The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"So Also Is Christ"
"In the light of such grace, our Heavenly Father does not and will not see us apart from His Son."
Upon their creation, God referred to both the first man and woman as "Adam."
"Male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam in the day when they were created" (Genesis 5:2).
This does not mean that Adam was Eve, or that Eve was Adam. They existed as distinct individuals. Their shared name does, however, speak to the unity of heart, life, and purpose God intended the man and the woman to experience together of His working in their lives. Sadly, sin gravely damaged the unity, and human history records the grievous effects in relationships between men and women.
Interestingly, the New Testament refers to the Lord Jesus Christ and His spiritual body, the church, in similar terms.
"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ" (I Corinthians 12:12).
Since the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus in death, resurrection, and ascension, God does not see the Head of the church, the Lord Jesus, apart from His spiritual body, born again believers in Him. "Behold and and the children which God hath given Me" (Hebrews 2:13). As with Adam and Eve, this does not mean that Christ is the church, or that the church is Christ. We exercise every caution to avoid such a grave and blasphemous error. It does, however, mean that the grace of God has so united believers with the Lord Jesus that we are integrally bound to His Son, and all the Father purposes to accomplish through Him. As the saying goes, we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves, a truth both humbling and powerfully encouraging and motivating. "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus" (I Corinthians 1:30).
The Lord Jesus prayed for such a spiritual bond between ourselves and God, "that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us" (John 17:21). He then suffered, died, and rose again to make such family relationship with God possible. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (I Peter 3:18). Indeed, to the degree our Lord was forsaken on the cross of Calvary, believers will forevermore be bound to Him in an inseparable spiritual union whereby He forever abides with us, and we with Him. "I am with you always… I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5).
In the light of such grace, our Heavenly Father does not and will not see us apart from His Son. In our present existence, we do not always act and respond accordingly. Nothing, however, changes God's fixed gaze upon Christ in terms of both Head and body. Even the Corinthians, significantly carnal in their walk, were affirmed by the Apostle Paul as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 3:16). Nothing changes the betrothal, even when the behavior fails to reflect the wonder of how near our Savior has drawn to us. Such grace indeed, and such a wonder to ponder upon our knees with thanksgiving, before arising to walk in the glory of something so much bigger than ourselves, something infinitely, eternally, and "exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20).
"The church… is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in."
(Ephesians 1:22-23)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Knowledge puffeth up, but charity (love) edifieth."
(I Corinthians 8:1)
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