We are just hoping for the best!
We are just hoping for the best!
The passing away of "the old order of things" is reserved for the citizens on the new earth.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4)
Such heavenly bliss is possible on the new earth because Christ, and through Him the members of His 'Body, have overcame Satan.
Is there any hope for us today? Yes, there is. Our present hope is termed, "Resurrection."
There is an inner resurrection, on which the outer resurrection is based. The inner resurrection must be taking place in our personality today if we hope to receive the outer resurrection when the Lord returns.
The inner resurrection is attained to throughout our life as we learn to live by the Life of the Lord Jesus.
The outer resurrection will take place when the Lord Jesus appears, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," as the Apostle Paul taught us.
I think at this point in our brief essay we need to think about what "resurrection" is.
Resurrection is the substitution of our adamic life for the Life of Christ—first in our inner personality; second in our mortal body.
Resurrection is "change." It has nothing to do with moving upward.
When we say, "Christ has risen," we do not mean He has gone up to Heaven, although He did, after forty remarkable days on the earth. It means He arose from the chains of the warden so He could walk out of the cave.
Heaven and resurrection are two different experiences. "Heaven" is a place in the spirit world. "Resurrection" is a change in us. The two are unrelated. As far as I know, the only resurrected person in Heaven is the Lord Jesus. He is the Firstborn from among the dead.
No one except the Lord Jesus, from the beginning of time, who is in Heaven now, has experienced resurrection. Going to Heaven is not "resurrection." Being resurrected will not bring us to Heaven and has nothing to with Heaven.
Resurrection is "change"—not change of location, but change of personality: first, inner; then outer when the Lord comes.
The Lord Jesus Himself is the Resurrection. When we are living by His Life today we are attaining to the inner resurrection. When He comes, if we have attained to the inner resurrection, and He has received us to Himself, it is the Resurrection who has received us and our body will be changed.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)
Can you see, from the verse above, that His Spirit must be living in us if we are to be resurrected when He next comes?
We have arrived at an exceedingly important point in our essay. When Jesus comes, who will be prepared to go to Him and be resurrected in the body? Perhaps only a few people. If you think about it, the Bible is not written about crowds of people but about a few outstanding individuals.
You may think by this time that you never will be able to live so as to be prepared for the coming of the Lord. Let me exhort you to ask Jesus to prepare you. If you give up without asking the Lord to prepare you, you are a coward and a quitter.
You have been taught that you will (sic) rule and reign with Christ. Doesn't this tell you that if this is to be true of you, you are going to have to get in the habit of asking God for the impossible? Or you can hang back, like people in the churches who do nothing because they have judged themselves to be unworthy.
I will tell you one thing: God is not impressed with people who give up before they ask for His help. We might feel sorry for such a person and marvel at how "humble" the person is. The person is not humble. They are a coward and a quitter and do not wish to exert themselves for Christ.
Remember, God is a sovereign Spirit. He is not at all sentimental!
Step up to the plate and ask God to help you to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Then let God worry about whether He is able to help you attain to your goal!
The common understanding today among the church-goers in America is that everyone who "accepts" Christ will, at any moment now, be caught up to Heaven. Whether or not this is considered to be the resurrection I am not certain.
This is the infamous "rapture" doctrine. It is a "nothing" doctrine, not being based upon the Scripture or reason. "Resurrection" is life from the dead, as in the case of our Lord Jesus. It is not a flight to Heaven to escape trouble. We ought to know better then this!
The doctrine of the "rapture" is popular because it represents an escape from the troubles of earth into we know not what in Heaven. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul seeking to attain to a "rapture"!
The "rapture" is nothing more than wishful human thinking. It makes no demands on the believer. Thus it is a comfortable bedfellow of those who think Jesus "did it all" and all we have to do is believe He did it all.
"We have to believe in Christ but we do not have to obey Him because of grace," they preach. What a mess the current Christian teaching is:
Lawless "grace" so we do not have to obey Christ's commands.
An "any-moment rapture" so we do not have to prepare for the troubles that are on the horizon for America. Teaching like this will certainly be the basis for a mega church. But the end will be horror and screaming when there is no food on the shelves or money in the bank.
How do we prepare for the Divine judgments of the future? By pressing so close to the Lord Jesus that at every moment we know His will and are obeying it promptly, completely, and cheerfully.
Why resurrection rather than Heaven is our goal.
Our current understanding of Heaven is that it is a great park in which bodiless spirits wander about doing nothing of significance. We trust that we will rest in peace after the tumults, pains, and worries of earth.
What will we talk about with our neighbors? Probably the things that transpired on the earth. What else is there to talk about when you are resting in peace in a park?
We could discuss the appearance of various angels.
And what would a spirit need or want with a mansion?
Compare this goal with the goal of being prepared to go to Jesus and be resurrected at His coming.
You will be alive as never before. Invincible. Inexhaustible energy. Charged with taking care of those from the nations whom God has assigned to be carried over to the new world of righteousness.
Your outward form will portray the Character of Christ that has been formed in you.
You will have your inheritance as a son of God, a blessing that no angel can ever receive.
You will be at home in Heaven and on the earth, just as Jesus is.
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." (I Corinthians 15:50-54)
". . . shall not perish but have eternal life ."
When we have been resurrected internally and then externally, we will experience all we had ever hoped to achieve in Heaven.
John 3:16 shall have been fulfilled.
I think our concept of the place called "Heaven" is largely mythologic. There is no description in the Bible of the park-like area that often is portrayed by artists. Perhaps there is such a place of beauty and rest. But we would not be happy there, after a month to rest up.
Talented people, such as musicians, would want to be mastering their art. Scientists would desire to be investigating areas of physics not yet understood. I do not know if doctors would have anything to do, when people may eat the leaves of the Tree of Life.
The most important aspect of our inheritance is people to love, teach, and guide in the knowledge of God. But it wouldn't be the same without a body, would it?
Remember also that to the present point in time, victory in the war against evil only has been halfway accomplished. There remains yet the coming of Christ with His armies of saints and angels. The cleansing of the influence of Antichrist from the earth. The nations of the earth will be governed by Christ and His victorious saints for a thousand years, and then comes the final judgment.
Do you really desire to be resting in a park, doing nothing of significance, while Christ is building His new world of righteousness? The self-seeking people of the nations will be governed for a thousand years, forced by the rod of iron to obey the laws of the Sermon on the Mount.
Do you wish to recline on a couch in your mansion while the work of the Kingdom is proceeding?
I do not know about you, but I want to be with Jesus where the action is; where all this is going on. I want to work with the Lord as He creates His new world of righteousness.
At the present time, if I have nothing to do for two days I am bored and anxious to get back into the battle. What would it be like to float about as a spirit, having a form but no actual body? I for one do not wish to find out.
Some say they want to worship for God for ten thousand years. They must be different from the church people I know who have a difficult time keeping their minds on God for ten minutes.
Let each one of us prepare ourselves for Jesus' coming. We have a brief time now to attain to the inner resurrection so we may be ready to be changed at His appearing.
Remember, that as soon as God's saints go to be with Jesus, and then are caught up to be with Him at His staging area in the air, the vials of God's wrath will be poured out. Then all those left behind will have to look to God for protection, which they refused to do previously.
Our effort today is to learn to think along with Jesus; to speak along with Jesus; to act along with Jesus. That may be a closer walk with the Lord than what we have been accustomed to. But it is absolutely necessary if we are to be prepared for His appearing.
We have to learn to live by His Life.
Nothing short of this will suffice if we are to be prepared to receive the Lord when He appears..
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
The verse above is what it means to attain to the resurrection from among the dead.