We previously discussed how man was created by God for His own purpose but became fallen, sinful, and unable to live in a way that fulfills God’s plan. The consequences of the fall of mankind are tragic, and we see their effect in our own lives and everywhere we look today.
But God can never be defeated! And, though frustrated for a time, God’s plan can’t be derailed. In His wisdom, God took three tremendous steps to carry out His original plan of imparting His eternal life into us so we could share His life and express Him.
Step 1—God became a man named Jesus Christ
Two verses in the book of John describe the first step God took. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”
When we put these two verses together, we see something remarkable. The Word, who is God, became flesh. God became a man! This first step of God becoming a man is known as incarnation.
This step is truly amazing. The infinite, eternal God of the universe became a man of flesh and blood, Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a human life limited by time and space and experienced all kinds of human suffering. Yet He was the only man in all of human history who was without sin. During His thirty-three and a half years on the earth, He fully expressed God in every aspect of His living. We can see His wonderful humanity, the way He lived, and the words of grace and truth He spoke when we read the four Gospels.
Through incarnation, Christ put on a physical body of flesh and blood, making it possible for Him to die for us. His perfect, unblemished life qualified Him to accomplish redemption for us on the cross.
Step 2—Christ died on the cross to redeem us
Jesus Christ came to die for our sins. John 1:29 tells us when John the Baptist saw Him, he declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” As the Lamb of God, Christ was sacrificed for us on the cross. The second step in God’s plan of salvation was Christ’s crucifixion.
It is through Christ’s crucifixion that sinful mankind was redeemed, as we can see in Ephesians 1:7:
“In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses, according to the riches of His grace.”
Christ’s blood was shed not only to redeem us and cleanse us from our sins, but also to bring us near to God. Ephesians 2:13 tells us:
“But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near in the blood of Christ.”
We sinful human beings can be redeemed, forgiven, and brought back to God all because of Christ’s crucifixion.
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Step 3—Christ rose from the dead
Christ’s death accomplished redemption, but His redeeming death isn’t the end of the story. Jesus Christ rose from the dead and defeated death itself! The third step in God’s plan of salvation is Christ’s resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ is an accomplished fact, but it’s not just for us to appreciate objectively. In 1 Corinthians 15:45 we read these extraordinary words:
“So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul’; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.”
This is tremendously important. As a man of flesh and blood, Christ could never enter into us to be life to us. He redeemed us through His death, but He can impart life to us because He was resurrected.
In resurrection, the Christ who was crucified for us is now the life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit, He is able to come into our human spirit to dwell in us. We are reborn, and we become children of God with the life of God!
Christ as the life-giving Spirit is available anytime, anywhere, to anyone who would repent, believe in Him, and open their heart to receive Him. When we receive Him, we receive eternal life, as God originally intended. As this life grows in us, spreading from our spirit into our soul, we express God to everyone around us.
The fall of man was calamitous. But God’s plan of salvation was carried out through these three tremendous steps—incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. God in Christ accomplished redemption for us to forgive our sins and bring us back to Himself. God redeemed us so that He could achieve His goal of entering our spirit to live in us and be expressed through us.
Have you prayed to be forgiven of your sins and receive the life of God? If you haven’t, you can pray a simple prayer like this one:
Lord Jesus, I turn to You and open my heart to You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank You for resurrecting from the dead. Thank You, Lord, for being the life-giving Spirit. Lord Jesus, I believe in You, and I receive You into my spirit right now. Thank You, Lord, for coming to live in me!
For more on this subject, you can read chapter 1 of Basic Elements of the Christian Life, vol. 1, a book that has helped thousands of believers. You can download it from anywhere in the world here.
In a previous post, we saw that God warned Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to protect them. That tree represented Satan, the enemy of God and the source of death. Sadly, they disobeyed Him. Although their disobedience was serious, something even more tragic occurred: they were corrupted with Satan’s evil nature.
In this post, we’ll see the consequences of their action, as well as what God did and is still doing today to recover humanity, which He created for His purpose.
The effects of the poison
Since Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge, all mankind was corrupted with its evil element. This poisoned all three parts of man’s being.
First, our human spirit—our deepest part, made by God to contact, receive, and contain Him—was completely deadened. Ephesians 2:1 tells us that as fallen human beings, we were dead in our offenses and sins. Before our salvation, although we were alive physically, we were dead in our spirit. God created us to have a loving and intimate relationship with Him, but the deadening of our spirit through the fall of man rendered us unable to contact Him.
Furthermore, our soul—composed of our mind, emotion, and will—was thoroughly poisoned by the evil nature of Satan. In particular, our mind, the leading part of our soul, became darkened in its understanding, unable to comprehend the things of God. Colossians 1:21 tells us the damage to our soul was so extensive that we even became enemies of God in our mind! Our soul was utterly invaded by God’s enemy, Satan.
Finally, our body, which God created pure and undefiled, was corrupted by weakness and death and became sinful flesh. This flesh with its lusts became an evil influence over our entire being.
These were the consequences of man’s fall: every part of us was damaged, we were no longer useful to God, and we even became His enemies.
God’s salvation
It’s clear that we desperately need salvation; we need forgiveness for our sinful acts, and we need restoration for our damaged being. God’s complete salvation includes both.
The eternal God became a man named Jesus. He lived a perfect, sinless life on earth and then died on the cross as our Substitute. He was judged and condemned by God in our place. First Peter 3:18 tells us:
“For Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God.”
When we repent and believe in Jesus Christ and all He did for us, our sins are forgiven. His death on the cross takes care of all our sinful acts.
But Jesus Christ also rose from the dead. First Corinthians 15:45 tells us that in resurrection He “became a life-giving Spirit.” As the Spirit, Christ enters our deadened human spirit and enlivens it. This is how we’re born again with God’s eternal life. Now, we have the life of God! This has been His desire for us since Eden.
This divine life in us saves us from the poisonous consequences of what happened in the garden of Eden.
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Salvation in every part
Having eternal life in our spirit is wonderful, but what about the other parts of our corrupted being? Actually, our spirit being enlivened is only the first step of God’s full salvation for us.
After we’re saved, the life of God begins to spread from our spirit and restore the damaged parts of our soul—our mind, emotion, and will. As we contact Him and fellowship with Him through prayer and in His Word, God gradually transforms our soul with His wonderful life until our thoughts, feelings, and decisions are in full harmony with His.
God’s salvation even includes our bodies. Romans 8:11 is a marvelous verse that shows the extent of His restoration of our entire being:
“And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”
Eventually, through the spreading and growing of God’s divine life in us, our whole being will be filled with this life. Instead of expressing the evil nature of Satan, we will express God with every part. What a complete and wonderful salvation we have in Christ!
By realizing what really happened in the garden of Eden and the consequences of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, we can appreciate the scope of God’s salvation, which is for His purpose. As a result, we’re filled with love for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and give Him more room to grow in us.
Most of us are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. What gets our attention is usually their disobedience, which makes sense. Disobeying God is a serious matter.
But have you ever wondered why it was so terrible to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? How could this lead to the fall of all mankind? And when God told Adam and Eve not to eat of that tree, was it just a test to see whether they would obey Him?
Since Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating of the tree of knowledge, God couldn’t just look the other way. He’s absolutely righteous, and this righteousness required Him to punish them and banish them from the garden.
But is that the whole story?
The bigger problem
Let’s suppose a mother tells her child, “Don’t drink from this bottle. What’s in here is poisonous.” Does she give the child that commandment simply to test whether he will obey her? Of course not; rather, her commandment is a loving warning. If the child were to disobey and drink from the bottle, certainly his disobedience would be an issue. But the child would have been poisoned, which is a much bigger problem.
This scenario is very similar to Adam and Eve’s situation in the garden. The issue wasn’t merely that they’d disobeyed God; rather, the much bigger problem was what they took in and the effect it had on them. And because Adam represents all mankind, what happened there affected every human being.
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Two trees in the garden of Eden
God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to protect them. That tree represented Satan, the source of death, so He warned them that if they ate of it, they would die.
But in the garden was another tree: the tree of life. The tree of life represented God, the source of life. This was the tree God wanted man to partake of to receive Him as the divine life.
As much as God wanted to share His divine life with man, He wouldn’t force the being He created to eat of this tree. Instead, God wanted man to use his free will to choose Him. He could heed God’s warning or not. It was up to him.
Satan deceiving Adam and Eve
In dealing with Adam and Eve, God was honest about the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He warned them that eating of this tree would result in death, but he left the choice up to them.
Satan, on the contrary, was deceitful. He came to Eve in the garden, disguised as a serpent. The devil knew that if Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge, the human beings God created to express Him would ingest the poison of his evil nature and be corrupted by sin and death forever.
Satan craftily twisted God’s words to Eve and even lied outright, insinuating that God was withholding something good from the couple. He made her doubt His good heart for them. Genesis 3:6 tells us what happened next:
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make oneself wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.”
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and by their act of disobedience, they took in the poisonous nature of the devil. The consequences of what they did were profound, affecting all humanity—even until today.
Make sure to read the second post in this series, where we discuss what these consequences were in detail, how they affect our lives today, and the steps God took to save us from the effects of what happened in the Garden of Eden.
In this enlightening book, Witness Lee discusses how the good land described in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy is a complete picture of Christ that we can enjoy today.
In the post Christ Is the Reality of the Good Land for Us to Enjoy, we gave a brief introduction of The All-inclusive Christ. In this post, we’ll use excerpts from the book that highlight the spaciousness of the good land and how this applies to our Christian life.
God gave His people a spacious land
In Exodus 3:8, God described the land of Canaan:
“And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Since Christ is the reality of the good land, the land being spacious points to the fact that He is spacious. But what does this mean?
We’ve probably never thought of Christ as being spacious, but this excerpt from pages 22 and 23 shows us that the Christ who lives in us is immeasurably spacious:
“You understand what spaciousness is. But can you describe the spaciousness of this land? Can you tell us the extent, the expanse, of Christ? In other words, do you know how big Christ is? Everyone of us has a certain measurement, but what is the measurement of Christ? The Apostle Paul gives it to us in Ephesians chapter 3. The measurements of Christ are the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth. Can you tell how broad is the breadth, how long is the length, how high is the height, and how deep is the depth? If you asked me, I would have to say, ‘I don’t know. It is unlimited.’ The breadth of Christ is the breadth of the universe. Christ is the breadth, Christ is the length, Christ is the height, and Christ is the depth of the whole universe. If the universe has a limit, that limit must be Christ. You can never measure the dimensions of Christ. This is the first item of the goodness of the land. The land is good in the unlimited measurement of Christ.”
We all have to admit that we ourselves are very limited. For example, we may be able to be patient to a certain extent, but not for a lengthy period, with no end in sight. In difficult circumstances, and perhaps particularly with certain people, our patience eventually runs out. Worse still, we might even react by losing our temper, unable to bear the strain of trying to be patient.
Lee says on page 25,
“There is a limit to human goodness, but the goodness of Christ is without limit. If your patience has a limit, that patience is not Christ. If you are patient with Christ’s patience, the more wrongly you are treated, the more patient you will be. This patience can never be exhausted. Christ is good in His unlimitedness; Christ is good in His spaciousness. With everything of Him, there is no limit and no change.”
The key isn’t to strive to use our own meager store of patience, but instead to experience Christ’s inexhaustible patience. It’s impossible to fathom how patient Christ is. His patience is as infinite as He is; it has no end! Yet we can actually experience the immeasurable Christ in all the situations in our life. He supplies us bountifully with whatever we need to an unlimited degree.
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The immeasurable Christ is for us to experience
Lee’s emphasis in The All-inclusive Christ isn’t that we just know the features of the good land and how they’re pictures of Christ; it’s that we actually experience Christ as the reality of those features. On page 26, Lee testifies of his own experience of the inexhaustible Christ, even through years of increasing difficulties:
“I have realized that Christ is without any kind of limitation. There can never be a problem which is bigger than Christ. There can never be a situation which He cannot cover. I have a handkerchief which is only so big—perhaps twelve inches by twelve inches. It can only cover so much. It can never cover the whole room; it is not big enough. But you must realize that Christ is like a piece of cloth without limit. You cannot tell how broad and how long He is. There is no limit. He can cover anything and everything. No matter how great a problem may be, Christ can cover it. Christ is good in His unlimitedness. Christ is good in His breadth and length and height and depth. Christ is such a spacious land for us to experience and enjoy in every situation.”
The spaciousness of Christ
Each day brings us new opportunities to experience the spaciousness of Christ with our children, our boss, our spouse, or our coworkers, in matters both big and small. When we feel like we’re running out of patience, love, or whatever it may be, one way to experience Christ is to stop what we’re doing and pray. We can pray,
“Lord Jesus, I turn to You right now. I can’t take this situation anymore. Lord, I need You. Be my unlimited patience.”
When we pray, even for just a few moments, we contact Him in our spirit and breathe Him in. We breathe in the One who is inexhaustible.
At any time, in any place, we can also simply call on His name. Romans 10:12 tells us the Lord is “rich to all who call upon Him.” As we call, “Oh, Lord Jesus,” we can enjoy the never-failing riches of all the Lord is to us, no matter what our circumstances are.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this post on the spaciousness of Christ. We invite you to learn more by reading all of chapter 2 of The All-inclusive Christ, which you can download for free here.
Bibles for America (BfA) was founded in 2000 by a group of believers who wanted to give away free Bibles throughout the United States. They realized that many people in this country may not read the Bible mainly because they don’t understand what it says.
Because they themselves had received immeasurable spiritual help, light, and life from the Recovery Version of the Bible, they chose this unique study Bible to give away. Due to cost, they decided to give away just the New Testament Recovery Version so it could get into the hands of as many people as possible. This continues to be our central mission today, nearly 20 years later.
Not only was the Recovery Version of the Bible deeply respected and appreciated by the founders of BfA, it was recently recognized by the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. This museum documents the history of the Bible and the impact it has had on the world for thousands of years. The Recovery Version was added to the Museum Collection and featured on its social media accounts as the “Artifact of the Day” on September 20.
To date, BfA has given away over 1.6 million free copies of the New Testament Recovery Version. We’ve received overwhelming feedback from recipients telling us how this version has helped them to understand God’s Word as never before. Here are just two comments:
“I received my copy of the New Testament Recovery Version today. I spent a lot of time this afternoon reading the Bible text and the explanatory notes. It's impressive. Again, my thanks; it is an excellent study Bible.”
—P.K., Brookings, OR
“I have always wanted to understand the Bible more deeply. I would read study Bibles and they helped a little. But reading the Recovery Version has taken me to a higher level. I finally feel like I am eating the meat, not just the milk of the Word.”
—G.G., New York, NY
We’re so thankful to the Lord that people throughout this country continue to gain a deeper understanding of the Word of God by using the Recovery Version. Don’t miss the opportunity to get your free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version from BfA today! You can order your free copy here. If you’ve already received one, feel free to share this offer with others so they can also order a free copy.
In a previous post, we were calibrated in how we approach the Bible by discovering its essence. In another post, our trust in God’s Word was fortified by seeing its source. Now we’ll look at the contents of the Bible and its focus.
The Bible consists of two sections, the Old Testament and New Testament; sixty-six books; and many chapters. With so much material, what should we focus on when we read the Bible?
What is the Bible all about?
To know what a book is about, you can usually glance at its table of contents for a clue.
But this doesn’t really work with the Bible. When you look at its table of contents, you see a list of sixty-six books. But that list doesn’t tell you much about the subject of the Bible.
So moving on from the table of contents, you can take a quick tour and leaf through the pages to get a feel for the contents of the Bible. You see a lot of interesting, exciting, touching, even heartbreaking stories. You find uplifting poetry in the Psalms and encounter perplexing sections in the books of the prophets. And that’s just the Old Testament.
Continuing on, you can skim through the New Testament and find accounts of Jesus Christ, stories of the early apostles, writings to different people, and finally, the mysterious last book, Revelation.
After your quick tour, you might ask yourself, What is the main focus of the Bible? What is the Bible really about?
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A vague answer
“What is the Bible about?” might seem like an odd question. After all, even people who’ve never read the Bible probably have an idea that it’s a book about God. And very generally speaking, that’s true.
But if we as believers also say, “The Bible is about God,” what exactly do we mean?
What the Bible tells us
The Bible itself tells us what its main subject is. Let's look at a few verses:
1. Matthew 1:1
“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
These opening words of the New Testament immediately indicate to us that the subject of the New Testament is not a thing or an event but a wonderful Person, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the true and living God who became a real man. He came to accomplish redemption for us and to give us His eternal life. By His life growing in us, we become His expression to fulfill His purpose.
So Jesus Christ is the subject of the New Testament, but what about the Old Testament? What is the Old Testament about?
2. Luke 24:44
“All the things written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms concerning Me must be fulfilled.”
The Lord Jesus spoke these words to His disciples after He was crucified and resurrected. Why did He mention the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms? The note on this verse in the New Testament Recovery Version is very helpful:
“The Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms are the three sections of the Old Testament, that is, ‘all the Scriptures’ (v. 27). The Savior’s word here unveils that the entire Old Testament is a revelation of Him and that He is its center and content.”
Notice the words concerning Me in this verse. Although we don’t see the name Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, the Lord tells us that He is, in fact, the subject and content of the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, the coming Christ is revealed through many stories, prophecies, types, figures, and shadows. And in the New Testament, Christ comes as the fulfillment of all that was revealed of Him in the Old Testament.
So both the Old and New Testaments reveal Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ is the center and content of all the Scriptures.
3. Revelation 22:21
“The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.”
This is the last verse of the New Testament. Here again we see the name Jesus. Jesus is the first name spoken of in the New Testament, and it is also the last. By the first and last verses in the New Testament—Matthew 1:1 and Revelation 22:21—we can see that its focus and main content is the wonderful Person, Jesus Christ.
Revelation 22:21 isn’t just the last verse of the New Testament. It’s also the very last word of the entire Bible. The Bible’s final word is concerning the Lord Jesus, not so many other things. So throughout all sixty-six books, from beginning to end, Jesus Christ is the subject of the Bible. Jesus Christ is the answer to the question, What is the Bible about?
Focusing on the main thing
As believers, we should have more than just a vague or general idea that the Bible is about God. This God, the eternal One, in time became a man, Jesus Christ. The Bible abounds in detail concerning Jesus—His nature, His living, His accomplishments, His salvation. The Old Testament and New Testament are full of revelation concerning Him!
If we realize that the entire Bible is focused on Christ as its main subject and content, then we also will be focused on Him when we come to God’s Word. Instead of getting distracted from Christ amid all the stories and less important matters in the Bible, we’ll actively look for Him in the Word. We’ll then discover distinct and specific riches of Christ in both the Old and New Testaments. Our appreciation of our dear Lord Jesus will increase as we discover just how wonderful He is in God’s Word.
If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.
Did you know you can download a free book from Bibles for America called The All-inclusive Christ? This book by Witness Lee is a must-read for every Christian who wants to have a richer, fuller experience of Jesus Christ.
The title of the book itself is very interesting. By definition, the word all-inclusive means something that includes everything. For example, you may have seen this word used to describe a vacation package. An all-inclusive vacation package would include every necessity and then some, such as transportation, accommodations, food, and so on. You don’t need to go anywhere else for anything; it’s all right there for you to enjoy.
To say Christ is all-inclusive means He includes everything we need. This description of Christ is based on the good land God gave His people in the Old Testament. That land included everything the children of Israel needed for their living and enjoyment and is a detailed picture of Christ, whom every believer has already received.
Witness Lee goes through the book of Deuteronomy to show how the details of the good land represent many of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Even the topography of the land reveals Christ to us. But the book doesn’t stop there. Because Lee’s intention wasn’t that we would merely gain knowledge about various aspects of who Christ is, but that we would experience Him, he applies those aspects to our life in very practical ways. This opens up a whole realm of Christ for us to enjoy! And as we experience and enjoy Christ, not only are our own needs are met, but God’s eternal purpose is fulfilled.
It’s a fact that Christ—the reality of the Old Testament good land with all its riches—has been given to us New Testament believers to be our true life and enjoyment. But in order to actually experience Christ as all the different aspects of the good land, we first need to see all the things He can be to us. That’s where this book comes in. It opens up God’s Word and helps us see how rich Christ is and how we can experience Him.
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A brief overview of The All-inclusive Christ
The table of contents of The All-inclusive Christ shows the six major sections of the book:
The All-inclusive Christ—An Introduction
The Goodness of the Land
How to Possess the Land
Entering the Good Land
Life in the Good Land
The Issue of the Land—The Temple and the City
Let’s get a taste of what’s in The All-inclusive Christ from Chapter 4, which is about the goodness of the land with relation to water. On page 37, Lee says:
“Deuteronomy says that the land is good in water. Listen to the different terms that are used: ‘a land of brooks of water’—that means a land full of streams of waters—and a land ‘of fountains and springs’ (8:7).”
Continuing on page 38, Lee explains the meaning of these waters:
“The spring, the deep waters, and the streams. Brothers and sisters, what is the meaning of these waters? We can immediately turn to the Lord’s word for the answer. The Lord said that the water He gives will be in us a well of water, a fountain, springing up unto the life of eternity. These waters are types of the various kinds of supply of Christ’s life. The life of Christ as the supply to us is just like the different kinds of waters. The Lord told us that out of the innermost part of those who believe on Him will flow rivers of living water. What is this? This is the supply of the life of Christ as living water. If you reflect upon your experience and consider it carefully, you will realize that in one aspect Christ is so spacious and exhaustless and in another aspect Christ is transcendent and in the heavens. Then, if you view it accurately, you will realize that the supply of the life of Christ is just as living water within you. Many times you are thirsty—not thirsty in your physical body, but thirsty in your spirit. When you come athirst to the Lord and contact Him, you have a certain sense within you. You feel refreshed, you feel watered. When you are thirsty, it means that your spirit, your inner man is dry. But when you contact the Lord Jesus, it is not long before you feel watered and your thirst is quenched. You are refreshed more by this drink than by any physical beverage. Then, if you contact the Lord more and more and even moment by moment, you will feel more than watered; there will be a stream flowing forth from within you.”
What are these streams of living water in our experience? On pages 39–40, Lee explains:
“In this land there is not only one stream, but many streams; not just one spring and one fountain, but many springs and many fountains. What does this mean? Sometimes when you are beset with troubles and trials, you contact the Lord and receive something from Him. You experience the Lord as a spring, as a fountain and as a stream in your trial. What kind of spring, what kind of fountain and what kind of stream is this? Can you give them a name? I believe you can give them many names. Sometimes you experience Him as a spring of joy, sometimes as a spring of peace, and sometimes as a spring of comfort. Sometimes you experience Him as a fountain of love, a fountain of grace, and a fountain of light. At other times Christ is a stream of patience, a stream of humility, and a stream of forbearance to you. You see, there are many springs, many fountains, and many streams. There are many kinds of heavenly supplies.”
Christ as our good land is so enjoyable, even just in this aspect of water!
We hope this post has whetted your appetite to experience Christ as the good land. We invite you to learn more by downloading a free copy of The All-inclusive Christ here. Each chapter is packed with wonderful aspects of who Christ is, and practical examples of how we can apply Him in our daily life.
We can find many promises God has made to us in His Word. For instance, He promises to care for us faithfully and to never forsake us. But in 2 Peter 1:4, some of His promises are strikingly described as precious and exceedingly great.
Are these precious and exceedingly great promises related to material things like a better car, a life without financial challenges, or a trouble-free family life with the best spouse and children? To answer this question, let’s first see why God gave these extraordinary promises to us. This will help us see what makes them so precious and exceedingly great.
The purpose of God’s promises
Let’s read 2 Peter 1:4-5:
“Seeing that His divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who has called us by His own grace and virtue, through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.”
The context of these verses tells us that the precious and exceedingly great promises Peter speaks of aren’t related to prosperity or a trouble-free life. And they aren’t for something in the far-off future, nor are they for after we die. They’re related to something profound that we can enjoy here and now.
The verses tell us God gave us such promises so that through them we can partake of the divine nature of God today. No wonder Peter calls them precious and exceedingly great. The fact that we human beings can partake of the divine nature of God is tremendous!
To partake of something means to take it into us and experience it. Just as we partake of food daily, we can partake of God’s divine nature through His precious and exceedingly great promises. As we partake of His nature, something happens in us: we begin to express God.
To illustrate, let’s say a person eats a lot of carrots. Eating so many carrots can eventually cause his skin to develop an orange tint, expressing the carrots he’s become constituted with. In the same way, the more we partake of God’s divine nature, the more we become constituted with and express His nature.
Knowing we can partake of God’s nature will truly revolutionize our Christian life. Expressing God isn’t the result of our self-effort or outward behavior, but of partaking of His divine nature. So as we partake of Him, God works out His purpose to join Himself to us and mingle with us so we become His expression for His glory.
Note 2 of verse 2 Peter 1:4 in the New Testament Recovery Version says:
“Through and on the basis of the Lord’s glory and virtue, by and to which we have been called, He has given us His precious and exceedingly great promises, such as in Matt. 28:20; John 6:57; 7:38-39; 10:28-29; 14:19-20, 23; 15:5; 16:13-15. All these promises are being carried out in His believers by His life-power as the excellent virtue, unto His glory.”
Now, let’s take a look at just the first four passages listed in this note to get a taste of these promises.
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1. Matthew 28:20—“Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age.”
Note 2 on with you says,
“The heavenly King is Emmanuel, God with us (1:23). Here He promised that in His resurrection He will be with us all the days, with all authority, until the consummation of the age, that is, until the end of this age. Hence, wherever we are gathered into His name, He is in our midst (18:20).”
At the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, an angel told Joseph before the Lord’s birth that Jesus would be called Emmanuel, which means God with us. Matthew ends with the resurrected Lord commissioning His disciples to go forth with the gospel. Then the Lord Jesus’ final word in Matthew is His promise to be with us always. As we journey through life, He is with us—not occasionally, but all the time, every day. He was with us yesterday, He’s with us today, and He’ll be with us tomorrow, until the end of this age. Whatever our circumstances may be, we can enjoy His presence every day. How encouraging is this precious promise from the Lord!
2. John 6:57—“As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.”
In John 6, the Lord Jesus presents Himself as the living bread from heaven for us to eat. Note 1 on verse 57 explains what eats Me means:
“To eat is to take food into us that it may be assimilated organically into our body. Hence, to eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us that He may be assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life. Then we live by Him whom we have received. It is by this that He, the resurrected One, lives in us (14:19-20).”
We live physically by the food we eat. In the same way, we live spiritually by eating Jesus as our food in the Word of God. According to this promise in John 6, if we eat the Lord Jesus in His Word, we’ll live by Him and He’ll be lived out of us. This is how we live the Christian life; it’s not by striving with our own energy but by taking in the nourishing supply of Christ as the bread of life.
3. John 7:38-39—“He who believes into Me, as the Scriptures said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
First Corinthians 15:45 tells us that in resurrection, the Lord Jesus became the life-giving Spirit. As the Spirit, He’s the living water for us to drink. The Lord promised us that when we come to Him, believe in Him, and drink Him, our inner thirst will be quenched. Anytime, anywhere, we can drink the Spirit by turning to our spirit, where He is. When we drink the Spirit, He satisfies us with Himself as the living water.
The Lord also promises that when we drink of the Spirit, rivers of living water will flow to others. What does this mean? Note 2 of verse 38 explains:
“The rivers of living water are the many flows of the different aspects of life (cf. Rom. 15:30; 1 Thes. 2:13; Gal. 5:22-23), originating from the one unique river of water of life (Rev. 22:1), which is God's Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2).”
When we drink the Spirit, the unique river, our need is met. Then as we enjoy God this way, spontaneously out of our being will flow love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, and so many more aspects of God’s life to meet the needs of those around us.
4. John 10:28-29—“And I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
Note 1 on eternal life and hand helps us appreciate the Lord’s promise here:
“Eternal life (see note 151in ch. 3) is for the believers’ living. The Father’s hand, by which He chooses in His love according to His purpose (17:23; 6:38-39), and the Son’s hand, by which He saves by His grace for the fulfillment of the Father’s purpose (1:14; 6:37), both of which have the keeping power, are for the believers’ protection. Eternal life will never run out, and the hands of the Father and the Son will never fail. Hence, the believers are eternally secure and will never perish.”
The Lord gives us eternal life for our living today. We have the eternal life, which will never run out, and we’re kept safe in both the Father’s hand and the Son’s hand. We are eternally secure. We’re safe in the hands of the Father and the Son forever! Since we’re so secure in Him, we can partake of His eternal life every day without doubt or fear.
Thank God for granting us these precious and exceedingly great promises! We encourage you to order your free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version so you can read the notes for the rest of the promises listed in note 2 on 2 Peter 1:4, especially those in John 14, a deep chapter in the New Testament.
We hope you enjoy reading this testimony from a Bibles for America staff member about realizing the effectiveness of the blood of Christ and its power in dealing with accusations from Satan, God’s enemy.
I’d like to share my experience of realizing how amazingly effective the blood of Christ is. I knew His blood cleansed me from my sins, but I didn’t always have such a deep and rich appreciation of its power against Satan, God’s enemy. An excerpt from The Glorious Church by Watchman Nee truly encapsulates my experience. (You can download the entire book for free here.)
The excerpt is from chapter 4, on pages 88-89. It begins:
“Romans 5:9 says, ‘...having now been justified in His blood.’ When many people come into the Lord’s presence, they have no peace in their heart. They also have a feeling of worthlessness and of being wrong within. This is because they have a false hope. They expect that they will have something positive in themselves to offer to God.”
This was my experience over and over. Growing up in a Christian home, I internalized a high moral code. I should be kind; I should be generous; I should never lie; I should live a holy life that expresses Christ—the list went on and on. And my expectation was that eventually, if I tried hard enough, I’d be able to reach that standard. But as time went on, the harder I tried to be good and holy, the more I failed. And the more I failed, the more difficult it was for me to come to God. I was crushed by my failures, and I also thought God expected me to do better, to be better.
The next part of the excerpt says:
“When they discover that they do not have anything positive to offer in themselves, the accusations come. An accusation is like this: ‘A person like you will never have anything good to offer to God.’”
Satan would accuse me like this so often! I felt worthless in my own eyes and in the eyes of God, and I was deeply ashamed of my failures.
Nee continues:
“But we must remember that we originally possessed no positive goodness before God. There was nothing good in ourselves that we could offer to God. We could only present one thing to Him—the blood. We could only be justified by the blood. We do not have any positive righteousness in ourselves. We become righteous only because of the righteousness which we receive through redemption.”
When I finally realized the fact that only the blood of Jesus is worthy, not me, I felt like I’d been saved all over again! I was released from my constant struggle to improve my behavior, and from the ever-present feeling that I hadn’t achieved an acceptable level of goodness to be able to come to God.
First Corinthians 1:30 in the New Testament Recovery Version says,
“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
This verse really helped me see that our righteousness is Christ Himself. We have no righteousness in and of ourselves. Isaiah 64:6 even tells us that our righteousnesses are like a soiled garment. But when I was redeemed and believed in Christ Jesus, He became my righteousness. What an amazing fact!
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The excerpt from The Glorious Church continues:
“Every time we come to the throne of grace, we can look to Him for grace. It is a throne of grace, not a throne of righteousness. Every time we come before God, our only qualification is that we have been redeemed, not that we have advanced in our Christian life. No Christian can ever reach the stage where he can say, ‘I have been doing pretty well recently; now I have the boldness to pray.’ No. Every time we come before God, our only ground, our only position, is based upon the blood.”
Of course, we should continue to grow in our Christian life. We shouldn’t remain the same, just like a baby doesn’t remain the same day after day. However, it was critical for me to realize that advancing in my Christian life isn’t what qualifies me to come into the presence of God; it’s only being redeemed by Christ. My eternal standing before God is the redeeming blood of Jesus.
Nee goes on:
“We must realize that no amount of spiritual growth can substitute for the effectiveness of the blood. Not one spiritual experience can ever replace the work of the blood. Even if someone should become as spiritual as the apostle Paul, the apostle John, or the apostle Peter, he would still need the blood to stand before God.”
No matter where I am in my Christian walk, no matter how my day goes—whether I feel like I did pretty well, or I failed spectacularly—my basic need before God is always the blood of Jesus.
Nee goes on to discuss how to deal with the accusations of Satan:
“Sometimes when we have sinned, Satan comes to accuse us, and sometimes when we have not sinned, Satan still comes to accuse us. Sometimes it is not a problem of whether or not we have sinned, but a problem of not having a positive righteousness to offer to God; so Satan accuses us. However, we must be clear: We can come into God’s presence only because of the blood, not because of anything else. Since we have been cleansed by the blood and justified by the blood, we are under no obligation whatsoever to accept the accusations of Satan.”
The source of the condemnation I was under for so long was Satan himself. In Revelation 12, he’s called “the accuser of our brothers.” His primary occupation is to accuse God’s children day and night to prevent them from coming to God. I’m learning that when he comes to accuse me, I shouldn’t respond with anything I’ve done, or anything I am. Instead, when Satan tells me, “You’re no good. You can offer nothing to God,” I can point him to the precious blood of Jesus. I can tell him—even “preach” to him—how Christ shed His blood for me, and that He is my righteousness before God.
I really love Revelation 12:11, which says:
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul-life even unto death.”
Note 2 on blood in the New Testament Recovery Version is really helpful:
“The blood of the Lamb, which is for our redemption, answers before God all the accusations of the devil against us and gives us the victory over him. We need to apply this blood whenever we sense the accusation of the devil.”
Praise God for the precious blood of the Lamb! It’s by His blood alone that any of us are qualified to come to Him. And by His blood, we can overcome the accusations of Satan that hinder us from coming to God.
This chapter of The Glorious Church says much more about dealing with the accusations of Satan by the blood of Christ. I really encourage you to read it for yourself. The passage that I quoted from is on pages 88-89, and you can download a copy of the whole book for free here.
