LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
True Consecration
No consecration is possible outside of Christ, outside of His Spirit or outside of the communion of Christ's Body.
Gino Iafrancesco
Reading: Deuteronomy 12:1-14.
The New Testament teaches us that there are essentially two ways of reading the Old. The apostle Paul, in what is called the second letter to the Corinthians, speaks to us of those two ways of reading Moses. " not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look stedfastly on the end of that which was passing away: but their minds were hardened;..." Israel, when reading passages like the one that we have just read about Moses, had their minds hardened. "...for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remaineth, it not being revealed to them that it is done away in Christ. But unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart. But whensoever it shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Co. 3:13-16).
From this, the Holy Spirit teaches us the relative of those two ways of reading Moses: with a veil, and without a veil. We can read Moses as the Israelites read it; with a hardened mind; but we can also read Moses, no longer from the synagogue, but in Christ and from the Church. God grants us the possibility of reading Moses without a veil in Christ, penetrating into the spiritual meaning that God anticipated when He spoke these things through Moses.
The Epistle to Hebrews in fact tells us this in respect to the following: "And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken" (Heb. 3:5). Moses was faithful not only in the function of his time. When reading it one can read much more than a mere story of the past. In the times of the New Covenant something would have to be said, so God used the faithfulness of Moses. The Old Covenant was the time of figures, of symbols, of typologies. God had the intention of today stating what the hidden things behind the veil symbolized, what they were a figure of and what they typified. For that reason, in Hebrews 10:1, it also says that the Law had "a shadow of the good things to come".
When the light shines from behind a body that is approaching, the shadow arrives first, and then the reality. The shadow announces the reality that is approaching. Christ teaches us to read the reality of his mystery in the shadow that is cast. That's why Paul wrote to the Colossians saying: " Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's (that is to say, the reality that the shadow projected) " (Col. 2:16, 17). Today we are not in the times of shadows, figures or mere symbols, nor outside the veil, but in the time of the reality and the anticipation of the powers of the coming ages. Christ removes the veil from us so that we can experience the realities characteristic of the New Testament.
In chapter 9 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the tabernacle that Moses erected is described; that which was inside: in the Holy Place, in the Holiest of Holies, and inside the ark, and how these things were prepared, "Now these things having been thus prepared...", also showing how the high priest entered once a year with blood. Then in the verse 8 it says: " the Holy Spirit this signifying that...", which is to say that with the things prepared in the tabernacle and its service, the Holy Spirit was today enabling us to understand things characteristic of the New Testament.
Therefore, we should not read Moses with a veil, but rather we should penetrate behind the veil and understand the spiritual meaning of those things prepared. In the following verse it says: " which is a figure for the time present ". So when we meet passages like this in Deuteronomy 12, we are not just reading old history about burnt-offerings and sacrifices in a unique sanctuary, but rather we are also reading figures, symbols, shadows and examples through which the Holy Spirit wants to say something to us for the present time. Hebrews 9:23 continues by saying: " It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these ". So there are figures of heavenly things, and there are heavenly things themselves characteristic of the reality that the New Testament introduces.
1st Corinthians 10 reminds us of the days of Israel in the desert, and in verse 6 says: " Now these things were our examples ". Therefore, they are written for the Christian experience. Verse 11 tells us the same thing: " Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come ". Paul wrote the same thing to the Romans: " For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope " (Ro. 15:4). These verses not only authorize us, but rather also practically force us to interpret these passages from Moses and others in the Old Testament, in their spiritual meaning for today.
With this base we can now therefore consider the passage in Deuteronomy 12:1-14.
The true unique sanctuary
The Lord Jesus transferred the understanding of His people, from the physical temple to His own person and the Church. Moses built the tabernacle, Solomon built the temple, which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and restored by Zerubbabel. Then it was enlarged by Herod, and Jesus' disciples showed it to him in admiration. But the Lord had said: " I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. ". And they criticized him saying: " Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?". But when our Lord Jesus was raised up on the third day from among the dead, the apostle John said that the disciples understood that he referred to the temple of His body, which was figured by the temple. And His body is also the Church, as it is written: "... but Christ as a son, over his house; whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end " (Heb. 3:6).
So the true house of God, the true Unique Sanctuary, of that which the above-mentioned was merely a figure, is referred to as the mystery of Christ in the New Testament, of which our Lord Jesus is the head and life, and the Church the members of His body. Therefore behold the true Unique Sanctuary. Our Lord Jesus Himself is the true dwelling place of God where Yahweh wanted to put His name. The Word of God tabernacled among us as a man. And this Christ, by means of His Spirit, also entered to inhabit a spiritual house that is His people, the unique family of God. Therefore, we are built as a Holy temple on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. The chief stone of the building; the cornerstone, is Jesus Christ Himself. And He is the foundation on which the building, fitly framed together grows into the holy temple, the Unique Sanctuary.
When David wanted to build God a house, he was told that he had spilled a lot of blood, and for that reason he could not build such a house; but his son, the Son of David, He would build God a house, and God would be to Him a Father, and He would be to Him a Son. Solomon certainly raised the temple, but that was merely the figure, the scale model; the true King of Peace, the true Son of David, of which Solomon was only a figure, was our Lord Jesus, and the true temple is the Church.
Bartimaeus called him by this name, saying: "Son of David, have mercy on me." And as the Son of David He was received with 'hosannas ' when entering Jerusalem on a donkey. That's why Matthew begins his gospel recognizing the Lord Jesus as the Son of David. Stephen also remembered the words of God: The heaven is my throne, And the earth the footstool of my feet: What manner of house will ye build me?
The true house of God is not made by men's hands; it is the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you know that I am not referring to any specific denomination, but to the sum of all the true children of God, truly cleansed by His blood and regenerated by His Spirit. These are the members of the body, the living stones of the house, of the Unique Sanctuary.
Therefore this refers to the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ is Christ's body whose head is the Lord Jesus. That is the true house of God of which Yahweh said: " Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest ". No consecration or true service is possible outside of Christ, outside of His Spirit or outside of the communion of Christ's body.
The place of consecration and service
We should look for the place chosen by God. That is the place of consecration and legitimate service. That is where they are to offer the burnt-offerings, the sacrifices, the tithes, the offerings, the first-fruits. We will only find God in Christ, and Christ in His Spirit, and His Spirit in His Word and body. Man's religious activity is almost totally useless if it is not carried out in the only place chosen by God to worship. That place is in Christ, in the Spirit, and in the communion of Christ's body. Self-righteousness, merely natural worship and division are not consecration nor true service, nor are they pleasant to God. All that is not done in Christ, all that is not done in unity with His Spirit, and in the work of the edification of His body, is a service out of place.
An altar is not enough; this should be in its place, in the Unique Sanctuary. The house is built on the good earth; which is Christ. We should destroy all rival altars in any place where they have been raised. We should only leave room for God. All idolatry, spiritualism, animism, boasting, sectarianism, is abomination to God. The only name by which we can be saved is that of the Lord Jesus. God put His name in there for His dwelling place and to receive praise. Nobody goes to the Father but through Him. Nobody has life nor can they truly serve God if it is not in Him.
The head of the body is the first part of the mystery; the second is the Church that we know is not a stone or wooden temple. We are the Church, 24 hours both day and night in any place. We don't "go to church"; we are the Church that goes on His behalf to all places. The church works, rests, goes to the market, returns home, meets in one or more places, everything in Christ, in the Spirit and in the communion of the unique body. That is where it offers pleasant spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.
We can only serve God in Christ, because what comes from the fallen Adam is no longer pleasant. Flesh and blood won't inherit the Kingdom of God. We need the inspiration and the sustenance of Christ's Spirit that has baptized us into a single body. This is the place that was given to us; this is what we will seek. If it is not in Christ's Spirit, then it is merely in Adam whose fallen condition was inherited by our flesh.
We only have the inheritance of Christ in His Spirit. Everything else is outside the place chosen by God for offering.
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman that God is Spirit and it is necessary to worship him in spirit and in truth. There were no longer to be any discussions about the place of worship, of consecration and of service to God. We won't take the way of Jeroboam who stole what was meant for the people of God, building a rival sanctuary and priesthood. The vineyard belongs to the Son of God. God is worshipped and served in the spirit, that which baptizes us into a single body. Only by walking in His Spirit will we truly be in Christ. Whatever is not born of the Spirit, cannot enter, nor even see the Kingdom of God. Regeneration is necessary because of the fallen state of Adam. Only by receiving Christ and walking in His Spirit will we be in the body.
To work in the flesh is to do what seems best to each person. It is necessary to cross the Jordan, dying to ourselves in Christ, which also implies dying to sectarian division. We will only have rest in the good land. God's will is that we live by faith in Christ, in His Spirit, and in the unity and communion of His only body, in the universal and in the local; that which is the true house of God which the Son of David raises for the Father. "I will build my Church," the Lord said, whose house are we, if we remain firm until the end trusting in this principle.
This whole passage of Deuteronomy 12 is for us today. Let us demolish, therefore, every place of rival adoration to the dwelling place where God put His name. Let us finish crossing the Jordan and let us, in the rest that we have in our Spirit, offer our consecration to God in the good land that is Christ where we should raise up the Unique Sanctuary.