Arrabon is Better Then Cinnabon

This FOD is in some ways a prelude to my WWF teaching next Wednesday, May 5, which is titled Pentecost: E Unum Pluribus. You’ll receive an email Monday evening with details. Please come to the party, as I think you’ll enjoy the festivities. Via what is basically a word study of the word “seed,” we will see how what God brought to pass on that particular Pentecost made it possible for Him, with a little help from His friends, to spread the Gospel around the globe. And today you and I get to follow suit!

You may be familiar with the Latin words, E Pluribus Unum, which are the traditional motto of our United States of America, and you may know that they mean, “Out of Many, One.” As you know, Jesus Christ changed a lot of things, and on the Day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2, the newly appointed Lord reversed the last two words of that motto, making it “Out of ONE, Many.” From One Promised Seed came much fruit, and the Christian “many” spiritually became One (Body).  

In the vein of today’s fantasy comic book movie heroes, it’s like Satan “blew up” Jesus (the Transformer!), and each of the millions of tiny fragments eventually morphed into a vessel for his divine nature. Some false faith systems promote the lie that everyone has a “spark of the divine.” Well, you have much more than a spark—you have the whole keg of dunamis! So, light your fuse daily!

The magnitude of what God actually brought to pass that pivotal day, as recorded in Acts 2, renders anyone’s vocabulary, except God’s, insufficient to adequately set forth. This year we celebrate Pentecost on May 23, and I wonder how many Christian assemblies will accurately use His Word to do doctrinal justice to it. We will briefly attempt to do so in this missive by noting some aspects of what occurred in the Temple that glorious day.

First of all, the world’s biggest deal, salvation, which from Genesis until Acts was conditional and involved a steady stream of animal blood, became permanent via the once-shed blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God (Eph. 1:7). Had that concept been presented to Moses, David, Isaiah, or any other Old Testament heroes, it would have totally blown their minds. Ditto for the corresponding truth that every believer has constant access to the “lap of God,” if you will. After all, only one Israelite was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies, and that only once a year!

Having received the gift of holy spirit at the moment of our new birth, our perpetual salvation came by way of “incorruptible seed” (1 Pet. 1:23), making us each a precious child of the Creator. And our loving Heavenly Father dotes upon each of us as if we were His only child. As His children, and thus also brothers to the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 2:11), we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4), with all the spiritual accoutrements thereof. Can you say “nine manifestations”? Sure you can. We have received the nature of God on the inside so that we can display it outwardly to the world via the fruit of the spirit (Gal. 5:22-23, Col. 3:10).

Next, when we were saved from sin and death, you and I were precisely placed in the never-before-dreamed-of ekklesia (Body of Christ), made fellow laborers with Christ (1 Cor. 3:9), and endowed with a ministry (2 Cor. 5:18) in that august Body. And at our Lord’s appearing we will be amply rewarded for fulfilling that calling (1 Cor. 3:8).  

Furthermore, our salvation includes a guaranteed exemption from the wrath to come, that is, the Tribulation period that follows our being gathered together to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 1:9-10).

Finally, the greatest aspect of what happened on that Pentecost is that whoever chooses to make Jesus his Lord is absolutely assured of everlasting life in Paradise. We see that in the following, and only three, uses of one of the coolest Greek words in the Word—wait for it (who started saying that)—arrabon, which means, “part of the purchase-money or property given in advance as security for the rest.” That is, a down-payment, a deposit, and the guarantee of a big payoff. Considering what we already have now in the gift of holy spirit, the rest of the payment due us has gotta be HUGE. Cinnabon cinnamon rolls are deliciously sweet, but, as per the strange title of this letter, Arrabon is light years sweeter.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22

²¹ Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, ²² who also has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

2 Corinthians 5:1-5

¹ For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, ³ if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. ⁴ For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee.

Ephesians 1:13-14

¹³ In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the holy spirit of promise, ¹⁴ which is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

You and I are anointed, sealed, and guaranteed a “forever young” body. And finally, in the “thrill of a lifetime” category, our salvation includes one day getting to BLAST OFF for the “heaven of heavens” out there beyond the firmament! How wild is that? Think about what it will entail. I guess you could experience the sensation of flying on your own by going to one of those indoor wind tunnel flying places. But you won’t quite get to the Milky Way, let alone Icarus, which is nine billion light years from Earth. As we used to say back in the 60s/70s, “What a TRIP!”

You know that noise your computer makes when you finish an email and hit SEND? WHO-O-O-S-S-H-H!!! I’m guessing that when the Lord shows up to meet us in the air, each of us will make that sound going up. How LOUD will the collective “WHO-O-O-S-S-H-H!!! heard ‘round the universe” be? I’m sure the Devil will be holding his ears!

As the saying coined by some Christian wag goes, “See you here, there, or ‘in the air’”!