The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Tabernacles Experience, #13

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)

Marriage to Christ, the possession of God Himself, is the greatest attainment of the Christian discipleship. All the other aspects of salvation are means toward this supreme end. He who is married to the Lord Jesus Christ has inherited all things. He who has rejected Christ has lost all things.

"He also is become my salvation. Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."

What or who, are the "wells of salvation"? Consider the following:

. . . out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)

. . . and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

From the above passage it sounds as though the Christians are the "wells of salvation." The feast of Tabernacles is fulfilled when God and Christ take up their abode in the heart of the Christian saint.

The Law of God. The feast of Tabernacles is associated with obedience to the written Word, the Law, of God. Notice that John 14:23, a statement referring to the Christian fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, shows us that there is a relationship between obeying the Word of Christ and the dwelling of the Godhead in us: "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

In Deuteronomy 31:10,11: ". . . in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he will choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing" (see also Nehemiah 8:13-18).

The hearing and keeping of God's law is linked with the feast of Tabernacles. The ultimate expression of the Law of God occurs when the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit rule in the heart of the saint.

Completion of the harvest season. The feast of Tabernacles signals the completion of the harvest season: ". . . And the feast of ingathering (Tabernacles), which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field" (Exodus 23:16).

The completion of the harvesting of the Christian personality by the Lord is the redemption of his mortal body. The redeeming of our body is an important part of salvation by faith in Christ:

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)

There is coming an adoption of the physical body. Our inner, spiritual nature is born of God. Our mortal body has not been born of God although it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the tabernacle of God. The adoption of the body, its redemption to eternal life, is the consummation of the Christian salvation.

From our point of view, the churches have not paid nearly enough attention to the redemption of the physical body as part of salvation by faith. We have not always explained the close relationship and interaction between the pursuit of the overcoming life now and the receiving of bodily redemption at the appearing of the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:11; II Corinthians 4:17; Philippians 3:11; I John 3:3; for example).

To be continued.