THE BOOK
OF REMEMBRANCE
By Dr. Kelley Varner
Every book begins with words. Again, those words, written in meaningful sequence,
become sentences, then paragraphs, and then chapters. In the end, those chapters make up
the whole writing, the “volume of the book.”
2 Cor. 3:3, TLB …you are a letter from Christ, written by us. It is not a letter written
with pen and ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not one carved on stone but in
human hearts.
Spiritually speaking, the “volume of the book” is a PEOPLE, the corporate Word
made flesh, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of God, the Finger of God!
The answered prayer of Jesus and the apostolic anticipation of Paul are realized in
the full formation of Christ within a people (Gal. 4:19).
One of the many biblical pictures of this glorious Church is that we are the "Book"
that God is writing.
Mal. 3:16-17, KJV Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and
the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book (scroll) of remembrance (memorial) was
written before Him (His face) for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon
(esteemed, valued, regarded, considered) His name. And they shall be mine, saith the
LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels (possession, valued property,
peculiar treasure); and I will spare (have compassion on) them, as a man spareth his own
son that serveth him.
“…in that day when I publicly recognize and openly declare them to be My
jewels-My special possession, My peculiar treasure…” (AMP).
The prophet describes the same Volume of the Book as “a book of remembrance,”
and clearly confirms that this Book represents the people of God. Malachi calls this
corporate, many-membered Son, those who fear the Lord, His “jewels.” The Body of
Christ is His peculiar treasure (1 Pet. 2:9). Creation longs for the “manifestation of the
sons of God” (Rom. 8:19), when the Father will publicly recognize and openly declare a
Manchild Company to be His offspring (Rev. 12:1-5).
Eph.1:10-11, KJV That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth;
even in Him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
Heb. 10:25, KJV Not forsaking the assembling (gathering, collecting) of ourselves
together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as
ye see the day approaching.
The heavenly Author is moving among His people, writing this Book of
re-member-ance! He is re-membering the many-membered Body of Christ, gathering us
together as one family in the Spirit. Our risen Lord has purposed to accomplish this task
through the fivefold ascension-gift ministries, the “hand” ministry (Eph. 4:11-13).
Rom. 11:36, KJV For of Him, and through Him, and to (into) Him, are all things…
Phil. 1:21, KJV For to me to live is Christ…
This Volume, this Book of remembrance that the Lord is writing upon the hearts of
men, is not about us. It is about Christ, the One “who is our life” (Col. 3:4). This “Lamb’s
book of (zoe) life” (Rev. 21:27), is about Him, and His intention to perform His purposes
through us His people, His Word made flesh.
Eph. 2:10, AMP For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship, recreated in
Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we do those good works which God predestined (planned
beforehand) for us, (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time) that we should walk
in them-living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live.
God knew us in Christ before we entered this world. He pre-planned “the good life”
for each of us (Rom. 8:28; 1 Pet. 3:10). This is the mystery, which from the beginning of
the world has been hidden in God (Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:25-29).
God knew us in Christ before we entered this world. He pre-planned “the good life”
(Eph. 2:20, AMP) for each of us (Rom. 8:28; 1 Pet. 3:10). This is the mystery, which
from the beginning of the world has been hidden in God (Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:25-29).
The Holy Spirit is breaking the seals from our understanding, helping us lay hold of
this sacred secret. He is causing the Body of Christ to be re-membered, and is helping
each member in particular to remember whom he or she was originally in Christ!
Rev. 10:7-10, KJV But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall
begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants
the prophets. And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go
and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the
sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little
book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it
shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand,
and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my
belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples,
and nations, and tongues, and kings.
My friend, Doug Fortune, clearly elucidates this mystery,
We must know “…the mystery of the seventh trumpet of the seventh seal of
Revelation 10:7. And the mystery is this: Christ, the God-breathed, engrafted living Word
IN us and THROUGH us! Perhaps WE are the ‘little book of’ Revelation 10:8-10 that the
angel told John to eat. Didn’t Jesus tell us to do the same thing? Didn’t He tell us to eat of
His Body , and to do it in re-MEMBER-ance of Him? Yes!
“And as we re-MEMBER Him, eating of His Body, partaking of each other,
honoring the deposit of Christ in each other, understanding that as individuals we are only
one word, that we need each other to form sentences and paragraphs and chapters, and
that the volume of the Book is written of Christ, THEN just like John we make a fresh
prophecy concerning many peoples and races and nations and languages and kings.
THEN the Book is a best-seller worldwide!…The nations are our inheritance and the
Book of re-MEMBER-ance is being written in every language.”
HE TAKETH AWAY THE FIRST
The Volume of the Book is a people, the Body of Christ. The writer to the Hebrews
further illustrates this truth in the tenth chapter.
Hebrews 10:9, KJV Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second.
What was taken away and what was established? First, it is evident from the context
of this entire epistle that the Old Covenant was taken away so that the New Covenant,
with its “better” blood and promises, could be set up.
Second, the context of Hebrews 10 makes plain that the “first” physical “body” of
Jesus was taken away in His ascension and coronation (Heb. 10:12-13). This paved the
way for the establishment of the “second” expression of His Body-the corporate Body of
Christ! His Church has been commanded to “occupy” (do business) “until” He comes,
and to put satan under our feet (Lk. 19:13 with Rom. 16:20).
Jesus was given His physical body when He came “into the world” (Heb. 10:5). His
Church is to be salt and light, His witness (Matt. 5:13-16). God is presently establishing
throughout the nations a people for His name (Acts 15:14), the expressed manifestation of
the life and ministry of the Pattern Son. “As He is, so are we in this world” (1 Jn. 4:17).
Psalms 40:8, KJV I delight (bend down, desire) to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy
law is within my heart.
Those who comprise the Volume of the Book, the Book of Remembrance, “delight”
to do His will, to always carry out those things that please Him (Jn. 8:29)! This inward
desire to bend to His Lordship flows out of our new nature, the indwelling Christ.
Heb. 10:9, TLB He cancels the first system [the law] in favor of a far better one
[grace and truth].
So the Father “took away” the first, the Old Covenant of law, that He might
“establish” the second, the New Covenant of grace and truth.
The word for “taketh away” in Hebrews 10:9 (KJV) means, “to take away violently,
to abolish; to kill a man.” The word for “establish” is “histemi,” and it means, “to cause
to stand.” It is related to the Greek word for “resurrection” (“anastasis”), a compound of
“ana” (again) and “histemi.” To be resurrected is to “stand up again.”
God “took away” the Old Covenant with violence, even the violence of the cross-He
“killed a Man!”
He then “established” the New Covenant, declaring Jesus Christ to be the Son of
God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by His resurrection from the dead
(Rom. 1:4). Our Savior’s violent death and glorious resurrection are the basis of the New
Testament in His blood. The law of sin and death has been abolished. We have been
raised from the spiritual death of trespasses and sins to walk in newness of life.
One chapter of the Book closed, and another began. The Covenant, the priesthood,
and the law changed (Rom. 8:1-2; Heb. 7:12).
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