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Volume 1 -THE GARDEN OF EDEN - Adam's Creation and His
Volume 2 - NEW BEGINNING AND NEW WORLD ENVIRONMENT Volume 3 - JOSEPH, EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH - A Foreshadow of God's Agenda for Jew and Gentile Volume 4 - CROSSING THE JORDAN RIVER - A Foreshadow of Salvation for Jew and Gentile Volume 5 - THE BOOK OF REVELATION - God's Agenda for the End Time Volume 6 - THE SEVEN LETTERS TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES Volume 7 - CHRIST IN THE TABERNACLE - A Foreshadow of Redemption **************** |
(An excerpt from Volume 1 -THE GARDEN OF EDEN - Adam's Creation and His Spiritual and Physical Environments on the birth of God's family) *************************** The Body of Christ is the COUNTERPART of Christ! Note: The word "counterpart" will be used in this lesson because it has a most meaningful definition. "Counterpart" as defined in Random House College Dictionary means "a copy or duplicate", "one or two parts that fit complete or complement each other". How do the scriptures validate or point to the significance of the wound in the side of Christ as being the birth place of the Christian? This is an important piece of a bigger perception of Christ as the only way to become an adopted son of God - Ephesians 1:4-5 (NIV) - For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love (5) he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ. Since God "chose us in Christ before the creation of the world", He had us on His mind when He took the counterpart of man from the side of man. Eve was not a separate creation. Else, God would have made her from the soil of the ground. Eve was in Adam and therefore his counterpart. The picture of Him taking Eve from the side of Adam overlays the picture of Him taking His counterpart, His family or His adopted sons from the side of Christ on the cross. John 19: 33-37 - But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of BLOOD and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken" (Exodus 12:46) and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced" (Zechariah 12:10). This scripture in John documents his witness to the blood that was shed for the sins of mankind. With special emphasis, John points to the blood and the wound in the side of Christ. Christ is the true Sacrificial Passover Lamb of God and revealed as such as John refers to Exodus 12:46, an account of the sacrifice of the first Passover lamb, which prophetically represents (foreshadows) the death of Christ on the cross (See www.biblebigpicture.com - Foreshadow Introduction). John also reveals Jesus to be a prophetic fulfillment of the one they pierced in the side, as he refers to the Messianic scripture of Zechariah 12:10. John places emphasis on the wound in the side of Christ and the blood from that wound. John states he is the true witness, and mankind needs to believe in this true accounting of the crucifixion. This is a very important scripture, which God gives us through the apostle John, a true witness and provider for a biblical accounting of the cross for all people to believe. John was the only apostle at the cross and his witness of the spear piercing the side of Christ was to fulfill Old Testament scriptures and to let the world know they should believe in this blood as the atonement offering of God for the sins of mankind. John 19:39 (NIV) - The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth and he testifies so that you also may believe. It is by faith in the shed blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins that one enters into this new blood covenant with God and becomes a part of the body of Christ. He is spiritually born again! This is the only scriptural account in the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) that mentions the shed blood at Calvary. The shed blood at Calvary is described as coming from the pierced wound in Christ's side. Surely He bled from the crown of thorns, the stripes on His back from the whip, the nails in His hands and feet etc., but, the shedding of blood in these places are not noted in scripture. The only shedding of blood after He was nailed to the cross came from the side of His body. The above scripture exclusively ties the shedding of blood on Calvary to the wound in His side. Why? IT IS FROM THE SIDE OF CHRIST THAT THE BODY OF CHRIST IS TAKEN!! It's the birth place of the Christian, the counterpart of Christ. Birth into the family of God is based on one's faith in the blood covering of Christ for the forgiveness of his sin. Only then does he enter into the Blood Covenant of God. John knew this when he wrote the scripture and the Holy Spirit embolden his words. Truly one can see the mind and heart of God when he was taking the bride of Adam from the side of Adam because "he chose us in him before the creation of the world". Let no man think that there is another way to God except through Christ Jesus. John 3:3 - In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." He must be born under the blood covering from the side of Christ. Man's rebirth requires believing Jesus shed his blood for the forgiveness of his sins. He becomes a counterpart of Christ!! Then God's intention for creating the heavens and the earth is fulfilled. It is the washing and cleansing of the heart / soul of man by the blood of Christ that prepares the vessel to receive from God. It is in the receiving of the deposit of the Holy Spirit that the agape love of God is deposited into the vessel. Man is reborn again as a child of the kingdom of God. God breathes the breath of life into His creation once again. God becomes his Father and the blood of Christ becomes his covering and Christ is his High Priest. The Holy Spirit is God's umbilical cord to each of His born again children. John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." No one can come to God except as a counterpart of Christ. All other ways that proclaim access to the kingdom of God without Christ are false!! It is out of the side of Christ that the family of God is taken!! Before eternal spiritual life can be actualized it must come from the side of Christ under the covering of His blood. Points for review concerning the side of Christ - 1. Any other spiritual creation is a creation of the anti-christ and is of the carnal realm. Spiritual fulfillment is attained only by the in-filling of the spiritual void in man's soul. A void that exists because he closed the door on the Holy Spirit through sin. A self-serving, self-centered life shuts out the Holy Spirit. A life of faith that seeks God, opens the door for Christ and the Father to come in through the Holy Spirit - Revelation 3:20 (KJV) - Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. 2. Spiritual oneness with Christ is based on the new, reborn creation being taken from His side. It is by faith in the blood of Jesus that atones or remits our sins and we become a child of God. Good deeds, sacrificial acts or Gnostic perceptions of God's Word cannot serve to make one righteous in God's sight. Righteousness is a gift of God through faith in Jesus' blood shed for the forgiveness of sins. Only then is one born again! And this from the side of Jesus!! 3. The Holy Spirit is deposited in the soul of man through the wound in Christ's side - faith in His death for the forgiveness of his sins. 4. All other philosophies or doctrines lead to spiritual death. But, be on your guard! There is a spirit in the carnal realm telling mankind that disobedience to God (sin) will not bring death! It is the same spirit that was in the Garden of Eden tempting Adam and Eve!! This is the spirit of the anti-christ and it will also tell you, in a non-audible way, that all religions lead to God. 5. With the first Adam, it was a bride of the flesh! With the second Adam (Christ Jesus), it is a bride of the Spirit! 6. Eve was a helper, suitable for Adam. The church is a helper, suitable for Christ....helping to prepare the bride by taking His message of love and grace to the world. From the open place in Adam's side, God made Eve. From the wound in Christ's side the blood of Christ was shed and the body of Christ was created! The biblical account of the creation of Adam, metaphorically reveals God's creation of the family of God!! This is the one of the most important perspectives one should get from studying the account of the creation because it reflects not only the heart of God, but also His purpose for each man. The word "body" is singular, yet there are many who make up the body. Through the Holy Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of men, and through faith all are made one body. To love God and to love one another, unconditionally, is to become one spirit and in complete oneness with God the Father and Christ the Son. I Corinthians 15: 45-49 - So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a LIFE-GIVING spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. "Life-giving" - The body of Christ was chosen in Christ before the world began, then taken out of the natural world through faith in Christ, and will live eternally in Christ. It is through Christ that eternal life is given! Genesis 2:23 - The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called `woman' for she was taken out of man." "Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh" - Adam knew instantly that Eve was the counterpart he desired because there was an element of Eve in Adam (a longing for a counterpart that only Eve could fill). God and Adam had kindred perceptions of their brides at the moment of Adam's speaking these words! Remember, God "chose us in Him before the foundation of the world". God's love longs to have a counterpart to whom His expressions of love are sent. Adam, having experienced being alone in the earth, stirred Adam's agape nature of love and be united with one of his own kind. Surely, Adam was exuberant when he saw Eve and accepted her as his equal. When Adam first saw Eve he was seeing an element of himself and was immediately in love with her. It was love at first sight! Adam's acceptance of Eve was in fact a wedding, a union of the two of them. This was the wedding ceremony of the first Adam. The wedding ceremony of the second Adam (Jesus) is fulfilled in Revelation 19:9 - Then the angel said to me, "Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!" And he added, "These are the true words of God." As between Adam and Eve, there is a single entity of creation between Christ and body of Christ - John 17: 22-23 - "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." Additional Scripture KeysGod gives the bride of Christ to Christ even as He gave Eve to Adam. John 17: 1-2 (NIV) - "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him". The death and resurrection of Christ open the way to the God, the Father. John 12:24 (NIV) - I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." Galatians 3: 26-29 (NIV) - You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Our faith in Christ, the Messiah places the body of Christ under the New Blood Covenant, and we become heirs to the Abrahamic Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant is fulfilled through Christ.
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