The Power of His Resurrection

THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION

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We have been saved through the blood atonement. We have received the Holy Spirit. What is next in the program of salvation?

After salvation and receiving the Holy Spirit we are to enter the process of the crucifixion of the first, adamic personality, and the forming of Christ in us. Christ Himself is the Resurrection and eternal Life, and so the forming of Christ in us is equivalent to the forming of the resurrection and eternal life in us. This is the rest of God, the objective spoken of in the Book of Hebrews.

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I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, (Philippians 3:10)
For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:10)

We have been saved through the blood atonement. We have received the Holy Spirit. What is next in the program of salvation?

My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)

The rest of God primarily is God’s rest, although we rest in God’s rest. When Christ has been formed in us, then the Father and the Son can make us Their eternal habitation. This is the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles.

The goal of salvation is expressed in the Book of Hebrews as “His rest.”

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. (Hebrews 4:1)

The goal of salvation is expressed in the Book of Philippians as the resurrection from the dead. His rest, and the resurrection from the dead, are the same thing.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, And so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11)

Notice the following:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:2,3)

There is no evening and morning of the seventh day. This is because the seventh day is the day of eternity. There is no ending. God has completed all of His work through to the establishing of the new Jerusalem on the new earth. Now God is resting. Our task in life is to enter God’s rest so His perfect will is performed in us and in all those whom we influence.

When we are referring to the rest of God we are not including the idea of a solution for tiredness. God is never tired. He did not sit on the Mercy Seat of the Tabernacle. He dwelled between the wings of the cherubim.

The idea is not one of tiredness but of completion. God completed all His works in six days. Then He ceased from working. In the same manner we are to cease from seeking to accomplish our own will. We are to strive to enter that completed work.

A human being has two choices. He can plan his own life and pursue his own objectives, whether they be short-term or long-term. Or he can give his full attention to discovering God’s plan for his life, presenting his body a living sacrifice in order to prove God’s will.

We may think of the days of our life as pages in a book. All these pages were written during the six days of creation. On these pages are described what we are to become, what we are to accomplish during our earthly sojourn and beyond.

Certain events and situations were created for us beforehand, and we were created with a personality that will enable us to fit perfectly the foreordained design.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

If we do not find God’s will for our life, then our time on earth will be wasted. Moreover, our talent will be taken from us and given to another. We ourselves will be punished for our disobedience.

So great is God that He has included within this massive scheme room for people to make their own decisions. There are doors of opportunity for those who wish to go through them. There are vessels created to dishonor who can become vessels of honor. And yet, with all the variations, the new Jerusalem will arrive on time, exactly as God has envisioned it.

Although we are a part of the foreordained plan of God, the decisions are our own, and God respects them. He will not have us become puppets. A portion of light is given to each one of us, depending on our assigned role in the Kingdom, according to that which has been prepared for us to possess and accomplish.

If we walk in that light, Christ will be formed in us. Each day it will be increasingly true of us that we delight to do God’s will. Now we are living by the power of His resurrection. Now we are in the rest of God.

But if our self-will prevails and we save our life, it will be only to lose it. For we will not be in the rest of God. We will die in the wilderness of disobedience and unbelief. The choice is ours, and it must be made today. There is no yesterday or tomorrow in the plan of salvation. Today is always the day of salvation.

We make our choice to seek God’s perfect will now today. Tomorrow may be too late. When people continue to resist and complain God becomes angry. Then He declares on oath that they shall not enter His rest.

It always is God’s rest, His work completed from the beginning of the world, that is the issue.

Notice, in the following verses, the emphasis on God’s rest, and “That” rest. It is not the case of our resting, it is that of entering the specific, completed work of God for our life.

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest…. (Hebrews 4:1)
Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, `They shall never enter my rest.’”… (Hebrews 4:3)
And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” (Hebrews 4:5)
It still remains that some will enter that rest,…. (Hebrews 4:6)
For anyone who enters God’s rest…. (Hebrews 4:10)
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest,…. (Hebrews 4:11)

The Book of Hebrews was written to Christian Jews. They were saved, filled with God’s Spirit, had seen miracles, and had been persecuted for the Gospel’s sake. They were a bit ahead of most of us Pentecostal people of the present hour.

Therefore we would expect the book to be one of blessing, encouragement, and a reminder that when those believers died they would go to their mansions in Heaven.

Instead the book is filled with stern warnings, beginning with:

How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. (Hebrews 2:3)

These Jewish Christians were beginning to ignore their salvation. They were not following Paul in pressing forward to the resurrection from the dead.

Proceeding all the way to:

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, But only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (Hebrews 10:26,27)

If Christian people, having been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, then deliberately proceed to keep on sinning, they can expect to be treated as enemies of God.

Some are teaching today that the several rebukes included in the Book of Hebrews could not possibly apply to Christians because Christians are “saved by grace.” So great is the wicked backsliding and hardness of heart of the present time! It is no wonder God has sent a strong delusion upon us!

Yes, all the warnings of the Book of Hebrews apply to us. They all were written to the saints and holy brothers. They are an integral aspect of our New Testament.

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. (Hebrews 3:1)

Why would these stern exhortations be written to saved, Spirit-filled people? Because after having been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit they were not pressing into the rest of God.

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. (Hebrews 4:1)

The rest of God is life lived in the fullness of resurrection power.

All people are descended from Adam and Eve. This is our first personality. Because of the sin of Adam and Eve we were born spiritually dead and in rebellion against God.

This is true of every person born into the world.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Tree of Life, the Resurrection and the eternal Life, came to live among us. Then the Father brought to Him those to whom He was to give eternal life.

Once we have been given eternal life there are two forms of life active in us. Life is the ability to move, breathe, eat and drink, think, imagine, plan, speak, grow, reproduce, and so forth.

We can perform all the actions of life by our first, adamic personality.

We can perform all the actions of life by our second personality, that which has been born of God.

After we have been saved through the blood atonement and filled with God’s Spirit, we are to follow the Holy Spirit as our first personality is crucified and the new, eternal personality is nourished.

This is the issue facing every Christian today. Will we follow the Spirit in the crucifixion of our first personality and the development of eternal life in us, or will we keep on in our adamic personality, hoping by grace we will go to Heaven to live in a mansion (a kind of salvation of which the writer of Hebrews knew nothing because the myth of mansions in Heaven has been fabricated since his or her time)?

The full development of Christ in us is the rest of God. As soon as Christ has been formed in us, the Father and the Son can settle down to rest in us.

God is seeking a place of rest.

This is what the LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?” (Isaiah 66:1)

Notice how the subject of God’s resting place was brought up at the beginning of the Christian Church:

“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me?” says the Lord. “Or where will my resting place be?” (Acts 7:49)

Now, why does God need a resting place? It is because His creation is in rebellion. Angels of the highest order have rebelled against God. These angels work unceasingly to create rebellion both in the world and in the Christian churches. How many people do you know, in the world or in the churches, who have as their highest goal the doing of God’s will?

Until our highest goal is that of doing God’s will, we are not suitable as a resting place for Him. In fact, we are rebellious creatures. This is as true of Christians as it is non-Christians.

The reason there are gifts and ministries in the Body of Christ is that a resting place for God might be created.

This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” (Ephesians 4:8)
When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious that you, O LORD God, might dwell there. (Psalms 68:18)

Compare:

Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8)
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:21:22)

The Jewish Christians were rebuked, in the Book of Hebrews, because after having been saved and filled with God’s Spirit they were not pressing forward to become a resting place for God. They were not bearing the fruit for which God was looking. They were close to cursing and burning. They were about to die in the wilderness of unbelief and disobedience.

The Pentecostal revival prevailed throughout the twentieth century. Now God is ready for us to move past the feast of Pentecost into the feast of Tabernacles, that is, into the rest of God.

Paul spoke of the rest of God as being the resurrection from the dead.

And so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the Resurrection.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;” (John 11:25)

This concept is difficult to grasp. We can understand Jesus can and will raise us from the dead, just as He raised Lazarus. But the idea that He Himself is the Resurrection is a bit more difficult to comprehend.

Yet, this difficult concept can be understood if we divide the resurrection into two dimensions. The first, and most important, that toward which Paul was pressing, is the resurrection of our inner personality. The second, the blessed hope of the Church, is the return of the Lord and the resurrection of our body.

Our inner nature is born dead. When we receive Christ, the Holy Spirit begins to form Christ in our inner nature. This is the same as saying the Holy Spirit begins to form the resurrection in our inner nature. This is why Christ can say, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

The Christian churches must come to understand God will never, never, never clothe an adamic inner personality with a body of resurrection life and power. This would be to put old wine in a new bottle. It is not going to take place.

For this reason the current teaching of the “rapture” is terribly destructive. It leaves the believers with the idea that at any moment they will be caught up to Christ in their untransformed state. Satan has led them away from the truth of the rest of God that we must have Christ formed in us if we are going to be able to participate in the first resurrection from the dead. We cannot be resurrected on the outside until we first have been resurrected on the inside.

No believer will be caught up to meet Christ at His coming until first that believer has participated in the resurrection or, if he or she is alive on earth at the time, has been changed from mortality into immortality (which is the same as being raised from the dead).

The rest of God is founded on three principles, as set forth in the fourth chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

First, God finished His work at the creation of the world, and then rested. We have described this completion previously. The idea is that each one of us must cease from his or her own works and find out what God has planned for him or her to do.

Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalms 139:16)

It is impossible to enter the rest of God, to walk in the power of Christ’s resurrection, when we are planning our life and acting according to our own plan. Paul exhorted us to present our body and living sacrifice so we might prove the will of God.

How can God find rest in us when we are leaning on our own understanding instead of seeking His will?

Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, `They shall never enter my rest.’” And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” (Hebrews 3:4-5)

Second, God desires that each of us live in His eternal Sabbath. This is how the Lord Jesus always lives. To live in the eternal Sabbath is to delight ourselves in the Lord, not speaking our own words or acting according to our own desires.

It is ironic that the Pharisees continually accused the Lord of breaking the Sabbath, because He healed people on the Sabbath. The truth is, it was the Pharisees who were violating the Sabbath. By attacking Christ they were speaking their own words and acting according to their envy and selfish ambitions. Meanwhile Christ was speaking and acting in God by healing the sick. Therefore He was observing the Sabbath perfectly.

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, Then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 58:13,14)
Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. (John 8:28)

The third principle of the rest of God has to do with following the Lord into the conquest of Canaan. Canaan represents life lived in the fullness of resurrection power instead of according to our adamic nature. Therefore Joshua, the commander, is mentioned in connection with the rest.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. (Hebrews 4:8)

All of God’s enemies in the creation are going to attack us. All of the rewards of power and glory go to those who conquer the enemies that come against them.

Canaan historically has been thought of as a type of Heaven. Canaan is not a type of Heaven. We do not fight our way into Heaven one city at a time. There are no walls of Jericho in Heaven. There is no defeat in Heaven because of a covetous Achan.

Rather, Canaan is a type of the rest of God, of life lived in the fullness of the Presence and rest of God.

God’s work was finished from the beginning of the world and now He is resting.

We are to live in the eternal Sabbath, performing God’s will instead of our own.

Paul spoke of attaining to the resurrection:

And so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

This verse is not preached very often, so far as I know. Yet, because it is Paul’s statement of His goal in life, it ought to be emphasized again and again.

What does Paul mean? He was referring to the fact that he is crucified with Christ and Christ is living in Him. Paul’s desire is to bring this experience to full maturity.

What would be true of someone who attained the resurrection? We are referring now to the attaining of resurrection life in the inward nature.

It would mean when the individual died he or she would walk into eternity in full possession of his faculties. Why is this? It is because his speaking, acting, moving, thinking, are proceeding from imperishable, incorruptible resurrection life.

Compare this with the worldly Christian whose salvation is limited to a profession of faith in Christ. This individual is fully alive in the adamic nature. He has only a token of resurrection life. He speak, acts, and moves according to his adamic nature.

When he dies, his life is found to be corrupt, perishable, tending toward self-will. As in the parable of the talents, what God has entrusted to him will be given to another, and the careless believer will be thrown into outer darkness.

But how wonderful to walk in full consciousness into the new world, able to have fellowship with Christ. Christ will be on the outside and Christ will be on the inside. Furthermore, our life will be hidden with Christ at the right hand of God. When Christ who has become our life shall appear, we shall appear with Him.

At His return, Christ will bring with Him those whose life He has become. He shall halt at the level of the clouds. They shall descend and pick up their bodies from the place of interment. They once again shall inhabit their flesh and bone bodies. Then Christ will send down from Heaven the resurrection body which has been created from their faithfulness in turning aside from their adamic nature, and their careful attention to the nourishment of the new inner man.

Now we have a resurrected inner nature inhabiting its original flesh and bones, and then the whole clothed over with a body like that of the Lord Jesus.

This is the reward of the saint who follows the Holy Spirit in the crucifixion of the adamic nature and the forming of Christ in the personality.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7,8)

At this point a place has been prepared for the Father and the Son, another room in the Father’s house. The Father and the Son will not be slow in settling down to rest in Their new abiding place—a believer who has become totally obedient to God.

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

This is the rest of God. This is the objective of the Christian experience.

Then we will exclaim:

I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

Then we will sing:

In that day you will say: AI will praise you, O LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. In that day you will say: “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” (Isaiah 12:1-6)

And as for the future:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” (Revelation 21:3)

Here is where God is heading. He is creating all things new. He will do away with the present sky and earth and will create a new sky and earth.

Down through the new sky will come the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem is the glorified Christian Church, the Wife of the Lamb. It is the eternal resting place of God.

On the new earth will live nations of saved people—the “sheep nations.”

The new Jerusalem is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom has been prepared for the sheep nations.

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 25:34)

Now we can see what the Lord Jesus meant when He said when we Christians became one in Him and the Father the world would believe.

Each Christian has been called out from the world in order that God might find rest and that the saved peoples of the earth might find God.

God wants to dwell among His creatures. He cannot because of His fiery holiness and their sin and self-will.

Therefore God in His love is creating a great house for Himself, a living tabernacle. This is the Church. When the Church has been brought to perfection it will descend as the capital city of the new earth.

The River of Life will be there. The sons of God will be trees of life planted around the River of Life.

Then whoever chooses to do so of the nations may come up to Jerusalem and receive life and healing.

God’s love is in Christ and Christ’s love is in us. The love of God in Christ in us will find expression as we serve the people whom God gives us as an inheritance, for He loves us as He loves His Son and has made us coheirs of all the Son inherits.

In the beginning the Father charged the Son to ask for the nations and the farthest reaches of the earth for an inheritance. The nations and the earth are the inheritance of the Lord Jesus Christ. The nations and the earth are our inheritance also.

We will inherit all this provided we succeed in overcoming the obstacles that are placed before us. As we overcome the enemies of God, Christ is formed in us. When Christ comes to maturity in us, God and Christ will find Their rest in us.

Now we are prepared to bring God to the nations of people whom God has saved from destruction.

The only inheritance worth having, after God and Christ Themselves, is people. All else is environment.

With joy we will bring forth the water of life from the well of salvation that is within us. That well is the Throne of God and of the Lamb, for there is no other source of eternal life.

Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. (Isaiah 60:3-5)

This is the inheritance of every believer who, having been saved through the blood atonement and filled with God’s Spirit, proceeds to press forward into the fullness of the rest of God, into life lived in the power of Christ’s resurrection.

It appears most of the creation is in rebellion. God’s purpose from the creation of the world through to the coming down to earth of the glorified Christian Church, the new Jerusalem, is to put an end to rebellion; to put an end to all sin.

All that has transpired in the history of the world is to this end—that God might be able to find rest in those whom He has created.

The entire Bible is one cohesive account of God’s plan to find rest for Himself in a creation that delights in His will.

Only Christ does the will of God perfectly. Our adamic nature, no matter how we attempt to perfect it with our religious practices, always resists God. In fact, the greatest, most vicious enemy of Christ is religion. It was the Pharisees, not the sinners, who called for the blood of Christ.

The Christian religion is performing its role only as it perfects Christ in people. When Christ has come to full stature in us we do the will of God by nature. That which is born of God always performs the will of God, and whoever does the will of God shall live forever in God’s Presence.

This is the everlasting Gospel. God has sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world, which is the valley of the shadow of death. When God brings an individual to Christ, Christ gives that person the eternal life which Christ Himself is. As the person is willing to turn aside from his adamic nature and cultivate the Life of Christ that has been given him, he will find ever increasing delight in doing the will of God.

This is the rest of God, the meaning of all things. The Lord Christ Himself is that rest and is in the process of becoming the Center of all things. God is making all things new in Christ. All of the creation is to live, move, and have its being in the power of His resurrection.

And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, To be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (Ephesians 1:9,10)
Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:7)
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:5)

(“The Power of His Resurrection”, 3403-1)