Ephesians 4:4-5
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism,"
I Corinthians 12:13
"For by one Spirit (the Holy Spirit, it's capitalized) are we all (believers of Paul's Gospel for salvation) baptized into one body, (the
Body of Christ. Now here's another verse that is as dry as a bone.
There is not a drop of water in this verse. It's the work of the Holy
Spirit and His working in the area of the invisible placing use now in
that new resurrected personage into that relationship within Christ.) whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and we have been all made to drink into one Spirit (the Living and Eternal Life giving Spirit of Christ by virtue of New Covenant for He is the LORD of the Covenant) ."
There is no color or ethnic nor gender line in the Body of Christ, we as receivers, believers are all baptized into the Body of Christ, and we are all one
in Christ. We have meet people from various parts of the country. But
you know what? In just a matter of minuets we all came together as
though we had known each other all our lives. Why? We were all
believers. We were all members of the Body of Christ, and we're not
strangers for every long when you're believers, and it's so beautiful.
Now that just shows the fact that when we become members of the Body of
Christ there is that unity that nothing can take apart.
Now this is what comes alone from
the writings of the Apostle Paul. This isn't taught in the Four
Gospels, this isn't taught in the Old Testament, but Paul is constantly
at it. That when we have faith in the Gospel then we become a member of
the Body of Christ. Now back to Galatians chapter 3. Now verse 27 is too
good a verse to just casually go over. So if you have been baptized by
that Holy Spirit's work into the Body of Christ, then something else has
happened. God has moved us from our first estate into the second
blessing. How by Way of death. And then What? You have put on Christ.
Galatians 3:27
"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Now
we know that maybe some of these things take more faith than the
average believer has. In fact let's come back to Romans again for a
moment. You see Romans is the first Book of doctrine that Paul writes in
our New Testament, and in his writings is where we must spend most of
our time. So turn with us to Romans chapter 3. We looked at verses 10
and 20 so now we'll look at 21 and 22. Remember up in verse 20 it says-
Romans 3:20-21
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.. (now read on in verse 21 and you will see the flip side) "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, (or brought into the spot light) being witnessed by the law and the prophets:" Remember
what we told you that the Bible is a progressive revelation, and here
is a good indication of that. Here we are today in Grace, there is no
Law, nothing that is part of our salvation comes from the Law, but what
does Grace rest on? The Law and the prophets, because they came before.
And they all were an invisible image of Christ in bites and pieces as a
broken clay pot. But when Jesus came they were each brought back
together in a spiritual tapestry in His flesh as the son of man. See
it's a progressive thing. Here comes the Law of Moses, and then here
comes the prophets with all of their teachings concerning the coming of
the King and the kingdom and of course their warnings and condemnation
of Israel's grossness in sin. Then we've seen all that just fall through
the cracks as we come up through the Old Testament, the Four Gospels
and the Book of Acts and the first 11 chapters, and so temporarily
during these past 1960 + years God has turned to the Gentiles and calls
out the invisible Body of Christ the Church. And of course we're built
upon everything that's gone before.
We've
explained, can we crucify ourselves? It's impossible. There is no way a
person can crucify themselves. We might be able to have guts enough to
put the first nail in your hand, but how are you going to put in the
second one or the third? Hey we have no way of doing it, and so it
becomes utterly impossible. So we have to realize it's the same way in
salvation. We can't do anything, God has to do it all, because this is
being done in the area of the invisible – in our regenerated or
rebirthed soul and spirit. Now let's come back again to the Book of
Galatians. So we -
Galatians 3:27b
"...have put on Christ." And
according to Romans we become His righteousness. We are clothed with
His righteousness and that brings to mind another verse we need to look
at the Book of Isaiah chapter 61.
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