Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3-4.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Very few people really understand the gift I have given you in Jesus and consequently they do not make use of the gift as I intended. They do not live their lives through, with, and in Him. They see themselves separate from Him. But I do not see you who have received Him that way. I see you in Him.
When you read the books called the “Gospels” which are according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you primarily are looking at the outward view of the life of Jesus, particularly His public ministry and his death and resurrection. But the revelations I gave to Paul, after Jesus had ascended back to Me in Heaven, give you the view in the Spirit of what took place in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. My Son also gave Paul revelation concerning the offering of the Body and Blood of Jesus, which includes the revelation of believers as members in the Body of Christ, the Church.
Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17.
And all this rests on what was hidden in the shadows of the Old Testament, particularly of the Passover Lamb and the redemption from slavery in Egypt to the abundance and freedom of the Promised Land.
And this has to do with two things that I have given you in Christ: Substitution and Identification.
Substitution is what He did for you and identification is what this did in you.
My Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, now lives IN you. This is the same Spirit that lived in Christ. When you join with Christ, you are one Spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17. The Holy Spirit takes what Christ did and makes it a reality for and in you. A new creation in Christ.
Jesus, the night He gave His life for you (substitution) desired to reveal to His disciples all that was taking place the next day in His sufferings and death for their sins to give them eternal life but it was too far beyond what they could take in at that point for at that point they only saw what was in the humanity, though Peter, James and John had a glimpse on the mountain of the transfiguration of the spiritual realities that were at work in Christ. Jesus said:
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear (bastazó (βαστάζω): to take up, carry away) them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide (hodégeó (ὁδηγέω): to lead, guide, teach, instruct) you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose (anaggelló (ἀναγγέλλω): to bring back word, announce) (angel, messenger is άγγελος) to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose (anaggelló (ἀναγγέλλω)) it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16:12-15.
And the Holy Spirit revealed these things to Paul. And Paul in turn wrote them for you. But if you will take the time with Me and My Spirit, I will reveal these things to you as well. For I desire for all to know Me from the least to the greatest. Consider now what My servant Paul wrote concerning this mystery hidden though the ages but now revealed in time:
Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose, also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. Colossians 1:25-29.
And he prayed for you to get the revelation of who you are and what you have IN CHIRST by revelation in the Spirit.
For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:15-23.
And Peter stated the same.
As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look. 1 Peter 1:10-12.
If you read the Gospel according to Matthew and do not go on to the book of Acts and the letters of Paul, James, Peter, John and Jude, you may still think of yourself as the woman crawling on the ground to get a hold of the power that was then only in Jesus and not know that, like Peter and Paul, you now have that same Spirit in you and you have been given full authority by Jesus to call on and use that power in yourself for yourself and others. Jesus, on leaving this earth to return to the Me gave you the command to cast out demons and lay hands on the sick so they recover. Peter and Paul show and explain to you why and how to do this. And Paul prayed you would do it too. The power working toward you and in you from Heaven is there to do a work, the works of Jesus and grater as HIS BODY on earth. Those who partake of the body become a member of His body. Christ in YOU, your hope of glory.
This is huge.
But there is more. When He died, you died, when He was raised you were raised. When Jesus acted as your substitute, He not only did it for you, I saw it done as together with you as His body. I saw you in Him doing it with Him. As He is, raised and seated at My right hand, so are you in this world. You are above and not beneath.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:2-10.
Your life is hidden now in Christ with Me in glory. People see the outward you as still like them in the world but that is not your inner reality. You are in the world to do the works Jesus did and greater to bring as many to the Kingdom, to walk out what I have put into you with honor and amazement, but you are not of the world.
When Jesus told you to do what He did at the Last Supper with the bread and the wine in remembrance of Him, He was including you in the life events that took place the next day when He died on the Cross. He took you there in Himself as He substituted Himself in your place to die for your sins. And now the message has the same power as the event. When you partake, you are there again to renew all the benefits.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17.
If you truly begin to understand who you are in Christ by substitution and identity you will become free and powerful. The devil dreads people understanding what they have and who they are in Christ, he was so taken off guard by Paul’s teaching that he then escalated things into warfare with Paul—storms, shipwrecks, beatings, imprisonment, and the like but he was not able to stop Paul, My fearless preacher.
Never let the devil intimidate you into giving up the revelation of who you are in Christ. Just know that in Christ I always cause you to triumph and have given you the victory. That means it is not a battle, it is celebration, you are just rejoicing in and holding fast to what you already have in Christ. And what have you got? All your sins gone and full redemption in His blood, all your ills and pains healed and made whole, all the provision and prosperity you need and an abundance for every good work, and a new nature where sin will never master you again for you are under grace. You are free by the blood of the Lamb which has washed you clean and made you holy, blameless and beyond reproach before Me in Christ.
I love you. There is much more here, we have only touched the surface but we will go deeper. Deep calls unto deep. We will return to the Passover in our next Life Lesson.