Israel, the Church, and the Promises of God (Class 08)

Welcome, everyone, to our final class in this course, which has been on the subject of Israel, the church, and the promises of God. And I hope that it has been an encouraging and useful class over the last eight weeks.

We have covered many different subjects, and Brother Mike's not in here right now, but I do want to say I was very, very encouraged, especially by last week's message where he talked about the temple and worked all that out.

I thought that was very helpful. And hopefully reading along with the book has been helpful for you all as well. Well, tonight we are going to finish the course with the lesson entitled Living the Christ-Centered Life.

Living in Light of God’s Promises Fulfilled in Christ

Because all of God's promises find their fulfillment in Christ, the Christian life must find its identity, direction, purpose, and hope in the person of Jesus Christ. If you remember on Sunday, I mentioned the Heidelberg Catechism, which begins, what is our only comfort in life and death?

That I am not my own, but belong body and soul to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our only hope. Our only comfort is Him. And so tonight we are going to talk about how to apply the truths that we have learned in this class and hopefully carry them on forward as we continue to walk in Christ together.

But before we do that, I would like for us to have a word of prayer. So let's bow our heads and go to the Lord. Our Father and our God, we thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and to open your word together and to be reminded of the wonderful truths therein.

And I pray, Lord, that you would keep me from error and that as your word is taught, Lord, that it would edify your people, that your spirit would fill the teaching of the word, that he would apply the truths to the hearts of everyone here and to those who will hear it online.

And I pray, Lord, that the believers would be edified by your truth. And Lord, if there are those who happen to be unbelievers who have not yet bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they might hear the wondrous truth of the gospel and be saved.

Lord, most of all, we pray again that you would be glorified as we seek to minister your word. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. If everything we have studied for the last eight weeks is true, what difference does it actually make in our life?

What difference does all of this make? We have talked about Jesus Christ being the fulfillment of all of God's promises. We have talked about how the Abrahamic promise ultimately finds its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ.

These are theological truths that can be debated and are debated by different theologians of different times and for different purposes. But if what we have said is true, if what we have concluded from this class is true, that Jesus Christ is in fact the fulfillment of all the promises of God, what difference does it make?

Well, a thought for the evening is this. Right theology should produce right living. As simple as it is. Right theology should produce right living. Now we know that it doesn't always. There are men who would proclaim right theology but live like the devil.

There are men who write theological textbooks and preach theological conferences that are later exposed to not have been living for Christ and that is a sad but very real reality that we have to face.

But right theology, meaning right thinking about God, right thinking about the scripture, right thinking about the truth, it should produce in us right living. The word that we usually associate with right theology is the word orthodoxy.

The word orthodoxy, the word doxa, is the root where we get the word glory. We sing the doxology at the end of our sermons, that's the proclamation of the glory of God. Orthodoxy refers to a right theology or right understanding of God, a right understanding of who God is specifically in regard to that which is aligned with his glory, the truth.

In the word orthos, we think of like an orthodontist. What does an orthodontist do? An orthodontist straightens teeth, right? So an idea of orthodoxy is straight or right theology and orthodoxy should produce orthopraxy.

That simply means the straight living or right living, the living out to practice or that's where the word would come from. So orthodoxy should produce orthopraxy or again as we've said, right theology should produce right living.

And chapter 11 of our book actually begins with this idea. It transitions from all the concepts that we have learned in the first 10 chapters into this 11th chapter which identifies the realities that shape our identity, our relationships, our work, our suffering, our eternal hope and this is what it says.

The comprehensive truth that all of scripture points to Christ and all of God's promises find their yes in him, 2 Corinthians 1 .20, creates profound implications for how we believers understand and live our faith.

This Christocentric perspective should permeate every aspect of life, transforming how we think, act and relate to God and to others. Having established across 10 chapters that we inherit all of Israel's covenant blessings through union with Christ, we now explore how this theological reality should revolutionize our daily experience.

The promises we studied are not merely academic concepts but living realities that should shape our identity, relationships, work, suffering and eternal hope. The reality again is it's not just dry, bare theological principles but it's how those theological principles come alive in our daily walking out of our faith.

God makes promises, Christ fulfills those promises, we receive those promises through union with him, therefore we live in light of the promises of God. Let me say that again, God makes promises, Christ fulfills those promises, we receive those promises through union with Christ, therefore we live in light of the promises of God that we have in Jesus Christ.

So tonight I've given a handout and for those of you who are taking this class online I want to make a quick note, none of the classes that we have done for this class are on the new website. I just found that out today and I do want to apologize.

We had a total new website reworking this past week, we have a brand new website and it's working really well but because this class is new it's not yet on the site. But this week one of my goals is to get all of the videos on the site, they're already on our YouTube page, people can go watch them on YouTube and they have been, but to get to them on the site, it will be on the site this week and this handout will be available for download for those of you who are taking this class online.

And I'm not always one to use handouts, I'm the type that it just depends on if the mood catches me right, but I felt like tonight's class really would go well with a handout and sometimes people don't like to fill in the blanks, sometimes people feel like this is like VBS for adults, like it might be a little bit of a, you know, a little bit somewhat juvenile, but I think sometimes it can be helpful and it doesn't hurt us to do it every once in a while.

So I gave one to everyone in the class and those of you who are doing the class online you'll get, you'll be able to download it very, very soon. So let's look first at our first blank and the blank, if you want to fill it in, is that Christ is not part of our life, Christ is our life.

Christ Is Not Part of Our Life; Christ Is Our Life

Christ is not part of our life, Christ is our life. If you have your Bibles you can open them with me to Colossians chapter 3 and go to verse 1. Go to Colossians chapter 3 and verse 1. Let's see, Philippians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, okay, General Electric Power Company, right, it's Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, right, and you're trying to find the little books there in the middle of the New Testament.

Okay, so Colossians chapter 3 beginning at verse 1 the Apostle Paul writes this, if then you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God, when Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory, alright, so right away the Apostle Paul begins this section with this statement, if you have been raised with Christ, so who is he speaking to?

He's speaking to believers, when he talks about being raised with Christ he is talking about our spiritual regeneration, he says if you have been raised with Christ, doesn't Paul say that in the book of Romans, we were buried with him and we have been raised with him and that is what's pictured in our baptism, buried with him in baptism, raised to walk in the newness of life, that is, that's regeneration, that's the new birth and that's the new life that we have in Christ, he's not talking about a future resurrection, if you have been raised with Christ, no, he's talking about a past resurrection, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the father, seek the things that are above, set your mind on things that are above not on things that are on the earth, now this does not mean, and we're going to actually see this later, this does not mean that we don't have earthly things that we have to attend to, this doesn't mean that we become hermits or monks and we run to the monasteries or to the deserts and alleviate ourselves of all human responsibility and basically live away from all human relationships, no, it doesn't mean that, but what he's saying is in this life, the thing that should drive our life and the thing that should be the focus of our life, our very life should be lived in Jesus Christ and the focal point is actually in verse 4, he says when Christ who is your life appears, think about just the construction of what he's saying, the construction of that sentence, he doesn't say when Christ who is first in your life appears or when Christ who is most important in your life appears or when Christ who is your savior appears, no, he says when Christ who is your life, so again going back to our heading for this section, Christ is not part of our life, Christ is our life, the apostle Paul says I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but it's not I who live, but Christ who lives within me and the life I now live, I live by faith in the son of God who gave himself for me, my life has now become centered on and is lived in the Lord Jesus Christ, I have died and I live in Christ, Christ is our life, we have a tendency to compartmentalize, especially men, especially men, not only men, but especially men have the tendency to compartmentalize life to where you have your church life and you have your family life and you have your work life and you have your financial life and you have your entertainment life and you have your political life and you have your other relationships and that's a different part of your life and then of course you have your hobbies and for some guys hobbies are the most important part of their life, they spend all their time on their hobbies and things like that, but those are all different compartments and I understand that, my wife and I have actually had this conversation about my ability and I do have an ability to absolutely divide the points in my life where I'm not thinking about anything in any other compartment when I'm in one compartment, so like when I'm working on my sermon, I'm not thinking about anything else, I'm working on that compartment, or when I'm with her and the kids, I'm trying not to think about anything else, I'm thinking about them, so there's some, that's good, there's some of that because you don't want to have like a person who's always divided, you want to be able to have some attention, but the problem is if you think of it like this, if you think of it like a grid, right, and you've got sort of, you know, home and work and you've got church and you've got relationships and you've got hobbies and let's say you've got sports, you know, you've got all these different aspects of life, what happens when we become a Christian is sometimes we just add another compartment and that's where Jesus goes, Jesus just becomes another compartment of life and we deal with the Jesus stuff when we're, maybe when we're at church or maybe when we're having our evening devotions at home, but Jesus isn't in our life all the time, we compartmentalize him out to that part that is the Jesus part and I've used this example before, I say Jesus becomes almost like an adornment of life rather than life, he becomes an accessory of life rather than life or, you know, if we think about like a Christmas tree, he becomes an ornament on our already full tree rather than him being our life and the focal point of this section is that when Paul speaks of Christ, he says, Christ, who is your life?

I just, honestly, for me, reading that, it just continually overwhelms me with what that means, that my whole life, everything should be lived in light of who Christ is and should be lived for Christ and Christ should not be a compartment but rather should be that which is overall, my marriage belongs to Christ, my money belongs to Christ, my career belongs to Christ, my body belongs to Christ, my suffering belongs to Christ, my future belongs to Christ.

Jesus doesn't get another category, Jesus defines all the categories and again, this is just what it means when we say Christ is not part of our life, Christ is our life. When Christ, who is your life, appears, the apostle says, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Again, when he says, who is your life, that's actually not the focal point of the sentence. The focal point of the sentence is when Christ appears, you will appear with him but he adds that clause when Christ, by the way, who is your life, appears, you will appear in glory with him and it's just this wonderful reminder.

It's sort of like next week I'll be in Arkansas and I'm preaching and one of the messages I'm preaching is on the value of scripture and I'm using one half of a verse, I'm preaching one half of a verse for the whole sermon and it's from Hebrews chapter 3 verse 7 and Hebrews 3 verse 7, it says, as the Holy Spirit said and it goes on to quote an Old Testament passage and my goal is to say, why did the writer of Hebrews say the Holy Spirit said this?

Because the word of God is the words of God inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit said this and it was actually David writing because it's quoting David from the psalms, Hebrews 3 is quoting a Davidic psalm but it says the Holy Spirit said this.

Why does that matter? That little sentence changes everything because it reminds us that this is the word of God, not just the words of David. Do we call it the Davidic psalms? Yes. Do we call it the Pauline epistles?

Yes. But at the end of the day, this is God's word. In the same way, Paul is here talking about when Christ appears, we'll be like him but Christ who is your life, the one you've been waiting for, the one who is coming, the one who is going to come and you're going to live with him forever when that appears, when he.

Appears, your life.

That's the part of this that just overwhelms when you think about Christ who is your life. He's not part of your life. He is your life. All right. So that's the first of several of the things we're going to look at tonight.

So again, number one, Christ is not part of our life. Christ is our life. He's not just first. He is our life. Now, the second thing I want us to look at is living from your identity, not for your identity, living from your identity, not for your identity.

Living From Your Identity in Christ

All right. This is not a trick question, I promise. But I want to ask and feel free to raise your hand and answer if you would like. How does a person come into a right relationship with God? How does a person come into a right relationship with God?

It's OK. I know everybody's nervous because you think you're going to say the right thing and I'm going to tell you you're wrong. I promise it's not hard and I'm not trying to trick you. So how does someone come into a right relationship with God?

Come on, Cindy, I know you want to say something. I keep looking at you. I won't make you talk, but I didn't figure out. OK, thank you. Yeah, that was all I was looking for. Yes, we are. We always say sola fide, right?

Justification by faith, right? We come to a right relationship with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Right. We were at enmity with God. We were at war with God. But we have been brought into a right relationship with God through faith in his son, Jesus Christ. And of course, I believe faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin.

So we certainly agree with that. When that occurs, this is our identity that we now experience. The Bible says we we are a royal priesthood. First Peter chapter two, verse nine. We are Abraham's offspring.

Galatians chapter three, verse twenty nine. We are God's temple. First Corinthians six, nineteen. We are citizens of heaven. Philippians chapter three, verse twenty. We are a light to the nations. Matthew chapter five, verse fourteen.

These are all the things that we are. We are sons of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Adopted into the family of God. Adopted sons. All of these things are the realities of who we are. Therefore, we live from that identity, not for that identity.

Meaning our life is not trying to achieve that which we already have in Christ. So many people and Mike and I were talking about this in our elders meeting today. We're talking about Eastern Orthodoxy.

So many people are living towards something that they want to achieve. They believe that they have to get there. No, we are there. Remember, we just read in Colossians, Christ, who is your life? He is already your life.

He is already the one that you're in. You are already adopted. You are already justified. You are already in one sense sanctified. We would call that definite sanctification versus progressive sanctification.

We've been set apart. We have been declared his. He is ours and we are his. And that is what we live from, not what we live for in the sense that we're not trying to achieve it, but rather we're living from it.

We're not trying to become something that we already are in Christ, but we are living in light of what we are in Christ. This produces a very important distinction. Christian obedience flows from identity.

Identity does not flow from obedience, meaning or doesn't create obedience. Wait, let me start again. I think I just confused myself. Obedience flows from identity. Identity doesn't come from. It's not that we obey and then we become.

It's we we we have been made this thing and now we obey. Obedience is the result of not the cause of our relationship and our receiving of the promises of God. Galatians 329 says, if you are Christ's and if you are a person who has trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are his.

If you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. So we live in light of our identity. We live in light of who we are. And so this becomes the driving point for all of our life and all of our behavior.

Who are you? You are Christ's. You are his. And. This is one of those times where, again, it seems to me that we get this backwards so often and getting it backwards is the danger of working for that identity, working for who we are in Christ rather than understanding who we are in Christ and working as a result of that.

The I know you've heard this before, but I think it's important to always remind Paul wasn't unaware that people would get salvation out of order. And often in his letters, he would clarify with, I would say, with great specificity exactly how the order of salvation goes, not necessarily things like, you know, that he would order repentance and faith and adoption and those things, what we would call the order, salute us, things like that.

But he would tell us something like this. For by grace, are you saved through faith? And that's not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

So you have three important words there. You have the word by, through and for. For by grace, are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

And that's the order. And these three words, honestly, this is how so many people get so confused about salvation. Is they put the good works under the by, you're saved by your works or saved through your works.

No, you're not saved by your works. You're not saved through your works. You're saved for good works. You're saved by grace through faith, not of anything that you do, not of your works, lest anyone should boast.

No one can take their works to God at the end of their life and hand them to him and say, here's the reason why I deserve to be saved. No, that would be an act of boasting and that would be foolish. But we are saved for something.

We are saved for obedience. Christ doesn't save us to live a disobedient life. He doesn't save us to go out and continue to live like the world and the devil and to continue to indulge the flesh. No, he saves us for good works, but not by good works.

And this, I think, is an important distinction when we talk about our identity and who we are in Christ. And we're going to move on to the next one, but I just hope that makes sense. So we live from your identity, not for your identity.

God’s Promises as Resources for Christian Living

Number three, the promises, meaning the promises of God, become resources for Christian living, resources for Christian living. In 2 Corinthians 1 .20, which was the verse that we use to begin this class, it says that all the promises of God have their yes and amen in Christ.

Okay, that isn't merely telling us a way to interpret Old Testament prophecy. I want you to hear this because this might be the most important thing I say tonight. 2 Corinthians 1 .20 is not just telling us, here's how you interpret the promises of the Old Testament.

They're fulfilled in Christ. That's true, and that is certainly something we've talked about in this class over the last seven weeks. But what 2 Corinthians 1 .20 is telling us is, where do we look when we want to find the promises of God?

We look at Jesus Christ. It's not just, okay, God fulfilled his promises to Israel and God fulfilled his promises to Abraham. No, he fulfills his promises to you in Jesus as well. That's the key. Where do we look when we're thinking of the promises of God?

We look to Jesus Christ. He is the resource for Christian living. Think of it like this. When I am in need, what does the Bible say? It says in Philippians 4 .19, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in who?

In Christ Jesus, right? Who do I go to when I am in need? I go to the Lord Jesus Christ. When I fail, and I fail every day, some days a little bit more gloriously than others, not bragging, but I've had some bad failures.

Where do I go when I fail? Do I not go to Hebrews 4 .15 that tells me, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

Let us with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We go to the one who loves us and gave himself for us. We don't run away from Christ when we fail.

We run to Christ. Now, we may run away from Christ in the instance of our failure, but when the conviction comes and we recognize what we have done, where should we go? Like the prodigal son. Where did the prodigal son finally realize he should be going?

Go to the father, right? We go, and how do we go to the father? Through the son, right? We go to Christ. So, when I am in need, I go to Christ. When I fail, I go to Christ. When I am spiritually malnourished, where do I go?

I go to Christ. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. The manna of the Old Testament was never the destination. The manna was pointing to Christ. And the manna which fulfilled the people's bellies daily during the time of the Exodus was pointing to Christ who fills us spiritually and gives us spiritual satisfaction because the manna was the shadow that was pointing to the substance, which is Christ.

So, when I am in need, I go to Christ. When I fail, I go to Christ. When I am hungry, spiritually, I go to Christ. And when I suffer, where do I go? I go to Christ. 2 Corinthians 12, 9 says, My grace is sufficient for you.

Matthew 11, 28, Come to me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden. This is Matthew, I'm sorry, Matthew 11, 28. Come to me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. By the way, and I don't want to spend a ton of time on this, but we talked a lot in this class about how Christ fulfills the promises of the Old Testament, and that's all this class has been about, right?

Like all the promises of God are fulfilled in Him. You know what? One great promise that's often missed by a lot of people is that Christ fulfills this for us, that Christ actually is our rest. He is our Sabbath.

In the book of Hebrews, in chapter 4, when it's talking about a Sabbath day, it's actually talking about a state of being. It's not talking a specific day. It's talking about the rest that we enter into.

He talks about those who don't enter into the rest, right? It's not talking about a day, it's talking about a state of being. And what is that state of being? It's the state of being at rest in Christ.

And He says, Come to me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you Sabbath. I will give you rest. Not just one day from your labors, and we can debate about Lord's Day issues and Sabbath issues and whether or not we should go to the McDonald's on Sunday afternoon.

We can have that conversation another time. But even those who would hold to, like let's say our Reformed Baptist brethren and Presbyterian brethren who might hold to Sunday as the Christian Sabbath, and I've had debates on that and had that conversation.

Even they recognize, though, that the ultimate eschatological fulfillment is in Jesus Christ. Not in a day, but in a person. He is our rest. So when I, you know, we sing the song, When I feel my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast.

We're going to sing that this Sunday. That's, He will hold me fast. That means He will hold on to me. He will hold me fast. The word fast doesn't mean quick like we think of running fast. It means to be fastened, like to be held on to.

This is the John 10, which I'm preaching this week, where He says the believer is in His hand, and He is in the Father's hand, and no one can snatch them out of His hand. Why? Because He is holding us fast.

Our rest is in Him. And so He is the resource for the promises of God. Here's a useful summary. The Christian life is not merely believing that God made promises. It's learning to run to Christ because Christ is the fulfillment of those promises.

It's not just realizing God made promises. Where are those promises fulfilled? In Jesus Christ. Again, what is the title of the book? All the promises of God are fulfilled in Christ. Not just all the promises of God to Abraham, not just all the promises of God to Moses, not just all the promises of God to David, but all the promises of God find their fulfillment in Him.

If we are in need, if we feel our faith will fail, Christ is where we run to. It's not easy, folks. I hope that I don't sound like I'm making this trite. I'm not saying that when things are hard, it's not sometimes difficult to rest in Christ.

The world is constantly trying to pull us out of that rest, trying to pull us out of His hand, trying to cause us to not find our comfort in Him. I know that. So please don't take anything I'm saying tonight as trite or simplistic.

It's not. To me, it's the greatest truth in the world. It's just hard to apply. Because it's easy to say, hey, when I'm suffering, I should go to Christ for my comfort. But then I start suffering, and it's like I'm paralyzed.

Either I forget where to go, or I don't want to go. I want to find comfort somewhere else. But the promises of God are fulfilled in Christ. This is the heart of the class, right? This is the heart of what we've been learning.

So the Christian life is not merely believing that God made promises. It's learning to run to Christ because Christ is the fulfillment of those promises. All right, number four. We're going to look at what Christ does, the transforming work of Christ.

Christ Transforms the Home

We're going to look at three areas that Christ actually transformed. These are in the book, but we're going to look at them a little bit more closely. First, we think of Christ's work. Christ transforms the home.

Christ transforms the home. If you have your Bibles, you can open them with me to Ephesians 5. And we're going to look at 5 .21 -6 .4. So a long section, but I just want to show you what we have here as an outline of the Christian home.

And it begins with a call to submission. It's calling believers to submit to one another. So in Ephesians 5 .21, it says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Then in verse 22, a new paragraph begins.

It says, Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, His body and is Himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

And husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her by having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she may be holy and without blemish.

In the same way, husbands, you should love your wives. Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we're members of His body.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. The two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I'm saying it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Overall, what we're seeing here is we're seeing the pattern of the family and the one thing that we need to recognize that is the red thread that is linking all of these verses together is the idea of Christ.

What does it say to the believers? And the first verse we looked at, verse 21, which is actually part of the preceding context, but he says, Submitting to one another out of reverence to Christ. When we come together as a church, we ought to count one another more important than ourselves.

Isn't that what we're told? That we are actually to consider one another to be more important than ourselves. James even talks about it. If we come into the church and we see the best seats and we think the best seats should be reserved for us and we force other people into the lower seats, what are we doing?

We're actually putting ourselves in a place of importance, but rather we should set ourselves in a lower position than someone else. We should be humble. We should be people who put others first. And last night, I was actually asked this question on my show.

Somebody asked a question about narcissism. Somebody says, Does the Bible ever address narcissism? And I said, well, narcissism is a modern psychological term that certainly is not in the Bible. It's based on an ancient Greek mythology on the narcissist, the character, but the idea is a more modern psychological idea.

I said, but certainly the Bible addresses issues of pride and self-love, and that's what narcissism ultimately is. It means to be a lover of oneself. And what does the Bible tell us? Not to be lovers of ourselves, right?

That's the dangerous false teachers are the ones who love themselves, who do what they do for ungodly gain, right? And we as Christians are supposed to be submitting to one another because of what? Because of Christ.

Out of reverence to Christ. That's why we do what we do. Not because of each other. Because there are times where as Christians we may rub shoulders and bristle against one another, and sometimes Christians have rough exteriors and we can rub each other the wrong way.