GOD’S INVESTMENT IN CHRISTIANS - Pastor J. C. O’Hair
THE CHURCH, GOD’S PURCHASED POSSESSION TO BE PRESENTED
BY CHRIST TO HIMSELF NOT YOUR OWN . . . BOUGHT WITH A PRICE
As we search the Scriptures to learn what the Holy Spirit has revealed to us concerning God’s investment in Christians, let us keep in mind that we refer to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Let us think of the simple statement of the young Christian who described the Trinity as “Three in One, and One in Three, and the One in the middle died for me.” Christ said to His Father “All Mine are Thine; and Thine are Mine.” (John 17:10).
Let us also keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus in Luke 12:50; “I have a ‘baptism’ to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished.” You will understand the meaning when we refer to Christ’s ‘CALVARY’ baptism. This was accomplished on the cross when the eternal, omnipotent, sinless Saviour, the Divine Creator of the heavens and the earth, cried “finished.” He then and there suffered for sins, once, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God (I Peter 3:18). By His own blood He once entered into heaven itself, having obtained for us eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:12). God in human form, by His ‘Calvary’ baptism, was made sin for believing sinners that they might be made the ‘righteousness of God’ in Him. (II Corinthians 5:21).
According to I Peter 1:18 to 23 Christians have been redeemed by the ‘precious’ shed blood of God’s Spotless Lamb, Who was verily foreordained before the foundation of the world. Then we read in Ephesians 2:13 and Romans 11:11, that when and because of the ‘FALL’ of God’s elect and favored nation (Israel), salvation was sent to idolatrous Gentiles. By God’s grace and power and by God-given faith, those idolatrous Gentiles were brought nigh to God by the blood of Christ. Thus we see something of the meaning of I Corinthians 6:19 and 20, “ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price.”
ALL CHRISTIANS ARE LIVING SAINTS
ALL OTHERS ARE DEAD SINNERS
As we read the truth of Ephesians 2:1 to 10 that God is rich in mercy and great in love, that with that great love He loved ‘dead sinners’ (when they were dead in sins), made believers alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5), raised them up and made them to sit down in the heavenlies with Christ. “You, having been dead in your sins, hath He made alive together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses.” (Colossians 2:13). In Romans 6:13 and Colossians 2:20 and Colossians 3:1, we learn that Christians are “alive from the dead”; but they are “dead with Christ,” and “risen with Christ” to seek those things which are above. When the believing sinner receives Christ and becomes the beneficiary of Christ’s ‘CALVARY’ baptism, God, for Christ’s sake, forgives him all His sins (Ephesians 4:32), and he is justified from all things (Acts 13:39), justified freely by God’s grace, through the redemption in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:24 to 26 and Romans 4:5). He has eternal life and shall never perish, or be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
God would have every human being know that a ‘dead sinner’ does not become a ‘living saint’ by what man does for God, but by what God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit does for man. “Not by works of righteousness” (Titus 3:5); “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8 and 9), “not according to our works, but according to God’s purpose and grace” (II Timothy 1:9).
SEALED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT UNTIL
THE REDEMPTION OF THE PURCHASED POSSESSION
When the believer is saved by the gospel he is immediately sealed by the Holy Spirit, sealed unto the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit indwelling the believer is the earnest of his inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. (Ephesians 1:13 and 14 and Ephesians 4:30).
“After that ye believed” (Ephesians 1:13) is “pisteusantes,” correctly translated “believing,” meaning “when ye believed.” The Lord expects His redeemed children to walk in the Spirit and be filled with the Holy Spirit, and thereby fulfill the righteousness of the law and manifest the fruit of the Spirit. (Romans 8:4 . . . Galatians 5:23 to 25).
At the time the believer is saved and sealed he is baptized by the Spirit into the Body of Christ. (I Corinthians 12:13 . . . II Corinthians 1:20 and 21). God is making of believers ‘ONE NEW MAN’, by reconciling them unto Himself in ‘One Body’ by Christ’s ‘CALVARY’ baptism. (Ephesians 2:15 and 16).
The Lord’s will is, that there be no division in the ‘ONE BODY’ of I Corinthians 12:25, Romans 12:4 and 5 and Ephesians 4:4 and 5. In Ephesians 3:6 this ‘ONE BODY’ is called “Joint-Body,” which means that God’s Church now is a Spiritual Organism rather than a religious organization.
There are no unsaved people in the Body, JointBody, of Christ. All the saved people are in this Body and are members one of another, but all ‘One Body’. (Romans 12:4 and 5 . . . Ephesians 2:21 and 22 and Ephesians 4:15 to 17).
Paul wrote, in II Corinthians 11:2, to Body-members, “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Paul warned them of the subtlety of Satan (II Corinthians 11:3 and 4) and of his tricks or wiles (Ephesians 6:13 to 20). Satan is the real enemy of Christ, and also of the true Church, because Christ and the Church are ‘One Flesh’. (Ephesians 5:31 and 32).
The Lord Jesus will suddenly appear from heaven to give glorified bodies to His redeemed Church-members (Philippians 3:20 and 21). Note in Ephesians 5:25 to 27 one reason why the Lord Jesus suffered His ‘Calvary’ baptism and note the glorious future of the Church. Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for the Church.
TO SANCTIFY, CLEANSE AND PRESENT THE CHURCH UNTO HIMSELF
“That He might present It to Himself, a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle; but that It should be holy and without blemish.” Therefore, it is the will of the Lord that every Body-member should receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, that all should have the eyes of their understanding enlightened, and be thus taught what is the meaning of the riches of God’s inheritance in the saints, (Ephesians 1:14 to 17).
The Church has an eternal glorious future. “If we suffer with Christ, we shall reign with Him.” (II Timothy 2:12). Believers will be in heaven because Christ suffered. Body-members are going to judge the world. (I Corinthians 6:1 to 3). Body-members are ‘Joint-Heirs’ with Christ (Romans 8:15 to 18) and God’s will is that they should be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, shining lights in the world, holding forth the Word of Life. (Philippians 2:14 to 16). Living saints will be rewarded for good works done in the Name of Christ. (Colossians 3:17).
God has invested heavily in members of the Body of Christ. After the awful suffering of God’s Son, that Son chose the apostle Paul to be His suffering apostle, “to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His Body’s sake; Which is the Church.” (Colossians 1:23 to 26). Christ appointed Paul to be His ‘head-carpenter’ (‘architekton’). (I Corinthians 3:10).
Paul, the ambassador of Christ, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for Gentiles (Ephesians 6:19 and 20—Ephesians 3:1 to 
suffered, as a malefactor, for us that we might know the glorious truth concerning His Eternal “grace” purpose. (II Timothy 2:7 to 9) (Colossians 4:3 and 4). God’s will is that we might make all saints see what is “the dispensation of the Mystery.” (Ephesians 3:9 to 11).
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