Book 2 of Musings Heaven Thinking to Kingdom Thinking

The concept of the redemption of the mortal body is key to our transition from Heaven thinking to Kingdom thinking.

For two thousand years, it appears, the Christian churches have been occupied with getting people to their eternal home in Heaven. Now, as the return of the Lord draws near, we see that the Bible does not speak about our gaining eternal residence in Heaven but about our living once again on the earth.

What a shift this is in our thinking! How long do you suppose it will be before Christians are oriented toward the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth? Yet, this is what we pray for in the Lord's prayer.

I have stated on numerous occasions that the culprit seems to be the philosophy of Gnosticism. Gnosticism, which was taught during the time of the Apostle Paul, stresses the value of the spirit realm, holding the physical realm to be worthless or evil. Of course, Gnosticism denies that Jesus Christ came in the flesh.

Much of our current teaching in the Christian churches reveals the influence of Gnosticism, when we maintain that the important thing is to make the right profession of Christ, and then we will go to Heaven regardless of how we behave on earth in our body.

When God created the physical realm He stated that it was very good. This includes the physical bodies that He created. However, bodily immortality was lost to man when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

The central purpose of the Christian salvation is to restore bodily immortality to people so they can live once again on the earth. Our goal, if it is to be scriptural, is that of serving Christ in such a manner that when Jesus returns and raises our body from its place of interment, He will see fit to transform our body until we are like Him.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Through Adam we lost the earth. We forfeited that which God had assigned to us. Instead of destroying us, God sent our bodies back to the dust and preserved our spiritual nature until the Redeemer would come and make an atonement for our sin.

The atonement has been made, and the next step is to deliver us from our sinful nature and form eternal life in us. We receive eternal life as we eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood. This we do every time we choose to obey the Lord rather than to follow the compulsions of our sinful nature.

As soon as we have been delivered from our sinful nature, and Christ has been formed in us, we are ready for the transformation of our body into the image of Christ's body.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is physical death, meaning that every other enemy in us must be destroyed before we are eligible to receive immortality.

Not only are we in the process of changing our goal from eternal residence in Heaven to attaining to the transformation of our body until it is like Christ's body, but in addition we are beginning to understand what eternal life is.

I suppose that we ordinarily think of eternal life as living forever. Since time does not seem to be the same in the spirit realm as it is on earth at the present time, living forever may not have the same meaning as it does to us now.

Actually, eternal life is not referring to duration of existence. Eternal life is a kind of life. It is the very Life of God. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is eternal Life. To have eternal Life means we have the Substance and Virtue of Christ in us. We have become partakers of the Divine Nature.

As of now we live, move, and have our being in the life of flesh and blood. In the Kingdom of God we live, move, and have our being in the Life of God, that is, in the Holy Spirit.

Our goal is to attain to eternal life, the Life of God, in body, soul, and spirit.

At the present time we have a small portion of eternal life. The portion that we now have is a guarantee of the fullness that is to come in the Day of Redemption.

The Day of Redemption includes the destruction of our sinful nature, the forming of Christ in us, untroubled rest in the Center of God's Person and will, and finally, at the return of Christ, the raising of our flesh and bones from the ground and the clothing of us with a body like that of Christ.

The new house from Heaven that will clothe our resurrected flesh and bones will be fashioned from the manner in which we sow our present body. If we sow our present body to our sinful nature by yielding to its compulsions, then instead of a glorious robe of Divine Life we will be clothed with the corruption the proceeds from our own sinful nature.

If, however, we sow our present body to the Holy Spirit, turning aside from the lusts of our sinful nature and obeying the Spirit in all things, we will be clothed with eternal life in the Day of Resurrection.

The conclusion is, our goal, like the Apostle Paul, is to attain to the resurrection unto eternal life, the resurrection that will result in the transformation of our body until it is like Christ's own body. We attain to that resurrection as Paul says, by learning to live each day in resurrection power, and also by sharing the sufferings of Christ as we are conformed to His death on the cross.

In order to attain to the resurrection that is unto eternal life we have to cooperate with the Spirit of God until our sinful nature has been destroyed and Christ has been formed in us.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, And so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3:101-1)

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)