We Stand on the Covenant God made with Abraham to Enjoy the All-inclusive Christ

The children of Israel who returned to the good land from captivity in Babylon were told to remember the covenant that God made with Abraham, which is fulfilled in the New Testament; God made His covenant with Abraham through the crucified and resurrected Christ.

We want to see the crucial aspects of living in the good land after we return on the ground of oneness from any captivity in division and mixture in Christianity.

The Lord has chosen a particular place where He puts His name, and we need to be in that place in order to worship Him in spirit and truthfulness for the building up of the church.

The sad situation in Christianity today is so clear, and the Lord is very much mocked, ridiculed, and spoken against by the evil one and the evil people, for there’s no oneness, no one accord, and no clear testimony of Jesus.

How can there be a testimony of Jesus on earth when there are so many denominations, Christian groups, sects, and religions?

How can the one Body of Christ be expressed in all these groups that all claim they are the Body of Christ?

The enemy has succeeded in deceiving so many of the Lord’s people and taking them into captivity in a land of mixture, confusion, and idolatry.

May the Lord have mercy on many of His seeking ones to bring them back to the genuine ground of oneness for them to build up the church as the organic Body of Christ.

Only the Jewish people who returned to Israel from Babylon could build the temple as the house of God and the wall of the city as the kingdom of God.

There may have been many rich, well-respected, and important Jewish people in Babylon, but only those seemingly poor and weak ones who returned to the good land could rebuild the temple and the city of God.

Similarly today, we may seem to be quite poor and weak in the church life, but we have been shown mercy by the Lord to have returned to the genuine ground of oneness, and we strive to build up the church as the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ cannot be built up in division, confusion, and mixture; there needs to be the proper ground of oneness.

After returning from captivity in the confused and mixed Christianity, we need to remain on the ground of the church, the ground of oneness, and build up the church as the Body of Christ for Him to gain His bride and hasten His return with His kingdom on the earth!

We are one with the Lord and we are one with all the saints; as those living in a particular locality, we don’t claim that we’re the only church in that locality but that we are only the church in that locality.

And as the church in a certain locality, we stand one with the Lord and one with all our brothers and sisters, gathering in the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ applied in the Spirit of oneness.

May we continue in the church life day by day, eating the Lord, drinking Him, and breathing Him as the Spirit until the church as the Body of Christ is built up for God to gain a corporate expression.

Remembering the Covenant God made with Abraham, the Promise of the Good Land

1 Chron. 16:15-18 tells us that those who returned to the good land after being in captivity need to remember the covenant that God made with Abraham.

God appeared to Abraham a few times in Genesis and promised him two main things: the seed and the good land.

Abraham believed God regarding the seed, but it was hard for him to believe concerning the land.

God promised him that he will make his descendants like the sand on the seashore and like the stars in heaven; Abraham believed God, and this was counted to him as righteousness.

But when God promised him concerning the land, he lacked the faith to believe this, so God came in to make a covenant with Abraham (vv. 6-8).

In order to strengthen Abraham’s faith, God was compelled to confirm His promises to Abraham by making a covenant with him (vv. 9-21).

This covenant that God made with Abraham was a covenant of promise that would be fulfilled through God’s power in His grace (see John 1:14, 17).

The New Testament is a continuation of this covenant, and today we enjoy the promised blessing (Gal. 3:17; 4:22-26).

In making a covenant with Abraham, God told him to take a heifer, a she-goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon (Gen. 15:9).

Through these God made His covenant with Abraham; in this way, Abraham could fulfil God’s eternal purpose.

The three cattle are a type of the crucified Christ, for they were cut and killed.

The female heifer was for a peace offering (Lev. 3:1); in order for God to make a covenant with Abraham, His called one, there was first the need for a peace offering.

When the peace offering was made, God could enter into a covenant and relationship with Abraham.

Christ is our peace offering; He’s the reality of the heifer for our peace with God.

The she-goat was for the sin offering (Lev. 4:28; 5:6).

Abraham had peace with God through the peace offering, but there still needs to be the sin offering, for he was still sinful.

Following the peace offering, there’s the need for the sin offering. Sin has been taken care of by Christ, who became our sin offering.

After this, there was the lamb, which was offered as a burnt offering, signifying that everything we are and have should be for God and His satisfaction (Lev. 1:10).

Christ was all the offerings through which God passed through in making a covenant with Abraham, His chosen one.

The two birds, neither of which was killed, are a type of the resurrected Christ, the Christ who passed through death and is living (Lev. 14:6-7).

This resurrected Christ is mainly in His divinity; according to the Bible, a dove typifies the Holy Spirit (John 1:32).

The cattle typify Christ in His humanity and the birds typify Christ in His divinity.

Christ came from heaven and still is in heaven (John 3:13), and He is still living.

He walked on earth as a man, and was killed, but now He is living as the heavenly One soaring in the heavens.

A turtle dove signifies a suffering life and a young pigeon signifies a believing life, a life of faith.

The Lord Jesus was One who lived a suffering life and a believing life; He is the reality of the turtledove and of the young pigeon.

The fact that there were two birds means that these two bear testimony, bearing witness of Christ as the resurrected One.

By this covenant that God made with Abraham, He promised Him the good land, and in the reality of this covenant, we can enjoy the crucified and resurrected Christ to be the reality of the good land for our portion of enjoyment.

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming to die for us and be our peace offering. Hallelujah, through Christ as our peace offering we now have peace with God. We take You as our peace. Thank You for dying for us as a sin offering to take away the sin of the world and take care of all our sins. Lord, we are sinful and full of sins; we lay our hands on You and take You as our sin offering. Hallelujah, sin has been taken care of, and now we can fellowship with God! Praise the Lord, God entered into a covenant with us through the crucified and resurrected Christ so that we may be assured that we will enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the good land! Hallelujah, Christ is our portion for our enjoyment!

Stand on the Covenant God made with Abraham through the Crucified and Resurrected Christ to Partake of the All-inclusive Christ and Live for God’s Purpose

We may read concerning the covenant that God made with Abraham in Gen. 15 and the fact that the returned people of Israel had to remember this covenant in 2 Chron. 16 and we may wonder what does this have to do with us.

We need the Lord’s light to shine on His word for us to realize that we believers in Christ have entered into a covenant with God through the crucified and resurrected Christ, and God promised to give us an allotted portion of the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 1:12).

We may not have a lot of faith that we are qualified and able to enjoy this wonderful Christ, but God entered into a covenant with us to give us Christ.

God is strengthening our faith by entering into a covenant with us, which covenant of promise is fulfilled through God’s power in His grace.

When Christ came, He came full of grace and reality, and He became the reality of all that God has promised to Abraham.

The New Testament is the continuation of the covenant God made with Abraham (see Gal. 3:17; 4:22-26).

The reality of the promise God made to Abraham, the seed and the land, is fulfilled in Christ.

And Christ today is the life-giving Spirit for our experience and enjoyment for us to live a life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose.

We believers in Christ are the beneficiaries of the covenant God made with Abraham because the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit is our good land in reality, in spirit.

For such a covenant to be enacted, Christ paid the highest price.

God made His covenant with Abraham through the crucified and resurrected Christ (Gen. 15:9; Rom. 6:5-6, 9).

The crucified and resurrected Christ assures us through the covenant God made with us that the life-giving Spirit will be the good land for us o enjoy.

Christ in His humanity was crucified for us to be our peace offering and our sin offering, and Christ in His divinity is the living and resurrected One for us to live one with God and before God (John 11:25; Rev. 1:18).

Christ died for us as the reality of the red heifer to make peace between us and God, and He died as the reality of the she-goat to bear all our sins in His body on the tree.

Christ also died as the Lamb of God, the burnt offering, and we can lay our hands on Him to be one with Him as the One who is fully and absolutely for God.

He was the Man of Sorrows on earth, living a suffering life, yet He also lived a believing life, a life of faith.

Though He was the Man of Sorrows, in John 15 He said that His joy will be in us and that our joy will be made full. He will become our joy.

This joy will be experienced as we learn to live in the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, a life of faith in the midst of suffering.

Our Christian life is a life of suffering and a life of believing; on one hand, suffering is our portion, and on the other hand, we live a life of faith.

Christ is the living One; He became dead but now He is living, and He lives forever.

This is His testimony, for the testimony of Jesus is always related to being living.

We are the church of the living God, and the living Jesus lives in us to make us living even as He is living. The more living we are, the more we are the testimony of Jesus.

May we see the covenant God made with Abraham through the crucified and resurrected Christ and may we enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit, the reality of the good land.

And may we remain in the enjoyment of Christ as the Spirit day by day, even as we pass through suffering and it seems that nothing is changing or improving outwardly.

We need to be assured that God entered into a covenant with us to make us the beneficiaries and enjoyers of all that He is, all He has, and all He has passed through and attained and obtained, so that we may live a life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

Thank You, Lord, for the covenant made with us through the crucified and resurrected Christ so that we may enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit, the reality of the good land! Hallelujah, Christ died for us to take care of our sins and trespasses, and He resurrected to be the reality of all that He has promised to us! Praise the Lord, we are the beneficiaries of the covenant God made with Abraham because the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit is our good land! Amen, Lord, we want to live a life by faith even in the midst of suffering, trusting in You and standing on the covenant You made with us. In ourselves we can’t do it and we can’t be it, but You can bring us into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ so that we may live a life for the fulfilment of God’s purpose!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msg. 45 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 2, entitled, Crucial Aspects of Living in the Good Land after Returning from Captivity in Babylon.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – God confirming His promise by making a covenant with Abraham through Christ, a portion via, Abraham—Called by God, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
  – Life-study of Genesis – radio broadcast, listen to broadcast no. 57, God’s covenant with Abraham, via, LSM Radio.
  – A Basic Lesson from Abraham’s Failure, article via, Living to Him.
  – Seeking and Longing for New Jerusalem, article via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The all-inclusive Christ, free Christian book, via Rhema Books.
  – Listen and enjoy Hymns 1164, Jesus, the all-inclusive land, via youtube.
  – An introduction to, The All-inclusive Christ, a portion via, The All-inclusive Christ, Chapter 1.
  – The Good Land as a Type of the All-Inclusive Christ, article via, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, Thou art all the offerings / Prepared by God for us; / They are so rich in meaning, / So sweet and glorious. / They have fulfilled God’s purpose / And met His heart’s desire; / They too have satisfied us, / And faced what we require. (Hymns #195, stanza 1)
  – Lord, we praise Thee for the picture: / Consecration’s ram we see, / Burnt for God’s full satisfaction, / Eaten and enjoyed to be. / Thou art now our ram, Lord Jesus, / Offered for the will of God; / By Thy consecration, faultless, / We may walk where Thou hast trod. / As we eat Thyself, Lord Jesus, / Consecrated we become; / By Thy wondrous life within us, / Thy obedience is our own. (Hymns #1138 stanzas 2-3)
  – Jesus, the all-inclusive land, / Is everything to me: / A Christ of brooks, of depths and streams, / And fountains bubbling free. / Springing from valleys and from hills, / Flowing till every part He fills, / He waters us—how glorious— / By His life! (Hymns #1164 stanza 1)