Your Redemption Draws Near! 7
Redemption as the change from bodily corruption to bodily incorruption.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (I Corinthians 15:53)
We have come to accept physical death as a natural event—part of human life on the earth. But physical death is not part of the creation of God. Physical death is an enemy of mankind.
For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (I Corinthians 15:26)
The last enemy to be conquered, in the plan of redemption, is physical death.
As we stated previously, it appears there were ingredients in the tree of life that prevented corruption in the physical body. No doubt Adam and Eve would be alive in their physical bodies to the present hour if they had eaten and then continued to eat of the tree of life.
Physical death is an enemy, the last enemy. It is the last enemy because there are numerous enemies in the human personality that must be conquered before the individual is ready for immortality in the body.
No person will be permitted to eat of the tree of life until he or she overcomes sin.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7)
"To him that overcometh."
The tree of life is still in the middle of Paradise. It is still guarded. No one is allowed to partake of the tree except as he or she gains victory over sin.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Tree of Life. As we eat of His flesh and drink of His blood we receive eternal life into our personality. If we continue to live by His Life, as He lives by the Father, He will call us up to Himself when He appears. Then the eternal life we have gained will enter our flesh and bones.
Where the slain Lamb is, there those who live by His Life will be gathered together.
The Apostle Paul groaned for the redemption of His physical body.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)
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 of life. (II Corinthians 5:4)
We do not understand Paul’s groaning today because we view the Lord Jesus as a ticket to Heaven. The Apostle Paul did not view the Lord Jesus as a ticket to Heaven but as the One who would crown him with righteousness and eternal life.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also love his appearing. (II Timothy 4:8)
How many believers of our day are hoping for a crown of righteousness? Of righteousness! The believers of today are hoping for an escape from tribulation, not, ordinarily, for the power to observe God’s eternal moral laws, the laws of the Kingdom of God. Their misguided hope is the result of the spirit of error that is in Christian teaching.
Paul was an Orthodox Jew. His one desire in life was to be righteous. He found he was not able to keep the Torah, the Law of Moses. Paul realized that through Christ would come the righteousness of heart that he sought.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)
Paul groaned for the breaking of the chains of mortality so he no longer would be driven to sin. Paul was pursuing righteousness.
We are to lift up our heads because our redemption is drawing near: redemption that will bring to us the Presence of God; redemption that will produce a personality and behavior that are free from sin; redemption that will change our corruptible body to an incorruptible body. All this will come to us with the appearing of the Lord if we are abiding in Him.