3. Jesus Christ our Sanctification
The
third integral component for the unification of the body of Jesus Christ is to know,
understand and believe that Jesus Christ is our Sanctification, holiness, or our
separation from sin and demonstrating this belief by following the established protocol
which is made possible by being obedient to the word of God which says; “You
must observe My Sabbaths, this will be a sign between Me and you for the
generations to come, so that you may know that I am the Lord who (sanctifies,
set you apart) makes you holy. Observe the Sabbath because it is holy to you…Work
shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD” (Exodus 31:14-15).
It
is imperative for us to note that there is a protocol and an established
formula by which one becomes sanctified, holy or set apart and the Lord has
established specific times to accomplish this purpose. For this is what the
Lord spoke to Moses saying; “Command the children of Israel, and say to them,
'My offering, My food for My offerings made by fire as a sweet aroma to Me, you
shall be careful to offer to Me at their appointed time” (Numbers 28:2).
The time
which the Lord has ordained to present to Him the food for His offerings is
holy both to the Lord and His people and what makes it holy for both the Lord
and His people it is because this is the time the Lord has sanctified and set
apart for His people to have fellowship with one another and with the Father
and the Son.
Now our
sanctification or holiness is derived from partaking of the body of Jesus Christ
as we have been duly admonished saying; “Then Aaron and his sons shall eat the
flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, by the door of the
tabernacle of meeting. They shall eat those things with which the atonement was
made, to consecrate and to sanctify them; but a stranger shall not eat them,
because they are holy” (Exodus 29:33).
In
like manner, due to the reformation and in our new dispensation in order to be
holy must eat of those things with which the atonement was made; which is, the broken
body of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ represented by the unleavened bread and
the shed blood of Jesus Christ represented by the wine, to consecrate and
sanctify us because once we were alienated from God and were enemies in our
minds because of our evil behavior; but now He (God the Father) has reconciled
us by Christ’s physical body through death to present us holy in His sight,
without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:21-22).
The
main reason why the body of Christ (the church) is so divided and in disarray
it is because they are not taking the formula and protocol which the Lord has
established for the unification of His church and access to the throne of grace
seriously; most people treat the key to the unification of the church as a
metaphor despite the clear passage of scripture which states: “Therefore, my
beloved, flee from idolatry.
I
speak as to wise men; judge for your-selves what I say. The cup of blessing
which we bless, is it not the communion (fellowship) of the blood of Christ?
The bread which we break, is it not the communion (fellowship) of the body of Christ?
For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one
bread” (1Corinthians 10:14-17).
Whether
one wants to believe and accept it or not, this is the key to the unification
of the body of Jesus Christ (the church) because this is what gives us the
boldness and confidence to enter the Holiest of All as we have been duly admonished
saying; “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the
veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let
us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.’
“Let
us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised
is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of
some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day
approaching” (Hebrews 10:19-25).
It is
so sad to see how the majority of professing believers have not come to the
realization and comprehension of this most important aspect of our
calling. I remembered explaining the
significance of this ritual to an “evangelist” who was boastful of how many
continents and countries he has travelled preaching and teaching others and his
remarks to me was; “a piece of bread? Thus undermining the significance of the
unleavened bread which Jesus Christ instituted to represent His broken body as the
means of our sanctification.
To be continued
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With brotherly love
Lucius Joseph
T e continued
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