Jesus' Flesh - The Way Into the Most Holy Place Into the Very Presence of God – Session 2 by Pastor Doug Riggs

This was originally recorded on July 26, 2017.

My notes:

As Jesus referred to Himself as the "I AM" (Exodus 3:14). In the passage from John 6, Jesus is revealed as the bread from heaven, the bread of life, one of the seven designations of Jesus as the "I AM" in the Gospel of John. "When He says that He is the bread of life, that picture is given to us of the Lord Jesus as that which is to be consumed; that which is actually taken in to become the sustenance of our very life." This Jesus equates to as His flesh, His humanity, that which brings us into the presence and fellowship with the Godhead as we partake of Him.

As Doug was speaking of Mary wanting to hold on to Jesus in His unglorified state prior to His bodily resurrection and ascension, it reminds me of a book I read decades ago that really bothered me, along with its most popular acrostic gleaned from "What Would Jesus Do" written by Charles Sheldon. For me, I can't say that when I'm wondering what I should do. I say, "What IS Jesus doing?" If I am abiding in Him, and He is abiding in me, living in me His life, then that is what I'm thinking about, not what would He have done if He were still alive. Certainly we have much to learn about Jesus and how He lived on earth 2,000 years ago.  "In My unglorified state, you can never know Me in and through the Spirit as the indwelling reality that came at Pentecost." Doug refers to wanting to cling to a pre-glorified Jesus as a soulish emotional attachment.

Later in this message, Doug assures us that we do have access to the life of Jesus lived out on earth. "Everything that represents our life in our mortality, He knows what it is to live a life in mortality. That life is for us now." That life is what Jesus refers to as the bread of life. To eat that bread, His life lived out as son of man, is to feed on Him who is our life. That life is released in death, our taking up our cross to follow Jesus. "The blood shed, the blood released provides consecration - provides a way in" to the most holy place. It is here we have access to God. "If we're going to have His life, we're going to continually receive that life. It's going to involve death. That blood means death... Everything of what we are in the natural has to die if we're going to come into that life."

Speaking of Jesus' flesh being our access to Heavenly Father, "That humanity that experienced death in our place removes the barrier between us and God. But that doesn't mean the barrier in us has been removed. There's still a veil that remains over our heart to whatever degree the heart has not been circumcised; to whatever degree the outer man has not been brought into conformity with Christ in His death."

"None of us can experience abundant life without recognizing that that life can only be entered through death to everything we are in the flesh."

Doug makes the distinction of the meaning of the blood of Jesus shed and that blood sprinkled. "Blood shed: that provides atonement, the cleansing from sin... In that shedding of blood, that life is released, and the priest would take the hyssop and sprinkle the blood, that is: the life is released through death to provide access to God, and to consecrate, and to sanctify, and to cleanse for service and worship." These are "the two aspects of the saving life of Christ." "The shedding (of the blood) is for forgiveness; the blood sprinkled is for consecration; it’s for sanctification. The life of Christ released through death becomes that which consecrates us to the Lord."

Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/7-26-2017%2Bwednesday.mp3

Maranatha!

John Mark

...hereby committing this unto the providential care of the enthroned Head of the Church; whose Name is blessed forevermore, Yeshua Mashiach - Jesus Christ!