Lessons

The Hope of the Church of the One Body – Part 8 (final). The lesson on October 7, 2007 finishes the audio series on the hope of the church. We have been studying the hope of the Church of the One Body for eight lessons now and we have seen hope as defined as something of what is expected, or trusted in. The word “trust” in verse 12 could have been translated as “hoped in Christ”.In the previous lesson, we looked at the hope of the one body being the out-resurrection which the Apostle Paul revealed in Philippians 3:11 “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” and Colossians 3:4 “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” There is a second coming of Christ to each group that has been called. The second coming to Israel according to the flesh they are looking for Jesus to come back which we looked at in Matthew 24 when he sets up the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth. Another advent of the Lord is when he presents Heavenly Jerusalem coming down to be set up here on Earth which was covered in Revelation. This involves the group known as Abraham’s seed which was identified in Galatians 3. Now the third group that is looking for Christ’s appearing is that of the church of the one body which involves the heavenly inheritance. In Philippians 3:10-11, we read of Paul trying to express some very important issues: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” The translators have not recognized the three spheres of blessing. This is the failure in the translation of this verse which has not been accurate. The phrase “resurrection of the dead” here should have been “the resurrection from the dead”. This is because in the Greek it says “ek nekron” which denotes “out from among the dead people”. This is the only time in scripture where this occurs. This final lesson in the series is an important one to review.