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John 1:14 - And the Word (undiminished deity) became flesh (true humanity), and dwelt among us (the Incarnation), and we (James, Peter, and John) beheld His glory (the visual manifestation of the Uniform of Glory), glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (Bible Doctrine).
In our previous lessons we reviewed the doctrines that relate to TLJC in his first advent when he was incarnated via the virgin birth in his first advent.
We started our study with a discussion of the doctrine of the virgin birth that was necessary for there to be no transmission of the OSN and then took up the doctrine of the hypostatic union that explains the mechanics of how undiminished deity and true humanity reside in the person of TLJC and then discussed the doctrine of the kenosis that defines God the Father's protocol for the deity and humanity of TLJC in hypostatic union.
In the context of these doctrines, we have been looking at some of the names and titles for our Lord Jesus Christ in order to see more clearly what God has done for us through him, so we can more completely understand who TLJC is and what he has done for us, and from our knowledge of him have our confidence established in him by being occupied with him. Heb 12:2;
We are now discussing TLJC as the Royal High Priest and believers who are in union with him as members of the Royal Priesthood of the church age and eternity.
Previously in our study we noted that TLJC our Messiah is the Great High Priest Heb 4:14; and church age believers are believer priests 1Peter 2:5-9.
When we stopped last time we were discussing the fact that in every dispensation, salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, and restoration to fellowship is through the acknowledgement of known sins under the principle of 1John 1:9. because there is no spiritual life apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.
The filling of the Holy Spirit and the thinking of our Lord that is recorded in scripture is the basis of the spiritual life and the defeat of the devil and the fallen angels and he is now waiting for the members of his royal family to participate with him in their defeat as they advance in God's plan for their lives..
Heb 2:8b-10; "But now we do not yet see all things having been subjected to Him.
v9 But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, having been crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of (spiritual) death, that by the grace of God He might taste death as a substitute for all.
v10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to bring to completion the leader of their salvation through sufferings."
Just as he was brought to completion through sufferings, we are brought to completion through suffering. Phil 1:29;
This is why the ultimate problem solving device of the spiritual life is occupation with Christ, but we must first learn and use the power options, the spiritual skills and the problem solving devices.
Our Lord is the leader and originator of our spiritual life and he brings us to completion through the application of doctrine to experience in our spiritual life just as He was brought to completion in His spiritual life.
Being brought to completion begins at salvation with justification, continues through sanctification in our spiritual life, and ends in glorification with our resurrection.
Heb 9:11-15; "But when Christ arrived on the scene a high priest of the good things that have come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
v12 but not through the blood of goats and young bulls, but through His own blood, He entered the Holy of Holies once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
v13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the purpose of the purity of the flesh (and they did)
v14, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the agency of the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
v15 And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were (committed) under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance."
Jesus Christ is the anchor inside the veil. He has been brought to completion by His spiritual life, by His efficacious sacrifice for sin, and by His resurrection.
He is the only human high priest seated at the right hand of God in the true Holy of Holies in resurrection body. The greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands is the true Holy of Holies in heaven.
The high priest of the Levitical priesthood entered the Holy of Holies every year on the day of atonement with the blood of a young bull once for himself, Lev 16:11; and he entered a second time with the blood of a goat for the sins of the people Lev 16:15;
These sacrifices were a picture of substitutionary atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord offered Himself as a willing sacrifice and Reality has replaced the Old Testament ritual.
The dispensation of the hypostatic union becomes a wall between the Old Testament spiritual life and the unique spiritual life of the church age. The shadow offerings are replaced by the efficacious once and for all offering of our High Priest.
The blood of animals could not save. They could only illustrate the reality of the future offering of Christ Himself as the once and for all offering for sin.
Heb 9:1-5; "Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary.
v2 For a tabernacle, the first room was prepared, in which were the lampstand, the table of shewbread; this was classified the holy place.
v3 And behind the second veil, there was a sacred room. This was classified the Holy of Holies,
v4 having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holing the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant.
v5 And above it were the cherubs of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail."
The lid on the ark of the covenant is called the mercy seat because of Rom 3:22-25;
v22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, (for there is no distinction;
v23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God)
v24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
v25 whom God has publicly displayed a mercy seat (NET note 33) by His blood (substutionary spiritual death) effective through faith a demonstration of His righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins previously committed."
All personal sins of human history were passed over by God until all sins could be poured out on Christ on the Cross for judgment.
The efficacious substitutionary sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross is greater than the shadow offerings of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. Therefore it follows with stronger reason that the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ has an infinitely greater doctrinal significance.
The high priesthood of Jesus Christ was the greatest offering from the greatest power that was available through the greatest spiritual life that ever existed.
If God accomplished the greater at the Cross, it follows a fortiori, that the lesser can be accomplished in the postsalvation spiritual life of every royal priest through the same spiritual mechanics that Christ used to remain impeccable and to endure the Cross.
If God accomplished the greater at the Cross, it follows a fortiori, that He can provide the lesser in the unique spiritual life of all human history.
This is why we are to be occupied with TLJC.
Heb 12:2; "Be concentrating on Jesus, the leader- originator of our doctrine, who because of His exhibited happiness He endured the Cross, disregarding the shame, then He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
As we have seen, the result is a unique and universal royal priesthood of the Church Age.
In 1Pet 2:5; we are called a holy priesthood, set apart unto God.
In 1Pet 2:9; we are called a royal priesthood.
In Rev 1:6; we are called a kingdom of priests.
This is why there was an empty room in the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem.
The Empty Room and the Sacred Temple of the Church Age demonstrates that church age believers are the sacred temple during the Church Age.
God the Holy Spirit indwells every church age believer's body and creates a temple for the indwelling of Christ that is the basis for the unique spiritual life of the church.
The indwelling of God the Holy Spirit provides a temple, a sacred building for the indwelling of Christ as the Shekinah Glory.
1Cor 3:16; "Do you not know that you are a temple (sanctuary, sacred building) of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
1Cor 6:19; "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?"
The only sacred room on earth is every believer's body after salvation. The only sacred room in heaven is at the right hand of the Father.
The prophecy of the indwelling of Christ is recorded in, John 14:20; "In that day (Church Age) you shall come to know that I am with My Father (session), and you are in Me (baptism of the Holy Spirit), and I in you (indwelling of Christ in the body of every believer)."
This passage shows that Jesus Christ furnishes the provision for our association with God the Father. Our Lord is with the Father. Our high priest (the humanity of Christ) is at the right hand of the Father in the Holy of Holies. The disciples would come to know this as they received the doctrinal teaching for the Church Age.
John 14:26; is the application, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."
This cognition test therefore relates to the sacred building of the Church Age, 2Cor 13:5, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the doctrine; examine yourselves! Or do you not know this about yourselves (from metabolized doctrine), that Christ is in you-unless you fail the test?"
Today, every believer is a priest, so every believer has a responsibility to God that can only be fulfilled by passing the test regarding their understanding of Bible doctrine.
Today, the spiritual life is a private matter between every believer and God. Taking responsibility means every believer is responsible to make their own application of Bible Doctrine when God the Holy Spirit shows them they are wrong.
Believers are instructed to examine themselves in the mirror of the word of God in the privacy of their soul. But there is no mirror in the soul for this examination to take place if there is no Bible doctrine resident in the seven compartments of the stream of consciousness
Believers have to know that Christ indwells their body just as He indwelt Temple in Israel. If you do not know that Christ indwells you for that purpose then you have failed the test.
Believers can execute the divine mandate to examine themselves because every believer is a priest and represents themselves before God.
Our mentor and teacher God the Holy Spirit, teaches us about the indwelling of Jesus Christ, our High Priest and the Shekinah Glory, and this results in the transformation of our lives.
2Cor 3:17-18; "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord (is, there is) freedom.
v18 But we all, with unveiled face looking into a mirror to produce a reflection-the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory (the prototype spiritual life of our Lord) to glory (the operational spiritual life of the Church Age), as it were by the agency of the Lord, the Spirit."
The word "Lord" here is used for the deity of the God the Holy Spirit.
During the Church Age, the Holy Spirit indwells every believer's body, creating a new Holy of Holies in every believer.
We all have freedom to live the spiritual life because God the Holy Spirit indwells each of us. The only thing that can stop us from living the spiritual life is our own negative volition.
We are being transformed into the same spiritual life that our Lord had during the Incarnation. Our spiritual life is an image of His spiritual life.
Our spiritual life is unveiled because there is no fading glory in the spiritual life of the Church Age. If you live the spiritual life, it is not a fading glory, but an increasing glory and will reach its peak in the resurrection body of the eternal state.
The only one sacred building or temple in the Church Age is the believer's body, Col 1:27; "to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the absolute confidence of glory."
The motivation from the indwelling of Christ is related to the indwelling of the Spirit, 1 John 3:23-24;
The believer's soul can either be an empty room with no doctrine, or it can be filled with the word of God and the greatest things that have ever existed in the history of the human race.
The soul of the believer is the sacred room in the Church Age. The believer is the only sacred building during the Church Age.
Jesus Christ as God indwells the body of every believer ("Christ in you, the confidence of glory") Your body becomes a sacred body because God the Holy Spirit indwells your body to make it a temple of God.