Doctrine of the indwelling Christ part 3. Christ as the Shekinah Glory. John 14:20; Rom 6:1-8Veterans Day: “Oliver North” The 2.4 million bright, brave, incredibly fit and remarkably talented young Americans who have served in our armed forces since we were attacked on 9/11/01 are indeed, all volunteers. As General Petraeus put it during a conversation we had in Afghanistan, "They all came or stayed, knowing they were going to war." For more than a decade, these patriots and their loved ones have made extraordinary sacrifices for this country. They embody the classical definition of heroes: those who put themselves at risk for the benefit of others. On this Veterans Day, these heroes and their families deserve our thanks -- not program cuts -- from the American people they so courageously defend.
“Shekinah” is derived from the Hebrew noun SHAKAN, meaning to dwell. It refers to the fact that Jesus Christ indwelt certain sacred buildings in Israel.
We are focusing on the theophanies of Christ in the OT.
He appeared as the Angel of Jehovah and our example is His appearance to Gideon.
In every case that the Theophany of Jesus Christ manifested in the OT, He came to strengthen, encourage, exalt, comfort, and give orders as commander and chief.
Judg 6:12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, "The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior."
“Hello captain, hello hero!”
Right now the world would consider Gideon a nobody.
Judg 6:15And he said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house."
/It’s not what others might think about Gideon that hinders him, but what he thinks about himself.\
Yet he is assured by the Lord just as we all are when we hear His words.
Judg 6:16But the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."
Gideon is reminded of the cross through ritual. When we partake of the Lord’s supper we do the same.
Judg 6:21Then the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.
It is interesting in our study of the indwelling Shekinah Glory to see how Gideon and an army of 300 defeated 185,000.
/Rom 15:4 or whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope [confidence in the future]. \
Judg 7:16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers.
Judg 7:17And he said to them, "Look at me, and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do.
Judg 7:18When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp, and say, 'For the Lord and for Gideon.'"
Judg 7:19So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.
Judg 7:20 When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!"
Judg 7:21And each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.
/The victory was not in the sword, but in the trumpet blast and the flood of light that spilled into the camp. Trumpet – word; Light – Shekinah Glory; pitcher – body of man.\
How do we break the pitcher?
John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
John 12:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12:25"He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
The death here is spiritual death, not physical death. Christ died a spiritual death on behalf of all mankind. If anyone believes in Him their own spiritual death is taken by Him as a substitute and he has turned to life.
Though dead, the sin nature can still control the soul of the believer through his own choice to let it. This is a grave problem in the CWL.
/The grain of wheat is a picture of potential fruit bearing covered by a hard outer shell. If the shell can be softened and broken then much fruit will be born.\
That hard shell is within the same analogy as the pitcher. If the pitcher is broken the Shekinah glory shines forth. If the shell is broken fruit will be born. The fruit is the production of divine good. This is the light of Christ.
However, it must be noted that we cannot break our own shell. God must do this and it is done through His word. When a seed is in the soil the water in the soil softens the shell so that nutrients may pass through the barrier causing the growth from within which will eventually break through. Water is a picture of the word of God.
/Heb 12:27 And this expression, "Yet once more [first time was with Israel]," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. \
Theologically this is an application of the retroactive and current positional truth of the believer.
/Retroactive positional truth – you are identified with Christ in His spiritual death, physical death, and His burial. In such we are separated from human good and evil. This is the status of the old man.\
All sin was judged on the cross. Human good and evil were not judged on the cross but rejected at the cross.
In the spiritual death of Christ, both human good and evil were rejected from judgment by the justice of God. They were also separated from Christ’s efficacious sacrifice. Being identified with Christ, we have positionally rejected and been separated from human good and evil.
/Intensification of human good results in evil. Certain sins can be parlayed into evil.\
Evil destroys the moral fiber of a people, so that they are unwilling to fight for freedom. Thus a nation is destroyed from within before they are destroyed from without. The same is true about the believer.
/When freedom, the establishment protection against human good and sin, and doctrine, the spiritual protection against human good and sin, are gone, then sin and human good are parlayed into evil.\
The problem of post salvation sinning is solved with the rebound procedure. Evil is a system of thinking, which includes sin and human good. Human good is personal production of what may be considered good and is independent of God. This turns into a system of thinking that separates from God, or is apathetic towards God, or doesn’t need God.
Evil therefore is a destroyer and its solution is not as simple as a rebound prayer. The correction of evil takes a complete overhaul of thinking which can only occur through enforced humility before the word of God.
/Evil therefore only hardens the outer shell of the seed so that even though the believer is alive with Christ, he lives as though the death of his flesh never occurred.\
While sin was being judged, Christ was rejecting human good or evil as the solution to the problem between God and man.
Human good and evil have a dual function. They are both the policy of Satan and the function of the old sin nature which rules our life.
/Through retroactive positional truth the believer is separated from good and evil positionally, so that the rulership of Satan and the sovereignty of the old sin nature are broken positionally.\
The softening of the outer shell of the seed or the breaking of the pitcher becomes a reality when our position becomes an experience through our understanding of many doctrines related to the mystery.
Therefore, retroactive positional truth coupled with current positional truth is the basis for abrogating the sovereignty of the old sin nature ruling human life by means of spiritual death. And at the same time, the baptism of the Holy Spirit (the mechanics for retroactive positional truth and current positional truth) establishes the sovereignty of the Lord in the life of the believer.
/Current positional truth – you are identified with Christ in His resurrection life. This is the status of the new creature in Christ.\
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?
Rom 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Rom 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death [RPT], certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection [CPT],
Rom 6:6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;
Rom 6:7for he who has died is freed from sin.
Rom 6:8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
Rom 6:9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
Rom 6:10For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Rom 6:11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. |