The Two Shall be One

THE TWO SHALL BE ONE

After creating Paradise the Lord God said, concerning Adam, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”

When the Lord God brought forth the Word, at some point in timeless infinity, God envisioned a helper suitable for Him, a counterpart with whom the Word can enjoy the new heaven and earth that are the actual world God has had in mind from the beginning. The helper is the Christian Church.

All that has transpired since, from the creation of the spirit realm with its creatures to the present hour, has had as its focus and highest purpose the forming from the living Word of a counterpart fashioned from His body and blood.

THE TWO SHALL BE ONE

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’, for she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2:23,24—NIV)
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31,32—NIV)

“But I am talking about Christ and the church.”

Human marriage is not a mystery but the marriage it foreshadows indeed is a mystery. The mystery has to do with the oneness of Christ and His Church.

It is interesting that the Lord Jesus, when He appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, said, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”

And in the two passages above: “The two will become one flesh.” Perhaps because of the influence of Gnosticism, a philosophy that stresses the spiritual nature of man, we do not realize the importance of the flesh and bones body with which we have been endowed. What an angel wouldn’t give to have a flesh and bones body so it could enjoy the material creation!

Comparing the two passages above gives rise to a very profound thought, a mystery. It causes us to see a parallel between Adam and Eve, and Christ and His Church.

It appears at some point in timeless infinity before the spirit or material realms were created, the Lord Jesus Christ came forth from God. The Lord Jesus, the eternal Word, is the Son of God.

He now is also the Son of Man, having been born of Mary. The Lord Jesus Christ is Son of God and Son of Man.

We too having been born of woman and also born of God are son of man and son of God. This is why we can be wed to the Lamb. Like must marry like.

So the Lord Jesus was brought forth from God in timeless infinity. Then through Him God created the universe of spirit creatures, such as the angels, the cherubim, and the seraphim. Even Satan was created by the Word. Now the Lord had many companion spirits but not a helper suited to Him.

This would be comparable to Adam being surrounded with animals but not having a helper suited to him.

When God said “it is not good that man be alone” He was referring primarily to His Son, the Lord Jesus. When God brought forth Jesus He did not envision He would be alone but that a wife, a counterpart, a helper suitable for Him would in time be created from His Substance.

God knew Satan, being so competent, so highly placed, so gifted in wisdom and beauty, would fall through pride. It was necessary Satan’s fall take place so when the new heaven and earth reign of Jesus Christ begins (the real world—that which God planned from timeless infinity) the problem of sin and rebellion would be addressed and their proper consequences, solutions, and penalties revealed.

We are not saying by this that God made Satan fall or that Satan obeyed God by falling. God cannot be tempted with sin. Satan and the rest of God’s creatures, sin when they are drawn away by their own lusts.

The spirit realm and the creatures thereof were created by the Word. All this was in preparation for the master plan—that of creating a counterpart for the Word, the Logos, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God.

Then, through the Lord Jesus, God created the physical universe just as previously the spirit realm had been formed with its creatures. All of this was for and by the Son.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, (Colossians 1:15-19—NIV)

The plan of God is to create a great house and a family for Himself. His Son from the beginning is the Lord Jesus. The Son is the chief Cornerstone of the eternal House of God. Next God is creating a bride for His Son. After that will come the children—those born of the union of the Son and His bride.

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. (Romans 7:4—NIV)

Notice that the New Testament never refers to the bride as the bride of Christ or the bride of the Son of God. The Church always is the Bride of the Lamb or the Wife of the Lamb. This is because the Bride is formed from the body and blood of the Lamb. She is wed to Him as she learns to live by His body and blood. It is the body and blood that are the covenant.

No wedding ceremony was needed for Adam and Eve because Eve was formed from Adam. She could marry no other. She was Adam in another form.

There will be no Anglican ceremony to unite the Lamb and His Wife. We are being married to Him today as we live by Him. When the Bible says “the marriage of the Lamb is come” it is referring to our being revealed to the world as His possession and our being clothed with the wedding garment, the robe from Heaven that will clothe our resurrected flesh and bones.

So it is true that the Wife is formed from the Lamb. She can marry no other. She is the Lamb in another form.

As we said, it is God’s love, His delight, to see Himself in Christ, to find His Life in another, as it were. So it is the Lamb’s love, His delight, to see Himself in another, His wife.

When God decided to enlarge Himself by creating a counterpart, a fullness, for His Son, He created the physical universe. The purpose of the physical universe is to be a visible expression of the invisible God.

The Lord Jesus Christ, born of Mary, is the beginning of the Kingdom of God, the eternal House of God, the Temple of God, the Tabernacle of God of which the Tabernacle of the Congregation is a symbol.

There is coming a day when the Lord Jesus Christ, once God has brought all in subjection to Him, will Himself be subject to God. Then God will be All in all. All the physical creation will be an expression of Jesus Christ and God in Him.

Nothing, no person, no creature, no aspect of nature, no incident, will exist apart from the Lord Jesus Christ and God in Him. God will be All in all!

This is why we must be born again if we would enter the Kingdom of God. We must be born of the physical realm and then be born of God. The Kingdom of God is all the Glory of God housed in a physical form. We see this when the Lord emerged from the cave of Joseph of Arimathea.

Everything created thing, if it is to endure through the ages of eternity, including man, must die and then be raised in Christ. Even Christ Himself died and then was raised as the beginning of the Kingdom God. He Himself is the Firstborn from the dead.

The entire creation that came through Christ: the Church which is His Fullness, the nations of saved people, the physical universe, were all envisioned in the mind of God in a past so distant from us as not to be comprehensible. In fact God did not originate at any point and so when we say time past it has no meaning. There was no time at that time, so to speak. It was the era before the beginning. This our minds cannot grasp for we are finite creatures.

It is enough to know God is in control of all things and all shall take place exactly as He has planned.

The Lord Jesus referred to the many rooms in His Father’s House. Jesus Christ is the Father’s house, the eternal dwelling place of God. Now is coming into being the Body of Christ, the Body of the Father’s House, the Wife of the Lamb, so Christ will have a fullness that will include all areas of the creation.

It can be seen from this that God’s ultimate intention is to express Himself in flesh and bones. Each Christian who is willing to suffer denial is being created a room in God’s eternal tabernacle.

Eventually every person saved to the new heaven and earth reign of Jesus Christ will possess in himself a measure of Christ, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. To the extent that Christ is formed in us, to that extent God can find His rest in us.

As we have stated, the Wife of the Lamb is married to the Lamb by eating the Lamb and by drinking His blood.

This is how it works. Each day we make a multitude of decisions, most minor and a few major. As we grow in Jesus Christ we learn to bring all decisions to Him. We seek to always live in His Presence, to be aware of His Presence and His will in all that we are and do.

From time to time we discover our joys and ambitions are not His will. When we come to a decision, something that we want to do oh so badly, and become aware this is not God’s will; or when we become aware God is telling us to do something we do not want to do, like Abraham being told to offer Isaac (although wrenching decisions of such intensity are rare, being necessary only for those destined to govern in the Kingdom), we must choose to either deny ourselves or else do the Lord’s will. Have you been there?

When we disobey the Lord we continue in our adamic state. We do not grow in Christ, in the Kingdom of God, in eternal life. We remain a soulish animal. We save our life only to lose it.

When we choose to deny ourselves, to do what the Spirit of God is directing, a part of our adamic nature perishes. It is at this point that we are fed the body and blood of Christ in the spirit realm. We are given to eat of the tree of life.

This is the process that results in the formation of the Body of Christ, the Wife of the Lamb, the Kingdom of God. There absolutely is no other way to become an integral part of Jesus Christ other than by learning to live by His body and His blood. They are our eternal life. They will raise us to Him when He appears.

If we choose to save our life we will lose it. If we choose to lose our life for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s we will save it.

Everything we are and possess is temporary and corruptible. All we can bring into the Kingdom of God is that which we give over to death in Christ. When we yield to the death Christ is demanding, then that which we have given to Him is raised in Him and given back to us, provided it is worthy of the Kingdom and will bring us eternal joy.

That which we first are given is temporary and corruptible, whether relationships, things, or situations. That which dies and is raised again in Christ is eternal and incorruptible. This is why Jesus said if we save our life we will lose it.

The fruit of the Kingdom is born only as we are sown to the death of the cross.

When we die in Christ we are legally free from the Law of Moses. We are free to be married to Christ. The union of Christ and the believer, after a season, will bring forth fruit. The fruit is the image of Christ in the believer and then in those whom the believer influences.

A period of great change has come upon us. The two thousand years of church history have brought us to the present hour. Now God is ready to reveal to us His eternal plan to bring forth a fullness for His Son, a fullness formed from the Son’s Substance and Virtue. The fullness is the Body of Christ, the Church, the Wife of the Lamb.

We are in a new day with new challenges. The world around us is changing. It is difficult to predict the changes that will occur in the church world. But from this maelstrom of confusion will emerge the Bride of the Lamb.

During His sojourn on the earth the Lord Jesus Christ always was filled with all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. He thought, spoke, and acted from the Presence and Life of the Father who dwells in Him.

Yet, when Jesus prayed to the Father He did not address the Father dwelling in Himself but the Father in Heaven.

So it is that we, being created the fullness of Him who fills all in all, must keep in mind that Christ is not only being formed in us and dwelling in us but also is in Heaven at the right hand of the Father. There is the internal Christ and then there is the external Christ.

We are not to pray to the internal Christ but to Christ at the right hand of the Father.

Jesus is never to become one member of a many-membered Christ. Jesus is the Lord of the Church, the heavenly Bridegroom. He is from eternity. We are none of these things. The concept of the many-membered Christ is a trap that some fall into in their zeal to show we really are part of Christ.

Indeed we actually are being formed an integral, incorruptible part of God’s Christ. But Jesus remains Head and Lord and we pray to Him in Heaven.

Let us keep our balance. We love and serve the same Jesus as did those saints who went before us. His return to earth is at hand and so the Scriptures are opening to us. We can now perceive the eternal plan of the Lord God to provide a complement, a helper suited to His beloved Son. The Lord Jesus will find His life and joy in His helper—someone with whom to share the new physical creation that will appear after the thousand-year Kingdom Age has transpired.

God Almighty can experience loneliness. This is not possible to the angels. God brought forth a Son, Jesus Christ. All God’s pleasure is in His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased.

Now God is providing for the loneliness of His Son by creating a Wife for Him on His body and blood.

Abraham found joy in Isaac. Abraham sent Eliezer as God has sent the Holy Spirit, so to speak, to bring back a bride for Isaac.

So it is today. The faithful Holy Spirit comes laden with the wealth of the Father to seek a bride for the beloved Son, the only Son. The household of God will be occupied with the wealth that has arrived from Heaven but the Bride will be thinking only of the Son. She will return immediately with the Holy Spirit, forgetting the wealth that had been brought by the Messenger.

The true Bride of the Lamb is occupied with the Son. Although this is not her motive, the fact that she has gained the Son means she has gained the inheritance as well.

Let others be occupied with the things of God. Let us remember the unbelievable event that is taking place in our lifetime. God is preparing an eternal helper for His Son. You can be part of this marriage if you are willing to turn aside from your own life and ambitions and learn to live by His body and blood.

The prophets are speaking of change—change in the world and change in the Christian churches. I believe this is a true word.

James told us the Judge is standing at the door. The Judge is the Lord Jesus Christ. God has entrusted all judgment to Him.

The door is the door of the human heart. Today when we approach a seeker we do not say, “Repent and believe the Gospel and you shall receive the forgiveness of your sin.” This is what the Apostles preached, according to Act. Maybe this is what we should be preaching.

Somehow we find ourselves saying, “Let Jesus into your heart.” This the Apostles did not preach. Perhaps it is because the Judge is standing at the door of the hearts of people as never before.

I do not think “standing before the door” has anything to do with time. I believe James is referring to the fact that Christ is drawing near to the people on the earth.

In the last church, that of Laodicea, we find:

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20—NIV)

The above is a marvelous promise and was given to the worst church of all, the lukewarm assembly of Laodicea.

Change is coming. What kind of change? The tares of wickedness are coming to maturity. The tares of righteousness are coming to maturity.

The wicked will be swept up into the bosom of Satan. The righteous will be swept up into the bosom of God.

Make straight the way of the Lord.

The church systems we have known will suffer revision in order to work successfully in the Lord’s vineyard. The pressure is on to bring forth a church without spot or wrinkle (notice it is the Judge who is at the door.) The customary pulpit-congregation ministry may continue in some form but there must be much more participation by the saints (formerly referred to as the congregation).

The days of the spectator sport is over. The customary choir must be enhanced by dancing, banners, tambourines, marching, mime, dramatics, prophesies acted out, and other innovations the Spirit may bring in.

Such greatly increased participation will be accompanied by all sorts of false paths. It is the responsibility of elders to watch for the moving of the Spirit and to encourage what the Spirit is doing, in the meanwhile lovingly but firmly stopping those behaviors that bring an uncomfortable, disquieting atmosphere.

The elders must not be afraid to stop that which is not edifying, which is not scriptural! It is not enough just to have change or excitement. We must govern the house of God diligently. We have been commanded to test the spirits, and test the spirits we must or we are going to have pandemonium.

Deception will increase in the last days. We already have much deception in our Christian doctrine and the Spirit is bringing us back to the Word of God. Scholars are becoming aware the philosophy of Gnosticism has heavily infiltrated Christian thinking to the extent we have defined the goal of salvation as eternal residence in the spirit realm. Also the bodily resurrection of the flesh and bones of the saints, which is the destruction of the last enemy and the consummation of the Christian redemption, is virtually ignored; while our ascension into the clouds to meet Jesus and to be prepared for the attack of Armageddon has been altered to a flight to Heaven to escape Antichrist and the great tribulation.

We are in need of a reformation of Christian thinking. We have been deceived.

There is no new revelation coming forth today. Rather the Holy Spirit of revelation is removing the seals from the Scriptures so we can understand them. The Godhead is becoming more comprehensible to us, not as we grow more intelligent, more capable in theology, but rather as we experience the Godhead. Jesus told us no one knows the Father except the Son and the individual to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

In the midst of the Church Jesus is worshiping the Father. As we worship the Father, Jesus is with us worshiping. How utterly splendid!

We have been saved through the blood of the cross. We have been given power to lead a holy life and to bear witness of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Now it is time to learn strict obedience to the Father. Iron righteousness of behavior, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to the Father must become our watchword, our rallying cry.

The Ark is moving. Some may put their hands on it and die. Others will press forward to the fullness of the Glory of God.

If we attempt to make change in the Christian services without hearing from the Holy Spirit we will only create a babylon.

Numerous traps will be laid by the enemy. Deceptions will confront the Christians that are diabolically clever in their ability to enter the thinking even of the elect. Many experienced Christians who are accustomed to getting words from the Lord will begin to give credence to impressions that are coming from Satan.

Remember, Peter at one moment had the revelation that Jesus is the Christ and in the next moment spoke with the voice of Satan as Peter sought to dissuade the Lord from going to Jerusalem to die.

We can be on target one moment and deceived the next. The only solution is to look to the Lord Jesus constantly, asking Him to remove deception from us, to deliver us from the craftiness of the evil one. Even then each step must be taken carefully and the fruit, or consequences, of our behavior must be continually examined to see if we really are hearing from Jesus. The moment we doubt something is from the Lord we are to hold it before Him, asking Him to put the fire of Divine judgment on it until we are sure of its source.

You may be an experienced Christian. You may pray and read your Bible daily, which helps. You may have an impression identical to that which always before has been the Lord. Now it may be the enemy.

The best protection against the enemy is to take up your cross of self-denial and follow Christ. Usually when we are deceived it is because there is something we desire intensely. Intense desires will influence your prophecies, your teaching, and your thinking. Keep looking to Jesus until the fires die down and only ashes remain. Then, if it really is the Lord, your desire will be given you when you are more spiritually and emotionally poised. Remember this. It may save you enormous grief in the days ahead.

If you think you can never be deceived you already are deceived. The characteristic of deception is that we do not know when we are deceived. If there are things you are hiding, be extra careful. “They would never understand.” Satan works in the dark.

The goal to keep in mind is the spotless counterpart, the unblemished complement of the Lamb that is being formed. This is what God is pursuing. It is the forming of the Bride without spot or wrinkle that is the reason for the change that is upon us. All the universe is standing at attention that the perfect Bride may be presented to the Lamb.

You are a Christian, hopefully. The Lord wants to come to you personally, to be more real to you. Read the Song of Solomon with this in mind.

Listen carefully for the Lord in all you do. Cultivate His Presence. He is at the very door of your heart. Let Him come in to your life and take part in every decision you make during the day and night. Do not try to do anything apart from the Lord Jesus.

The days are growing spiritually dark. This means it is time for the Lord to draw near to His churches, His people.

See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. (Song of Solomon 2:11,12—NIV)

Isn’t it just like the Lord to choose the time when spiritual darkness is increasing in the earth to call His Bride to Himself? In this way the Lord God shows His utter contempt for His enemies.

Where does He set a table for us? You guessed it. In the presence of our enemies. Why does He do this? To show His utter disdain for those angels and spirits who would challenge His wisdom and power.

As sin increases grace will increase all the more, not only the grace of forgiveness but the Divine grace that has the power to lift us above the clutches of the evil one, to cause us to sing and dance in righteousness and holiness in the heights of Zion when the world is in flames.

“Oh Brother Thompson, you don’t care about the people in the world.” I care about the people in the world and I know they cannot be helped as we dwell in the darkness with them. They can only be released as we are released. When people see you rejoicing in your hope in the Lord they will ask you how you can have peace and joy when the world is in turmoil. You then can bring them to Jesus so they too can be in the ark of safety. Isn’t this the truth?

We can do the people of the world no good by drowning with them. We can do the world supreme good by drawing closer to Jesus each day, hearing from Him concerning every decision we make, whether in the home, at work, in the school, or at play.

The Lord is very jealous concerning you, what your desires are, how you spend your time and strength. He wants you to look to Him constantly. Listen for His voice! You will discover He indeed is knocking at the door of your heart.

If you allow Him to enter He will dine with you on His body and blood. You will learn to live by Him as He lives by the Father.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6:57—NIV)

The Holy Spirit is ready to bring you to the Son. Are you willing to leave all that is familiar—now?

Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there. When they got up the next morning, he said, “Send me on my way to my master.” But her brother and her mother replied, “Let the girl remain with us ten days or so; then you may go.” But he said to them, “Do not detain me, now that the LORD has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go to my master.” Then they said, “Let’s call the girl and ask her about it.” So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?” “I will go,” she said. (Genesis 24:54-58—NIV)

(“The Two Shall Be One”, 3338-1)