Very little Scripture (the Bible) has to do with getting one to believe in Jesus Christ in order to “be saved.” Rather, the majority of holy writ concerns preparing ourselves to one day see God face to face. David believed, “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.” (Ps. 17:15) Does this same faith and hope to one day awake in Christ’s likeness dwell within each one of us? This present series of writings will focus on this idea in depth.

You may believe that the idea or doctrine of one day awakening in God’s likeness is simple and expected for all Christians, but stop and think about it. God used sixty-six different books to convey this message and he primarily used prophetic stories called parables as his mode for presenting this truth. The New Testament says that Jesus never taught anything unless he spoke in parables. So, consider, did his method differ with the Israelites in the previous age? I don’t think so. I believe God’s method of presenting truth remained consistent from age to age. Just as Jesus expressed God’s ways through his many stories that we call parables so I believe that the historical accounts of the Old and New Testaments, although factually true, were his sovereignly orchestrated parables designed by him in order to teach prophetic, or spiritual, truth.

Parables themselves represent God’s application of the theological principle known as “first the natural, then the spiritual.” Paul states this concept three different ways to the Corinthians.

1. 1 Corinthians 2:14
   The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
2. 1 Corinthians 15:44
   It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
3. 1 Corinthians 15:46
   But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.

The Old Testament,  except for the prophetic writings, basically conveys natural, historical events. Rarely in ancient Israel do we come into contact with men filled with God’s Holy Spirit. The natural thus appears as the norm in Old Testament writings, not the spiritual. The New Testament, however, differs radically from the Old Testament in that most of the writings concern spiritual doctrine rather than historical facts. This does not mean that the Old Testament writings are not spiritual, far from it. God simply hid the spiritual from us by couching it in natural language and historical facts. 

Why do you think that Jesus used parables in order to teach? Do you think that he used the vehicle of a story in order to make his meaning more clear? No, I tell you that he used parables in order to hide the truth, so that he might fulfill the word of Isaiah,

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear you indeed, but understand not; and see you indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people dull, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return, and be healed. (Isaiah 6:8-10 KJ2000)

Isn’t this interesting? God sends his preacher, Isaiah, to go tell his people that they will hear but will not understand God’s word. And isn’t that the way history has unfolded? We could fill countless libraries with all the books which have been written trying to explain the Bible. And most of those books would be filled with false doctrine because men have heard God’s words, but have not understood them.

Why, then, did Jesus use mysterious stories most people could not understand to teach his truth? Because truth is costly and it is his truth which ultimately qualifies us to partake of the greatest prize of all, oneness with God, or as David says, awakening in God’s likeness. Consider his admonition to the Laodiceans.

Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white clothing, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. (Revelation 3:17-18 KJ2000)

Laodicea describes much of Christianity in this present time. Most Christians believe they are rich in terms of their spiritual possessions. But Jesus says they “are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” They hear the Bible, but they do not understand it. Their teachers teach it, but even their teachers do not understand it. And why? Because they have not obeyed their Savior’s command to “buy of me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich; and white clothing, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

“But I thought salvation was free!” you say. Yes, your spiritual salvation is free, but this talks about your soul’s salvation.” And you reply, “I thought the salvation of my soul was by faith and was free too!” Yes, it is. We “buy” from Jesus by asking him in faith for that which we need as Isaiah explains,

Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. (Isaiah 55:1-3 KJ2000)

God began to teach us the way to become like him long ago in the books of Moses. He laid down the Law for Israel and commanded they obey it.  This law, though, was natural, or “carnal” as the writer of Hebrews describes it in Hebrews 7:16. Because it was carnal it could “make nothing perfect.” (Hebrews 7:19)  It is now, though, through the Holy Spirit that we can re-examine God’s Law and all the Old Testament and discern that the natural laws and history presented there were actually parables which tell a prophetic story. The natural parables, then, point to a spiritual reality. It is this spiritual reality which God now wants his people to understand.

Scripture itself is as a seamless garment. Once we understand this we learn to affirm with the Hebrews’ writer that the “gospel [was] preached … [to Israel], but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2) The way for us now, then, is not to return to the natural laws of do’s and don’t’s prescribed for ancient Israel (I except here the moral laws which the New Testament constantly reaffirms), but to seek to understand the spiritual implications of those manifold laws, to learn to interpret the parabolic importance of each law and each story, for the laws and stories all foretell the same thing… man awakening in God’s likeness!