15.2 Taking Possession
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Taking Possession. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them… Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you… Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. …until the Lord has given your brethren rest, as He gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them (Excerpts from Joshua 1).
Here is our LAND – know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you. We have seen that this Land of Christ is without end.
The Ark of the Covenant. The entirety of the book of Joshua is about possessing the land. This metaphor is set by God for us as our own directive. “I have given you all that is Christ, take possession of all I have given you.”
And the pivot point, the fulcrum, one might say, of this “taking possession” is the Ark of the Covenant. When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it …that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before (Joshua 3:3-4). Just as Jesus is that Ark for us, so we are that same Ark for our brethren, Jesus now through us.
The Cross. Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. – So the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished (Joshua 3:17 & 4:10).
We see, here, the position of the Ark. The Jordan at this point, just before the Dead Sea, is the lowest place on earth. – He humbled Himself. – The Jordan represents the death of the cross. The Ark stands firm as life laid down and love poured out until every single person who belongs to Jesus has passed through the cross into all that is Christ.
Everyone Must Participate. God required all Israelites to participate, then, in the conquest of the land, until every individual Israelite had taken possession of his or her property, their inheritance. Considering Christ as the Promised Land, as divided into specific properties, each of which belongs to a particular person IS a significant way in which God wants us to view the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ – take possession of that property belonging to you – same thing.
John 14 is the delineation of our inheritance, stated by Jesus specifically in verse 20. Jesus began that discussion with this statement – In my Father’s house are many dwelling places.
Take Possession of Christ. It is clear that God intends for us to take possession of all that is Christ for us in the same way in which the children of Israel took possession of their Promised Land. This is the Covenant: I have given you Christ, take possession of all that is yours inside of Christ.
Know that I am in the Father AND you IN Me AND I IN you. We have seen that the meaning of reality found inside these words, our Place in which we live, is without end in every direction. And yet, your possession is not mine nor mine yours; each one who belongs to Jesus has their own place in Him to possess. And yet that place belonging to each of us is without end.
Put on Jesus. We are speaking of specific realities, specific places of possession, inside of this Jesus who is every Word God speaks.
This metaphor, then, of the land of our possession, corresponds directly with the picture of God’s thoughts concerning each one of us as being more than the stars in the sky, if they could be counted. God has an infinite number of thoughts inside His story that He tells Himself about Himself regarding each one of us. We are free to take possession of any and all of those things belonging to us. In fact, we are commanded to possess them. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s apply this way of thinking, now, to symmorphy.
Jesus Becomes Me. You and I share the same Body/Spirit form with the Lord Jesus Christ in whom dwells the Father.
Now, Jesus places Himself inside of Father, first. Then He places us inside Himself, second. And finally, He places Himself inside of us, third. Our placing of Jesus upon our self precedes forever Jesus’ placing Himself inside of us.
Here’s what that means to me – Jesus must become me before I ever could become Him. And my placing Jesus upon MYSELF, all that I am as I find myself to be, the Lord Jesus UPON every particle, scope, and circumstance of my life, that what was mine is now His, always comes first.
Sin First. Most who envision “being like Jesus,” want their image of His appearance to be upon themselves. It never works that way.
Here is the veil. – The first thing of us that we must always be putting into the Lord Jesus Christ is our sin. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). It’s a straight trade. Our sin must belong to Jesus in our own consciousness before His righteousness can be known by us.
And this is what “taking possession” means – coming to KNOW and living in what is already true, already ours.
Jesus IS Responsible. Jesus – You are the one who sinned. Son – you are the one who did what is right.
To write our name upon Jesus means to place Him upon all responsibility for all of our actions. Jesus is responsible for my thoughts; Jesus is responsible for my words; Jesus is responsible for my actions; Jesus is responsible for my failure to act. Jesus is responsible for me.
This came home in a graphic and personal way to me recently. When we left Christian community, my only recourse was to obtain a teaching certificate, for which I needed student loans. Those loans are large; I am unable to pay them back. Suddenly I realized that those are NOT my debts; they are God’s debts.
The Blood Covenant. God, please pay Your student loan debts so that we won’t be bothered by them anymore. Now, this is absolutely what a Blood Covenant signified. All belonging to each one became the possession of the other in the moment of sealing the Covenant.
Of course, the charge is then made by those who love sin, “Well, you’re saying that we can sin all we want because it’s Jesus who is responsible for our actions.” These people are living in death, entirely outside of our sphere; that’s why Paul said, “God forbid.” And yet this twisted logic does point us to one of the most precious and mostly unknown elements in our symmorphy with Jesus.
Buried with Him. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death (Romans 6:4a).
Synthaptó (buried with): to bury with. Sharing the same burial.
If Jesus is fully responsible for all of my sinful actions, then He is the One who must give an account of those actions to God. Yet we see these words regarding Jesus: without sin – who knew no sin. And than these words: For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption (Acts 2:27). IF Jesus is responsible for all of my present sinful actions, then it is Jesus God must forgive, not me. Yet when God looks at Jesus, He sees only an empty burial tomb.
Remember No More. This is where we find, then, a most critical phrase in the Covenant. Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more (Hebrews 8:12).
Consider, then, the Christian who says, “No, I am responsible before God for my actions. I myself must seek the will of God to do His will and not my own.” This one places his sin and not Jesus upon himself, and approaches God solely for the purpose of persuading God to “forgive” him. What is really going on here? The truth is, this person who keeps his sin upon himself, always weeping over his sinful actions, always coming to God to seek forgiveness, this person LOVES living INSIDE of sin. Sin remains their self-identity.
Boasting in the Flesh. Keeping their sin upon themselves allows our brethren to see themselves as righteous, as “better than others.” It positions them to be able to boast in their flesh before God. I did what is right in Your sight, Oh God. That is, this is the delusion in their minds. Yet they know that they are always falling short and always seeking the next dosage of what they call “forgiveness.” Thus these Christians are always seeking their own righteousness, always trying to do better, always trying to find God’s will as if they are capable of such a thing. They are exploring and taking possession of all the realms of fantasy and death, yet they belong entirely to Jesus.
Hands On. Yet as they live their allotted time, through their years, they fail to KNOW Christ in all that He is, for even their possession of gifts and anointing is darkened by their obsession with sin. Those who are obsessed with “NOT” sinning ARE obsessed with sin, not Christ.
You shall also take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the ram. Then you shall kill the ram, and take some of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar (Exodus 29:19-20).
God Executed the Ram. The action of Aaron and his sons in putting their hands upon the head of the sacrifice was the action of putting all responsibility for all of their wicked deeds upon that ram. God did not “forgive” the ram; God executed the ram. I AM crucified with Christ.
And then the life of that ram, “risen out from the dead,” is placed upon the hearing, the actions, and the walk of Aaron and his sons, and upon all their garments. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ. – Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
As I PUT my sinful deeds in every present moment upon the Lord Jesus, I IN Him, He then puts His rightful actions upon me.
An Empty Grave. And so I have taught you, as God brings memory to your awareness of every sinful action from your past that weighs still upon you, to place that upon Jesus. Jesus, it was You who did this ___________ (fill in the blank). And in the present moment, it is Jesus whom we forgive for our thoughtless failures.
Because we are fully aware of our execution by God, we keep, then, ever in our consciousness, the reality of an EMPTY grave. There is no sin in Christ. We don’t have a “license” to sin, as if we would even want such a thing, how stupid. We have a license, now, to know Christ without regarding “sin,” to know Jesus Sent into us.
Exploring What? This is the set of the Covenant. We can spend our Christian lives exploring the vast extent of the realms of trying and lying and crying, until we have taken possession of all the horror of darkness found there, for we will NEVER get the chance to say to God, “I obeyed You.”
That no flesh should glory in His sight.
Or we can spend our Christian lives exploring the vast extent of the realms of Christ belonging to us, until we have taken possession of every good word God speaks regarding us.
But it is not just our actions of sin that we place entirely into and upon the Lord Jesus Christ, but also our present sinfulness. Jesus, You are fully responsible for all I am presently doing.
Our Signature upon God. That continuous action is our signature upon God. And yet, we do not live there, for having abandoned our “self,” we now live only as the Lord Jesus Christ in all of His expression. As He IS, so are we in this present age.
Yes, this is simply another setting forth of our precious union with the Lord Jesus. But for myself and for those who write to me, this placing of our sinfulness upon the Lord Jesus and He upon it does not come in its entirety all at once. Rather, it is a consciousness that we learn.
And this action of putting the Lord Jesus UPON ourselves is our entrance into the Covenant. Yet we do not live at the entrance, but we are now become all the expression of Jesus IN us.