Rochester Conference Part 2: Becoming One Species (1996)

There were a total of over 600 ordinances, and the commandments were part of them, that in Jesus Christ he might make Jew and Gentile into one new… Does anybody have one of these Greek New Testaments that translates things literally? Weymouth, okay. Does anybody have anything else but man? What does Wuest say? Does he say, “one new man?” No? Too bad. That’s not the word. It’s there. No, not one creature. It comes from what is probably the oldest single word in the languages of men. It has been found in more languages than any other single word. It has tied together Chinese, Spanish, and some of the most obscure languages in the world.

You know what you pick up when you pick up dirt? Well, you call it humus. The word is not man, and the word is not human. It’s not one humanity; it is one new humus. And that is one new kind, specifically, totally different from any other, one totally new. The new is such a powerful word here. There are many words for new, but this word means unique to and totally different from anything else in existence. Very strong, like the word unique, for you can’t actually say it’s wholly and completely unique. You just say unique. If unique is unique, it’s unique. You can’t put a superlative in front of it. You can’t adjective it or adverb it. Unique.

This is something so totally new from anything else on earth. It’s a very strong word in Greek. And the next word in my judgment should be translated as a new species, a new humanity, a new humus, a new human, a totally unique new species. And as I’ve said to you before, second-century literature actually contains references; Christians speaking and they talk about Jesus Christ made us a new race. Very strong sentence here, I want to read it again…by going to the cross with His flesh, He has taken away the ordinances and made in Himself one new species, thus, He has made peace because He has made a Jew and a heathen, one person.

He didn’t take the Jew and the heathen and make a new person. He did away with the Jew and did away with the Greek and the Scythian, the Barbarian, and He made something utterly new that was neither Greek nor Gentile nor Jew. He brought forth a wholly new species. Now, let’s see. Did we get any new views here? I mean, Wuest? Okay, here we go in verse 15…by abolishing in His flesh the enmity which the law of the commandments contained in ordinances that in Jesus Christ He might make one new species.

I guess that’s establishing peace. There is no plural reference here, but I was about to say we have to make this a plural, because it is not one human being, it is many of us composing, many Jews, many Greeks making up one new species, so what have we got now? Oh, yes, it is; he is telling. In fact, this is the whole point here, folks: that you’re not an individual. That here you are in Hierapolis, and you’re not one person. You’re many people brought together, and you have become one new human being. You’re one person. You’re one corporate being made up of heathen and made up of Jews. You are not an individual. You are part of one new humus. One new human.

Alright…and might reconcile them in one body. That’s 56, brothers. In one body. Well, you say, “You mean in one body? Maybe this is Jesus’ flesh.” Okay, I’ll go along with that, but a resurrected Christ’s body from henceforth was known as the church. Because in His body, He took our sin and carried it to the grave. In His body, He took us and took away all the bad parts of us. He rose from the dead, and we were many, many parts in His body, in His flesh. Now, He doesn’t have flesh anymore. He has a translated body, and you rose in that as surely as you were buried in His flesh. And this is the beginning of the understanding of where we get to the title of the thought, the body of Jesus Christ.

The body of Jesus Christ was flesh, and He took it into the grave with you in it. He came out a translated being. You came out a translated being, you just don’t know it yet. And you were in Him, and you were specifically His body. And now we are that body, and we are a race. And brother Paul is going to just drive us crazy here in the next few verses. I’d just like for us to say it out loud here. We are a new man. Let’s do that again. A new man. We are one body. We’re going to keep on going.

…to God through the cross, now, the cross is what destroyed all things, and the resurrection is what brought forth a translated body, you and me, having put to death the enmity, He came and preached to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. Okay, that means that the Jews and all their arrogance and all their troubledness over above was going on, when He made them Christians, they came to peace. P E A C E. For through Jesus Christ we, through things, and shall we count both? No, it’s not. We have through Jesus Christ, we have our access in one spirit to the Father. Here’s where He starts building up a bunch of His superlatives.

We have our access in one spirit to the Father, and saints, I don’t know how you read this, but for me I once more see a church, that a church always has access to the Father, even though I am member may not always have access to Him, the church of Jesus Christ by the Spirit always has access to Him. It’s very comforting to me reading that; it’s comforting for me to look at it that way because I’m just an individual part of the body of Christ. And I confess to you quite readily that I still have one or two sins left and weaknesses, and I have even been known to commit sin in my flesh. I know you’re going to be horrified to hear this, but the next day, I get up, and I really don’t want to talk to anybody, especially God. I am, that’s just the way I am, I’m fallen, and I shouldn’t do that, but I do. I have access to Him at that moment, but I thank God that not everybody in the church got up feeling that way. And you know that’s true, those of you who are in church, somebody is taking their access by means of the Spirit to the Father. And this word Spirit becomes very important to me. I know a lot of emphasis has been put on the Holy Spirit, and I’m sure this is a reference to the Holy Spirit, but I see in this more than a person in the Trinity whom I’m supposed to be empowered by. I see in this the invisibles, that by the fact that I have a spirit and God is Spirit, and the Holy Spirit comes and gives me access to spiritual realms, heavenly places. I have a right to go where my Father is. My Father is in invisible realms, but I want to emphasize to you that the church of Jesus Christ has access to other realms and has total access to the Father by means of a Spirit invisible, to the invisible, a spirit unseen to realms unseen. Church, take advantage of this incredible access to the Father.

You can go home and go back to your fellowship and speak on these things and not let them pass. And you know the word encouragement; you know the word exhortation? Somebody needs to stand up and exhort and say, Brothers and sisters, we have the ability to get out of this place and go into another realm, and we have access to get straight to the Father as a church of Jesus Christ. Let us take our lawful right and get there. Such as the mind of a Christian in the body of Christ.

For through Him we have access in one spirit to the Father. By the way, we are all in one spirit. And brother , I don’t want you to count this, but I do want you to know that that’s many, many parts in that spirit, and yet we are one human being, one new species who is not confined to this planet but is in fact, being many parts in one spirit, we are no longer chained and fettered to this realm. So then, you no longer are strangers and aliens… 63 …are no longer strangers and aliens… 64. You are fellow citizens. 65…so that you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens 65 with the saints…66…and are of God’s household.