The Life and Work of Christ Part I

I have a nice treat for you guys, I will be teaching on the life and work of Christ for the next three days. Please visit me each day to get the full potential of the teaching. Enjoy!

The ultimate goal of a Christian should be to become "Christ-like." It is by comprehending the work of Christ in proper context whereby one may reach understanding and a Christ-like walk as well as rest. "My people are destroyed for a lack of Knowledge." (Hosea 4:6) For this reason it becomes a must for Christians to understand the work of Christ and its applications and enter into rest.

There are four dimensions of the Work or Love of Christ referred to in Ephesians 3:17-21, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." The work and love of Christ is not one dimensional, it makes up every perceivable realm of reality. The work of Christ is meant to be something people can live in, not just follow.

We are told in Isaiah 28:9-13 of "......precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:..." These precepts and lines each are four and represent specific doctrines and knowledge to be understood by those "weaned from the milk..." or no longer living in the sense of "natural man." It is meant to be understood by new creations in Christ because the "natural man" cannot comprehend it fully. There are also four measures of depth outlined in Ezekiel 47:1-5: ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, and over the head deep waters to be swum in. These represent "to me" walking with God through each of the four phases of Christ work as they occur in me.

The state of swimming as just mentioned is relative to "rest." Christians are to labor towards this rest by doing four things: Learning, Knowing, Deciding to believe and deciding to trust. When one has faith they have decided to trust fully. We enter into rest when we learn the promises of God, Meditate on them, believe in them and put our trust in them. John 6:28-29, "Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."

To best understand Christ' work one must understand the nature of man. Romans 7:15, "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I." Man works against himself; although we know what is right, what is healthy and want to follow these things, by nature man does the things they wish not to do. For this reason one must understand their nature before they can grasp Christ' love and work.

The fall of man in Eden marked all to follow with what some call "original sin," or a corruptible seed. This is the seed of Satan: 1 Corinthians 15:45, "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." The corruptible seed was placed by Satan in the soul of man. The soul is defined as "(Greek – Psuche - soft) Breath, referring to breath as in the natural breath of life; a soft breeze as opposed to a blast of air. Soul is the place - our emotions and our mind are the battleground." This differs from the spirit of man which is defined: "(Greek – Pneuma - powerful) A current or blast of air, breath or breeze; figurative of the human or Holy Spirit, innermost being." As we can see from the scripture the "last Adam" or old Adam represents man before the fall, a "quickening spirit." After the fall man became a "living soul" as a result of the corruptible seed sown by Satan.

There is a promise however; man is not to be slave to corruptible seed forever. Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." God is speaking to Satan here and we see the first promise of deliverance. "her seed" is Jesus Christ and "thy seed" is sin. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

With this promise we may receive the incorruptible seed: 1 Peter 1:23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." We are reborn by the word of God and of an incorruptible seed. We are reborn by Jesus for He is the word of God: John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." There is a new creation in Christ.... Thank you Jesus!