Angelic Conflict part 322: Current work of Christ – 1Jo 2:1-2; Heb 7:23-28; Eph 4:1-13; 1:15-23; 2:4-7.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 322: Current work of Christ - 1JO 2:1-2; HEB 7:23-28; EPH 4:1-13; 1:15-23; 2:4-7.

 

So we turn to our final aspect of this in depth look of the kingdom conflict - our Lord’s present and future ministry in resurrected glory.

 

At least a dozen im­portant aspects of His present ministry were contingent upon the fact of His resurrection.

 

1. Sending the Holy Spirit, JOH 14:26; 15:26; 16:7.

 

The power, wisdom, and guidance given by God the Holy Spirit counteracts and overpowers the arrogance, ignorance, and deceitfulness of satan's kingdom.

 

2. Bestowing eternal life. If Christ did not literally rise from the dead then the promise of giving life for spiritual death is invalid.

 

Eternal life is given so that the power and fear of death, formally held by satan (HEB 2:14-15) may be broken.

 

3. Head of the church and the new creation. As the Head of the new creation, He is able to form the church as His body and give her eternal life.

 

As a new creation, members of the Church, and having a perfected Prophet, Priest, and King, our self-esteem is to be spiritual and not from satan's systems of so-called esteem.

 

4. The work of Christ as Advocate for all believers depends on Him propitiating the Father for our sins and being resurrected to Advocate on our behalf.

 

1JO 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

 

1JO 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

 

Advocate - para,klhtoj[parakletos] = called to ones side or aid, counsel for defense, advocate, comforter. Title is also given to GHS.

 

Satan tries to bring discomfort in our lives because of our sins and failures through self-condemnation and guilt. Yet the resurrected Christ, seated at the right hand of God has thoroughly propitiated or satisfied the Father's justice for all sin and our Lord and Husband, the righteous, Advocates for us at all times and so comforts us in all affliction, even the self-induced affliction.  

 

Does it comfort you that you have an Advocate, a counselor, the greatest lawyer who ever lived and never loses a case, on constant retainer, at the right hand of the Father every single day?

 

Knowing our resurrected Advocate should remove all self-condemnation and guilt and bring comfort even when darkness attempts to remove it.

 

The implication of Christ’s victory is that all believers are rendered irreproachable or free from accusation. Since our sins are all atoned for the accuser has no more claim on us an hence we are set free from guilt and condemnation.

 

ROM 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 

ROM 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

 

ROM 8:32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

 

ROM 8:33Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;

 

COL 2:13-14

And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

 

5. The work of Christ in intercession. A dead man cannot pray. Christ continually prays on our behalf.

 

The resurrection of Christ is specifically linked with His work in intercession in which Christ presents His petitions on behalf of weak and tempted Christians and intercedes for them before the throne of grace.

 

HEB 7:23 And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers, because they were prevented by death from continuing,

 

HEB 7:24 but He, on the other hand, because He abides forever, holds His priesthood permanently.

 

HEB 7:25 Hence, also, He is able to save [deliver] forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

 

HEB 7:26 For it was fitting [such a high Priest we need] that we should have such [toioutos = a category, special, and unique] a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;

 

"such" - toioutoj[toioutos] = a category, special, unique. He is the only Priest of His kind and He has made us such priests in His nationkingdom of royal priests.

 

HEB 7:27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

 

HEB 7:28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.

 

The resurrected High Priest's intercessory ministry means that we never go through anything alone. If no one is praying for us, if we neglect in prayer, He is praying!

 

Satan would like us to believe that we are facing certain situations alone, that there is no one to help or assist. Yet our resurrected Lord, the eternal high priest, is always interceding on our behalf.  

 

6. The bestowal of gifts. Christ gifted men to the Church such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers.

 

EPH 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

 

EPH 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love,

 

EPH 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 

EPH 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;

 

EPH 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

 

EPH 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

 

EPH 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

 

EPH 4:8 Therefore it says,

"When He ascended on high,

He led captive a host of captives,

And He gave gifts to men."

 

EPH 4:9 (Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?

 

EPH 4:10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

 

EPH 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

 

EPH 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

 

EPH 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.

 

The gifts were not given until He ascended on high.

 

Satan would like believer's to think they'll never understand the word of God and they don't have the time to penetrate its wisdom, but the res Christ gave communication gifts.

 

7. Impartation of spiritual power. The resurrection of Christ is a divine standard of power in the New Testament.

 

Just as the deliverance of Israel from Egypt was God’s divine standard of power in the Old Testa­ment, so the resurrection of Christ from the dead is a divine standard of power in the New Testament, especially in relation­ship to His work for the church.

 

It was because of who He was and what He was able to do that He could say in MAT 28:18:

 

MAT 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

 

MAT 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

 

MAT 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

 

The power of His resurrection to the Church is more fully described in EPH 1:17-23.

 

EPH 1:15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints,

 

EPH 1:16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;

 

EPH 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

 

EPH 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

 

EPH 1:19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might

 

EPH 1:20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

 

EPH 1:21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

 

EPH 1:22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,

 

EPH 1:23 which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.

 

It was by virtue of His resurrection that He was able to send the Spirit who would be the channel through which the power would come ac­cording to Christ’s own prediction in ACT 1:8.

 

ACT 1:8

but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

 

It is as the Christian enters into the reality that he has, positionally in the risen Christ, and becomes a partaker of Christ’s victory over death that he is able to realize the power of God in daily living.

 

The power from the res Christ overcomes the attempts by the KOD to wear us down.

 

PHI 4:13

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.