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So what is God really doing in the universe? What is the thing that motivates Him? Sad to say, too often the scriptures that are plucked out are those which show what God will do for man. Most people are so inclined, especially when in great need, because they are told God loves them so much He just wants to do for them whatever it is they need. The end result is that they never come into the final rest and peace that is theirs in Christ, because they don't see what God is doing. They are dealing only with the ramifications of the outer man, neglecting the inner man.
Ephesians 1:10 says, "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times [in every way and means by which God deals with human beings all added together] He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him [Christ]." This is the scripture that settles once and for all what God is doing. He is bringing everything that has to do with anything into one: Christ. Many believers do not know such a powerful verse as this is in the Bible.
Today, many people have begun to see Christ as all, as having to do with all things in their lives and in the universe. Like Paul, they desire to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified (I Corinthians 2:2). Colossians 1:16-17 states that all things were created by Him and for Him, and aside from Him there is nothing in existence. Colossians 3:11 says, "But Christ is all, and in all". But if you say things like that, people will ask, "Do you say Christ is in the sinner, too?" No, He is in only those who are born again (Ephesians 1:23; 4:6). It is very difficult for some people to grasp the idea that Jesus Christ is all, and that God is bringing everything together in this one Person. Paul, when writing these things, left this natural world (three-dimensional) and went into the spirit world, and said that not only the things which are on earth, but also those which are in heaven are coming together in Christ. It means His lordship, His life, His person are all, and in all who are His. Christ is allness.
So what is God doing? He is bringing everything together in Christ. If believers do not see Christ when reading the Old Testament, what they see is incomplete and inconclusive, because the allness has to do with the person of Christ. In the study of religion or any of the sciences, if Christ is not seen, the discipline is inconclusive and incomplete because Christ is the fulfillment of all things. When the Spirit begins teaching you the deep things of God and you go to some religious meeting and don't see Christ as all, you may leave exasperated because Christ is the fulfillment and the end of all things. Many are coming to see this and are growing spiritually in that idea; it is a beautiful thing to see and to experience.
To come to this place in Christ, it is necessary to go through different levels of understanding. Often people start in the mainline denominations, and becoming dissatisfied move on into a stronger doctrinal stance, like getting born again or healed in body. Finally they come into the Charismatic Renewal or something deeper. That is the sort of tour people take in their coming to know God, and this is good. But according to Colossians 3:11, what God is doing in our lives is never complete on any one of these levels until we come to where Christ is all. That may be hard to accept, but the Father is bringing all things together in Christ.
Why is there such a verse of scripture that says that everything in heaven and earth is being gathered together by God in the one Person of Christ (Ephesians 1:10)? It is because Christ is the seed of God. He is the nature of God, and aside from Christ there is no godliness on earth or in heaven. Do you understand that aside from Jesus Christ there is no godliness? A Jew is not godly regardless of how godly he may act, because godliness is in the nature of God, and the nature of God is in the person of Christ. Christ in us is the nature of God operating (II Peter 1:4). It is impossible for God to be on this earth in any way other than in Jesus Christ. There are many people at other levels of understanding. There are Shintoism, Buddhism, Islam, Mohammedanism, and many other isms, but none of them is godly aside from the person of Christ.
So what is God doing? He is gathering all things together in Christ. Nothing in this world fits if Jesus is not in His proper place. If believers who begin to see Jesus as their life do not exemplify this, they fail in the understanding they are receiving. Everything in their lives should be wrapped up in the person of Christ.
Notice, God is not letting the world destroy itself. He is not letting dictators rule the world. Communism can come and go, but believers will keep right on growing up in Christ. The true Church of Jesus Christ will never be demoralized or destroyed on this earth; it is already sufficient unto the glory of God, and will continue. Nothing will stop God's plan because He is bringing it all together in the One who is victorious, He who is the Overcomer, He who is Life. And to think we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4)!
When did this radical thing of God's allness in Christ begin to take place? Where does Christ become allness? There are at least 14 scriptures that state Christ is all. Even though this great idea was in God's mind before the world was created, chronologically, He began to gather all things together in one on the Day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts, chapter 2. By that day we had a Savior, and by that day God was ready to begin the very thing for which He had created the universe -- the raising up of a people in His name who would have His nature.
The very term Pentecost has become obnoxious to a great number of the body of Christ and a term that raises the defenses of the rest. Our backgrounds and our walk in the Lord have all crossed something that had to do with the Pentecostal experience one way or another, and we all have different ideas and viewpoints at that juncture. The word Pentecost itself, where first mentioned in the Book of Leviticus, means 50 or 50th. Actually, it means 50 days after the Passover. Here God set up a calendar where on a certain date the Passover was to take place, and 50 days after the Passover there was to be a Pentecost.
On the Day of Pentecost in Acts, chapter 2, the 50th day after the Passover in which our Passover Lamb, Christ, was offered, God began the Church. Pentecost and Pentecostalism are terms that are strongly attached to what happened on that day 1900 years ago. The perpetuation of what happened on that day has brought about great frustration as well as blessings among believers. Probably the most divisive thing in the Church of Jesus Christ today has to do with the handling of the person of the Holy Spirit, beginning with the Day of Pentecost. Believers' viewpoints and attitudes toward this are stronger than their attitudes on most other truths.
The very idea of what happened on the Day of Pentecost has set us at odds because we do not fully understand what happened. It is as Acts 2:1-4 records it: "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind... And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." These are the things that people think of when they hear the term Pentecost. But God's people will never come to know what He is doing and what happened to them on the Day of Pentecost if they do not understand its importance in God's plan.
The Day of Pentecost in God's plan is also called a Feast of First Fruits, or a Feast of Harvest. God's intention was that on the Day of Pentecost, a first fruits offering would be brought to Him (Leviticus 23:15-22). That means they would go into their fields and take the first of the wheat, the first of their corn or barley, the first of their sheep or chickens or cattle, and give these first fruits to the Lord. Pentecost is the celebration of a first fruits offering unto the Lord. It is the beginning of the harvest.
What happened on the Day of Pentecost according to the Book of Acts is so exciting outwardly that it is hard to consider anything else. Just think, there was a rushing mighty wind, the whole building was shaken where they were, cloven tongues of fire appeared (the artists portray little tongues of fire hanging over people's heads), and they all talked in some fourteen different languages (in other tongues), and they went out on that day and won three thousand souls.
That story is so powerful that nothing else would seem important. Yet, what God did on that day He never did again. From the past, in God's plan, every time He did something big and important He had great fireworks, as if He were a Fourth of July celebrator. He did stupendous things, as with the Shekinah glory that came into the Temple of Solomon when it was dedicated, and when the Red Sea opened up. God often does great spectacular things when He does something for the first time. He seldom ever does it again like that, so we ought not to build a doctrine out of it.
But on this Acts 2 Day of Pentecost a very formidable issue of doctrine was created having to do with the Person of the Holy Spirit, which has been divisive ever since. Actually, it is not only the Holy Spirit as a Person who was to be focused on, on the Day of Pentecost, but what He was coming to accomplish was equally important. This was stated by Jesus in John 14:20.
At His upper-room discourse just before He died, Jesus said of the Day of Pentecost that when the Holy Spirit came, believers would know something -- they would not just receive somebody, but they would know something. What was it they were going to know? "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (John 14:20). On that day, the Teacher, the Revealer, the Comforter, the Paraclete, was going to come, and when He came they would know something: Oneness and Union. That is the truth He sent them to the upper room to receive, but when the Holy Spirit came they were so taken up with the outer happenings that went on, God's purpose seemed to become secondary. Much of the religion today still makes secondary what really was the primary purpose on the Day of Pentecost.
For the first time since before the foundation of the world, the ultimate intention of God's plan went into effect on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came. On that day for the first time, the Father began to gather all things together in one in Christ (Ephesians 1:10). This is the time of the final restoration. The Day of Pentecost was far more strategic in God's plan than the 120 being filled with the Spirit or the Holy Spirit's coming in a spectacular way. The coming of the Holy Spirit is important, but His greater mission is to reveal something to us that we do not know: the mystery of godliness, Christ in the human being. This was the ultimate intention of God before the creation of the world, and is now ready to be made known by the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 2:9-10).
The one important thing religion has ignored is that God made a radical change in His plan on the Day of Pentecost. Sad to say, this radical change was not recognized even by those there. For instance, three things went into effect on the Day of Pentecost that are important. First, the bride began to be formed; the term bride started on the Day of Pentecost. Secondly, the Church was first formed; previously, there was no church. Israel is not a church, has never been a true church (even though she is called the church in the wilderness -- Acts 7:38), and she never will be the Church of Jesus Christ. Individual Jews can now, by being born again, be a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. Thirdly, there was no body of Christ before the Day of Pentecost. When the 120 were filled with the Holy Spirit and the 3,000 were saved (and we assume baptized with the Holy Spirit) that was the first body of Christ. That is very strategic.
That is Christ's spiritual return to this earth, not His final return (the rapture or revelation), but that is His return from the ascension of Jesus of Nazareth back to this earth in His spiritual body.
Thus, we have three terms -- bride, church, and body -- which came into being on the Day of Pentecost. Also we see that at least seven definite factors in God's plan hung radically relative to the newly formed body of Christ on the Day of Pentecost. We need to know and understand these changes because they must fit into our understanding if we are to see Christ as all and come into union-life. Why am I so bold to say this? Because if the average believer does not make these changes in his thinking, when we come preaching Christ as all and the believer's union with Christ, it scares him.
The seven definite factors in God's plan that took radical changes on the Day of Pentecost are as follows:
Perhaps the most important change on the Day of Pentecost was in the way God dealt with human beings. The change was from God's dealing with created beings to His dealing with rebirthed beings. Before the Day of Pentecost there were no God-birthed children of God on the face of the earth. Abraham was not birthed of God. David was not birthed of God. Isaiah was not birthed of God. Enoch, who walked with the Lord, was not birthed of God.
Before I saw the Christ-life, I categorized Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Daniel and all the godly people in the Old Testament with Paul, Peter and all the godly people of the New Testament. They are not of the same breed. On the Day of Pentecost a radical change took place: God no longer dealt with men just on the basis of their creation. Now He would rebirth them. He, the Father, would place His Seed in them, which would be their nature. There is a great difference between what God creates and what God births. His creation is what He does, but what He births has to do with who He is.
This is one of the major differences in the Gospel. That is why, when you go to meetings and sense something is wrong, the problem is in man's talking about what God can do rather than who God is. You feel that difference because the Spirit has revealed to you that Christ is your life. As a knowing believer you know the difference when you are drawn away from that gospel of Him as your life to another gospel whereby you are godly only by what He does. It is not what He does that makes you godly; it is who He is in you (I Corinthians 1:30). This radical change is not made by most people, nor is it incorporated into their thinking. It was the change between God's dealing with those whom He had created and those whom He had birthed. Now, the children of Israel were God's chosen people, but only in the created sense.
You need to know two things about creation. First, everything that is created will pass away; nothing created remains. That includes your body, which is created. That is why, on the resurrection morning, He gives believers another body. What is there in the human being that is not created? It is a soul. Soul is the breath of God, that is why the soul lives on and on. Because it is the breath of God, it cannot be extinguished. But created beings can never become as God within themselves. They are locked in their old nature, in the same way a rabbit cannot become a dog. They can attempt to obey God by doing, as the Old Testament saints did. The only way Old Testament people were saved was by obeying what God said; they could never become God's offspring because God had not set into motion the birthing (John 3:3-5). The birthing, being born again, started on the Day of Pentecost. This is why we say that human beings cannot become any better in themselves. Not even Abraham was finally acceptable unto God until he was delivered when Christ left the cross and set the captives free. They had to be saved and delivered by Christ, because all things must finish in Christ (Ephesians 1:10).
There was one man in the time of Jesus of Nazareth who was strategic to the understanding of godliness: Nicodemus. Jesus did not meet just a priest or a Jewish rabbi in the middle of the night and talk with him. The scripture says he was "a ruler of the Jews" (John 3:1). He was a highly placed Pharisee, a teacher of the Law, a member of the Sanhedrin. This man was strategic in the plan of God because he was the first man to be told this awesome truth that no created being is acceptable to God except he be born again (John 3:3-5). Do you see how important John's third chapter is? When that grips you it swallows up all the ideas we get mixed up in with religion. It matters not whether you talk in tongues, believe in healing, have great faith, or believe in post-, pre-, or mid-rapture, because if you do not get this one thing fixed right, nothing else is right. So Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
Every message in the Old Testament becomes inconclusive and incomplete at that moment unless you see Jesus as its fulfillment. We can preach about righteousness and holiness and sanctification and godliness from the Old Testament all we want, but if it does not get gathered together "in one in Christ" it really does not matter, nor will it work. The birthing is the key to the scriptures, and the birthing is what took place for the first time on the Day of Pentecost. Three thousand were born again -- the first time anybody ever entered the kingdom. Until that time, the kingdom was preached and offered like a carrot held in front of the Israelites; it did not change them. The radical change is an exchange -- it means an old nature out and a God nature in.
The essence of that change was God's transforming believers from being do-ers to being I am-ers. A birthed person is an I am-er: I am the Father's off spring. A do-er is one who says, "I am doing my best to do what the Father says." There is a big difference between the Father's depending on us and His depending on the Christ in us. This is what Jesus said we were to come to know on that day: "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you" (John 14:20). Yet we have so glorified the Day of Pentecost and what happened then that we often miss an important aspect of what God was doing. He said, in John 17, that we will know that as the Father and He are one, so are we in Him and He in us.
How would that happen? We are rebirthed by God the Father, so now His Seed is in us; we can be one with Christ Jesus because He is our life. It is strictly by the New Testament that we come to this knowing; no person in the Old Testament had that knowledge (Romans 16:25). So the birthing is imperative. If you have not been born again with this understanding, nothing else really matters.
The other six changes dealt with in the book are:
- A Change in the Work of the Person of the Holy Spirit
- Jesus of Nazareth No Longer the Same
- Living the Law Radically Changed to Grace
- A Change in the Issue of Sin
- A Change in the Issue of Temptation
- A Change in the Issue of Ministry.
Copyright © 1991 Warren Litzman. The Bible text in this publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King James Version. This article appears on the site: http://www.peterwade.com/.
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