“And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them.
“Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
“The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
“They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Isa 11:6-9)
Journal,
It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This is true as far as it goes. Words alone can have a limited effect, while pictures can address our thinking in many ways.
For example the two pictures above seek to depict what earth could be like during the millennial (1000 year kingdom age) reign of Jesus Christ. Do not these pictures paint peaceful scenes on the canvas of our minds and hearts?
And yet words and pictures cannot be separated. We think with words. We think with both our feelings and senses, with scenes, and with words. And this is what makes the Bible a living book of wonder.
The Spirit of God uses the words of Scripture to paint eternal truths in our hearts and minds. These eternal truths are the major source of the believer’s evolving Christ-likeness.
I use the term evolving with regard to a believer’s growing up in Christ. The apostle said it this way –
” … but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord [in the Sacred Scriptures], are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2Co 3:16-18)
Notice I put in brackets, ‘in the Sacred Scriptures’. I do this because this is the context of what Paul is addressing. For the non-believing Jew, who refuses to accept Jesus as Israel’s Messiah, a veil lies over his heart. Even when he is reading the Scriptures, the veil shuts off the transforming glory of the Lord.
But as the believer gazes with faith into God’s Word, it causes a spiritual transformation effect that Paul describes as, ‘from glory to glory.’
The is the glory of Jesus Christ reflecting on our hearts. Not a fading glory such as what was seen on Moses when he came down from the mountain. The glory of Christ in our hearts will never fade.
This was a major battle issue in the early Church.
Paul sets this forth when he tells the Galatians, that they are being tempted to exchange a true spiritual life for forms and rituals of Judaism.
Old Testament Judaism carried only the husk of what was to come. It did not have the power to produce life. The reality of the life to come could only be found in Jesus alone. It would come forth from the finished work of the cross.
Listen –
“You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?
“This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing [the gospel] with faith?
“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal 3:1-3)
Did you catch it?
Certain Judaizing teachers were presenting a false gospel in saying that the Gentile believers had to keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved. The result was that these Galatian believers were beginning to lose their new-found freedom in Christ Jesus. Paul brings them back to the true message of the gospel.
A key term is where Paul uses the word, ‘portrayed’ [prographo]. The apostle is drawing attention to the message of the cross that had been set forth beforehand in the Old Testament prophetic writings, from Moses on. The term ‘grapho‘ carried the sense of, ‘a painting‘.
The gospel had been painted throughout the former testament in word-pictures of the story and of the glory of God’s Son. Those stories of the coming Savior were now being painted in the hearts of the Galatian believers through the preaching of the cross.
But there was a problem. Paul warned these Christians that they were being tempted (bewitched) to exchange their spiritual life in Christ Jesus, for the husks of a covenant that had been set aside by God. The Law had served its purpose. Messiah had come.
The covenant of Moses was never designed to do what only God could do for us through the cross. The Law could not offer eternal spiritual life. It could only point to the life that was to come.
Paul describes our new covenant life this way –
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.“ (Gal 2:20-21)
This brings me to the focus of our covenant in Christ. Let’s begin pick up with …
Our Life Exchange in Christ
The short side is that the Holy Spirit takes the very nature of Christ and weaves that nature into the fabric-being of the believers spiritual nature. It is in this sense that we are in the process of exchanging natures.
One of the best descriptions of this ongoing nature exchange is where Jesus says –
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Mat 11:28-30)
Here Jesus addresses the changing of a yoke.
One of the common Jewish expressions during the time of Jesus was, to ‘put on the yoke of the Law’.
As good as that may sound, there was a problem. Not only was the Law of Moses a burden to bear, but it even contained a curse upon the person who did not keep the whole Law.
What was the real problem with that yoke?
The problem was that no one could keep the Law of Moses. You would have to be a totally perfect man, that is, someone who never once sinned, and had never broken a single commandment of God, in order to fulfill the requirements of the Law of Moses. Keep in mind the curse.
The answer is that only one Man ever did so. Jesus was that perfect Man. He gave up His life on the cross, so that His life could be credited to believers, and imparted in every one who would receive Him as their own Lord and Savior.
Out of the cross would come a brand new ‘race’ of people who would be born from above, who would be given the merits of Jesus. And out of the merits of Jesus, the Holy Spirit would begin inscribing eternal truths into each and every one of God’s new covenant children.
The disciples had to reach this understanding. This was why a council was called for in Acts 15.
The struggle was in full force. It was between those Judaisers who demanded that the new covenant work hand-in-hand with the Law of Moses. Then you had those who believed that the new covenant was entirely new, and that salvation was by grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Take note of what the Apostle Peter had to say –
“After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them,
“Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.
“And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
“Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
“But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.
“All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.” (Act 15:7-12)
See it? The yoke of the Law was impossible to bear.
Let’s come back to the yoke of Jesus Christ.
Yes, Jesus calls believers to walk in yoke with Him. But it was a yoke that contained…
The Promise of Two Rests
Listen very carefully once again –
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Mat 11:28-30)
Notice where the Lord speaks of two rests. The first one is given. The second rest is found.
The first rest is anapauo, which means there will be no more laboring or groaning under the weight of the former yoke. You are free from any labor for salvation. This is the refreshing rest that speaks of relief from the weight of sin.
This is the salvation rest of being saved through Christ Jesus. It is simple. Jesus said, “Come to Me and I will give you rest.”
The second rest is a discovered or learned rest. It is the word anapausis. While both words share the same root, this 
word implies recreation.
This is the discovering of the rest in God’s new creation. We truly discover this rest as we under the yoke of Christ, and learn from Him.
We are to learn to walk with Jesus. Jesus is imparting to us the true way of life. Not only is the Lord teaching us how to live, but He is communicating and unfolding His very nature in us.
The truths of God are being unfolding in our hearts.
So what does all this have to do with our beginning Scripture with pictures of the millennial kingdom reign of Christ?
Good question. The answer is found in one other thing that Jesus said about the two rests.
Jesus said our new nature would evolve itself into a …
Gentle and Humble Heart
Keep in mind how the Isaiah millennial promise ended –
“They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”
Now compare this to what Jesus said about His nature –
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart …”
It is the implanted heart nature of Jesus Christ that is infused into our own spirit nature. The apostle said that the one who is joined to Christ Jesus, becomes one spirit with Him.
This is why that when a person is born again they become aware of new likes and new dislikes. The things they once love, they now began to shun. And the things they once hated, they now find themselves beginning to love.
This is also where new believer finds old friends disappearing. Light and darkness can have no fellowship.
But the greatest effect of our new nature is in gentleness and humility. The new believer cannot bear to see others suffer, whether they be human or animal.
A new kind of love now flows from the heart of this born from heaven person. The new believer with his new nature is beginning to measure up to the Isaiah statement of, “They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain.”
You see, we are the people that belong to another age. The apostolic writer said that present believers in this age are actually drawing on the powers of the age to come.
There is so much more to be said of our new nature. It simply brings me back to the title for this article,
Dear Christian – What’s Happening to You?
Think about it. While you think on these things, take time for this song by Sarah Sadler, ‘I Am a New Creation.’
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