ABRAHAM, JESUS AND YOU
 	
    "...If you belong to Christ, then you are real descendants of Abraham, and heirs in accordance with the promise made to him" (Gal. 3:29  Charles B Williams N.T.).
     "Listen to Me,  you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the Lord...look to Abraham your father..." (Isa. 51:1,2 N.K.J.V.).
     Before his name was changed from Abram to Abraham, God called him out to bless him and make him a blessing.  "The Lord said to Abram, 'Leave your country...and go to the land I will show you...and I will bless you...and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen. 12:1-3 N.I.V).
     "By faith Abraham obeyed...and he went out, not knowing where he was going" (Heb. 11:8  N.K.J.V.). 
     "Consider Abraham: 'He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness'. Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham:  'All nations will be blessed through you.' So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith"  (Gal. 3:6-9 N.I.V.).
     This was God's promise to Abraham, "I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants...for an everlasting covenant...And I give you and your descendants...all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession" (Gen. 17:7-8 N.K.J.V.).
      For this promise to become a reality, both the land and its people must endure forever. This is the promise of eternal life in an eternal place!
     Our present earth is not that eternal place. This world will "pass away". (Rev. 21:1).
     God is not being deceitful when his promises are even better than they might have seemed to be. There is no way to exaggerate the heavenly eternal nature of God's promise to Abraham and his righteous descendants.
     Abraham could not understand how his descendants could receive anything from him or through him, because he had no children.  So God said to him, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can...so shall your offspring be.'  Abram  believed  the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness"  (Gen.15:1-6 N.I.V.). 
     Today Abraham's descendants continue to multiply and our Lord continues to prepare a place for them; a place which will never pass away.                                            
     The Apostle John had a vision of,  "A new heaven and a new earth;  for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away" (Rev. 21:1  N.I.V.).
     God had said,  "I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind" (Isa. 65:17 N.I.V.).
     Peter wrote, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat;  both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up...We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (II Peter 3:10, 13 N.K.J.V.).
     Isn't that what we should be looking and waiting for?  Those who look for an earthly millennial kingdom should seriously consider what is written in Revelation 20:11:  "I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and  heaven fled away.  And there was found no place for them"  (N.A.S.).
     Will Jesus come to reign for a thousand years over an earthly kingdom which will then be destroyed?     David understood the eternal nature of the land that God promised Abraham.  He wrote, "The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever" (Psm. 37:29 N.K.J.V.).
     When Abraham and his nephew Lot decided to go their separate ways, Lot chose the well- watered plain near that wicked city, Sodom. Abraham remained on a higher elevation.  God said to him, "Lift up your eyes now and look from the place you are...for all the land you see I give to you and your descendants forever" (Gen. 13:8-5  N.K.J.V.).
     The word "forever" changes everything!  No earthly dwelling, no temporary sojourn, can fulfill God's promise to Abraham and his descendants.  Only a  heavenly eternal place will do.
     Abraham's descendants will be so many that the Scripture speaks of them in national terms. "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, 'I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless...no longer will you be called Abram; you name will be Abraham for I have made you a father of many nations" (Gen. 17:1-5 N.I.V.).
     Notice the words, "I have made you a father of many nations."  In God's eyes what he will do, is as good as done!
     Paul wrote,  "It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith...so that it might be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring...as it is written:  'I have made you a father of many nations.'  He is our father in the sight of God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were" (Rom. 4:13-17 N.I.V.).
     The words,  "God who gives life to the dead", indicate that God's promise to Abraham requires the resurrection of the dead.
     The words, "And calls things that are not as though they were", indicate that God's promises are a foregone conclusion.  This helps us to understand God's way of thinking.  For instance Jesus is called,  "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). In God's eyes Jesus had died for us before sin entered the world.
     God is saying this about himself, "I am God and there is no other...I make known the end from the beginning...My purpose will stand...what I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned that will I do" (Isa. 49:9-11 N.I.V.).
     "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, 'declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isa. 55:8-9 N.I.V.).
     What Paul wrote about God should be indelibly impressed upon our minds. Paul encouraged us to live holy lives as we wait for our Lord, "The blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of  lords; who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see"  (I Tim. 6:14-16 N.A.S.).
     To enter into the presence of the One, "whom no man  has seen or can see" will require the resurrection of the dead and  an equivalent transformation of those still living when Jesus comes.
     The important connection between resurrection and the popular expression "born again" will be discussed  during our examination of  Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:1-8.
                              
                                                   What Does it Mean to be Born Again?

     Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a ruler in Israel, came to Jesus one night, and rather than asking questions,  he said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could  perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him" (John 3:1-2 N.I.V.).
     Jesus did not have to ask him what was on his mind because Jesus knows our thoughts. (Matt. 9:4; and Matt 12:25).
     What was the big question in Israel at that time?  Had Jesus come to restore Israels'  former glory?  Even the disciples, who had listened to all of Jesus' teachings, asked him one last question just before his ascension,  "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? (Acts 1:6 N.I.V.).                                                                                                                      
     Jesus did not answer the disciples' question, nor did he discuss that issue with Nicodemus.  Instead, he told him that in order to "see" and "enter" the kingdom of God, he must be born again.
     Nicodemus, being a Pharisee, was a faithful keeper of the law under the terms of the old covenant. The new covenant was still a future reality. Jesus was not explaining either covenant; he was speaking about the kingdom of God.  This was a place no one had ever seen or entered because God is there!
     "God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see" (I Tim. 6:15-16 N.I.V.).
     So,  how can we ever see and  enter the kingdom of God?   By being "born again".  Can anyone, even those who call themselves  "born again Christians"  say that they have seen or entered the kingdom of God?
      Isn't that a future event?
     Jesus said, "The righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom" (Matt. 13:43).    
     Isn't that a future event?
     Paul wrote, "Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.  I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God...for the perishable must clothe itself  with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality" (I Cor. 15:49,50,53 N.I.V.).
     That is definitely a future event!
     That was the transformation that Jesus was talking about with Nicodemus. Our physical birth produced an earthly being; our resurrection birth will produce a heavenly being.  Jesus' resurrection was a birth;  Jesus is called,  "The first-born from the dead" (Col. 1:18 N.A.S.).
     Jesus was born again!  He was Mary's first-born child; then, after his death on the cross, he was born again by being raised from the dead.  Jesus is "the first-born  from the dead".
     In The Theocratic Kingdom, we read, "The Jews represented a resurrection under the figure of a birth...Isa. 26:19, 'the earth will again bring forth her dead" (Vol. II, p. 259).
     Isaiah wrote, "Who has heard such things? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day?  Or shall a nation be born at once? (Isa. 66:8 N.K.J.V.).
     Only by the resurrection of  the dead can a nation be born in one day.
     Nicodemus, like the disciples, was looking for the restoration of Israel, but what God had in mind was a glorious future beyond anything they might have imagined.
     Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus was about birth and the kingdom of God.  Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3 N.I.V.).  Why not?  Because we must become heavenly beings in order to see God.
     Nicodemus asked Jesus, "How can a man be born when he is old?...Surely he cannot enter the second time into his mother's womb to be born!" (John 3:4 N.I.V.).
     Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:5-6 N.K.J.V.).
     Water plays an important part in a normal physical birth.  Jesus was speaking about a fleshly birth which produces an earthly being. The resurrection is a birth by the Spirit which produces a heavenly being!  Jesus said, "In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven" (Matt. 22:30 K.J.V.).
     What takes place when we turn to the Lord in repentance and faith?
     Paul carefully explains it for us; and he did so without mentioning Nicodemus or the expression born again,  for that would be another subject!
     Paul wrote, "You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession" (Eph. 1:13-14 N.I.V.).
     It is the Holy Spirit in us, that guarantees our eternal future,  Paul adds , "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,  with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30 N.I.V.).
     What is our "inheritance"?  It is eternal life!  When will we receive our inheritance?  When we hear Jesus say, "Come blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:34 K.J.V.).
     Being sealed by the Holy Spirit concerns our present, personal relationship to God.  Nicodemus,   like the disciples, looked forward to the restoration of Israel. Jesus wanted Nicodemus to look beyond  Israel's national, earthly expectations, to a heavenly place, the Kingdom of God: a place we cannot "see" or "enter"    until we are born again by being resurrected from the dead or by an equivalent transformation if we are still living when Jesus comes.
      
                                     What  Happens  To  Us  Between  Death  And  Resurrection  ?
                      
      "Whether the soul is capable of living and independent fully conscious existence away from the body after death is unclear from Rabbanic sources" (The Encyclopaedia Judiaca   4:11165 ).
     In Jewish tradition, "The wicked are considered dead while still alive, and the righteous even in death are called living" (Encyclopaedia Judaica 5:1425).                     
     Here are several  Old Testament quotations which will help us to get into this very complex subject: 
     "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 being" (Gen. 2:7  N.A.S.).  Some translations have "a living soul".
     Solomon wrote, "...Remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life...is broken...and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it" (Ecc. 12:6-8 L.B.).
     David expected to wake up when the resurrection of the dead occurs. If we believe that David's writings are inspired of God, we should give the following verse serious consideration.
     He wrote, "...I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness" (Psm. 17:15  A Jewish translation).
     The New King James Version has, "I will see your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in your likeness".
     In David's first waking moments, he will not only see his Lord but he will be like him.  He will become a heavenly being able to live in God's presence forever. And that holds true for all of Abraham's righteous descendants.  
     What has David been doing all these year?  Sleeping!
     Would we rather have him awake for the last 3000 years?  If so, then these are just some of the things he would have seen: the destruction of the first and second temples, the dispersion of his people to the far corners of the earth,  The Holocaust - the wholesale destruction of life, and the present turmoil in the middle east!  Who would wish such a thing for David or for any one else?
     The following twenty- two references  refer to  the Kings of Israel. Using two different Bibles we find this difference:  The New American Standard Version, has "..slept with his fathers" in each of the following references and The  New International  Version, has "...rested with his fathers" in each of the following references:
      David-(I Kings 2:10),  Solomon-(I Kings 11:43),  Jeroboam-(I Kings 14:20),  Rehoboam-(I Kings 14:31),  Abijam-(I Kings 15:8),  Asa-(I Kings 15:24),  Baasha-(I Kings 16:6),  Omri-(I Kings 16:28),  Ahab-(I Kings 22:40),  Jehoshaphat-(I Kings 22:50),  Joram-(II Kings 8:24),  Jehu-(II Kings 10:35),  Jehoahaz-(II Kings 13:9),  Joash-(II Kings 13:13),  Jehoash-(II Kings 14:16),  Jeroboam-(II Kings 14:29),  Azariah-(II Kings  15:7),  Menahem-(II Kings 15:22),  Ahaz-(II Kings 16:20),  Hezekiah-(II Kings 20:21),  Manasseh-(II Kings 21:18), and Jehoiakim-(II Kings 24:6).
     What were these twenty-two kings doing ?  Sleeping or resting?  How about resting in sleep?
     There are many who say that life just goes on, but on a higher plane.
     The story "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" teaches that point of view. "Oh, Fletch, come on, Think.  If  you are talking to me now, then obviously you didn't die, did you?   What you did manage to do was to change your level of consciousness rather abruptly" (p. 120).
     In 1979, a young high school couple drove at high speed into a brick wall wanting to experience that abrupt change!  The girl survived. One of the books they had been reading was "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"!
     Mary Baker Eddy, wrote, "Man is immortal and lives by divine authority".  Death to her is passing  "from one dream to another" (Pages 75,76 In Science and Health).
     When Moses' time to die drew near,   God told him to prepare Joshua to take his place.  God said to him, "Thou art about to sleep with your fathers" (Deut. 31:16 from a Jewish version).
     The Revised  Standard Version has, "You are about to sleep with your fathers".
     Moses' work was nearly done, Joshua would take his place.  Moses' worries ended long ago!
     As we turn to the New Testament, Scriptures which speak of sleep will have a special meaning for those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal savior,  for it is in Him that  we shall  sleep.
     Paul, to validate Jesus' resurrection, wrote,  "Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture...that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve.  After that he appeared to more than five hundred...most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep" (I Cor. 15:3-8 N.I.V.).
     He goes on to say,  "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile...Then those also who have fallen asleep  in Christ are lost...But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (I Cor. 15:17-20 N.I.V.).
     Paul urged his converts to be at peace about the future, He wrote,  "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep,  lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus...We who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep...the dead in Christ will rise first...then we who are alive...shall be caught up together with them in the clouds  to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (I Thess. 4:13-18  N.K.J.V.).
      "God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.   He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.  Therefore encourage one another ..." (Thess. 5:9-11 N.I.V.).
     Jesus, speaking to his disciples said, "In my Father's house there are many rooms...I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be  where I am" (John 14:2-3 N.I.V.).
     When will they see Jesus?  When he returns!  Where will he take them?  To that place he is preparing for them,   where they  will live as heavenly beings in his presence forever.
     Paul wrote, "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep...for as in Adam we all die, so in Christ will all be  made alive.  But each in his own turn:  Christ the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him." (Cor. 15:20-23 (N.I.V.).
     When will we receive our new heavenly bodies?  When he returns!  "Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven" (I Cor. 15: 49 N.I.V.).
      "The dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality..." (I Cor. 15:53-54 N.K.J.V.).
     We will be heavenly beings like the Angels of God in heaven. (Matt. 22:30).
     We will shine like the sun in our Father's kingdom. (Matt. 13:43).
     We will see Jesus in all of His heavenly glory,  for He will return in His Father's glory!  (Matt.16:27).
     Like David, we will be satisfied!
     We live by faith, resting on the promises of God. The words hope, promise and inheritance refer to the   future. They are based upon the fact that God cannot lie. 
      "We who are refugees from this dying world might...grasp the hope he holds out to us. This hope we hold as the utterly reliable anchor for our souls, fixed in the innermost shrine of Heaven, where Jesus has already entered on our behalf..." (Heb. 6:18-20  Phillips).
     We live,  "In the hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised ages ago" (Titus 1:2 Williams N.T.).
     "Having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life..." (Titus 3:7 N.I.V.).
     Peter speaks,  "of a living hope...an inheritance...reserved in heaven" (I Peter 1:3-4 N.K.J.V.).
     As we turn to Hebrews, Chapter Eleven, we will see how our earliest forefathers lived by faith. Faith in promises they have yet to receive!  God left us this record as an example to show us how he wants us to live.
     The first verse speaks of faith in the same sense the entire chapter uses it. It speaks of  being certain of  promises that have not yet been realized.  The words "by faith" appear 18 times in that chapter.  Sixteen names are mentioned and a great multitude besides, of  "whom the world was not worthy".
     "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Heb. 11:13  N.K.J.V.).
     "And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us" (Heb. 11:39-40 N.K.J.V.).
      The Revised English Bible has,  "All these won God's approval because of their faith; and yet they did not receive what was promised, because, with us in mind, God had made a better plan, that only with us should they reach perfection."
     In other words, we will all be made perfect at the same time. We will all receive our inheritance at the same time. We will all be transformed at the same time. This will include the resurrection of the dead and an equivalent transformation of those still living.
     Meanwhile, we should follow our forefathers' example, considering ourselves to be "pilgrims and strangers" on  earth.
     Here are the words of an old hymn which might be well for us to memorize:
           
               This world is not my home,  I'm just a passin' through; 
               My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
               The angels beckon me from Heaven's open door,          
               And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.  

     Hebrews, Chapter Eleven, is worth reading over and over again.

     We will close with the first verse used in this study,  "If you belong to Christ, then you are real descendants of Abraham, and heirs in accordance with the promise made to him" Gal.3:29).

     The question is,  do we belong to Christ?

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