Life On The Highest Plane
Our Lord's Return - Actualized
The completion of sanctification is perfection; it is the deliverance not only from the penalty and power of sin but from its very presence. So long as we are in the body of flesh and in the world, within is a sinful nature and without is a sinful environment. But at the coming of the Lord the believer in Christ will be removed from the presence of sin both within and without. He will then breath the pure air of the Glory-land and be himself purified. Then he will be: "Without spot" - absolutely free from the stain of sin; "Without wrinkle" - beyond the reach of suffering or sorrow, anxiety or anguish or aught that causes the furrows of care; "Holy" - even as He is holy - "as the bush was luminous with the divine fire, so shall the luminosity of the divine nature make us aflame with the holiness of Jehovah"; Without blemish" - delivered from inner corruption and outer contamination we shall be perfected with His perfection. Our Saviour will then see the travail of His soul and be satisfied for He shall present us "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy."
Ephesians 5:27, "That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
Jude 24, "Now unto him who is able to keep you from failing, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy."
When Christ returns, the Christian will be identified with Him in dominion. What Christ does he will share in doing. He will be a partner of His power. The God-man shall have recovered His rightful dominion over His universe and the saints, as "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ," shall be given their share in this inheritance and together with Him shall reign upon the earth.
Daniel 7:18, "But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever."
Revelation 5:10, "And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign upon the earth."
Revelation 20:6, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."
The God-man is now in Heaven. The Father is on the throne and the Son is at His Father's right hand. But some day when He shall have conquered every enemy the Son is to have His own throne. This throne He promises to share with every one who, while here on earth, has lived the life of the overcomer.
Revelation 3:21, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."
The return of the Lord Jesus Christ will effect the consummation of the reconciliation of all things unto Himself. A time is coming when Jesus Christ will be the center of everything in Heaven and upon earth; when everything will be directly related to Him and will head up in Him.
Ephesians 1:10, "That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him."
That time will usher in the last of the divinely ordered ages which condition human life upon the earth; it will register the answer to the prayer "Thy kingdom come", and it will mark the fulfillment of the prophecy that Jesus Christ, as the seed of David, should be King over His own Kingdom upon this earth.
Scripture constantly speaks of a day that is coming when the Heir of all things will claim His possessions and exercise His power. It is called "the day of the Lord." In that day all that is proud and haughty and lifted up against Him in rebellion and resistance shall be brought low and the Lord alone shall be exalted and magnified as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Men everywhere are acknowledging the awful confusion and chaos which exists in the moral world. Some are working to effect reconciliation within satan's world-system through world courts, peace conferences, leagues of nations and international community houses. Others, believing such things are inadequate, hope that the millennial state will be ultimately produced by the progressive betterment of the world through the Holy Spirit's work and the preaching of the Gospel. Through gradual diffusion of the Kingdom of God throughout the world they expect the kingdom of evil to be conquered and, as it were, absorbed into it. But the spiritually-minded man who knows and accepts the prophetical teachings of God's Word believes there is no hope of universal peace until the Prince of Peace sits on His throne and Himself rules in justice and righteousness. He believes there can be no millennium such as Scripture portrays until the satanic world-system based on self-love, self-interest, self-exaltation and self-will is overthrown.
A careful study of the word "until" as used repeatedly in the Bible in connection with our Lord's return amply justifies such a belief. The Christ who came once in grace must come a second time in government before He recovers all that was lost to Him through the fall and before there can be a reconciliation of all things unto Himself.
Seiss says on this point, "My Bible tells of no millennium which existing processes are to brig about. Neither does it tell me of a millennium which is to precede the Saviour's second advent. The only millennium I read of in the Holy Book is that which is to be introduced by the glory and power of Christ's coming and the chief excellence of which is His personal presence and reign with His saints upon the earth. It is not the reign of art, science, human culture or free governments, for which the Bible teaches me to look; nor yet for the universal triumph of Christianity or the Church as we now have it; nor yet for the reign of justice, holiness or any mere abstract principles; but the personal reign of Jesus my Lord."
But when the Man comes whom God has appointed to rule the world, the righteous King, He shall rule in righteousness and the result will be peace. Then all problems will be solved; all wrongs righted; all breaches healed; all wars ended, because all things in God's moral universe shall be readjusted and reestablished according to the perfect will of God. "All the universe will feel the beneficence of His rule and the benediction of His peace."
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 5)
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