'Pressing toward the "mark'

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Paul’s writings reveal that he was not as one "beating the air." He was running toward a finish line; he was pressing forward toward a specific "mark."

The concept that there truly is a mark, a point of perfection, a place of maturity, an attainable standard, is very important to the pursuit of the victorious Christian discipleship. A believer who is not convinced that there actually is a place of maturity will not make the effort required to attain it.

Jesus began our redemption with the work of Calvary. Jesus will finish our redemption by bringing forth the perfected members of the Church, the Body of Christ.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; . . . (Hebrews 12:2)

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. (Ephesians 5:27)

Four times in the Book of Revelation the Lord Jesus Christ refers to Himself as Alpha and Omega (the Beginning and the End).

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Revelation 21:6)

If there were to be no Omega , no end, the Lord would have said so. If the God of Heaven has left it up to us to attempt to imitate Jesus, knowing that we always will fall short of the mark, understanding that we must be content with the knowledge that we tried to be a good person in the world, the Scriptures would be a book of proverbs.

The Scriptures are a record of what God—not man—has done, is doing, and will yet accomplish. It is not a question of what we are able to do, it is a question of what God has chosen to do.

If there is no "mark" toward which to press, if God has begun so gloriously on Calvary but has left it up to Christians to do the best we can, knowing we are full of sin, rebellion against God, and foolishness, Christ would be presented as the Alpha but never as the Omega .

Alpha and Omega are the beginning and end of the Greek alphabet. The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Word of God having neither beginning nor end as we understand time. Therefore Alpha and Omega refer to the plan of redemption, particularly to the work and enlargement of Christ in the members of His Body, not to the Logos Himself.

Alpha is the specific beginning of our redemption. Omega is the specific completion of our redemption. Is the Lord Jesus Christ the Omega as well as the Alpha? If so, we can expect the fullness of the Divine Glory to be exercised in bringing about the Omega of our redemption just as it was exercised in creating the Alpha.

We are looking toward and pressing toward all that God has spoken in His Word concerning the perfection of the saints and of the Body of Christ.

When God stated "It is done" (Revelation 21:6) He was referring to the new Jerusalem that the Apostle John was beholding in vision. John was not witnessing the incredibly confused pile of dry bones, the ungainly, disjointed, self-seeking, crippled patchwork of man’s striving that today terms itself the Christian churches.

John was seeing the holy city, the unblemished Wife of the Lamb, the unified, mature new Jerusalem. The perfection of the new Jerusalem is the perfection of God Himself. It is the Substance, the Nature, the wisdom of God brought forth in visible form for the nations of the earth to behold. The Wife of the Lamb will judge, rule, heal, and bless the peoples whom God has saved.

Man has been building the church for the past two thousand years. We can study the results and understand what always is brought into being when the wisdom and efforts of human beings are added to the creation of the Lord.

In the last days a nation will be "born at once" (Isaiah 66:8). Man will have come to the end of himself. He will not be able to work because of the exceedingly great spiritual darkness. Then the Lord will work and the perfect, unblemished Church will come forth "at once."

It is obvious that if there is one imperfect member of the Body of Christ, the Body is imperfect. If there is one Achan in the camp, "Israel hath sinned." If there is one unclean believer in the Wife of the Lamb, the Wife is impure. If there is one sinner in the new Jerusalem, the city is defiled. God and Christ will not dwell in a defiled city.

God and Christ will not dwell where there is unrighteousness and uncleanness. It is our misunderstanding of Divine grace that leads us to believe that God and Christ will abide permanently in a situation where the only righteousness is that which has been imputed (ascribed) by God’s love. Imputed righteousness is a temporary state that is intended to lead the believer to the desired condition of actual righteousness and holiness of behavior.

Imputed righteousness, the gift of God through the blood of the cross, serves until the Word of God comes to maturity in our personality. God is looking for mature fruit—the fruit of the moral image of His Son in us. If any person is dwelling in Christ and Christ in him, a new creation is coming into view. The new creation cannot sin because it has been born of God.

It is important to our destiny in Christ that we pursue through the Holy Spirit the life of victory in Christ until we arrive at the "mark," the "Omega" of redemption, the fullness of the righteousness and blessing of the new covenant. The Omega of redemption is the "measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" created in our personality.

Two scriptural representations of the fullness of the image of Christ are as follows: (1) the Ark of the Covenant of the Tabernacle of the Congregation; and (2) the four faces of the Cherubim of Glory.

The Ark of the Covenant.
The four faces of the Cherubim of Glory.

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