Faithful on Fridays Blog

Separation- Part Three

God’s about separating, as seen in previous messages, but He’s also about union; always remember that mystery: He wants a union for His Son: a Bride.

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:31-32 

When God separated woman from man there was a plan to bring them back together in a physical and intimate way; its true with God as well since His plan was always to be united with His people. 

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in you, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. John 17:20-21 

God’s original plan still progressed even though sin had made a separation. Mankind was temporarily forced apart from God, He divided nations and dispersed them, but out of that dispersal came one man, Abraham, to continue the Plan. 

The lower story of separation is also one of holiness: the meanings are identical. God, separated from the people by a veil, set apart Aaron as High Priest and instructed him to separate as well:

You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean. Leviticus 10:10 

Every picture painted in the lower story of the Old Testament finds its upper story, the spiritual truth, in Christ. Jesus’ death on the cross opened the way for that original union with God to be experienced once again.

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Hebrews 9:24 

The promises we have in Christ are what drives us to now live holy lives. Sinless? No, separated, different from the world; it’s actually a form of worship.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 

When you are ‘in Christ’ you are not perfect or sinless but your position is. You are allowed entrance to stand before God in righteousness that was gifted to you by Jesus Christ. That’s how you stand now, today. 

… even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. Ephesians 1:4 

Dare to be different, living separated and yet in union.