Christ loved the church more tenderly than any man ever loved his own wife!! Paul writes: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.” Ephesians 5:25 To the Ephesians elders Paul stated: “Feed the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” Acts 20:28 I submit for your learning the story told of Abraham offering his only begotten son, Isaac. Genesis 22: 1-13 It has been very few men in the ages of time that have given themselves purposely for their brides/wives but one and only one who prophesied He would so do!! All the Old Testament prophets who foretold of the Messiah, who would come, told of His dieing to purchase His bride, redeeming her with His own blood!!
Abraham was “tested” by God to see if his faith was completely in God. He was told to sacrifice his only begotten son, Isaac. The place chosen for this sacrifice was a place then called Mt. Moriah, but in the days of Christ while sojourning on this Earth, it was called in the Hebrew Golgotha and in the Greek, Calvary. The specific place for Isaac to be sacrificed was chosen (as was the fact God would offer His Son) before it would become a reality. “Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.” Genesis 22:4 This place Abraham found was not by a lucky guess, it was the place CHOSEN by Deity for Christ to be offered for the Church of Christ before the foundations of the world!! When Abraham had prepared Isaac for the rendering of Isaac’s blood, God stopped him: “And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from Me.” Genesis 22:11-13 It would take a lot of help to miss this type and anti-type.
Christ died ONLY for His Church!! “For God so loved the world (Church) that He gave His only begotten Son (for the Church, Acts 20:28, Ephesians 5:25) that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 When you see the word world, the context has to decide what is being mentioned! For example, in John 1:10, John writes by inspiration of the Holy Spirit these words: He was in the world, the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.” Christ was on this planet (called the world) and the creation (world) was made by Him, Colossians 1:15-18, and the people (the world) to whom He came, the Jew, knew Him not. Christ came to be a “ransom for many,” Matthew 20:28, but who were the “many?” As “many” as call on His name.” Acts 2:21 How does one “call upon the name of the Lord?” Ananias told Saul, “arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sons, calling upon the name of the Lord.” Acts 22:16 Calling on the name of the Lord, doing what He has commanded, will bring the “forgiveness of sins:” “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7
No thoughtful Christian would think of lieing about the church, that is also called the “body of Christ.” There is ONE AND BUT ONE. Paul writes: “And He is head of the body, the church.” Ephesians 5:25 How many times have you seen two-headed people? How many times have you seen ONE head on two or more bodies? Is there not usually one head on one body?? So, with the body of Christ, it has one head and that head sets on ONE body!! “And He is head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first born from the dead: that is all things He might have preeminence.” Colossians 1:18
