“… our common salvation …”
(Jude 1:3, NKJV)
In the past we have often seen that the section covered in the Reading portion of that week wonderfully correlates with that week’s teaching, even if it has not been planned as such. I find this Godly synchronicity immensely encouraging, as I see God’s hand wondrously manifest in the laborious writing of these teachings, as it is also true of me as it is of Job (32:15): the words often fail me. But when “him who hears the words of God, and has the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls down, with eyes wide open” (Num. 24:16), the written text becomes holy ground, despite the fragile fallibility of the writer. Therefore, it is possible for a man like David to proclaim in his very last words, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue.” (2Sam. 23:2). And from Ps. 45:1 we know – the tongue of the sincere “is the pen of a ready writer”. Therefore the writing of each teaching is a sincere striving, like that of Ecclesiastes (12:10): “to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth”.
There is something very interesting that the apostle Peter explains about the prophets of the old times, how they “inquired and searched carefully” and “prophesied of the grace that would come to you” (1Pet. 1:10). TAKE NOTE: through inquiry and careful searching “what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (verse 11)! Long before Jesus walked the earth, the Spirit of Christ, the seven-fold Spirit, was already at work within them! For this reason they were then already taken up in the cloud of witnesses (Heb. 11:1). And that which they uttered, or wrote, was “like words of God” (1Pet. 4:11).
In his explanation of how the prophets of the old times understood something of the wondrous mystery of Christ, Peter writes that this salvation that we can now receive is “kept by the power of God” (1Pet. 1:5). There are “things that accompany salvation” (Heb. 6:9) that most people do not consider. We already know that CHRIST is “the power of God” (1Cor. 1:24), in other words the salvation the third dimension requires:
- It is NOT the salvation of becoming saved that only Jesus can bring in the first dimension – as Acts 4:12 makes it clear about Jesus: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
- It is also not the salvation of the second dimension, that “salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2Thess. 2:13).
- It is the third-dimension salvation, which Jude 1:3 calls “our common salvation”, which is “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1Pet. 1:5). It is our “most holy faith” (Jude 1:20), which Peter notes in verse 6 is challenged [in the wilderness/desert], “that the genuineness of your faith, beingmuch more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (verse 7). In verse 12 Peter notes that angels desire to see what we see, and that therefore we need to gird the loins of our mind, be sober-minded and place all our hope on the grace that becomes
our inheritance when Jesus Christ is revealed (verse 13). This is what holiness, or being set apart, inherently means (verse 15), that our lusts (or desires, or symbolically then: quail) are not the driving force of our lives (verse 14).
If we then read in 1Pet. 1:22 that our third dimension salvation is nestled in the “obeying the truth,” through which we have purified our souls in sincere love of our brethren, so that “we can love one another fervently with a pure heart”, it brings the core of third dimension salvation to the fore, namely that the imperishable Logos seed of becoming born again has come to fruition (verse 23). In truth: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.” (Prov. 11:30). This mythical tree from before time is thus manifested WITHIN the born-again individual, which could tear in and through the collective veil of the flesh of Jesus (Heb. 10:20). Thus, despite the fact that the temple of God, which is the body of the believer (1Cor. 3:16) is still grass, and that: “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away,” there is something lasting WITHIN the spiritual man, and 1Pet. 1:25 makes this wondrous revelation very clear: “But the rhema word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the rhema word which by the gospel was preached to you.”
Remember what is said earlier in 1Pet. 1:5: this salvation is “kept by the power of God”, which is to say kept in the Christ (1Cor. 1:24), and can only be released through genuine brotherly love, as well as loving each other fiercely. Through becoming born again we already have the full capacity for this, Rom. 5:5 makes clear: “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
The entire chapter 3 of 1John presents this truth: “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another …” (verses 10 & 11). Then this simple measuring stick in verse 14: “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.” This is a simple but pressing principle of third dimension salvation.
When John 3:16 spells out God’s love to humanity, 1 John 3:16 is its pendant, which clearly formulates the measure of God’s expectation of us: “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
The underlying question thus becomes clear – are you and I revealed through the quail (our own lustful desires, and that of others), or through the manna (the rhema identities of the brothers in Christ)?
- Selah: Give an honest answer to the question in the last paragraph.
- Read: 16-21 (again, how remarkable is this correlation!)
- Memorise: 16:31-32 (again, do not let the deeper meaning of these verses pass you by!)
