25.3 To Give Birth
© 2016 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The Church is a pregnant woman ready to give birth to the one new man, many seeds, one many-membered Christ. As such, Mary, in carrying and birthing Jesus, is most certainly the pattern God intends for us.
I posted on Facebook regarding Mary’s conception of Jesus the moment she said, “Let it be to me according to Your word.” Here was a response that was perfect to me in its expression of darkness. I am able to quote it exact. Mary had nothing to do with conception. Jesus was less than a second old when Jesus was put in Mary's womb. Jesus was not from Mary's seed. If he was then he would have had sin from her bloodline. Mary only carried Jesus nothing else.
Not Silly - Evil
At first I thought it was just silly to claim that if Mary had contributed the egg by which Jesus was conceived, then Jesus would have been sinful – and I replied in that way. Sin does not rule over God.
But as I thought more about what is meant in these words (they are Calvinist), I realized they are not silly, but evil. The man was claiming that Mary was only a surrogate mother. That God made use of her as a test tube, a receptor in which to birth His super God-Christ as a momentary human. The man was defining God as a jokester “god” who plays games of deceit with us. He did not get his ideas from the gospel. (– Born of the seed of David according to the flesh - Romans 1:3).
Union of God and Mary
I present this line here in order to frame the very opposite. Jesus was conceived out from the Sperm of God coming into full physical union with Mary’s egg. If there was no union of God and Mary, there is no union of Christ and us; Jesus is far, far away from us wicked humans.
Jesus was subject in all ways to sin, just as we are. BUT – He was not subject to sin because of some defect in Mary’s egg. Jesus was subject to sin ONLY because God had placed Him under the law. It was being placed under the law that made Jesus corruptible. And Jesus walked free from sin only by full confidence in God with Him – every step IN the love of God.
Placed IN Christ
And you and I are subject to sin, not because of some defect we got from Adam, for our flesh is entirely of Christ. You and I are subject to sin only when we imagine that we are not utterly inside of Jesus and Jesus in all that we are. Placed IN Christ in God, we are no longer subject to sin.
We are addressing the question of What Is the Church? The Church is not the seed of Christ. The Church is the plant through which the One Seed becomes many seeds. The Church is that body of people who bear in their womb that seed of God that has come into union with human faith.
The woman is one thing; the manchild is another.
A Great Mystery
Let me explain. I cannot. – This is a great mystery, but we are speaking of Christ and the Church.
Now that you KNOW that I CANNOT explain this mystery, let’s put in front of us this thing called a woman in full gestation, screaming to give birth. The woman is not a bunch of individual people; the woman is not a contrived unity under an outward hierarchy of control. The woman is the interrelationships of Christ in me with Christ in you, the entwining of the Holy Spirit.
And the woman is very pregnant.
The Right Questions
What, exactly, is this woman? What is this giving birth? And what, exactly, is this many-membered Christ being born? At least we have the right questions.
When I wrote about the fulfillment of the first Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, I understood something awesome, but in a vague sort of way. We are right now, as individual members of that body, filled with all the fullness of God. But the new reality that is released into the experience of the church in that fulfillment is the fullness of God in the relationships among us as members of that body. The connections of God among us will be full and complete.
Beneath Your Feet
There can be no apostle/bishop, no pastor/elder, no body member/pew sitter in this woman, but rather Christ as you with Christ as me. Anyone who identifies him or herself as a successful ministry must cease utterly in such an identity and simply serve Christ with joy; otherwise they are not part of this fulfillment. There can be NO audience-presenters-performance of any kind in this fulfillment, no performers of miracles, no preachers of “the truth of God” striding behind the pulpit, no counselors above.
Look down, the Kingdom of God is beneath your feet, carrying you in Love. – You are walking every step on God.
Family
But that’s what is not. What is? Family. People. Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, old folks, and children, walking together, working together, singing together, loving one another with a pure heart fervently.
Real people, real life, real joy. Christ rejoicing together with Christ. Christ lifting up Christ. Christ giving a tender hand of encouragement to Christ. Christ blessing Christ with all compassion and reverent regard. THIS is what we are screaming to bring forth. A woman giving birth is a MESS. The Church right now is a mess – right in line for the birthing.
Communities of Christ
The Body of Christ in the earth is NOT a bunch of zappers running around with “I’ve got the word.” The Body of Christ in the earth is communities of Christ, brethren walking together in love, in whatever outward form is convenient for that place and season, among the people of this world as salt and light. It is for this we are in travail, not isolated heavenly self-glory, which is what too many envision.
We, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another (Romans 12:5). Members one of another. Members of one another. Members together.
Love One Another
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another (Romans 12:10). – And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you… And walk in love, as Christ also loves us and gives Himself for us (Ephesians 4:32-5:2).
Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also receives us (Romans 15:7).
In sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22b). – This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12).
Into One Body
Christians read these lines, but I think that few catch the deep urgency in the heart of God, the intense longing for this reality to exist in fullness upon this planet.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). It is for this that God travails, this family of people, walking in all the simple mundane realities of life on this earth, loving one another as Christ with Christ.
Everyone is looking for something big. God is looking for something small and real and always, immersed together, drinking together.
The Feast of Tabernacles
We return to God’s primary metaphor of the Feast of Tabernacles to understand this woman, this birthing, and this manchild.
The Feast of Tabernacles itself has three parts: the first Sabbath, the six days of the week between the two Sabbaths, and the final Sabbath, the great Day of the Feast. And all of this is being fulfilled inside the mess that this planet is right now, the closing out of the age of human idiocy.
The Great Day of the Feast is the rivers of Spirit flowing forth, giving life to all things, beginning with our physical bodies as they are swallowed up by incorruptible life. That is the final and full birthing into the light of day.
Life Together
But before that final birth as the first expression of God-Revealed in outward appearance, there are two prior experiences for God’s people never before known in human history. The first Sabbath of Tabernacles is God filling His House, that is, all the fullness of God now flowing out from each one of us in mighty bands of connection among us, making us truly one body in ongoing experience.
And then, the six days in-between, the time of proving, walking in all the fullness of God-Revealed, yet in these present mortal bodies, the time of “dwelling in booths.” Life together – that the world may know – My how those Christians love one another!!!
The Fellowship of Christ
If you, dear reader, long for Christ as He is, then you are longing to walk closely together in everyday life with other believers in Jesus. I am talking about Christian community in whatever form it might take.
There is no other Christ.
To Give Birth. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. That child is not you as an individual, though you are a critical MEMBER; that child is the community, the fellowship of Christ.
She bore a manchild who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne.