The holy things GIVEN to us – not an object, but a Person
This past weekend I took a little blending trip – to London!
It was great to be with the saints in Hall 2 of the church in London again. I am appreciative of the time I had as an FTTL trainee in many of the halls in London (then called districts), and also the time spent with the saints in Hall 2 for the year after that. Of course, I’ve seen the saints many times since at blendings and conferences, but still, visiting this last Lord’s day felt like a visit home.
The Lord’s table was an enjoyable overflow of our experience and enjoyment of Christ this past week as the Firstborn Son of God, which then led to our worshipping the Father as our source of life.
I was also very much helped by all the speaking in the prophesying meeting. Last week I did see and enjoy something in the daily ministry portions, but it was through the sharing of all the saints that what I enjoyed was confirmed and that my vision was enlarged to see how it fit into the context for the whole week: Propagating the Resurrected Christ as the Firstborn Son according to the Promise Made to the Fathers. Praise the Lord for the portion of Christ in each saint and their faithfulness to speak it.
We enjoyed that we not only have Christ as our Saviour, but also Christ as the resurrection, and not only Christ as the only begotten Son of God, but also Christ as the Firstborn Son of God. Furthermore, we also have Christ as the holy things and faithful things given to us by God.
Not an object, but a Person
And as to His having raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to corruption, He spoke in this way, “I will give you the holy things of David, the faithful things.”
I have often struggled with understanding this phrase, “the holy things”, because in my concept, a “thing” is an object. And the Lord is not an object, He is a Person.
Well the footnotes in the Recovery Version (linked above) do help to explain that in the Greek, the holy things in Acts 13:34 are the sure mercies in Isaiah 55:3:
I will make an eternal covenant with you, even the sure mercies shown to David.
Isaiah 55:3
In addition, the same Greek word, chesed, is used in Acts 13:35, but this time in the singular:
Therefore He also says in another place, “You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
Acts 13:35
So when we put Acts 13:34-35 with Isaiah 55:3, these verses show us that the holy and faithful things are the eternal covenant and the sure mercies, and these are all the Holy One, the resurrected Christ. To confirm it, the very next verse in Isaiah, verse 4, shows that God has given us Him, a Person.
Indeed, I have given Him as a Witness to the peoples, a Leader and a Commander to the peoples.
Isaiah 55:4
Amen to God’s word – the holy and faithful things are the Holy One, and the eternal covenant and sure mercies are the resurrected Christ Himself, given to us by God.
What does it mean for Christ to be the holy and faithful things?
Christ is not only the Saviour, He is not only the resurrected One, He is not only even the Firstborn Son of God, but He is all the holy and faithful things.
These holy and faithful things are all the aspects of what Christ is.
According to the New Testament, Christ is
life,
light,
grace,
righteousness,
holiness,
sanctification,
and justification.He is also
the bread of life
and the living water.Furthermore, the holy and faithful things include all the aspects of Christ unveiled in 1 Corinthians:
power,
wisdom,
righteousness,
sanctification,
redemption,
glory,
the depths of God,
the unique foundation of God’s building,
the Passover,
the unleavened bread,
the spiritual food,
the spiritual drink,
the spiritual rock,
the Head,
the Body,
the firstfruits,
the second man,
and the last Adam.We see many more aspects of Christ in the Gospel of John, such as
the Shepherd
and the pasture.Oh, how much Christ is to us as the holy and faithful things!
As the resurrected One, He is the firstborn Son, the Savior, and all the holy and faithful things.
Wow. I didn’t even try last week to get into all these aspects of who Christ is. You could spend your whole life (and write many blog posts) about every ‘thing’ that this wonderful Christ is. This list is by no meals everything. He is inexhaustible! I did have a prayer that I would have more vision concerning who this Christ is. But where to start?
So with that in mind, I was very encouraged when one of the brothers at the end of the meeting shared that we don’t have to get all the points. We don’t need to try to understand everything in a message, a conference, even in a verse or chapter. We just need to enjoy one point, one word. That word is a Person. That word can become a river to water and supply us for the whole week. We can just be simple, enjoy a small word, and bring that word the following week to the church meetings to also feed and encourage all the saints.
So my word for last week was…
GIVEN
The phrase from Isaiah 55:4 (above) that jumped out to me last week was : “I have given Him”.
Amen, thank You Lord. Given to us by God! The Father has given Him!
Christ is the holy and faithful things, a great gift, given to us by God. And if this Christ has been given to us, then on our part, we should receive!
But for what reason?
So, this is where I was (further) helped by the sharing of the saints to see how seeing Christ as the holy and faithful things is not only for my personal enjoyment, but fits into the context of propagating Christ. Christ has been given to us not only that we would receive Him and enjoy Him, but also so that we would propagate Him and spread Him.
I became a little (quietly) excited when this all started to click into place as the saints continued to share. Once again, this is all God’s economy!
God became man to make man God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead.
Now I see why it is significant that the message title started with, “Propagating the Resurrected Christ as the Firstborn Son”. (And that’s why I can’t stop this blog post here, even though it is already so long!)
Christ was the only begotten Son of God, given to us so that we could believe into Him and have eternal life (John 3:16). But now Christ is also the Firstborn Son of God into who’s image God desires we would all be conformed to (Romans 8:29). This implies that now Christ has many brothers and that God has many sons. This Christ lives inside all His believers, and by His growth in us and His transforming us into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18), we are becoming the same as He is to express and represent Him.
Not propagating doctrine, but a Person
How can we really propagate the resurrected Christ? It is not by propagating a doctrine, regardless of how good we become at understanding it and how eloquent we become at expressing it. Rather, propagation is a matter of life. It is by being born of God, allowing the life of God to grow and increase in us, experiencing Christ as all the holy and faithful ‘things’ given to us, and thereby becoming the duplication and reproduction of who He is as these holy and faithful ‘things’, that wherever we go, we bring this Christ, this Person, these holy and faithful ‘things’, with us.
Let’s take Christ as the bread of life as an example. We are not propagating Christ if we merely teach people, “Jesus said He is the bread of life, and here’s the verse that proves it: John 6:35.” Rather, it is by us subjectively knowing Christ as the bread of life, and that means eating Him and being filled with Him as the bread of life, experiencing Him as the bread of life operating in us and nourishing us and making us what we eat – those who express Christ as the bread of life. Then when we go others, we bring with us the Christ in us who is the bread of life – that others may also eat (not study) Christ, that He would become their bread of life.
This is how the resurrected Christ, who is the holy and faithful things given to us by God, is propagated as the Firstborn Son of God – through His many brothers who are the same as He is in life and in nature, but not in the Godhead..
In conclusion
I know I still don’t get everything, as you can probably tell from my struggle to explain things here. At least if feels like that. But I do realise that my need (our need) is to pray and to contact this Christ much more, to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to see this Christ who has been given to us (Ephesians 1:17), to drop my concepts concerning who He is and to turn my heart to the Lord so that the veils would be taken away (2 Corinthians 3:16), to receive and to enjoy all that He desires to be to be to me, to experience Him in every circumstance that I would be more transformed and conformed into His image, and to be ready to speak and to live this resurrected Christ, who is being wrought into me.
And in practice, it’s actually, so, so simple – I don’t need to analyse which step I am at in this process or which aspect of Christ I am experiencing. I can just turn to Him and call on His name: Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus!
As we become the same as Christ
In life, nature, expression, and function,
We are qualified to work with Him
For His Body.As we trust in the Lord helplessly,
Depend on Him as our love and strength,
And listen to His speaking,
Our hope is to be raptured
Through the redemption of our body.And our prayer is—
“Come, Lord Jesus!”
And our prayer is—
“Come, Lord Jesus!”
“Come, Lord Jesus!
Lord Jesus, come!”
So as you can see, my word for last week (“given”) turned into many more words. How about you, what was your word for last week or this week? Please feel free to share 🙂