C. The Transition

A History of Transitions

The Romans were suspicious of transitions. They feared and honoured the gods of barriers. Doorways were transitions fraught with danger. That’s why some brides still get carried over the threshold on their wedding day. The Romans dedicated the transition from one year to the next to the god Janus ( and hence our January), the god who looked backwards and forwards at the same time: the god of transition.

The Hebrews were conscious of transitions too. Abram marked his travel transitions with altars where he called upon the name of Jehovah. Calling upon the name of your god is a prayer for deliverance or protection: the consequence of people being aware of the dangers that accompany the change from one place or event to another. There is a worldly-wise proverb that declares ‘there is many a slip between the cup and the lip’. I suspect the cause of the first record of someone ‘calling upon the name of Jehovah’ was the vulnerable child he held in his arms as the story transitions to the next generation.

And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh. Then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah.  (Gen 4:26 ASV)

The descendants of Abraham had their transitions too. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Exodus. Again and again, the later prophets return to this crucial transition that brought those descendants of Abraham into a new destiny.

The Exodus Transition

The Scriptures are dense with truth and it is always an exercise to know what to include and what to leave for others to discover. Paul made an important observation in his letter to the Corinthians concerning the Old Testament records.

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. (1 Cor 10:11 NKJV)

He notes that these things happened; that will be sufficient for most Christians to put their absolute confidence in the infallibility of the scriptural record. But it goes on to observe that they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. There are, presumably, many things that happened but which were not written. What we have in the Scriptures are those things that happened and were recorded for our admonition. Why were some things that happened not written? There are two answers, at least.

 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen. (John 21:25 NKJV)

Secondly, they were not recorded because, although factually true, they had no lasting significance in the history of redemption.

The record of Genesis introduces us to the dramatis personae (the cast list) of the coming covenant and the destiny of the nation of Israel. The record of the Exodus then begins to set the scene for the covenant and its consequences. For the people of Israel, there was no better-known story than that of the Exodus. It has clearly-marked movements which are wonderfully expressed in a key passage that records God’s vision statement to Moses. (I have put those specific movements into bold type to make them more easily visible.)

Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments:

and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, who bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

And I will bring you in unto the land which I sware to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for a heritage: I am Jehovah.  (Exod 6:6–8 ASV)

Each movement is dependent upon the one that precedes it. There is a critical path here. God will not bring them into the land of their inheritance before they have become ‘his people’. But they cannot become his people while they remain in the land of their captivity. The central point here is that God was about to make them ‘my people’. Their destiny was far greater than the occupation of a homeland.

They became ‘God’s people’ as the consequence of a covenant. They were delivered before they entered into covenant with Jehovah. They were free before they were God’s people. They were delivered in order to become God’s people and that requires a covenant.

The transition begins with the sacrifice of the Passover where we find a pregnant phrase:

  And Jehovah spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.  (Exod 12:1–2 ASV)

This was a brand new start. God is resetting the clocks. The judgment of Egypt precedes this but the Exodus starts here. This is transition. There are often processes in a transition but there is a clear point at which the transition has taken place. As the Exodus proceeds Paul uses an unexpected phrase to describe the events:

  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea… .  (1 Cor 10:1–2 KJV)

Baptism marks a transition. ‘Baptism in water’ marks a choice to commit to transition. ‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’ is a spiritual transition — but more of this later.

The Calvary Transition

Do you recall how we said that the Scriptures are dense with truth? When, centuries later, Christ spoke of his impending death he used two statements that are also unexpected.

And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.  (Luke 9:30–31 NKJV)

Literally, ‘(he) spoke of his Exodus which he was about to fulfil at Jerusalem’. Calvary was an Exodus, a transition.

 But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matt 20:22 NKJV)

But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! (Luke 12:50 NKJV)

He referred to his sacrificial death as a baptism. Calvary was a Baptism, a transition.

In his lonely tryst with God he brought the old order, the Old Covenant, to an end and sealed the event with the cry of triumph: it is finished.

The question remains: into what was he baptised? There is an aspect of baptism that is frequently forgotten but is a vital part of the revelation. If we compare the older King James Version with the New King James Version it becomes a little clearer.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection… .  (Rom 6:5 KJV)

  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection… .  (Rom 6:5 NKJV)

A word study. The word so translated is symphytoi. Literally it means ‘co-planted’ and by usage means “born with one, congenital, innate, natural, inborn, inbred” (Liddell & Scott). Here in Romans, it is part of a series of words beginning with ‘sym’, the equivalent to our ‘co’ meaning together: co-buried, co-joined, co-crucified. Paul is writing of those who have become co-buried, co-joined, co-crucified. Later in Ephesians, he will add co-raised and co-enthroned.

The word baptizō, baptise, itself was used in the dying of cloth. White linen plunged into a purple dye became ‘one’ with the dye in the uniting power of ‘baptism’. Those who are ‘born of the Spirit’ are thus ‘united’ with Christ in his burial, death, resurrection and enthronement. We become ‘one’ with him. So Christ’s Calvary baptism also effected his union with our condition in Adam, the old man. He was ‘baptised’ into what we had become ‘in Adam’. We have our answer: he was united with the human race in Adam. Revelation takes us no further as to explanation but there is further testimony to this mystery in Paul’s inspired writings:

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor 5:21 NKJV)

Or him who did not know sin, in our behalf He did make sin (noun), that we may become the righteousness of God in him. (2 Cor 5:21 YNG)

In Christ, Calvary became the scene of the fulfilling of the Old Covenant and the inauguration of the New Covenant. The transition was the effect of his death. In Adam all die, but in Christ all may be made alive. He had promised in the Upper Room that his death would inaugurate the promised New Covenant.

Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in (or by) My blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:20 NKJV)

He could not begin the New without bringing an end to the Old. There is an interesting confirmation of this in the idioms of the Old Testament scriptures. Frequently our English versions speak of covenants being ‘made’, this is our English idiom. The Hebrew uses a different idiom, it speaks of a covenant being ‘cut’.

For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. (Heb 9:17 NKJV)

For a covenant over dead victims [is] stedfast, since it is no force at all when the covenant-victim liveth… . (Heb 9:17 YNG)

The New Covenant had been promised since the days of Jeremiah but it is of no force at all while the covenant-victim lives. The New Covenant remained only a promise until it was ‘cut’ and the blood was shed.

The Regeneration Transition

However, if we are to benefit from Calvary we must be joined to Christ. The transition that has taken place ‘in Christ’ is of no benefit until we are ‘in Christ’. The human race was ‘in Adam’ when Adam sinned and Sin became the ruling power in the lives of all ‘in Adam’. So, at Calvary, Christ achieved the inauguration of the New Covenant but for that New Covenant to be accomplished in us, we must be united with Christ in a baptism that is the complement of the one he experienced at Calvary.

For by (or in) one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.  (1 Cor 12:13 NKJV)

This is why he began the journey of the incarnation. This was his mission.

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29 NKJV)

…This is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. (John 1:33 NKJV)

This marks the conclusion of our ‘Advent’ series.

We have some work to do in refurbishing the biblebase website but I intend to return to a weekly blog at the beginning of March with a new series entitled “Abraham, my friend”. DV

We value your prayer for the transition.