A Summary of the Seven Metaphors
1. The Sheep and the Shepherd.
a. This is the leadership metaphor.
b. The chief shepherd leads by means of his voice. The mind-thinking of Jesus Christ is now preserved in the completed canon of Scripture.
c. The leader has the best intentions for the church – abundant life.
d. As the leader of the church, Jesus Christ provided salvation through personal sacrifice. He has laid down His life for the sheep.
e. As the leader of the church, Jesus Christ knows each sheep of His own flock.
f. So this leadership metaphor has to do with how Jesus Christ leads the church.
2. The Chief Cornerstone and the Living Stones.
a. As living stones, we are to imitate the chief cornerstone of our lives, who is Jesus Christ.
b. We are to imitate the system for the production of holy character.
i. This means inculcation in the Word – saturation in the Word of truth through various means, so as to produce instinctual faith.
ii. There is no question as to the spiritual perspicacity of Jesus Christ. His soul set the record for scriptural saturation.
iii. Jesus Christ did the hard work of inculcation through the Word. He was a man required to operate according to the principles of grace.
iv. He was no different in His need for that hard work than any other human being. In fact, His need exceeded our own considering His mission in life: to die for the ungodly.
v. In the area of imitation, we need to stick with the system in measure with our spiritual needs.
vi. Our spiritual needs are simple: first, to win the battle against our sin natures, and second, to love God to the fullest.
vii. The standards remain the same, and the grace toward the need remains the same.
viii. We have the Spirit, just like Christ had the Spirit. All believers have the power of the Holy Spirit for the perception of the Word. There is no perceptive handicap thanks to Him.
3. We are to imitate the holiness of Jesus Christ.
a. With respect to the fight against sin-evil.
b. With respect to the testimony of love.
4. We are to imitate the sacrificial service.
a. We don’t have to do the cross again, but we need to be humble in our service to others.
b. Service to others includes three realms.
i.The realm of unbelievers in service of evangelism.
ii. The realm of believers in service of local church ministry.
iii. The realm of establishment in service to the divine institutes of marriage, family, and nation.
3. The High Priest and the Royal Priesthood.
a. Romans 12:1, “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
i. So a part of your priesthood is to sacrifice your fleshly desires for the sake of the kingdom.
ii. And this is considered a good and acceptable sacrifice to God, an act of love for Him.
b. Philippians 2:17, “But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.”
i. A drink-offering is a person who sacrifices their own life on behalf of other Christians. It is not equal to Christ’s death, but the word of God considers it much the same in character, though lesser in some ways due to the extreme nature of Christ’s atonement.
ii. The church age drink offering is the priestly offering of sacrifice in some measure of one’s life up to the supreme sacrifice of martyrdom.
iii. This drink offering must be made in love, or is of no credit to the one giving the sacrifice (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
c. Philippians 4:18, “But I have received everything in full, and have an abundance: I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.”
i. This is the sacrifice of the giving of material goods.
ii. This may happen according to the general pattern of Christian giving, or through the pattern of the spiritual gift of giving.
iii. Participation in the logistical support of Christian ministries is a legitimate priestly function, because it involves self-sacrifice.
iv. Again 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 applies: “1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”
d. 1 Peter 2:5, “You also as living stones are being built a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
i. Now this is the spiritual sacrifice of a personal testimony of love for God.
ii. God intends for every Christian to make their own unique testimony, to become a living epistle for Him.
iii. Through your own unique circumstances of life you have the opportunity to say something wonderful and brilliant about the love and justice and grace of God.
iv. This is your spiritual sacrifice, something that only you can do in your way with your gift.
e. Hebrews 13:13-15, “13 Hence, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14 For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. 15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. 16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
i. This also is the spiritual testimony of love, given primarily before God and the angelic amphitheater – a great cloud of witnesses.
ii. An important part of our priesthood is praise to God. This is primarily done through private worship in the form of prayer.
4. The Vine and the Branches.
a. To abide in someone means to agree with them.
b. Jesus Christ is the true vine, and every church age believer is a branch that is a part of that vine from the moment that he believes.
c. Being a branch means that you have a choice to abide in the vine, agreeing with God on two points:
i. The nature of Christian character.
ii. The nature of the biblical system which produces Christian character.
d. When we abide in Him, He is faithful, so that He prunes us, intervening in our lives to bring about positive change in our character based on the truth we are learning in His system.
e. If we don’t abide in Him, eventually we will die the sin unto death and undergo serious loss of reward by fire at the judgment seat of Christ.
f. Abiding in the true vine after the Christ-patterned system produces fruit in the Christian life.
g. Christian fruit is Christ-like character. Christ-like character governs and tempers all that we do as Christians in Christian service and Christian ministry.
i. It brings a very effective prayer life.
ii.It brings the fulfillment of Christian joy.
iii. It brings the privilege of greater understanding of the plan of God.
iv. It brings lasting impact on the lives of people in this world.
h. The metaphor of the vine and the branches compares to that of the cornerstone and the living stones.
i. The cornerstone and the living stones is a pattern metaphor. It communicates that the life of Jesus Christ is definitely meant to set the pattern for our own lives.
ii. The vine and the branches metaphor focuses more on what following that pattern produces.
1. If we abide in Him, then what does it produce?
2. If we don’t abide in Him, the what does that produce?
5. The Head and the Body.
a. This metaphor illustrates authority.
i. Christ is the head and we are the body; we are to take direction from Him.
ii.The direction is toward His character and His thinking about every condition and circumstance of life.
b. This metaphor illustrates unity.
i. There is no human condition that divides the body of Christ.
ii. Not race, not gender, not societal stratum, not anything.
iii. Because of our shared foundation in Christ, all human issues are non-issues.
c. This metaphor illustrates teamwork.
i. The human body is a miracle of biological teamwork. The unity of its diverse systems is in itself a profound argument for the existence of God.
ii. As the body works together for the fulfillment of its biological purpose, so the individual members of the church are to work together.
6. The Last Adam and the New Creation.
a. Jesus Christ is the Last Adam, and His origins are in heaven; we are His new creation, through salvation and through the resurrection body.
b. Through the baptism of God the Holy Spirit we share the great destiny of Jesus Christ.
c. There are seven parts to our destiny in Christ:
i. Blessing and adversity in time toward a testimony of love for the Father.
ii. An interim destiny for those church age believers who are not in the rapture generation, including their interim body and an existence face to face with God in heaven.
iii. Participation in the rapture, including:
1. Reception of the resurrection body.
2. Meeting with Jesus Christ for the first time.
3. Reunion with believers who have gone before you in death, or ones that you have left behind through your death.
4. Tribulational events for church age believers, including the universal worship service, and the judgment seat of Christ.
5. Participation in the second advent of Jesus Christ, including the battle of Armageddon.
6. Co-rulership with Jesus Christ during the millennium.
7. Many blessings in eternity in recognition for what we’ve accomplished in time.
7. The Bride and the Bridegroom.
a. This is the relationship metaphor for the church.
b. It illustrates the sanctifying ministry of Christ Jesus.
c. It demonstrates the love that Christ has for the church.
d. It demonstrates the beauty of the bride through the grace of God.
Final Mandates from the Seven Metaphors
- Jesus Christ is our leader; we are mandated to follow.
- Jesus Christ is our pattern, we are mandated to conform.
- Jesus Christ is our high priest; we are mandated to access His priesthood through your own.
- Jesus Christ is the source of our character, which produces ministry, we are mandated to gain character and to minister through His pattern of character development (to others).
- Jesus Christ is the head of the church, which is His body, we are mandated to unity and teamwork under His authority
- Jesus Christ is the trailblazer of our destiny; we are mandated to change our present to match our future.
- Jesus Christ is the groom, and we are the bride; we are mandated to respond to His love and to develop inner beauty (no marriage will occur).