The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Person and Work of Christ, #3

He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. (Luke 1:32,33)

It is difficult for us to understand how our Christ can be occupied with our spiritual redemption and also with the physical establishment of national Israel. How and at what point do these two works of Christ come together?

The teaching that King Jesus actually will rule from the Throne of David is understood and accepted by many Christians. But the physical and political aspects of this concept are not always discussed with clarity. Also, the error-filled teaching of the pre-tribulation flight of the Gentile believers to Heaven has forced a division between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians with the resulting destruction of any clear understanding of the rule of Christ from Jerusalem.

At what point do the spiritual kingdom and the natural kingdom converge? The answer to this question involves a mystery. The understanding of the mystery was given to the Apostle Paul, a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin and a Pharisee.

The Christian church, as defined by election and refined by suffering, is the Body of Christ. We are not referring to the groups of believers who make up the Christian churches on the earth but to the one true Church that will, during the days of trouble to come, emerge from the churches.

The one true Church is the Body of Christ, the Wife of the Lamb of God. Because she is married to Christ, being one with Him as He is One with the Father (John 17:21), she is an eternally indivisible, integral part of Christ. She is as Eve to Adam.

The Bride of the Lamb is neither Jewish nor Gentile, having been born again of the Nature of God through Jesus Christ. She is the fullness, the glory of Christ.

And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:22,23)

For as the (human) body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. (I Corinthians 12:12)

Remember, when Paul was writing the Greek word Christos, he was not thinking of a Gentile "Christ." Paul was thinking only of Messiah of the Jews, of no one else.

God revealed to Paul, the Jew, the Pharisee by sect, that Christ includes an exalted Head, the Lord Jesus, and also a Body. Christ consists of a Head and a Body.

In one sense, only Jesus, the Son of God, is Christ. It is only as He Himself is being formed in us and is dwelling in us that we are part of Christ. We are anointed with the Oil of the Spirit of God only because the Lord Jesus is making us an integral part of Himself. Apart from Him we are of little importance.

To be continued.