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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Three Separations of the Royal Priesthood, #3
And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. (Genesis 11:31)
The calling out from Ur, and then from Haran, of Abram and his family marks the beginning of the calling out from the world of the Christian Church, the Body of Christ. All the elect, the Seed of promise, left Ur with Abraham.
The calling out of Abram is not a type of salvation, as in the case of Lot being removed from Sodom. Ur was not destroyed as soon as Abram left. One would not find in the Scriptures, we believe, that the calling out of Abram from Ur is a type of salvation from wrath. Rather, it is the calling out from the world of the royal priesthood.
Abram was not called out from the world to condemn the world but to save the world.
Notice the result of Abraham's obedience:
And in thy seed [Christ] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:18)
"And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." All the nations of the earth will be blessed. This was not said of Lot.
It is one matter to be saved, as was Lot. It is another matter to be called as a member of the royal priesthood, of the Body of Christ, of the temple of God that will serve to release the world from the bondage of corruption (John 17:21-23, Romans 8:21).
The term church does not imply that those who are part of the Church are saved and the remainder of mankind is lost. Rather, the term church means "called-out" from the world in order to be a king and priest of God.
God's kings and priests are more than just saved from wrath. They are the rulers, the judges, the priests, the teachers of the nations of saved peoples of the earth. They are the deliverers of mankind, the servants of God and rulers of the works of His hands throughout the ages to come.
The New Testament writings (except for the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation, which reveal a distinction between the nations of the saved and the Wife of the Lamb) speak of salvation primarily in terms of membership in the Church, that is, in the true Israel of God. We who are saved are immediately grafted on Christ, on the one true olive tree. Our salvation is our becoming a part of Christ, of the true Vine of God.
However, the writings of the Hebrew Prophets reveal clearly that there will be not one, but two classes of people who will be alive on the earth in the ages to come: Israel, which we believe to be all who are part of Christ (for the oneness of true Israel, elect Jews and elect Gentile, is taught beyond question by the Apostle Paul); and then the nations that choose to serve Israel and learn of God through Israel.
We are referring to such verses as the following:
For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. (Isaiah 60:12)
To be continued.