26. Victory over Death
Our victory over death is simply the reverse side of the far greater thing, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is as we know the full meaning of enduo, sink into the Lord Jesus as all that you are, that death itself in all of its forms flees from us.Yet we saw in Symmorphy II: Essence that death has affected us at three levels, spirit, soul, and body. And thus we see that our victory over death in and through a fully successful Christian Church also corresponds to the fulfillment of each of the three parts of Tabernacles.
Yes, we are called to defeat death and to cast it out from the human experience. Death does NOT "take us to Jesus." Death is our greatest enemy, the last enemy to be defeated.
Lesson 26.1 Put on Incorruption investigates this great commandment of the gospel, that we PUT ON the Lord Jesus Christ. It is our spirits, joined as one with the Spirit of the Lord, that are incorruptible. As we walk in the full knowledge of our union with Christ, we come to know that our spirits are, in fact, incorruptible, the very life of God. We set this reality before the Church on the First Day of Tabernacles.
Lesson 26.2 The Song of the Lamb is the heart of our ministry as we teach our brethren to sing Jesus all through their souls, to speak Christ as the only life they are. As we sing the Song of the Lamb now, exchanging our self-story for Jesus' own soul, so we will teach our brethren to sing that same song through the time of darkness as the fulfillment of the time of dwelling in booths.
Lesson 26.3 Put on Immortality is the fulfillment of the Great Day of the Feast as our bodies are swallowed up in life, the final act of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our bodies are right now flesh of His flesh in all ways. Yet God intends to prove Christ a second time right here inside this present age. That the life of Jesus also might be revealed in our mortal flesh. It is the resurrection of our physical bodies that marks the end of this present age of human stupidity.