One of the primary assignments of Christ was to produce sons that has same status as Himself.
There was a period our Lord Jesus was regarded as the only begotten Son of God. It was a mystery to the people of his days. They hardly could conceive the truth that Jesus was the Son of God. They all felt he was Elias or some other prophets. Though Peter voiced it by revelation, he did not understand what he said because there was no revelational knowledge as at this time, the spirit of truth, the revealer of Christ has not been given. It was at this point Our Lord starts speaking of His Church, His mission of raising a people for God.
Matthew 16:13-18
13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
When He said I’ll build my CHURCH, He was speaking of his body, therefore the only son had to die to produce sons of God with the same identity as he is.
Jesus began to explain the process of producing sons and how He was to follow this process.
21…. From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
22… Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Imagine the demonic statement. “May your destiny be far from you” can you imagine? Do You think in the previous verse Jesus was talking about building his Church upon Peter? Someone who doesn’t want Jesus to fulfill his destiny?
IT REQUIRED JESUS’ DEATH, BURIAL AND RESURRECTION TO BUILD THE CHURCH but Peter and the other disciples didn’t want Jesus to die because of the benefits there were getting from him. He fed them, paid their taxes, made them have high profile, so they thought Jesus was born for their personal enjoyment.
Read john 12:23-24
23. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Here, He was telling them that he has to die to produce more sons, that the church will be born from the dead because the people he wants to present to God are people who have overcome death.
Matt 26:61
And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days
Read John 2:19
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
In this text, Jesus was telling them about his death but they thought he was talking about the temple of Solomon.
The spiritual man “Jesus” was talking about his body as a temple, the carnal man was busy talking about the physical temple of cement and sand because they did not understand.
This is why a Muslim can handle the bible and teach it like a Christian religious knowledge and a professor can handle the bible, yet have no clue of what is written there-in. The same applies to false prophets, they may handle the bible but because they have a wrong spirit, they end up saying rubbish.
Until the spirit of God reveals it, you will not understand. Even the disciples as at this time did not understand until the ressurection.
The church is founded on christ. Except you are born again, you cannot understand or explain spiritual things.
What is written down in the Bible is the revelation given by the spirit of God and not science, hence you need the holy spirit to help you understand it.
The only medium by which we recieve understanding to spiritual things is the Holy Spirit..
See this
1Corinthians 2:9-14
9. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Christ is no longer a mystery to the believer because he has been revealed in scriptures. The reason we study is TO KNOW CHRIST and in knowing Christ the believer finds his identity. As a believer, you don’t know yourself by looking at yourself. You know yourself by knowing Christ because Christ is your identity.
No one was ever born again before the cross, not even Abraham. To be born again is to be born from the dead. God got me born again. The born again experience shows Gods sovereignty. He chose to get me saved. He first loved me. I have no part in salvation.
Read Rom 8:29
…For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Irrespective of the believer’s confessions as a result of fear, he has the life of God, he’s born from the dead, hence hell cannot hold me.
Death has no dominion over anyone who is born from the dead because he has passed from death to life. You cannot undo this.
The power of death has been broken. Christ went to hell and conquered death for us.
The promise of the spirit is what effects salvation.
Jesus is the first born from the dead and I am beggotten from the dead.
The Name first born from the dead does not suggest that there’s a second, third, forth or firth born in that order but it simply means that he was the first to make being born from the dead a reality. Nobody has come out of the grave with this kind of life and while he was accomplishing this, we were in him, we were born with him.
This life is a supernatural life. To think less of yourself is to display your ignorance. You are the same as Christ, death therefore has no power over our lives because Christ’ experience is our experience.
Read Eph 2:10
..:For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them..
He’s the pattern son,. Everyone born from him is in him. When you are born from the dead, you conform
Read 1 pet 1:3
… Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
We are born from the dead. He’s first born from the womb of death amongst many brethren.
We are one with him, GLORY TO GOD!!
Christ finished His work of bringing many sons to God having same status with Himself.
Hebrews 2:10-11
10. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Through the death and resurrection of Christ, we are now ONE with the Christ, His reality has now become ours.
We are as Jesus is right now in the right hand of the Father.
1John4:17
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
We rejoice in our savior and salvation!