The Two Functions of Christ
Many know Christ as the Lamb of God. That is the biblical record as stated in the scriptures, but Christ as the Lamb of God, was never the intended purpose at the very beginning. We read in Genesis the 2nd chapter after God created man, He breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul.
God says that all souls are His by right of creation, Ezekiel 18:4. Before there was any mention of sin or Satan in the Bible, God breathed His breath into man and man became a living soul. The Apostle Paul tells us that man is made up of three different parts, body, soul and Spirit, 1st Thessalonians 5:23. This breathing into man by God was to give life to a created body. Because he had life within him, he was able to think and reason and make his own choices. This is the intelligence and function of the soul within the body.
Our body is our outward appearance and can be seen. Our soul is hidden within us and accumulates information from our environment. The third aspect of our being is the choosing of the spirit which will determine our free will and choice as Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden.
God has given man a body which can be seen and he now has a living soul within. He placed man in the Garden in which there were two trees, the Tree of Life, Genesis 2:9, which represents the Spirit of Christ, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Genesis 2:17, which represents the spirit of Satan who was once called Lucifer, Isaiah 14:12.
God does not force Himself on anyone so He allowed man to make his own choice. Man was warned of the choice he would make, and the warning was the difference between life and death, Deuteronomy 30:15.
So, the man and his wife took of the wrong tree and did not obtain the life God intended him to have. Because of his disobedience, he subsequently had need of redemption. This was the need of Christ as the redeeming Lamb, John 1:24.
The mercy of God as well as His infallible nature has always had a second plan to accomplish His Divine purpose. In the closing chapter of the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament, because the Tree of Life was closed off to Adam and Eve, as well as all mankind, Genesis 3:24, we read of the word fathers, plural, as substitutes of the two trees. Now men will have a new way to instill God’s life within him and become one with his creator.
The Two Fathers
Malachi 4:5, Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 6, And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the father, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
The statement by Malachi will close out all the ordinances of the Old Testament, including the old covenant, Hebrews 12:24, with Jesus as the Lamb, and becoming the anointed Christ to bring a better life to man by a new way, and gaining eternal life by terminating the existing life within them poisoned by the life and deception of Satan. This transition, with the cooperation of the Spirit and direction of God, will transform man with the death of the old man, into the life of the new man, Ephesians, 4:22-24.
Although the Old Testament needs to give way to the New Testament and new Covenant, it is important to us because it gives us the pictures and illustrations in our mind of the writings and explanations which we read about in the Gospels and in the New Testament books.
Jesus as a Lamb and Redeemer
Because of man’s sin in the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life was closed off to him and the third part of man, the spirit, became deadened, and needed to be quickened and made alive.
Ephesians 2:1, “And you who He hath quickened, who were dead in your trespasses and sins; 2, Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
These children are the children of one of the fathers mentioned in the book of Malachi. They are not as yet called by God and have within them a deadened spirit. We were once like this until God drew us to Christ, John 6:44, and we believed the Gospel.
When we responded, and believed in the Gospel, we did what it was we were required to do, Matthew 28:19-20.
We were once souls, created by God with a fleshly body, but now, because of our redeeming life have been purchased by Christ, we have a new beginning. This is the first function of Jesus as a Lamb and savior. Most people have heard of Jesus as the Lamb of God but were never instructed in the second purpose of Jesus as a life giving Spirit, (Quickening our deadened spirit by giving it life), 1st Corinthians 15:45.
Initially, we were created with different organs with different functions for each sense. The eyes are for seeing, the ears are for hearing and so on. We also have within us a spirit, Job 32:2; Zechariah 12:1; and 1st Corinthians 2:11, especially created as an organ in which to contact God. Men have life, just as the trees, plants, and grass has life. All these which have life will eventually die. God is a Spirit, John 4:24, and has life, but His life is eternal life. this is the second aspect of the purpose of Christ, to instill his life, becoming eternal life, within man through the spirit in man. This spirit in man will compliment the body as well as the soul, and man will be complete. This is the true Father we read about in the scriptures. This is the Father who had created all souls as His children. Satan came for the purpose of confiscating as his own, those which God was in the process of creating. He is a thief, John 10:10.
Jesus as the Life, Living, And Walking Tabernacle
John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”.
The word dwelt is #4637 in the Greek dictionary and means to reside in as the Tabernacle of old. It is taken from a root word #4636, a hut or temporary residence, as the abode of the Spirit- Tabernacle.
When we open up the Bible to the book of Genesis one, we read of God. But who is this God? Do we know this God to be a God of love or of hate, of light or of darkness, of good or of evil? We, just as the Nation of Israel, really have no way of knowing until we get to the Mountain of God, Mount Horeb, which is sometimes referred to as Mount Sinai. On Mount Sinai, the people feared His voice and the people didn’t want to hear God speaking to them, Genesis 20:19.
Genesis 20:1 says that God spoke all these words.
The words were uttered by God, written by the hand of God on two tablets of stone.
Exodus 32:15, and Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tablets of testimony were in His hand: the tablets were written on both their sides; on the one side and then on the other were they written.
Notice the wording says, the two tablets of testimony. What is a testimony anyway?
Webster’s dictionary states: a declaration or statement made under oath or affirmation by a witness in a court, often in response to questioning to establish fact.
God’s testimony heard by the people was a description of what kind of God rescued and delivered the people from bondage.
In the Old Testament, the law or testimony was given on Mount Sinai for the purpose of the children to know and understand the nature of the one who rescued them from Egypt.. God never intended to burden the people with obeying laws which were impossible for men to keep. (See our article, The Two fold Significance of Mount Horeb). Mount Horeb is called the Mountain of God, Exodus 3:1; and where the people rebelled against God; Psalms 106:19-23; and where Moses says God spoke to the people, Exodus 20:1. Moses broke God’s original testimony and God gave them to him again for the purpose of placing them in the Ark, Exodus 25:16. The two tablets, which was His testimony, were for the purpose of describing what kind of God He is. This testimony was a picture of God Himself.
When God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, He also commanded Moses to build a Tabernacle as His house of residence. In the Tabernacle were many items, veils, furniture, basins to wash, but most notably, the Ark with the testimony, Exodus 25:16, along with Aaron’s rod which budded. This Tabernacle was assembled and taken down many times as the people journeyed toward the Promised Land, therefore it was portable as well as movable.
Exodus 25:8-9, “And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. 9, According to all that I shall show thee, after the pattern of the Tabernacle, and pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.”
The Apostle Paul addresses the Tabernacle as a type which was yet to be fulfilled.
Hebrews 9:8, “The Holy Spirit is signifying that the way to the Holiest of all was not made manifest, while the first Tabernacle was standing. “
With the first Tabernacle, only the priest was allowed to erect, take down, or move the Tabernacle. Because of the curse of death imposed by disobedience in the Garden, all priest eventually died. God had to have a new way for the Tabernacle to exist if He was to have a dwelling place on the earth. The new way would be the birth of Jesus in the likeness of the flesh, Romans 8:3, live a perfect sinless life, and allowed Himself to be crucified and undergo resurrection. Because of His resurrection, we have now a priest who has defeated death, Hebrews 2:14, and has become a new Tabernacle, and of a new creation, pitched by God, Hebrews 8:2, and not by man.
Hebrews 9:11, ” But Christ becoming a high priest of things to come, by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building.”
When Christ was crucified and died, we died, that is, our old man was put to death to undergo resurrection. We read that the veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom, Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38. The Temple at that time was a type of Tabernacle and this renting of the veil now singled that all are welcomed into the Tabernacle. Christ became God’s earthy Tabernacle and new creation pitched by God and not man. We are to enter into Christ as our new Tabernacle,1st Corinthian 1:30.
We read, as a type, the pattern of the Tabernacle in which many items were placed. The two tablets of testimony, meaning the law, the golden pot of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded and so on. Christ fulfilled all of these items in the newly pitched Tabernacle. We are invited to go in and abide in Him.
1st John, “Now little children, abide in him, and Romans 5:10 (last part of verse), we are saved by His life.
First we are redeemed by Christ as the Lamb of God when we are Baptized into a watery grave and are willingly brought to the cross. Second, as believers, we are in Christ as our Tabernacle undergoing Transformation and growing into a new life, as God’s life is an uncreated life. Because we are in resurrection, John 11:25, we will be raised, just as Jesus was raised, from our physical life into His Divine eternal life.