by Bill Britton
The Seed Line of Deity
What does the story of Isaac have to do with Jesus Christ, or with our sonship or Christhood. First, let us take a review of Abraham in the scripture:
Genesis – chapter 11. Abram is first mentioned in scriptures
12. Abram is called to go into the promised land
13. Abram and Lot are separated.
14. Abram meets Melchisedec and is blessed by him
15. God makes a covenant with Abram.
16. Ishmael is born. A human effort to fulfill the promise.
17. At age 99 his name is changed to Abraham.
18. A son is promised again, he pleads with God for Sodom & Gomorrah
19. Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
20. Abraham’s lapse of faith at Gerah.
21. Birth of Isaac. Ishmael and Hagar cast out.
22. Isaac is offered on Moriah and resurrected – (in a figure)
23. Sarah dies and is buried
24. Abraham sends to get a bride for Isaac. Isaac is married to Rebekah.
25. Death of Abraham, Isaac inherits everything.
Please notice the sequence of events. In chapter 21, when Isaac (Christ) is weaned, Ishmael (the Law) is cast out. Then Isaac is offered as a sacrifice, brought back from the dead in a figure, and in the next chapter his mother dies. Only after this does he get a bride and bring forth a seed. God had promised Abraham a seed line through Isaac, but it could not come until after his “resurrection”.
For you see, he was a picture of what Jesus Christ was going to do when He came to earth. It has always been God’s purpose (“the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus”) for Christ to bring forth a seed line of the nature of deity. But he started from an impossible premise. In Abraham’s case, the impossibility was that his wife was 90 years of age, and he was nearly 100, both past the age of bearing children. With Christ, it was that He was starting with a lowered humanity, to bring forth a people in the image of God. Most impossible. But he was able to do it by the sacrifice of Himself, by planting His own divine life as a seed in the earth of Adam’s creation.
Only Resurrection Life
Notice that Isaac did not get a bride or have children until after he was “raised from the dead” at Moriah. So, in a figure, he was a resurrected man. (Hebrews 11:19) And from this state of being, the nation of Israel was born. In Hosea 11:1 we discover that Israel was God’s corporate son in the Old Testament. God referred to the whole nation of Israel as “a child”, and as “my son”.
In spite of the false teaching of a religious group, the truth is that our Lord Jesus was never married while here on earth, and never produced children after the natural order. For 4,000 years the human race had been bearing the image of their earthy father Adam. “All had sinned, and come short of the glory of God” and there “was none righteous, no not one.” God had determined to have a people in His own image, but Adam could not produce it, for they were of “the earth, earthy”.
Then came the virgin birth, and Jesus appeared on the scene and overcame all bearing the image of His Father. He was a new creation man. There was not another like him on the earth. He was the first born of the creation of God.
At this point, God could have said: “This is what I have been looking for, this is the Son in whom I am well pleased. So now I will find another virgin to be his bride, and let him populate the earth with His own likeness”. In the first place, this would have left us out. And God loved us too much for that. In the second place, every seed brings forth after its own kind, and Jesus could only have produced earthly sinless children with the same limitations that He had while He was here in the likeness of men. For being glorified and exalted at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places did not come until after His resurrection. (Eph. 1:20)
The Spirit Poured Out
The sons that Christ is bringing forth will not be reproduced in the image of that man in human form, walking the shores of Galilee. As wonderful as that might be walking in his authority and power, and healing the sick and raising the dead, he has something far more glorious than that in mind for us. We read in John 7:37 –39
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as, the scripture hath said, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Did you get what it said in verse 39? “The Holy Ghost was not yet given.” Doesn’t it say that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb? And even his mother and father were also filled with the Holy Ghost. (Luke 1:15, 4l, 67). And didn’t the Holy Ghost come upon the Old Testament prophets? Then what does it mean that “the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified”? The answer is that John 7:39 is speaking of the Holy Ghost coming into a people for the purpose of producing a many-membered son in the likeness of the ascended glorified Christ. In John 16: 7 Jesus tells us that it was necessary for Him to die, and be resurrected and glorified, in order for the Spirit of the glorified Christ to come to us. For this is the likeness He is producing in us. Glory to God! The likeness of the Son who has been resurrected and exalted to the throne is what we are to bear!
The Kenosis – the emptying
What a powerful and glorious statement is made in 2 Cor. 8:9 concerning the place to which He would bring us….”For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” What did it take for Him to be rich? A mansion in heaven? The cattle on a thousand hills? On no, my friends, nothing so carnal as that. The thing that made him rich was “being in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6) The Wuest translation expresses it so strongly:
“did not after weighing the facts, consider it a treasure to be clutched and retained at all hazards, this being on an equality with deity (in the expression of divine essence), but himself He emptied, himself He made void, having taken the outward expression of a bondslave, which expression comes from and is truly representative of His nature (as deity), entering into a new state of existence, that of mankind.”
In His prayer in John 17: 4-5, Jesus said: “I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” What was it that Jesus had before the world began that He did not have while on this earth? It was the glory of “thine own self”, or the glory of the divine essence. He “made himself poor”, or gave that up, that He might “make us rich”. Matthew 13:44 tells us that He “selleth all that he hath”, that He might buy an earthen field in which He had found a treasure. So because He was willing to make himself poor, “you are bought with a price.” And He is bringing His purchased possession unto himself “that where I am, there you may be also”. John 17:22 says that the same glory that the Father gave Him, He has given to us, that He might “make us rich”. He loves us so much!
The Power of An Endless Life
In Hebrews 7 we read of the Melchisedec order. We know that Jesus is the high priest of that order forever, but also that He is bringing His sons into that order of the King Priest. (Rev. 1:6. 5:10) Now notice that the power of that priesthood is resurrection life, endless life. (Heb. 7:16)
This is why Jesus could not bring forth sons until after he was glorified. In Hebrews 11:13, 39 we read that the Old Testament saints did not receive “the promise”. They did many great exploits of faith by the power of the Spirit. But they could not produce His likeness or come into sonship until after He was resurrected. Jesus said that of those born of women, there was none greater than John the Baptist. But John was not as great as the “least in the kingdom”. It is an entirely different realm, and goes far beyond being empowered by the Spirit to do mighty deeds of faith.
So Abraham sent to “a far country” to get a bride for Isaac. He would not accept a bride from the Canaanites that dwelled all around him. They were of a different breed, and he wanted a bride from his own people. He ended up getting a virgin girl from his own kinfolks. Hebrews 2:16 says that Jesus took not on Him the nature of angels, but that He came to take on Him the seed of Abraham. “He came to His own”. Though in a far country, not in His realm, yet we are His kinfolks.
Notice that Isaac would not go to Rebekah’s realm of life, she had to come to him. She had to make a long journey, but it was well worth it. And friends, we have a long journey, with the Holy Spirit to guide us to get to His realm of life. But it is only then that we can produce His likeness in this earth. His death, burial, resurrection and ascension pattern for us the way enabling us to come forth out of our graves, renewed and transformed by the power of His victory.
Paul heard things concerning this realm that he could not even discuss (2 Cor. 12:4) Peter said that we have been begotten by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance….ready to be revealed in this last time.
The prophet Isaiah says:
“..and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: …he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied..” Isa. 53
**********************************
[Just to interject a thought about the “kenosis” or the emptying of Christ]
Since Jesus is our pattern or blueprint that was shown to us in the Mount, in our case Mt. Calvary, and we are being built as a holy habitation and an equal heir in all things like unto him, when we look carefully at this “blueprint”, we are looking into our story as well. As prior spirit creations of God, we, too, participated in this 'emptying' or lowering into this realm of death. (Rom 8:20)
Philippians 2:
“Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus - Let Him be your example in humility –
Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God, did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained;
But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity] so as to assume the guise of a servant, in that He became like men and was born a human being.
And after He had appeared in human form He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!
Therefore [because He stooped to low], God has highly exalted Him an has freely bestowed on Him the name that is above every name.
That in (at) the name of Jesus every knee should (must) bow, in heaven and in earth and under the earth,
And every tongue [frankly and openly] confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The Seed Line of Deity
What does the story of Isaac have to do with Jesus Christ, or with our sonship or Christhood. First, let us take a review of Abraham in the scripture:
Genesis – chapter 11. Abram is first mentioned in scriptures
12. Abram is called to go into the promised land
13. Abram and Lot are separated.
14. Abram meets Melchisedec and is blessed by him
15. God makes a covenant with Abram.
16. Ishmael is born. A human effort to fulfill the promise.
17. At age 99 his name is changed to Abraham.
18. A son is promised again, he pleads with God for Sodom & Gomorrah
19. Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
20. Abraham’s lapse of faith at Gerah.
21. Birth of Isaac. Ishmael and Hagar cast out.
22. Isaac is offered on Moriah and resurrected – (in a figure)
23. Sarah dies and is buried
24. Abraham sends to get a bride for Isaac. Isaac is married to Rebekah.
25. Death of Abraham, Isaac inherits everything.
Please notice the sequence of events. In chapter 21, when Isaac (Christ) is weaned, Ishmael (the Law) is cast out. Then Isaac is offered as a sacrifice, brought back from the dead in a figure, and in the next chapter his mother dies. Only after this does he get a bride and bring forth a seed. God had promised Abraham a seed line through Isaac, but it could not come until after his “resurrection”.
For you see, he was a picture of what Jesus Christ was going to do when He came to earth. It has always been God’s purpose (“the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus”) for Christ to bring forth a seed line of the nature of deity. But he started from an impossible premise. In Abraham’s case, the impossibility was that his wife was 90 years of age, and he was nearly 100, both past the age of bearing children. With Christ, it was that He was starting with a lowered humanity, to bring forth a people in the image of God. Most impossible. But he was able to do it by the sacrifice of Himself, by planting His own divine life as a seed in the earth of Adam’s creation.
Only Resurrection Life
Notice that Isaac did not get a bride or have children until after he was “raised from the dead” at Moriah. So, in a figure, he was a resurrected man. (Hebrews 11:19) And from this state of being, the nation of Israel was born. In Hosea 11:1 we discover that Israel was God’s corporate son in the Old Testament. God referred to the whole nation of Israel as “a child”, and as “my son”.
In spite of the false teaching of a religious group, the truth is that our Lord Jesus was never married while here on earth, and never produced children after the natural order. For 4,000 years the human race had been bearing the image of their earthy father Adam. “All had sinned, and come short of the glory of God” and there “was none righteous, no not one.” God had determined to have a people in His own image, but Adam could not produce it, for they were of “the earth, earthy”.
Then came the virgin birth, and Jesus appeared on the scene and overcame all bearing the image of His Father. He was a new creation man. There was not another like him on the earth. He was the first born of the creation of God.
At this point, God could have said: “This is what I have been looking for, this is the Son in whom I am well pleased. So now I will find another virgin to be his bride, and let him populate the earth with His own likeness”. In the first place, this would have left us out. And God loved us too much for that. In the second place, every seed brings forth after its own kind, and Jesus could only have produced earthly sinless children with the same limitations that He had while He was here in the likeness of men. For being glorified and exalted at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places did not come until after His resurrection. (Eph. 1:20)
The Spirit Poured Out
The sons that Christ is bringing forth will not be reproduced in the image of that man in human form, walking the shores of Galilee. As wonderful as that might be walking in his authority and power, and healing the sick and raising the dead, he has something far more glorious than that in mind for us. We read in John 7:37 –39
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as, the scripture hath said, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Did you get what it said in verse 39? “The Holy Ghost was not yet given.” Doesn’t it say that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb? And even his mother and father were also filled with the Holy Ghost. (Luke 1:15, 4l, 67). And didn’t the Holy Ghost come upon the Old Testament prophets? Then what does it mean that “the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified”? The answer is that John 7:39 is speaking of the Holy Ghost coming into a people for the purpose of producing a many-membered son in the likeness of the ascended glorified Christ. In John 16: 7 Jesus tells us that it was necessary for Him to die, and be resurrected and glorified, in order for the Spirit of the glorified Christ to come to us. For this is the likeness He is producing in us. Glory to God! The likeness of the Son who has been resurrected and exalted to the throne is what we are to bear!
The Kenosis – the emptying
What a powerful and glorious statement is made in 2 Cor. 8:9 concerning the place to which He would bring us….”For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” What did it take for Him to be rich? A mansion in heaven? The cattle on a thousand hills? On no, my friends, nothing so carnal as that. The thing that made him rich was “being in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6) The Wuest translation expresses it so strongly:
“did not after weighing the facts, consider it a treasure to be clutched and retained at all hazards, this being on an equality with deity (in the expression of divine essence), but himself He emptied, himself He made void, having taken the outward expression of a bondslave, which expression comes from and is truly representative of His nature (as deity), entering into a new state of existence, that of mankind.”
In His prayer in John 17: 4-5, Jesus said: “I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” What was it that Jesus had before the world began that He did not have while on this earth? It was the glory of “thine own self”, or the glory of the divine essence. He “made himself poor”, or gave that up, that He might “make us rich”. Matthew 13:44 tells us that He “selleth all that he hath”, that He might buy an earthen field in which He had found a treasure. So because He was willing to make himself poor, “you are bought with a price.” And He is bringing His purchased possession unto himself “that where I am, there you may be also”. John 17:22 says that the same glory that the Father gave Him, He has given to us, that He might “make us rich”. He loves us so much!
The Power of An Endless Life
In Hebrews 7 we read of the Melchisedec order. We know that Jesus is the high priest of that order forever, but also that He is bringing His sons into that order of the King Priest. (Rev. 1:6. 5:10) Now notice that the power of that priesthood is resurrection life, endless life. (Heb. 7:16)
This is why Jesus could not bring forth sons until after he was glorified. In Hebrews 11:13, 39 we read that the Old Testament saints did not receive “the promise”. They did many great exploits of faith by the power of the Spirit. But they could not produce His likeness or come into sonship until after He was resurrected. Jesus said that of those born of women, there was none greater than John the Baptist. But John was not as great as the “least in the kingdom”. It is an entirely different realm, and goes far beyond being empowered by the Spirit to do mighty deeds of faith.
So Abraham sent to “a far country” to get a bride for Isaac. He would not accept a bride from the Canaanites that dwelled all around him. They were of a different breed, and he wanted a bride from his own people. He ended up getting a virgin girl from his own kinfolks. Hebrews 2:16 says that Jesus took not on Him the nature of angels, but that He came to take on Him the seed of Abraham. “He came to His own”. Though in a far country, not in His realm, yet we are His kinfolks.
Notice that Isaac would not go to Rebekah’s realm of life, she had to come to him. She had to make a long journey, but it was well worth it. And friends, we have a long journey, with the Holy Spirit to guide us to get to His realm of life. But it is only then that we can produce His likeness in this earth. His death, burial, resurrection and ascension pattern for us the way enabling us to come forth out of our graves, renewed and transformed by the power of His victory.
Paul heard things concerning this realm that he could not even discuss (2 Cor. 12:4) Peter said that we have been begotten by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance….ready to be revealed in this last time.
The prophet Isaiah says:
“..and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: …he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied..” Isa. 53
**********************************
[Just to interject a thought about the “kenosis” or the emptying of Christ]
Since Jesus is our pattern or blueprint that was shown to us in the Mount, in our case Mt. Calvary, and we are being built as a holy habitation and an equal heir in all things like unto him, when we look carefully at this “blueprint”, we are looking into our story as well. As prior spirit creations of God, we, too, participated in this 'emptying' or lowering into this realm of death. (Rom 8:20)
Philippians 2:
“Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus - Let Him be your example in humility –
Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God, did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained;
But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity] so as to assume the guise of a servant, in that He became like men and was born a human being.
And after He had appeared in human form He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!
Therefore [because He stooped to low], God has highly exalted Him an has freely bestowed on Him the name that is above every name.
That in (at) the name of Jesus every knee should (must) bow, in heaven and in earth and under the earth,
And every tongue [frankly and openly] confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
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