3.3 Blood and Marriage
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
I am crucified with Christ.
This entire course is simply an attempt to understand three “verses” as we never have before: Romans 8:28-30, Ephesians 3:17-19, and Galatians 2:20. And yet all three of these are entirely inside of one verse: John 14:20. Know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you. I can assure you of this, we hardly KNOW at all.
Our cutting in two begins for us in Gethsemane – the Blood begins – our union with Christ begins in Gethsemane. Gethsemane is the deepest revelation of Father in action given inside creation, the clearest appearance of Father. I AND the children whom You have given Me.
Cut Them in Two. Then he brought all these (heifer, goat, ram, turtledove, and pigeon) to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. …When the sun went down and it was dark… there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram (Genesis 15:10-18 condensed).
Gethsemane began at 3 AM; the Cross was finished at 3 PM. Inside those twelve hours is our Covenant with God.
Life Is the Issue. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you (John 6:53).
Yes, there is provision for all sin and sinfulness inside the blood and cross of those twelve hours. But sin is NOT the issue or the purpose of this Lamb-Slain. Eliminating the issue of sin forever was simply a necessary side work of what was really taking place inside this transaction.
You see, “that He might create in Himself one new man” did not begin with the resurrection of Christ, but with Gethsemane. Jesus called us by name into Himself at the beginning of the Covenant and carried us inside Himself through every step.
The Lamb-Slain. Here is the main thing. The Lamb-Slain is NOT because of sin. The Lamb-Slain-FOR-sin works for us only as we give our sin to Jesus. We cannot go beyond sin into the Covenant if we hold responsibility for our sin upon ourselves.
But the Lamb-Slain is not about sin; the Lamb-Slain is about you and me, already pure, already perfect, connecting together as one with an incorruptible God. NO CONSCIOUSNESS OF SINS – hearts sprinkled from an evil consciousness (Hebrews 10:22) – MEANS that as we know the Lamb-Slain connecting us together with Father, there is NO inkling of sin, not even “for sin” in our sight.
What Is at Stake? Why? Why did God put a Man into Gethsemane and on the cross and then put you and me into that Man, teaching us to identify utterly with Him and He with us in order to establish His symmorphic bond with us?
Consider what is at stake on God’s side. That you might be filled with all the fullness of God. – Rooted and grounded in love – Rooted and grounded in God. – By this we know love, that Christ laid down His life for us. – By this we know how real God’s giving of Himself in all that He is to us as our own possession really is.
Will inside of will inside of Will – choosing always together.
Gethsemane. Gethsemane is where the will of the human as the Body of God and the will of the Father filling us with Himself comes into complete oneness together. As we live out from the Covenant sealed in Gethsemane, our will IS God’s will and God’s will IS our will.
“Not My will, but Thine be done” is not the statement of one human giving an example to other humans. Rather, it is the first words of the New Creation, Jesus creating you and me inside Himself, human will inside of divine Will. This is why the Blood began in Gethsemane, for that Blood covered this joining of will between Almighty God and all humans coming alive by name inside of Christ.
Three Entrances. Blood upon the Mercy Seat is our ministry forever out from the Heart of God, but Blood in Gethsemane is our seal by which we know that whatever we ARE in the present moment IS the Father’s will, the Father being Himself through us.
Consider the four types of animals in the covenant God first entered into with Abraham, the beginnings of the same Covenant in Gethsemane. Our having entered into Covenant with God corresponded precisely with the three entrances in the Tabernacle.
But remember, because we are seated upon the Mercy Seat in the Holiest, our Covenant with God is complete. Yet I know that those same three places will change into something entirely different as we go out, now, inside of God.
Our Agreement with God. The heifer cut open is the gate into the outer court when we first agreed to think about the covenant. Yet a heifer is a large and dim-witted beast, slow to realize it’s death. The female goat cut open is the door into the Holy Place when we agreed to know for real what covenant with God might be about. Yet a female goat is a crafty beast, quick to escape the knife or at least to try. The ram cut open is the veil into the Holiest as we agreed with God that we were inside of Jesus in Gethsemane and that we spoke those same words to the Father inside of Him. But the turtledove and the pigeon are not cut open for in the Holiest there is no more consciousness of sins, but only the sending forth of the Holy Spirit to accomplish all Wwe intend.
The Highest Value. The Lamb-Slain, the cutting of the Covenant, is that we might know that our union with Christ IS a union with Father. You see, a father counts his own life to be of less value to himself than his son. I know; I have two sons, and my two daughters are the same.
For Father to place His Son as the cutting open of His union with us, is the Father causing us to know that the Bond by which God in Person is bound in all ways to us in our persons, that that BOND is the highest value to God inside the deepest center of His entire being. Thus as we take every single next step INSIDE the Love of God, we take that step in absolute CONFIDENCE that it IS, in all ways, God and us stepping together.
Confidence. God cannot appear through us to be seen and known by all except through our absolute CONFIDENCE that He is. The Lamb-Slain is the inside, the substance of confidence; confidence is the appearance of the Lamb-Slain. Gethsemane is our absolute confidence that “Thy Will Be Done” is the totality of our creation.
Entering the Holiest as the ram meekly surrendering to the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Jesus might be our greatest surrender to God, but being the sending forth of the Spirit upon the Mercy Seat, having already surrendered fully into union with Jesus in all ways is so much more. Living upon the Mercy Seat is our continuous sinking into God.
Marriage Union. Just as considering our marriage union with Christ took us right into the Blood Covenant, so we see that Blood then takes us back, not only into union with Christ, but also union with the Father.Here is the first way we picture that union. The inner “part” of Christ is Christ in Gethsemane binding His will with the Father’s will, inside of Himself. The outer “part” of Christ is all the good things of Christ inside of us, revealing the Father Himself to all of creation. Yet this entire representation is our structure right now.
Fellowship. Our union with the Father we will stake out in the next lesson; here, let’s look at further legal elements of the Covenant by which we are one with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we must understand this, our union with the Lord Jesus Christ is not the same thing as our Covenant with God, rather, our union with Jesus is the means by which that greater Covenant happens. Yet it is inside of our union with Jesus that we enjoy the deepest of fellowship. God is a bit much; Jesus is One of us.
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Expansions of John 14:20. We have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16b). – For all things are yours… And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:21b & 23). These statements are not just “nice ideas.” They are inviolate points of a legal covenant. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us (2 Corinthians 1:20).
Every one of these specific points is found inside of John 14:20. That is, “you IN Me and I IN you” is the foundational body of the Covenant, and these further points simply amplify what Christ is inside of and as us. He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).
Not I, but Christ. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us (1 John 3:16a). – Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this age (1 John 4:17).
And finally, the other central word of the Covenant regarding our oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ including its companion. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, flesh of His flesh, one flesh with Him, exists only inside the sphere of the faith of the Son of God – this One who loves me, this One who trades His life for mine (Galatians 2:20 paraphrased and modified by the Greek with phrases from Ephesians 5:30-31).
Our Inheritance. The Marriage element in the Covenant is about a union of fellowship, about bringing forth the fruit of togetherness, sons just like Jesus, of His same kind, and thus, of the inheritance. In fact, the inheritance is a major part of God’s Covenant with us; we must bring its components into our picture as we walk with God out through the Tabernacle.
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being pro-determined according to the purpose (pro-thesis) of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will – In whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession (Ephesians 1:11 & 13b-14).