Jesus set a pattern for the sons of God that would follow him. The apostle Paul said at the time of his departure from this natural life, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” As sons of God we are here for a purpose. We all have a special work which God has given us to complete. The sons of God can never just be church members for their purpose is to complete their part of God’s great plan on this earth. No one person can do it for He has chosen a body of many members and each member has something special that they must do.

 This brings us to something we need to discuss. We need to discuss the term sons of God. In the early Church there was not a clear understanding among all the believers as to who the sons of God were under the new covenant. In Romans chapter eight verse nineteen, the apostle Paul tells us that the new creation was waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. He had also revealed to us in the fourteenth verse that the sign of a son of God was to be led by the Spirit of God. Only the New Testament believers and Jesus Christ could fill this for only the believers in Jesus had received the promise of the Spirit. The Greek word translated here as manifestation is also the same Greek word that is translated revelation in the book of Revelation. So what Paul is telling us is that they were waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. In the book of revelation we find Jesus revealed in the midst of the seven New Testament churches. This is proof that He had chosen the New Testament believers as His sons. No longer would the Jews be able to claim God as their father. The fathership of God would be changed. He came to them as Jesus and they rejected Him. He died upon the cross so that the marriage between them and Him could be finished, and under the New Testament He could become the Father of all them that would believe. Only those born of Jesus could claim Him as their father.

 What was the purpose for Jesus having to take on a body ?  In Hebrews the tenth chapter verse five we find that it was because those that were under the law would not do the sacrifice and offerings required by the Lord. It tells us that is why Jesus had to come in bodily form. He had to become the acceptable sacrifice unto God for them.

 We must always keep in mind that the law or old testament was not a part of God’s plan but it was added because of the transgression of the people. In  Galatians chapter three verse twenty-four, we are told that it was only a schoolmaster or, if you prefer, a teacher or vehicle to bring those that were under the law to Christ. It was the Christ that was important because it was to him that the promises to Abraham belonged. Abraham did not receive the promises under the law, but he received them by faith.  Abraham never lived under the law. As we have stated elsewhere in our writings, the law was added because the people of Israel transgressed by not believing God. One of the main characteristics of faith is that of believing. In the sixth verse of this third chapter it says, “Even as Abraham believed  God , and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Abraham was a man of faith. All that he had was given to him by God through faith.

 The death of Jesus on the cross finished what God required under the law.  He became the final sacrifice for the sins of all those that were under the old testament or law.  No longer would little innocent animals have to be sacrificed. Jesus as a spotless lamb of God became the acceptable sacrifice for all times.  The animals that were sacrificed under the law died senseless deaths because they were never able to take away the sins of the people. Hebrews chapter ten verse ten tells us concerning the work Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, “By the which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of  Jesus Christ once for all.”

 Under the New Testament we believers no longer have to have sacrifices offered for sins. We are forgiven simply by accepting and believing in God’s finished work through Jesus on Calvary.

THE RESURRECTION LIFE

Beginning with 1 Peter 1 :3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,”

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was the opening of the New Testament. Jesus in His death conquered death for all that would believe on Him. The law, or old testament, was the order of death. Peter is rejoicing in this epistle to the saints about the lively hope that was now theirs through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It is not only theirs, but it is ours as well. It is a bad mistake to think that the Word of God has time intervals. Christianity has been plagued for over a hundred years with doctrines that teach past tense and future tense, but seem to leave out the now that we are in. Preachers take great pride in trying to foretell what is going to happen, but they seem to have no knowledge of the present. We must remember that God is always the God of the Now.

 Let us take a look at the now. So many of God's people seem to be living to die rather dying to live. The more of the natural we hold on to, the less of the joy of life we have. Sickness seems to frighten them to death. This is not the order that Jesus has brought forth in the New Testament. He paid the price for and conquered everything that causes death in His precious believers. Our vision is not to be that of destruction and dome, but it is to be that of life and life more abundant. Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 KJV).

 This life more abundant is not something that Jesus made up, but it is the total of all that He is for us. If we will receive it, He has taken away every care that we could have. He has removed from us the cause of death and has covered us with His grace. It is not by the things we have that we live, but it is by faith and faith alone. He has said in His Word that what is not of faith is sin. When God refers to sin, He is referring to the sin of unbelief. The writer of a song has said, “When you have Jesus, you have everything.” Jesus has declared the same thing concerning Himself in John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Without Jesus there is no access to the Father. John tells us that the very purpose of his writings is for us to believe in Jesus and His life for us through His name, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31 KJV). That you might have life and not death.

 Life is not something that we automatically have. We must believe to live in it in order to have it. In Galatians 5:25 it says, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Our walk in the Spirit has a lot to do with the life we have and can enjoy in the Lord Jesus. We cannot walk in the natural and expect the life giving flow of the Spirit to be there. We must be led by and walk after the Spirit. It is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that makes us free from sin and death. In order to be an overcomer we must first be overcome by the Spirit of the Lord. As the offspring of God we must walk in the Spirit in order to maintian such a place with Him.

 Now let us get back to this lively hope that Peter is referring to. Hope is the important factor in faith. In Hebrews 11: 1 we find, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Here we understand that hope produces a substance called faith. So when Habakkuk says, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 KJV), he was revealing the secret of life in the Spirit. We find it confirmed in the New Testament in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38. There is no doubt about it. In order to live we must do it by faith.

 I am not referring to a faith that you imagine in your mind and speak those things with your mouth. True faith is the sum of revelation that has been revealed to us by the Holy Ghost. For some forty years after Pentecost the apostles sought God for the revelation of the faith of the New Testament. They not only preached it to the early Church, but in their writings to the churches they laid the foundation for the doctrine and principles of the New Testament faith. As we allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the teachings and doctrines as they were intended to be believed, we thereby establish the principles that enable us to obtain the things which are considered the faith. We are told that faith is the substance. God has given to us our salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not something that you can see, touch or feel. Salvation is simply believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. It is not something that you create, but you must simply believe God’s Word and accept it. The Holy Spirit on the other hand comes with a manifestation of  tongues. There is also feeling when we receive the Holy Ghost. The reason for this is that we are coming alive for the first time. Through the baptism of the Holy Ghost we become a partaker of the resurrection life of Jesus from the dead. We are planted with him in death and resurrected with him to eternal life.

 In the New Testament through our conversion we have become a new creation. We are no longer of the fallen Adam nature. We are no longer subject to the things that the natural man is subject to. Our bodies are no longer the living thing, but we become life through Jesus Christ. The body then becomes subject to us. We determine whether it lives or we exit it. In the new creation we have power to impart life to others. Through the laying on of hands we can impart the Holy Ghost to others as well as spiritual gifts. Resurrection life is what Jesus came to give us. We are not to walk in the order of death, nor are we to seek the living among the dead. Faith is a work of grace, not something that we learn but something that we receive as a means by which we live. In each chapter of the book of Romans we find that if the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in us, it will also quicken our mortal bodies. This means that it causes our mortal bodies to come alive. The Apostle Paul told the Galatian believers that his life was no longer lived by his natural birth, but he lived it by the faith of the Son of God. “...the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 KJV). It is so exciting to hear him say, “the life I now live.” It seems that almost everybody today is looking toward death; but death is by no means the order for those that live by faith. Life is the message of the New Testament, not death. We are not living to die, but we have died once in Christ Jesus and we have died to live. We are now living in the order of life and not under the order of death. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2 KJV).

 In writing to the church of the Ephesians the Apostle Paul says, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:” (Ephesians 2:1 KJV). The word quickened means: caused to come alive. This is why there is feeling when you receive the Holy Spirit. It is the feeling of resurrection life. Our bodies then become the dwelling place of the Spirit of life. It is that Christ within who is the life of every true Spirit-filled believer. 

 In Ephesians 1:3 we find written, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Notice that it says hath (or has) blessed us. Blessed means that it has already been done. Heavenly is referring to the order of the New Testament. Everything that we have need of has been given to us through Jesus.

 Now let us consider the New Testament Church. To get a true look at the Church, we must first look at the ministry. I want to say here that what we present as the true Church will not look anything like what is being called the church. First of all, we must have a ministry made up of one of the five-fold ministry. I believe that it is right to call it a five-fold ministry. Five is the number of grace and the ministry is given to the Church because of God’s love and grace for His people. Very large churches or teaching centers could never be the order of God. In the fourth chapter of Ephesians verse twelve, it tells us that the five-fold ministry is for the perfecting of the saints. The word perfecting means for the maturing of the saints. It is not for the entertaining of churchgoing people. In order to do this the ministry has to be, not only speaking to the people, but also listening and answering questions. Because we cannot answer questions while teaching the Word, there must be time made by the one ministering to personally deal with the receivers.

 The number one business in the United States is finding ways to cause people to live longer and heathier lives. It seems the more people try to do so, the younger they are dying. The reason for this is that life is not in the body but it is in the breath. The Lord God breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7 KJV). Man is just a form without the breath of Life. The blood only flows to carry air, or as we call it, oxygen throughout the body in order to give life to it.

 There is a key verse in the eighth chapter of Romans that uncovers the life giving flow to our bodies. It says, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11 KJV). The word quicken means to give life. When the Lord Jesus filled us with the Holy Spirit of promise, He imparted to us resurrection life. Yes, He breathed into us the breath of life and we became a new creature in the life giving flow of His Spirit. Resurrection life for our bodies does not come when we are dead and buried, but it comes at the time we receive the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in the unknown tongue as the Spirit gives us utterance.

 Mark 10:27 “And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.”

 “. . .with God all things are possible.” This phrase makes the difference. No other religion can make such a strong boost of their god. The Bible is full of God doing what man would consider the impossible. With Jesus, when there is no hope, there is hope. In the book of Romans it says concerning Abraham, “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be” (Romans 4: 18 KJV).

 Jesus has made it possible for us to have the same blessings that Abraham had, and more because of the New Testament of faith and grace. We are now living in the age that Jesus refers to in  Mark 10:30 where He says, “. . . in the world to come eternal life.” He was referring to the New Testament age which will never end. The New Testament of Jesus' saving power has given us eternal life. It is not off in the future, but it is ours right now and forever more.

 The word eternal is translated from the Greek word aionios and means perpetual. It is translated elsewhere in the Bible as eternal, for ever, everlasting and world. The word perpetual means endless. Abraham was not believing for a son of death, but of life. The natural is so small when compared to the eternal realm of the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The enemy can take natural things away from us, but he cannot not remove the Spiritual and eternal things. In Hebrews 10:23 we find, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;).” The Greek word elpis from which the word faith is used here is translated everywhere else as hope. What it is telling us to do is to hold fast to what we profess as our hope. Some circumstances can cause us to lose sight of our true purpose and hope which is in Christ Jesus.