Here are two of these major truths! 

Jesus gave us the greatest of all commandments in Matthew 22.

³⁶  “…Which commandment in the law is the greatest?" ³⁷ He (Jesus) said…, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the greatest and most important commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments."  (Matthew 22)

In John 14: 15  Jesus said: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Loving the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind is the greatest commandment, yet we Evangelicals treat the Great Commission as the greatest commandment.

¹⁸ Then Jesus came near and said to them, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."  (Matthew 28)

In the Great Commission passage Jesus commanded us to use His authority to make disciples of all nations, and to teach converts to observe all that He has commanded us to do. And the greatest of His commandments tells us to love Him with our whole being. Please notice that fulfilling the greatest commandment facilitates fulfilling the Great Commission.

We can never fulfill the Great Commission until we go beyond making converts. Our job is to transform converts into disciples who are taught to observe all the Lord has commanded us.

To obey what we consider The Great Commission, and thereby excuse ourselves from obeying what we consider lesser commands is still disobedience. Because of our disobedience, we fail miserably at fulfilling the Great Commission because the “lesser commands” are part and parcel of fulfilling the Great Commission.

 Here is the other truth: The ministry of Christ in us. Being a Christian is more about who Christ is in us than who we are in Christ, as this passage in Galatians says:

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me …" (Galatians 2:20)

The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” in Philippians 1:19, and Acts 16:7. And Galatians 2:20 says Christ lives in us.

If Christ lives in you and me, does He indwell us passively or does He manifest Himself through us? This verse makes it clear that the indwelling Christ will continue to do the things He did on Earth.

Jesus said: "I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12)

If you believe in Jesus, then you are “the one who believes” in this verse. It is this aspect of “Jesus in us” that will do the works that He did, and even greater, when He walked on the earth.

Jesus prophesied this promise over you…if you believe in Him! But you may be wondering how you can apply this seemingly impossible prophecy to your life? As you read this verse, keep saying to yourself over and over:

“It is Christ alone who lives in me that can do what Jesus did, and even greater, and not of myself lest I have something to boast about.”

Because divinity indwells us, we can do divine things. Rather, the Divine can manifest Himself through us, the Divine being the Spirit of Jesus. Jesus is in us — collectively — continuing His ministry, and doing (as always) what He sees the Father doing (John 5:19-21). Since there are millions of us, His accumulative work through us certainly can exceed what He did in person.

As with all Spiritual truths, if anything is of God, it is God who did it, with or without our involvement. It takes a sovereign act of God to accomplish what only God can do, whether it be salvation or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or a healing, it is because God did it — in us and through us! It never is ours . . . it is always God in us. Because this is a divine truth we do not need to strive to do the things that Jesus did, because Jesus is in us to do the things that He did through us!

The presence of God is what makes the Great Commission work. The presence of God that He wants to pour out on His people will convict others of their sin and draw them to Him. Only those who truly encounter God can teach others how to encounter Him.

In the same way Jesus Christ was conceived within Mary, He was also conceived within every born again believer at the moment of salvation. Because He indwells us we now have a move of God living within us. I believe that this will be the greatest move of God the world has ever seen, and will usher in the Bride Groom!

A Revelation Of The Bride Of Christ

In Christendom, when it comes to the concept of laying up treasures in heaven, the common misconception is that we all enter eternity on an equal basis. One size fits all, they say. Therefore, doing good works, or gaining crowns to cast at Jesus’ feet often gets passed over (Rev. 4:10).

It is ridiculous to assume that those who do the minimum and just squeeze by will receive the same rewards in eternity as the patriarchs (like Moses and Paul) who did great exploits. God forbid!

Furthermore, it is unkind to rob naive saints of potential rewards by not teaching them the clear Word of God. That is what discipleship is all about.

We are being robbed if we are not being discipled, and we are robbing the next generation if we are not discipling them.

We know about the Great Commission and all that. The question here is: How can we learn what other “treasures” we can “lay up,” if they are not being talked about enough in our churches? For example, I believe that we need to hear more about becoming overcomers.

Who Are The Overcomers?

In the Revelation letters to the seven churches (chapters 2 and 3), Jesus made special promises to “he who overcomes.”

Since Jesus was speaking to churches, He therefore was speaking to the Christians in those churches, not to unbelievers. It is obvious that He differentiated between ordinary Christians and overcomer Christians. Otherwise there was no point in Jesus calling on the Christians in each of these churches to become overcomers.

The promises are experienced only by believers who are faithful and obedient, and failure to overcome means a loss of rewards, not salvation (see 1 Cor. 3:15).

The reward for those who obey is the promise that they will eat of the tree of life. Eating of the tree of life is a promise of special intimacy with the Lord, a promise of renewing the fellowship lost before the fall (see Rev. 22:14; Gen. 2:9; 3:22, 24; Prov. 11:30). The privileged access once denied Adam (see Gen. 3:24) will be enjoyed by the overcomer.

Here is my own synopsis of the shortcomings found in those churches. (1) Various kinds of heretical teachings and teachers were tolerated. (2) They left their first love. (3) They were devoid of spiritual life and power, and (4) were lukewarm in their zeal. To tell the truth, that sounds like a lot of our churches today.

Overcomers are not some special class. They are simply people from every generation who overcame the shortcomings found in these churches. They are promised wonderful privileges, special and exceptional rewards — treasures in Heaven — that are not promised to other Christians.

Does Christ want you to believe ALL, accept ALL that God has said (in the Bible)? If you do not believe ALL or accept ALL that Christ offers, are you rejecting a part of Christ?

Here is the Scripture reading that compelled me to ask these hard questions:

7. He that overcometh shall inherit ALL things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

9. And there came unto me one of the seven angles…and talked with me, saying, come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. (Revelation 21 KJV)

Notice that no mention is made in these verses of those Christians spoken of in the seven churches who were not overcomers (Rev. 2-3). Only overcomers and the bride are mentioned here.

What would you do with Christians who are not counted among the overcomers? One alternative that is often used to identify these Christians can be found in the parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1). Virgins are said to be a typology for Christians. Five had oil in their lamps, a typology for the Holy Spirit, and five did not. These five “Christians” were not invited to what appears to be the wedding of the bride of Christ.

This is a most uncomfortable subject, but it is one that must be resolved. Again, what would you do with this class of Christians who are not counted among the overcomers?

Too often, we define ourselves by what we do for God rather than what we become to Him. What pleases the Father most is not what proceeds from our hands but what rises from our hearts. He is seeking the revelation of His Son in us.

 Nothing on earth pleases the Father's heart more than when Jesus Christ is revealed in us. It is this singular goal: the focused pursuit of Christ-likeness; that is our quest.

Since it is God’s desire to conform each of us to the image of Christ, it seems to me that alone should be THE Christian’s goal in life. Overcomers shoot for that goal . . . that purpose . . . that life. After all, life is short and eternity waits for no man!

There is a profound difference between the way overcomers or bondservants live and the majority of those who may profess to be bondservants.

There is no motivation to devote our lives to becoming overcomers until we understand that. . .

MOST Christians minister without the Holy Spirit MOST of the time; and

MOST Christians are NOT overcomers.

Salvation is a free gift, but God’s glory will cost us everything. We are going to have to lie down and die, and the more we die to self, the closer Jesus will press in. And He wants us to press in and live in His perpetual habitation of glory. He wants us to be so saturated with His presence and glory (as Moses and Paul were) that we carry His presence with us everywhere we go in this life, living out there on the edge as a holy saint of God. This may be the only way the unspeakable glory of God will find its way to God’s house, the White House, and every house.

All Christians are called to be kings and priests to rule with Christ, but because so many of us think like slaves, we get “rained on” instead of “reigning with” Christ.

Overcomers think like those in the royal priesthood, like a bride-to-be who is riotously in love with the King of Kings.

Think about this for a little bit: royalty marries royalty, and King Jesus is coming for His royal bride.

Typology of Isaac and Rebecca and the Bride of Christ

Some theologians tell us that Abraham was a type of God the Father, and Isaac was a type of Jesus, the Son of God, and Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, was a type of the Holy Spirit. If this is a valid typology, then it is logical to conclude that Rebecca was a type of the Bride of Christ, and her family was a type of the family of God. Isaac did not marry Abraham’s family — just Rebecca.

You will recall that Abraham said to Eliezer (in Gen. 24:4): “You shall go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” Now, allow me to ask some obvious questions and then reiterate this passage using this typology. Who are God’s relatives in this passage? Is the Bride of Christ in the midst of God’s relatives? What country is God’s? What are the countries that are NOT God’s? The lost?

In this typology God might be saying to the Holy Spirit: “You shall go to the sons of God in the Kingdom of God, and take a wife from amongst them for my son Jesus.” In other words, the Bride of Christ is chosen from among Christians in the Kingdom of God. It is the Overcomers who have made themselves ready for their Bride Groom — King Jesus. Judge the accuracy of this teaching.

The Spirit of Christ wants to do more than just passively indwell you; He wants to actively be ONE with you. God created us for the sole purpose of loving us with His perfect love, and to encourage us to return that love! Call this a relationship, fellowship, or a spiritual experience, but . . . If your relationship with Jesus is not intimate, intensive, and passionate, you are lukewarm.

In the Parable of the Sower Jesus says among those where the seed fell on fallow ground, some brought forth 30, 60, 100 fold. The 100-fold Christian is an overcomer by becoming all God called him to be. The 30 & 60-fold did not give their all for the Kingdom and its King.

Jesus also said that he who is least among you (as a servant) is the greatest. The more humble, the more exalted at God's proper time. Paul had it right when he declared he was a nobody.

This article is a call to the church to excel to the coveted stature of being among Overcomers who will make up the company called “the Bride of Christ.”

Even though all Christians will go to heaven, not all Christians will be in “the Bride of Christ.” But, again, the call is for you to know how to be in that number, and then set out to meet the standard.

Kenneth Uptegrove

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