|
Your Ascent or God’s Descent – The Condescension Withdrawn Condescension Withdrawn --> Final Resurrection --> Sinless Perfection --> An Eradication of Human Ways and Capacities Active in All Humans --> Therefore A Final Removal of God in the Ways of Man --> Condescension Withdrawn |
The eternal purpose of God is that, through the fall of man, through the open display of the insufficiency of men, upon the devastating consequences of their fall, the depth of their disobedience is bitterly made evident, and a platform and stage is formed for Christ to appear and fulfill, save, and become the mystery by which the Word of God and Covenants of Salvation are forever, eternally, and finally fulfilled.
“But unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings…” – Malachi 4:2
Behold Christ’s sufficiency! For now it hath broken the bitter night by the break of dawn so that the early morning is upon us, and lo, He ariseth as the sun riseth up – strength to strength – “as the shining Light, that shineth more and more unto the Perfect Day” (Prov. 4:18), but tarry a while now and understand, the Perfect Day is not yet upon us, for then the noon day strength of the Son of God’s Kingdom would have chased away all darkness and night. Verily, there are yet enemies of Jesus Christ and His seed lurking as shadows and following men about, who must soon be frightfully subdued. He reigns now, therefore the early morning is upon us, but “He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor. 15:25). Let us therefore rejoice in the morning and eagerly watch after the Son of God’s rising; I say, let us patiently wait for His Highness to reach His heights, and then, let us rejoice in the light of the Perfect Day. “When that which is perfect is come”, namely, “the Perfect Day” (Prov. 4:18), “then that which is in part shall be done away” (1 Cor. 13:10). God has promised a worldwide rule to the Davidic King Jesus, as He said in Psalm 37:6, “And He shall bring forth Thy righteousness as the Light, and Thy judgment as the noonday” (Ps. 37:6). Christ’s sufficiency is brilliantly made manifest after the bitter fall of men is deeply understood, that from the bitter darkness the triumph of Christ is appreciated in the sweet brilliance of the unfailing, faithfulness of God in Christ, Who could not and will not fall or fail. Yet for this blissful eternity to be inaugurated with a power of changeless glory, Christ must fill all, be in all, and take paramount supremacy over all, ridding His Kingdom of man-like iniquity and the whole body of death - thus at the resurrection men shall be as the angels (Mark 12:25).
|
“Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God? For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.” (Mark. 12:24-25)
|
At this point when flesh is removed, the glory of Christ fills all, and the mark of the prize is won, for there is a complete conformity of man to Christ. This is the condescension withdrawn! It is His resurrection, and in it men will have their ascension, then His immutable ways and promises will be our comprehension – “then shall I know even as I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12). Brethren, this is why we were “apprehended” (Php. 3:12)! Now we are in the dispensation of partial salvation because we are in the relational capacities of the condescension. “Now I know in part” (1 Cor. 13:12), the scripture plainly declares, and as it were, the morning light has just begun the glorious illumination of the world. It is still yet only partly day; for its perfection let us wait for His rising to power and preeminence. When the condescension is removed, then “that which is in part shall be done away with” (1 Cor. 13:10), my calling (Php. 3:14) will be complete (Php. 3:12), and “that which is perfect is come” (1 Cor. 13:10). This perfect is salvation, complete, consummated, and come, and those who are “perfect” now (Php. 3:15) in this NT dispensation before the resurrection, which is an attainable perfection for the now, do strive for an unattainable “perfection” (Php. 3:12) that will be accomplished at the resurrection, which is sinless perfection – the purpose and end of our gospel call. When the perfect is come, Christ has come, and when He is here, there will be no more falling, failure, mutability, repentances, nor any condescension. The men are removed from their limitations and glorified into the eternality of Christ’s life, coexisting in His glorified spiritual sensations – “then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12).
How does God know a man? We do not know! God’s knowledge is without boundary and limit, the depths of His searching out are infinite; how can a man know how much, or to what magnitude, God knows a man?! We know this much, “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Prov. 20:27). Metaphors can only partially reveal God’s majesties, for we cannot understand the unexplainable except by those things of our physical world which do hold a partial similitude. God knows a man like as a man knows his own home, and in such, the man searches every corner as with the light of a candle until no part is left unknown. So God knows a man, and infinitely more so and beyond! But can it be said then, as God knows a man, even so, men will know God?! That “then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12)!? This is a glorification! Think of it! No candle could search out the unsearchable Mansion that God is!
No amount of men in cooperation for any great length of time, no collective powers of human thought and mind, could search out the inner Person of God if He were a Castle-like Mansion of luxurious rooms. The search would be endless for an infinite number of candle-bearing men who searched relentlessly, if they sought to know and discover the treasures of Who God is – if they could, as it were, go into God as God goes into man to search him out, and finally, to leave nothing uncovered and unknown! Psalms of holy wonder were penned by astonished prophets as they considered how infinitely deep, how immeasurably surmountingly God does know a man, but how then should we react to man knowing God as God knows a man!?
How does God know a man? We do not know! God’s knowledge is without boundary and limit, the depths of His searching out are infinite; how can a man know how much, or to what magnitude, God knows a man?! We know this much, “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Prov. 20:27). Metaphors can only partially reveal God’s majesties, for we cannot understand the unexplainable except by those things of our physical world which do hold a partial similitude. God knows a man like as a man knows his own home, and in such, the man searches every corner as with the light of a candle until no part is left unknown. So God knows a man, and infinitely more so and beyond! But can it be said then, as God knows a man, even so, men will know God?! That “then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12)!? This is a glorification! Think of it! No candle could search out the unsearchable Mansion that God is!
No amount of men in cooperation for any great length of time, no collective powers of human thought and mind, could search out the inner Person of God if He were a Castle-like Mansion of luxurious rooms. The search would be endless for an infinite number of candle-bearing men who searched relentlessly, if they sought to know and discover the treasures of Who God is – if they could, as it were, go into God as God goes into man to search him out, and finally, to leave nothing uncovered and unknown! Psalms of holy wonder were penned by astonished prophets as they considered how infinitely deep, how immeasurably surmountingly God does know a man, but how then should we react to man knowing God as God knows a man!?
|
“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy Presence? How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” (Psalm 139:2-7, 17-18)
|
God KNOWS YOU! He knows you with innumerable thoughts like as and beyond the very sands of the sea, but to be swallowed up with another glory comparable to this story, only that in it, then, you KNOW GOD! I cannot suggest all the boundaries of what this experience may be, or, if we will or will not have an omniscience of God like as He has an omniscience of us. A fool would conclude this matter with certainty, but I believe that the scriptures teach us to conclude it with a holy uncertainty coupled with worship and awe. Even though we do not know “what we shall be”, nevertheless we do know a little of something – “we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2).
We will NOT know God through the capacities available in a human's comprehension, or any man-like limitations, therefore there will be no hindrance from a FULL revelation of God to man instead of the limited revelations done on the earth below. The feeble weakness and sinfulness of our human frame will be gone and we will be able to SEE GOD – when otherwise we would be consumed by the Face of God – all these limitations were the capacities limited in the ways of men. We will know God even as we are fully known by God! God does not know men after the comprehension of human beings; God knows men through the spiritual senses in an other-worldly comprehension, so that there is nothing in us that can be hidden from Him. By parabolic expression, it is to say: “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Prov. 20:27). God knows our thoughts, heart, intentions, and ways. “Man’s goings are of the LORD,” and He knows our deeds (Prov. 20:24). On earth, we know God in part.
Partly, the scripture says, as a visual reflection through a piece of glass, instead of face-to-face communion. This reflection is dim, dark, and unclear. Partly, as the firstfruits are but a part of the harvest, a small incomparable part to the reaping of the whole harvest, as a drop of pleasure is to an ocean of heavenly bliss stretching with an immeasurable border. These things speak of our limited and hindered communion with God because of our sinful, fallen, and fleshly stature. Yet, what we know of now is a part of what is to come, a taste – though it is dark in comparison like a dim reflection. There is an unsearchable wisdom, unknowable ways, and “ocean-deep”, mind-shattering attributes of God to be revealed when the condescension is removed. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man” the things of ascended, glorified unity and intimacy with the Triune King. It will be an intimacy, Jesus says, “as I received of My Father” (Rev. 2:27). It will be an unknowable revelation, the dark glass will be shattered, and we will look full and straight-eyed into the face of God, even He that has an unknowable name! We will see Him! “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Now we see Him, but not as He is, only through the condescension of a reflected, dark, dim glass. So powerful is this Person that His reflected image saved the un-savable sinners of earth! Sinners are saved, conformed to His image, having become image bearers themselves of this Image of Christ – and the burning flash and seething brand was but a reflection of God. At them – these image-bearing sinners – the world does wonder or rage, and it is shaken because familial posterity is fractured, and its bonds torn asunder. These sinners who caught a ray of the reflection of God do now reflect Him to others, though God does dwell behind the veil of their flesh. Men do therefore respond to Christians in love and praise to God or hatred and violent rage. None can see Him and not be saved. Those who continue to see Him do walk in His way. None can see God, Who is love, and not love. It is a killing (Gal. 2:20), saving (Eph. 2:8), and constraining (2 Cor. 5) love. These are the spiritual rays of the Image of Jesus Christ which have reflected off of a dark, diminished, unclear glass - salvation in the condescension.
As our salvation is partial now, so we have a partial salvation from sin; yet if our vision of His image was no longer in part and we saw face to face this Person of God, then our salvation from sin would not be partial, and our fleshly body of death, which contained the remnant of devilish enmity, would be burned up at His presence. Therefore, the condescension of God through a reflective glass is the spiritual revelation of the Person of God our fleshly faculties can endure and still live with. What is to come cannot be endured by flesh; it is an unveiling of the Face of God without limitations and condescension. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him,” but the Son will take us to be where He was before His incarnation. Where? To behold the glory He had with the Father, and this glory will be in and upon us (in some sense) because He is one and with us, therefore we will be as “a white stone,” and “in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth save He that receiveth it” (Rev. 2:17). Jesus said, “I will write upon him the name of My God,” “and I will write upon him My New Name” (Rev. 3:12). It is not that we become God, or become parallel to God, but are completely dominated by God, in perfect union with God, so that in and through God are all things for God, and we, forever, do unworthily participate and experience, through the charity of God's undying energy, the ceaseless praise and worship of God! “We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). No man “knoweth” what will be known with this white stone, or the name that God will give - this is the name that Jesus says is “My New Name.” There is an unknowable knowing which will be known, which will be hereafter revealed, infinitely beyond that which we know now.
We will NOT know God through the capacities available in a human's comprehension, or any man-like limitations, therefore there will be no hindrance from a FULL revelation of God to man instead of the limited revelations done on the earth below. The feeble weakness and sinfulness of our human frame will be gone and we will be able to SEE GOD – when otherwise we would be consumed by the Face of God – all these limitations were the capacities limited in the ways of men. We will know God even as we are fully known by God! God does not know men after the comprehension of human beings; God knows men through the spiritual senses in an other-worldly comprehension, so that there is nothing in us that can be hidden from Him. By parabolic expression, it is to say: “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Prov. 20:27). God knows our thoughts, heart, intentions, and ways. “Man’s goings are of the LORD,” and He knows our deeds (Prov. 20:24). On earth, we know God in part.
Partly, the scripture says, as a visual reflection through a piece of glass, instead of face-to-face communion. This reflection is dim, dark, and unclear. Partly, as the firstfruits are but a part of the harvest, a small incomparable part to the reaping of the whole harvest, as a drop of pleasure is to an ocean of heavenly bliss stretching with an immeasurable border. These things speak of our limited and hindered communion with God because of our sinful, fallen, and fleshly stature. Yet, what we know of now is a part of what is to come, a taste – though it is dark in comparison like a dim reflection. There is an unsearchable wisdom, unknowable ways, and “ocean-deep”, mind-shattering attributes of God to be revealed when the condescension is removed. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man” the things of ascended, glorified unity and intimacy with the Triune King. It will be an intimacy, Jesus says, “as I received of My Father” (Rev. 2:27). It will be an unknowable revelation, the dark glass will be shattered, and we will look full and straight-eyed into the face of God, even He that has an unknowable name! We will see Him! “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Now we see Him, but not as He is, only through the condescension of a reflected, dark, dim glass. So powerful is this Person that His reflected image saved the un-savable sinners of earth! Sinners are saved, conformed to His image, having become image bearers themselves of this Image of Christ – and the burning flash and seething brand was but a reflection of God. At them – these image-bearing sinners – the world does wonder or rage, and it is shaken because familial posterity is fractured, and its bonds torn asunder. These sinners who caught a ray of the reflection of God do now reflect Him to others, though God does dwell behind the veil of their flesh. Men do therefore respond to Christians in love and praise to God or hatred and violent rage. None can see Him and not be saved. Those who continue to see Him do walk in His way. None can see God, Who is love, and not love. It is a killing (Gal. 2:20), saving (Eph. 2:8), and constraining (2 Cor. 5) love. These are the spiritual rays of the Image of Jesus Christ which have reflected off of a dark, diminished, unclear glass - salvation in the condescension.
As our salvation is partial now, so we have a partial salvation from sin; yet if our vision of His image was no longer in part and we saw face to face this Person of God, then our salvation from sin would not be partial, and our fleshly body of death, which contained the remnant of devilish enmity, would be burned up at His presence. Therefore, the condescension of God through a reflective glass is the spiritual revelation of the Person of God our fleshly faculties can endure and still live with. What is to come cannot be endured by flesh; it is an unveiling of the Face of God without limitations and condescension. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him,” but the Son will take us to be where He was before His incarnation. Where? To behold the glory He had with the Father, and this glory will be in and upon us (in some sense) because He is one and with us, therefore we will be as “a white stone,” and “in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth save He that receiveth it” (Rev. 2:17). Jesus said, “I will write upon him the name of My God,” “and I will write upon him My New Name” (Rev. 3:12). It is not that we become God, or become parallel to God, but are completely dominated by God, in perfect union with God, so that in and through God are all things for God, and we, forever, do unworthily participate and experience, through the charity of God's undying energy, the ceaseless praise and worship of God! “We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). No man “knoweth” what will be known with this white stone, or the name that God will give - this is the name that Jesus says is “My New Name.” There is an unknowable knowing which will be known, which will be hereafter revealed, infinitely beyond that which we know now.
|
“All things are delivered unto Me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matt. 11:27)
|
This is the climax, the consummation, the final and perfect resurrection! This is heaven, perfect unity with the Godhead, basking in His eternal Life. “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). All things are “that I may know Him” (Php. 3:10). But in contrast to now, in what we experience here in this body of death, still yet hindered from His glory, there is yet a knowing Him that unspeakably exceeds what we know now. “Then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12). This glory to come is the reward of Christ’s sufferings and the fulfillment of His priestly prayer:
|
“And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me. Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:22-26)!
|
God shall transform this vile body into a glorious body, into a frame which can bear the deadly explosions of ecstasy which emanate from His unlimited Person. God shall take you up, as it were, into the bosom of the Father where ne’er a man hath been! That which has been declared shall be unveiled! Faith shall pass away, with prophecy, into endless and blinding, brilliantly shining, Face-to-face mesmerizing experiences of all-consuming charity. This is that which, in God, “abideth for ever” (1 John 2:17), and “God is love” – thence you are no longer a mere man but are as angels, for “no man hath seen God at any time.” “God is love” (1 John 4:16), and when He comes, “prophecies shall fail,” “tongues shall cease,” and “whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away”. The knowing of this God will be in an unknowable way, the dark glass of human limitations and sensations will be shattered by a personal, resurrected revelation of God’s face, unto endless expressions of Charity which can never pass away. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known” (1 Cor. 13:12).
Consider the wonder of the dark glass! I, as a regenerate man, have experienced measures of joy. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy, and it has come into my heart. I have tasted the firstfruits of the Kingdom of God, and therefore have a partial understanding of what joy is like, experientially, like as it is in heaven, because I taste heaven’s fruit of joy on earth in Christ’s heavenly Person Who dwells within me. Yet, there is a full harvest to come which is incomparable to the first fruits now. There is a glorious liberty and full revelation, a removal of the condescension and shattering of the partial. I worship God “in Spirit and in truth” because I have beheld a reflection of the face of God ricocheted off of a dark glass. Now, “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty,” but there is another glorious liberty to come (Rom. 8:21). “We all with open face beholding in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,” but there is another glory to come (1 Cor. 15:35-57). That which I see now which is so bright that it enlivens such a pile of dust as me, changing me into His image and causing the world to rage and wonder – this brightness is darkness comparatively to what is to come.
Consider the wonder of the dark glass! I, as a regenerate man, have experienced measures of joy. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy, and it has come into my heart. I have tasted the firstfruits of the Kingdom of God, and therefore have a partial understanding of what joy is like, experientially, like as it is in heaven, because I taste heaven’s fruit of joy on earth in Christ’s heavenly Person Who dwells within me. Yet, there is a full harvest to come which is incomparable to the first fruits now. There is a glorious liberty and full revelation, a removal of the condescension and shattering of the partial. I worship God “in Spirit and in truth” because I have beheld a reflection of the face of God ricocheted off of a dark glass. Now, “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty,” but there is another glorious liberty to come (Rom. 8:21). “We all with open face beholding in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,” but there is another glory to come (1 Cor. 15:35-57). That which I see now which is so bright that it enlivens such a pile of dust as me, changing me into His image and causing the world to rage and wonder – this brightness is darkness comparatively to what is to come.
**********************************************************************************
A beaming ray from His eternal, shining FACE (2 Cor. 3:18),
Ricocheted from a dark glass and gave me saving GRACE (Titus 3:4),
That in this place which I do live, I might shew forth His marvelous praise (1 Peter 2:9).
My pile of dust was enlivened by a light-empowered, wind-like gust,
From the ricocheted ray of Light there was a mighty and saving thrust.
To spread a gospel of a twice-born seed and race,
Which were born from another created law and place.
A ricocheted ray of Light struck a pile of dust, and at it does the world wonder, but what will the world think when this Light shines without a ricochet, without a reflection or a darkening change of direction, diminishing the power, efficacy, and clarity times seven? Then this Light straightway rises upon the saints through a transfiguring resurrection, elevating the world and all creation into a corporate participation of our recreation, because
God is descending without condescension!
The ecstasy of prophecy, visions of glory, and praises of doxology – these are the “glory to glory” experiences of the New Testament story, yet all these are childish things compared to the glory of the coming King. Prophecies shall fail, tongues shall cease, and knowledge vanisheth away when God, like the sun, ariseth in revelatory strength like as the noonday. All these former things were in part, yea, the vision they revealed was comparatively stark, and they are immature expressions like a child’s foolish art. Childish things will be put away when our comprehension of God is an impossible apprehension. These mediums of glory will be a thing of the past, they will shatter like glass as the blink of an eye is fast, they will be expressions of God like dark shadows at last, and when they were the means of grace, they were likened to the unclear pigment of bronze-like reflective glass. God’s curtain, the heavens, will unveil God very soon, and the angels will announce it with a trumpet-like boom. The eternal beauty of godly sincerity existing within the Persons of the Trinity, as they, for Each Other, have perfect and unending, mutual charity, then, coexisting within the Trinity the saints will have unimagined unity with God as co-participants of their everlasting charity, thus at the descent of God, the New Jerusalem will have its rose-like bloom, petals of unfading glory filling the world with its heavenly perfume.
*******************************************************************************
|
"For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." (1 Corinthians 13:9-13)
|
I speak, understand, and think what I am, as a child comparatively to what we shall be in the end, for then we shall be “as He is” (1 John 3:2). To be “as He is” changes our relationship with Him as much as it changes what we are, therefore we, with Him, shall know an unknowable experience and nearness in speaking, understanding, and thinking. Everything I know, am, speak, think, and understand, are all childish things compared to the maturity of these experiences, intelligent understandings, clear speaking, and unimaginable thinkings which are to come in what we shall be. To us now, in this way, “it doth not yet appear what we shall be” (1 John 3:2).
What has been revealed now is “unknowably” infantile compared to what is to come, and this childlike expression of grace is but a ricochet from His shining face, sending the world into hatred or praise! This is the power of God! While it is a reflection, a glass-like vision dark in expression, I do remain a creation of grace which is underneath the resurrected, consummated prize, and all of my present understanding of grace and righteousness according to the Spirit of Christ’s resurrection is like a child’s explanation of what he saw at the zoo, his coloring and drawing of what he imagines in his mind, and, lo, I am bound to think like a child, but when Christ returns I will become a man of grace! In this, prophecies and knowledge will pass away, charity and perfect conformity will arrive, and I will be swallowed up in God’s unknowable ways. This is “the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18)! We shall be “glorified together” with Christ in throne-like majesty and crown-casting wonder. We will be “joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17)! We are “the firstfruits of the Spirit,” a bounty infantile compared to the collection to come, and “we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). Also, “the creature itself also shall be delivered from bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe”, we shall be “caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (2 Thess. 1:10, 1 Thess. 4:17).
We shall be transformed and “raised a spiritual body”, because the former body cannot endure the glory of God. We shall be brought so nigh to God that we must be given new bodies, lest, by the sheer glory of joy we would but die with its pains. It is a happiness so strong it is otherworldly, unearthly, heavenly in glory, and to the earthly it is deadly; a happiness that hurts – “a love strong as death” (Song of Songs). The expressions of His love cannot be endured. Until we are glorified, we cannot endure His glory. I have tasted of His fruit, but a man cannot digest a harvest. This is what is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 15. The earthly body will break, the Spirit of God, which is the seed of Christ, will come forth from this vile body, and what was hidden within it will burst forth and fill the world, recreating it and hiding all things in God (1 Cor. 15:37-38).
What has been revealed now is “unknowably” infantile compared to what is to come, and this childlike expression of grace is but a ricochet from His shining face, sending the world into hatred or praise! This is the power of God! While it is a reflection, a glass-like vision dark in expression, I do remain a creation of grace which is underneath the resurrected, consummated prize, and all of my present understanding of grace and righteousness according to the Spirit of Christ’s resurrection is like a child’s explanation of what he saw at the zoo, his coloring and drawing of what he imagines in his mind, and, lo, I am bound to think like a child, but when Christ returns I will become a man of grace! In this, prophecies and knowledge will pass away, charity and perfect conformity will arrive, and I will be swallowed up in God’s unknowable ways. This is “the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18)! We shall be “glorified together” with Christ in throne-like majesty and crown-casting wonder. We will be “joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17)! We are “the firstfruits of the Spirit,” a bounty infantile compared to the collection to come, and “we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). Also, “the creature itself also shall be delivered from bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe”, we shall be “caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (2 Thess. 1:10, 1 Thess. 4:17).
We shall be transformed and “raised a spiritual body”, because the former body cannot endure the glory of God. We shall be brought so nigh to God that we must be given new bodies, lest, by the sheer glory of joy we would but die with its pains. It is a happiness so strong it is otherworldly, unearthly, heavenly in glory, and to the earthly it is deadly; a happiness that hurts – “a love strong as death” (Song of Songs). The expressions of His love cannot be endured. Until we are glorified, we cannot endure His glory. I have tasted of His fruit, but a man cannot digest a harvest. This is what is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 15. The earthly body will break, the Spirit of God, which is the seed of Christ, will come forth from this vile body, and what was hidden within it will burst forth and fill the world, recreating it and hiding all things in God (1 Cor. 15:37-38).
|
"But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." (1 Corinthians 15:35-38)
"All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." (1 Corinthians 15:39-40)
"There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory." (1 Corinthians 15:41)
|
Yet there is coming a day, a “Perfect Day” (Prov. 4:18), a day of incorruption, incomparable shining, where all other glory is but “weakness” and “dishonour” compared to the glory and power to come. God is inexpressible, and yet He was expressed through a “natural body,” and there comes a “spiritual body” which will bear the fullness of His name and fame. The seed of Christ was sown into individual persons with bodies of flesh. These bodies, as the body of the seed, are carriers of the life of Christ. This is the resurrection sown now – the life of Christ experienced within every believer by the power of His resurrection, which they presently and inwardly participate in. Yet, this resurrection will eventually be completed, the body of death will be shed, and the glory of the resurrection now is comparable to the resurrection to come, as the glory of the moon to the sun, as reflective rays in darkness to the shining Sun at noonday. The “quickening spirit” of the second Adam shall rule at last, filling all things with Himself. Lo, “All things are for Him through Him and to Him” (Rom. 11). We shall “bear the image of the heavenly,” namely, the “Second Man” Who “is the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47, 49). The saints will perfectly and completely glory in God. God shall fill all things with His presence and glory through the final removal of flesh. As God hath said, “No flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Cor. 1:29), and again, all the world will be filled with His glory (Hab. 2:14)!
|
"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:50-57)
|
Condescension withdrawn is a straightway descent of God, an unhindered expression of God; even as it was when those holy men experienced God by an ascent into heaven, so likewise, there is coming a day when heaven comes down, and God, without condescension, will, with His holy heaven, DESCEND. The powers of God created heaven, and God is heaven, and if He descends without condescension, He will transform the earth into heaven – and all men will behold the new heaven and the new earth! As His will was done above, so it will be done below. At this time, the Covenant of Christ will be fulfilled. At this time, there will be no more condescension, no more will, word, or relationship in the ways of man. Men will be glorified and dwell in His everlasting glory foretold by the promises, Covenants, and exultant praises throughout time. The promises and praises of this exalted God were patterned to foretell this triumphant END. As the saints waited for this END throughout history, they were bewildered by breaches, broken under God’s heavy hand of wrath, and terrified by His repentances. Why? God found out their SIN. False prophets would not have it so; they claim the guilty to be possessors of glory. They fancy themselves to be “the saved”, that they are, irrevocably, “the elect”, and thus, they unconsciously open their minds to the seduction of sin. They believe they are the elect and they are sure, but they fail to make their calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). This is their horrid woe: their unrighteous assurance that they will be, finally, the elect, causes them to fail to make their election sure. Their banner is eternal security, and the armory of graces have they left behind, not knowing that there is a warfare that must be won if a man of sin is to win the prize.