Okay:
Christ being the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last...is the apex--literally the beginning and the end of the whole salvation plan of God. He stands in the middle. It is He who is mentioned in the book of Revelation who has "
his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land." Which is to say that He has walked the earth among us, born of the flesh, made of the dust...but also with the Father, in spirit, in the heavenly realm on high. By Him the first man Adam dies in the flesh, and the second Adam is made alive in the spirit of God. Both are in His hands.
Just as the apostle Paul explained, that those who are saved "
were" (past tense) crucified and also raised up with Jesus--our times are complete in Him. And where it is true of our personal experiences that "
each comes in his own order", the greater truth in God, is that each was begun and is finished in Christ--again,
past tense. Our times being given to us by God on this would be timeline do not change that--they explain it. These are the times of God's revelation--not in a way that we could not bear (as He told His disciples), but in a way that we can bear it. Time is mercy. But the scriptures are clear--the timing and tense of when all has and will happen, happen in Christ--in His time, not actually in ours.
So then, it was right that Israel and all the nations looking on at that light upon a hill should look
forward to His coming and believe, and that we who having come after should look
backward...just as it is written of the "
son of the right hand" (the sons of the
sea, meaning of the spirit)--"
Look behind you!"
Hosea 5:8
But what does all of this mean? It means that those born of the first Adam and of the flesh, die in Christ...and that those born of the spirit of God live in Christ. Which was before Christ death to all born of the flesh, and after Christ life. This is what is referred to in the scriptures as "
the dead in Christ" and "
the living in Christ." All of whom are characterized as "
Israel" who died before salvation in Christ had come--the first "
fold" of His sheep...and as the "
gentiles"--that "
other fold" that Christ "
must also bring", to whom salvation by the spirit of God came to first, even though they came last, for which Jesus, explained: "
But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
Matthew 19:30
This is that dividing line of "
rightly dividing the word of truth" of which Paul spoke. This is that dividing line between life and death, just as Moses set before Israel prior to them crossing into that foreshadowing of entering into the heavenly promised land of God. Which Jesus also set before His church, saying, “
Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death"...which He did with Peter--who denied Him three times...which we should examine, for it concerns our times--perhaps another time.
Matthew 16:17
All of which speaks of our need of "
rightly dividing the word of truth", between the first fold and death, and the second, which is life. By saying this, Paul has told us that the gospels include both narratives, one concerning the first and the other concerning the last. Thus, if we do not "
rightly divide the word of truth", we are mixing death with life--which do come together in Christ for salvation, but are separated for us to "
rightly" know what is true for our distinctly different times, before and after Christ. Which Paul would not have made a point of saying, if it were not right to do so.
Therefore, only by "
rightly dividing the word of truth" according to what speaks to those times of Christ taking on death and those of taking on life, are we able to "
rightly" and fully understand the means of our salvation. This could easily be done by reading the gospels and highlighting each with two different colored highlighters--but who has done it? Who in the past two thousand years has done what Paul instructed by the Spirit of Truth?
Only in this way is the plan of God for salvation made clear. Only in this way will we prevail to escape what first fell upon Israel? Only in this way are the words unsealed by the One who has "
prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals."
Revelation 5:5
Such is the whole salvation plan of God.