We are concerned these days with being a manifestation of our Salvation in the earth. We’ve preached on "manifesting God" for years, but in some point in time we should actually become a MANIFESTATION OF REALITY. We should do that 24 hours a day; we should do that wherever we are. Most of the preaching of "manifestation of..." one thing or another is very futuristic. While we criticize the dispensationalists, we ourselves become very futuristic - looking for that great and awesome manifestation, that great and awesome Work of God. Well, that great and awesome Work of God is already IN CHRIST JESUS! And it will be made manifest in the lives of those who are in Christ once they come to see Him, and to know Him. And there is no greater manifestation than to manifest HIS LIFE: for there is nothing greater than His Life! We have come to that; we have come to that in Christ. We have come to a living relationship with The Son of God Himself. This is the Reality of our Salvation. Our Salvation is real because you are IN CHRIST JESUS. And it’s more than just the reality of documentation. It’s documented in the scripture over 200 times that YOU ARE IN CHRIST!

Do you realize that? And that’s in the New Testament alone. I don’t even think you could count the number of places it is set forth in type, in shadow, in promise, and in prophecy in the Old Testament, but it’s documented throughout the Bible. In prophetic promise it begins in Exodus 15:17. Have you ever noted that? You don’t get very far - not only into your Bible, but in God’s dealings with Israel at all, until this promise is noted. And it’s in the book of Exodus which is ironically it seems, the book whose name says "getting out". Everyone knows that exodus means getting out of some place. On what is called "The Mount of Transfiguration" Elijah and Moses, it is recorded, appeared there on the mount with the Lord Jesus. And the better translations of that text that tells about that in both Matthew and Luke says they spoke with Him concerning HIS EXODUS. I always enjoyed that - His exodus - out from this world! Listen, how many of God’s people today are looking for an "exodus out of this world"? Millions, billions? Exodus out of this world; exodus out of the flesh, exodus out of a certain situation or circumstance.

I was in India once and I very much wanted an exodus: I wanted a way out of there! But through this the Lord showed me THE EXODUS. I found my exodus - out of India, out of that situation, out of the world. I found my exodus. But Moses and Elijah were there talking about His Exodus, talking to Him about His death; they were talking to Him about The Cross. Biblically, scripturally the ONLY exodus out of this world is through His death, and burial and His resurrection. The only exodus out of any given situation, any given circumstance - His death, His burial, His resurrection. There is NO other exodus! This exodus in the Bible was by what? The Blood of The Lamb upon the door of the House of Israel. There is NO other way out! Go ahead and look for one! I’ve told people that and they’ve gotten mad at me and left... but they haven’t found a way out yet. They’ve decided they are not going to get out; they’ll just make this situation better. Well, they haven’t made it any better yet. And situations have a way of getting real good, and then get real, real, real bad!

That’s the way this world is. In this world the sun shines on the just and the unjust. In this world when it rains, it rains on everybody - that’s just this world. And the only exodus out of it is THROUGH CHRIST! But it’s through His death, His burial and His resurrection. But you know something? That’s not only your way out; that’s YOUR WAY IN! Right here in the middle of this book called the way out - God promises, prophesies that getting out is not His ultimate intention. Verse 17 of Exodus 15 is just that way. "Thou shalt bring them in..." It doesn’t say "Thou shalt get them out." Why doesn’t it say that? Because that is NOT the order of God; that’s NOT the reality of Salvation. "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance..." That is not Sinai. It’s the mountain talked about in Hebrews 12:22 - that’s Mount Zion! That’s where you come - IN CHRIST! It’s the same place that Jesus spoke of as being fulfilled through His Cross in John 14:1-6 and summed up in verse 20 which says, "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you." Isn’t that what Jesus said He was going to do through His death, His burial and His resurrection; through His going away and His coming again, and receiving them unto Himself. "That where I am, there ye may be also..." You see, "where I am..." I’m quoting now from that verse. This is NOT a location; it is a divine relationship. And that is not just my opinion, it is the grammatical structure of the original translation in your Bible. That is just plain and simply the way it is written. Now, we may not comprehend the understanding of that, but at least let’s not add our imagination to that, and imagine that He’s talking about some place other than Himself, when the literal translation says HE IS THE PLACE being talked about. The original grammar context of that verse says that the I AM is the place; and the word "that" is not even in the original - it’s in italics in your Bible.

So He isn’t talking about a place; He’s talking about the same place God is speaking of here in this verse - bringing us in, unto, in union with Himself. "That where I am, ye may be..." How so? Because He’s in you! Because He lives in you, and you by that, live in Him! Salvation is in union with Christ - in Christ Jesus! A divine relationship that comes out from the beginning, and Jesus is the only Way, the only Truth and the only Life of it. No man cometh to My Father but by Me. And the joy of Salvation that is enhanced in you by the Spirit of God; The Spirit of God revealing The Son, and bringing the joy, the realization of Salvation - what is that? It is just what He says: "In that day you will KNOW..." Oh, the joy of knowing, the peace of knowing, the security of knowing, the substance of knowing that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. And did you notice the order there? Because the order is that He said: where I AM, ye shall be. So, that’s the order He gives it in. Where I AM - I am in My Father. That isn’t a location; it’s a relationship. I AM in My Father, and you are in me, and I am in you!

We are talking about the REALITY OF BEING IN CHRIST. This is what the scriptures say about that reality, for only The Spirit, Who comes in My Name, Jesus says, can reveal, can make known. Yes, Paul says, open the eyes of your understanding... give unto you the spirit (there’s not two or three spirits) of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The joy of that is the understanding: the coming from one Covenant to another; that’s coming from one understanding to another, because that’s what makes it all real to you. That’s what makes it real: when you walk in the Covenant of it. It wasn’t enough, even in the Old Covenant to just be an Israelite: you had to KEEP The Covenant as an Israelite. The Reality of our Salvation is our being in Christ, but bound up with our being in Christ is Keeping The Covenant. This Covenant is NOT a letter of Law; it is a Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding. Walking in the understanding of The Lord is a Divine Covenant nonetheless. Covenants are bound up with the Salvation: the old one was bound up with the TYPE of Salvation. The New Covenant is bound up with the REALITY of Salvation. We are IN CHRIST, but we walk, we grow IN COVENANT. And of course, The Covenant has a sign. The sign of the one is circumcision; the sign of the other is The Cross - the TRUE circumcision. You are not going to get away from The Cross. It is both the exodus and the entrance; it is both the way out and the way in!

Look at this: "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance; in the place, O Lord, which Thou has made for Thyself to dwell in. In the sanctuary..." In the Old Covenant that’s the name of the Holy of Holies. You bring that right over to Hebrews 8 and you’ll find that we have such a High Priest, a minister of the sanctuary not made with hands.... stablished in the heavens...’ Hallelujah! Not that we’re going to get one... one day. WE HAVE a High Priest! You and I are not a sanctuary without a High Priest! "... which Thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign forever and ever."

The point I’m trying to make in this introductory session is that the Bible has never taught Salvation other than BEING IN CHRIST: from its start to its fulfillment - IN CHRIST JESUS. Being in Christ is real! It’s more real than being in this building. Again, that is true by actual scriptural definition and documentation, but it’s more so true when The Spirit of God opens the eyes of our understanding and allows us to see WHERE we are in the face of WHOSE we are; in the face of Jesus Christ, and we come to realize our union with Him. But the little word is "IN"; it’s used through The New Covenant, and in the Greek that little word "in" is written in English as "en" and very simply what it means is "a relationship of REST." And the word is by its character an inclusive word, which means that if we are scripturally "in" this building as that word suggests we are in Christ, we would have to be the material, the stuff, that the building is made out of. That’s inclusiveness, and that’s how we are "IN" Christ.

It’s not a place other than Him, and it’s not a place other than we who are in Him. It is a joining together with Him. It is a relationship dear friend. The reality of your Salvation is being in Christ. I’m not going to read all the references to that in the Bible; I’m simply going to go from Exodus 15:17 to 2 Corinthians 5:17. But I want to point something out because I want to continue to keep THE CROSS in the center. We could diagram this: before The Cross we could put a square, and that represents everything that is first, everything that is old. And on the other side of The Cross we put a circle and that circle represents all things in Christ, because there isn’t anything on this side of The Cross that God recognizes other than that which is IN HIS SON. There’s NOT three or four Covenants with God; there’s just two. One is over before The Cross - The Old Covenant, and associates with the whole Testimony. The Testimony of what? The Testimony of what is going to come! This is not really very complicated. The Old Covenant is a Testimony - your Bible tells you that. Hebrews tells you it was a Testimony of the things which were TO COME. You will find the word "Testimony" throughout the Old Covenant; it’s a Testimony of that which is to come. Well, what is bound up in The Old Covenant? An old creation is bound up in it; an old heaven and an old earth. Read Isaiah. A city is bound up in it, a Temple is bound up in it, a Priesthood is bound up in it. And all of that is testifying of what? That which is to come.

And Who fulfilled The Old Covenant? Where is The Old Covenant fulfilled? It’s fulfilled in a NEW Covenant. That is simple in the scriptures; it is simple in the book of Hebrews. It is simple - had the first Covenant been perfect, there would not have been need for another to come. The Hebrew writer tells us that. So what is The Old Covenant fulfilled in? A New Covenant! But what is The New Covenant fulfilled in? In Whom is The New Covenant fulfilled? Who is the mediator of it? In Whom is that fulfilled? That is fulfilled IN CHRIST! It isn’t fulfilled outside of Christ; it isn’t fulfilled other than Christ. What you are coming to in Salvation is coming from Covenant to Covenant. The scriptures actually show us that we are being brought from one Covenant to another Covenant. We are going to deal with coming from glory to glory; and coming from faith to faith; and coming from man to man, because that is what we do. All of that in The Old Covenant was in type: it typifies something. But in Christ, Christ isn’t ‘another’ Son: He’s the ONLY Son! He’s not a ‘pattern’ Son; He’s the fulfillment of the pattern God gave to Moses, who wasn’t a son, but a servant.

Somebody told me the other day that they heard that every 2,000 God has another Son. God help us! But no - He’s only got One, and that One just has One Body... there’s One God, One Spirit, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One Body. I’m telling you I don’t have time to look for another Son: I haven’t learned the first One yet! I haven’t learned the Real One, The Only One yet! I’m still walking IN HIM, and will be throughout the eternities of God, comprehending the fulness of God in Christ! That doesn’t produce another Son; that produces an EXPRESSION OF THE ONLY SON! It produces a manifestation of The True Son, The Son Whose Body we are, The Son in Whom we live and move and have our being, The Son in Whom we now dwell!

The whole story of the Bible and of Salvation is coming from The First Covenant to the Second: there isn’t a third one; coming from The Old Covenant to the New One; there isn’t a newer one! And everything that is bound up with The First one comes to be FULFILLED in the Second One, and The Second One is IN A PERSON. So now we have come from Exodus 15 to 2 Corinthians 5. But how did we get there? Exodus 15 - "Thou shalt bring them in..." We got there by The Blood of The Lamb, through The Cross. There wouldn’t have been an exodus but by The Cross! Israel thought, ‘Boy, He’s got us out!’ But you see the whole crowd that thought that died in the wilderness. They never went IN to express fulness; they never went IN to express inheritance. And we should know they didn’t "find" an inheritance in Canaan, the EXPRESSED one there. They didn’t "find" fulness among the nations, they were to express fulness among the nations. Do you understand that David wasn’t called King of Canaan, but King of Israel? We need to understand that!

We need to understand that all who thought that all God had done was got them out so He could feed them on quail and manna out of heaven - DIED! They all died with full bellies! I don’t read where any of them starved to death. I don’t read where any of them froze to death. NO - they were well fed, well clothed... and died because they never went to PURPOSE. They never lived in purpose; they never walked in purpose - they never did! They saw the purpose, and they thought... well, we’ll preach about it! But the purpose is not to preach; it’s to LIVE.

They came out by the Blood, but now we go to 2 Corinthians 5:17, but the story starts at verse 14. "For the love of Christ..." Is that not The Blood of The Lamb? A man asked me a question recently. He said in their Bible study they came up to the story of Ananias and Sapphira, and they were trying to figure out what that was symbolizing, and what it was a type of. And I stopped him right there and told him that nothing in The New Testament is type; it is always a Reality. And he said, well, here’s our thought: we wondered how a God of love, a loving God could allow such a thing to happen. So I said, well, let’s talk about the "love of God" for awhile. And I was able to talk to him about the love of God. Read it here. "The love of Christ constraineth us..." Israel put the love of God on their doorposts. The love of God is in The Blood of Jesus Christ! The love of God was made manifest at THE CROSS. Here’s how God loved the world: He gave His Son. That’s the manner and the method, and the way in which God loved. And He gave Himself - how much greater is the love?

I told the man that we have this nationalistic, Christianized concept that God is just loving everybody willy-nilly out here. But you have to understand that with God, love is not an emotion; it is a Divine Work of The Spirit manifested in His Son at and by THE CROSS! And the ONLY way to be loved of God is to put THE BLOOD on your doorposts! And if you don’t then you reject the love of God. And you cannot reject the love of God and be loved at the same time, because God’s love is not an emotion; it is a Divine Work of The Spirit. We need to get a hold of that. We go around in our humanistic facade and say how much we love everybody. Come on - at best it is some kind of expression of self-love, self-centered love; love that is out to get as much back as it gives. In its purest form it is self centered. And it’s not the love of God at all. It’s our substitute for the love of God. I’m not telling you that you are supposed to go around hating each other, but I’m telling you that this self centered love is just another manifestation of my nature. But the point is: God’s Love is at THE CROSS. That’s where He manifested it, and it’s not just our little love that overlooks things and accepts things. No, His Love changes things! His Love goes beyond anything we could ever contemplate. And I’ll tell you what: once you’ve been loved of God, you begin to love one another that same way, in that same manner. Then it’s not an emotion with you; it is a Work of The Spirit, And come hell or high water - it’s there!

You need now to read Corinthians on LOVE - long suffering, committed, kind. That’s not human endurance talked about there; it’s the Love of God talked about there. We all get tired of one another. I know what human endurance is like. But the Love of God... if it is the LOVE OF GOD by which we love one another, then emotions have nothing to do with it; so stress or not being stressed has nothing to do with it - not at all! It is a function of The Body of Christ. So, we start this with that judgment of love. Verse 14, "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead." Yes, then were all dead. One translation says all were made to be dead; all died with Him. The point is that this whole Reality of Being In Christ starts with The Cross. It starts with getting out of the world. No wonder Paul said I am crucified to the world, and the world is crucified unto me. And the only thing that matters with God is a New Creation in Christ Jesus! That’s in Galatians 6:14 -" But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, BY WHOM..." Do you understand that Paul identified The Cross with The Person of Christ? "...save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Now if you want out of the world, there’s your exodus! That is your exodus. And I’m going to show you that the scriptures that say ‘quickened together, raised together, seated together’ is not how you get in Christ; that’s what happens to you IN HIM. In Him you are quickened, IN HIM you are raised, IN HIM you are seated. That isn’t how you get there. We’re going to see how you get there. That’s the power of His Resurrection working in you - IN HIM; who are in Christ Jesus. That’s the power by which you live every day and the reality in which you live every day! Raised up together - that’s not raised off somewhere. That’s raised up together... where? The Bible tells you in that same verse - IN CHRIST JESUS! You can’t get around it - it’s everywhere you look if you’ll just see.

And that’s all we can do is show the documentation of it. But The Spirit reveals, The Spirit opens our eyes, and we aren’t showing each other a place, but a Person. So The Spirit opens our eyes through revealing The Son! And He reveals Him in you, that you and I may know our relationship with Him. And what is that relationship? One of being IN HIM. Glory to the Lamb of God! Verse 15: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. That means in Christ Jesus it doesn’t make any difference: it’s not a Jew, not a Gentile, circumcised, or uncircumcised. No - not in Him. But what? A New Creation! And where is that? For IN CHRIST JESUS... IN Christ Jesus! Why is that? We read in another place that IN Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, nor bond nor free. What happened to them? THE CROSS happened to them! They had a collision with The Cross, and they didn’t make it past The Cross - it was a fatal collision! So Paul says, now "it is not I, but CHRIST liveth in me. And the life that I live in the flesh I live by that understanding..." This gets as practical as shoe leather! "The life I live in the flesh I live by the faith of The Son of God..." He just described that faith - Christ liveth in me. It is the comprehension of our union with Him - that is the faith of The Son of God.

So here we are in 2 Corinthians. Paul says in verse 15, "Well, if that is so; if that He died for all, then they which live..." Now, when He died, he adjudicated all men dead. "Ye shall surely die." That’s what The Cross is - the judgment of God. The judge was lifted up, the judgment was made. "Oh man, thou are dead, and canst not come to me but by life, for I am not The God of the dead, but The God of the living." God put a big NOT up there - N-O-T. NO man cometh but by Me. No man can come. What sealed that? What judged that? What passed that judgment? THE CROSS! In that he died, all were judged dead! There is man’s situation, and Paul looks beyond that and says, since that is so, then we who live... Now, to who is he speaking? Those who have Christ as Life, those who have been quickened together, and raised together, seated together in Christ Jesus. He’s not talking to all that have died; he’s talking to all that have come from that death unto Life through The Way, The Truth and The Life. And that’s the only way it can be read, and make sense. We who are alive... there’s only one way to come out of that death, and that’s by HIM Who says, "I AM THE LIFE."

Now then we who live should not henceforth live to ourselves. No, we who are in Christ and live should not any more live any more as though we had a life of our own. It didn’t make it past The Cross! Now if we live, we live by Christ and Christ ONLY. That’s Paul’s argument there. So in Him - not living as though we had a life of our own, not living unto ourselves, but UNTO HIM. But look at his description of Him - "Unto Him which died... but not only that: ROSE AGAIN!" You see, these in Christ are not only those that are bound up in His death; but those that are bound up in His resurrection. That’s where we live. And except Christ be in you - you DO NOT live, you have NO life. If Christ be in you, then it is not you, but Christ who liveth. Henceforth we should not live unto ourselves. Now, "Wherefore..." It reads like a legal document, doesn’t it? Wherefore... henceforth... And he just keeps referring it all back to The Cross, and bringing it into Life.

Because of this... wherefore... henceforth...because these things be true... then know we no man after the flesh. Oh my, here IN CHRIST know we no man after the flesh. We who live...wherefore... henceforth... those words connect it all together. It’s like a legal document, like a Last Will and Testament being read. Henceforth know we... we who? We who are in Christ. Who is he writing to? "... know no man after the flesh." You can go in a lot of directions with that, but inevitably one of the things that is made very clear is that we are not knowing each other by our nationality, by our gender, race, creed, color, by your height or our stature. But the basis of our knowing is CHRIST. Therefore it can go on and be said that we are not knowing each other as bodies, but as The Body of Him, Whose we are. But you see, that is not the case with most Christians today because it isn’t presented to them in Truth. We are told to try to know each other better in the flesh, and understand each other better in the flesh; and I’m telling you that is a futile trip. That is an exercise in absolute futility! That’s like saying the more you serve the Law, the better off you are. No honey, the more you serve the Law - the more sin is exposed!

Paul tells us that, because that’s what the Law does. It was not for righteousness; it was added for transgressions. So the more you serve it - it does its job! Christianity has been reduced from Christ and from living in Him in the Church world to a religion, so we are supposed to "better understand" each other. Well, that may work in the world of commerce, but that doesn’t work in Christ. It won’t work, and we could go on and on with that because that is the thrust of what Christians call love and peace and harmony. We’ve even extended that to "national Israel" (but of course there really isn’t such a thing as national Israel any more), but, to the Jews. But for Christians after the flesh that’s a big problem with them, so they’ve created this term: Judeo-Christianity. It’s an effort to just hang a Cross around your neck and a Star of David with it. We just love everybody... which doesn’t change a thing! But we really think that’s the way to bring peace. In the first place you don’t "bring peace on earth"; you manifest peace on earth that you find IN CHRIST. That’s the only way you’re going to do it! And when you look around in Him and find no man but Christ, then it’s not difficult to manifest peace on earth with everybody else!

Do you understand that? Because if you’re at peace with Him, you are at peace with everybody! And if you’re not at peace with Him, you’re at peace with nobody - I don’t care how much you try to understand them. God help us in our futile attempt to mimic Christianity and to be an imitator of Christ. Nobody called you to imitate anybody! No sir - there are no imitations here in Christ. I’m talking about THE REALITY OF BEING IN CHRIST - there are no imitations here. There’s nothing here to imitate! There is just ONE LIFE TO LIVE! What are you going to imitate? There is Divine nature, Divine substance, Divine character - all summed up in The Person of Life Himself. We’re not called to imitate anybody! "Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more..." Well, if you can’t know HIM after the flesh, why try to know anybody else that way? And yet, modern day Christianity is the epitome of the antithesis of that. We know each other after the flesh; and we know Him and WANT to know Him more - after the flesh. And one day we will - know Him better that way. That’s what the preaching amounts to. But I want to tell you something, and I’m only here to document by Word The Truth as it is in Christ, and to declare the Reality of Being there. I understand that only The Spirit of God Who put us there, can reveal Him to us, and in us there. I know that, but it is given to us to declare the gospel of that reality that ears may turn to hear, that eyes may turn to see, that hearts may turn to know. All I’m doing is that. But I’m telling you, if Jesus Christ walked through those doors - in His robe, in His sandals, with His beard and His hair, and came in and stood right in front of us, we would be in the Old Covenant! That’s the only way that could happen!

We would be in the Old Covenant... but we are not! We are the building of God made without hands, and in His glory He dwells in us! We’ll talk about that, because Salvation without glory isn’t worth a dime! And we’ve come from glory to glory! Blessed be The Lamb of God! Now we’re to the verse we’re after. Verse 17, "Therefore..." Here’s the end of it, here’s the summation of it. It comes to this:

"If any man BE IN CHRIST, he is a new creation." And the word "in" and "he is" has been added to bring a little more clarity to that verse, but it is one of the cases where it does bring clarity. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, a new creation: old things are passed away..." Where? IN CHRIST! In Christ you look - they are gone! Yes, at The Cross, by The Cross, but IN CHRIST they are passed. They are not in the process of passing, they ARE passed. Whether they are out of my heart yet or not may be an issue; because I may not have the "sign" deep enough in my heart. What I mean is: The Cross works the Covenant in you, and the Covenant is the realization of all things new. The Covenant is the realization of Not I, but Christ!

But in Christ you will not find old things to see - they are not there! You are going to have to look into another Covenant to find them; but rather - all things are new. Where? IN CHRIST! I’m talking about in Christ, because that’s where it is true, and also IN CHRIST, not only that, "all things of God." Where? IN CHRIST! I used to talk at a lot of conferences, and I would generate a lot of questions, and people would come and ask me how some particular thing or situation is God. I’d look at them and tell them God hasn’t got one thing to do with that. They’d say - but you said all things were of God. No, all things are of God IN CHRIST - that’s what I said. I’m not trying to duck out; I’m talking about a new realization, I’m talking about a whole different sphere, a whole different place, a whole different relationship. Folks would get silly ideas. They try to find God in the wrong creation; and He’s made manifest in The New One; The One that He made - without hands. "For ye are His workmanship, created of God in Christ Jesus." But we look in the wrong creation to find Him. We look even in the natural creation and you can see His handiwork, and I appreciate it, but the handiwork of God, and God Whose handiwork that creation is - are two different things. You are not going to find God in a tree - I don’t care how long you look! Now the heathen think so, so they cut it down, carve it up and worship it, but do they really carve it in His image, or in their own image?

They are still worshiping their imagination of God, which is themselves - they just use a tree to do it. There is only one creation where you are going to find God - right here - IN CHRIST. But isn’t it wonderful? That’s where He has brought you and I! IN CHRIST JESUS. "Old things ARE passed, behold all ARE BECOME..." That’s a wonderful word. It means "created"- are become NEW, and all things are of God. Yes, because here Christ is triumphant, and He has committed all things to His Father. Where? In Christ Jesus! That God may be all and in all. Where? In Christ Jesus! I’m telling you - the reality of our Salvation is in Him. And this is very practical, because we are IN CHRIST - on earth. The City of God has come to earth - quickened together, raised up together, seated together - heavenly places... Oh yes, that’s true, there’s no doubt about that. Here it is "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, IN EARTH, as it already is IN CHRIST." The practicality of it is that you live on earth as you UNDERSTAND IN CHRIST. That’s where The Covenant will come in. We are bound by Covenant. You can not be one way in Christ and live another way in the earth, because you don’t live in the earth: you live IN CHRIST. Please try to hear me! Paul says, "If ye then be risen with Christ..." And the translation is: "Since then ye are risen with Christ, seek there, set your affections there; not on the earth." Why? "For ye are dead." You don’t live on the earth. Don’t set your affections where you don’t live - you don’t live on the earth; you live IN CHRIST. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. We live in Christ: we manifest that Life on earth. It’s just that practical, just that real!

And the only way we are not doing it is if here - in Christ - we are not bound in Covenant, we are not living in Covenant, not living in understanding. But friends, the consequences of that are almost unbearable! Just look at the type. It wasn’t enough just to be an Israelite; you had to live by The Covenant. An Israelite who didn’t live by The Covenant was separated from the presence. And that’s what happens to you here: you are separated from The Presence. And then like all the rest - you are trying to find God, trying to feel God, because you are separated from The Presence. Now with Israel they put them out physically, but the point is: they were separated from the presence. They were separated from the thing that was a type and a shadow of the reality of what we have in Christ. And if you are here without understanding, the ignorance that is in you separates you here from The Presence of God.

Well, the Covenant comes in the face of The Lord Jesus. He is The Word of The Covenant! Aren’t you glad for Him! And it is a joy to share The Reality of what we have in Christ, that we may turn our hearts to see Him; turn in our hearts to know Him. And if you are tired of whatever you have in the world, you not only have A WAY OUT by embracing your own death, but you’ve got A WAY IN by embracing His Life - and Living in Christ - IN COVENANT!

Pt. 2 - IN COVENANT

We are joining our hearts, minds and souls together so the Spirit of The Lord may create in us ground for the revealing of The Son. Why is it important that Christ be revealed in you? Why is it NECESSARY to your spiritual welfare, your spiritual being - that Christ be revealed in you? Because of the two Covenants involved in Salvation: the Old Covenant from which we come to the New Covenant which is mediated in our hearts by The Lord Jesus: The New Covenant which is IN CHRIST, The New Covenant, the substance of which is Christ. But my point is that as you search the scripture you will find it was not enough to be an Israelite born, nor an Israelite circumcised; but the circumcision was a sign of the Covenant. Because you were in Israel, of necessity your spiritual welfare demanded that you WALKED according to God’s Covenant. So much so, that the Covenant, which is an understanding given of God (He gave that understanding in the Old Covenant in the types and shadows) to Israel with regard to His relationship to them was, through these types and shadows how they understood their relationship with God.

So that Covenant was rehearsed, and that Covenant was kept. If that Covenant said you gather three times a year, all Israel before the doors of this Tabernacle... you can believe they were there! Because if they weren’t there... that same Covenant said that soul shall be cut off from the presence of the people. My point is that Israelites "born" also had to be Israelites "defined". They were defined by their walk; they were defined by their manner of living; they were defined by their comprehension of their God. They were set in the earth to be an expression of a comprehension of God that was in them. They were set in the earth as a Testimony of the comprehension of God that was in them. That comprehension was The Covenant; it’s the thing that bound them to God in their spiritual walk, in their spiritual well being.

Now if that is so in the Old Covenant, it is MORE SO in the New Covenant. For those of us who are IN CHRIST, it is of necessity that we walk in the comprehension of The Lord. It is of necessity that Covenant, the understanding given of God in Christ be written in our hearts, and that our very lives become an expression of that in the earth. When? Whenever! Where? Wherever! At all times and in every place! The Covenant is necessary to your spiritual well being. The Covenant is necessary to your spiritual understanding. The Covenant is no longer written on stones, because your Salvation is NOT in types and shadows; your Salvation is in The Son, in The Person of Christ! IN CHRIST! Therefore The Covenant is in the revealing of Christ because the Covenant is not written on stones about types and shadows; the Covenant is written IN YOUR HEART with regard to your Salvation Who is Christ. God reveals The Covenant in you, He reveals His Word in you, because His Salvation is also His Eternal Word. He’s in you!

It is absolutely necessary to your spiritual well being, to your spiritual growth that Christ be revealed in you. For you can not live in Christ - that is, grow up in Him, exercise His Life in the earth as it must be, except you grow up in, walk in, the knowledge of The Lord. There is no way you can live in Christ aside from comprehending of The Spirit. Consequently the Covenant is necessary. If you would walk in Christ, it is necessary that Christ be revealed in you because therein is the Covenant. It is through revealing His Son in you that God awakens your soul to your relationship with Him. And that revealing is by the same Spirit whereby you are in Christ in the first place. It is a Work of The Spirit. Now The Covenant is a very expanded thing. Having been found in Christ, coming to be in Christ, then God begins to work His Covenant in our heart. Another name for that is: He works His Word in you or He works the comprehension of the Spirit in you, but we must understand that it is HIS COVENANT.

We should be able to look in the Old Testament and find the antithesis of it, find the type and shadow of it in the Old Covenant. But now it is not an Old Covenant, not a letter; but it is The Spirit working in you. What is The Spirit doing? He reveals The Son in you, He reveals The Word in you, He transforms the understanding of your soul, He opens the eyes of your understanding. That’s The Covenant of God. But before we can be in Covenant, we must be IN CHRIST. So now, how did you and I come to be in Christ? By what are we in Christ Jesus? How came you and I to be in Christ?

Turn to the Old Covenant, the book of Zechariah, and we’ll also look in Haggai. There is something that we should understand when we look at these two prophets. We must understand the time and circumstances under which they prophesied. We could spend a long time on that because it involves the whole work of RESTORATION of Israel under the Old Covenant. You know that there was a time that Israel was delivered and they were in the wilderness, and finally into Canaan, and all of that up through King Saul and King David, and finally coming to their zenith in King Solomon. And then from there - they went down hill! And they ended up going into Babylon because they sinned against The Lord’s Sabbath. That’s The Cross! The whole summing up of The Sabbath is Christ crucified. The whole summing up of The Sabbath is The Cross: not as an event, but as a relationship with God. The Cross is NOT defined in an historical event. The Cross was made manifest in the earth, but The Cross is a Divine relationship with God worked in you by The Spirit. The Cross is you and I coming to know Christ, coming to be involved with Christ in a very inward way in His death to sin; coming to be involved with Him in His burial where we are laid to rest, put out of sight and left there. The Cross is you and I coming to be involved with Him in His resurrection, whereby He lives - and He and He alone lives. So it is not I, but Christ who liveth in me.

That’s The Cross, and that’s The Sabbath. It’s the whole Work of The Cross; it’s the whole Work of Christ. It’s summed up in The Sabbath because "Sabbath", contrary to many people’s thinking does NOT mean "seventh". It doesn’t mean seven in Hebrew or English or Egyptian - or any language - period! It means "REST." Seven has a different meaning altogether. Seven has to do with fulness. Consequently The Sabbath is fulness of rest; but Sabbath means rest. And the fulness of REST is through THE CROSS! I am only fully at rest when I am fully not living - and Christ is living in me. Consequently bound up with The Sabbath in the Old Covenant and New was The Covenant, because "Sabbath" was to be not just a day, but an understanding of God’s people. Well, they came to the "day", but they never came to the understanding. The Hebrews writer tells us that: they wouldn’t enter in. What does that mean: they wouldn’t enter in? They wouldn’t understand, they wouldn’t walk in Covenant of their Sabbath. They would not do it! They would honor the day of the week, but they wouldn’t enter into the comprehension, they wouldn’t enter into that rest.

My God, it sounds like somebody describing Church people today! We’ll congregate on Sunday because we’ve named that our new Sabbath, or we’ll congregate on Saturday because we’re too foolish to know that the Old Covenant has ended in Christ Jesus! But we won’t walk in the comprehension of rest. The reason for that is The Covenant of Rest is not written in us, The Prince of Rest, The Prince of Peace is not revealed in us. We are still in Him struggling to live our own lives and... be like Jesus. We haven’t come to the comprehension by which we are in Christ; we haven’t come to comprehend that by which we are in Christ. I’m giving you some background of the prophets. Israel was in that condition. They had not only not comprehended the Sabbath: they had violated any semblance of The Sabbath! They were not bringing their offerings and gifts to the Door of the Temple, which is typically The Cross - Christ and Him crucified. They were not doing that; not coming and laying down their lives at The Cross.

They weren’t doing that. They weren’t even doing that in type and shadow. They were doing "their thing" on the top of hills, and under groves, and where the heathen did it. They were not giving the land its rest; they were trying to get all out of it that they could. Oh Jesus! Doesn’t that sound like Christians today? I mean, everybody knows that if you give God ten dollars, He’s going to give you ten thousand back - that day, by pre-paid postage! Get all you can get! They were not giving the land rest. They were living in the land as an expression of THEMSELVES. The land is in Christ! They were not in the land expressing their relationship with God. You can read this in the history in Kings and Chronicles unto the time of the Babylonian exile. You will find they had little peaks of repentance, but then they would go down deeper. They’d have little sparks of religion, but then downhill they would go; they followed their Kings into captivity. They were all in violation of THE FINISHED WORK typified in Solomon; they refused to walk in a Work God finished. Eight times the word "Finished" is connected to Solomon and this temple - eight times. The glory of God dwelt there. The Work of Salvation in type was finished and set forth as finished. The Temple of God typically was in the midst of His people, Jerusalem and the King was on His Throne - that’s Salvation! That’s not some never-never land story: that is a type of Salvation, that’s a type of what we have in Christ Jesus!

But they refused to walk in it! They refused to walk in that reality ... so, they went into captivity. God allowed it. They went into captivity, and it is interesting that there were three exoduses there. Three exoduses - that’s interesting; and there were also three exoduses out from there. And if you look and see the first group that went in, you’ll get some tremendous things there out of death, burial and resurrection as far as the working of a recovery of Christ in your heart. For you see it in Israel; the recovery had to be worked, and they had to come back out. But when they went in, the Temple and the City was destroyed. Why? Because the literal Temple and the literal City were always nothing more than an expression of the people; of Israel’s relationship with God. That’s all it ever was meant to be. God looked at Israel as His City, He looked at Israel as His dwelling place.

But that was all in type and shadow because Christ had not come at that time. But I want to tell you - He’s come NOW! Yes, He’s come now in the fulness of everything that the Old Covenant promised. But He had not come then; so it was in type and shadow. And the expression of that was the literal Temple and the literal City. And there’s no doubt about it in searching The Word that God saw that as being a people. Israel themselves represented that to God because God not then - not now; He could not then - He can not now have relationship with bricks...nor gold, nor silver, nor any material thing. So forget that! It’s with a people; but when the people went into captivity, The Lord allowed a thing to be done. It was prophetic of what would be done in absolute and utter completion in time to come. He allowed the City and the Temple to be ransacked, torn down and burned! And yet the rubble of it was still there. He allowed that because it testified to the condition of His people.

Now they are in captivity. They went there for 70 years according to the word of Jeremiah. But there was in Babylon a man named Daniel, and Daniel was found praying. And every day at the time of the evening oblations Daniel was on his knees praying. And he turned toward THE HOLY CITY. It was always in his heart. Babylon was not a place of pleasure to Daniel: it was true captivity. It wasn’t so to all the Israelites: to many of them it became a place of pleasure - not to Daniel, never to Daniel. Daniel always represented God’s own High Priest - of Israel even in Babylon. But Daniel was praying, and it came to Daniel through searching the scripture, from reading the book; such as was left after 70 years, because much of it had been destroyed. And Ezra’s part of the recovery was to gather up all the fragments and present to Israel a complete copy of the scriptures, which he did in the recovery.

But at this time Daniel had been reading, and he knew that Jeremiah spoke of 70 years of captivity. Daniel quickly calculated that, and found that the 70 years were up, had come to the time. And according to the Word of God - Daniel prayed. Do you see that? " According to THE WORD OF THE LORD, Daniel prayed." Not according to his desires, his wants, boredom with Babylon, not out of the fact that he was tired and disgusted and wanted to go home. I’ve tried all those prayers! In accordance with a Finished Work, in accordance with a Spoken Word - Daniel prayed. And I’d love to go into that because we come to the promise of The Cross there. We must understand that the last week of Daniel’s prophecy, that last seven of the seventy is fulfilled in Jesus Christ Himself at the time of the evening oblation at The Cross in His death and His burial and His resurrection. God did not lose one of Daniel’s weeks! He fulfilled it in His Son. Now, that takes some looking, but that is the case. And it can’t be anything else because when that prophecy came to Daniel he was on his knees at the time of the evening oblation. During that prayer a messenger went and stirred up the soul of King Cyrus. Cyrus, King of Babylon - an ignorant heathen stood up and made a decree that Israel should be released to go back and recover the City and the Temple. Yes, they could go back!

Of course in the recovery it is first the Temple and then the City. That’s always the way it is: it is first the recovery of the Temple. When something is going to be recovered in you of spiritual significance, it is not what you are that is being recovered first: it is WHO HE IS that is going to be recovered first, then what that does for you becomes a realization that comes afterwards. It is always Christ the first fruits and then those who are His at His coming. That is the order: it is always Head first and then the Body. And that’s the way this was rebuilt. It had to be rebuilt that way. Theologians can come up with their own thoughts on that, but the reason for it is Divine Order. This whole thing is a Divine Work of God and we must see that. Until the Temple is restored, the City is worthless: the City is no good because the center of the City is the Temple. You can’t only look at that in a natural way; you have to look at it in a spiritual way. Until The Testimony of God is restored in you - what good are you? You are just religious - and you are good for nothing! That’s what Babylon was! It was a whole mixture of religion. Babylon was a religious place; Babylon was in fact, a religion - a religion of mixture. It had its own totem, it had its own statue, it had its own music and ceremony. It was a mixture of religion!

And God’s people had been carried into captivity in it, so much so that there remained on the earth no true Testimony of The True God in a corporate way. Oh, it was there hidden in the hearts of those like Daniel and Ezekiel, and Ezra and Nehemiah, but it wasn’t being expressed in any corporate way. So The Lord began to move upon these men and others. Daniel prayed - The Spirit of The Lord stirred up Cyrus. Cyrus made a decree. From the time of that decree, from the time of Daniel being on his knees at the time of the evening oblation - seventy Sabbatical years; seventy years measured by The Sabbath. Not measured by the sun, the moon or the stars or anybody’s calculator - by THE SABBATH was predicted until righteousness should come; eternal righteousness should pass in. The Old Covenant and that people should come to an end, and a new era, a new world would be ushered in. That came at The Cross - it came to the day! At the time of the evening sacrifice Jesus Christ was crucified! They hurried and got Him down because it was a day of preparation. It was just before what they called The Great Sabbath; that very special time. It was introducing the year of Jubilee! What a fitting time for all of this to come to its climax!

Here’s my point: it was during this time that these men were prophesying. And their prophecies were not ultimately directed at what was going on, but what was being prophesied by it. In other words they were not directly concerned with the reconstruction of THAT Temple and the reconstruction of THAT City, but the fulfillment of it that was to come. And it is about the fulfillment that was to come that these men are prophesying. God used the whole thing as an opportunity - going into bondage and bringing them back out... He used that whole thing as a point from which time His fulfillment in His Son would take place. And all the prophets that were prophesying of that time, began to prophesy concerning that which would come, not just these two - every single one of them.

You could look at Ezekiel and the Temple that he saw and the Glory that filled it. You could look at Isaiah - his last chapters are written during this time and they are referring to the great restoration time. Yes, even Jeremiah who prophesied their doom also prophesied of the time of their great restoration, and all of these men looked beyond this typical resurrection, this rebuilding which was in and of itself and at that time tremendous, but oh, it paled to the point of non- comparison to what God was speaking that He would do in His Son. Let’s read that, because my question is: how did we come to be in Christ? We who are there - how did we get there? And if we find out how we got there and understand how it is we come to be there, we will automatically be able to see and receive in our hearts that if we are here that way, then we must be a people of UNDERSTANDING, we must be a people of WISDOM, we must be a people OF COVENANT. We can’t stumble around in ignorance. We must be a people of Covenant - you will understand that.

We’ll look first in Haggai 2:5-9. "According to the word that I COVENANT WITH YOU..." I have to say again The Covenant is what gives God relationship to His people. It does under the Old, and it does under the New. It is The Covenant. That’s why there are so many "in Christ" but not "in relationship". They are not in understanding, they are not in Covenant. And that Covenant only comes at the revealing of The Son in you. Yes - the letter, the Word, what is written on the page before you tells you about it. But this itself is a Work of The Spirit. It doesn’t violate what you are reading; it CONFIRMS what you are reading. It makes what you are reading a True Testimony. But The Covenant is God doing something IN YOU, and He does it according to His Written Word. But He does it by His LIVING Word! It is His Living Word whereby we are in understanding and in Covenant with Him. We must come to understand that, because otherwise we could just search and see things that are promised to us documented in the scripture, and we could agree to it, but then we’d have to ask: Why am I not affected by it? If this is true, then why am I not affected by it? Because of Covenant! The Word testifies of what must be revealed in you. The scripture testifies of what The Spirit must work in you. The scripture testifies to the reality of it; The Spirit performs and works the reality of it IN YOU!

Listen - because the scripture calls Jesus "Savior", that doesn’t mean you are saved! He must be worked IN YOU, according to that reality, according to that Truth. He must become a reality! Because we find the City of God is a reality in Christ doesn’t mean you are walking on a golden street! No, that doesn’t mean that you are walking in the understanding of a faith that is tried and tested with fire, and proven. It must be revealed in you. It’s The Covenant that is missing, because The Covenant is that by which God relates to you and I. Now, He can only relate to us as a people who are in Christ, but He relates to us with His Covenant. "According to the word that I covenanted with you..." Not just wrote on a piece of paper and chunked it down at you. "I covenanted this with you when you came out of Egypt." Since that time My Covenant has been with you. Now remember they had broken it, and went into captivity, and now they are coming back out, and the prophet is reminding them. "...so my spirit remaineth among you." In other words, My Spirit has NEVER ceased to deal with you since the day I brought you out of Egypt. My Spirit has never ceased to deal with you concerning My Covenant; even in Babylon My Spirit dealt with you.

Oh my - you and I have witnessed that! You’ve witnessed The Spirit of God dealing with you. You and I probably couldn’t put our finger on it; we couldn’t theologically identify it, but that doesn’t make any difference. You know The Spirit of God is dealing with you. You know whether you are either satisfied or not satisfied; you know whether you are hungry or not hungry; you know whether you have peace or no peace. You know - The Spirit of God deals with you concerning THE COVENANT. He always does. He deals with us on the basis of Truth, He deals with you and I on the basis of a Work that is FINISHED. We either walk in it or we don’t but The Spirit of God never quits dealing with you. In my heart I may go into Babylon, but He never leaves being in Christ. No sir, He never leaves, He never quits dealing. God is saying here since the time you came out of Egypt My Spirit has been with you!

Even while you were stiff necked, rebellious, on and on... My Spirit has dealt with you. While you were in Babylon My Spirit dealt with you. Now He’s about to bring them to a recovery by that same Spirit, because The Spirit does not deal with you to condemnation, The Spirit of God deals with you unto RECONCILIATION. He deals with you unto restoration. Glory to the Lamb of God! He deals with you on the basis of The Cross. He was dealing with them on the basis of His Sabbath that He had covenanted with them; that they had rejected, that they had despised - and yet God had not rejected it. He hasn’t rejected The Cross! He has no other way to deal with you and I, for The Spirit of God just continues to deal. I’ve been ministering the gospel that comes by the revealing of The Son for about forty years, and people used to tell me all the time: "Brother Luman, every time I hear you, you are saying the same thing. Why don’t you get yourself ANOTHER sermon?" I was director of a Bible college once and the students finally said it doesn’t matter which class of his you take - he’s going to say the same thing. It doesn’t matter whether he’s teaching Old Testament theology or literature - he’s going to say the same thing!

Well My God, there’s just One Covenant! I could use all the words in the English dictionary and in everybody’s language too, but there’s only One Covenant to declare! Sometimes I would answer, ‘Well, maybe someday you’ll hear what I’m saying.’ And once I said if you think I’m bad, you ought to get hooked up with The Spirit of God! He doesn’t quit - twenty four hours a day! He’s always saying the same thing! "... so My Spirit remaineth among you." He hasn’t left, He’s still working according to the same Covenant - The Cross, The Same Sabbath.

Everything has got to come into that to make any sense. Of course you can preach some people’s concept of heaven without The Cross, but you can’t preach the BIBLICAL concept of heaven without The Cross. Who in the world do you think sits on the throne, but The Lamb as though he were slain! It’s got to come to The Cross or it isn’t in Covenant. Now he goes on. Haggai 2:6, "For thus said the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea and the dry land." My goodness, the Hebrews writer picks that up in Hebrews 12. "And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come..." Do you see what I’m saying? These men are prophesying during the time of the natural restoring, restoration; but they are all prophesying far beyond that. That’s the theater, that’s the arena of the prophecy, but they are pointing to a fulfillment, to a recovery, to a restoration that is far, far beyond what they are seeing at that time with their natural eyes. "... and the DESIRE..." That’s not merely translated as a thought or a dream; the desire of all nations is a PERSON; it is the Messiah - it is Christ! It is The King of Kings and Lord of Lords; it is The Son of God! "... and the desire of all nations shall come..." And the "nations" that are spoken of here translated in the Hebrew is the nations of Israel, because the whole thing here is an "in-house" prophecy. And the nations of Israel there represent the nations of the world, because as Israel shall become One House, so people from all nations - whether Jews or Gentiles - in Christ become ONE HOUSE.

You have to understand Biblical language there. "The desire of all nations" - that is the desire of Israel, all the nations of Israel and by representation, all the nations - period; because The Redeemed are taken out of every race, every kindred, every tongue and every nation, and are redeemed OUT from there unto God through Jesus Christ The Lord! Isn’t that true? Therefore the desire of all nations IS COME! And that’s what we are looking at here. "I will fill this house with glory..." Oh my - coming from glory to glory! Salvation with no glory is not worth a penny. It was bound up with glory in the Old Covenant, and the glory is fulfilled in the New! But to walk in glory, you must walk IN COVENANT.

Verse 9, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts." This is a prophecy all the way to the time of Christ when He said, speaking of the reconstructed Temple: "Tear this one down, I will raise it again in three days. And this spake He concerning The Temple of His Body." This spake He concerning His own Body, The Church - which Body you are. So He raises up The Temple, and according to the prophetic pattern - what happened then? He raises up The Temple first. That’s the reason Cyrus’ decree was towards that. He raises up The Temple and The City is gathered together unto Him. Do you understand that without The Temple being raised up, there can be no City? And do you understand that we are not looking beyond Christ for that fulfillment; we are looking INTO CHRIST for that fulfillment; because Shiloh is come, and Shiloh means The Lord is come in glory. He is come, and the gathering of the people (in Hebrew translated as Israel is chosen); the gathering of the people is unto Him.

Paul says that in Ephesians when he says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." There has been a gathering of the chosen, a gathering of the people! The City gathered unto The Temple, and therefore it is called as in the time of Solomon, The City of The King. It is this same reality of Christ in His people that John saw and wrote about and called The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Glory to God! We’ve sat in darkness with our eyes closed and eaten traditional sandwiches long enough, folks! My Lord, The Father has a banquet set, and we can eat His flesh and drink the Blood of The Lamb and walk in Covenant, and manifest the full reality of Salvation in the earth - and who wants anything other than that?

Hallelujah! It’s all about glory - not my glory or your glory. It’s all about HIM being glorified in a people; that glory manifested through a people in all the earth. it’s all about glory. Salvation is all about glory. It’s not about position; it’s about RELATIONSHIP. He hasn’t brought us into some kind of a position; He’s brought us into a relationship with Himself. Sinners, when they come to the Lord are led by that - they desire that. When a sinner really comes to The Lord it is not in their heart that they are coming to a religion; they are taught that later by ignorant Christians! They are taught that later by traditional theologians. When they come to The Lord, they want Jesus. They are hungry; there’s a relationship they are after. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every time an unsaved person came to The Lord somebody declared Truth to them?

Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Wouldn’t that be rich and real? Divine relationship! I could tell a sinner that and not teach them one verse in the Bible, and ask them is that not what your soul truly seeks? Is that not what your soul was truly after? They’d have to say, yes it was! And we could say that’s exactly what He’s brought you to. He hasn’t brought you to some kind of theology or doctrine; He hasn’t brought you in a building - He’s brought you INTO HIMSELF! Look here, I can show you that in the scripture, I can show you that in the Word what The Spirit of God will agree with in your heart right now before you get flooded with tradition. I can show you the reality of relationship. It’s so hard to show that to those that are in Christ but their mind is sealed AWAY FROM - not BY The Covenant; away from The Covenant. They are deluded with traditional viewpoints so that The Covenant is far away from them, so that even in Christ they are sitting there desiring a relationship "one day". No - you’ve come to that NOW!

And then we get into all the fables and the stories because you’ve got to tell Christians something. If you don’t - they’ll give up and quit! After all, most of them are not walking in relationship, they are not walking in Truth; so you’re going to have to build something out in front of them. It’s like putting a carrot out in front of a rabbit. He’s not going to run just because he likes to run - he’s trying to catch something. I hate to paint such a dismal view, but that’s traditional religion today. But it is not so in Christ. There is a reality; He’s brought us to a relationship. If your heart is hungry for relationship you can find it IN CHRIST. It will abound in Him. If you are in Him and somehow lost that relationship... I don’t mean you’ve "fallen out of Christ", I mean the relationship has gone - you can find it in Him. But when the heart turns, the veil is done away, and we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And all of a sudden - Salvation is relationship with a Person again! And if we were completely honest, you know that even in the human element, your relationship with people is what counts. Relationships with a tree don’t last too long! Relationship with a new car, or a new house, or a piece of furniture does not last for long. It is a temporary high, but it is relationship with people that counts. It is so in a marriage, in a family. Where do you think all that starts? It starts in the heart of God! He hasn’t perfected that in the human family: He has perfected that in His Own House - in Christ Jesus! And you can walk in such a relationship, you can walk in such a Covenant of understanding because His Spirit, the same Spirit that brought you there, is there to open your eyes, to bring you into Covenant, and to seal you (as it were in the forehead), in your soul, in your mind, with the seal of The Covenant. Hallelujah!

Now, here’s where we want to go. Zechariah 4. Here’s my question: How did we come to be in Christ? We can stand up and present all the documentation that you are there, but - how did we come to be there? It’s not just a documented place; it is a reality in God, it’s a reality in The Spirit. It’s not a place we read about and want to "go to one day"; it’s where your Life is - or certainly can be - IN CHRIST JESUS. We are reading about REALITY here, folks. Do you think you should ever have to use the term "reality Salvation"? Salvation should say "reality"! Zechariah 4:6, He’s talking to Zerubbabel, the one who is involved in the Temple building. He laid the foundation, and he’s having a little trouble getting beyond the foundation. No, it’s not a bad thing: the foundation is Christ, but now he’s just got a bunch of rebels on his hands that don’t want to be built on that foundation, and then the country around, and the powers that be don’t want to see anything built on the foundation, and somebody tries to rescind the edict of Cyrus, and does so for a period of time, and just shuts the whole thing down!

Sounds like traditional religion at work to me! Oh Lord, don’t you know that Paul faced the same thing? He got the foundation laid. He said, I’m telling you folks, there isn’t any other foundation; there’s only one foundation, and that foundation is Christ. And he’s talking about Christ being revealed in you, because although Christ is the foundation, no doubt about that; He is laid in your heart by The Spirit when God reveals His Son in you. He is written in your heart by a Work of The Spirit because that foundation has to be laid somewhere. So Paul says this is the foundation. And when he did that - all hell broke loose - and something worse than hell broke loose! All the Judaizers turned loose on him! It wasn’t hell that stoned him; it was the Judaizers. They didn’t want to see anything built on that foundation, because they claimed that THEY were The House of God. Sounds like traditional religion at work, because they were the traditional religion of the day. Why were they traditional? They were traditional because they didn’t accept what God gave them as a fulfillment of their Covenant. They were traditional because they were walking in traditions rather than in Truth; and that’s what traditional is today. Old traditions - and it’s not merely the presenting of something new. No - tradition is not just standing against new things; tradition is standing against The TRUTH. The Truth is not a "new" thing; it’s an established thing, a proven thing, a real thing. These people weren’t called traditionalists because they wouldn’t accept something new; they wouldn’t accept The Truth that their own traditions spoke of. We’ve got religious traditions - telling you all about these things, but I’m telling you - they are all in Christ! The relationship, the reality of them is in Christ. And you are supposed to be the manifestation of them in the earth. The reality of them is IN CHRIST.

All the terms of Salvation - we could gather them up one by one. "For it pleased God that IN HIM should all fulness dwell." It pleased The Father that at the fulness of time, and the fulness of time came by The Cross, according to the scripture, He has gathered together in Christ all things... Yes - all things of The Covenant. Earthly things - heavenly things - heaven and earth itself - gathered together in Christ Jesus. That’s where you dwell; that’s where I dwell. But do we WALK there in understanding? That understanding comes BY THE SPIRIT. But it’s not just an understanding of a thing; no, it’s the understanding of The Person. It’s the revealing of Christ in you because your relationship is not even with some aspect of Him; your relationship is with HIM, and then you yourself become the expression of that particular aspect. YOU become the expression of His House, His City, of His Body. Those are aspects. It is not those "things" that are revealed, but Christ is revealed, and then you and your manner of living begin to manifest the reality of those things in the earth. You and I both know The Church is not where you go; it’s the reality you express and live!

Zechariah 4:6, "Then he answered and spake unto me, saying..." This is the man that was having trouble with the foundation. "This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, NOT BY MIGHT, NOR BY POWER, BUT BY MY SPIRIT, saith the Lord of hosts." And then it goes on, but here’s what I want you to see. We are in Christ by The Work of The Spirit of God. We are not there by natural birth; you didn’t join it, you didn’t decide to do it. It is not a self improvement program that I enrolled in. We are there by The Work of God’s Spirit. You were not there before God’s Spirit put you there. You can not be there except The Spirit of The Lord put you there. We’ll talk about the "put" in a minute. It is a Work of The Spirit.

Do you think that God would allow... see, the foundation is Christ. We’re talking about something built on it. The House is built on the foundation. And if it is a good house it is one with its foundation, and if it isn’t - then it’s not going to stand long! Here the House is one with the foundation, but the foundation is Christ. Do you realize that He is Who He is, whether I ever believe on Him or not? Do you understand that He is the tried, He is the proven, He is the precious, He is the established foundation, and God will have NOTHING except it be in His Son? Do we actually realize that? And if God will have nothing, and claim nothing as His Own except what comes to be in His Son, do you think that God could accept the conduct or the life of anything except it was an expression of that reality in the earth? How could that be?

So this business of: ‘Brother Luman, leave me alone. I’ve got my own church.’No you don’t! What are you talking about? Have your own church? CHRIST has got His Own Church! He’s got His Own Body! Who ever told you it belonged to you in any way, shape or form? When you say you have your own church, do you know what you really are doing? You are Israel back here, before they were taken into captivity, and you are out here on your own hill - offering up a sacrifice to God, rather than bringing it to the door of the True Tabernacle, which is Christ Himself, and understanding it’s not my church - it’s HIS, it’s HIS BODY. But we have all these little cliches to guard our traditional values. Well - it’s by The Spirit of The Lord.

Now, agreeing upon that, there are three Biblical terms that identify The Work of this One Spirit, bringing you and I to dwell in this One Body. There are many terms, but there are three terms that identify specifically His Work toward the believer; that identifies what Being in Christ is all about. Three terms. It is important that we come to the understanding of how we got here in the first place. These Biblical, scriptural terms are: BAPTISM, NEW BIRTH and ADOPTION. New Birth is born from above, born again. Being born again is the New Birth. Yes, birthed into Newness of Life. Baptism, New Birth and Adoption. Those three terms identify The Work of The Spirit by which you and I are in Christ. And all three of those terms are directly related to The Cross - His death, burial and resurrection. Those three terms in fact identify His death, burial and resurrection working in us.

And that’s why we shouldn’t get confused with all these terms because they all just come together in the reality of The Spirit. They all come to be understood in the light of our relationship with Christ. How many terms are there that connect with a natural marriage? Oh - thousands: husband, wife. Those are words, but they suggest a relationship. So are Baptism, New Birth and Adoption - words. Yes, and they are defined by a relationship. There is no way you can understand the words until you enter into the relationship, no way at all. I can bring you the Truth of the words, but only God can bring you into the relationship. But you see, even when we are confronted with the words, most of us don’t even turn to seek the relationship. You know we don’t. Husband - wife; but after that - mother, father. Terms - terms that a young man and a woman who are dating know nothing about and can not even imagine what it means. They can go to a dictionary, but that doesn’t help. That just says there is such a thing. Terms - all of which exist because of a relationship, If you take away the relationship, all those terms just turn to dust; and they need to be swept away because they mean nothing. They become a rebuke.

Why? Because they are designed to speak of a relationship and if they don’t they are just a rebuke. They are just a hollow echo. It’s much more in Christ! Baptism will either describe a relationship you are walking in, or it will become a rebuke to you. New Birth will either describe a relationship you are walking in or it will become a rebuke to you. Adoption is the same way because it sets forth The Truth of God in Christ and concerning you and I it is bound up with the Baptism, New Birth and Adoption.

So we need to learn to be people who search the scripture together. We need to be people of a Covenant; we’ve been "dumb" long enough. May the Lord give us grace to search the scripture and be people of The Covenant. May we come to understand the greatness and comprehensiveness of God’s Work, which is spoken of in these terms - Baptism, New Birth, Adoption. And those things have their types and their shadows, so we can look at them and say, My, is that what The Spirit is doing? Yes, that’s it, and then we come to the relationship of that. I can talk to a young couple in words describing a relationship, but they only have to go ahead and get into that relationship because that will define the words.

It’s the same way with The Lord working with you and I. We need to look at these things because they will be fully realized as a relationship with Christ. And then we can look in the scripture and say - this is what is happening; this is it. And then you can minister to others from the scripture and say, this is what this means. And it’s not that you are intellectually smart, but you know what that means because you are walking in that relationship. It has to do with spiritual understanding. We’ve been without spiritual understanding for too long, folks.

Pt. 3 - Baptism - New Birth- Adoption

Thank God for Jesus! It is through Him and in Him - in His Resurrection, in Christ we have all things that are given of God! We have been dealing with the reality of Being in Christ. We have seen the reality of Being in Christ, and preached and taught that "in Christ" position, and it is true. But most of the time that we hear the term "in Christ" it is taught from the standpoint of POSITION. I remember back in 1960 when I was confronted of the Lord with the reality of the Indwelling Christ, the reality of Christ being revealed in you by The Holy Spirit. And the term "in Christ" became a very familiar term, because you can’t read your Bible without going through it. You ought to sit down and start reading Colossians chapters 1-3 or any of Paul’s epistles, and you will see - in Him, in Christ, over and over again. Anything of reality is ours only IN CHRIST - through, in, by, our union with Him - IN CHRIST JESUS!

So we’ve been talking about the reality of that union. The reality of it is set forth throughout the whole Bible, but most specifically from Exodus 15 there is the prophetic promise of that glorious relationship into which we have been brought through His death, burial and resurrection. It’s all right there in Exodus 15, and it is fulfilled in Christ. The evidence of the fulfillment is the very basis upon which the gospels, the epistles are written. It is the very basis upon which the New Covenant standing is given - the REALITY of our being IN CHRIST. Salvation is our being in Christ - that’s what it’s all about. But it is always presented in a positional way, and the great Keswick teachers and writers presented it that way - men such as Watchman Nee and I.M. Thomas, T. Austin Sparks etc. But I began to see recently with freshness that it has little to do if anything with position; it has everything to do with RELATIONSHIP! Our being a son of God is NOT a position; it is a relationship. And too much of position has been made out of it. We’ve got all these movements, and men appointing men in positions of "sons". And after awhile it comes to its end and stinks just like the flesh that it is. And that’s not the reality of Being in Christ! It is a divine relationship into which we have been brought with the Father; a divine relationship whereby we dwell in union with The Living One! And that could be our next part in a series - "Union with The Living One."

But now we will just lay a little foundation for that. We have been brought into relationship through union with The Living One. And not only are we in Christ - that’s a fact of the scripture, but it’s more than a fact. It’s a reality - a reality of The Spirit. And we read in Zechariah and Haggai in regard to this question - how did we come to be in Christ? The believer is in Christ. If everything about Being in Christ is what the scriptures say - how is it that we come to be in such a relationship? And we saw that the summary of that is that we are there BY THE SPIRIT. We are there by a Work of The Spirit. And that is a fact, a reality; but now let’s be a little more specific. WHAT Work of The Spirit? By what Work of The Spirit are we in Christ? Now we’ve mentioned there are three terms related to that Work of that One Spirit bringing us into that One Body wherein may be revealed that One Lord. It is the operation of One Spirit - and I emphasize this because there are not a bunch of spirits involved here: ONE Spirit is involved in our Being in Christ. It is that Work of The Spirit by which we are in Christ Jesus. And there are three terms that define, and relate you and I to that Work of The Spirit, because here is where we are related, here’s where relationship becomes a reality on our part. The Spirit working in us, to bring us to that which God hath chosen and purposed, planned, executed and fulfilled in His Son; to bring us to that glorious reality spoken of concerning the children of God, spoken of in Exodus when it all started.

Bringing us there. And the three terms are: BAPTISM, NEW BIRTH and ADOPTION. Of all the misconceived, misunderstood terms - Baptism must be right at the top of the list! Once when I was in the Philippines at a Bible School, the brethren there had their own concept of baptism, but it’s not the baptism by which we are in Christ - so I’ll just leave that alone. And one night we were sitting after the session and a young man had a question. He asked me when I got "baptized" in this manner; obviously to him I must have been since I was there teaching the ministers. And the elder stood up and said, ‘Brother Luman comes here to teach Christ, and he’s not concerned with that." And that was the best thing he could have said! Now that settled it, but it didn’t answer the question in that man’s heart, because he was thinking if I was here and I didn’t have to do this, then why did he have to do it? I could hear his question, and he hadn’t opened his mouth!

So he sat through a few more sessions, and then he approached me, and he said there’s something I don’t understand. I stopped him and said, "Now look, if there’s something you don’t understand about what I’m teaching I will sit here and talk with you all day long. If there is some dealing of the Lord in your heart with regard to what I am declaring, I will talk with you. But if you are having a problem over the tradition of doctrines embraced by your elders: you go and ask them." And he got up and went away, because I don’t go anywhere to deal with traditions or doctrines or other man made dogmas. And I won’t get involved with that. This man was in every session, and I did take time to sit down with him and show him in the scripture the reality of The Lord Jesus Christ. He’ll have to wrestle with the other part of it! And he’ll have to confront his own leadership with it.

But I’ve always remembered that because they were so strong on that particular thing with regard to baptism; and it had nothing at all to do with being in Christ. You hear all kinds of things. The Church world is split over water baptism, and this was an issue with them. But that’s NOT the baptism I’m talking to you about. I’m talking to you about THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT: that’s how you are in Christ. We should handle everything else from an understanding of our Being in Christ. Unfortunately it’s not handled that way, but it should be. But the understanding of our Being in Christ is the Covenant we are talking about. The Covenant is bound up with The Lord Himself and with our relationship with Him. The understanding given of God with regard to Being in Christ - The New Covenant comes in the very face of Jesus Christ, for it is there that "God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." And that’s right at the end of Paul’s teachings on coming from one glory to another glory; with an unveiled face beholding the glory of The Lord, and we are changed into that same image, even as from glory to glory. That is, the glory of The Old Covenant, to the glory of The New; the glory that Moses was, to the glory that Christ is. We come from glory to glory! And then Paul continues on in that fourth chapter of 2 Corinthians and says it’s in the face of Jesus Christ where this light shines. And right after that he says that we have this treasure in earthen vessels.

BAPTISM - We’re going to deal with that because Baptism is that Work of The Sprit which mostly relates or identifies with our actually Being in Christ. So let’s look at Baptism. First go to John 1:26, and this really goes through 34. Now John was baptizing in the river Jordan. And most all Christians for some reason or other seem to think that John was down there doing what we call "Christian baptism". Well - he wasn’t! He was down there doing Jewish ceremonial washings. The word "baptism" here is "washings". And that’s what he is doing - Jewish ceremonial washings. Let me show you something - Hebrews 6. You remember I told you that your whole Bible is divided into two Covenants - The Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And everything in your Bible identifies with one of those Covenants. Salvation to you and I is coming from the One Covenant to the other Covenant. The substance of The New Covenant is CHRIST HIMSELF. The Old Covenant had no substance, but types and shadows of the substance, and promises and prophecies. They all have their substance in Christ. The letter in Hebrews says that: that Christ is the substance of all those things that were spoken before.

And the writer to the Hebrews is most particular in dividing those two Covenants one from the other. In every chapter something of the first is found to be fulfilled in the second - in every single chapter. It starts out in chapter one: here’s how God one time did speak, BUT at the end of those days, hath spoken in Son. Coming from one - to the other... all the way through. Hebrews 12 - two mountains; coming from the one to the other. "Ye are not come... but ye are come..." All the way through it is that way: bringing us from the faith of Abraham to the faith of The Son of God in chapter 11. Here in chapter 6 it isn’t any different. " Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptism (washings), and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." Do you know what these are? They are Old Covenant principles, all of which have been fulfilled in Christ. That’s the reason the writer says let’s not continue here. See, we preach this from a year 2000 understanding, and we think that he’s talking about principles upon which the Church is founded, but that’s not what he’s talking about at all. The "laying on of hands" is the ritual of Israel laying hands ON SACRIFICES, identifying with them. You see that in the Old Covenant! The doctrine of baptismS (plural); and that’s translated as "washings" - they had a washing for everything!

But CHRIST is The True Water of that washing - so let’s put that into bed, and go on to perfection! And that’s what he’s talking about in every instance here. Resurrection of the dead - when are we going to put that to rest, and understand HE IS THE RESURRECTION, and HE IS THE LIFE? And this is what the writer is saying here. And just a little Bible searching would show you that. But well meaning, but ill taught individuals preach it otherwise, and just cause more division. Let us come away from the principles... which is The Old Covenant - period! Because these principles were all to bring you to CHRIST. The school teacher - the principles: that’s a wonderful word. But in Christ we don’t run into principles. Here is not principles: here in Christ it’s The Law of The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus! The Old Covenant is full of principles, and all of them find their fulfillment in Christ. And washings and what those washings stood for find its fulfillment in Christ. And that’s exactly what John says, and what we are going to deal with.

John 1:26, "John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not." By the way, I’m not even remotely suggesting that you shouldn’t be "baptized"; I am telling you that you are not by that - in water - placed in Christ. So let’s leave that now, because I want to talk about TRUE baptism. " He it is, who coming after me..." Oh my, I’d like to just stay here. "Who coming after me..." The scripture says the law and the prophets were until John. Whose coming is after John? That should settle a lot of our questions on "His coming". Yes, bringing us from one to the other; whose coming is after me. John here is referring to the law and the prophets. That’s who he is: the law and the prophets have come to be finished in John - the scripture tells you that. The law and the prophets are until John. John is not the end of the law; he is the SUMMATION of it. Christ is the END of the law. His coming is after John. How far after? Immediately after, and it is in fact BY His coming that the law ended. It didn’t just get old and wear out: it was stopped with The Coming of Christ. That purpose was accomplished in that coming.

"He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me; for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not; but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is The Son of God."

Now let’s turn to 1 Corinthians. We are looking at Baptism, but we are dealing with how are we in Christ? We are there through The Work of The Spirit. That Work of The Spirit is identified and defined in connection with us in these three terms, and one of those is Baptism. I am showing you that you are in Christ through Baptism. We can’t now deal with the depth of Baptism: but you are in Christ through Baptism. And it is Baptism of The Spirit, and I’m not talking about speaking in tongues. I have been speaking in tongues since I was about 6 years old, and I speak in tongues every day, but I haven’t confused that with how I am in Christ. We’re talking about how did we come to be in Christ, and we have to have something here in reality that is a fulfillment of Old Testament typology. Old Covenant washings for purifications, washings for righteousness and holiness, washings for sanctification - washings sooner or later have got to stop! We have to understand that Christ summed up all of that into Himself, and by One Spirit we are baptized into One Body. And it is in Him we find righteousness, it is in Him we find all that is gathered up into Him.

We’re talking about The Work of The Spirit. Now 1 Corinthians 12:12. We are going to define The Baptism to some degree. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit..." Upon what he has just said, upon that reasoning: "For by one Spirit are we all BAPTIZED into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." Into one body. Now it doesn’t make any difference whether we are Jews or Gentiles before baptism. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body. "...whether ("we be" has been added) Jews or Gentiles..." Now his point is that it doesn’t make any difference what you were. What has his emphasis been? His emphasis is we are ONE BODY. What was all bound up in this mystery of God that He would reveal in Christ? Paul says it over and over again: the mystery of God in Christ, the mystery of God which was revealed in Christ. What was part of that understanding? Part of that understanding was that the Jew and the Gentile would be ONE HOUSE, that the Jew and the Gentile would be The One New Man. Part of that was that mystery. Their prophets talked about that: that the Jews and the Gentiles would be one: they would have One Salvation, One God.

Paul saw that realized in Christ. Remember the Judaizers came down and disturbed the believers in Galatia and said Paul is some kind of a fanatic, but we’re telling you that you have to be circumcised. And they were, and Paul said, "Oh, you foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you? You started out in Spirit..." This is The Spirit he’s talking about. "You started out in Spirit and now you seek to find perfection - completeness in the flesh." So he’s saying here - ONE BODY - so also is Christ. One Body - not two bodies trying to get along with each other. One Body - having many members, yet One Body, so also is Christ. And upon that, he speaks of Baptism. There is a Baptism by which you are baptized. By One Spirit you are baptized into One Body. And it doesn’t make any difference whether you are a Jew, whether you’re a Gentile, whether you are bond or free. It doesn’t make any difference what you were before you were baptized, because the fact of it is after you are baptized, here in Christ, there is NEITHER Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free, but CHRIST is all and in all!

ONE NEW MAN! Now that must be some Baptism! Any one can come to that Baptism, but the outcome of it is "neither-nor". Think about that! Whether you are male or female, old or young, Jew or Gentile - we are all by One Spirit Baptized into One Body. And you know that reading about "in Christ" there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free - but Christ is all. What happened? You’ll have to agree with me that more than getting wet happened! More than ceremonial washings took place. What kind of Baptism could do something like that: when it doesn’t make any difference who or what I am when I come, for when it ends up, it isn’t going to be me anyway? What a transforming Baptism! What could possibly take place that would make such a transformation - not only possible, but absolute? In Christ there IS neither Jew nor Greek, and yet it’s Jew or Gentile that comes, because there isn’t anything other than Jew or Gentile. You are either bond or free, you are either male or female. There just isn’t any third category to be!

We all come to One Baptism to be One Body. Now what kind of a Baptism can do that? Romans 6. Here Paul actually defines Baptism. Since we know there’s only one: by One Spirit, that has to do with our being in Christ. We’re not talking about two different Baptisms here. But here he defines the Baptism and he does so because a problem is taking place with the Church at Rome. Paul says the problem is you don’t understand The Baptism: you don’t understand what happened to you. Do you not know? Do you not understand? Romans 6:1-2, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"Then he says - wait a minute, maybe here’s the question! Remember we have spoken about the Covenant, the understanding by which we live in Christ. We have said that it wasn’t enough to be an Israelite: every Israelite had to obey Covenant, had to walk in Covenant, that is, they had to walk in an understanding. Well, The Covenant given to them was by LAW.

But The Covenant that is given to us is in the revealing of The Son. And it isn’t written on parchment; it’s written in our hearts. But obviously according to the epistles of Paul there were some - maybe many - who are in Christ, who were not in Covenant. In other words, who were not living there in an understanding given of God, who were still in their hearts drawn back to Old Covenant principles, who were still trying to figure out the how and the who and the what of the situation. So he says: do you not understand something about your BAPTISM? Verse 3, "Know ye not, that so many of us as..." He’s talking about "baptized" people, he’s talking about people who are in Christ Jesus. "... were baptized into Jesus Christ were BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH." That’s the reason it doesn’t make any difference whether you are a Jew or Gentile, you are about TO DIE! Who cares what you are? Coming to Christ you are coming by The Cross: you are coming by His death, His burial, and His resurrection. And these three terms that are Biblical terms having to do with that Divine Work of The Spirit are all fulfilled, realized in that Work of The Cross of His death, burial and resurrection. And our Baptism is INTO HIS DEATH. We are joined together - here’s where relationship begins.

Here’s where The Work of The Spirit becomes a Divine relationship. Here’s where The Spirit begins to work in you the death of The Son, the death of The Cross. "Do you not understand you were baptized into His death?" ‘Well, I thought I was baptized into His Life!’ Well - you thought wrong! You are NOT baptized into His Life: you are raised up in Life. The same Spirit that baptizes you into His death is that same Spirit that then quickens you unto Newness of Life: but it’s not the same "you" being dealt with here! It’s not the same creation, but a New Creation in Christ Jesus. BAPTISM - it is not a ritual, not a Jewish not a Christian ritual either, but a reality of The Spirit of God! Paul says you’ve got to understand you were baptized INTO HIS DEATH. We have Christians who say all I need to do is die. No - all you need to do is come to The Covenant understanding of your Baptism: you need to see YOU DIED! You died! It’s not something I need to do. That’s back to ritual washings. No, it’s something that took place in our union with Christ. Our first union with Him is unto His death, because The Cross is not a historical marker somewhere, but an ongoing Work of The Spirit of God fulfilled in His Son. The Cross is ever ongoing, because The Cross is not a stick of wood; The Cross is personified in The Person of God’s Son. Who is it that sits upon The Throne except The Lamb as though He were slain? Who is The Lamb as though He were slain except The Exalted, Everlasting Son of The Living God?

Baptized into His Death. Not only that: Verse 4, "therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death..." Now, I’m speaking scripturally: from whence are we resurrected? Out from the grave. I’m trying to make a point here: death, burial, resurrection. He wasn’t resurrected off The Cross: He was resurrected from the grave. He was resurrected from among the whole of the dead; and so are you - by Him. The burial and The Work of The Spirit in that realization is necessary. Jesus said - applying it to Himself: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground..." Why can’t it just produce fruit? It’s got to be put into the ground! It is out from the earth, it is out from the earthy, it is out from the ground - out from that The Resurrection comes. It is out from that, that much fruit is brought forth. "Do you not understand that your first union with Him is in His death?" And he was talking to born again believers; he was talking to those who were in Christ. And he wasn’t challenging them concerning being baptized; he was telling them WHAT HAPPENED at their baptism. Do you not know?

What is the reason for this? Look at Romans 6 where we are searching. "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; THAT..." There’s a reason for all of this. Look in Galatians 3:27 - this is baptism again. "For as many of you as have been BAPTIZED into Christ have put on Christ." What does he mean by that? I’ll tell you, but here’s the result of it: Verse 28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Now the same thing is said again in Colossians 3:10-11, " And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." That describes The One, but all are One. Yes, because Christ is in all: Christ is all, and He’s in all. And that will bring us to our next term: NEW BIRTH.

NEW BIRTH - because Christ is all and in all. How do you, who were dead - live? You were born again! A New Birth - Christ liveth in you, Christ is in you! So Paul could say it is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. That’s the reason he can say that in Christ it is not what you were: it is not Jew or Greek - not that. No, it is not that, but you are all One. But then here he says who that One is - it is CHRIST! He’s talking about the same thing - it is Christ Who is all and in all! Christ is the all and in all; that is, in every part of it.

And it’s said again in Ephesians 1 with reference to Him being The Head over The Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him... That means Christ is all, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all; that is, Who is the fulness of the corporate whole. That’s what makes The Body One. That’s why it’s HIS: that’s why it’s The Body of Christ, and not The Body of the hand or the foot or the eye. No - because it’s Christ - all in all. He’s the fulness of the thing! And that’s the reason for our union with Him in His death; that’s the reason He died. He didn’t die because God ran out of things for Him to do one day. There’s a reason for His death, and it was to bring all forth in Newness of Life. All - what? AS MANY AS ARE BAPTIZED into HIS DEATH... There’s a reason. And the reason is that like as Christ was raised up from AMONG THE DEAD (King James won’t say "among", but the original does) - up from among the dead; up OUT FROM among the dead. And every time The Resurrection of Christ, The Resurrection which He is, is spoken of, it’s always, every time - with no exceptions to this - every time it is in that wording: "out from among, up out from among the dead". Why? Because He’s the first fruits.

He was raised out from among the dead, that He may be to the dead that will hear, The Resurrection of the dead. We must understand that. That’s The Resurrection He says I Am. "I am The Resurrection and The Life; any man, even though he were dead, yet shall he live, and those who live and believe in Me, shall never die. Believest thou this?" Well, how can you die? Christ is your Life! You can take this old clay body, kill it, cut it up, burn it up and scatter the ashes to the four winds - BUT my Life is Christ! And you can not kill me - my Life is Christ! Can you understand what I’m telling you? I’m trying to tell you about the REALITY of Being in Christ. And if it is such a reality, then we had to get there through reality - a real Work of The Holy Spirit.

United with Him in His death. Why? For what reason? For the reason of The Resurrection. Whose Body is raised up any way? That’s the whole question in 1 Corinthians 15, and the whole question can be summed up like this: whose resurrection is it any way; whose Body is it any way? And the answer to that is that it is CHRIST’S Resurrection, because He Himself is The Resurrection of Israel and all those who believe in Him. And whose Body is it any way? It’s The Body of CHRIST, the only Body that has ever come forth in The Resurrection and the only Body that ever will! That Body which you are! "That like as CHRIST was raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Oh yes - Christ, all and in all. Christ! Knowing one thing: the old man is dead indeed. Knowing secondly that Christ being raised from among the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin - sin and death are tied together here. In that He died, He died UNTO sin once. He never died IN sin; He died UNTO sin.

His death was not only FOR you and I; His death was AS you and I. Those are not only statements fully backed up by the scripture, but by the very reality of Being in Christ! He didn’t die for the Jew: He died as the Jew so there’s no Jew. He didn’t die for the Gentile: He died as the Gentile, so there’s no Gentile. We must understand - He brought us into His death, not only FOR US as a New Creation, but AS US as an Old Creation. And all of that is summed up in His death, in His Cross, and the scriptures declare that plainly to those who have an ear to hear it, and a heart to embrace it. And there’s no doubt that Paul here is talking to believers.

So he says, "Likewise reckon..." Well, our reckoning is based upon two things: the old being dead, and Christ Himself being the New! Not just an old dead and a New alive - who’s the New? He is! That is very specific in Paul’s teachings. It’s not just getting rid of a "bad" Jew and having a better one. NO - or a "bad" Gentile and getting a better one. That’s not the issue at all. The issue is getting rid of the first man, and Christ is the second; getting rid of the old man and Christ is the New! In The Resurrection Christ is the only issue! "I am the Resurrection and the Life... If any would live, they must live by Me." And Paul understanding that said yes, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless (I’m not the loser in this) I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me."

That is the miracle of Salvation! It is the miracle of union! CHRIST liveth in me! Now this brings us to the next term: NEW BIRTH, and that’s what New Birth is: Christ liveth in me. Let’s look at Ephesians 2. What I want to show you is that you are NOT born from above "waiting on" The Resurrection. You are born from above BY The Resurrection! There’s no doubt about that in the scripture. The doubt about that is in our traditional mindset, but there’s no doubt about that in the scripture. Paul was not presenting in his ministry to the churches and the Jews a "future" resurrection. He was presenting them with their Resurrection - there and then IN CHRIST JESUS, and all who would be joined together with them - in Christ Jesus. And here is one of the best descriptions to which we could go. I’m skipping John 3:1-8 where you must be born again... "except you are born from above." And the term"again" is "from above". And the term "except" is there. Now there are three "excepts" in the teachings of Jesus, and all three are connected with Christ in you. Here they are: EXCEPT ye be born from above, EXCEPT you eat my flesh and drink my blood, and EXCEPT a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. That simply shows that the fruit of the New Birth is not an increase of you, but the increase of HIM!

The increase of Him - His nature, His character, His substance - the increase of Him. So we’ll skip that, and also 1 Peter 1:23 where we are born not of a corruptible but an incorruptible seed. We could take that corruptible and incorruptibility into 1 Corinthians 15 where it is dealt with by Paul as being the power of the Resurrection. This is what we are in BY BIRTH! We are raised up in Christ Jesus; we are raised out of His death into the Newness of His Life! And it is by a Work of The Spirit; it is by being born from above.

Look in Ephesians 2: but you will notice that the last few verses of Ephesians 1 is with regard to Christ and His Body. Now remember this is a letter, and was not originally in chapters. And verse 23 is just before the sentence of Chapter 2 verse 1. We are dealing with Christ: His union with His Body. Paul is saying in Chapter 1 it is by The Resurrection; the same power, the same Spirit that raised up Christ from among the dead - this same Spirit. I would that you understood His Work towards you. Now he’s taking us right on and telling us that Work. Ephesians 2:4, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us..." I told you the love of God is manifested at The Cross. Here is where God hath loved us, and here is where we encounter the love of God. We encounter it in the death and burial and resurrection of Christ, and we actually encounter it there as a relationship. And he is saying the same thing here. "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together..." "Quickened" means given life to, as in quickening the dead. How has He quickened us? Jesus says, "Except ye be born from above..." He hath quickened us. Peter says except any man have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His - He has quickened us. "He hath quickened us together WITH CHRIST..." Together - what? Every member that is in Christ - quickened together. He is all and in all.

Our union with one another is our union with Him, and we don’t have any other union with one another. You are not going to find it in the flesh. You’re not going to find it in anything with reference to the flesh. Our relationship with one another is not only based upon, but is in fact our relationship with Christ! He is all and in all! We are One. How so? Because HE is all and in all. We’ve read that. Now, how is He all and in all? He hath quickened us together with Christ. Not only so - He has raised us! There you are - the power with which we are quickened together has raised us together - from among the dead. "And hath raised us together and hath made us to be seated together..." - hath established. The "seated" is not a position but a relationship of which Jesus speaks in John 14. "Where I am... ye shall be also... You will understand... I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you."

And all of this is with reference to the Work of The Spirit - even in John 14, for you see The New Birth is a quickening together. Let me tell you something: before The Cross you may well have been the "many" - many individuals, each with a life of your own which is described as being dead in sin. Jesus said: you want to keep that life? Fine - but you’re going to lose it. Or do you want to come and lose that life and find it again in Me? You can be many before The Cross, but on the other side of The Cross you are NOT many: you are ONE! So why don’t we live like it? Because unfortunately so many have not come to the Covenant, the understanding given of God in the Person of His Son: The Covenant He promised He would give. The Covenant has to do with you and me: The Covenant has to be written in something; but God could write it in stone a lot easier than He can write it in most of us! The Covenant comes by the revealing of Christ, and Christ is revealed to those who turn their hearts to see Him. Paul had the same problem in the Christian community that we have today. That’s the reason he writes so much about the necessity of Christ being revealed in you - coming to know, coming to understand. This is not in the natural mind - but by The Spirit.

So what I’m simply telling you is that in the true picture of Salvation, the true understanding of Salvation, God didn’t save you out here as a bunch of individuals to run around and do what you want to do. That’s not scripture at all! The picture is ONE. The picture is He has quickened us TOGETHER with Christ. The picture is He has raised us up TOGETHER with Christ. The picture is He has established us TOGETHER. And if there’s a believer somewhere in the world born tonight, that believer comes by the same way, and that believer is quickened and raised right here in Christ together with those who are there. Together - seated together. And where is all of this? IN heavenly places - yes; the heavenlies because we are born from above, Jerusalem, The New Covenant. You know that Paul is talking there in Galatians about two Covenants: Hagar and Ishmael, Sarah and Isaac represent two Covenants: one representing Jerusalem which now is, the other the Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us all. The New Jerusalem is a Covenant.

It is a Covenant. We have come to the mountain of The Covenant - ye are come to Mount Zion, the City of The Living God, New Jerusalem. Raised together - seated together in the heavenlies. Where, though? IN CHRIST JESUS! It is through our union with Him. He isn’t off somewhere - IN CHRIST; through our union with Him. We are brought into that union through Baptism into His death, but we are brought in and secured in that union through Christ living in us. "Like as Christ was raised up, so we also should walk in newness of life, For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death..." And that "together" joins us with Him. "If we have been planted with Him, then we shall be in the likeness of His resurrection." IN CHRIST JESUS.

Now the third term is ADOPTION, and I’ll only just mention it. This is an ongoing term. These are verses to look at: Romans 8:15-17, and then 18; Ephesians 1:3-5, Galatians 4:1-7, Galatians 1:15, 16. These are just some of the verses that speak to this adoption. Adoption means literal "son" (‘hiuos’ in the Greek) - "son placement" - someone being placed as a son; and in this case it is not "someone", it is God giving His Son recognition in His House. It is God revealing His Son in you. That is it, and that’s how it is in the scripture, but it is so contrary to our mind and to the positional teaching on Christ where adoption is "all of us taking position as sons". Now, God is your Father, but He is your Father because Christ is your Life! And you are sons of God, but you are sons of God because you are members of One Body, and that Body is The Body of Christ. But you are not there by position; you are there by relationship to The One Whose Body you are, Whose Kingdom you are, Whose House you are - Glory to God!

Is God any less your Father? How could He be any less your Father when Christ is your Life? After all, the scripture says it is the Spirit of HIS SON entering into your heart that cries "Abba, Father" in the first place! It is The Son crying out in you; The Father having revealed Him. The adoption is the sealing of the Household. It is by the adoption that we KNOW God is our Father. It is through the adoption we know we are His House, His Household. The adoption is the sealing work of The Holy Spirit wherein He is always desiring, seeking to reveal The Son in an ever greater way - showing you The Son in the length, the height, the depth of His Person. The adoption is son-placement alright, but it is THE SON being placed! And we could just go forever on that, but finally IN YOUR HEART He comes to be where He is already of The Father, but not recognized by so many however: He comes to be upon The Throne. And then in the course of the Divine Order, seeing This One upon The Throne, you have to come with The New Creation, you have to come with the heavens to a closer inspection. And lo and behold - THE SON IS THE LAMB OF GOD, and it is His nature that rules the Kingdom! That’s a broad jump, but that’s where we go.

This is not a series of lessons, but a Work of The Spirit in our hearts that is necessary. And I ask you that you just allow The Lord to work by His Spirit in you toward the Reality of our Being in Christ; working in you the Reality of Baptism, the Reality of New Birth, the Reality of Adoption - that The Son is seen to be the fulness of His House; that His nature is the ruling nature. "For He hath made us to be a Kingdom and a Priesthood unto Himself". Amen.