First, Jesus is the builder of the Church…
Matt 16:18… I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Second…the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church and here’s the reason why. The powers of darkness, the Devil, and death cannot prevail against the church because Jesus is the head (or the one in authority over the Church)…
Col. 1:18…And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
What makes Jesus the head of the Church? He purchased the Church through suffering, His shed blood, and a cruel death on the cross.
Acts 20:28…the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
The reason the church is perfect is because Christ purchased it, built it, is the head of it, and gave his Holy Spirit so you and I could be part of it!
Eph 2:22…In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Believers are a habitation of God through the Spirit.
The Bible teaches that members of Christ’s body, the Church are the “temple of the Holy Spirit and the temple of God is “holy”.
1 Cor 3:16-17… Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Holiness is the perfect work of God in the human soul. All members of Christ’s body are holy. Holiness is a result of God’s redemptive work within all members of the body of Christ. All members of the Church are God’s creation.
1 Cor 6:19-20…know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
The Church is the perfect work of God that came into existence at the death of our Saviour. The Church is the blessing of the New Testament and the Bible teaches.
Heb 9:15-17…And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
Before the death of Christ the Law of Moses given to Israel was the greatest blessing on the planet Earth. The Law of Moses was the greatest set of morals ever written. The Law of Moses demanded the shedding of blood for the remission of sins but when Christ died on the cross and purchased the Church with His own blood a greater blessing than the Law of Moses was given. That blessing was the Church, the body of Christ governed by God’s greatest blessing…the Holy Spirit. Under Grace the Holy Spirit prevails in the Church. Under Law the 613 commandments were given to Israel. Under Grace God blessed the “whole” human family…both Jew and Gentile.
Eph 2:11-14…Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
The Blessing of the Church was greater than Law because it was given to both Jew and Gentile. The Blessing of the Church was greater than the Law of Moses because it wasn’t only the commandments given to Israel. The Blessing of the Church is Grace given to the whole human family. …Jew’s and Gentiles. The Blessing of the Church tore down the wall of partition to Israel only…
Eph 2:13-16… But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
The blessing of the Church is the dispensation of the fulness of times…
Eph 1:10… That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
That “fullness” is the work of the Holy Spirit in the human soul.
2 Cor. 3:3…written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
The morals of the tables of stone were kept by man. The moral holiness in the Church is given through the perfect work of the Holy Spirit in the human soul. This moral holiness is written on the tables of the human heart. In the Old Testament man did works to keep the Law. In the New Testament man has the work of the Spirit within. This is the blessing of the Grace Covenant we now have in the Church.
There are some that call the Church the “salt of the earth”. This is not a true statement and takes the Bible from its proper context! Why? Israel was the “salt of the earth” and they lost their savor when they rejected the Messiahship of Christ.
Matt 5:13… Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
The Church could never lose its savor or be trodden under the foot of men or it would be “imperfect”. Christ would never create an imperfect Church. Israel was imperfect because they “rejected” Christ when He came. The Church is perfect because its builder is perfect. Remember against the Church the gates of Hell shall never prevail!
The Church is a product of the Grace Covenant we now live under. The Grace covenant is better covenant than the Covenant of the Law given to Israel. Why? Members of the Church, the body of Christ have the work and witness of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. Under Law man worked to do right…under Grace it was the work of Christ within that allows the believer to do right.
Heb 9:11-12…But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Heb 9:14-15…How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
May this revelation, given from a resurrected Christ be given to all believers like it was the Apostle Paul. May this revelation teach all believers in Christ how to rightly divide the Holy Scriptures…thus giving confirmation on how to make the distinction between the Church and Israel, Law and Grace, Jew and Gentile, and the Old and New Testaments. Grace and peace to all…
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