Grace & Truth Chapel
131 Fardale Avenue ~ Mahwah, New Jersey
Phone 201-327-6226 ~ E-mail gtchapel@juno.com

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"Resurrection Victory at the Jordan River" (posted April 1, 2003)

    It shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord ... shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off.
    The priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.
    - Joshua 3:13, 17

In the Passover we saw what removed God's judgment from His people and what lays the ground for their redemption and relationship with Himself.

In the Red Sea, what further blessing we have in Christ's death, as God's appointed way for our deliverance from the bondage of law and the power of sin.

Now in the crossing of Jordan the Spirit puts another touch upon the canvas, and thus completes the picture of what and where the Christian is in the eyes of God--that is, how God views him in Christ and the place he occupies.

Jordan sets forth our death with Christ; and as the twelve stones were brought up out of Jordan and placed on the Canaan side (Joshua 4:1-8), it is a reminder that the people who descended in Jordan had also risen up and had entered their possessions in the land of promise. We have here the lessons of Colossians 3, "risen with Christ" (Colossians 3:1). We have died with Him, but we are also risen with Him.

The step from Romans 6 and 7 to Colossians 3 is, as in Israel's case, [parallel with the step] from the Red Sea to Jordan, from Exodus to Joshua. Christ has died, was buried, but He now is alive and risen; and God sees all His people in living association with Christ, the glorified Head of the new creation--those redeemed and brought to God. Has He died? so have we. Has He been buried? so have we. Is He risen? so are we. Has He entered the heavenlies? so have we (as we fully see in Ephesians 1 and 2)--as seen by the eye of God, in the person of the Lord our living representative.

True, we are not there with Him yet, but we are seen in Him there, and that is the fullest and most perfect pledge and assurance that, at His coming, we shall be also with Him. Thus, in God's reckoning, we have passed over Jordan because the Lord [pictured in the ark carried by the priests] has passed over it; we have died with Christ and are risen with Him; and further, in Christ we are seated in heavenly places.

A. E. Booth



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