Rev 5
4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Maybe heaven did not get your memo.
That pesky doctrine destroying bible.
You have to reconcile the revelation of "One new man" and "The Lion of the Tribe of Judah" to understand.
As I said,
we retain the promises given to Judah; namely the right to rule as kingly rulers ("
The scepter shall not pass from Judah"). So, in Christ, whose Body is made up of all who receive Him, we are co-heirs to the same promises.
It works like this: Judah, the man, is deceased. As a dead man he can no longer hold a scepter of rule. Furthermore, the "
Lion of the tribe of Judah" refers to the eternal Christ - a being with no end or beginning. He always
was, and is, and is to come. He was always the Lion of the tribe of Judah, even before Judah was born.
Judah appeared in time and space in his given time. His line was blessed with the right to rule namely in the manner he secured his own promise to return Benjamin.
Genesis 44:32 "For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’"
This is juxtaposed against Reuben's promise to allow his own sons to be killed
"Reuben spoke to his father, saying, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you; put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”
So Judah, like Christ, promised to give his own life for the redemption of his brother.
This was the spirit of Christ being spoken forth from Judah before the birth of Christ.
So, when the house of Judah is blessed with the royal scepter, it secured the reality that the Messiah had to come through Judah's line since the Messiah would be the "King of kings".
That's what Paul was teaching when he wrote this:
11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Wait, Paul wrote "
once Gentiles in the flesh"... aren't they still Gentiles and not Jews?
Let's read on...
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.
No, in Christ, we are not Gentiles. And the Jews are not Jews. Together we represent one
new man.
And what do we gain by being in Christ?
18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Access to the Father.
This goes back to eternity before flesh was made. We become a member of the beloved of God Who was One with the Father in the beginning. This reality is the answer to Jesus' prayer before His crucifixion:
This is Jesus:
"And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me."
(Some may say "
God does not share His glory with another" They are correct. BUT,
in Christ, we are not another. We are His flesh and His bones.)
Jesus continued:
“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."
This goes back to eternity, from the foundation of the world: before Adam and Eve and Noah and Abram, etc... Redemption in Christ restores us to the relationship between the Son and Father
that existed before creation.
Cliff's Notes version:
The kingly rule of Judah was a spiritual quality of the eternal Christ. Judah appeared as a Hebrew man, but the Christ appears as the new man made up of Jew and Gentile. In Christ we obtain the inheritance of the Only Begotten Son, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, which is the Spiritual reality of Christ, the eternal Messiah.
@Magenta @Cameron143 @posthuman @Pilgrimshope
Blessings
