Life On The Highest Plane
Oh! what comfort this can bring to those called upon to watch at the bedside of one whose life is slowly ebbing away; to endure the suffering of laying that loved one in the grave and to return to the loneliness of the home bereft of that presence. The blessed hope of our Lord's return calls the Christian to turn his gaze toward that resurrection morning when that loved one in Christ will come forth from the darkness of the grave to live in the power of an endless life. "O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?"
1 Corinthians 15:54, "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."
For those who are alive at Christ's coming it will mean a marvelous victory over death also, the conquering of death through not dying! It will not be the victory of resurrection but of translation.
Through the new birth the human body is dignified by being made the habitation of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit's indwelling it is fitted to be the channel for the revelation of the Lord Jesus and to be an instrument for His use. Grace has done much to purify and magnify the human body.
Yet it often grows so tired, weak and sick. It is so full of limitations and oftentimes a hindrance and a drag. And it is such a target for satan and such an instrument of sin. It is liable at any moment to fall a victim to death's precursor, disease. So Scripture pictures the body as groaning under its burden of weariness and weakness and as crying out for the day of its release.
Romans 8:23, "And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."
1 Corinthians 5:2-4, "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothes upon with our house which is from heaven: ... If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked ... For 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 in life."
But one day in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, those who are alive will be changed. "The twinkling of an eye takes two motions, the downward and the upward one." Just recently a friend has suffered anguish of spirit in watching a dearly loved sister slowly starve to death through the cruel ravages of disease until death seemed a happy release. But oh! when He comes, in the twinkling of the eye - apart from disease, death and decay - our mortal body shall have put on immortality. One moment here in bodies weak and worn; the next moment there in bodies powerful and glorious!
"O joy, O delight, should we go without dying, No sickness, no sadness, no sorrow, and no crying, Caught up in the clouds to meet Him in glory, When Jesus receives His own."
1 Thess. 4:17, "Then we which are alive and remain 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."
1 Corinthians 15:51-53, "Behold, I show 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."
Sin robbed the human body of the garment of light which the Creator gave it. But grace will give to it a robe of glory beautiful beyond anything we can conceive for we are some day to be wholly conformed to the body of His glory. On the mount of transfiguration the curtain was drawn aside momentarily to give just a little idea of what our glorified body will be like. "His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light." And of us Christ Himself said, "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father."
The Weymouth Translation is "The Lord Jesus will transform this body until it resembles His own glorious body." And this is just what identification with Christ in glory will mean to the body of the believer.
The glorification of the Christian will mean the consummating of his sanctification. Through identification with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, resurrection and ascension the believer's sanctification is begun, through the Holy Spirit's indwelling and infilling it is continued but it will not be completed until we are identified with Him in His glory.
Will our deep-rooted desire for real likeness to Him ever be fulfilled? Praise God that also belongs to our blessed hope. Our spirit often eager and earnest, yet as often dulled and deadened by sin, will then be like His in all the fullness of His glorified, divine being. The purpose of our sonship will have been consummated in our perfected likeness to the Son. When we shall see Him face to face we shall be like Him; we shall ever bear His name which stands for His nature on our foreheads as His own personal seal to our full conformity to Himself.
1 John 3:2, "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."
Revelation 22:4, "And they shall see his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads."
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 4)
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