THE LAW OF FAITH
Part 4
Hear
the instructive words of the apostle Paul
as he reveals the source and origin of faith in the lives of the saints: “So
then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom.
10:17). Living faith is a response
produced in you or me by the revealed character
or nature of being of another person. Faith in God, then, is that attitude of
heart in response to what God reveals Himself
to be. We should always be fervently
aware that faith comes always and only by revelation. The words of Paul above set forth the
great truth that the Holy Spirit would now make real in the hearts of His
apprehended ones — the Word of God is the agent
by which God ministers faith to us!
It
is doubtful if in all the scriptures any subject is more pronounced and yet so
little understood by the vast majority of God’s people as the truth concerning
faith and the Word of God. For many years as I have walked with God
and searched the mind of the Spirit for understanding He has little by little
pulled aside the veil that surrounds the mystery of this precious truth and I
have seen that there are five distinctively progressive steps in the unfolding revelation
of God by His Word. They are:
1. The Creative Word
2. The
Spoken/Written Word
3. The
Manifested Word
4. The Living
Word
5. The
Corporate Word
In this chapter we
shall consider the faith that comes via the CORPORATE WORD of God. By “Corporate Word” we signify that Word of
God which is embodied in, and expressed through, the body of Christ that is
walking in the Spirit of God. Paul speaks of this Corporate Word when he writes to the
saints in Colosse: “Ye are called in one body…let the WORD OF CHRIST DWELL IN
YOU richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
(inspired prophetic songs), singing with grace in your hearts unto the Lord”
(Col. 3:15-16). Have you considered the
truth that lies hidden in these meaningful words of the apostle? There is, he tells us, a Word of Christ which dwells
in the anointed body of Christ and
speaks and is expressed through the actions and state of being of that body
here on earth.
We have pointed out
in previous chapters that Jesus Christ is
the Word of God. In the same epistle
to the Colossians
Paul says of Jesus, “Now He is the exact likeness of the unseen God…for
it has pleased the Father that all the divine fullness — the sum
total of the divine perfection, power, and attributes — should dwell in
Him” (Col. 1:15,19, Amplified Bible).
The King James version says simply, “It pleased the Father that in Him
should all fullness dwell.” It
is not difficult to understand that all of God quantitatively does not dwell in Jesus, for God is omnipresent
spirit, and how remarkably true it is that even “the heaven of heavens cannot
contain Him.” But God has most assuredly
invested in Jesus all He is QUALITATIVELY. Let
me illustrate. The earth is covered by
vast oceans of salt water. The saline
content of these oceans varies from about 2% to 12% depending upon the section
of the globe where the ocean is located.
Another common agent in sea water is the element called iodine. This is perhaps one of the most universal
drugs known to man. These oceans cover a
total of one hundred and forty-five million square miles of the earth’s surface
and contain untold billions of trillions
of gallons of water containing the various ingredients in ocean
water. Now you can take just one drop of
water from those vast oceans and in that one drop of sea water you have
contained EVERYTHING SEA WATER IS! You
don’t have all the ocean in that one
drop of water but you do have all the ocean IS in that one drop. Every element present in sea water is found,
in equal proportion, in that one drop. This
is what the Spirit conveys to us when He says that it pleased the Father that
in Jesus should dwell ALL
THE FULLNESS OF GOD! When Jesus trod the
dusty roads of Galilee it is obvious that all
of God, quantitatively, was not in Him.
Otherwise there would have been no God anywhere in all the vast expanses
of infinity except in the precise spot where Jesus walked. Yet, the Father indwelt Him fully!
It was not that all of God was in Christ, but all God is was
in
Him! How clearly we see this now
in the words of the apostle, “For it has pleased the Father that all the divine
fullness — the sum total of the divine perfection, powers and attributes —
should dwell in Him.” Oh, the mystery of
it!
Let us proceed to
another wonderful truth. In John 1:16 we
read, “And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for
(upon) grace.” And not only have we
received of (out of) His fullness, but Paul
further reveals
that God has made Jesus head over all things to the church “…which is His body,
THE FULLNESS OF HIM that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23). The Amplified Bible states it in these words,
“…which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all…for in that body lives the FULL
MEASURE of Him who makes everything complete, and who fills everything
everywhere with Himself.” May the spirit
of truth enable every reader of these lines to see clearly what are the
transcendent implications of this blessed truth that our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the fullness
of God and that we, the body of Christ, are in turn the FULLNESS OF
CHRIST! Armed with the holy knowledge
that Christ Jesus Himself is the Word of God, it follows that the members of
His spirit-empowered body are THE FULLNESS OF THAT WORD WHICH HE IS. That, my beloved, is the Corporate Word. The corporate body of Him who is the Word of
God is in the truest sense the Corporate Word of God. That is the mystery!
It is well to note
here for some who are new to these beautiful truths that the word “Christ” is
not a proper name and is not really a translation. “Christ” is the transliteration of the Greek word christos which is the Greek word for “anointed.” And instead of referring peculiarly to our Lord, it refers instead
to that whole body of sons of God in particular, of which our Lord Jesus is the
head. So we read, “But the anointing
which ye have received of Him abideth
in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as THE SAME ANOINTING
teacheth you of all things, and is truth,
and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him” (I Jn. 2:27). Only the Holy Spirit Himself can make these
words real and powerful within your heart.
Even as the holy anointing oil was poured upon the head of Aaron the high priest and ran down over his body even
unto the soles of his feet (Ps. 133:2), so the anointing of the fullness of
the Spirit of God which was poured out upon Jesus, our glorious Head, is even
now running down over His body thus making us in all truth
THE BODY OF THE ANOINTED ONE. This great truth of the Christ, or the
Anointed, being a group and not a singular person is unmistakably clear in the
words of Paul
in I Corinthians chapter twelve. Here
the apostle compares this body or group which is Christ to our physical body.
He states that as our physical body is one body composed of many
members, “so also is Christ, for by one spirit are we
all baptized into one body” (I Cor. 12:12-13).
This is what Paul calls “the
mystery of Christ” (Eph. 3:4; Col. 4:3). It is the mystery of all the sons of God
being one anointed body or group of Christs…Anointed
Ones. Many appearances of the word
“Christ” in the New Testament refer wholly to this body — the CORPORATE
SON. Many more references refer wholly
to certain individual
members of this body.
Let us now take
special heed to the teaching found in the epistle to the Hebrews. The writer says, “Wherefore when He (Jesus) cometh
into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a BODY
HAST THOU PREPARED ME” (Heb. 10:5-7).
What resources of riches are contained in this significant passage, and
especially in the statement, “A BODY hast Thou prepared me.” To speak of the flesh body of the man Jesus,
that body born of the virgin, brings reference to that which was offered up for us upon the cross — the Sacrifice. And that body was indeed
sacrificed! Thus HE “was made in the
likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:7-8). But did not this One Himself who was offered
up utter the enigmatic statement, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING Thou wouldest not.” In other words, the sacrifice was not
the real thing God was after. That
sacrifice, of itself, did not please the Father’s heart nor did it consist of
His aims. It was not His end, merely a
means toward that end. So a further meaning must be indicated by the words, “…but a BODY HAST
THOU PREPARED ME.” Ponder
for a moment, dear saint of God, that
which pertains to the body of Christ, the
fullness of Him who is Himself the fullness of GOD! For many years and long centuries we have
been taught that the church is the “mystical body” of Christ. Men have not stopped to consider that the
word “mystical” means “symbolic” or “allegorical.” Webster’s dictionary defines an allegory as
something that is not real within
itself, something visionary, such as a fable
or parable. What an insidious insult it is to our
Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ to say that that anointed many-membered
body in which He has chosen to personally dwell in all fullness is only a symbol,
an allegory, a FABLE! The truth is, in
no place do the scriptures refer to the mystical body of Christ. That is church tradition fashioned by
carnal-minded theologians, but it is not the word of God. The simple statement of the Holy Spirit of
Truth is just this: “Now ye are THE BODY of Christ.” “A BODY Thou has prepared me.”
None of us individually are THE
CHRIST. That is the great error Jesus
spoke of when He said, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I AM CHRIST; and shall deceive many” (Mat. 24:4-5). Any man who proclaims that he himself is the
Christ is a liar and a deceiver. My
finger cannot rise up and say, “I am
J. Preston Eby,” for my finger, in its individuality
and singularity, is not me — it is
merely a member of the body of J. Preston Eby. Preston Eby is a corporate body of many
members — all the members together are Preston
Eby. SO ALSO
IS CHRIST!
A WORD OUT
OF THE WORD
“And He was clothed
with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God” (Rev.
19:13).
My heart leaps within
me for joy as I contemplate this beautiful theme — The Word of God. It is an instructive thing to know
that God has never
been silent. God is a talker! This truth is basic to spiritual understanding. Had God remained silent, we would either not
exist at all, or our situation would be desperate. If God is a talker, then we had best be
listeners. “God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in times past
unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son…by whom also He made the worlds” (Heb.
1:1-2). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God…all things were made by
Him” (Jn. 1:1-3). “And God said, Let there be…and there was” (Gen.
1:3). God has always been a talker; but
the writer to the Hebrews tells us that all God has ever spoken is now embodied in Christ. “God hath spoken unto us by His Son.”
The Amplified Bible says, “But in the last of these days He has
spoken to us in the person of a
Son…” The Greek text, however, reads simply, “God has spoken
to us IN SON.” IN SON! Or, God spoke to us in One who has the character
that He is a SON, revealing the realm or the relationship of sonship to
God. It means more than the idea that
God spoke through His Son; it
signifies that God spoke in Son, that is, SONSHIP IS THE
MESSAGE! God spoke in Christ’s
sonship. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Sonship is the revelation of the
Father. Therefore, it was more than the
words that Jesus spoke; it was the life He lived! HE was the message! HE was the word!
Ah, dear heart, look
at His
sonship, and then look at the whole realm of sonship; look at all
the enChristed ones who make up the vast family of His “many brethren,” and IN
THEM you see the message God is sending to the world! When you see the sons, the mature ones, at
last you see what God is like. In the
publishing world, it is sometimes said that a particular book is a definitive
work. In other words, the book is a
standard by which all future work will be judged or compared. Sonship is the definitive revelation of God,
the standard for all time. Jesus
is the firstborn of this Word Company, and the pattern and prototype of all
that it says. HE is uniquely and
supremely THE WORD. If someone asks what
is revealed in this definitive revelation, we could say, it’s all in the little preposition “with.”
He is “God with us,” in union with us, one with us. It’s more than
simply being present — it’s our state of being!
An abundance of
scripture points to the fact that Christ, the Word, was before Bethlehem.
He is just as real in the Old Testament as He is in the New
Testament. The great difference, of
course, is that in the New Testament He
became flesh. “The Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us.” And that One
who dwelt among us was “called the Son of God.”
John tells us that “In the beginning was the Word,” but he does not say “In the beginning was Jesus,”
because Jesus wasn’t in the beginning.
It was not until the eternal Word became
flesh that He was Jesus. In the
whole of the Old Testament, except in one instance, there is no mention of the Son of God or of Jesus the
Christ. Those who walked with God from Adam all the way down to
John the Baptist did not know Him as the Son, they knew Him only as the Word. All through the Old Testament, in hundreds of
passages, we read, “And the word of the Lord came unto him saying…” They knew nothing about the Son, nothing
about Jesus, but they had experience with the Word of the Lord coming unto them
and speaking to them.
The truth is just
this — In the beginning was the Word — and there was no Son of God until
the Word became flesh. People
talk about the “eternal” Son of God. The
Bible speaks of no such thing. The Word
is eternal, not the Son. The Word was
already there in the beginning and was with God and was God. But of the Son the Father says, “Thou art my
Son, this
day have I BEGOTTEN THEE.” The Son is always spoken of as begotten,
but never the
Word. Nowhere do we read that on a
certain day the Word was begotten. Oh,
no! Rather, the eternal Word is a
Begetter. “Being born again by
the Word of God…” When the
Word becomes flesh — then you have the Son!
The Son is the Word, yes, but the Son is more than the Word — the Son is
the Word in another form — made
flesh! John speaks of the eternal Word
of God and then shows how the Word became flesh. From that moment on he never speaks again in his Gospel about the
Word, he calls Him Jesus. Isn’t that amazing? Before Bethlehem
He was the Word, He was God; but when He came to earth and took upon Him flesh
He became Jesus, the Son of God. This is precisely the message the angel gave
to Mary that blessed day in Nazareth,
“Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call
His name Jesus. He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Highest” (Lk. 1:31-32).
Let us consider now
the beautiful words of the apostle Paul as he
writes to the saints in Ephesus. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ: according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world…having predestinated us
unto placement as sons by Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will” (Eph. 1:3-5).
These words tell us that as sons of God we were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of he world. And
that is gloriously true! But at that
long ago time when we were chosen in Him He was not the Christ — He was the
Word! The wonderful truth is
that we were chosen in the Word, not in the Christ, not in the Son as we know
Him now. How could you be chosen “in
Him” before the foundation of the world unless you were actually there “in Him”
before the appearing of the worlds? Nothing
can be plainer than that! Now here is
the blessed reality to which this all points. We must pause here for a moment with bowed
head and unshod feet, for the ground upon which we stand is holy ground. Oh, may our almighty Father give us eyes to
see and hearts to understand that before ever the earth was formed or the stars
were blown by the breath of God through
the vastnesses of infinity you were there, precious child of God, in
that Word which was with God and was God. In due time you came into this world as a
word out of The Word. The truth is just this: if we were chosen in Christ before
the world began, then we were chosen IN THE WORD! In the beginning was the
Word — and we were chosen in that Word
from long before that auspicious “beginning”!
To be “born of the Word” is indeed to be a word out of The
Word! Can you not see the mystery? Just as the Word became flesh to become Jesus
the Son, so the Word must become flesh within
us, that is, become substance — reality,
concreteness, solidity, form — thereby revealing our sonship! Being
born of the Word we shall speak, emanate, and express truth because we
have become truth.
Oh, yes! GOD IS BIRTHING A WORD COMPANY, and He will
perfect that which concerneth them, bringing it to a successful conclusion at
His appointed time. His elect, His
chosen, His sons are to be a certain kind of firstfruits of Himself. God is causing His Word to become flesh, substantial, to take form, to
be real and powerful within us so that we do not merely speak the words of
God, but that our name, as His name, should be called the Word of God! He will finish the WORD, He will
complete and fulfill His WORD by bringing forth a WORD COMPANY, a seed through
whom all the world shall be blessed. Ray
Prinzing often said, “The message and the messenger must become one.” It is not just a word which he speaks, it is
WHAT HE IS. And when we become a
manifestation of the Word, it is because from this Word we are born.
Ah, this is why HE who IS the Word of God comes riding out of
the heavens of God’s Spirit upon a white horse in righteousness to judge and
make war — and the armies which are in heaven follow Him, they also ride upon
white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean. Those comprising this
glorious army together with Him whose name
is the Word of God HAVE THEMSELVES WITH HIM BECOME THE WORD OF GOD. They are
the Word Company! The message is
clear — God fights His battles by His Word!
Not just a verbal declaration, but a Living Company who were chosen “in
the Word” before the foundation of the world!
Yet they do speak out of their
state of being. Oh, the mystery of it!
God is equipping His
elect sons by revealing the power of words — the Word. And please know, my beloved, we have not
departed from our subject — FAITH — for “faith cometh by hearing the Word of God!” Thus saith the scripture: “But the
righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall
ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall
descend into the deep? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.) But what saith it? THE WORD IS NIGH THEE, EVEN IN THY MOUTH, AND
IN THY HEART…” What Word is it that is
in thy mouth and in thy heart? “The word
of faith
which we preach” (Rom.
10:6-8), It is the word of power, the
word of salvation, the word of the
kingdom, the word of transformation, the word of life over death. When you realize how powerful words are, by
virtue of believing words that are God in you, and which can change and
transform you, then you will understand just how “at hand” the kingdom of God
really is. You see, the Word — the
speaking — is God. “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.”
And the Word still is God!
So when Jesus appeared on earth all He had to do was say, “Be made whole,” and the power of
the Word worked, for His Word was God in expression and manifestation. As we grow and mature in Christ we hear more
and more that pure Word of God within ourselves
and that Word of God EVOKES FAITH IN US
TO EMBRACE AND EXPERIENCE WITHIN OURSELVES EVERYTHING GOD HAS CALLED US TO BECOME
AND PERFORM AS HIS WORD COMPANY IN THE EARTH.
Isn’t it wonderful!
J. B. Phillips
beautifully translates the passage quoted above: “You need not say in your
heart, Who could go up to heaven to bring Christ down to us, or could descend
into the depths to bring Him up from the dead?
NO, the WORD IS VERY NEAR YOU, on your lips and in
your hearts!” All revelation
springs from the indwelling
Word. Thus Peter says, “Seeing you have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit…being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, BY THE WORD OF GOD which liveth and
abideth for ever” (I Pet. 1:22-23). We
are born of the Word, therefore the new life within, our spirit, IS THE WORD OF
GOD. Have you ever noticed that the only
thing which speaks to you and brings forth fruit in your life is that which is quickened
by the spirit within? You may
read a particular portion of scripture a thousand times and it never ministers anything
to you until one day it is quickened by the spirit within and volumes of truth,
understanding, and glory suddenly spring forth from that Word as living flames
of fire. But that which so suddenly
springs forth does not leap from the pages of the Book, but from the WORD OF
LIFE WITHIN!
This is the difference
between facts and truth.
How many of the carnal church systems of man hold to their cold,
dead doctrines and creeds of biblical facts.
But facts are expressive only of the dead letter of the Word —
and that letter killeth, the apostle assures us. Facts can never make you free or transform your life, but the TRUTH WILL
MAKE YOU FREE! Truth is spirit
and life. The spirit quickens,
makes alive. Paul spoke of those who read the scriptures
but a veil was over their minds and hearts.
The veil shut them up unto a dead
letter — mere facts — a “ministration of death.” But he adds: “Nevertheless when it (the heart) shall TURN
TO THE LORD, the veil shall be taken away.
Now the LORD IS THAT SPIRIT: and
where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (from the veil, the letter,
facts, and death)” (II Cor. 3:15-17).
You may feed into your mind any amount of information via the natural
senses (hearing, seeing) but it will be only so much preaching, reading,
teaching, study, research, scripture memorization — FACTS — until the Spirit,
the Word within, brings it forth as an essence
of living power within your inner man.
Jesus said that man must live by every Word of God. John calls it the WORD OF LIFE. All the life you have within has sprung from
the Living Word within. All the God-Life
you will ever have will come from HIS QUICKENING LIFE (WORD) WITHIN. All else is but dead facts, useless
information which perish with the using.
May the truth be
imprinted indelibly upon our hearts that the
letter of the Word never produces
faith — for it killeth! And it is right
there that “all we like sheep have gone astray.” The healing evangelists have hammered and pounded into
us that we are to take the promises in the Bible and then ACT UPON THEM. “Do what you couldn’t do before!” they
cry. “God has promised healing and if
you can’t raise that arm up,” they exhort, “then raise it up anyway and show
your faith by your action!” It sounds so
good, so spiritually logical. Yet how
many times did we venture out to do the impossible, claiming the promise every
step of the way, we ignored our aches and pains, threw away our glasses,
started a project, not because faith had brought us to that 100% place of
believing God had done the work, but in reality we were taking the action, and endeavoring
by the action, to somehow lift
ourselves up as by our own bootstraps into the place where we could
overcome our doubts and fears and persuade God to move on our behalf. We have tried to produce faith by our actions
upon a Word. We used our works in an
effort to conjure up enough faith to persuade God to honor it. But in so doing we have had the cart before
the horse! The Word of God in the
letter-of-the-Word realm will never
produce life or faith — only death. The
LIVING WORD WITHIN will bring forth life and faith. And FAITH will produce WORKS, but be assured,
precious friend of mine, that WORKS will NEVER
PRODUCE FAITH! My dear friend and
brother Bert Hernandez shared with me something quickened to him recently —
just as “faith without works is dead” — dead faith — so also “works without
faith is dead” — dead works. When our
actions spring out of the faith generated by the LIVING WORD WITHIN, there will
always be results — the WORD EXPRESSED.
It is a Living Faith producing Living Works! When our actions are a self-effort to conjure
up faith to embrace and lay claim to a dead-letter-Word which has never been quickened to
us by the spirit within, then frustration and defeat lie in our path. It is a Dead Work evoking only a Dead Faith!
The quickening life
of His Spirit within, the Word of God as a living power in our hearts shall
bring a vast company of sons of God to a position of glory and power in the kingdom of God
— God’s CORPORATE WORD COMPANY!
THE
CORPORATE WORD — THE BOOK OF LIFE!
“And I saw in the
right hand of Him that sat on the throne A BOOK written within and on the
backside, sealed with seven seals…and I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the
throne…stood a Lamb as it had been slain…and He came and took THE BOOK out of
the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne…and I saw when the Lamb opened
one of the seals…” (Rev. 5:1,6,7; 6:1).
“And I stood upon the
sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads
and ten horns. And all that dwell upon
the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in THE BOOK OF LIFE OF
THE LAMB slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear” (Rev.
13:1,8-9).
And I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God; and THE BOOKS were opened: and ANOTHER BOOK
was opened, which is THE BOOK OF LIFE: and the dead were judged out of those
things which were written in the books” (Rev. 20:12).
We have entertained
such carnal notions when we come to the book of Revelation. The Holy Spirit must teach us the very first
principles of this book — the book of Revelation is a book of symbols — and no symbol is ever to be
taken in its literal form. It is
significantly wonderful that the Lion of the tribe of Judah is not a
four-legged lion, nor is the Lamb in the midst of the throne a wooly
four-legged lamb! This Lamb has seven
horns — not literal horns, of course — for the horns are mere figures
representing the seven-fold spirit of power and life which emanates from the
mind and nature of the Lamb. I am sure
my readers understand the simple truth that the various beasts in the
Revelation are not literal wild animals, the sea and earth out of which they
arise are not an actual ocean or cavity in the earth beneath our feet, the
cities are not literal cities, nor is the great harlot a single female
prostitute. One and all are but symbols
and figures of deep spiritual realities, positive or negative, as the case may
be. May I reverently inject another
thought? The “dead” who “stand” before
God and are “judged” out of the “books” and also the “book of life,” are not the physically dead in the
outward cemeteries, nor are the books from which they are judged such as you
have in your library. If they were the
physically dead standing up to be judged out of literal books the basic
principle of the Revelation’s symbology would be violated. If the “Lamb” who opens the “book” in chapter
five is not a four-legged lamb, it should not be difficult for anyone to
understand that the book He opens is not a two-covered book! And if that “book” is one of Revelation’s
wonderful symbols, does it not follow that the “books” in chapter twenty are
likewise word pictures in the form of
symbols?
According to the
Emphatic Diaglott the correct rendering from the Greek text of the words “the
book of life of the Lamb” is “the book of the life of the Lamb.” If I were to give you a book titled THE BOOK
OF THE LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, you would understand at once that it is a biography or autobiography of the life of the first president of the United States,
George Washington. That book should
contain everything you always wanted to know about George Washington! Every detail of his life would be there: when he was born, who his parents were, where
he was raised, the schools he attended, the girls he dated, who he married, how
he became general of the army, and finally president of our newborn
nation. In the same way, THE BOOK OF THE LIFE OF THE LAMB is the autobiography
of God’s Lamb, the record of who He is, what He is like, and what He does. Everything you ever wanted to know about Him
whose name is called The Word of God is contained in this
wonderful book of the life of the Lamb!
It is not a literal book of paper and ink, certainly, for the sons and
daughters of the Most High are themselves the LIVING RECORD AND REVELATION of
the life of the indwelling
Lamb. It was to the apostle Paul that the revelation
was given that the book of life, the book of the Lamb, the book of the Son of
God who is the Word of God made flesh, is A PEOPLE. “Forasmuch as YE are manifestly declared to
be THE EPISTLE OF CHRIST ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. Who
also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not in the letter, but in the spirit: for the letter killeth, but
the spirit giveth life” (II Cor. 3:3,6).
Paul
asked these Corinthians
to whom he was writing, “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we, as
some others, epistles of recommendation to you, or letters of commendation from
you?” (II Cor. 3:1). He refers to
ministers who had arrived in Corinth bearing
letters of recommendation to them from the churches in Judea. The false teachers at Corinth had been originally introduced there
by commendatory letters from abroad.
These were letters of introduction, vouching for the character, gifts,
and ministerial abilities of the bearer, and were common among the Greeks, the
Romans, and the Jews, as they still are today.
They were usually given to persons who were about to travel. So these teachers came to Corinth with letters of recommendation from other
churches, and when leaving that city obtained similar letters from the Corinthians to other churches. The 13th canon of the Council of
Chalcedon (A.D. 451) ordained that “clergymen coming to a city where they were
unknown, should not be allowed to officiate without letters commendatory from
their own bishop.” The history (Acts
18:27) confirms the existence of the custom here alluded to in Paul’s
epistle: “When Apollos was disposed to pass into Achaia (Corinth)
the brethren (of Ephesus)
wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him.”
This was about two years before Paul’s
second epistle to the Corinthians, and is
probably one of the instances to which Paul
refers, as many at Corinth
boasted of their being followers of Apollos (I Cor. 1:12).
Paul says, however, that he needs no such
external recommendation from or to anyone, for “YE are our epistle, written in
our hearts, known and read of all men” (II
Cor. 3:2). His testimonial — his word —
was the saints themselves! This he says
was written on his heart. It was not a
cold letter of recommendation, but the living
proof of his ministry and the authority, power, and life of the Christ
who sent him. “Forasmuch as YE are manifestly declared to
be the EPISTLE OF CHRIST ministered
(written) by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God;
not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” There is not so powerful a letter or sermon
or book or word in the world, as a transformed, spirit-empowered life! The proof of Christ the wisdom
of God and the power of God, indeed,
the Word
of God, is not the Bible — it is the lives of those in whom He lives and
walks and talks. The lives of God’s
redeemed people are the only spiritual
books the world reads. The nature
and character of God revealed in us is the language God uses ultimately to
speak to creation. When God writes on
the fleshy tables of our hearts the very essence
of His love, His mercy, His goodness, His wisdom, His power — His letter to mankind is
written so legibly that it can be “read by all men.” It is not written with ink, by traces drawn
on lifeless substance, or in lines that easily fade, or that can be read by
only one or a few persons at a time.
This wonderful book of God’s Corporate Word can be read alike by the
king on the throne, the professor at the university, the scientist in his
laboratory, the common working man or woman, the illiterate man in abject
poverty, or the drunk in the gutter; oh, yes, everyone can read this glorious
book! Every trace of the Spirit’s
influence on the heart indelibly
inscribes within our character the Word of the living God — God’s message,
God’s revelation, God’s life — truly it is THE BOOK OF THE LIFE OF THE
LAMB! Ah, no hand but that of God can
reach the heart, and inscribe His truth there.
It is not a dead letter, it will not molder or decay, for it is the incorruptible
Word of God that liveth and abideth
forever. Though worms should destroy
this body, it will abide to the ages, to other worlds, and will stand in the
day of judgment as God’s Book of Life opened for all to read. It is the influence that shall be seen and
felt throughout vast ages yet unborn until God becomes All-in-all — everything
to everyone, everywhere! Let the fact be
imprinted indelibly
on our consciousness that faith comes by the Word of God; and
by this Word Company faith is ministered to every man who reads this Word and
hears this Word by the operation of God.
Has not faith been ministered to you, dear friend, through many saints
of God in whose lives you have read God’s message? What a Word this is!
From the beautiful
phrases flowing from the pen of the ready writer to the Hebrews we have these
illuminating words of understanding and glory.
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write
them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to
me a people…in that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is
ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:10,13).
Herein is an arrangement that will work — the old covenant was written
and engraven in stone and the people were unable to keep it. Israel began well, accepted the
covenant, and promised obedience. But
there was no power to continue, to fulfill it; no power to conquer temptation, or overcome the
evil heart; to remain faithful. Just as
the old covenant was the law written and engraven in stone, and one could hold
high the stone tablets and say, “Here is the covenant of our God,” so the new
covenant is the law of God inscribed in the minds and hearts of a people — not
merely a law, but that law inscribed in
a people — so that you can point to that people and say, “There is the
covenant of God!” The people with the
law in their heart IS THE COVENANT,
GOD’S LAW OF LIFE, GOD’S BOOK OF LIFE, GOD’S CONCLUSIVE WORD FOR THE AGES!
On far-away Patmos John the Revelator penned the record of his
vision: “And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book
written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals” (Rev. 5:1). John saw the book that was written within. He saw the new covenant that God
would make with the house of Israel. That’s what he saw. He perceived in spirit that which is being
written within. He beheld the realm of
the spirit. He saw where you find the
performance of the new covenant — not in your own strength, not in your human
will, not in your fleshly ability, not in your natural way, but by the Life
within. He discovered that we would
become living epistles, not of the letter, the outward, external commandments,
statutes, and precepts, but of the spirit, the inward word, nature, and
character, because there is Life.
The reason the “word”
of God has bound and killed more people spiritually than it has helped is because
it has been legislated outwardly on a carnal level. Men make godliness a law rather than a life. “God said!” they thunder from their
pulpits high upon the craggy pinnacle of Mount Sinai,
and then lay an outward rule and observance upon the people. To people who have been through the trauma of
a divorce they pontificate: “You can never be remarried; God
says, I hate adultery, and you can only
please God by remaining single the rest of your life.” They kill people with the letter of the word,
seeing not the spirit, the compassion of God, the love of God, the heart of
God. People have been forced to go to
the world to find some judgment because they couldn’t find it in the
church. They have been compelled to go
to the counselors of the world to find some understanding because the preachers
had no grace, no mercy, and no wisdom
from the Lord. Christian ministers of
the grace
of God LEGISLATING THE LAW! And
they like it even better if they can persuade the carnal human government to
pass laws enforcing that outward standard upon the citizens of the
country. What an enigma! What a travesty! “But the Bible says!” you contend in defense
of your own pet commandments of “dos and don’ts.” You hypocrites! You don’t even know what the Bible says! You do know the letter that kills! You have never perused the
pages of the blessed Book of Life of the Lamb — the Spirit that gives
Life! On the very first page of that
book is the beautiful record of Jesus the Word of God who ate with sinners, who
was merciful to all, who loved unconditionally, who spoke in golden tones to
the traumatized woman taken in adultery surrounded by a cadre of self-righteous
men with stones in their hands demanding the claims of the law: “Neither do I
condemn thee, go and sin no more.” The
New Testament is not that black, leather-bound book we call the Bible. The New Testament, the true Bible, the Living
Epistle of Christ is the law of His life written upon the fleshy tables of the
heart. You will minister Life — not Law
— when you stand in that blessed company of the CORPORATE WORD OF GOD!
“By His own will
begat He us with the Word of truth,” the record states. He is the great and eternal God, we are His
children, His offspring, the ones who
have been spawned out of the loins of His omnipotence. God is now putting the reality of what is
true in Himself into our minds.
As we walk it out, this glorious and eternal reality of God is written
in our hearts, impressed into us as the nature of our being. Was not this great and eternal purpose
burning in the heart of the apostle Paul
when he cried out, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ
be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19).
When the reality of Christ is fully put into our minds and written in
our hearts there will be the revelation of the full personality of God. You will know and express Him fully, not
after a Catholic mentality, not after a Baptist mindset, not after a
Pentecostal manner, but in pure GOD
CONSCIOUSNESS. You will no longer know Him in creed or
doctrine, in ceremony or ordinance, in gifts and experiences, you will not know
Him in anything outside your state of being. You will know Him in spirit and in
truth — you will know Him personally, intimately, fully, within yourself. That is the mystery of the Corporate Word!
In closing I would
share precious gems from the pen of Ray Prinzing. “‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand
before God, and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is
the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their works.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into
the lake of fire’ (Rev. 20:12,15). God
is bringing forth His WORD COMPANY, perfecting and maturing those who are to be an expression of
His Word, His logos people. They are His offspring, for ‘…of His own
will begat He us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of
firstfruits of His creatures’ (James 1:18).
Born of His truth, born of His will, of His thought, His purpose, His
living Word. The nature of this
OFFSPRING is the nature of THE WORD, for that is what He begat us with, and
these are they who were once contained in the Word in the beginning. We are persuaded that God has a company, A
PEOPLE WHOSE NAMES WERE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE
WORLD. They are a predestinated people,
laid hold of by the grace of God for a specific purpose of becoming His firstfruits channel through which shall flow
quickening streams of divine life to conquer death, and bring new life to all
His creation.
“AND ANOTHER BOOK
SHALL BE OPENED, THE BOOK OF LIFE! There
will be books out of which men shall
be judged by what they have done, their whole way of feeling and acting, their
aims and endeavors, in accordance with what was written in the books. And whatever purging and purifying is needed,
whatever correctional processings must need be applied, they shall be, for
these are described as the ‘lake of
fire,’ the refining fire which God Himself is, and righteousness must be
established. But it also reads, THERE IS
ANOTHER BOOK THAT SHALL BE OPENED, it is this ‘another book’ that has our
hearts rejoicing, for it is the BOOK OF LIFE.
It is a ministry of life, not
death; of righteousness, not condemnation, It is an outflow of love, and love, being
non-coercive, sets no standards of man-made doctrines, traditions, or
commandments, but moves in the glorious freedom of the ‘perfect law of liberty’
in that free flowing of His life. Jesus
walked, and talked, and dined with the publicans and sinners, because His love
reached out to embrace all men. They
received Him because He received them.
He met them right where they were, without condemnation. ‘For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn
the world; but that the world through Him might be saved’ (Jn.
3:17).
“‘The vision has been
unto you as the words of a book that is
sealed, which men deliver
unto one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I
cannot, for it is sealed: and the book is delivered to him that is not learned,
saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned’ (Isa.
29:11-12). The unlearned, the
undisciplined, cannot tell you the message of LIFE, for they are unlearned,
untaught in the way. But those who are
being processed, taught by the Spirit, disciplined under His rod, these cannot
as yet fully declare the message either, for IT IS SEALED UP WITHIN THEM. But when this ‘ANOTHER BOOK’ is brought forth,
and opened, the message which has
been sealed up within our deep shall be released, and it will flow out as a
Living Word, a river
of LIFE. Seems so often now we try to share, we speak
in riddles and parables, and it remains a mystery to those who hear. But in that day there shall be an OPENING OF
THY WORDS, and they will come forth in clarity and bring understanding, and
thus bring light to those who long have
remained in shadows and darkness. It
will be HIS WORD coming forth, and the opening
of His Word giveth light. There is a
holding forth of the Word of Life that shall answer the cry and deep inner
frustrations of creation. They shall hear
this Word with clarity, and faith for a blessed deliverance shall spring forth within their
hearts, for ‘…faith cometh by hearing… the Word of God.” Praise God!
“‘I have sworn by
myself, the WORD is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not
return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear’ (Isa.
45:23). When the Father opens His BOOK
OF LIFE COMPANY, it is the sending forth of THE WORD of His mouth, in a
positive, triumphant ministry that shall not cease until every knee shall bow,
and every tongue confess that HE IS LORD.
This is not a confession produced by coercion, for ‘no man can say that
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit’ (I Cor. 2:3). Also this confession is ‘to the glory of the
Father,’ and as such is the result of that ministration when ‘I shall pour out
my Spirit upon all flesh’ (Joel 2:28).
‘And all flesh shall see the salvation of God’ (Lk. 3:6). ‘He sent
His Word AND HEALED THEM, and delivered
them from their destructions’ (Ps. 107:20).
‘And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into
the lake of fire’ (Rev. 20:15). Those
who are drawn to Christ now, and are being purged and purified now, have their
names written in that book of life, they are the message of the book, and have
no fear of the severity of the refining fires to come. ‘Some men’s sins are open beforehand, going
before to judgment; and some they follow after’ (I Tim. 5:24). Confessing our need of Him now, exposed to,
and receiving the light now, takes care of the judgment. Refusing to receive the light, our sins will
follow us on to that day when the light comes to us, and then the judgments
until every part has been taken care of with His purgings.
“‘But what saith
it? THE WORD is nigh thee, EVEN IN THY
MOUTH, and IN THY HEART; that is, the WORD OF FAITH…’ (Rom.
10:8). His truth, quickened within us,
to become a part of the very fiber of our being, as the message and the
messenger become one — thus shall the message be made PLAIN. This, in contradistinction to much that we
see today — where one message is being preached from the pulpit, but a
different message is being lived out in their every day life. That makes for confusion! What is in our mouth and heart, and lived out each day, will become a clear message for others to read —
living epistles known and read of all
men…” — end quote.
To be continued… J.
PRESTON EBY
