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Chapter 15
Glorified Through Grace
The believer in this world is saved. For the apostle writes, not that we shall be, but that we are saved by grace, through faith. (Ephesians 2:8) He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. (John 3 :36) And the Lord solemnly declares: "Verily, verily I say unto you, He that heareth my words, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." (J ohn 5: 24) For such a one the hour has come "when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." (John 5:25) He is under grace, and therefore sin no longer has dominion over him. (Romans 6: 14) There is no condemnation for him, and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8: 1, 2) As a son of God, he is led by God's Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, Who also witnesses with his spirit concerning his sonship, and whereby he cries: Abba, Father! (Romans 8: 14-16) In fact, he is raised with Christ and made to sit together with all the saints in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6) The believer is regenerated, called, justified, and sanctified, begotten unto a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Salvation is not only a future hope; it is also a present reality. Yet, although all this is true in principle, the goal has not yet been attained. Final perfection still seems far off, and the Christian has his eyes expectantly turned toward the future for the full realization of salvation in Christ which he now possesses in principle. "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." (I John 3:2) Together with all creation we also, "which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." (Romans 8:23) And "we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." (II Corinthians 5 :4) We are saved; yet it seems a far cry from our present state to final glory. We are redeemed, we are justified; yet our conscience accuses us that we still sin daily against all the commandments of God, and the goal of our salvation is not reached until that conscience can find no more occasion to accuse us. We are delivered from the bondage of sin, holy in Christ Jesus; yet we know but too well that in us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing; and we are not fully saved until we shall be delivered from the body of this death. We are children of God, yet we must wait for our final and public adoption; heirs of God in Christ, yet we possess nothing; victorious, yet here in the world we suffer defeat outwardly. We are alive in Christ, yet we die as all other men and seem to be of all men most miserable. We are citizens of the heavenly commonwealth, yet we are in the earth as sojourners and strangers. We are alive in the midst of death, righteous in the midst of sin, holy in the midst of corruption, blessed in the midst of misery, immortal and yet mortal, heavenly and yet earthly, saved indeed and yet looking for salvation. We must be glorified! On this final salvation the Scriptures throughout fix the hopeful gaze of the children of God. In the midst of trouble the psalmist is inspired to sing: "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." (Psalm 73 :24) His heart is glad, and his glory rejoiceth, and his flesh shall rest in hope: for he knows that his God will not leave his soul in hell nor suffer His holy one to see corruption. Through the midst of death Jehovah will show him the pathway of life, leading him into His very presence, where there is fulness of joy and in Whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm 16:9-11) The Lord will surely give to Zion "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." (Isaiah 61:3) And He will create "new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." (Isaiah 65: 17) The Lord comforts the troubled hearts of His disciples with the prospect of His Father's house in which there are many mansions, and in which He prepares a place for them, in order that they may be forever where He is. (John 14:1-3) The apostle Paul writes that "we rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5: 2); and that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8: 18) It is a glory in which the whole creation shall participate: "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." For the creature is, indeed, in bondage of corruption, subject to vanity; but it is such in hope: for it shall be delivered from that bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8: 19-22) And "we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (II Corinthians 5: 1) Moreover, we are assured that the last enemy, that is, death, shall be destroyed, that we shall be raised incorruptible, and that the saying shall be accomplished, "Death is swallowed up in victory." (I Corinthians 15:26ff.) We are "begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." (I Peter 1: 3, 4) And in the last chapters of the Book of Revelation a glorious picture is held before us of the New Jerusalem in the new creation, in which the tabernacle of God shall be with men, "and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Revelation 21:3, 4) But what is the meaning of this state of glory for which we hope and which is the ultimate realization of the wonder of God's grace in Christ Jesus our Lord? The heart and essence of it is, undoubtedly, perfect fellowship with God as His friend-servants. To be received, according to the measure and capacity of the creature, in God's own family, to live His own life, to dwell in His house, to taste that He is good, to enter into His secrets, to know Him even as we are known, to see Him face to face, to love Him and be loved of Him without fear, to walk with Him and talk with Him in most intimate communion, and then to consecrate ourselves and all things to Him as His servants, to have our delight in His perfect will, and to glorify Him for ever - that is the heart of the heavenly blessedness for which we look. Everywhere this receives the emphasis in Scripture. God is building a house in which we shall dwell with Him under one roof, as one family, as a company of friends; a tabernacle in which He shall dwell with us and be our God; the house of many mansions, a home in which He will be our Father and we shall be His sons and His daughters. (John 14:1-3; II Corinthians 6:16-18; Revelation 21:3) And then we shall truly know Him with the knowledge of perfect love: for "this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3) Now we know in part, but then we shall know even as we are known; now we see as in a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face, and we shall see Him as He is. (I Corinthians 13:12; I John 3:2) Then shall be perfected what the Lord Jesus declared in His beautiful sacerdotal prayer: "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." (John 17:23) And this fellowship of friendship, in which we shall serve God as His friends, will be raised to the highest possible degree of perfection in the sphere and on the plane of heavenly glory. It will not be a return to the original state of rectitude and bliss in the first paradise but will be exalted above that state as Christ is exalted above the first Adam. And it will be everlasting. No tempter shall be able to intrude into that house of God and to destroy that state of perfect blessedness; nor shall there be any possibility of falling into sin and death again. For that perfect glory is centered in the Son of God in our nature, our Lord Jesus Christ. Such is eternal life ! Unto that central idea of heavenly life with God all things shall be adapted. We ourselves shall be so changed that we will be able to inherit that kingdom and to live in that sphere of perfect fellowship with God. For we must all be changed. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. (I Corinthians 15: 50) This change is threefold. First of all, we shall be made spiritually, ethically perfect: we shall be made like Him, that we may see Him as He is. Being made perfectly sinless, we shall stand in everlasting knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, without spot or wrinkle before His face. Secondly, we shall be made heavenly. All that is of the earth earthy shall be put away, and we shall be clothed with heavenly glory and endowed with heavenly powers. We shall be given heavenly eyes to see things heavenly, heavenly ears to hear things heavenly, clothed upon with heavenly glory to be able to dwell in God's heavenly tabernaCle. For "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (I Corinthians 15:47-49) Finally, we shall be clothed with immortality and incorruptibility, that death may forever be swallowed up of life, and that, too, in body and soul. "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." (I Corinthians 15:53, 54) Thus perfected, transformed into the image of the heavenly, and clothed with immortality, we shall be able to inherit the kingdom of heaven and to dwell in God's heavenly tabernacle forever. But also creation itself shall be adapted to be the stage of and to serve this perfected covenant of God, this life of heavenly friendship in the tabernacle of God. This present creation shall pass away, and there will be found no place for it anymore. (Revelation 20: 11) "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." (II Peter 3: 10) But they shall not be annihilated. The wonder of grace shall embrace all things and shall make all things new. For also the creature itself, which has been put under bondage, shall be made free, and shall become partaker of the glorious liberty of the children of God. For "we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (II Peter 3: 13) And John saw "a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." (Revelation 21:1) From that new heaven and earth death and hades shall forever be banished into the lake of fire; and it shall be one heavenly creation, earth and heaven united, with its center in the New Jerusalem and its everlasting head in Christ, that God may be all in all. And in that new creation all things shall serve us, that we may serve our God! You will readily understand that this transformation of ourselves and of all things can be accomplished only by the wonder of God's grace in Jesus Christ our Lord. Not by a process of gradual development can we be translated from our present state of earthly imperfection into the state of heavenly glory and perfection. Nor can our present universe by gradual development attain to the glory of the new heavens and the new earth. The first Adam could not possibly have developed into the second Adam. The sinner, dead and corrupt in sin and misery, cannot possibly be reformed into a living child of God. The first Adam must die, to make room for the second. Only the wonder of grace in regeneration can make us new creatures in Christ Jesus. The same is true of our glorification and of the liberation and regeneration of all things: we must be glorified by grace. By this we mean not only that Christ has merited this glory for us and that, therefore, it is freely bestowed upon us, but also that it is by the marvelous power of grace that this transformation into heavenly glory will be realized. For in its widest and all-comprehensive sense, grace is that wonderful power whereby God in Christ raises us and the whole creation from the depth of sin and death and the curse to the height of everlasting and heavenly glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. That wonder of grace is centralized in the incarnation, God dwelling with us in the flesh of Jesus Christ. It is based upon the atoning death of our Lord: God was reconciling the world unto Himself in Him. It is centrally realized in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and in His exaltation at the right hand of God, whereby He has received power even to subdue all things under Himself. (Philippians 3 :21) That wonder of grace is realized in us through the Spirit which He hath given us and through Whom we receive the beginning of salvation even now. By the wonder of grace we are regenerated, translated from death unto life. By the wonder of grace we are called, translated from darkness to light. By the wonder of grace we are justified, sanctified, and preserved even unto the end in the midst of this world of sin and death. But it is also by the wonder of grace that presently, when the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, our spirit shall be glorified and perfected to be with Christ in God's house. It is by the wonder of grace that our bodies shall sleep in the dust of the earth till the day of the resurrection, and that in that day they shall be raised, so that this corruptible shall put on incorruption, this mortal shall put on immortality, and death shall be swallowed up in victory. By the wonder of grace the image of the earthy which we now bear shall be transformed into the image of the heavenly, that we may be like Christ. And, finally, by the power of that same wondrous grace the present creation shall pass through the final catastrophe, to come forth out of the world-fire purified and renewed, in heavenly beauty and glory, that all things in heaven and earth may be united in Christ forever, and God may be ail in all. And all this is done to the glory of that wonderful God, Whose delight it is to call the light out of darkness, righteousness out of sin, holiness out of corruption, life out of death, heavenly glory out of the desolation of hell! "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God: how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! ... For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." |
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