Lesson 26 The Kingdom of Sons of God

                “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant”

                                       The Kingdom of Sons of God

                                                                               Intro

                                                                                   

In eternity past God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Gen.1:26a). The one God, spirit being of Deity - in three persons - made a Covenant plan to do so, and God entered into a Covenant with Himself to make man in His image, after His likeness.  First a heavenly and an earthly realm were created for mankind.

God is spirit being and has no need for a body. God gave man a body. The body is necessary for an image. God began mankind with one body, which He Himself formed and breathed a soul of life into (Gen.2:7; see Job.33:4). God blew His breath [spirit], His life of spirit being, into the formed body and the inner man, the soul, came into being of spirit life - God’s life.

The body of mankind was formed of the dust of the ground of the earthly realm. The elements taken from the earth for cells forming the parts of the body and knitting the parts, the whole body fitly joined together. The life of the body is in the blood, which continually forms new cells and carries off dead cells. The power of life is in the breath, which brings oxygen for the building of living cells.

God gave the first man a woman, built from seed of living bone of the man for the cells for the parts of the body of the woman (Gen.2:21-24). Then God began to multiply man upon the face of the earth, that He might fill the earth with man in His image. In God’s Eternal Covenant man is made in the image of God (Gen.1:27), but man was not brought forth upon the earth in the image of God, but in the image of a body of the earth, earthy. Each one of mankind born of man’s seed first bears the image of the earthy (see 1 Cor.15:45-49).

Bearing the image of the heavenly Lord from heaven - the image of a son of God begotten out from the dead - is a choice. Bearing the image of God cannot be forced. It is done through a new birth and each one bearing the image of the earthy makes that choice for himself (see Jn.1:9-13; 3:3-17).

Making man in His image is a work of God. Mankind is designed by God and is covenanted by God - all three persons of Deity of one will and one purpose. Making man in God’s image is done in the Covenant. The Son of the Covenant is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, of the making of man in God’s image. All is arranged and ordered from beginning to end in God’s Covenant. Jesus Himself said so: “‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,’ says the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (Rev.1:8).

Man must be given to know “God is, and that God is the Rewarder of those who come unto Him, believing that He is” (Heb.11:6). Those who come unto God seeking eternal life for the flesh body of the earth, the body of human flesh, will be given eternal life for the body through a new birth of the Seed of the Word of God and will bear the image of the Son of God begotten out from the dead in a body of flesh and bone of spirit life - eternal life - the life God is (see Lk.24:36-43; Jn.20:19-27; 1 Cor.15:44).

Since the Way of eternal life for a new birth of the body is done in God’s Covenant, the Word of the Covenant must be shared. The one place that the Covenant could be shared with man, in any place and at any time where man inhabited earth, is in the heavens God had stretched out around the earth (Is.42:5). There in signs and constellations of figures of the coming Son, God put the revelation of His Covenant, that the heavens might declare His glory (Gen.1:14-19; Job 9:6-9; 26:13; 38:31-33; Ps.19:1-6; 97:6; 147:4; Is.40:26; 45:12; Amos 5:8).

Man must be taught and, in the very spirit of his being, receive the word of truth to be obeyed, that, with understanding of what is being offered in a new birth of his body - raised up out from the dead body of human flesh - man might choose eternal life.

The first man and his wife, each one was personally taught by the Son of the Covenant. It was imperative that the first man and wife be taught the straight truth with no error and no mixture. Each was taught that the righteousness of God is through faith in the Anointed Son of God, the Covenant Son, who is the incorruptible Seed for a body in the image of God - the heavenly image of the Lord from heaven (1 Cor.15:47-53).

All down through the ages as the Covenant is worked out in time, the righteousness of God through faith in the Son of the Covenant would be shared from faith to faith (Rom.1:16-17). The absolute justice of God’s Covenant is squared with His righteousness. Righteousness is plumbed to the line of justice (see Is.28:16-17). The line in the heavens is the ecliptic, the path of the sun around the earth. The sun is the greater luminary in the heavens to give light to the earth, the light of day (Gen.1:14-19). The “sun” is a figure of the “Son of the Covenant” to give the light of the outshining of the glory of God in His day (Mal.4:2).

As the line of the justice of the Covenant of God is gone out through all the earth - the circuit of the Son of the Covenant - is from the end of heaven to the ends of it (Ps.19:4). The end Heaven has in mind as seen in “The Heavenly Revelation” is to have man in His image and a Kingdom of sons of God only (see Lk.22:37). Each one in the Kingdom a born son. A circuit does not have a beginning and an end. It is a symbol of “eternity.” God’s Covenant began in eternity and the end of the Covenant is a Kingdom of sons of God for all eternity (see 2 Tim.1:9-10; Tit.1:2). The Covenant is eternal.

The ends of the Covenant are the destruction of enemies and the cleansing of the heavens and the earth and the establishing of the Kingdom of righteousness and peace, the Kingdom Age, to fill the earth with born-again sons of God, the final gathering of all enemies and their destruction by fire. All to be accomplished through the Son of the Covenant.

The Son of the Covenant, promised to come out of heaven and rejoice like a strong man to run a race, is the beginning and the end (Ps.19:5; Rev.1:8; 21:6). The righteousness of God in heaven would be plumbed to the line of justice laid in the Eternal Covenant, that man on earth could put his faith in the coming Son of the Covenant and be assured of becoming the righteousness of God through faith in the promised Son coming to become sin for man (2 Cor.5:14-21). One could be assured that, in having become the righteousness of God in His Anointed Son, that one is born from above, born of God, and will have a body of eternal life raised up out from his dead mortal body.

The Eternal Covenant is done in heaven in eternity past and it is completed in the Son, who is the beginning and the end. The Son is the Word, who is God (Jn.1:1-14). His circuit was all laid in order from beginning to end in God’s Eternal Covenant in eternity past. And it was recorded in the constellations of “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant” on the fourth day of creation (Gen.1:14-19).

With the Son coming into time, there must be a beginning and an end. In time, the Covenant then becomes linear. As Jehovah spoke through His prophet Isaiah, “Justice also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet” (Is.28:17a). The Son of the Covenant being the Chief Cornerstone of the Kingdom of sons of God. The “plumb line” is the symbol of “judgment according to righteousness.” Every judgment a just retribution. Age after age through time, God’s justice worked out and all judgments according to His righteousness of the plummet held from heaven. The justice of His judgments squared with the righteous Son of the Covenant. The plumb is let down from heaven. As the Covenant is worked out in time, from time to time a judgment is necessary for the preserving of the truth of God’s Covenant.

The righteousness of the truth would be set forth to mankind in words and speech, as well as “the figures of the true.” This would be done through men of faith, trusted prophets of God through whom He could speak His truth. Adam and Eve were called and prepared as the first prophets of righteousness. Each one a prophet of God telling forth God’s words of the truth of the righteousness of “The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of God’s Covenant.” Each one sharing with their progeny and shining forth the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in the face of the Anointed Son declared in the heavens.

In this way the light of the glory of God was shined into each heart to be received as the truth to be obeyed to be born again of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God, who lives and abides forever. Each one having heard the truth of the righteousness of God through faith in His Son is responsible to believe into the Son and receive the Gift of the Son, who is eternal life, to be born a son of God, made in the image of God, the heavenly image, and bear the likeness of a body of eternal flesh and bone of Christ’s Seed (see Jn.1:9-13; Rom.8:9-11, 28-30; Phil.3:21; Col.1:23b; Tit.2:11).

In giving man the choice of receiving eternal life for his body as a gift given in the Son of the Covenant begotten out from the dead, God allows man a will in the matter. There is God’s will that each one born of the seed of man, in a body of human flesh, should choose to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word, who lives and abides forever, and be born from above of flesh and bone of eternal life a son of God and enter into the Kingdom prepared for sons of God, an everlasting Kingdom (see 1 Pet.1:17-25).

In giving man freedom of choice as to his fulfilling God’s purpose for his having been brought into being, born of the flesh of humanity, God put man’s soul into each one’s own keeping of his soul life. The “soul” is the “heart” of man, the seat of his intellect, his own thinking, and of his emotions, his own desires, and his own will, the choices that he makes. Man is responsible for his own decisions, as well as his actions. Actions are the thinking and the desires carried out through the body. We are admonished to “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov.4:23). Sin begins in the thinking - in the imagination of the heart - before it is carried out through the body.

If one chooses to not believe God, and will not receive the truth to obey the truth, but chooses to think as pleases him, he will not go God’s Way, and he will not obey the truth to be born from above, then he will go his own way and have his own will, and will not be born from above, and will not have eternal life for his body of human flesh. He himself is responsible for the consequences of his choice. Each one will be given a just retribution of God’s judgment.

If one chooses to go his own way and have his own will, sourced in his own thinking and the desires of the imagination of his heart, he puts his own will above the will of his Creator-Redeemer for him to become a son of God. This is disobedience to the truth of the Word, who is God. That is lawlessness. God calls it sin and those who practice it He calls sinners and sons of disobedience (see Eph.2:1-3).

To choose to think, in the imagination of the heart, that one is not a creation of the God who is, but sees himself as other than a creation, and sees himself as a person in his own right, to do as he pleases, is sin. Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn.3:4). The end of that way is death - no eternal life has been received for a body raised up out of the dead mortal body of human flesh (see Prov.14:12; 16:25).

God says the heart of man is deceitful above all, and incurable of thinking of himself more highly than he ought (Jer.17:9-10). Man is sin-sick and it is terminal. The heart of man, in his own thinking, has deceived him. In going his own way, man has desires for himself other than what His Creator-Redeemer has desired for him. Through the deceit of his own desires man is drawn away from God. The desires of the imagination of his own heart seduce him to have his own way, and bring forth sin, lawlessness. Sin, when it is finished, carried out in action, brings forth death, absence of eternal life for the body of human flesh (see Jas.1:13-15).

The problem is in man’s thinking. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Prov.23:7). Man is at enmity with God in his mind. The mind of the flesh is for one’s body to be his to do as he pleases. The body is him - his person - who he is - and he concerns himself with the things to be seen and done in the mortal body - the things of here and now.

With the things of the eternal soul of spirit life, that one is not concerned. The thinking of that one is enmity against the thinking of God and therefore, enmity against God. That one will not subject his thinking to the law of God - to God’s word and God’s thinking expressed in His Son of His Covenant. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God (see Rom.8:1-13).

Man, in choosing to think for himself and fulfill his own desires, and in his own choosing to have his own will and to be his own god, thinks that he knows what is good for him and what is evil. He refuses to believe that God alone is good. There is none that does good but God (Ps.14:1-3; Eccl.7:20; Rom.3:10-12). God is good and He is willing to share His goodness with His creation of mankind in human flesh. Evil is what God does not approve for man, and therefore, what God cannot accept.

Man, in his refusing to reason with God to understand how God thinks that he might learn the truth of God’s thoughts, does not know God. He cannot because he is thinking in his darkened mind. If one will not receive the light of the knowledge of the glory of God seen in the face of the Son of God’s Eternal Covenant, he remains in the dark concerning the things of God, the things of life and death. God and His ways are a mystery to Him. He buys the thinking of this world, all sourced in the spirit of this world. The truth of God must be taken in by the very spirit of one’s being for true understanding of God’s will.

Though the facts are taken in through the mind, the truth is not understood through the reasoning of the mind. In the imagination of the heart the facts can be twisted by one coming to his own conclusion concerning the facts. The facts must be considered in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. This is a work of the Holy Spirit shared in man’s spirit. This takes a desire to know God, not just to know things about God (see 1 Cor.2).

In eternity past, in the making of man in His image, after His likeness, God knew of this enmity of the mind of the flesh. God had the cure for the sin of man having his will over the will of God. The cure is death. Death is an exodus out of a creation of a sin-sick heart in a body of human flesh of mankind. The Anointed Son of God is the Way of eternal life for the mortal body of human flesh to be born again a new creation of sons of God (Jn.3:5-16).

Man not only needs an exodus out of the creation of the sin of self-will of mankind, he needs a new birth in a creation freed from sin and death. A Savior to overcome sin and death is what man needs. A Savior is what God sent.

God Himself, in whom is no sin, took the likeness of sinful flesh - sin apart (Rom.8:3). The Word, who is God, did so that He might offer Himself to the Eternal Godhead to be man’s Substitute and to take the sins of the whole world of mankind on His body which did no sin and die the death to which man’s mortal body is consigned to return to the dust of the ground (see Heb.2:9-17; 1 Jn.3:5).

“By one man” - Adam - “the sin entered into the world, and death through the sin, and so death passed through to all men, for all sinned” (Rom.5:12). By one man - Jesus Christ - the sin was put away once for all in death and burial with Him (Rom.5:14-6:10). Death was overcome in raising up an immortal body of flesh and bone of eternal life out from the dead mortal body of Jesus (see Lk.24:39; Jn.20:27).

“By one offering” - of Himself in sacrifice - “He has perfected forever those who are sanctified” in Him (Heb.10:14). Each one “in Him” completed in the image of God - the body of eternal flesh and blood raised up out from the dead mortal body of flesh and bone. It is done in God’s Eternal Covenant. The glory of God is seen in the light of the knowledge of the glory shined forth in the Covenant Son, who is declared in the heavens. In the heavens the glory of God is declared in “signs” and “figures” and “symbols.”

The word of God has a word for the lawlessness of one having one’s own will over the will of the Creator-Redeemer for His creation of mankind in human flesh. That word is “sin.” God had a symbol figure for the enmity of the mind of the flesh that He might show that in choosing to have one’s own will over the will of one’s Creator-Redeemer is lawlessness, and is not acceptable.

The symbol God chose for “the sin of man exalting his will above the will of his Creator-Redeemer” is the figure of a “long, twisting constellation composed of 60 stars.” In the stellar decan in the sign of Leo the figure is of a female serpent, Hydra. The female, suggesting seduction.

Hydra has the meaning, “the abhorred.” What is it God abhors? The sin of the enmity of the mind of one of His creation refusing to submit himself to the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn.14:6). The self-will of the one who will not disown himself and take up his cross and follow the Son of the Covenant into death to be raised up a son of God is abhorrent to God (Mt.10:38). God abhors sin, yet He loves the one sinning and He offers grace and mercy through repentance. The one who will change his mind and agree with God and accept the gift of righteousness and eternal life in the Son will be forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness (1 Jn.1:9).

The brightest star in the heart of the serpent has the ancient Arabic name Al Phard, which means “the separated,” “put away.” Jesus, the Son of the Covenant, the Word who is God become flesh to put away sin once for all through the one offering of Himself in sacrifice (Heb.9:22-10:14). Another star in the constellation of Hydra is named Minchar Al Sugia, which has the meaning, “the piercing of the deceiver.”

“The word of God is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart,” the deceitful heart (Heb.4:12).

An example of this can be found in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. The men of Israel had been deceived into believing Jesus of Nazareth to be a blasphemer. Incited by their rulers they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him! Crucify Him!” (see Mt.26:57-68; Mk.14:60-65; Lk.23:1-25; Jn.19:1-18). When they heard the truth, they were pricked in their heart - the piercing of the deceiver - their own heart. And immediately they repented and cried out, asking what they could do to be saved. There were about 3,000 souls born-again sons of God who entered the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love that day (see Ac.2:22-47).

“The Heavenly Revelation of the Son of God’s Eternal Covenant” is laid out in the heavens as a circuit, and is stretched around the globe of the earth created by God. Therefore “The Heavenly Revelation” does not seem to give us a clear beginning of the linear working out of the Eternal Covenant on earth in time.

However, we can easily see that, as Adam and Eve were personally taught by Jehovah Himself, He would have made the beginning sign of the Covenant clear to them. Also Abraham, the forefather of Israel, was personally taught by Jehovah Elohim and it would have also been made clear to Abraham in which sign the circuit began. So the sons of Israel, for whom “The Book of the Law” was written, had already been taught “The Heavenly Revelation of the coming Son of the Eternal Covenant.” The beginning sign of the circuit was known to them.

Man, in his natural mind, would think that the Son coming out of heaven to complete His circuit would begin with His birth in Virgo. As man naturally thinks clockwise, if Virgo is the first sign, Leo would be the twelfth sign. Which is reasonable, as the King, at His second coming has then established His Kingdom on earth.

The word of God would seem to back up this premise, especially after the book of Revelation completed the canon of Scripture. The Bible begins with the promise of the Seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 and ends with the Kingdom come in Revelation. That is man’s thinking, and it seems logical to the mind.

However, with the Kingdom established, the Covenant is not at the end of the circuit. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” makes mention of other enemies at the end of the 1,000 year reign before time ends. The end of the Covenant is shown in “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” but recorded by John in brief details of a few verses in chapter 20, verses 7 through 15. Then in chapter 21 John returns to the new cleansed heavens and earth for the Kingdom, and finishes the Revelation with the description of the home of the Lamb’s Wife and the dwelling of the Lion of the tribe of Judah - begotten out of the slain Lamb (see Rev.5:5-6; 21 & 22).

The key to the beginning of the circuit is the word “eternal.” God’s Covenant is eternal. It was done in eternity past and the Kingdom of sons of God is everlasting throughout eternity future. Also, the sun goes through the tabernacles of the signs in the constellations as the earth rotates on its axis. Therefore the signs of the circuit must be counted counterclockwise.

The Covenant began with a Propitiation set forth in the Eternal Covenant. That is seen as done in the sign of Libra. Then, in time, it is carried out upon earth as seen in the sign of Virgo. Going the correct direction, counterclockwise, from right to left, and beginning with the first sign Libra, the twelfth sign is Scorpio, where the final enemies are taken out before the Kingdom of sons of God goes into eternity, an everlasting Kingdom of righteousness and peace.

Being omniscient God knew that in His plan He must permit man his freedom to enter into God’s Kingdom by his own choosing to receive the gift of eternal life for his body to be born from above. God also knew that some born in the creation of man’s seed in the image of the earthy, human flesh, would choose to not obey the truth to be born of the incorruptible Seed, the Word of God. In their sin of self-will, some would not enter the Kingdom of sons of God which God intended to build down through planned ages. In His own doing God had the lawlessness of man covered in His Covenant in eternity past. The Son of the Covenant would take care of the sin and death man would be in (see Rom.4:25-5:21; Eph.2:1-3). It is done.

God did not put eternal life in the body which He formed for man. He gave man a mortal body with the life in the blood. The oxygen needed to build the blood cells for continuing life for the members of the body is breathed in from the atmosphere through breathing. Physical life is but a vapor - a breath inspired. The last breath expired will leave the body lifeless. The inner man is then left unclothed - naked. The thoughts and intents of the heart of the inner man - the personal being - and the desires of his flesh and of his mind can no longer be carried out. The death of the mortal body takes care of lawlessness.

There are two ends for the sin of man’s self-will to exalt himself above being a mere creation and to choose to think and do for himself and go his own way. One is to repent - to have a change of mind and bow down to God’s will, and give up the enmity of the mind and make friends with God. One must accept God’s peace terms and be freely justified through faith in the righteousness of God. Having freely received the righteousness of God and having accepted the gift of eternal life for an immortal body, one is assured of the redemption of the mortal body.

Or - one will end with the mortal body becoming lifeless and, not having received the gift of eternal life for the body, one will be forever unclothed of a body of living flesh and bone. No eternal life was freely received. The Gift of the Covenant Son having been despised and rejected, there has been no birth as a son of God. The personal being did not choose to enter the Kingdom of sons of God though Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (see Jn.3:5-8; 14:6).

With either end, the lawlessness of the heart of the personal being has been dealt with and taken care of forever. The lawlessness of man’s heart - in the enmity of the mind of the flesh - can in no way hinder the fulfillment of God’s Eternal Covenant. The Covenant is done in eternity past. It is done in Him who is and who was and who is to come!

This concludes this lesson.