THE FIRST ADAM : THE LAST ADAM
THE FIRST WOMAN : THE LAST WOMAN
ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. One of the fundamental understandings of the scriptures is that many of the Old Testament persons and places and experiences are actual types of New Testament persons, places and experiences. The type is often times the key to understanding the reality. For example: Abraham is a picture of New Covenant faith and endurance. David is a type of God's eternal King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Here in Rom 5 we see Adam is a type or picture of Jesus Christ, the second man and the last Adam.
1CO 15:21 For since by a man {came} death, by a man also {came} the resurrection of the dead. 1CO 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. 1CO 15:45 So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam {became} a life-giving spirit. 1CO 15:46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 1CO 15:47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 1CO 15:48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 1CO 15:49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
The first man, Adam is a clear type of Christ. If we understand what God purposed through the first Adam, we will understand what God obtained through the last Adam.
For example: since death and the grave came by the first man, life and resurrection had to come by the second man and the last Adam. 1CO 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming, 1CO 15:24 then {comes} the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 1CO 15:25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 1CO 15:26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. God's purpose through the first Adam was for him to rule over the fish, the birds, the animals, the creeping and crawling things and over everything that moved and over all the earth. The problem was that the first Adam lost his relationship with God and lost his power and authority and rulership or his dominion and fell from God's purpose. Satan then usurped man's authority and assumed dominion over the earth. Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the evil one. To do that he came to abolish all rule and authority and power that Satan had assumed. Or in PSA 8:2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes Thou hast established strength, Because of Thine adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. Jesus Christ is that man as we can see in Hebrews 2. He gained back all the power and authority that the first Adam had lost. MAT 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. MAT 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, MAT 28:20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. " The man that God wanted in Gen 1, He obtained in Jesus Christ. He now has all the authority, not only on earth but also in heaven. Now He has delegated authority to the church to use His authority and His name to complete the original purpose of God. To subdue the earth and to rule over it.
The problem is not presently and primarily with authority but with the character of those who rule. The primary purpose of ruling is to fulfill PSA 8:2 , Because of Thine adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. Not to rule over the church or over man but to cause the enemy and the revengeful to cease. Jesus will rule over the church and man. One mistake of the shepherding movement was "the leaders" sought to rule and lord it over the flock of God. That is the work of the Head and not the work of other members.
GEN 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." GEN 1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. GEN 1:28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
The first Adam was clearly a type and fore figure of Jesus Christ, the last Adam and the second Man. However, God gave His authority and commandment to both the first man and the first woman. In the same way there was a first man there was also the first woman. The type demands that if there is a second man there is also a second woman in the reality. If there is a last Adam there is also a last Eve. 2CO 11:3 But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity {of devotion} to Christ. 1TI 2:13 For it was Adam who was first created, {and} then Eve. 1TI 2:14 And {it was} not Adam {who} was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.
The bride of the first Adam was the first Eve, the first woman. The bride of the last Adam is the last and final woman, the church which is His body. We know there is the woman, the harlot and the woman in Rev. 12 but the church, which is His body, is the final woman. It is this woman that we are addressing in this paper. It is this woman that is in view in REV 19:6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. REV 19:7 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready."REV 19:8 And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright {and} clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. REV 19:9 And he *said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he *said to me, "These are true words of God." REV 3:20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me. REV 3:21 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
The authority to rule over the works of God's hands was given to both the man and the woman. It is true that the man is head over the women but the commandment was given to both the man and the woman! In the eternal Kingdom, the Last Adam, the second Man will sit on the throne of Heaven and sitting with Him will be the overcomers. These overcomers are another way to identify the bride, the wife of the Lamb. In the book of Revelation when we see the Lamb ruling, we don't see all these overcomers sitting with Him. We don't see the bride either. Then where are these who are supposed to be sitting with Him on His throne? WHAT IS IN VIEW IS THE BRIDE WHICH IS HIS BODY. We don't see her, we see Christ. She is in Him and He is in Her. The two have become one. GEN 2:24 For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. EPH 5:30 because we are members of His body. EPH 5:31 For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. EPH 5:32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Most of the original manuscripts say " For we are bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh in verse 30. According to Hendrickson literal Greek, a large percentage of the manuscripts contain this statement.
How could this be true fact? GEN 2:21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place. GEN 2:22 And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. GEN 2:23 And the man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." GEN 2:24 For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. We see this is an exact reference to the first man, Adam and the first woman, Eve. If this is true in the type it is very likely to be true in the reality. Most manuscripts confirm that we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We see this in both the type and the reality, which is Christ and His bride. But what does this mean to us?
Out of Christ's death upon Calvary, God has taken something from Christ and from that He has formed the bride which will be completed and brought to Last Adam as His wife. The first Adam was not given a rib and told to do the best he could with it to make a wife. From the rib, which He took from the first Adam, God fashioned (lit) built a woman and brought her to the man. God presented to the first Adam a perfect and complete woman to be his wife.
In that same way, God has taken that which is "of Christ", out of Christ, and with that He is building and perfecting the church, which is His body. That church will be brought to Christ perfect and complete, without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless. EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; EPH 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, EPH 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.
Forgiveness of sins is not the same thing as full maturity, without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless. Forgiveness of sins brings us to a regeneration or returns us to a new Genesis. A new beginning. Now we are expected to complete God's eternal purpose and live to bring joy to God's heart the same as first Adam and Eve. First Eve had to be taken out of Adam and perfected and brought to him. Then together they were supposed to complete God's eternal purpose.
The application of all this is: That which we see in type must now be fulfilled in reality in Christ and His bride, who are the reality. In Gen 1:26 God created one and in the one were two. The two were separated and brought together to become one. How could all this be? Because Eve was in Adam. Eve was included "in Adam". Let us look at it again! GEN 1:27 And God created man (singular) in His own image, in the image of God He created him; (singular) male and female He created them (plural). Man, who is singular is a picture of Jesus Christ. The them (plural) is a picture of Jesus Christ plus the church. Since Eve was in Adam, who was created in the image of God, she also was in God's image and likeness. Eve was in Adam but was just in the form of a rib and not yet perfected as a bride for Adam. The first Adam was made of clay or the dust of the ground. Eve was not made in the same way but was formed out of Adam. Now, of course, the Word of God was not created out of clay but Jesus was formed in the womb of Mary like all men. He was actual man but He was still Emmanuel, God with us. In other words, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Eve was in Adam and came out of Adam. Therefore, she was really Adam but in another form.
What, then, is a Christian? Another form of Jesus Christ. Maybe just a rib but God is forming, shaping and building that rib into a perfected bride for Jesus Christ. The definition of a Christian is : Christ in you the hope of glory.
Now there is still this man made of clay who cannot participate in the eternal purpose of God. He is that which comes from the first Adam. Therefore, he must die, be buried and a new man after Jesus Christ must be resurrected from the grave. In Christ's death, the time He slept deeply in the tomb, God takes something out of Christ with which He is building this second woman. That something is still Christ. God is using Christ as the material for building the church which is His body. The "church" is not made out of clay or of wood, hay or straw or of anything that is of the earth. What is the true church must come out of Christ. Whatever does not come out of Christ is not the church. Whatever is not being built by God is not the church! Nothing is relevant to build the "church" except that which has in reality come out of Christ. At very best it can only be a counterfeit church. The natural man, out of first Adam, can have no part in the church.
If we want to see the reality of the bride we need to see the reality of the type. We have made the mistake of calling a gathering of "saved" people, the church. When we all get together we are having "church". We have the revelation that the building is not the church but we have lacked the revelation that only what has come out of Christ can be called the church. Thousands can assemble together but still not be a manifestation of the church that has been taken out of Christ and being built into a perfected bride for Jesus Christ. An isolated bone is not what God is after and an isolated bone cannot be considered a bride for Christ. A valley of dry bones is not the church which is His body. A gathering of bones is not a mighty army.
There is a move among many groups to try to gain a unity among the "saved" so that Jesus can come back for His bride. The church is not an individual "I" meeting together with another individual "I". Then, the concept is, when we have a group of "I's" meeting together we have unity. The unity, that is the bride, is defined in JOH 17:20 "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; JOH 17:21 that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, {art} in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. JOH 17:22 "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; JOH 17:23 I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.
The unity is Christ. I in them, and Thou in Me. This is how the unity is perfected. Unity is Christ in us. We are all made out of the same bone or whatever it was that God took from Christ. Each member holds a portion of Christ. It is Christ that makes a member a member.
All that is of the natural man cannot be a member of Christ. Whatever is derived from natural ability or talent cannot be used to build the church. Some had great natural talents before they were saved. Some had natural abilities to speak or sing or lead etc. Many suppose that all these natural talents are useful to build the church and are encouraged to use them. Some come with name and fame which some think will be useful to attract new believers.
We must develop a higher vision and revelation of the church than a gathering of believers. We need to see what she is and who she is. Eve, in Genesis 3, is a picture of the sinner. The sinner must be dealt with by the cross to remove all that is of the first Adam and the first Eve. Those who have bypassed the cross are the same after they are "saved" as before.
We must see that Eve in Gen. 2 is a picture of the church as God sees her. This is the first mention of a woman in scripture.
Bible scholars have identified a principle in the scriptures which they call "the law of first mention". Under the law of first mention, the basic revelation of the reality is understood in the first mention in the scriptures.
The church, as the bride of Christ, is the fulfillment and the reality of the first woman. We might say Eve, at creation, is God's ideal woman. Eve, in the scriptures, is quite different than any other woman in the scriptures. Other women in scripture are types of the church but none are like Eve. She is unique. She was built or formed before sin entered into the world or into man. Sin may have been present in Satan and his fallen angels but that sin had not yet touched man. We know that God breathed into Adam and he became a living soul but when did God breath into Eve so she would become a living soul? Whatever she had, she had to receive from Adam. Her life was his life. She was not given a separate life or breath. Without Adam, Eve would have no existence.
Not only can the church not be built up by anything that is natural but that which is just natural can weaken and destroy the church. Whatever is not supplying the Life of Christ to the church is supplying a form of death and weakness to the church. The true eunuchs put nothing of themselves into the church. The eunuchs protect the church and keep her for Christ and His life alone. Whatever is derived from dust cannot be used for the New Jerusalem. The church is not made alive with the life of first Adam but with the resurrection life of the Last Adam.
We have developed a concept that if a person repents, or confesses their sins or are reconciled to God by faith, or receives Jesus Christ as savior, that puts them solidly into the church. We receive them gladly. However, later we may discover that they are not manifesting the real life of Christ. Until Christ fills us with Himself and we receive what He, Himself is, we are not the true reality of Eve, who is the type. It is Christ's life that qualifies us to become "members" of His body. Members without His Life are not members of His body. We may receive them into our fellowship but does Christ receive them into His body? Many can believe the truth about Jesus but being a member is not a matter of what you believe but of what life you are living by. Whenever we can truthfully say " It is no longer I who live but it is Christ who is living in me", we can be considered as members of His body. We are not trying to make "the body" EXCLUSIVE but that members would truly have His Life and live by that Life.
If we wait for the church to come into unity on the basis of faith, belief, doctrines, customs, traditions, or by order of service, we will pass out of this life disappointed. The only unity that we can expect is Christ in us. I in them, Thou in Me that they may be perfected into a unit.
THE WOMAN: EVE THE WOMAN: THE CHURCH
We are keenly aware that it is easy to fall into error using only types to arrive at a clear understanding. Still, we see types used extensively to arrive at a New Testament understanding. Most everybody, who believes the Bible, accepts the types as valid examples to understand God's design and purpose. While many of the things that follow in this paper are arrived at only by types, we trust that they will be helpful to understand the church and the bride of Christ. However, Eph 5:26 shows us much truth and if these things are true it is logical to search for the reasons they are true. It is acknowledged that some of these things will sound abstract or theoretical with little clear scripture to confirm their reality but they are at least worthy of consideration.
From the scripture we saw that Eve is truly a picture and type of the church. We printed the scriptures in the first part of this paper. This picture of Eve shows Satan's deception and the sin that preceded the fall of man. Being deceived, she caused Adam to sin and together they fell from the purpose of God. While we see these things are true of Eve, they are not true of the church. The church has never caused Jesus Christ, the reality of Adam, to sin or fall from God's purpose. There is a limit to which the type remains valid.
However, there is a reality of Eve in how and when she was made. When Eve was made or built out of the rib or bone of Adam, she existed in a state of innocence and was assigned work along with Adam. All this preceded the deception and the fall.
Most Bible believing groups believe that our whole history only goes back to the sin and fall. Therefore, we start with that event as our beginning and as the beginning of the gospel message. We begin our gospel message with how all men are sinners and are rotten within. We say the church is made up of sinners who have been saved by the grace of God. We are not denying that each one of us were such sinners. That we were all dead in trespasses and sins and we were alienated from God. We all firmly believe that. What we are saying is that there is a component and principle "in the church" that precedes sin. The reason we can say that is because Eve was taken out of Adam and was his wife and his body before their fall.
EPH 5:30 because we are members of His body. EPH 5:31 For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. EPH 5:32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. The picture that Paul is using is Adam and Eve but he is speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Adam and Eve is a picture of Christ and the church. Is that before the fall or after the fall? It must surely be before the fall. The type is before sin entered into man and his environment. Eve is pictured as the perfect bride of Adam and their union being good in the sight of God. God was satisfied with His creation of Adam and his wife, Eve. Both were innocent and perfect in the sight of God.
The application is this; God cannot be satisfied with the union between His Son and the church which is full of sin. She should be as pure as Eve before the fall. Now this is where we can easily get discouraged! When we see the perfection of the bride, which we see in the New Jerusalem, we can convincingly say, by comparison, the church is still a mess. How can we reconcile the state of the church with the state of Eve before the fall? Most fundamentalists will say God doesn't see the mess. All He sees is the righteousness of Christ. God's grace overlooks the fact that the church is not what she should be. This is as good as the church is going to be. Some members are lazy, some are comatose, some are trying to function in a place they don't fit, some are so immature that they cause problems and the church is fragmented into scattered parts that are far from a body. Some say that God is not concerned about that because all He sees is the righteousness of Christ that hides all that. If this is as good as it gets, where will God get a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless? What does it mean, The bride has made herself ready? Does this fragmentation seem like what is logically the bride of Christ? Even we would expect more of our bride.
All this has no solution unless we see the church from God's viewpoint. Many have given up and backslid after many years in the ministry because they thought they were failures as ministers because they didn't actually see the church coming to perfection. It is easy to understand if the church remains full of spots and wrinkles and all kinds of problems after we have done the best we could, we must have failed. I have felt that way many times and I know several others that feel the same way. Then what is God's viewpoint and how does He see the church?
He must see the church as Eve before the fall. He sees the church from before the foundation of the world. God chose the church before sin entered into the world. Didn't God know that sin would enter into man and the world? Of course He did! But He still chose the church before the foundation and before sin entered into the world. Then God must see the church as Eve in Genesis 2 and not as Eve in Genesis 4 and onward. When God brings "the church" back to a new Genesis in regeneration, He brings her back to Genesis 2 and not to Genesis 4. This is not just a matter of forgiveness of sins but a true new Genesis. Is God then not concerned about our individual sins? Of course He is! But what is in view here is the church which is His body. If God sees the "the church" as "the church which is His body", He is seeing it from before the fall.
Let us look again at how Eve was formed or made because she is a picture of the church from God's viewpoint. Eve was made out of Adam. She was not made from the earth or clay or dust. Eve was not made out of anything that is of the earth. She was taken out of Adam. She was totally unique in comparison with all the animals and birds. Her creation was not like any other. She was wholly made from Adam. How she was made or how God accomplished that is not relevant. This is a picture of how God has made the church. He has taken something that was of Christ and from that He is making the church. He is not making the church out of doctrines or culture or tradition or even experiences. He is making the church out of Christ. In Christ there was and there is no sin. Only what comes from Him is pure building material. All the junk we use will never make the church, which is His bride. We are busy building a fantasy church which will never please God or be accepted by Christ. The Holy Spirit will not identify Himself with this counterfeit.
Jesus said " I will build My church". We have interpreted that to mean that the church will build the church. Or some preacher will build the church with words or concepts or doctrines or structure or with bigger meetings and more hype. Some musicians think they can build with music. Some churches think they can build with fellowship and relationships. Some ministries think they can build with marriage ministries while others are trying prophetic ministries. Some still are trying discipleship again after many failures. We probably better just let Jesus do the building of the church. The gates of Hell are always destroying what we build anyway. Many of these things sound like good building material but the only thing that God will use is Christ.
Now it is true that we only see this mainly from type but what we have done in the past has built very little and most of that hasn't stood. We may see something from the type that will help us or remove from us a false burden that we shouldn't have anyway. The real question is this: If we have to build the church, how will we enter into rest? This will be a seven day work week, night and day. If the Father trusts Jesus Christ to build the church, we ought to let Him.
Eve was built wholly from Adam plus nothing else. God didn't use religion or doctrines to build Eve. He just used what He had taken from Adam. Which rib it was is irrelevant. God takes exactly what He needed from Christ to build His church. That way He could predestine, choose, call, justify and glorify the church before the foundation of the world. From before the foundation, God saw the bride, perfected. How could He do that? He already saw the building material which was the eternal word of God, manifested in Jesus Christ.
Adam was not created in sin and Jesus Christ was not manifested in sin. Adam was created sinless and Jesus Christ was born sinless. God was the creator of Adam and God was the Father of Jesus Christ. Both were sinless. Eve was taken out of Adam, sinless and the church was taken out of Christ, sinless. (Don't confuse what we are saying with individuals who are sinners). We are not talking about lone rangers who are sinners but the church that was taken out of Christ and perfected and given back to Christ as bride. While all natural men are sinners, this has nothing to do with the church, which is His body. The church is not made up of natural men. The church is not a gathering of redeemed natural men.
When Jesus returns for His bride it will be for "The Eve" of Genesis 2 and not "the Eve" of Genesis 4 who is clothed but with a sheep skin. She will be clothed with the glory of God and not with anything of the earth.
In the first man was both Adam and Eve. Eve was removed from Adam. God took out a rib and from that He fashioned a woman. In the last Man, there was Christ, the Eternal Word of God, and there was the church, in Him. At Calvary, God separated from Christ all that He needed to fashion the church. The "rib" was perfected and brought back to Adam as His bride. What God removed from Christ he will perfect and bring back to Christ as His bride. It is really Christ in us, the hope of glory. It is that part of Christ, that God has put in us, that is our hope of glory. Each of us, who are members of His body, cannot hold all of Christ, individually. But we each can hold a part. The Lord's table is the acknowledging of the part we each hold and our participation in Christ.
What God has removed from Christ is called the body of Christ. We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Therefore, what we are now, as the church, is the body of Christ. When we are perfected and brought to Christ we will be "the bride of Christ". The "body of Christ" (the bone) is being prepared (built) to become "the bride of Christ"( The perfected Eve). The body of Christ is made up of just that which was taken from Christ. Therefore, what we see and identify as "the church" is not really what God sees as the church but "the bone" in process. His viewpoint of what makes the church is quite different than our viewpoint. He sees the church as that which was taken out of Christ which is wholly Christ and not flesh. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. When we look at the church, we see flesh and blood and all the problems that suggests.
From the type we know that God took something from Christ with which He is building the church to become the bride of Christ. It, of course, is not a physical bone but it must be something that has come from Christ and is Christ. It also must be eternal and not some temporary, earthly substance.
What always has existed and was with God in the beginning and was God is the eternal Word of God. It is that "Word" that became flesh and was incarnated in the body of Jesus Christ. That person of "the Word of God" is now distributed to the church in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. In various places called "the Spirit of Christ". What was imparted into the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit was the Spirit of Christ, the Word of God. The Spirit of Christ is also identified as the Spirit of the Son, The Spirit of Adoption, The Spirit of Jesus, The Spirit of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Life.
ROM 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. ROM 8:10 And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
1PE 1:10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that {would come} to you made careful search and inquiry, 1PE 1:11 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. 1PE 1:12 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.
ACT 16:7 and when they had come to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them;
PHI 1:19 For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
GAL 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
ROM 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"
ROM 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Many Christians get hostile when we suggest that we receive both the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is by the Spirit of Christ that we are born again, are adopted into God's family and identify God as our Father. 1PE 1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 1PE 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed ( GK. Sperma) which is perishable but imperishable, {that is,} through the living and abiding word of God. We are born again when we receive "the WORD of GOD" which is the Spirit of Christ. In Rom 8 we see that Christ in us is the Spirit of Christ in us. Jesus Christ is sitting on the throne of heaven, at the right hand of God, the Father. However, He dwells in us by His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is "a Holy Spirit" the same as the Holy Spirit is "a Holy Spirit". Jesus breaths His Spirit into us much the same way He breathed into the first Adam, so Adam would become a living being. JOH 20:21 Jesus therefore said to them again, "Peace {be} with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." JOH 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and *said to them, " Receive the Holy Spirit. The Greek says He breathed "in" them and said receive the Spirit, Holy. The Spanish says : He blowed in them and said receive the Espiritu de Santo. (the Spirit of Holy). This was when the disciples were born again. Not by "the Holy Spirit", The Person, but the Spirit of Christ, a Spirit which is Holy. This was the same day following the resurrection. One requirement to be born again is to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. ROM 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus {as} Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;
After Jesus breathed His Spirit into His disciples, He told them clearly not to leave Jerusalem until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. On that day, in the very beginning of the Feast of Pentecost, they "were filled with the Holy Spirit" and began to speak in tongues. This should not be such a confusing thing and cause debate as to when the disciples received the Holy Spirit. They clearly received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. They received the Spirit of Christ and were born again the same day that Jesus was resurrected, the Feast of First Fruits.
After Jesus told the disciples how the Holy Spirit would come He also said "We will come". " We" are more than one. JOH 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. Not only does the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit come but the Father, who is Spirit, also comes to those who love Jesus and keeps His word.
What, then, did God take from Jesus, that was wholly Christ, with which He is building His church? The Spirit of Christ! Who is overseeing the work of building the church with the Spirit of Christ? The Holy Spirit! ROM 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. ROM 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you. When the Holy Spirit comes He imparts resurrection life to our mortal bodies. ROM 8:10 And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. When we are born again it is our spirit that comes alive but our mortal body has not yet received resurrection life, therefore, the body is still dead because of sin even though the spirit is alive. When we receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, He gives life to our mortal bodies. ROM 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ROM 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
After we are born again by the Spirit of Christ, we should be filled with the Holy Spirit and be anointed by the Holy Spirit, to do the works of God. ACT 10:38 "{You know of} Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and {how} He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him. If the Eternal Word of God needed to be anointed with the Holy Spirit, how much more do we need to be anointed the same way. Jesus said " As the Father sent me, I also send you".
It should be clear that what God is using "of Christ" to build His church is the Spirit of Christ. God has taken the Spirit of Christ, which is Christ Himself, and from the Spirit of Christ, He is preparing a bride for Jesus. The church, which is His body ( the bone), is in the process of preparation, while the bride is the final result of the preparation. The Spirit of Christ and the Eternal Word of God are synonymous. He is what became flesh and dwelt among us.
Rather than be hostile to the Spirit of Christ we should shout for joy and praise God for the privilege of receiving the Word of God, Himself. Then if we have any revelation at all we should, with great zeal, receive the Holy Spirit, Himself, that we might do the works of God. Then with the love of God poured out within our hearts by the Holy Spirit we should love Jesus and with the power of the Holy Spirit we should keep His word. Then, with great expectation, we should welcome the Spirit of the Father to take His abode within us. When the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are Spirit (and is called GOD), dwells in us, we have all the material with which to make a bride that can become one with Christ, who is one with the Father and one with the Holy Spirit. JOH 17:22 "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; JOH 17:23 I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.
Now, if what we have presented is reality and not fantasy, we need to understand what the character of the Spirit of Christ, which is the Spirit of Jesus, really is. If the church is supposed to grow up in all things into Christ, we could identify what those things are by revealing the Spirit of Christ. If we are to be conformed to the image of Jesus, we need to be conformed to the Spirit of Jesus, who is the image of God.
Some, who have little light, teach that the only Spirit Jesus had was the Holy Spirit. If that were true, for 33 years Jesus would have been soul and body but without a Spirit. However, on Calvary He said LUK 23:46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit." And having said this, He breathed His last. Jesus Christ was authentic and actual man. He had a Spirit, a soul and He lived in a body like ours. He was Spirit, soul and body. It was His Spirit that He committed into the hands of God, the Father.
Every sacrifice had to have a priest that officiated at the altar. What priest was officiating at Calvary when Jesus offered up Himself? It had to be the Holy Spirit that oversaw the sacrifice. HEB 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Jesus didn't commit the Holy Spirit into the hands of the Father. The Holy Spirit was overseeing the sacrifice and preparing to raise Jesus from the dead. No! Jesus committed His own Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, into the hands of the Father. It is with the character and nature of Christ, the image and likeness, that God is building the church.
The purpose of God, then, is to build the character and nature of Jesus Christ into each one of us. In order to accomplish that, He puts the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit into us. If we walk in the Spirit we will be changed. However, "be changed" is negative and suggests something is wrong that needs to be made right. While that is true from our viewpoint, from God's viewpoint, He is building the bride from the ground up. As God took a rib from Adam and from that rib He built a woman. He was not changing the woman from something negative to something positive. The reason was because all this took place before sin entered into the picture. If God casts all our sins into the deepest ocean and remembers them no more, we start out like Genesis 2, before sin entered into the picture. God wipes the slate clean and our past sins no longer exist. This is the position of the church. Now God must build the bride from what He has taken from Christ.
It is because we see everything from the viewpoint of the fall and the problems of Genesis 3 onward that it is difficult for us to accept that the church is wholly from Christ and not made up of fallen sinners. Sin is something that is totally outside of Christ. Now we are not denying that believers can sin but that God is not building the bride with sin. We are not declaring sinless perfection. What we are saying is that God is just taking what is solely from Christ to build the bride. Sin is something from first Adam and first Eve. Righteousness, love, truth, obedience, holiness, doing the will of God and so on is from the Last Adam.
Everything that God has for the church is of Him, by Him, for Him, through Him and to Him and He has come to have first place in everything. We are in Him and He is in us. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory. So many scriptures indicate that the church is the counterpart of Christ. The helpmeet or one who corresponds with, who is the counterpart. One who supports by helping. God could not rest until everything was complete. Until God had built the woman for Adam He could not rest. From this we see that God will continue to work until He has completed the bride for Jesus. He is not building with sticks and stones or concepts or with anything that is earthly or fleshly. The temple can be built with living stones but the bride is built with Christ.
After God created Adam He was still not satisfied. He declared that it was not good for Adam to be alone. Therefore, He fashioned Eve out of Adam. Even though Jesus Christ is God's perfected Son and was elevated to the highest position of heaven and given a name above every name and crowned with glory and honor, God is still not satisfied. God desires to have a church which is made up out of Christ, that is just like Christ and will be a helper for Him. A counterpart. God is not satisfied if Christ remains alone. God stopped everything He was doing and focused His attention upon building Eve because that was the next most important part to complete His plan and His purpose. We may think that God is busy dealing with Satan and trying to counter his destructive attacks. God is not bothered with Satan. He has focused all His attention upon building this bride for Jesus. God will not rest until the bride is ready for that glorious presentation. When I say "God" will not rest I mean the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The activity of heaven is focused upon this bride. When she is complete, Satan will only have a short time left so his activity is also focused upon the bride. God can get Israel ready for the final curtain call very quickly but the bride is what takes time.
If Satan can deceive the church into building with sticks and stones, wood, hay and straw he can delay his lockup. The church has, in many ways, worked against God in this activity of building the church by using all kind of carnal material that will never stand the fire of God. Only God can build with Christ, therefore Jesus said "I will build My church".
JOH 12:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. The multiplication of the grain of wheat requires that it fall into the earth and die. That which is called fruit is that which is made from the original seed. If you sow wheat you reap wheat and not tomatoes. When Jesus Christ sowed Himself, what is reaped is the same as the seed sown, except it is multiplied. The harvest should be the same as Jesus Christ. The harvest is "out of Christ".
In John 15 the vine and the branches and the fruit are all connected together. Any separation brings death. Both the branches and the fruit have their source, life and existence in the vine. What is produced is taken from the vine. Jesus said "I am the vine". Unless we abide in Him, we can produce nothing because everything is taken from Him. This means that the church is taken out of Christ. The bride is produced "in Christ" and "from Christ". She is also "for Christ". Whatever is produced from something else is not the bride. Since there is only one rib there can only be one church and one bride.
The message of the evangelist convinces us that God is looking for individual "souls". We report how many were "saved". Our church only had 100 individual souls but following the evangelistic meetings we have 200 individual souls. God must be very pleased. God cannot rest until the many become one. 200 individual souls, living isolated lives, is not yet the church which is His body. Just as Eve was one, so the bride must be one. Jesus is not raising up a house full of concubines.
The Bible says that God caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam in order to remove the rib from him. This is not typical of death as some teach. There was no sin involved in this transaction. All this took place before sin entered into the world. The purpose of this sleep was to provide a bride for Adam and not to redeem Eve. From this we see there is an aspect of Calvary that is designed to provide a bride for Jesus Christ. It is certainly true that Christ died to redeem sinners from their sin. His blood was shed to provide forgiveness if sins. Thank God for it because we all need the blood. Because of sin, death entered into the world. Death and sin are connected. In addition to that aspect of Calvary there is the material for the bride that is released out of Calvary. His death and blood do redeem us but Calvary also releases whatever is necessary to build the bride for Christ.
Christ loved sinners and died for them but He also loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; EPH 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, EPH 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. There is no mention of the blood here because this is not dealing with sin but with preparation for the glorious presentation. In all of Ephesians 1 there is no mention of the blood but includes from before the foundation of the world to God's eternal purpose. There is no mention of the fall even though this is speaking of the church. It is clear that God sees from eternity to eternity according to His eternal purpose. Since the church is taken out of Christ, God sees no sin. Eve's existence out of Adam didn't involve sin but God's eternal purpose. Spots and wrinkles, holy and blameless are all connected to the washing of water with the word. This has to do with sanctification and change and not sin. Sin is always dealt with by the blood. After Jesus died on Calvary the soldiers pierced His side. By this time redemption had already been provided. Since He was already dead they didn't break any bones but they pierced His side and both blood and water came out. The blood is connected to sin and forgiveness while water is connected to sanctification, spots, wrinkles and change from what we were to what we ought to be. The blood has to do with sins while the water has to do with God's eternal purpose. Blood has to do with sinners and is redemptive while water has to do with the church for preparation.
It is curious that when God opened up Adam's side to remove the rib to make Eve that no blood was mentioned. Blood would be normal for an operation of that kind. However, this action did not involve redemption because no sin had yet entered. This action was creative and was for the formation of Eve. Also, Adam did not die to form Eve, he just slept. Death and sin are connected and there was not yet sin so there was not yet death. This is also a picture of another aspect of Calvary that has to do with the bride but not the sinner.
Romans 5 is a chapter that deals with sin. Because we had sinned Christ died for us. In Ephesians 5 it was because Christ loved the church that he died for her. The reason was love and not because of sin. In the same way that first Adam gave himself for Eve so Christ gave Himself for the church. As Eve came out of Adam and was designed exclusively for Adam so the church comes out of Christ and is designed exclusively for Christ. Adam was imparted to Eve and Christ is imparted to the church. As Eve was before sin so the church was before the foundation of the world. As Eve predates sin so the church, in the eyes of God, predates sin.
Man's needs surfaced after Genesis 3. God's need was revealed in Genesis 2. He needed to create a woman in order to fulfill His eternal purpose. This was to satisfy God's desire and was a manifestation of God's will.
God is going to get this glorious bride for Christ by putting Christ into us. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory. Christ is our life. COL 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Adam called Eve "woman" because she was taken out of man. Christ calls the church "Christian" because she was taken out of Christ. Whatever is made out of Christ is called "the body of Christ". Whatever is made out of Christ, perfected and then brought to Christ to become one with Him is called "the bride of Christ". The church which "is His body" is one thing but the "bride of Christ" is another. Hopefully, the church will become the bride, having been sanctified, washed, cleansed, without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless. This "Word" that washes us for the preparation and presentation is "the Rhema" or "now word" of God. Reading the Logos is good and helpful but it is the "Rhema" , the voice of God, that does this work.
We generally share on consecration after people are Hungary to go on with God. We speak about giving all to God in order to do His will. This begins as we present our bodies to God as a consecration offering. We present this as preparation for the ministry of serving God. What people generally do is to begin to present to God all kinds of things that are just things. Whatever has it's origin from the earth or it's source in man cannot be used by God to minister for God. We consecrate our natural talents for God's service but if they do not originate in Christ, God cannot use them. It is not a matter of talent but of the source. The same thing is true of possessions. God already owns everything and has need of nothing. Whatever has come out from God can be consecrated back to God because the source is God.
That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is always just flesh. The difference is tremendous. Consecrated flesh is worthless to God for ministry. Only that which has it's source in Spirit can produce Spiritual ministry. God doesn't use the old heaven or the old earth to construct a new heaven or a new earth. God doesn't use the earthly Jerusalem to construct the heavenly Jerusalem. The old has to pass away first and then a whole new creation. Whatever we possessed as sinners cannot be used to minister for God. Only that which has come from Christ is sufficient to minister for Christ. God is going to sum up all things in Jesus Christ but only what has been taken from Him can be brought back to Him to become one with Him. How can we ever know the experience of the bride if we have ignored the experience of the body. We want to love Jesus but we can't be bothered with His body. His body represents problems and suffering but that is how He washes us and cleanses us with the washing of water with the word.
There is a scripture that has never made sense to me. JOH 15:3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. JOH 13:9 Simon Peter *said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head." JOH 13:10 Jesus *said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all {of you.}" JOH 13:11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean." JOH 17:17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. Since this precedes Calvary and the shedding of His blood, I have wondered how Jesus could say they were already "clean". There is, obviously, the cleansing of the blood and another cleansing with the water of the word. This cleansing is through the word of truth. This cannot be speaking of forgiveness of sins because that is only handled by the blood. To sanctify means to make holy: to consecrate: a saint or one who is Holy. There is also the aspect of setting apart or separating for God. To use for a holy purpose. It can be used as: They washed the vessels and sanctified them for the temple service. The effect is that now being clean they are set apart. The application might be : The disciples were clean and set apart for God's service through the washing with water of the word of truth. Not just doctrine but with the reality. This is not a once for all time sanctification but may be repeated as often as necessary to cleanse and set apart for God's service. Service suggests the need for continual cleansing. This is not a matter of forgiveness of sins, which can only be cleansed by blood, but a washing from something that defiles and makes us ineffective for the service of God.
EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; EPH 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, EPH 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. This is given as one reason that Jesus loved and gave Himself for the church. We know He gave Himself for the sins of the whole world. This giving is directed specifically to the church and for a specific reason. That He might sanctify her with the washing of water with the word. He cleansed the sinner from his sins through the blood that He might cleanse the church from spots and wrinkles with the washing of water with the word of truth. The word used here is "rhema" and refers to the now word or the spoken word. This is not referring to reading the scripture but to hearing His voice. It is possible to sit in church for years under good preaching and not hear the voice of God. We think that we will be washed by good doctrine but we are not washed by doctrine but by His voice. The Word of Truth or the Word of Reality. We can die with good doctrine but Jesus came to impart life to us. As there are two aspects of cleansing, there are two aspects of Calvary. One is His death and the shedding of His blood for forgiveness and the other is the imparting of His resurrection life to us that we might be of use to Him for service. Then He anoints us in power for ministry. However, it is still by the washing of water with the "rhema" that He works on the spots and wrinkles. There is a direct connection between the washing with the "rhema" and the glorious presentation which requires that the church be holy and blameless.
It was the voice of Christ that had cleansed His disciples before Calvary. You are clean through the word that I have spoken to you. This was to prepare them for Calvary. All heard His word but not all were clean. One who heard His word ended up betraying Him. We also see that they still had a lot of spots and wrinkles. Therefore, there must be that continual "washing with His voice" to prepare the church for eternity.
It is, in the final analysis, only the Rhema that is spirit and life. We actually need more than verses from the Bible to sanctify our lives. It is the voice of God that pin points areas of our life that need to be corrected, what exactly is hindering us and what we need to be cleansed from. We may read the Bible through and not know these things. We may speak about "a personal Christianity" but personal Christianity suggests we hear a personal word. His sheep hear His voice is personal Christianity. Personal Christianity involves personal revelation. We are not speaking about deep spiritual revelation but personal daily revelation that has to do with spots and wrinkles and things that are not pleasing to God. We have developed a doctrine that if we are born again, God will overlook all our spots and wrinkles and ignore the contradictory things in our life. The doctrine says " He just covers all these things with the blood and doesn't see them. All He sees is the righteousness of Christ". Then how is He going to deal with spots and wrinkles? Our doctrines many times keep us from the word (rhema) of truth that sanctifies us.
We can see, that from God's viewpoint, the church is from eternity to eternity. She is before sin entered and in God's eyes has no history of sin. She is totally out of Christ and there is no element of earth in her and she is wholly spiritual. That may sound very idealistic and far from practical because we can see what the church was in history and what she is today. She is far from all these things. The past history of the church is very disappointing. It appears that what God designed has not yet happened. We may see it by faith but the realization is far away. Then what went wrong?
Was it that God didn't really put Christ into us? Was it that God intended to build only with Christ but couldn't pull it off? Did God really intend for the church to be the body of Jesus Christ but she became fragmented into denominations and doctrines? Is the church's defect the result of not actually having Christ? It some cases that may be true! But could it possibly be true of the church which is His body? Maybe the church has received Christ but just too little too late. Maybe Christ has been rationed out in qualities not sufficient to produce "the church" which is His body. Maybe we can we blame it all on to God?
The fact is that everything that is spoken of Christ and His church is a past and present reality. It is not that we didn't receive enough of Christ but that we have held on to too many other things that conflict with the manifestation of Christ. He has been suffocated within us by heaps of things that we retained and continue to gather.
Each one of us who belongs to Christ does contain our individual portion of Christ. We each hold our share of Christ. (If we picture an empty glass with Christ on the bottom and all kinds of things on top, it may clarify the problem) Then what does it mean to sanctify and cleanse? It means to remove all contradictory things that suppress the Christ who is in us. We have developed a false concept that suggests we are cleansed by adding good works or adding prayer or Bible study or fellowship. Cleansing means subtraction and not addition. We have too much junk now! Good works, Bible study, prayer and fellowship, outside of the release and manifestation of Christ, is all futile. Whatever is there, that should not be there, needs to be washed away. Cleansing is not "a covering over" as has been taught but a removing of whatever is offensive to God and rejected by Christ.
It is true that Eve in Genesis 2 did not need to be built and then cleansed because she was built before sin entered but it is a great deception to teach that the church stands righteous before God and therefore does not need further cleansing. We have substituted doctrines for cleansing, activities for cleansing, ministries for cleansing and every other thing instead of waiting on God for His rhema that will actually cleanse us. HEB 12:26 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven." HEB 12:27 And this {expression}, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. His voice shakes and removes earthly, created things so that only the eternal things can remain. No other power on earth can do that. This is beyond ministries and Bible studies. This involves personal Christianity. Hearing His voice. The cleansing involves the removing of the shakable, temporal things and not the addition of other "good earthly things". The fact is that we already have too many things that are not Christ. It is not that we don't have Christ but that we have too many other things besides Christ.
Now if we see growth from this viewpoint it makes much more sense. Spiritual growth begins by removing a bunch of stuff from our lives that is not Christ. Spiritual growth requires that Christ be manifested and not that we learn certain doctrines and are discipled a certain way. We have promoted a discipleship of knowledge rather than a discipleship of Christ. Spiritual ministry is not by speaking wild and wonderful revelations but that the Christ in us is manifested. The Christian life is the release of Christ from our life. The washing of the water with the "rhema" of God is to remove all that is not Christ. No matter how good it looks or how good it works, if it is not Christ, it is of no benefit and just temporary. That is why we are always trying something new to see if it works. There is only one thing that works and that is the release of Christ. Cleansing is for the purpose of releasing Christ and not just to open ourselves up to others as a means of closer fellowship.
The things that keep us from manifesting Christ are so many and varied that it is not possible for one person to help cleanse another. That is why we must be cleansed by hearing His voice. He is the only one who knows what is restricting Him from being manifested. We substitute many things that are worthless and produce nothing rather than let His voice shake us loose from all the shakable things that are hindering us. If we are still into a phony religion it means we haven't heard His voice.
If we are packing more and more rules on top of people, we are actually hindering people from releasing Christ. We should be encouraging people to unload rather than load on more. Spots and blemishes or wrinkles must be removed and not covered over with more layers of cosmetics. Some people don't use natural cosmetics but are loaded with spiritual cosmetics. REV 3:17 'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, REV 3:18 I (say) advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and { that} the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. All the spiritual cosmetics were in place but Jesus exposed them all. His purpose of speaking was cleansing and not condemnation. His voice either shook this church or they heard nothing. REV 3:19 'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent. It is because Christ loves the church that He wants to wash and cleanse it with the water of His voice.
MAT 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. MAT 11:29 "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. MAT