The Scarlet Thread
To me, the scarlet thread in "Rahab's Window" speaks of redemption. Redemption is a reclaiming of something that was lost; it refers to deliverance; and the price paid for that deliverance.
Rahab, by placing the scarlet thread in her window was saved from sure death when Joshua took the city of Jericho. Likewise, when the light of the gospel of Christ shines through the scarlet thread of redemption, the person who views such a light is delivered from death and gains an entrance, and an inheritance, into the promise land, which is Christ. If all the light that we received were to be filtered through an understanding of redemption, then we would be a lot less confused in our thinking, as to our relationship with Christ.
Redemption was accomplished in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in my own personal life, the more I understand what happened in the work of the cross, the more I can walk out the life of Christ that is in me.
The release of life comes from an understanding of death! At the cross, the death of Christ was not just the death of one man; all of mankind were drawn into Christ when He was lifted up on the cross, and consequently all mankind died when Jesus died. So the death of Christ is also the death of YOU. You died when Jesus died, and you got life when Christ was made alive. When you believed and received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, His history became your history. The old man, that you were before Christ, died, and now you are a brand new creation, in Christ. This is good news, and it is the "Scarlet Thread" of redemption.
Hang Him out your window and gain deliverance and the full inheritance of Christ your promise land man. Let all the light that you have be filtered through the person and work of Christ, your "Scarlet Thread".
RHM 1997
By Richard H. Morton
"Therefore let the whole House of Israel know beyond all doubt that God has made Him both LORD and CHRIST--this Jesus whom you crucified." -Acts 2:36 Waymouth.
Jesus has been made both Lord and Christ, He is the Supreme Ruler and Messiah; and since He has been given this office to take part in, He is in the heaven ministering unto us, even today, as both our Lord and Christ.
Have you ever thought of what Jesus is doing today? Many may imagine that He is sitting on a really big throne made out of gold inlayed with pearl with diamonds and other precious stones, or that He is sitting in a ornamented Elizabethan chair next to a really old looking man, sitting on a throne with white hair and a long beard, that we call God: And as soon as God gives the go-ahead, Jesus goes to the heavenly stable and mounts His trusty white horse and rides him back to earth to slay all the enemies of God. I am sorry my brother if this offends you, but this is not the way I see Christ in the heaven. Christ Jesus is a Priest, and as a priest He is ministering to His people, for He is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us- Rom. 8:34.
There are various things that He is doing today, He is a builder-He is building His church, He is a Shepherd-He is shepherding His sheep; He is a priest-He is ministering to His people, He is a king- He is ruling His people; He is a Savior- He is saving His people, etc. The fact of the matter is, Christ is diverse in what He is doing, and whatever circumstances you find yourself in, He is there to give you what you need.
The greatest need that mankind has, is a need for LIFE, and Christ is a life-giver. We need LIFE (zoe) the God kind of life: "the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic "logos" and to Christ in whom the "logos" put on human nature"-Thayer's Lexicon. We need LIFE in our spirits, LIFE in our souls, and LIFE in our bodies.
"In him was life; and the life was the light of men." John 1:4, KJV. All life flows from the Christ, whether in the seen world or in the unseen world. He is the originator of all life, for He is LIFE. Life is a force and it has nothing to do with time, life is timeless and eternal; LIFE is a quality of life that comes from God. He who has the Son has Life and He came to give us life more abundantly. Life is another benefit of being in Christ; In Him we have life, motion, and existence! Originally life was the light of man but after the fall death became the darkness of men. Man used to abode in light and in that light was life: Man traded this life and light for death and darkness, and Christ has come and taken us back from darkness and death to light and life.
All believers in Jesus Christ as Lord have an impartation of life in their spirit, that is what got you born-again: He who is joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT, you can't be one spirit with the Lord and not have life in you; but that is not what I'm writing about. I have a desire to see the absolute fullness of His LIFE in a people. The scriptures speak of our mortality being swallowed up in His immortality. I'm looking for a manifestation of what His resurrection life is designed to do, and that is for us to be lifted out of this earthen realm of death into a heavenly realm of LIFE in every area of our lives. And I believe this is part of what the present day ministry of Christ is about.
"Therefore, holy brethren, sharers with others in a heavenly invitation, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest whose followers we profess to be." (Heb. 3:1 Waymouth).
"Now of the things we are saying this is the chief point: We have such a high priest, who has taken his place at the right hand of God's high seat of glory in heaven, As a servant of the holy things and of the true Tent, which was put up by God, not by man. (Heb. 8:1,2 BBE).
Heb. 8:6, " But now his position as priest is higher. because through him God has made a better agreement with man, based on the giving of better things. -BBE.
"And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." Hebrews 9:15, ASV.
Jesus is our MEDIATOR (one who intervenes between two, either in order to make or restore peace and friendship, or form a compact, or for ratifying a covenant) of the New Covenant God has made with man.
To find out what this means to us we must take a look at the New Covenant:
The phrase "New Covenant" is only used four times in the Bible. The first is in Jeremiah 31:31; The second is in Hebrews 8:8, and is a direct quote from Jeremiah 31; the third is also in Hebrews chapter eight and verse thirteen: The final place it is used is in Hebrews 12:24, where we are told that Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31- "Behold (an invitation to a revelation!), the days are coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-...".
Jeremiah tells us what the new covenant is NOT in verse 32, and tells us what it IS in verse 33 and 34: "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law in their minds, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." -NKJ
God reveals His will five times (grace) in the new covenant: "...the covenant that I WILL make....I WILL put My law....I WILL be their God.... I WILL forgive their iniquity....their sin I WILL remember no more". (Each one of these "I WILLS" should be a study unto themselves.) I think it is relevant to point out at this time that in Isaiah 14:13,14 there are five "I wills" recorded that were spoken by the shining one (Lucifer), and these are they that initiated the problem of sin and death in the first place. But the five "I wills" of God in His new covenant outdo the five "I wills" of the shining one.
The new covenant that Jesus is mediator of is one of better things, and one of the better things is that God says "NO MORE." "...their sin I will remember NO MORE" says the Lord. In Genesis 9:15 God says in remembering His covenant that He will not destroy the earth no more by water. "And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh." This is good news and it is a predecessor of what Jesus did in His covenant of Blood.
In Jeremiah 31:34, God says He will remember our sin no more, and again in Hebrews 8:12, & 10:17. What is meant by this? The result of the work of Christ in the new covenant is that death has no more dominion over Him, and we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin with the same death He died, and alive to God with His life.
This is part of the ministry of Christ today. He is trying to get us to focus on what He did in His redemptive work so that we will live in the reality of the new covenant. Romans 6: 6-11, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And in Rev. 21:4, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. The present day ministry of Christ is one that takes us from death to life.
"I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore" -Rev. 1:18. Adam went from life to death. Jesus went from life to death to life again. Likewise, Adam took us all from LIFE into DEATH, and there we would have stayed: But Jesus comes from Life and takes us into the depths of DEATH and brings us back into LIFE again.
Here is what Adam did for us: "Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so death passed to all mankind in turn, in that all sinned" (Rom. 5:12). " For, if by the wrongdoing of one, death was ruling through the one...." (Rom. 6:17). This is the administration that Adam brought us into, But Christ brings us a new administration. "....much more will those to whom has come the wealth of grace and the giving of righteousness, be ruling in life through the one, even Jesus Christ" (Rom. 6:17). Romans chapter six is all about being dead to sin and the death that Adam brought us into, and alive to God through the finished work of Christ. Paul speaks of this in all his letters, and in Ephesians 2:5,6, we see him make reference to this; "Even when we were dead through our sins, gave us life together with Christ (by grace you have salvation), So that we came back from death with him, and are seated with him in the heavens, in Christ Jesus"-BBE. We were dead, we were made alive, we were raised, and we were seated with Him. Why? So that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
"I have come that they may have life..." John 10:10. The present day ministry of Christ is to bring LIFE. It is a ministry of LIFE. Jesus said that He did not come into the world to destroy men's lives, but to save them (Lu. 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them). The only way He could save us would be for Him to bring us from death to LIFE. If the first man Adam, who was a type of Him who was to come, brought us all into death then the second Man, Christ Jesus, would bring us all back to life again. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" -John 3:17 NKJ.
Jesus said in John 6:48, "I am the bread of life." And in John 6:53,54, "...unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." The Son of God is all about LIFE. He came to us who had no life to give us life and He is still doing that today. Jesus, continuing on, said; "The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are LIFE." Do you hear that? His words are Life! Then Jesus asked the twelve if they wanted to go away like the rest that had left Him and Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words to eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Herein lies the key to understanding the present day ministry of Christ: First, we must come to believe in Him; secondly, we must come to KNOW Him. Those of us who believe in Him must now come to know Him as Paul said, "...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain (arrive at) to the resurrection of the dead." -Philippians 3:10,11 NKJ. Paul knew that there was a knowing of Him that would bring us to the fullness of what resurrection life was all about. We too must KNOW Him! And presently He is revealing Himself to us, that He may be revealed in us, so He can reveal Himself through us. This is forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, pressing toward the goal, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. This is the present day ministry of Christ. "Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ," Philippians 3:7,8, ASV. We must loose everything of self so that only He remains. He must increase, and I must decrease.
The time is at hand for us to put away the dimly lit mirror and see face to face: For up till now we have known in part, but now we shall know just as we are also known. Through an understanding of the finished work of Christ, we put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge. We MUST awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. The more of Him we do not know the less of Him is seen; likewise, the more of Him we know, the more of Him is manifested.
"If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also: from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." John 14:7, ASV. To KNOW Jesus is to know the Father, and to know the Father is to do His will. To do His will is for the kingdom of God to be manifested in the earth, and this would be the fulfillment of the prayer in Matthew 6:10, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." What is true in the heavens must become true in the earth. And the will of God in the earth is a mystery to most people, even Bible believing Christians. (I'll write more on this later). "Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is." 1 John 3:2, ASV. To see Him is to know Him, and to know Him is to understand Him, and that is to be like him; for it is He that will be manifested in us as we know and understand Him in that face to face intimate relationship that only He can give. "Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature." 1 Corinthians 14:20, KJV. We must seek to KNOW HIM through a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of our understanding enlightened!
The present day ministry of Christ (LIFE) continues forward until the last enemy (death) is destroyed. In fact His ministry of life must continue onward until God is all in all, everything to everyone in every place; "that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on the earth--in Him"- Eph. 1:10 NKJ.
When Paul speaks of death being destroyed he is not primarily speaking of physical death, though that will be one of the results of death being destroyed, but rather, he is speaking of spiritual death. When God told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or he would die, He was not speaking of physical death but spiritual death. Physical death is a result of spiritual death. Adam did not die physically the day he ate of that tree, but he did die spiritually, and subsequently he died physically some nine hundred years later. Likewise, the resurrection of Christ is not just a raising from physical death, but a raising from the REALM of death.
The risen Christ is the firstfruit of those who have died (physically) and for us who are still alive and remain, though the whole creation is still under the sway of death, for we have yet to see the full manifestation of His LIFE produced in the earth. An immense part of the present day ministry of Christ is one of Him restoring LIFE to man and in turn to the whole creation.
"For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;" John 5:26, KJV. "but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name." John 20:31, ASV. "He who has the Son has the Life: he who has not the Son of God has not the Life." 1 John 5:12, Waymouth.
As stated earlier, if you have been born-again of the Spirit you have received LIFE in your spirit, but we need to be fully saved; and since we are a triune being, we need to be saved in all three areas of our selves: "and the God of the peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved unblameably in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ;" 1 Thessalonians 5:23, YLT.
The LIFE of God brings salvation, and we need this LIFE to bring salvation to our spirit and soul and body. To be saved is: to make well, heal, and to restore, and we are saved by rebirth and renewal. "But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" Titus 3:4,5, KJV. The word "regeneration" is paliggenesia and means: again-genesis or again-origin, New-Birth (renewal); The word often used to denote the restoration of a thing to its pristine state. The word "renewing" is anakainosis and means: up-newing, a renewal, renovation, a complete change for the better. It is used only one other time and that is in Romans 12:2 where we are told to be transformed by the renewing (anakainosis ) of our mind. So, we are saved by the washing of our new-birth experience, a renewal that restores us to our pristine state; and by our renovation, the renewing of our minds, that brings a complete change for the better (transformed). This is nothing less than the LIFE of God permeating throughout our whole being. Glory be to God!
"When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory." Colossians 3:4, ASV. "when the Christ--our life--may be manifested, then also we with him shall be manifested in glory." Colossians 3:4, YLT. The reality of the fact is: CHRIST is OUR LIFE! He is LIFE, He is the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE. To live the Christ life is to live out the LIFE that is Christ. The impartation of LIFE we received is an impartation of CHRIST, and when His LIFE is manifested in us we are manifested with Him: When Christ is manifested in us then we are manifested with Him in glory. A manifestation of Christ is a manifestation of LIFE, and this manifestation comes to us in the order of spirit, soul, and body. We are first made alive in Christ by LIFE manifesting in our spirit, secondly, Christ who is our LIFE is manifested in our soul, then He will be manifested in our body, and we will be fully saved; God will be all in all.
The present day ministry of Christ is to bring us LIFE in all realms of our being. The outworking of this can be seen in 1 Corinthians 15: 20-28. "But now Christ has truly come back from the dead, the first-fruits of those who are sleeping. For as by man came death, so by man there is a coming back from the dead. For as in Adam death comes to all, so in Christ will all come back to life. But every man in his right order: Christ the first-fruits; then those who are Christ's at his coming. Then comes the end, when he will give up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have put an end to all rule and to all authority and power. For his rule will go on till he has put all those who are against him under his feet. The last power to come to an end is death. For, as it says, He has put all things under his feet. But when he says, All things are put under him, it is clear that it is not said about him who put all things under him. And when all things have been put under him, then will the Son himself be under him who put all things under him, so that God may be all in all." 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, BBE.
Since death came by man, by a man also comes the resurrection of the dead. This is the reason Jesus is called the Second Adam. A man got us into death, and A Man gets us into LIFE--God's one man plan. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But EACH ONE IN HIS OWN ORDER"-NKJ. We are made alive in an order, and as I have been sharing with you-the order is--spirit, soul, and body. Each man is made alive in the order of: Christ our LIFE manifested in our spirit at the new-birth, Christ our LIFE manifested in our soul in the renewing of our mind; Christ our LIFE manifested in our body, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, we are manifested with Him in glory. And this is all to bring us to the place where Christ delivers up the kingdom to God and He is ALL IN ALL -- everything to everyone.
"And in the same way as we have taken on us the image of the man from the earth, so we will take on us the image of the one from heaven." 1 Corinthians 15:49, BBE.
The same way we have taken on the image of the man from the earth (ADAM) we shall also take on the image of the Man from heaven (CHRIST). How did we take on the image of Adam? We were born into it! We were raised in it! We have been clothed with it! So, we shall be born into the image of Christ, we will grow up into the image of Christ, and we will be clothed with the image of Christ. As for myself, I know that I have not yet grown up into the fullness of Christ, nor do I have a body fashioned after His body of glory, therefor He is presently leading me onward and forward into the fullness of His LIFE that I may manifest Him in every area of my life. Praise His Holy Name!
Richard H. Morton
9-1999
The career of Christ, is the Person and work of Christ. These four faces are the person, His work, and His nature.
Jesus Christ came to this earth as the Lion of the tribe of Juda, and He has prevailed. (Rev.5:5). He came conquering and to conquer. He is the King of all.
He also came as a servant. He did not come to do His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him. He came to bare the sins of the world. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matt.11:28-30)
Jesus also came as a man, walking out perfectly what the first man had lost. He walked without sin and had dominion in the earth. He was the image of God, as God had had meant man to be. "Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, 'Behold the Man!'."(Jn.19:5)
Lastly, Jesus is the eagle, soaring high above all principalities and powers and every name that is named. He comes with healing in His wings; for He ascended into the heavens and sits on the right hand of God, and bids us to come up ever higher into the heavens. "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is , sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."(Col.3:1-3)
These four faces depict the Person, work, and nature of Christ; and what
is true of Christ, is also true of you in Christ. His story is your history.
We can walk the walk.
RHM 1997
THE WORD IS |
Isa. 53:5 But He was fatally slain as our sin and rebellion, He was beat to pieces as our punishment; the correction of our completeness was upon Him; and with His wounds we are cured.
6 All we like sheep have gone wandering about; we have regarded mankind to His own journey and course of life; and the LORD has caused to light upon Him the punishment and consequence for sin of us all.
7 He was weighed heavily on, and He was put down to grievous suffering, yet He let loose not His word: He is lead away as a young goat to the slaughtering, and as a sheep in the presence of her shearers is put to silence, so He let loose not His word.
8 He was taken from restraint, oppression, and from judgment: and who shall declare, meditate upon, consider, and speak, His habitation? for He was destroyed and separated, out of the underworld of the beast: for the sin and rebellion of my kindred was He plagued and diseased.
9 And He exchanged burying places with those guilty of sin, and with man in his place of death; because He had committed no wrong and neither was any deceit in His word.
10 Yet it was the desire and will of the LORD to destroy [us in] Him; He has made Him to become sick and diseased: when you consider, lay hands on, establish, and set in place His spirit, soul and body, as compensation for sin, then He shall behold His descendants, He shall lengthen your days, and the desire of the LORD shall come mightily in strength and power.
11 He shall consider the labor of His spirit, soul and body, and shall be fully satisfied: by His wisdom shall my servant in right-standing cleanse a great multitude, [more than enough]; for He shall carry their guilt, consequence, and punishment for sin.
12 Therefor I will impart Him a portion with the great multitude, and He shall distribute the plunder of war with the mighty; because He has emptied and left destitute His spirit, soul and body, unto a state of death: and He was reckoned with the rebel; and He took away the punishment for sin, of a great multitude, and made intercession, to reach the mark, for the rebels.
RMV
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