Sometimes we have
to break a thing down and look at its parts before we can see and appreciate it as a
whole. That is what this study into the three courts and feasts has intended in part to
do.
All of these mighty acts of God (justification, sanctification,
glorification; that is, salvation) were accomplished by Jesus in His finished work upon
the cross. When He died, the Bible says that the veil of the Temple was torn in two (Matt.
27:51). This indicates to us that we now have access to the Father through the death of
Jesus Christ because He entered once and for all into the Holy of Holies as the great High
Priest (Heb. 9:11-12; 10:19-22).
The only way that any of us have access to the Father is through Jesus
Christ who is "the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6). And
because of what He did then, we are now seated with Him in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6). We
can come boldly into the throne room before God (Heb. 4:16).
It is not as though we have to qualify on the basis of works to pass
through one degree to another until we come to that third degree. That's the way it is
with secret orders.
God intended from the beginning that every believer should come fully
into a place where Jesus Christ is absolute Lord. It should never happen that one is first
converted and "saved," receiving, as it is preached, "Jesus into his heart
as Savior," then weeks, months, years later have to be convinced that he must further
make Him Lord. Jesus is not Savior until He is Lord. Only when He is Lord are we properly
related to Him. Only when He is Lord is He permitted by our God-given free wills to work
out His salvation in us. "If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be
saved." (Rom. 10:9). The New American Standard says "...if you
confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord." Lordship is the prerequisite to
salvation.
The more we read the Bible, the more we discover the
"is-ness" of God, that God "is" and that all things in Him are
accomplished facts, that all one needs to do is to believe.
Again I say, Ephesians 2:8 is the plumb line. "For by grace
are you saved through faith..." Grace is God's part. Faith is our part. God's
already done His part. It is finished. All we have to do in order to make it applicable in
our lives is to believe--not passive mental assent to God and to Jesus Christ as the Son
of God, but active faith that comes by revelation knowledge and quickens new life to our
spirits.
Christ is our justification, our righteousness, our redemption, our
sanctification, our glorification, our salvation. He is our all in all. It is all in who
He is. So that when we come to Him in radical belief, surrender, and total abandonment, we
have obtained all of who He is. One should be able to go from justification to
glorification in one swift conversion experience.
So why doesn't it happen that way? I suggest two reasons: one is
because Tabernacles, although fulfilled in Jesus, has itself not yet been fulfilled in
terms of God's own historical timetable. There have been many great saints throughout the
ages who have lived such a crucified life, but the promise of glorification is reserved
for the end. "Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it does not yet appear
what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we
shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).
The other reason we have not gone from justification to glorification
in one conversion experience is simply because it has not been preached that way. "Faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Whatever is
preached is generally believed and received.
We have not preached the full gospel yet. The evangelicals preach
repentance and the new birth, so people repent and are born again. The Pentecostals and
charismatics came along with the revelation of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in
unknown tongues, healing miracles, and claim to be preaching the full gospel. To the
extent those truths are preached can they be believed, received, and actualized. But to
preach only Passover, or Passover and Pentecost is not yet the full gospel. Only two of
the three feasts are preached.
If the evangelists were to preach the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the
laid-down life, if people fully understood the cost of discipleship and decided to follow
Jesus anyway, they would be sold out from the beginning and would not have to be dragged
from one court to the other.
Once a false teaching has been received, it is hard to part with. If we
have been taught that the baptism in the Holy Spirit and tongues are not for today, it is
hard to pull down those strongholds in the mind. If one is taught a deceptive version of
faith and prosperity, it is hard to move him on into the deeper things of God. Whatever is
preached is most likely going to be that which is believed.
But in this last day, before the Lord comes, He is purifying the
message of the gospel. He is restoring the good news of "Jesus Christ and Him
crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2).
The gospel truth is that we are called not to be saved from hell so we
can go to heaven when we die. That's a by-product of our salvation. We have not been saved
so we can attain all the creature comforts for the flesh in this life. We have been called
to follow Jesus in His baptism which is the only way to glorify Father.
Just as the Son sought only to glorify Father, so are His many sons to
seek only to glorify Him. That is our sole purpose for living as sons of God.
And just as the Son was glorified when He sought only to glorify the
Father, so will the many sons be glorified only as they seek to glorify the Father.
The only way the Son glorified the Father was through radical
obedience. Thus, it shall also be with the many sons.
If we are willing to sell out completely to Him up front, we can come
into that fullness in Him. Or we can take the forty year journey in the wilderness in
order to get there. But the latter is the harder road to travel. Those who rebelled in the
wilderness died in the wilderness. They failed to enter into the promises of God.
The flesh never wants to sell out to the Spirit. It is sold out to
itself. The spirit man walks according to the Spirit of God and not according to the flesh
(Gal. 5:16).
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ shall be saved"
(Rom. 10:13). We are to call upon Lord... Jesus...
Christ; that is, King... Savior ... Anointer. When He becomes
Lord to you by revelation, He becomes your Savior. When He is Savior, He is the Anointer. "...He
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (Matt. 3:11).
In setting forth the gospel message in terms of these three courts and
feasts, we actually see that they represent a progression in history of the fulfillment of
God's plan in the world, that Jesus Christ as Lord is the fulfillment of them in the
fullness of time, that they represent three stages believers themselves can enter into,
and that one does not have to linger in either of the former courts but can and must go on
to fullness in God.
I desire for you to learn these differences, but I desire more that
this study in God's word will catapult everyone of you to that place with Paul, the
apostle, who could say of himself,
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for
Christ. Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count
them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know Him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death;
if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had
already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend
that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth into those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus"
(Phil. 3:7-14).