Since the Church was never prophesied Israel first had to reject the King and the Kingdom for the Church to be birthed. At the withering of the fig tree Christ’s Earthly ministry changed as He began foretelling that He must suffer and then go to the cross. Within that great Prophetic truth holiness would thus be granted to the human soul by the Grace of God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This was a new revelation unlike the revelation of the Law of Moses given to Israel. Within this new revelation universal contact between man and God would come through man’s personal trust in the death of a Saviour on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. A new mystery is revealed!
God’s predestination concerning the Church, the body of Christ deals with the moral make-up of sinful man in conversion to a moral holiness and purity like Adam had in creation before the fall. The moral holiness of the Church eternally existed in Christ before the foundation of the world. Since the death of a Savior the Church, the body of Christ has been God’s way to manifest His moral holiness back into the heart of fallen man. Moral holiness from God comes through man’s faith in the redemptive work of Christ and cannot be achieved by human works in any manner. The predestinated Church for Jew and Gentile alike came into existence through the blessing of the Grace Covenant which is proclaimed in all the world by th true Gospel message. The Church being the essence of the Grace Covenant was purchased by Christ’s own blood.
• Acts 20:28…feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.