" ALL THINGS NEW IN CHRIST "

By J W Luman

Part 1 - God’s Plan - IN CHRIST

We greet you in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a time of searching the scripture, a time of teaching, a time of considering The Word of God. It is a time of considering CHRIST, that Living Word. We are not first teachers and preachers of the letter; we are first ministers of The Living Word, of The Spirit. And we search the scripture that we might understand THE LIVING WORD. Jesus says, ‘You do search the scriptures.’ The Jews searched the scripture, and He told them I know that you search the scripture, and you do that because you believe that in searching the scripture you will find Life. And you believe the same thing today - do you not? Why do we search the scripture?

This all comes down to this hour: why do we search the scripture? We are here for The Living Word: that we may come to know HIM. And I emphasize again we are not here first to learn the letter, to make preachers of the letter, teachers of the fleshly Jesus. And by that I mean a fleshly comprehension of Jesus. We are here to know THE LIVING WORD. So Jesus told the Jews, and He would tell you and I today: ‘I know you search the scripture. I know exactly what you are doing. You search the scripture in your classrooms, you search the scripture by night and by day. You have instructors for that purpose; you have built buildings for that purpose. I know you search the scripture because in them you think you have Eternal Life.’ But then Jesus brings His indictment. And what a stinging, terrible indictment it was, because this indictment was not given to people who knew nothing of the scripture. This indictment was spoken to the very people who more than anyone else searched the scripture! And it can be said of you, more than anyone else - you search the scripture.

The question is: does the indictment that Jesus gave to the Jews fit you and I as well? "In them you think you have eternal life." That’s why you search them. And then he says, "But you will not come TO ME, that you might live. And these scriptures that you search are the very things that testify OF ME, but you will not come to Me that you might have the very thing you are looking for! You are looking in the scripture: they are they which testify of Me, but you will not come to ME that you might have Life." What an indictment! What is it you look for when you search the scriptures? Who is it you look for when you search the scripture? What is the desire of your heart when you search the scripture?

Jesus told the Jews you have made The Word of God, the scripture non effective by the tradition of your elders. What view, what comprehension of Christ are you after: the comprehension of religious tradition, or the comprehension of The Spirit? Paul says, speaking of The Spirit of God working in his life: " Who hath made us able ministers of the New covenant, able ministers of The Spirit - not of the letter, for the letter killeth, but The Spirit giveth Life." If you are searching the scripture for Life, then only the view of The Spirit counts; only the view of The Spirit is of any value, because The Spirit takes the scripture and shows Life to you. He reveals Life in you, and that Life IS CHRIST.

So in these sharings I basically want you to see just one thing: to show you our Life IN CHRIST, but we’re going to have to bring a large number of things into the picture. I want to gather up in a very general way all of the scripture and show to you its fulfillment IN CHRIST, so that you will never look beyond Christ for the fulfillment of the scripture. This is the mistake the Jews made. They did not discard the scripture - did they? No, they kept it, they read it, they didn’t throw the scrolls away. It would be like me saying today: we don’t throw our Bibles away, because contained in our Bible is the very same scripture that the Jews searched. The very same scripture! The Salvation promised to the Jews: Salvation promised to Israel of old is the same Salvation we NOW have IN CHRIST. It’s not another Salvation. Salvation promised to Israel is the Salvation God fulfilled in His Son. Salvation you and I have is IN HIS SON. We have come to the same Salvation that was promised to Israel. We have now in our hands the very same scripture!

I want you to see something: here we are 2,000 years later, but we are confronted with the same scripture. We are confronted by the same Spirit: the same Spirit that worked in Jesus when He talked to the Jews. That same Spirit is dwelling in you! So 2,000 years down the line we are confronted with the SAME scripture that Jesus said I know you search. We are confronted by the SAME Spirit, and we are confronted with the SAME question. The Jews did not throw their "Bibles" away. What did they do wrong? They looked beyond Jesus for the fulfillment of the promises. That sounds very simple, but that’s exactly what they did. I want you to see the comparison and see what I’m saying. I’m comparing you and I with the Jews in the days of Jesus, and I’m asking a question. They searched the scripture: we search the scripture. They looked for life: we say we are looking for life. But they would not come TO JESUS. That is - they would not receive HIM as the fulfillment of their scripture. The question is today for you and I: do we also look beyond Jesus for the fulfillment of the same scripture that was given to the Jews? Have we become guilty of looking beyond Jesus for the fulfillment of those scriptures?

Now that’s my question for you and for me now. And we must let each of our hearts answer that question. Am I going into the scripture and searching for "things" - spiritual things; or am I finding the reality of all "things" IN CHRIST? That’s what we want to talk about: the summing up of ALL THINGS in Christ; the gathering up of all things in Christ, the recovery of all things in Christ. To understand the "all things" that we have in Christ, we must understand those things from the standpoint of the scripture. We can’t just imagine what we have in Christ; we must find, or understand the things we have in Christ by the testimony of the scripture. The scriptures are given to us as The Testimony of Jesus Christ. And I’m going to be talking to you about the Testimony of the scripture, and I trust that The Spirit of God Himself will enable you and I to see these things and come to comprehend these things in the REALITY OF CHRIST.

Let’s look at some verses to get started. Ephesians 1. First we are going to set forth the end of the matter, and then we’ll go back and work our way up to that end in the scripture. In Ephesians the first chapter verses 1-4 Paul is speaking of an Eternal Plan and Purpose of God. God had an Eternal Will, and Eternal Plan and Purpose. The scripture there says that He purposed in Himself according to the good pleasure of His heart. So it’s speaking about a Plan and Purpose that God conceived in His own heart: something that He determined to do. And He determined to do it simply because HE wanted to do it. He purposed in His heart, He purposed in Himself to do this thing, to have this thing. So the first things we realize in this scripture is that the things talked about here is based upon nothing other than the purpose of God’s own heart. Man had NOTHING to do with this Plan. It was purposed in God.

And the second thing we see in these scriptures is that this Plan and this Purpose was conceived in the heart of God BEFORE the foundation of the world. When God considered this Plan and Purpose, nothing existed but God Himself! The world did not exist, man did not exist. It is very possible that the universe did not exist! But what we do know is that it was before the foundation of the world. And the third thing we see about this Plan and Purpose is God chose this purpose in His SON. Everything God desired, everything He purposed in His heart to do, all that He desired to have - He would have IN CHRIST - and no where else!

This is the thought, the Plan, the Purpose whereby God considers you and I. We mut understand this: it is this very thought, this very Plan, this very Purpose that God conceived before the foundation of the world. It is this Purpose, and it is according to this Purpose that God deals with you and with me. He doesn’t deal with us concerning something less; He doesn’t deal with us concerning something other than what He has planned and purposed IN HIS SON. The very thing that He determined to do in His Son, from before the foundation of the world, HE HAS DONE, and He has included you and I in it! And it is of this Plan and this Purpose, and nothing else that the scriptures all speak. The scripture does not speak beyond Christ, because the Plan and Purpose of God is summed up in Christ, and it has never been any other way!

So we read in Ephesians 1:9 and 10. "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself." Now this Will, this good pleasure is what we’ve just been talking about - to have ALL THINGS IN CHRIST; to fulfil His Plan, to fulfil His Purpose, to fulfil His desire in relationship to a people - IN CHRIST JESUS. Verse 4 says, "... who hath chosen us IN CHRIST from before the foundation of the world." God has never planned to have you anywhere other than IN HIS SON. He has never purposed to know you anywhere other than in His Son. And Paul is saying here that God has made known unto us the mystery of His Will. This Will, this Purpose that He has purposed in Himself; this thing that He has purposed to do from before the foundation of the world - He has MADE KNOWN unto us! What was a mystery, is NOW a Divine realization; what was kept in darkness, is NOW brought into the glorious light. He has caused us to understand a glorious Salvation - which was hidden in types and shadows, but is NOW revealed in the Person of His Son. That’s what Paul is saying.

And what is that Will that He has made known? What is that Purpose that He has made known? Here it is summed up in verse 10. See, everything in this whole chapter is summed up in verse 10. Here’s how it reads: that which God has purposed to do in Himself, that which was a mystery, He has made known unto us. And here is what He has caused us to understand: (Verse 10) "That in the administration of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him." Now here is the Plan that God has made known. And this Plan is just this: that in the administration of the fulness of times He would gather all things in His Son. He would have all things in His Son - right where He purposed to have them, where He planned to have them. In the fulness of time He would have in His Son everything He purposed to have in His Son from before the foundation of the world. The mystery of this whole Plan, the mystery of this whole Will was never about what God was "going to do"; it was never about what He purposed to do. The mystery was not even about when He determined to do all of this. The mystery was when He would PERFORM it. When would what God purposed to do in Christ actually be done? The mystery has always been bound up with TIME. You know that. What did Peter say?

All of these prophets have prophesied of this. Did God purpose to have a New Creation in His Son? Isaiah saw that, but he didn’t know when. The prophets saw what God was going to do; the prophets understand what God purposed to do, they spoke of it. "Israel will be a City of God. The people shall be gathered together and God will dwell in them. God will make a New Covenant in those days." The prophets spoke of a Great Salvation - a glorious Salvation! They spoke of God being in His people; they spoke about His people dwelling in union with Him, dwelling in union with Him as a city. "They will call you The Redeemed of The Lord, The City of God." The prophets said that. They saw The Temple that The Lord of Glory would come into, and the prophets spoke on behalf of The Lord. "I will glorify The House of My Glory." What I’m telling you is this: what God was going to DO was not the mystery. What He planned to DO was not the mystery. He was known to Abraham, He was known to Moses, He was known to the prophets as The God of Heaven and The God of earth - and what God planned to do, He planned to do from Eternity. Everyone knew that God was not making up a Plan as He went along, but He was working according to what He had purposed in His own heart. Everyone knew that - the prophets knew it.

But Peter said (1 Peter 1) these prophets who spake by The Spirit that was in them, did not understand THE TIME of which they spoke. They didn’t know WHEN God would do what He purposed and promised to do. So,. He came to His own, and His own received Him not... because they didn’t recognize the time. They continued to look beyond Jesus for the fulfillment of what God had purposed to do, and of what all the prophets said He would do. And when the very One came - The One through Whom, and in Whom, and by Whom he would do these things - they would NOT receive HIM. They wanted these "things": they wanted a New Israel, they wanted The Throne of David, they wanted Eternal Life, they wanted the Glory of God; but they would not receive The Very One in Whom these things ARE FULFILLED! Because all of those things would be realized in a people through their relationship with Jesus Christ. They wanted a City: but they refused to be HIS City. They wanted a Kingdom to come: but they refused to be HIS Kingdom. They wanted a Temple: but not at the loss of the Old Temple - "just make it better". But that’s not what the prophets had promised. That’s not what God had purposed!

God had purposed that the people would be a people, and He would dwell in the people; that they themselves would be The Temple of The Living God. So the Jews wanted a Temple, but they did not want to be The Temple of God. How is it with us today? Are we more interested in "getting a City" than we are in "Being the City of The King"? This was Israel’s mistake. Are we more interested in "getting" a Kingdom than we are in manifesting The King? This was a mystery. The mystery was the time. And isn’t it amazing that today the same mystery abounds! The Christian world can not decide WHEN God is "going to do" what all the prophets promised He was going to do!

But Paul tells us the time. He is declaring the time! And he’s declaring that "the time" is NOW IN CHRIST JESUS. And I want to show you this. So what have we been saying? That everything started out in the heart of God: His Plan, His Purpose, His Will, His intention; and from that very beginning God saw all of these things finished - FULFILLED IN HIS SON - in Christ! That’s simple, but we must understand that "IN CHRIST" represents a time before the world existed. Before the foundation of the world, God planned and determined to do a thing IN CHRIST. That’s what Ephesians chapter 1 says. The whole thing starts in the heart of God, and the whole thing is finished in The Person of His Son. CHRIST IS THE END OF IT, THE FINISH OF IT, THE FULNESS OF IT. It doesn’t go beyond Him!

If you are going to find the promises of God, you are going to have to find them IN CHRIST. If you are going to find what the prophets prophesied of, you’re going to have to find it IN CHRIST - in relationship to Him. And you are going to have to ask the question: does the scripture really teach that God is building a city for me? Or does the scripture teach that IN CHRIST we are The City of God? You’re going to have to ask yourself that question. Does God have a plan OUTSIDE of Christ? If He does - where did He get it? Where is it written? Or have you and I, because of the tradition of religion misunderstood what God planned and purposed, and performed in His Son? The Jews had the same scripture we have today. There’s got to be some reason why they rejected Christ. They had the promises, they had the Covenants, they had the prophets, they had the scripture! Why would they NOT come to Him? They did not understand THE TIME, and they wouldn’t believe Him when He said: THE TIME IS NOW!!

I can show you over and over again just that: the time is NOW! The Kingdom of God you’ve been looking for - is here! The King you’ve been looking for - is here! A greater than Solomon - is come! There is one in your midst that is greater than your Temple. Tear this Temple down and in three days I will raise it again. My Father and I are One! Over and over again He declared what your prophets had declared IS COME! How did you and I lose that reality? What happened to the Church world - that we are now looking for the same thing that the Jews were looking for? Rather than having FOUND that reality IN CHRIST, and fill the world with it? That’s a good question, but it’s a question that has to be answered in our hearts. In our next lesson we are going to take the mystery out of the time. I want to show you the time that was such a mystery.

Part 2 - Old Things - New Things

We are dealing with the gathering together, the summing up of all things in Christ. I have referred to it as The Recovering of All Things in Christ, the restoring of all things in Christ. We’ll explain that as we go along. We have said that everything that has come to be fulfilled in Christ was first planned and purposed in the heart of God; that what God planned and what God purposed He also fulfilled in His Son; and that this plan and purpose involved you and I. But it only involves you and I IN CHRIST, and that Salvation is in fact our coming to BE IN CHRIST.

Let’s read concerning this fulfillment in Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:17. We are going to have to answer a question here. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." And it goes on to say that all things are of God, Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now first we have a tremendous statement here. And that is that if we are IN CHRIST then we are a NEW CREATION. If we are in Christ, then in Christ we have come to what Isaiah prophesied - a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth - realized in Christ Jesus. Now that’s a tremendous realization, because in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, nor bond nor free, nor male nor female. But rather - ONE NEW MAN. This is what God saw from the beginning; this is what God purposed from the beginning - to have all things both in heaven and in earth gathered into His Son; that IN CHRIST He would have this new heaven, this new earth, this new creation; this very thing that He purposed, this very thing that He planned. This He would have IN HIS SON.

Now Paul says here in this letter that God HAS this very thing in His Son, and that if any man be in Christ, he is part of this New Creation, he is part of this new heaven, new earth; he has come to newness of Life in Christ Jesus. And that there, in Christ, old things ARE passed away, and that all things ARE become new. And that’s a tremendous realization, a tremendous fulfillment. It is called GREAT SALVATION! We have come to that in Christ. Most of us have not come to the REALIZATION of that in Christ, but we have come to that REALITY by the Spirit of God in Christ Jesus. But there are also questions that arise here. Number one: what is the "old things" that have passed away? We’ll have to go to the scripture to answer this. You can’t substitute what YOU think old things are: we’ve done that in the Christian world. Like many brethren, I have been involved with Christianity all of my life. I was born again when I was 5 or 6 years old and baptized in the Holy Spirit at the same time, and actually at that young age, I knew in my heart that the Lord had called me to the ministry of The Word. So I’ve been in the Christian world years and years, and I know the things we substitute.

"Old things are passed away..." - so we relate that to what WE DID before we got saved. But what am I going to relate it to? I was born again when I was 6 years old! I have never been a drunk, I’ve never been a dope addict, I’ve never killed, never been a thief! The things that we think of as old... I’ve never done any of that! So the "old things" that are passed away in Christ has to be something more than that. It has to be more than the things that we have done. It involves the very creation that we are by natural birth. That creation has passed away: it is NOT found in Christ. You look in Christ and you won’t find a Jew - not a good one, not a bad one. You won’t find a Gentile - not a good one, not a bad one. You won’t find one at all! The old things are NOT things we have done; it involves WHO we are, who we are in the flesh, who we are in the natural. Who we are in the temporal has passed away; is not found in Christ. All things are become new. The word "new" in the Greek language means "qualitatively new" - new in quality; not numerically new, but new of quality. Old things temporal - new things spiritual; old things corruptible - new things incorruptible; old things fleshly - new things spiritual. That’s the difference between old and new IN Christ Jesus.

But to what does the terms "old things’ and "new things" refer specifically? When Paul was writing this: "old things are passed away" - what were the old things he was specifically speaking of? And when he said "all things are become new" - what were the new things he was specifically speaking of? It is important that you and I understand that, because along with that understanding comes the understanding of our Salvation. We must understand that when Paul is writing these verses in this letter that he’s writing about our Salvation, and he presents it in Christ. And as to these two elements in dealing with that Salvation - old things and new things - Paul shows that the old things are passed away, and that now our Salvation is bound up in new things. Not things "yet to come" - things that are NOW COME IN CHRIST. How can we know what these new things are? By knowing what the old things were! And the scripture tells us plainly of the old things. We’ll be looking at that as we go along. I will show you plainly the old things that are passed, and the newness of all things that is in Christ. You will see that in the scripture.

Now, this whole plan and purpose started in God - right? You can’t find any old things in God! And unless there’s some old things, it doesn’t make any sense to say there are new things. If there’s no old things, then why call something new? It’s got to be called "new" in contrast to what was "old". But you do not find old things in God. In God you find a plan, a purpose, a will that is both purposed in Christ and then fulfilled in Christ. Now that’s what you find in God. Where did the "old things" come from? That’s what we want to find out, because most of the Christian world bases their understanding of Salvation on those "old things", and I’ll show you that. Most of the Christian world bases their understanding of Salvation on what is NOT found in Christ. Isn’t that amazing! It’s true - you’ll see that as we go along, but I make mention of it now. The old things had to be added to the picture, but there had to be a reason for the old things to be added. Then there had to be a time and a place where those old things were put away, and what God intended from the beginning come to being. For you see, what God intended from the beginning is what Paul is calling "new things in Christ." They are not new to God; they are "new" when compared to the "old.

The new things in Christ are the very things that God saw from the beginning - the very things He planned and purposed from the beginning. From the beginning He purposed to gather up all things in Christ. From the beginning He purposed to dwell in a people in Christ. From the beginning He chose you and I in Christ. From the beginning - before the foundation of the world! What’s new to God? He didn’t add anything to His plan; He didn’t add anything to His purpose. Then why is it called "new"? It’s called "new" to distinguish it from the old; it is new in nature, in character contrasted to the old. The question is: what is the old? Where did it come from? How did it get there? Remember these things I’ve said because we’re going to deal with these things, and I’ll say again that the reason we’re going to deal with them is to show they are the old things. And IN CHRIST they are NOT found, so why should we base our doctrines on them? Why should be base our teachings on them?

At one time they were valid. When was what the Bible calls "old things" made old? The old things were made old when the new came in Christ. There was a time when the old things were necessary. It wasn’t necessary to the new; it wasn’t necessary to God; but it was necessary TO MAN, because man would not obey God. We’ll see that, and so God put them under the OLD Covenant, and all of the things of The Old Covenant, and those are the "old things" that are not found in Christ. There was a time when that Covenant was necessary, but then it was made old: not old in years, but old in nature and in character. When was it made, when was it seen to be old? WHEN THE NEW CAME! When do we recognize a thing to be flesh? When The Spirit comes! The problem is many seek to keep the old and reject the spiritual. This is what the Jews did. They kept the old: God said the old is no longer valid because the new has come. The old was given to you as a testimony because you would not walk by faith, so I gave you the old as a testimony of the new. But now the new is come, and the old must be set aside. And everything that was stated in the old must now be realized in the new - not as something "to come", but in the reality of what HAS COME.

The Old was a testimony of what was to come - a City to come, a Temple to come, a Glory to come, a Kingdom to come, a Salvation to come. But now in the new - IT HAS COME! You can not carry the old beyond the new! You must turn loose of the old and receive the new. The old by its very nature was temporal, earthly, material - but it spoke of a spiritual. The spiritual has come, and compared to the old it is called "new" because it is not temporal, but eternal; not corruptible, but incorruptible; not material, but spiritual and eternal. This is what IS come in Christ - where you are! The sad thing is that many who have come to be in Christ still have their heart, their understanding in the old. But under the old, Paul says, eye could not see, ear could not hear, heart could not understand the things that God had prepared for them who love Him. But in the new - The Spirit hath revealed these things unto us! Hallelujah! We must wake up! When Paul was writing that in 1 Corinthians he was referring to Old Covenant in contrast with New Covenant. It’s not under the New Covenant that eye can’t see, and ear can’t hear, and heart can’t know. That’s under the Old Covenant; but under that New Covenant God hath revealed by His Spirit - He has opened the eyes of our understanding! He hath given us ears to hear what the Spirit says, and He has given us a renewed heart and a renewed mind, and all of this by the revealing of His Son in you. For The Son is The Light by which we see, and The Son is The Voice that we hear, and opens our ears. And The Son is the wisdom, the knowledge and the understanding that is formed in our heart.

So we have this question, and we have partially answered it. What is the difference between the old and the new things? Now we still have this mystery of TIME to deal with, and this mystery of time is bound up with the old things, and that mystery is done away with the doing away of the old things, with the passing of the old things. The fulness of time is come, and God gathered up all things in His Son - new heaven, new earth, new creation, the promises of God, the fulness of God - He gathered it all up in His Son. We will look at that more closely.

ALL THINGS RECOVERED IN CHRIST. For something to be recovered, it has to first be lost, and the Bible speaks of this recovery. It calls it a restoration, a reconciliation. So if something is found, found again - it means it has been lost. I’m just reasoning with you: if it is not lost, it cannot be found. It’s the same with old and new. If there’s no old, by contrast there is no new. The question we’re dealing with is: what is the old? And we’ve seen it is the things of the Old Covenant, but we will look at those things specifically as we go along. So because there were old things, for a purpose - in Christ all things are called "new" to show how different they are from the old. So if all things are gathered together in Christ (what I call the summing up of all things in Christ, bringing together all of the parts, and presenting the whole in Christ), then what are the parts? If in Christ there is a New Creation, a whole creation (the word "perfect" means complete), and that means there were some parts, then where is it that we know "in part"? What is it that is made up of parts? You’ll see - it is The Old Covenant - many, many parts. And all of those parts are speaking beyond themselves.

My point is just this: if there is a recovery in Christ, a gathering up of all things in Christ, then there had to be a loss. And if that is true, then what is found in Christ, what is gathered up in Christ is exactly what was lost. Not part of it was gathered up: ALL of it was gathered up. Jesus speaks of this in John when He says ‘I will lose nothing given to Me of My Father. I won’t lose any parts, I will perform His Will - totally, I will finish the Work He has given Me to do.’ The problem is most Christians don’t know how great and enormous that Work was - that Work that He finished. And to help us understand how great that Work is, we will look at the parts. And in looking at the parts that are gathered up in Him - in newness of Life - we will see by the parts how great the whole is! That the whole that is gathered up in Christ is not just one part, not just one thing, not just one type, not just one shadow - but ALL the parts! All the parts!

Everything that was lost - found in Christ! All things become new! Now I’m going to ask - WHAT was lost? And WHEN was it lost? And WHO lost it? We know it’s found in Christ; the scripture tells us that. We may not realize what these "all things" are, but we know they are found in Christ because the scriptures say so. But my point is just this: if you don’t know what was lost - how is it you know what is found? I told you most Christians think that old things were things they did before they got saved, but that’s not the old things that are done away. More than that - the old things relate to a whole creation - who you were. It’s much more than just what you did. But if you don’t know the old things, how can we appreciate the new? And we are not being taught that. If we don’t know what was lost, how can we appreciate what is found, what is restored? But the scriptures speak of it so we no longer need to be in a mystery. These things are plainly declared in the scripture. Let me just say this: we have said that nothing is old in God - no old things there. In Him we find Divine intention that is fulfilled in Christ. Somewhere between a Divine intention and a fulfillment in Christ old things come into the picture.

And the question for you and me is: are we basing our comprehension on "old things", or are we basing our comprehension on The Word of God? The Word that comes out from God and is fulfilled in His Son? And by the same token, there’s nothing lost in God: God hasn’t lost anything! What He said He would do - He has done. What He purposed to do - He did! Somebody lost it! They lost something in relation to God. God lost nothing, but someone lost something. And what they lost had a direct relationship to what God planned and purposed to do. And what they lost is exactly what is recovered, restored IN CHRIST JESUS. Now we are going to put the center part in the picture. Here’s what we need to understand: I can’t diagram God because God is Spirit. I can’t even diagram Christ: the new things in Christ because they are Spirit. But I can show you a picture of the rest of it. I can show it to you as it is declared in the scripture so that together you and I can see what was lost, when it was lost, and who lost it. And then by The Spirit perhaps we can come to realize what is found and what is restored in Christ Jesus.

So we are going to start our picture with Abraham and Isaac, and then we’re going to bring in Israel - Israel under the Law. We’re going to bring them into the picture, and we’re going to see that basically two things relating to the plan and purpose of God were lost. They were lost by Israel, and they are found again in Christ. And the two things are just this: God made a Covenant with Abraham, and the Covenant He made with Abraham came right out of God’s heart, and had no mediator. It came right out of God’s heart concerning what He had planned and purposed and would do in Christ, and He showed that plan, that purpose to Abraham. And Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And it is called "The Covenant of Faith"; it’s called "Faith"; not because Abraham didn’t believe what was going on; it’s called "Faith" because Abraham believed what God revealed to him. He accepted it - he believed it, and it was counted to him for righteousness. This is THE COVENANT OF FAITH based upon nothing but God’s Word to Abraham. We will look at this.

And then we come to Israel: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and then we come to Israel. Now Israel was to live according to the Covenant that God made with Abraham. We can read that in Exodus 6 when God dealt with Moses. He said I’m dealing with you and Israel according to the promise, the Covenant that I made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At that time there was just one Covenant - a Covenant that came right out of God’s heart, a Covenant that was fulfilled in Christ. It was the only Covenant necessary to live by Faith. And Israel was intended to be a demonstration, a manifestation of that Covenant in the earth ... until the fulness of time should come. We will see this time element is established between Abraham and Isaac, and that time element is fulfilled in Christ. Israel was to be a living demonstration of The Covenant of Abraham in the earth UNTIL the fulness of time should come - but they didn’t get started good! Until they lost that Covenant, and had to be put under the Law, the system of the Law that developed, which is called The Old Covenant. Abraham’s Covenant was NOT the Old Covenant; it’s the Covenant fulfilled in Christ. That’s the Covenant that was lost, and IN CHRIST IS FOUND AGAIN! You and I are not brought to the Old Covenant in Christ; we’re brought to the New Covenant in Christ. You and I are brought to what Israel lost - they lost The Covenant of Faith!

But you and I come to The Covenant of Faith! We come from the faith of Abraham to the faith of The Son of God. We live NOT by the Law, but by The Faith of The Son of God. We live in Covenant with God concerning what He determined to do, and what He has done in His Son. The promises made to Abraham were made to Abraham and his seed - right? Paul says the seed of Abraham is CHRIST. Paul says that if you are IN CHRIST, then you are the seed of Abraham, and the promises are to you. The important thing to understand is that the promises made to Abraham do not proceed BEYOND his seed; but are FULFILLED in his seed, which is CHRIST. How did Israel get bound up with an Old Covenant? Because they wouldn’t obey the first one! They would not live by faith, so Paul says the Law was ADDED because of transgressions. And he says the Law that was added could not make void the Covenant, the promises that was given to Abraham 430 years before! The Law did not do away with the Covenant made to Abraham. It was added to fill in the gap between the Covenant of Abraham and its fulfillment in the true seed of Abraham. They were kept UNDER the Law until THE SEED should come, to whom the promises were made. Isn’t that right? That’s why when The Seed did come, to whom the promises were made, The Law was no longer NECESSARY. The Old Covenant system - the power of which was The Law was no longer necessary, because everything that it had become a testimony of - a material testimony of - CAME IN CHRIST JESUS! And it came in Newness of Life, so that the type and the shadow is no longer necessary.

And The New Covenant made "old" the Covenant of Sinai. The New Covenant didn’t make the Covenant of Abraham "old", because it’s the same Covenant! We’ve said that the word "new" does not mean numerically "new", but qualitatively "new". The New Covenant is only new when compared to the Old Covenant, but when compared with The Covenant of Abraham, it is a FULFILLMENT of it! It is God keeping His promise to Abraham and his seed; a promise that He made in the first place based upon His own Eternal will and plan. Old things are become new in Christ because the old things are not found in Christ. You can not base your understanding of Salvation upon an Old covenant. Though it is a testimony of it, it is NOT the fulfillment of it.

So - what was lost? There are two things lost. First, it’s the Covenant - The Covenant of Faith was lost. Who lost it? Israel lost it. When did they lose it? When they refused to live by faith! In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses was speaking to Israel; he was rehearsing the Law with them, and he said this: "You have been a hard hearted, disobedient, stiff necked people since the day that I knew you." They didn’t get out of Egypt good until they broke The Covenant! And we’ll look at this in greater depths. We’ll look at what was lost, so we can better understand what is found. I can show you a picture of what is lost, but only The Holy Spirit can reveal in you what is found. But perhaps if we see in the scripture what was lost, we will turn to see what is found.

Part 3 - Covenant Made and Established

We are talking about the gathering up, the bringing together of ALL THINGS in Christ; all things pertaining to the Eternal Plan of God, all things pertaining to our Salvation. Not just pertaining to our being saved, but all things pertaining to our Salvation. The whole body of our Salvation - all things pertaining to the Eternal plan, and purpose and will of God. Now in Ephesians 1 we found that before the foundation of the world God planned to have all things pertaining to His will and purpose - IN CHRIST. (See Diagram 1) Before the foundation of the world God looked to the time when He would have all things gathered up and fulfilled in His Son. ALL THINGS TO BE GATHERED UP IN HIS SON. And very simply, this is the Eternal Plan of God.

The "Salvation" of this plan is that God has included you and I to be in His Son because we read in Ephesians 1 that before the foundation of the world when God was purposing this plan, He chose us in Christ Jesus; He included you and I in this plan, and He did that before the foundation of the world. He did that BEFORE anything outside of Himself even existed! God desired to have a RELATIONSHIP with a people, and have an EXPRESSION in that people. "Our" Salvation is a direst result of God’s desire for fellowship. So we saw all things pertaining to His Eternal Plan were purposed in Christ Jesus.

And we saw that before the foundation of the world, God determined something. He determined that through the administration of the fulness of time, He would gather all things into His Son. Now remember this: it was BEFORE the foundation of the world that God made this determination. God looked into the future, and He determined that when the fulness of time, as God determined time to be: when the fulness of time would come - that’s when He would have all things in His Son. So we add The Cross to the picture, because The Cross has to do with the fulness of time. So we’ve seen these two things: before the foundation of the world God determined; God purposed a plan that He would have all things in Christ. And He determined when He would do that; that when the fulness of time was come, that through the administration of that fulness of time (and the administration of the fulness of time is the administration of The Spirit), then by His Spirit He would gather all of His plan and purpose in Christ Jesus. He would fulfil and perform - by His Spirit all that He had purposed - in Christ Jesus.

It is according to this plan and this purpose of God, and it is according to this fulfillment in Christ that you and I - right now, today - are in Christ Jesus. What God has purposed, He has also performed, but what does that mean for you and me? That’s what we’re dealing with now; that you and I may come to comprehend what God has done in Christ; that you and I may come to comprehend the greatness of our Salvation; that you and I by The Spirit of God may come to comprehend our relationship with the Father. And that we may live in that relationship and become a living expression of that relationship in all the world; declaring everywhere we go the fulness of our Salvation - the reality of BEING IN CHRIST JESUS! How can you declare a reality unless you comprehend that reality? You can not declare, you can not express what is not revealed by The Spirit of God in you. We will just be teachers of the letter. We will preach and teach, ‘Well, The Bible says this... or that...’ We will just teach and preach what the Bible "says" - as letter. But listen - what the Bible says in letter is fulfilled in Spirit in Christ Jesus! You are not "in" the Bible: you are IN CHRIST JESUS, and the Bible testifies of that reality. Paul says, ‘We are ministers of THIS reality; ministers not merely of the letter, but of The Spirit, for it is The Spirit that giveth Life.’ We are ministers of Life! Not merely ministers "about" Life; but ministers OF Life! If we could only comprehend that reality, that Life by the Spirit of God. The purpose of this gathering is that we may come to comprehend that Life; that we may see the testimony in the scripture and find the reality in Christ.

So, God has this Eternal Plan. Now, God shared this plan with a man, and this man was Abraham. Abraham and Isaac. Genesis 12. Think about what I’m saying: God shared this plan, that He purposed in Christ with Abraham, and Abraham shared this plan with Isaac. I want you to see something here: in Abraham and Isaac we have a testimony of this plan of God. God Himself called Abraham "Father". He wasn’t God’s Father: God called him a father. "I will make you a father of many nations." Abraham did not have that comprehension until God gave it to him. He didn’t just tell Abraham you’re going to be a great man: because the Eternal plan and purpose of God in Christ is not just about greatness. It’s not about God being great. We all know God is great and God is eternal, and God is everlasting, but how many of you know God is Father? No - I don’t mean "called" Father: I mean how many of you know God AS Father? That’s a relationship that can only be understood by The Holy Spirit. And furthermore, it’s a relationship that can only be understood through The Son.

What am I talking about? I’m telling you that Salvation in Christ is first a Divine Relationship. It’s not coming to greatness, it’s not coming to might and power. Not first - not even second. It’s coming to Divine Relationship with The Father as a son. And if you do not understand that, then you do not understand Salvation. We must come to understand Salvation as it is IN CHRIST, and if that is not your heart toward God, then the Covenant that He made with Abraham is not the Covenant that is in your heart. And if that relationship is not the center and the heartbeat of your preaching and teaching, then you are not preaching Salvation as it is in Christ. We have many things in Christ: all things, but the first and the foremost, ultimate thing that we have in Christ is God as our Father. And it is that realization that the Holy Spirit desires to reveal in you, because it is not merely an understanding of a name, but a Divine relationship with a Person. The Covenant that God made with Abraham is all about that. It’s about a father and a son; it’s about the father giving that son. It’s not merely "many" as individuals, but "many" as the increase of one son. For this purpose you and I are IN CHRIST JESUS, and we are there only through the death, burial and resurrection of The One Son.

God has kept the Covenant that He made with Abraham and Isaac; He has kept that Covenant in Christ Jesus. And it is the Spirit’s desire to establish in your heart the Covenant that God has kept in His Son. There is a difference between the word "MADE" and the word "ESTABLISHED". We’ll come back to that, but I’m going to read in the scripture and you’ll see that God "made" a Covenant with Abraham; He "established" that Covenant in Isaac. And the difference in those two words is extremely important because God doesn’t just "make" something, He doesn’t just "say" something - He ESTABLISHES something! The Covenant with Abraham is a pattern: that’s what we’re talking about. In the beginning, God made a Covenant in His own heart; He purposed to do a thing; He willed to do a thing. According to His own good pleasure He purposed this thing in His heart. He made a Covenant with Himself - The Covenant was between The Father and The Son, and The Son agreed to the Covenant, and The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world! It was determined, and what is determined in God, He will also establish. So when God makes a Covenant - it is a DONE DEAL! It is a certainty. We must see that.

In Himself God made a Covenant, and when the fulness of time WAS COME, He established that Covenant in His Son. Who does He establish it with? With The Son and those who are in Him. Certainly! Can you tell me: what was the sign of The Covenant that God gave to Abraham - between the father and the son? Circumcision, wasn’t it? Here comes the REAL circumcision! THE CROSS is the real circumcision! It is here that the first man is done away. The first man is not just wounded; circumcision is the cutting off and the throwing away! Circumcision has the sign of the blood, and the only thing that remains after circumcision is THE SON HIMSELF! Because it is The Son who has been circumcised - right? Who was crucified? The Son was crucified! What happened when He was crucified? The old man was done away because He was crucified as the old man. But it was THE SON being crucified as the old man. It was The Son being circumcised, and when The Son suffered the cutting away - the cutting away of the old man, and His blood poured out as a sign of that, it was The Son who was raised up in the power of The Resurrection, and The Covenant of God was ESTABLISHED IN HIM.

"This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased!" Proven to be The Son of God - with power by The Resurrection from among the dead! It is when that resurrected Son is revealed in you as the only Life you have that The Covenant that God made with Abraham, which was The Covenant that God made with Himself - is ESTABLISHED. The Covenant is not only made, it must be established. It is spoken of Christ in the book of Hebrews: "I come to do Thy will, O God." What will? The will that God had from the beginning, the will by which God determined all things in Christ. "I come to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may ESTABLISH the second." Remember I said there was a "second"? There was a New Covenant, but it was only "new" in contrast to that which was old. It’s not another Covenant, but a NEW Covenant; new in quality, in nature, in character. Where does He establish this Covenant? He establishes this Covenant in those that are His.

Let me show you something. He establishes it in His Body - sure! Where is The Covenant made? Where is the sign of The Covenant? The wound is not to the head; the circumcision is not cutting off one of the ears. The circumcision is in the body, is it not? And in fact, it is in that part of the body that determines the identity of the body: as to whether it is male or female. That’s a type, a shadow, a pattern. The Cross is no type; The Cross is no shadow; The Cross is no pattern. THE CROSS IS THE FULFILLMENT OF THE CIRCUMCISION! Christ is crucified: I am crucified with Him. You and I bear the sign of the circumcision as His Body. And what is raised up? What comes forth in The Resurrection? A Body - whose Body? HIS Body! It comes forth in Divine union with The Head! So in The Resurrection, there is The Head and His Body as One New Man, as One Son, with whom The Covenant is both made and established. I pray that we see this.

This is The Covenant God made with Abraham. This is the Salvation God showed to Abraham. It began in Genesis 12: ‘Get up, get away from your father’s house, from your people. Go to a land that I will show you.’ And Abraham obeyed the Lord, and God appeared to Abraham and made this Covenant with Abraham. What is a Covenant? Very simply The Covenant of God is just this: it is an understanding given of God concerning His Eternal Plan and Purpose. Basically a Covenant is an UNDERSTANDING entered into by two people. We come to an understanding, then we live according to that understanding toward one another. This is so even if the covenant is between two men, and there may or may not be some sign or token of the covenant. But the covenant itself is in our hearts, in our understanding. This is The Covenant of God: it is God showing His heart; it is God giving an understanding of what is in His heart. This is The Covenant of God to Abraham - it came right out of the heart of God. It had no mediator; nobody stood between Abraham and God. God sharing His Covenant with a person is the most intimate relationship you could ever have with God!

Do we understand that? Because it is God opening His heart and allowing that person to look right into the beginning, and to understand the mind and heart of God as from the beginning. But it’s more than just understanding a purpose, because bound up with that purpose, bound up with The Covenant is both a "making" and an "establishing"; not only seeing what God purposed to do, but it is knowing what God hath done. Paul says that it is God sharing with us the sacred secret of His heart, and bringing us into that very fellowship - THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SON! We must understand that!

This is what God did with Abraham. He shared His heart with Abraham. He called him out first; called Abraham out unto Himself. Abraham built an altar, and the Lord appeared to him. Listen to the Apostle Paul, because the same Covenant was revealed in Paul in the revealing of The Son. In Christ Jesus Paul saw what God showed to Abraham. But Paul saw it - NOT as a thing "to come" as did Abraham. Paul saw it as that which had come in the Person of Jesus Christ. Listen to what he said: "God called me by His grace. He separated me from my mother’s womb." "Paul - come out from your father’s house, come out from your kindred, come out from your own land." For Paul this was the Jewish religion; his mother’s womb was the womb of Old Covenant Israel. Paul was formed in Old Covenant Israel, he was taught in Old Covenant Israel, he was fashioned in Old Covenant Israel. You know that: before God called him out of his mother’s womb, Paul killed Christians, didn’t he? Above all men he was zealous for Old Covenant Israel.

"Called me by His grace, separated me from my mother’s womb..." For what purpose? To establish His understanding, His Covenant in me.. Paul already understood The Old Covenant but not the New One. Paul knew that The Old Covenant of Israel was NOT The Covenant of Abraham. He knew Israel had LOST that Covenant, because it is Paul himself that said: Why serve the Law? It was ADDED because of transgressions. Paul himself said the Law, which was given 430 years later could not make The Covenant of Abraham non-effective. Paul knew there was a Covenant made with Abraham. He understood it wasn’t The Old Covenant, and yet for years he tried to find life and righteousness in The Old Covenant. Why? Because it was the only Covenant he had! The New one had not yet come! He understood the Old one; now he was about the understand the New one. Not the New one as "another" one, but "new" as being different from the Old. But the "New" Covenant was the SAME Covenant given to Abraham! It was just FULFILLED in The Son!

‘He called me out of all of that.’ Paul understood all this, he admits something! Paul said here’s why He did this; here’s why He called me out from my mother’s womb, separated me, called me by His grace - to establish His TRUE Covenant in my heart, to fulfil in me the promise He made to Abraham! How? "To reveal His Son in me that I might preach HIM.’ Not the pattern of Him, not the type of Him, not the shadow of Him.... that I might preach HIM! So God made a Covenant with Abraham, and He established that Covenant in Isaac.

We know when God made the Covenant - we read that in Genesis 17 and 18. God made the Covenant and gave the sign of circumcision. That’s when the Covenant was made, and by that same reality the Covenant is made with you and I. The Covenant is made by THE CROSS. It is sealed by THE BLOOD. The New Covenant is in THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. Now that’s when the Covenant was made, and the word "made" is used there. And the word "made" in Hebrew means "to cut , to cut off, to cut away, to destroy, to kill." This is from Vine’s Bible dictionary! It is the picture of THE CROSS! There’s no doubt about that. You know - circumcision is really an act of violence. Any way you look at it, that’s what it is. Because the first is taken away in the violence of The Cross. But who first suffered that violence? He hath borne our iniquities, our chastisements, our wounds - HE! While we are the "first" that is cut away, He bore the violence of it.

So we know when the Covenant was made, but when was it established in Isaac, because the promise was "in Isaac will I establish My Covenant." Well, to find that we have to go to Genesis 22. I’m not going to read this now, but in this chapter we see the closest relationship that there can possibly be between a father and a son. In chapter 22 we see the love of God made known. "God so loved..." This is how God demonstrated His Love! HE GAVE HIS SON!! It’s here in Genesis 22. "Abraham. Yes Lord. Take now thy son, your ONLY son, and offer him unto Me." And Abraham took Isaac his son, and started toward the mountain that God would show him. You know the story. They got to the mountain, and Abraham the father prepared the altar. This is all the doing of the Father and the obedience of the Son, who became obedient unto death, even the death of The Cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him! He hath raised Him up from among the dead, and made Him to set at His own right hand in glory! He hath highly exalted HIM... hath given HIM a name above!

It is in The Resurrection of The Son that the Covenant which is made in circumcision, in death is established. That’s what happened on the mountain. There he is: knife in his hand! Isaac is dead! Abraham is committed, and the Spirit of God catches his arm.... because THIS is not the fulfillment. The fulfillment is yet to come, and God is not after human sacrifice, but the death and resurrection of His Son. So, the knife is stopped. But in Abraham’s heart - that boy is dead! In Isaac’s heart - he’s gone! It’s that way. But what did Abraham really see on that mountain? The writer of the Hebrew letter in chapter 11:17-19 says, "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called..."

Now let’s think about this just a minute. God tells Abraham that Isaac is his seed. Now He says, take your seed and kill it! But the promise of Abraham was that he would be a father of many nations. And He said that promise would be established in Isaac. Now He says - take the seed and kill it! Most of us would say, why don’t you make up your mind? Am I going to have a seed or not? But Abraham had already been through this business of disobeying God, he had already produced his mistake. He had to send it away, so this time Abraham obeys. And here the mystery of God is revealed to Abraham, and it is just this: "EXCEPT A SEED FALL INTO THE GROUND, IT ABIDETH ALONE. BUT IF IT DIES, IT BRINGS FORTH MUCH FRUIT." The Covenant is made in death, it is established in The Resurrection. Verse 19, "Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." Hallelujah! I will establish My Covenant in Isaac, and when God raised him up on that mountain, when Isaac came forth in the resurrection, the mystery of God was revealed, and the Covenant was established with Abraham.

The Covenant that is established with you and I is the Covenant that originated in the heart of God. That Covenant is made in the death of His Son. When we die with Him, The Covenant is made, it is sealed by The Blood. But that Covenant that God made in His heart, that Covenant that God performs in The Cross - in the death of His Son, is established in The Resurrection. And it is established in you when God reveals in you The Resurrected Son, The Only and True Son of God! And you understand in the revealing of that Son your relationship and your fellowship with The Father. The Covenant that is made with Abraham, established in Isaac, has come to be FULFILLED IN CHRIST.

Now we’re going to look at Israel’s part in this picture. (Diagram 2)