” Gal 4:19-31.
Abraham had a slave son by Hagar, who was a slave woman, Gen 15 thru 25:7. God held Sarah back from having children until she was 90 years old, and until Ishmael was born and was 14 years old. This was done to provide this very explicit allegory of Gel 4:21-31. The allegory reveals conclusively that from before creation, God’s eternal purpose included providing two very
different kinds of sons out of the human race: 1) a great nation of divine firstborn sons who will be born again into a divine state of being when Christ returns, and will share in all the divine
attributes of God, and 2) many nations of mere flesh born sons who will remain forever under the elementary laws of the physical universe, and will be ruled over by the firstborn sons, Ps 2:7-12;
Rev 2:26-27.
This firstborn emphasis is first clearly presented in Gen 4:4 where Abel offered of the “firstborns” of his flock. Obviously, this purpose of God was well taught and understood before Gen 4:4, when Abel offered of the firstborn of his flock. See also Eph 1:3-5 and 1Pe 1:18-20. The servant sons will still exist in sinful bodies during the Millennium, under the basic laws of
the physical world. On the new earth sin will be banished (2Pe 3:13), and the nations will be there in sinless bodies, but will still be slaves under the elementary laws of the physical universe.
There will be no nations and no male and female distinctions among the firstborn sons, Gal 3:28; Lk 20:35-36. They will be made divine and will share in the full range of divine attributes, according to their degree of faithfulness by grace through faith while in this earthly life.
9 “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him,’" 1Co 2:9.
The unfaithful saved of the nations will dwell on the new earth in perfect, sinless, utopian societies. Sin and death will be banished in the lake of fire; however, they will constantly be aware of who they are and why they are who they are. They will be daily observing the many activities of the firstborn sons endowed with divine power and glory beyond human comprehension, as stated in 1Co 2:9. See also Gen 1:26; Ps 17:15; Ep;h 3:21; 2Pe 1:4; etc.
God has ordained that the Gehenna conscience of the nations will forever torment them, Mk 9:42-50. The greater their opportunity to be faithful in this current life, the greater the conscience of the unfaithful saved of the nations will afflict them eternally, Heb 10:26:31. The Holy Spirit will torment their conscience eternally. The worm will not die and the fire will not be quenched, Mk 9:42-50. Gehenna is not hell nor the lake of fire, but is the conscience of the
unfaithful saved in mere flesh bodies eternally, 1Co 3:15; 2Ti 2:19-21; 2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:23-26.
A GREAT HOUSE
19 “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands fast, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’
20 “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.
21 “Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work,” 2Ti 2:19-22.
The church is God’s house (1Ti 3:15) which includes firstborn sons only. God is chastening (training, proving) everyone in this house to become divine firstborn sons. Those who endure and
properly finish this training requirement, will be born again into a divine-human body when Christ returns, 1Co 15. Those who fail in this training will be disqualified and will forever have a mere flesh body in the nations on the new earth.
However, God also has a house which includes sons other than firstborn sons. These mere flesh born sons will be the nations during the Millennium and on the new earth forever, Rev 21:23-26.
The birthright of the firstborn provides for the inheritance of God’s divine nature (2Pe 1:4), not just a double portion, but all that the Father has (joint heirs of all things together with Christ), Gen 25:5-6; Rom 4:13; 8:17,32.
But in the great house of 2Ti 2:10-21 there are also vessels of dishonor, sons other than firstborn sons. These vessels for dishonor do not purge out the various lusts of the flesh. All their works will be burned, but they will be saved, so as by fire, 1Co 3:15 . They will be saved, but they will not inherit the firstborn birthright of the divine nature, and therefore will forever be servant sons under the elementary laws of the physical universe.
ALL THEIR WORKS BURNED
14 “If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 “If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire,” 1Co 3:14-15.
He will be saved from what? From hell and the lake of fire, which is much worse punishment eternally. God has ordained that the unfaithful will be saved in the nations on the new earth.
44 "Where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched,' Mk 9:42-50; Mt 5:22,29-30; 10:28; 18:9-10; et al.
All their works will be burned, yet they will be saved so as by fiery judgment, 1Co 3:15. They cannot be called faithful, and cannot be saved except by the skin of their teeth, Job 19:20. Of course, Job’s reward will be great indeed. The unfaithful will not be firstborn sons of the great covenant nation, who receive the birthright, but will be servant sons who will be ruled over eternally by the firstborn sons, Gen 27:27-37; Rev 2::26-27. They will not be vessels of “gold and silver,” but vessels “of wood and clay,” 2Ti 2:18-21. They will not be free firstborn, divine sons, but will be slave sons to the basic elements or laws of the world, Gal 4:3,8,19 thru 5:5.
COUNT HIM AS A BROTHER
14 “And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.
15 Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother,” 2Th 2;6-15.
Study this entire passage well. The church is to exclude from its membership every member who lives disorderly. That person is to know that his manner of life is very displeasing to the Lord,
and though he is no longer counted as a firstborn son, he is to be counted as a brother: other than a firstborn son. This is a person whose works will be burned at the judgment seat of Christ (2Co 5:10-11), and we are to know the terror of the Lord by this judgment. We should be greatly sobered by God’s judgment upon such members, and we should also be greatly grieved in view of the Lord’s churches failing to patiently but surely execute any of these required judgments.
|
