I had a wonderful morning time with the LORD meditating upon Zechariah chapter 4. The vision given to the prophet continues to grip me with its glory of God’s grace, Spirit, and faith through Christ. Richard Phillips in his excellent commentary had already done the hard work of exegesis and exposition to demonstrate conclusively that the two olive trees pouring in the oil of anointing, in the context of what has already been written in Zechariah, is pointing to Joshua the High Priest, and Zerubbabel, the Governor.

Phillips had also pointed out, in accordance with what Jesus Himself says in Luke 24:27, that all the prophets of the Old Testament were heralding His coming, and His salvific work. Therefore, the Joshua figure in Zechariah chapter 3, and the Zerubbabel figure in chapter 4, were both pointing to Christ in His high priestly work, and His resurrection and ascension as King of Kings.

In particular, Phillips comments on Zech 4:10 about how the painful start to the second temple’s construction and taking into consideration the setbacks and obstacles posed by Israel’s enemies, though “baby steps” in restoration of God’s presence within and amidst His people, is a powerful reminder of the progression of faith in Christ of the believer of the gospel. Zechariah chapter four shows the complete and abundant provision of faith and the Spirit by His grace in the first grand vision in this chapter.

What a picture of the abundant life Jesus promised in John chapter 10, verse 10! Jesus offers all who comes to Him, His life. This life of Christ is the Person of the Holy Spirit. As Zechariah chapter 4 comes to a close, we are thankful to God that the prophet seeks the mind of God regarding the two olive trees. And he gets a response after his second attempt to seek understanding about this vision. The angel responds in verse 14 “So he said, “These are the two anointed ones who are standing beside the Lord of all the earth.”

The ever-flowing olive oil coming from the olive branch signify The Anointed One, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, sent by the Father to seek and save His lost. And not only does He rescue His lost from the enemy’s kingdom, but He also then fills them with Himself through the outpoured Holy Spirit which Peter explains perfectly in his first sermon as a “Spirit-filled” believer on the day of Pentecost.

When these truths remain propositional truths merely in the cognitions of believers, without the revelation and insight of the Holy Spirit, we continue to miss the point of the gospel. The gospel preached today is usually one that is either “under-realized”, or “over-realized”. What do I mean?

I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve heard the gospel preached in an “under-realized” eschatological position. This position emphasizes the cross, and the forgiveness of sins, and it is the gospel, though only half of it. Jesus shed His blood and with the atoning sacrifice of His blood, our sins, and condemnation were removed instantly through the grace of God. However, we cannot only live in our forgiven state. That simply means the slate has been wiped clean. It is as though the debt was only removed.

Jesus came to give us more than only forgiveness of sin. In the Ephesian letter, chapter 1, and verse 3, the Holy Spirit inspires the apostle Paul to write a powerful song of praise blessing the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us (note the past tense) with “every spiritual blessing” in the heavenlies in Christ. Salvation in union with Christ encompasses forgiveness of sin AND gives us heaven’s Treasure, Christ Himself through the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

“Over-realized” preaching is preaching that emphasizes the victory of the resurrection and the giving of the Spirit to every believer with a lessening of the message of the cross which is death to the fleshly influences within the believer. This “over-realized” eschatological position forgets that sin must be put to death as the Spirit clearly teaches in Romans chapter 6, and elsewhere in the New Testament Scriptures. This position seems to think that since the Kingdom has indeed come with the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit into every believer, then, every believer ought to experience every day, and every moment, “mountain moving faith”, and when continually preached in this manner, tends to “shipwreck” believers’ faith.

This side of heaven, you and I are going to have to continually deal with the predilections of the flesh’s influence. Sin in our flesh still remains as the Spirit teaches through Paul in Romans chapter 7, and other places in Scripture. And with the Spirit residing and empowering us, we really have no more excuses to sin. Yet, we will sin. The solution is to “abide in Christ”. And to abide in Christ is to continually confess our dependency upon Him, and His finished work in justifying the unjust with His Justified Self!

Our devotions with the LORD, or our “quiet time” is so much more than a religious observation. It is so much more than a religious duty. It is an opportunity to realize again the greatness of grace that God pours into us because He sees Christ in us, the “hope of glory” (Col 1:27). Here’s where we experience the dual work of our High-Priest, and King. Sacrifice has been made, and the provision of the King Himself has been given to His subjects.

Truly in Christ we live lives “more than conquerors” (Rom 8:37). It is now my practice to “Pray in the Spirit at all times” (Eph 6:18), especially before I engage in gospel meditation. I spend about 20 to 30 minutes “praying in the Spirit” (1 Cor 14:15) and praying Scripture as I verbalize and personalize Scripture in my heart, and through my mouth. The outcome is quite incredible! I can actually feel the strength of God inside of me as I read and meditate upon Scripture, and it is such grace from God to live lives honoring of the gospel.