Copyright © 1997 Warren Litzman (Christ-Life Fellowship). From the booklet This Then is The Message Which We Have Heard of Him. Used by permission.
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This is The Message Which We Have Heard of Him Point Four: The Container
The best way to look at man is to see that he is a container. How is that? When God was ready to make man, He stooped down and scooped up some dirt (Genesis 2:7). I guess He may have spit on it a little or put a little water on it or something, and He shaped, for Himself, a man, in His likeness and image, meaning that he looked like God. It was really nothing more than an empty statue -- empty just like a ceramic piece -- but He finally had something that looked like Him. The next thing He did to that container was to give it life. Now, the God-life didn't come by creation. Life is the only thing that comes from God, Himself. Everything else is created. So He took this created substance called man, and He put His breath into it. Man was nothing more than a container to hold God's spirit. | |
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The purpose of man was to hold Another. The purpose of man was to hold a Deity, because when the original sin took place, the Scripture says, Satan became the nature of man. Ever since Satan moved on Adam and Eve in the Garden, man has had no nature of his own. And only when men are radically and miraculously born again is there any change in that nature. That's why Jesus said, "You must be born again" (John 3:3). Man was just a container to hold a god, and Adam chose the wrong god. By the mind, he chose the wrong knowledge --the knowledge of good and evil. All the way through the Scriptures, this is the truth that holds together the message of God. To plainly show this message, we see that there are at least seven different connotations which form the framework upon which the Gospel truth is held, and it has to do with human beings being containers.
First of all, in II Corinthians 4:7, Paul plainly says that man is nothing but a vessel. We hold in these earthen vessels a treasure. In these "clay pots" of human beings, we hold Christ. He is the treasure. "Christ in us, the hope of glory."
Second, in Romans 7:3, we see that the believer is the wife. In the seventh chapter, as well as in other places in I Corinthians and II Corinthians, the believer is presented as a wife who is married to a husband named Jesus, and the believer is challenged to become one with Him. That's our position. Galatians 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." That is a wife saying, "I don't live for my purpose anymore. I don't live independently anymore. I only live because my husband is my supporter; he's my life, he takes care of me, and he's my all."
Third, in John 15:5, the believer is presented as a branch. "I am the Vine," Jesus said. "Ye are the branches." What is that? That is another container/contents relationship.
Fourth in I Corinthians 3:16, the believer is a temple. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" That means you are just an empty shell, just a building -- just like a lot of churches are today -- unless God is in you.
Fifth, II Corinthians 4:5 says the believer is just a slave. A slave is nothing without his master. He can do nothing on his own. If he is independent, he is in violation. The average church member today is often an independent slave. He's been bought and paid for, but has renounced the Christ within him to go out, by religious activity, and seek a Jesus somewhere else. That's the biggest trap Satan makes for you -- to have you try to become what you already are, by religious effort.
Sixth, I Corinthians 6:19 says we are a body. A body without a head is lifeless. The head is Christ. We are the body which is possessed by the head.
Seventh, in Hebrews 3:6, the believer is presented as a house that the Son rules. Christ rules over His own house, our body.
So what it literally means is that I am a clay pot, I am a wife, l am a branch, I am a temple, I am a slave, I am a body, and I am a house. If I don't understand that these are the truths that hold the Gospel together, I will make, of myself, a god. I will make, of myself, a husband. I will make, of myself, a master. I will say that I am the spirit, I am the god, and I am the christ, when the simple truth of the Gospel is that I am nothing without Christ in me. I am just a container which He fills, which He occupies, and which He lives in. He is the contents.
You must come to know that in order to understand the message in the New Testament. All of these ideas and connotations strictly have to do with our seeing that unless we, as believers, see Christ as our life, and eventually, at some time in our lives, hear the true Gospel which says we must become one with Him, we will never function as Christians. Even though we're saved, even though we'll go to heaven, even though Christ is already in us, we will never function as He intended. Thus, the world and Satan will be our constant enemies rather than our being the victors at all times and in all things.
Copyright © 1997 Warren Litzman; used by permission. The Bible text in this publication, except where otherwise indicated, is from the King James Version. This article appears on the site: http://www.peterwade.com/.
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