Lesson 15 Saving a Household update 10-14-13

                                     Saving a Household

                                 Genesis 6:8-13; 1 Peter 3:18-20

As we have seen in our continuing narrative written by Moses, the time was drawing near when Jehovah Elohim must bring judgment on the man He created. “God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen.6:5).

Why was man living in the imagination of his heart? Every man was turned to his own way. As Moses has recorded for us, Jehovah Elohim made a creation for one purpose - that He might have man in His image, after His likeness (Gen.1:26).

God covenanted with Himself that man be given the hope of eternal life (2 Tim.1:9-10; Tit.1:2; Heb.13:20). God did not create man with eternal life. Man would begin life in a temporary body in the image of the earthy body created by Jehovah Elohim from the dust of the ground for His first man (Gen.2:7; see 1 Cor.15:35-58).

Man is given hope of living forever but he must desire it, and choose it, and receive it God’s Way. God’s Way is His own Covenant plan and purpose. The Word, who is God and in whom is eternal life and who is light, would be sent from heaven with eternal life and light to be shared with whosoever would believe (Jn.1:1-14; 3:16).

The Word who is God would become flesh. He would take the likeness of His creation of man that He might share with each one of His creation eternal life for the mortal body of the dust of ground. Having received eternal life in the Son through faith, one would be raised up out from the dead a new deathless glorified body.

The inner man, the soul of spirit being, would be given light for understanding the Covenant plan of the Way of God. Man must be freed from the sin of having his own will and desires over God’s will for him. The Covenant Son would become sin for man. As man’s Substitute, the Covenant Son would take the sins of the whole world of mankind of all ages on His body of human flesh to put sin away once for all. It would only take one death to put sin away (Rom.4:25-5:11; 6:10; Heb.1:1-3; 7:27; 9:22-28; 1 Pet.3:18).

Through faith in the Anointed Son becoming sin and taking care of both sin and death, one might become the righteousness of God through uniting in the death that put away sin once for all (2 Cor.5:21). This is God’s Way of a man making his exodus out of a corrupt creation of mankind in human flesh and becoming the righteousness of God, be born again in a body of eternal life, and of man saving his soul from destruction (Mt.16:24-27; Mk.8:34-38).The righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Covenant Son of God is man’s only hope of being clothed with a new body born of God.

Righteousness and eternal life are a gift from God. They are sent to mankind in His Anointed Son. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn.3:16). The Gift is freely given and it must be freely received. No one is coerced

into being born again. God purposely gave man freedom of choice. He may have his own way or go God’s Way (see Prov.14:12; 16:25; Jn.14:6).

The creation of mankind was proved together in their progenitor Adam. The apostle Paul, taking his text from the psalmist, said, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God; they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable. There is none that does good, no, not one” (Rom.3:10-12). This is Paul’s picture of man born of the seed of Adam - bearing the image of the earthy - man in the flesh.

Paul took his text from Psalm 14: “Jehovah Elohim looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy; there is none that does good, no, not one” (vv2-3).

This was taking place in Noah’s day and in the nation of Israel and in the Gentile nations and in Paul’s day and in our day. But there is no excuse for not understanding the Way of God and for not coming to Him. It is understandable that men born turned to their own way would not seek after God. But God is not willing that any should perish. God seeks after each man (2 Pet.3:9; Ezek.18:19-23; see Jn.1:9; Ac.10:34-43; Col.1:23b; 1 Tim.2:3-6; Tit.2:11).

Together in their progenitor, man could be proved as to the way which they would choose to go. Man in his heart is self-serving and self-loving. In the thoughts of his heart, in the inner man in his tent of mere flesh, man is deceived concerning that which is his own doing (see Jer.17:9-10). In his own heart each one is deceived in his imagination. He is deceived through the thoughts conceived in his imagination and he is drawn away and enticed through his own desires (Gen.6:5; Jas.1:13-14).

Man believes that he is basically good and that he can rule over his own being and govern his own person to do that which is right. Man believes in power that he only sees in his own imagination. In truth, man is powerless to save himself from destruction. Only the thoughts of Almighty God are true and only He has the power to bring to pass His plan and purpose for His mankind to become born sons of God (Jn.1:12-13; 5:26).

In the one proving of all mankind, each one was proved to turn to his own way and to have his own will over the will of His Creator for him. That is sin. Through one man the sin came into the world and death through the sin. So death - absence of eternal life for the raising up the body born again - passed through to all mankind, for all sinned (Rom.5:12). All bodies of human flesh were consigned to return to the dust of the ground from which they came, through the seed of Adam (Gen.3:19; Rom.5:14).

Of man born in the flesh, each one has proved the reality of going his own way. Each one  born of the flesh has sinned and is coming short of the glory of a new body - until he repents and has a change of thinking to return to God and go God’s way to be born again of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, who lives and abides forever (Rom.3:23; 1 Pet.1:17-25).

In the one proving of the heart of a creation of man in human flesh, the lawlessness of the heart was seen. Together man could be proved to see that which is true of each person of the same creation of human flesh. The  crucial test is that of a new birth of a new creation of sons of God. That proving is individual (see Tit.3:4-7).

In going his own way, man walks in darkness concerning the deep things of God’s thoughts and purposes. The light of the knowledge of the glory must be shined into the darkness of each heart. In the light of the knowledge of the glorification, God has prepared for His creation of man is seen His purpose for man to become a son of God.

In the light of the knowledge of the glory is seen the Covenant Son, sent as God’s Gift to bring man eternal life for his dead body and light for his soul to show man the true self who lives in darkness, deceived by the imagination of his own heart. The light, if received, makes clear that one must be born from above. One must receive the Gift of righteousness and eternal life in the Son of God. There is no other way of saving one’s soul from destruction.

A creation of man in the flesh, which does not fulfill the purpose of God and become a born again son of God is of no profit to his Creator. He is corrupt and will corrupt that which he touches in his doing. He must be destroyed.

As Moses recorded, there came a time in the days of Noah when all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth and filled the earth with violence. They must be destroyed (Gen.6:11-13). God had foreseen the necessity of the judgment which must come and 120 years before the judgment God forewarned man of His timing of the coming judgment, giving man more than enough time to repent (Gen.6:3).

The Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the righteousness of God through faith in the Covenant Son, was shining the light of the knowledge of the glory of God into the hearts of each one of His mankind. God had His faithful preachers, who had repented and gone God’s Way to be born again a son of God. Each one having become the righteousness of God through faith in the Covenant Son shared the light of the knowledge of the glory of God to make clear the absolute imperative: You must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God as a true birthed son and be made safe from perishing (see Jn.3:3-21). We have record of three, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah, who were preaching this message during these 120 years (Gen.5:25-29; see Amos 3:7; Lk.1:70; Heb.11:7, 39-40; 1 Pet.1:10-12; 2 Pet.1:20-21; 3:2).

Jehovah has His witnesses, His preachers of the righteousness of God through faith in the coming Anointed Covenant Son of God. The Spirit of God was testifying to the truth of the witness, to the hearts of those hearing the witness, that the righteousness of God through faith in His Son might sit in judgment on the unbelieving heart with conviction to show the person not receiving the righteousness of God to be guilty of sin (Gen.6:3).

If anyone born of the seed of man was willing to judge himself, he would see himself guilty of not having received the Gift of the Son, who is made unto us righteousness for power over the sin, who shares His eternal life for the body to be raised up out from the dead, a son of God to live in the Kingdom of His Son forever. The judgment was for conviction and called for repentance, a change of mind to agree with Jehovah Elohim.

The gospel of the Anointed Son is a call to lay down one’s own thinking of the imagination of one’s heart and receive the gift of righteousness and eternal life to save one’s own soul. There is no other way of salvation from the perishing of the unworthy vessel of human flesh.

It is in the thoughts of the imagination of his heart that man is at enmity with God. The enmity is in man’s own thinking. It is in believing that he has a right to his own way of thinking that man is antagonistic to God. It is man’s thinking that must be laid down to take in God’s thinking and have a change of mind and be transformed through the renewing of his thinking.

In that day Jehovah had one man who had found grace in His eyes (Gen.6:8). Noah came from the line of the preachers of righteousness. In the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, Noah heard the voice of the Spirit of God. He saw the great value of this great favor Jehovah Elohim had done man - to send His Son that man might become a born son of God and bear His image.

Noah was God’s man. Noah carried the seed for the coming Covenant Son. Noah had three sons and the seed for the Covenant Son would be passed to one of them (Gen.6:10; 9:26). Through Noah Jehovah Elohim would continue His purpose to have a Kingdom of sons of God.

In man refusing to go God’s Way and receive the eternal life in the Son to fulfill the purpose of God to have man in His image - sons of God - man must be destroyed. Man had corrupted his way upon earth and the earth was filled with violence. The breath of the mortal bodies must be taken away and the bodies become lifeless.

A lifeless body of human flesh cannot corrupt or do violence. The persons, the souls of spirit life, do not die. Spirit being is neither born, nor can it die. Once a soul comes into being - a person - the person will always be. Knowing this, God made provision for a place for those spirit beings who have departed the mortal body to go and be. In the Old Testament, the place is called Sheol. In the New Testament, it is called Hades.

Sheol/Hades is a temporary holding place. From Jesus’ description of it in Luke 16, we know that it is divided into compartments, with a great gulf separating them (see Lk.16:19-31). On one side the spirit beings who chose to receive eternal life and be born a son of God wait for The Resurrection of Life (Dan.12:2; Jn.5:21-29; Rev.20:4-6). Together they fellowship in wisdom and the ways of God. They share the same thinking, the wisdom taught them, and the understanding of the deep things of God and of the inheritance awaiting them. God, being omnipresent, is with them.

For the spirit beings who remained at enmity with God in their thinking and would not choose eternal life and be born a son of God, Hades is a place of torment, a place where each one is left with the imagination of the thoughts of their own heart, and with the unfulfilled desires, and with the emotions of having been denied continuing to go one’s own way. Each one tormented day and night as a consequence of his own decision. And at the end of time each one will be given a fair trial, proving the justice of the retribution (see Rev.20:11-15).

Each one had been forewarned in the gospel of the righteousness of God through faith in God’s Covenant Son. Each one had life and death set before them. After having been warned that the only way to live forever in the body of human flesh given to them was to receive the Son with eternal life and be born again a son of God, each will be forever left with the choice they made.

In his two epistles Peter, the apostle of Jesus, wrote of the spirits of those destroyed in the Flood and imprisoned in Hades. In his second epistle, he wrote concerning the judgment of God, who “did not spare the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly” (2 Pet.2:5; see also Heb.11:1-7).

In his first epistle Peter makes clear that the spirit beings imprisoned in the place of departed spirits had the preaching of the righteousness of God through faith in His Covenant Son, that each one could have chosen to believe that God is and diligently seek after Him to be rewarded with eternal life and become a son of God.

Peter writes, “For Christ also has once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison, who at one time were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, in which few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water, the like figure unto which baptism does also now save us” (1 Pet.3:18-21a).

Christ suffered once, once in the sense that it is not to occur again. Christ suffered once for all mankind (Rom.5:6; 1 Jn.2:2). The righteous One suffered for the ungodly sinners of Adam’s seed. Jesus was innocent of sin Himself. In Him is no sin. He knew no sin. He did no sin (2 Cor.5:14-21; 1 Jn.3:5; 1 Pet.2:22).

That He might bring us, mankind, to God, Christ, the Anointed Covenant Son, was put to death in the body of human flesh but made alive by the Spirit. Through the power of eternal life, the Spirit of God raised the body of Jesus up out from the dead mortal body - a body of eternal life (Ac.2:22-28; Rom.8:11).

“By one man the sin came into the world, and death through the sin, and death passed through to all men, for all have sinned” (Rom.5:12). All are born dead in trespasses and sins (see Eph.2:1-3). All, each one, born without eternal life to raise the body up out from the dead.

Death has a claim on all mortal bodies of human flesh in the image of the earthy. And mankind is impotent, powerless to overcome death. Death is absence of eternal life. Man must be given the eternal life with the power to raise up a body out from the dead and overcome death (see Jn.12:23-33). Man must freely receive the eternal life shared with him in God’s Anointed Son.

Also man must be set free from choosing to have his own will over the will of His Creator-Redeemer. That is sin. Man is helpless to help himself. The sin so easily besets and masters him to choose his own will and go his own way. Man must become the righteousness of God through the Son, who became sin for us (2 Cor.5:21).

Man must be delivered from death and ransomed. For this, the Anointed Covenant Son must be baptized into death. He must go into death and rescue His creation of man. He must drink the cup and become sin for man, that man might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Christ, the Anointed Covenant Son of God, went and preached to these spirits who are imprisoned in Hades. How did He do that?

By the Spirit who raised up His mortal body again alive.

When did Christ preach to these imprisoned spirits?

When they were disobedient to the word preached.

When was that?

In the days of Noah when the long-suffering of God waited to bring judgment while Noah was preparing the ark to save his household.

In what way did Christ preach by the Spirit to these spirits who were disobedient while Noah was preparing the ark and the long-suffering of God waited to bring judgment?

We have Moses’ record in Genesis 6.

Methuselah, Lamech and Noah were preachers of the righteousness of God through faith in the coming Covenant Son. The Spirit of God was bearing witness to the testimony of the preachers of righteousness concerning the Covenant Son of God, who was coming to die for man’s iniquity and sins that man be made fit for the presence of God and to share His righteousness and eternal life. The Spirit of God was bearing witness to the hearts while the spirits were yet in their mortal body, that He might bring conviction of guilt and repentance with a change of mind to receive the Propitiation set before them, that they might be born again and save their soul (see Jn.5:24; Rom.3:22-26; 1 Jn.2:2; 4:10). Sharing His righteousness with His creation of mankind would give man power over sin, the lawlessness within, that one might walk worthy of his calling.

Those imprisoned had, in the days of Noah, refused to change their mind. They remained disobedient to the truth of the word of God being preached. They hardened their heart against the voice of the Spirit. They refused to judge themselves guilty of wickedness. They refused to judge themselves in need of righteousness and eternal life for the new birth of the body. In man refusing to change his mind and lay down his own thinking to take up God’s thinking, the earth was being corrupted and violence filled the earth (Gen.6:11-12).

The judgment of the Flood of waters must be sent to wash away the filth caused by men as mere flesh, dead in trespasses and sins. The consequence of the judgment brought death to the bodies of the disobedient and the soul of spirit life must then be imprisoned in Sheol/Hades.

In the ark which Noah had prepared, a few souls were saved. Eight in number. Namely, Noah’s household. His wife and his three sons and their wives equal seven, and Noah was the eighth. The Covenant would be established in Noah in the new beginning after the Flood (Gen.9:8-17).

Peter says the preparing of the ark and the saving of the eight souls is “a like figure unto baptism which does also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities being made subject unto Him” (1 Pet.3:21-22).

The preparing of the ark to save the eight souls of Noah’s household was for God to wash His earth clean of the filthiness of the works of the flesh. Baptism, which now saves us, is for the answer of a good conscience toward God. Having gone into death with Jesus Christ and having been buried with Him, one has been planted together in the likeness of His death, and shall also be of His resurrection (see Rom.6).

The Greek word for “figure” comes from two Greek words. One anti, meaning “instead of” or “corresponding to,” and the other, tupo, “ a type,” “a model,” or “a figure.” Peter refers to the baptism of Jesus as like or corresponding to the preparing of the ark and the saving of the eight souls for a new beginning.

The eight souls in the ark were saved through the waters of judgment. They came out of the judgment alive. All other beings in mortal flesh bodies, who were not in the ark of safety, lost the breath of their mortal bodies. Their souls of spirit life were sent to the place of spirit beings who have departed the lifeless body of human flesh and blood. The life of the spirit is everlasting. The soul of spirit life does not die.

From what were those in the ark saved? From being imprisoned in the place prepared for spirit beings who have departed their lifeless mortal body. Seven of the souls on the ark were unregenerate (see Gen.7:1). They had not received the eternal life sent to them in the Son. Had they died in the waters, they too would have been imprisoned in the place of departed spirits until the end of time, when they would have faced the Son as the Judge at the Great White Throne Judgment. Not having been born again, their name would not be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Their end would be the lake of fire, where they will be imprisoned forever (see Rev.20:11-15).

Noah, preparing an ark to the saving of his household and making them safe from losing their soul, Peter said is a like figure of the body prepared for God’s Anointed Son Jesus, that He might save His household of sons of God. The sons of God who, all down through the ages, believed in the righteousness of God and received the righteousness and eternal life in the One who is the salvation of Jehovah Elohim.

How is it Christ’s being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit saves His household of sons of God? We find our answer in the Gospel records.

In Matthew chapter 1 we have the birth of Jesus. In chapter 2 we have the plot to kill Jesus when He was a toddler and God warning Joseph to flee to Egypt and remain until He sent Joseph word to return. When Herod died, Joseph, with Mary and Jesus, returned to Nazareth in Galilee (Mt.2:19-23; see Lk.1:26; 2:39).

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet, Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight” (Mt.3:1-3).

“Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about the Jordan, and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, ‘O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits befitting repentance. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid at the root of the trees; therefore, every tree which does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I, indeed, baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire” (Mt.3:5-11).

Jesus is the Anointed Son of God, the Word, who is God, become flesh. John was a man sent from God to prepare the way for the sons of Israel to come to Jesus and become the righteousness of God in Him (Jn.1:6-8). John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance.

The sons of Israel were being taught the righteousness of God through the works of the Law and through birth as a son of Abraham, and in this way, being a covenant people is identified through circumcision. The apostle Paul speaks of true circumcision, made without hands being in the putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Jesus having put off His body of flesh. That is, one puts off the body of human flesh through being baptized into Jesus, the Anointed Son of God. “Buried with Him in baptism, in which also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him out from the dead” (Col.2:12; see vv11-14). In Colossians Paul is speaking collectively of the members of the Body of Christ, which came out of His death (see also Col.1:12-22; Eph.1:3-3:21; 5:23-27).

John was baptizing unto repentance. Those coming to him to be baptized were confessing themselves to be sinners and in need of a change of thinking. In this way hearts were being prepared to come to Jesus to hear the truth and become His disciples, “learners” of Him.

One day, at the time Jesus was preparing to begin His public ministry, Jesus came to John to be baptized. John would have hindered Him. Here is the One who will be baptizing with the Holy Spirit and with a fiery judgment in the end of Gentile dominion for the preparation of the setting up of His Kingdom of sons of God. Here is the One of whom John is preaching. “And Jesus answering John said unto him, ‘Permit it to be so now; for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented to Him” (Mt.3:15).

Jesus going into death and cutting off the body of flesh will fulfill righteousness for all. Jesus, in His baptism of death, will become sin for His creation of mankind, that anyone believing into Him and uniting in His death, can become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor.5:21).

Through the veil of His flesh of humanity, Jesus made an exodus out of the creation of man in human flesh, and Jesus opened a new and living way into the presence of God (Heb.10:10-23). In having become sin for His mankind, anyone born in the flesh can, through faith in Christ, become the righteousness of God in the Anointed Son and be born again a son of God (Gal.3:26). The believing one has taken his exodus out of the creation of man in human flesh.

“And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him. And, lo, a voice from heaven saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Mt.3:16-17; see Mk.1:9-11; Lk.3:21-22; Jn.1:31-34).

Here is the Son of God’s love, born of a virgin (Is.7:14; Mt.1:18-25; Lk.1:26-35). Here is the Word, who is God, become flesh - the Seed of the woman (Jn.1:1-14; Gen.3:15). The seed for His body of human flesh taken from the living flesh of the virgin womb. The body prepared for Jesus as a seed coat for His person of eternal life, with power for the Spirit of God to raise it up out from the dead a body of spirit being - of His own eternal life (Jn.5:26; 10:17-18; 12:23-27; 1 Cor.15:44). In the body of the begotten Son, the body raised up out from the dead, is the seed of eternal flesh and bone to bring forth many sons of glory - the household of God, sons of God.

In the Gospel of John we read of John the Baptist introducing Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” which is a reference to Jesus taking the sins of the whole world on His body of flesh, that He might put away sin - once - for all (Jn.1:29).

John the Baptist was born into the priesthood (Lk.1:5-17). Here we have a figure of the Law as practiced in Jesus’ day. At Passover the lamb to be slain for the household must be approved as without spot or blemish by a priest (see Ex.12:3-27). God brought His Lamb to the priest in the wilderness, John the Baptist. God Himself pronounced Jesus as approved, the One in whom He, God, is well pleased (see Ac.2:22-24).

But that was not the baptism of putting off the flesh. That was symbolic of the only way to put off the body of flesh is in death. Jesus spoke to His disciples concerning the baptism of putting off the human flesh of His mortal body with the life in the blood.

Jesus and His disciples were going up to Jerusalem for His last celebration of Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Spring Festival began with Passover. That spring Jesus, the true Passover Lamb, would be slain. Along the way Jesus took His disciples aside to speak to them of what would take place in Jerusalem (Mt.20:17-19).

The mother of James and John was traveling up to Jerusalem with them. In Matthew’s record we read, “Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Him, along with her sons, worshiping and desiring a certain thing of Him. And He said unto her, ‘What do you desire?’ She said to Him, ‘Grant that these, my two sons, may sit, the one on Your right hand, and the other on the left, in Your Kingdom” (Mt.20:20-21).

Mark’s account records, “And coming up to Him, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, said, ‘Master, we would that You should do for us whatever we shall desire.’ And He said to them, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ They said to Him, ‘Grant unto us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left hand in Your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what your ask. Are you able to drink of the cup that I drink of; and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ And they said to Him, ‘We are able.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘You shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized you shall be baptized. But to sit on My right hand and on My left hand is not Mine to give, but it shall be given to those for whom it is prepared’” (Mk.10:35-40).

Truly James and John did not know what they were asking. At an earlier time, when Peter had asked Jesus what the disciples’ reward would be for forsaking all to follow Him, Jesus answered, “Truly I say unto you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life” (Mt.19:28-29).

James and John were thinking Kingdom and position in the Kingdom. Jesus had been speaking of what He must suffer at the hands of the chief priests and scribes, of being condemned and put to death, and on the third day being raised.

With His question to James and John, Jesus changes the metaphor to “drinking a cup of judgment” and of “being baptized with a baptism.” These disciples have left all to follow Him, but can they drink the cup and be baptized with His baptism of death and resurrection?

The death is a judgment on the flesh of humanity and on the willfulness of man to use his mind and his body to fulfill his own desires rather than the will of God for His creation of mankind. That is sin. Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn.3:4).

Not having true understanding of the question Jesus asked, James and John claim they are able. Then Jesus said to them, “Indeed you shall drink of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with” (see Mt.20:22-23).

Each one who, through faith, believes into Jesus, the Anointed Son, is baptized into Jesus. “As many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also of resurrection” (Rom.6:3-5).

As many as have been baptized into Jesus’ baptism are made safe from being sent to the place in Hades of the departed spirits of the unrighteous souls of spirit being. Each one baptized into Jesus’ baptism of death and resurrection has been born again, born from above, and has entered into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love. The son abides in the house forever. He is a born son of the household of God.

As many as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. Therefore we are buried with Him through baptism into death, that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, we should walk in newness of life. In Christ, God’s Anointed Son, each one was baptized into His death - together with Him.

Not one was able to drink the cup of judgment on his own sins, but the sins were laid on the mortal body of Jesus and consumed in the acceptance of His offering of Himself in sacrifice, that man might have an exodus out of the mere creation of human flesh in a temporary body not completed with eternal life.

And baptized into Jesus’ death, man is set free from the sin of having his will over the will of His Creator for him. United together with Jesus in His putting away the sins of the whole world by His sacrificial death, we have died to the sin with Him in His death. For freedom from having our will over our Lord’s will for us, Jesus died to set us free. Jesus drank the cup of judgment to set us free. And He swallowed up death in eternal life (1 Cor.15:54-57). Let us drink the cup of our freedom to not have our will but to choose to have the eyes of our understanding enlightened to know His will and do it.

As the one righteous man, Noah, prepared an ark to the saving of his household, so the one righteous Son of Man, Jesus the Anointed Son of the Covenant, was prepared a body that He might be baptized into death and be brought again from the dead to save the household of His sons born of His Seed, flesh of his flesh, bone of His bone - a body of eternal life (see Lk.24:36-43; Jn.20:19-27; 1 Cor.15:44; Phil.3:21; see also Lk.21:16-18).

In Noah’s day seven souls of Noah’s house were made safe from being sent to the place of departed spirits. Only a few souls, seven in number, saved. Anyone who had been willing to go into the ark would have been made safe and the soul been saved from, in the end, the final place of everlasting torment - the Lake of Fire.

Having come through the judgment of the waters of the Flood alive, the old world was condemned to Noah’s family. Each one was given a new opportunity to repent and believe into the coming Son to be forever safe, as a born son of God. The world in which Noah’s sons had been born was condemned to them. They had been saved to a new beginning.

In Noah’s day the souls who refused the preaching of the truth of the righteousness of God when they heard the preachers preaching of the righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son, when they refused their only hope of eternal life, each one must suffer the judgment and go to the place prepared for unrepentant souls who would not receive the Gift of God’s Son, that they be born again and freed from the sin. Each one stopped breathing in the waters of judgment and became lifeless in the body (see Gen.7:17-23). But the soul is a life of spirit being. The souls went to the place in Sheol prepared for the unrighteous spirit beings. For them, there was no second opportunity to repent. They had rejected Him who is the only hope of eternal life for the body.

The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev.13:8). Jesus suffered being put to death in the flesh and made alive through the Spirit, that mankind might believe into Him and anyone believing and receiving the eternal life offered in Him be made safe from losing his soul in a prison made for departed spirits. And then be brought to the Great White Throne Judgment and cast into the lake of fire and be tormented day and night forever, a just retribution. Each one receives what he chose.

The invitation of Jesus Christ is, “If any will come after Me, let him deny [disown] himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake, shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mt.16:24-26).

Untold millions down through the ages have chosen to believe into the Anointed Covenant Son of God to save his soul life. Each one has saved his soul of spirit being through obedience to the truth to be born of the incorruptible Word of God, born from above a son of God, and translated into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love. Each one will have a forever living body raised up out of the dead body.

Each one who disowned himself to confess he is not his own but a creation of God, and who took up his cross to be baptized into Jesus and united in the baptism of Jesus’ death has been made safe from the prison of departed souls of spirit being. One day there will be a resurrection of the body and a reuniting of soul and body.

This concludes our lesson.