8. Forsaking Christ Economically When He Was Judging Christ as Our Substitute Made Sin for Us and Bearing Our Sins

When God was judging Christ as our Substitute made sin for us and bearing our sins, God forsook Christ economically.

The sixth hour is our twelve o’clock noon, and the ninth is our three o’clock in the afternoon. The Lord Jesus was crucified at the third hour, at our nine o’clock in the morning (Mark 15:25), and He suffered on the cross for six hours. In the first three hours He was persecuted by men for doing God’s will; in the last three hours He was judged by God for the accomplishment of our redemption. During that time God counted Him as our suffering Substitute for sin (Isa. 53:10). Hence, darkness came over all the land because our sin and sins and all negative things were dealt with there, and God forsook Him because of our sin. God forsook Christ on the cross because He took the place of sinners (1 Pet. 3:18), bearing our sins (1 Pet. 2:24; Isa. 53:6) and being made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21).

9. Condemning Sin in the Flesh through the Death of Christ in the Flesh

As part of His work in His new administrative arrangement, or economy, God condemned sin in the flesh through the death of Christ in the flesh.

5. Anointing the Son to Carry Out His Commission

When the Son became thirty years of age, God anointed Him for the carrying out of His commission.

Because the Lord Jesus was baptized, fulfilling God’s righteousness, the heavens were opened to Him, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and the Father spoke concerning Him. Before the Spirit of God descended and came upon Him, the Lord Jesus had been born of the Spirit

6. Demonstrating Jesus by Works of Power and Wonders and Signs

The Lord Jesus was installed into His ministry by two steps: baptism in water and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. After the Lord Jesus was baptized, God the Father sent the Holy Spirit upon Him economically, anointing Him for His ministry.

7. Passing through Death in the Son

God’s work in the new dispensation includes His passing through death in the Son.

The God who died for us is not the God before incarnation. Prior to incarnation, God certainly did not have blood, and He could not have died for us. It was after the incarnation, in which God was mingled with humanity, that He died for us.

C. IN THE NEW DISPENSATION

Having considered God’s work in eternity past and in the old dispensation, let us now go on to view His work in the new dispensation, in His new administrative arrangement—economy.

1. Sending John the Baptist to Prepare the Way for Christ

First, in His work in the new dispensation God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Christ.

2. Sending His Son in the Likeness of the Flesh of Sin That He Might Redeem Those under Law That We Might Receive the Sonship

God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin that He might redeem those under law so that we might receive the sonship.

The subject of Romans 8:3 is God. God sent His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin. God was wise. He knew that He could not send His Son to be the flesh of sin, for, if He did that, His Son would have been involved with sin. Therefore, He sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin, as typified by the brass serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness. Christ does not have the nature of sin. God sent Him only in the likeness of the flesh of sin.

3. Being Incarnated

By sending His Son God Himself was incarnated. Actually, God sent His Son through the incarnation.

4. Coming with the Son and Working within the Son

When God the Father sent the Son, He came with Him and worked within Him.

6. Condemning Sodom and Gomorrah to Ruin by Fire

In the old dispensation, God condemned Sodom and Gomorrah to ruin by fire. This He did as an example to those who would live an ungodly life. To live an ungodly life is to live in the flesh in the lusts of men, not in the will of God

7. Choosing the Children of Israel, the Descendants of Abraham, and Making Them His People as a Type of the Church

The children of Israel, as the chosen people of God, are the greatest, collective type of the church, in which we can see that the church is chosen and redeemed by God, enjoys Christ and the Spirit as the life supply, builds God’s habitation, inherits Christ as its portion, degrades and is captured, is recovered, and awaits Christ’s coming. What a work that in the old dispensation God prepared such an all-inclusive type of the church!

8. Giving the Law and Making the Old Covenant

Part of God’s work in the old dispensation was to give the law and to make the old covenant. John 1:17 says, “The law was given through Moses.”

9. Promising David, the King of the Chosen Race, That the Fruit of His Loins Would Be the Coming Messiah—Christ

10. Promising the Coming Gospel of the New Dispensation through the Prophets among the Chosen Race

God’s work in His old administrative arrangement included promising the coming gospel of the new dispensation through the prophets among the chosen race. The word “gospel” means glad tidings, good news. The gospel is news that gladdens those who hear it. It is good news from God, from the heavens.

.” The gospel of God concerns a person, Christ. Of course, such matters as forgiveness and salvation are included in the gospel, but they are not the central point. The gospel of God concerns the Person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel is not a doctrine nor a teaching nor a religion; it is a Person

The record of the New Testament reveals God’s New Testament economy, which is God’s dispensing of Himself into His chosen people for the producing of a corporate Body to express Him.

In Ephesians Paul gives us a very high word concerning God’s eternal economy. In Ephesians 1 and 3 we see that the economy of God was made for the purpose of producing a church in Christ. If you read Ephesians 1:9-11 and 3:9-11, you will see not only the economy made by God in Himself according to His good pleasure, but also the goal of God’s economy. The goal of God’s economy is to have the church, which is the corporate expression of God. The church as God’s corporate expression is the consummation of God’s economy.

Pneuma Freedom Experience is a Teaching ministry of the word that is driven by the purpose (“that believers may Subjectively realize the Full Knowledge of the Truth”1 timothy 2:4 Amp), experiencing God in the incarnated word (Christ) to be life and light to man with grace and reality for man’s enjoyment. We believe that total freedom in Christ comes by Attaining & Experiencing the acquired truth in doctrine (Objective Truths in the Bible), Subjectively/practically for enjoyment and reality for Expression and Dispensing. www.freedomexperienceministry.org

In this message we shall consider further God’s work in the old dispensation, in His old administrative arrangement.

4. Calling Abraham, the Father of the Chosen Race, out of the Idolatrous Generation

Abraham was called by God. Adam was the father and head of the created race, but Abraham was the father and head of the called race. As recorded in Genesis, the history of the created race concluded in the building of the tower and city of Babel.

5. Promising Abraham That through His Seed, Christ, the Blessing of the Gospel Would Come to All the Families of the Earth

The blessing of Abraham is the blessing promised by God to Abraham (Gen. 12:3) for all the nations of the earth. This promise was fulfilled, and this promise has come to the nations in Christ through His redemption by the cross. The context of verse 14 indicates that the Spirit is the blessing God promised to Abraham for all the nations and which has been received by the believers through faith in Christ. This Spirit is the multiple Spirit and is actually God Himself processed in His trinity through incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and descension, for us to receive as our life and our everything.

B. IN THE OLD DISPENSATION

God’s work in the old dispensation was His work in the Old Testament. The old dispensation was God’s old administrative arrangement or economy. In the Old Testament as well as in the New, God had an economy, a dispensation, an administrative arrangement.

1. Creating the Universe

2. Creating Man and Determining Mankind’s Appointed Seasons and the Boundaries of Dwelling

3. Dealing with Fallen Mankind from Adam to Noah

In this message we shall begin to consider God’s work as revealed in the New Testament. Our God is a working God. The Lord’s word in John 5:17 indicates this: “My Father is working until now.” In the New Testament we see God’s work in eternity past, in His old dispensation, in His new dispensation, and in eternity future, with many aspects.

A. IN ETERNITY PAST

1. Making the Divine Economy

In eternity past God made the divine economy/plan, budget, His eternal plan

2. Choosing the Believers before the Foundation of the World

After God made His eternal plan, He chose the believers:

3. Predestinating the Believers before the Foundation of the World

God’s work in eternity past also included His predestinating—marking out—the believers before the foundation of the world.

4. Probably Making a Counsel among the Trinity of the Godhead concerning the Coming Creation and Redemption