Return to Alpha Omega *** Forthshining Christ's Life
At the beginning of this age of the called-out, events took place in our world that are beyond our complete comprehension in their impact upon the ages of God's great plan. These events are so momentous in their glory and power that all things--yes ALL things--were and are changed for all the ages to come. This is the LORD'S working and isn't it marvelous in our eyes?!
In the infinite realm before He formed the ages, the universe, or man, our Almighty God set in motion His unchangeable and all-knowing purpose for those ages. He filled them with years, with months, with weeks and days, and these are parts of His dispensation-filled ages in which our all-wise Father plans to fulfill His unalterable purpose. Mortal man cannot attain to the understanding of this tremendous enterprise.
This great plan of the ages conceived in the heart of Him who purposed all things after the counsel of His own will is being worked out one step at a time in each age, as age succeeds age, very much as you and I work out our daily or weekly schedule.
I've heard several preachers of the word declare that, "we're not just a bunch of accidents looking for a place to happen"; or "God not only numbers every hair of our head, but He also knows how many of your hairs ended up in the brush this morning". These harmless quips are true, of course, --but the same preachers will go on to lament God's slowness in dealing with the world's sin or demand that we not keep God waiting. I've even heard one famous televangelist state that God is just "waiting in the wings of the world-stage for the time to come when He can take delight in the destruction of His world and the people in it".
Such words are hardly worthy of repetition--but they are an indication, (to me, at least) that God's plan for His creation is hardly understood at all,--even by those who preach His omniscience, and His incomprehensible, unbounding love.
If you remove God's Plan of the Ages from your understanding, your house is left to you desolate, a toy of the elements, a hopeless foil of the fools who are now under the dominion of the carnal mind which enslaves the world that has not yet been called to our LORD'S court.
Let me make this clear to you. It is not a question of the church working to get a few souls saved, but it is a question of the working out of GOD's plan and purpose for all people and for all the ages that He has created--and He created those for Jesus the Christ. Hebrews 1:2 (Rotherham) "At the end of these days He hath spoken to us in His Son,--whom He hath appointed heir of all things, through whom also He hath made the ages." "...Whom He hath appointed lawful owner of everything" (Williams) "...and on account of whom, also, He constituted the ages." (Diaglott). Ephesians 3:11, "...in conformity to the timeless purpose which He centered in Christ Jesus, our Lord" (Phillips). "...according to a plan of the ages, which He formed for the annointed Jesus, our Lord." (Diaglott)
There it is!! The great work of God in this age and all the ages to come--it's all for the Christ, enChristed ones!! Believe into Him whom God has sent!!!
There are numerous ages discernible in the vast panorama of God's Book, from the first ray of light in Genesis to the end of the dispensation of the fulness of times when All shall be subdued unto God and God becomes All in All! As the years go by the Spirit convinces me more and more that it is essential to the spiritual growth of every Son of God to know the intention of God in every age as it unfolds.
Yes, I know that some of God's precious ones, in their ignorance, say, "I don't care about what God might do in the age to come; it's enough for me to know what's going on right now." That sounds wise, spiritual, and even submissive to God's will, doesn't it? --But--the truth can't be denied--that kind of statement is a "cop out" designed to absolve them from seeking His will, from searching the scriptures, from exposing themselves to the revelation of God's lovely plan of the ages. And it saves them from getting involved in some controversy. What spiritual cowards;---"I'll fly away" types.
Our failure to apply God's grace to the understanding of His plan leaves us beating upon the rocks of ignorance, stranded on the reef of unbelief, and we spend our lives in the restricting darkness of dogma and doctrines, the miasma of man-made mandates.
There is no "doctrine" without the Christ in us, the hope and expectation of glory for God's creation. In fact, Christ in us is the only "Doctrine" --and Christ the only "Doctrinaire"!
He who has an ear to hear, let him hear!
I believe that those who reject or deliberately shun the great truth of God's plan of reconciliation of all things to Himself will never be a part of that blessed company of Sons who are destined to set creation free. How can a man be God's instrument to bring deliverance to the whole creation while he closes his eyes and stops his ears, shuts his heart to the beautiful revelation of our Father's purposes?
There is joy unspeakable and truly full of glory when to us is revealed the great and wonderful purpose of the Father, knowing the end from the beginning because He, not man, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers of air or darkness, nor depth or breadth of reason, planned the beginning as well as planned the end--and all things in between. He created all things and made all things and brought all things into being so that this wondrous purpose might be fulfilled.
This triumphant knowledge gripped the heart of the Apostle Paul while he wrote the Roman Christians, when he pulled the veil aside to give them a clearer view into the mysteries, hidden from the foundation of the ages, in God's mind.
He plainly states, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature (creation) was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature (creation) itself ALSO shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Romans 8:18-20).
I am struck with wonder at those who declare that they yearn for the Sons of God to be made manifest, who quote the scripture about the "whole creation groaning, waiting" for the manifestation of the Sons of God, because "the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God"--and then when you tell them that the Sons of God shall really, actually, truly, factually, without doubt or ramification set ALL Creation Free they get all upset and condemn you as a heretic, a blasphemer, a cultist, and/or a "devil". Or they ask a foolish question like, "Why would God do that?"; "What good does it do to believe that?"
Now, if God isn't going to do what He said; if Christ isn't going to draw all men to Himself; if the whole creation is not going to be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God; if God will not make all men alive in Christ; if the last enemy, death, and hell shall never be destroyed; if "the devil" is going to possess the souls of the vast majority of men forever; if God is never going to become All in All;--then what's the purpose of a glorious ministry in this age and ages to come, for there is no ministry for the Sons.
Let us just forget about God setting creation free, forget about sonship, forget about being Kings and priests to God, and content ourselves with "church programs". Let us mouth snide and pious remarks complacently, and be content that while untold billions are damned forever, God shall have His little handful of super-sanctified saints to rejoice with Him in a place called "Heaven". And all the while, just next door in another place called "Hell", the cries of tortured billions (99% of whom never even heard the name of Jesus Christ, the only name given by which men must be saved) ring sweetly in the ears of God's "justified".
Woe to the shepherds of Israel who teach such blasphemy and call it God's word!!!
All the preparatory phases of God's plan have been and are now related to one harmonious and concordant program, even though those steps are greatly varied in detail. In our study of Bible promises and prophecies we must steadfastly submit our minds to God's Holy Spirit so that what we read will be properly applied, and we may put aside what man's carnal, unregenerate mind sees as contradiction. It's obvious that the part of the divine plan which developed prior to the advent of Jesus at Nazareth was different from what God has been doing and is doing today.
Let me give an example to help illustrate the forgoing.
In the second Psalm, a Messianic prophecy, the Father says to His Son, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen (nations) for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel" (Psalm 2:8-9). When the Christ was with us in the flesh of the Nazarene, He didn't ask for the nations of the world, did He? Was this disobedience to God's command to "ask of me..."? No, of course not! Instead, Jesus, in the perfect will of the Father, said, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me out of the world." Then, someone might say, the prophecy in the second Psalm is not in harmony with Christ's mission. Not so! The fulfillment of this prophecy belongs in a different phase, or epoch, of God's plan of the ages.
Jesus quotes a part of the second Psalm in Revelation 2:26-27, and applies it to overcomers out of the church (this) age. He promises that overcomers will share with Him in ruling the nations with a rod of iron--WHEN THE TIME COMES for Him to ask for and receive the nations for an inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. "To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give power over the nations; `He will rule them with an iron scepter; He will dash them to pieces like pottery'--just as I have received authority from my Father" (Revelation 2:26-27). This harmonizes with many other New Testament promises to the overcomers God has elected in this age, to the joint-heirs in the Christ's inheritance of the nations, the uttermost parts of the earth. "...and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs (participants in common) with Christ; if so be that we may suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together" (Romans 8:17). "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us" (2 Timothy 2:12). [Rotherham's translation says "If we endure we shall also reign together..."; the "sufferings" of Christ included rejection, public scorn by the elders, scribes, Pharisees, and the people of His age--and the suffering continues in God's Sons].
Further harmony is evident in Jesus' prayer for His disciples in which He reveals that His purpose in calling them to be joint- participants with Him and the Father is that the world believe on Him through them (John 17:20). When the time element is properly understood it's easy to see Jesus possessing and ruling the nations--but first there is the task of calling-out and preparing a company of Sons, a kind of first-fruits, who will be participants in common with Him in that universal rulership which will bring absolute triumph to His Kingdom in all realms, in all things, in the earth, under the earth and in the heavens!!
In Acts 15:14-18 James states God's main order of processing for this age of the "called-out". It's a brief, clear, and quite remarkable exposition and bears close study. "Symeon hath fully told how God first visited, to take out of the nations, a people for his name. And with this agree the words of the prophets, according as it is written--`After these things will I return, and will rebuild the tent of David that hath fallen, and the ruins thereof will I rebuild, and will set it up again: that the residues of men may seek out the Lord, and all the nations upon whom my name has been called', saith the Lord that doeth these things, known from age-past times". (Rotherham"s Emphasized Bible)
"After these things", that is, after he has taken out a people for his name He will return, rebuild the tent of David, (about which we have much to say, but cannot here digress) set it up--so that the residues of men--the rest of mankind, the remainder--might seek after Him! "Known unto god are all His works from the beginning of the ages".
God never goes off at half-cock. Absolutely everything in this age is working out just exactly as our all-knowing God intends. He is taking out a people. He's not calling all people now, He's taking out a people for His name. Jesus is the Christ. To be in Christ means that you've taken His name (and/or nature). To be in Christ is to be a Son of God, born of incorruptible seed just as Jesus is the Son of God.
To be in Christ is to be a member of the body of Chirst. To be a member of the body of Christ is to be a King, a priest, a member of a royal generation, God's holy people.
To be a joint-participator in His name is to be prepared by God for the ages to come in which his firstfruits, his elect, shall "show forth the praises of Him who has called them out of the dread darkness of hell into His marvelous light". (1 Peter 2:9) Thus being called to bear His name and be a "sharer" is to be prepared to reign with Him in the coming ages, those great ages in which our LORD will gather the residue of mankind, and eventually all the Gentiles, all the nations, wherever and whosoever they may be.
This is the real purpose of the ministry of God's Sons, for whose manifestation the whole creation groans and travails.
It is disheartening to see God's children making such futile and frantic efforts to get the whole world converted in this age. "Just a few more TV gospel hours, just a few more missionary trips, just a few billion more dollars to help shake the bushes and declare the gospel so that Jesus will come roaring back and "beam us up" in the air! (Well, at least He'll beam a few of us up. The residue of men are just going to have to roast in Hell for eternity")!
Sounds idiotic---and it IS !!!
You hear that nonsense preached because people can't see that God is FIRST calling out a people for His name, so that through them, in the dispensation of the fullness of times He will gather all things into Christ.
Yes, God's special purpose for the church age, this age, the age of the called-out, is to take out a people for His name--a people to bear the name of Christ, the en-Christed. Why? So that in the several ages to come these elect may rule the world and gather all things in earth and heaven into our marvelous Lord and Saviour. (Read Ephesians 1:10)
This called-out people are the firstfruits company of God. "Of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures" (James 1:18), "...and not only they (creation) but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits..." (Romans 8:23). (See also Romans 11:6; 1 Corinthians 15:20). Read in Revelation 14"4 "These ('these' being those standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb of God) were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb."
Leviticus 23:10 tells us that every year a sheaf of grain was waved before God as a testimony to the crop that would surely come at harvest-time. Just so, the members of the Body of Christ in their victory over the power of sin and death are only a beginning of what God will gather unto Himself, to be followed IN GOD'S DUE TIME by the great harvest of ALL -- "... the field is the world" (Matthew 13:38).
Isn't it obvious that there can't be a "firstfruits" if there isn't a harvest to follow? The harvest will come--for God has ordained it, but first He is bringing in a firstfruits (a redeemed people, a holy people) through whom He will reconcile all creation, (including, of course, the residue of men) to Himself.
God chose the members of the Body of Christ, they didn't choose themselves. He predestined them to the adoption, i.e. PLACEMENT, of Sons and did for them what He did for Christ. (Ephesians 2:4-7, NIV), "But because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with (conjointly) Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with (conjointly) Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, in order that in coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus." There is no higher standing possible than that which has been given the Body of Christ, but this placement is not made just to honor those transformed by His grace;--it's a part of God's program for us in the ages to come. Read again Ephesians 2:7, the KJV "That he might show "--(Greek: "endeixetai"; from: "endeiknumi-" to indicate by word or act; to show forth; to exhibit; to demonstrate). The Amplified Bible says, "He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace in kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus." Show, exhibit, demonstrate,--make plain. Kenneth Wuest's translation reads, "In order that He might EXHIBIT...in ages that pile themselves upon one another in continuous succession the surpassing wealth of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus."
Exhibit the riches of His grace to whom? To those who already know it and are seated with Christ? That would be useless and God doesn't do anything uselessly.
BUT--He will plainly show the riches of His grace to those who DON'T know it! And NOT as an expression of scorn, not to ridicule, to hurt or belittle, saying perhaps, "Just look what you missed, you miserable wretches!" Such a monstrous show would be NO demonstration of the riches of His grace and unsurpassed kindness. In ages to come He'll put His grace and kindness toward us on display so His entire creation can see and come to understand what He, our Father, has provided for all men in Christ.
I've heard some say that "in the ages to come men will not deserve an opportunity to accept Christ." There are countless billions who have never had the opportunity to be saved, who have never even heard the name of Christ, who were never drawn to Him, who weren't called or chosen. So, also, there are millions who heard but rejected the message. Shall we, who know better, say, "Let them go to Hell then! They'll get exactly what they deserve"? I've met many who call themselves Sons of God who actually fear that some poor, lost, hell-bent sinner might not get what he deserves. God will have mercy on sinner AND self-proclaimed saint!!
Neither you nor I deserve the grace of God. All men are undeserving sinnners, and that's why it takes grace to save. (Ephesians 2:8-9) "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." I'm sure you've noted that these great verses follow the verse "That in ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus"? (The word "for" shows a relationship between what precedes and what follows). In the ages to come He'll make plain, exhibit, demonstrate His grace, for He has already shown it to us, the members of Christs' body, whom He will use as THE DEMONSTRATION!!
So God chooses a few undeserving sinners in this age as a "firstfruit"; He calls them, sanctifies them, transforms them into the image of His Son, fills them with His mind and spirit, and glorifies them with His righteousness so that He may SHOW to others, in the ages to come, His truly amazing grace.
You can rest entirely in God's promises! The demonstration of His grace will be convincing and will accomplish what He intends. "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have ALL men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave HIMSELF a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Timothy 2:3-6). Isn't that marvelous?!?! He gave Himself a ransom for ALL , so that He might bless ALL , and give every man all that Christ purchased for man. It is foolish to claim He gave a ransom for ALL, and yet claim that only a handful (some say 144,000) of those ransomed will benefit from it! This implies either (1) God accepted the ransom-price and then unrighteously refused to honor the redemption, or (2) Our Lord, after He had redeemed ALL was either unwilling or unable to carry out the plan.
The unalterability of God's plan and the perfection of His justice and love repels such a contradiction and assures us that His original plan, of which a ransom for all is the basis, will be carried out in God's "due time", bringing to all creation the blessing of release from the power of sin and death. Then will creation be returned to the rights and liberties of the Sons of God; there will be no more sin or curse.
The key to the seeming delay of the blessing is "gave Himself a ransom for ALL, TO BE TESTIFIED IN DUE TIME". 1 John 2:2 says clearly, "...and He (Christ) is the propitiation (Greek: hilasmos; atonement, satisfaction) for our sins; and NOT FOR OURS ONLY, BUT ALSO FOR THE SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD."
It's plain to see (for those who will see) that the application of the merit of Christ's sacrifice on behalf of sin is to be made in two separate parts. First, for the Body of Christ (ours) and then, in due time, for the whole world. It may be a hard saying--but here it is: During this age, the "church" age, the age of the "called out", the atonement is being applied only on behalf of the members of Christ's Body, the ecclesia, which is the firstfruits of the result of Christ's all-inclusive sacrifice.
To better understand this truth it is important to get a clear picture in mind and heart of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the people who were bound to it, and their significance as types. There are three groups of people: first Israel, called "the camp", then the Levites, and finally Aaron and his house, "the priesthood".
In our scriptures Israel is often used to typify the church. As an example, when Israel left Egypt they were a type of God's children whom God calls out of the world to follow Him and be a people peculiar to Him.
The tedious journey in the wilderness represents a "pilgrimage" through which many pass seeking the promise of rest in Canaan. Just as in the type, so in reality, the promised rest is not far off, and those called-out enter the promise by faith. Not all enter at the same time, but "every man in his own order" (1 Corinthians 15:23) or array, as God has predestined. Just as the type, Israel according to the flesh passed over according to their tribal increments or families, while the ark abode in the middle of the stream-bed, so will spiritual Israel pass into God's rest as He has predestined. (It is worth remarking here, though lack of space and time prohibit further comment, that Canaan Land, the land of promise, became a place of trial and testing because of God's further calling-out of a "firstfruits").
But while Israel according to the flesh is used to typify Spiritual Israel in the ways set forth above, we need now to examine Israel in its relation to the Tabernacle, a different type.
All of Israel lay totally outside the Tabernacle, outside the place of sacrifice, outside the ministry of the priesthood, outside the presence and the glory of God. They were separated from all holy things and practices of the worship within by the white curtain of Christ's righteousness. The "camp" was separated from all holy things by the curtain of white linen, which represents to those inside a wall of righteousness by faith, but to those outside a wall of unbelief which kept them from seeing and/or using the holy things inside.
There was only one gateway to enter the Court, and this type testifies that there is only one way to God--one 'gate'--Jesus Christ. "I am the way...no man cometh to the Father but by me". "I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved" (John 14:6; 10:9).
All the sacrifices, the sin-offering, atonement, et cetera, made for them were typical of the "better" sacrifices made on behalf of all the world and all the ages. "He (Christ) is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only , but also for the sins of the whole world " (1 John 2:2; Hebrews 9:23).
So, Israel, the Tabernacle, Priests, Levites, and sacrifices are types. What was done in symbol with and for "Israel of the flesh" is now being carried out on a higher plane, on a larger scale, now in reality of that which was a type or shadow. As Israel typified the world, the tribe of Levi typified the "household of faith", or all believers in the Christ who know Him in the forgiveness of sins. But the priesthood, the house of Aaron, one body under one high priest was and is typical of the "little flock" you hear so many preachers mourn over, the "overcomers", (not the "flyers-away"), which with the "Head" or High Priest, is a Royal Priesthood. Which after this present time of preparation and processing are Kings or Priests unto our God, given authority over all nations and all mankind (Revelation 5:10; 2:6-7).
We see Jesus Christ the High Priest, not of the Aaronic order, which was a type of a much greater and grander profession or order--Jesus, the head of the real Priesthood of which all others were only figures (Hebrews 3:1; 4:14). The Aaronic Priesthood typified, chiefly, the humiliation and sufferings of the Christ, stripped of His past and future glory;--Melchizedec being the type of Christ as Kingly, Royal Priesthood. (There is much to say about this Melchizedec Priesthood, but the Spirit withholds the words.)
The "outer court" of the Tabernacle represented the condition of justification, entered into through faith in the door, Christ. Into this court only Levites, (typical of all believers) were allowed to come. These "believers" had access to the Brazen Altar and the Laver, and did their service in the Court, but had NO right as merely Levites (believers) to go into the Holy Place or the Most Holy Place. They couldn't even look into it. (Numbers 4:19-20).
Peter, addressing those believers who were (and are) sanctified, says, "YE are ...an holy priesthood to offer up sacrifice acceptable to God by Christ Jesus." "YE are ... a royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:5-9). The Apostles repeatedly mention that the Head or Chief Priest of this Priesthood, this "little flock", is our Lord Jesus. For example Hebrews 3:1 says: "Holy brethren, (the royal priesthood) partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of OUR PROFESSION (our order of priests), Christ Jesus".
On the Day of Atonement the High Priest carried the blood of the sacrifice into the Most Holy Place and sprinkled it upon and before the mercy seat in God's presence. This was done on behalf of Aaron and for his house--the Priesthood (Leviticus 16:6,ll,14). The writer of Hebrews says this is a picture of the presentation before God of the worthiness and excellence of Christ's sacrifice ON BEHALF OF THE CHURCH. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for US" (Hebrews 9:24).
It's important to note that on the Day of Atonement there were two sets of sacrifices offered; two rams, two goats, and two burnt offerings--all of which point to Christ and His redeeming work. This in no way indicates the Christ died twice. It clearly reveals two separate and distinct aspects of the Atonement, showing that the virtue and power of His one sacrifice is applied in two parts; for "us", the body of Christ during the age of the called out, the church, and later for "the whole world".
That this is so is clearly seen in the offering of the two rams on that great Day of Atonement. Of the many scriptures that could be cited there is one very distinct and positive example pointing to the two aspects of the application of His redeeming work. "And Aaron shall come into the Tabernacle of the Congregation (the Holy Place) and shall put off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy Place (the Most Holy) and he shall leave them there. and he shall wash his flesh with water in the Holy Place and put on his (usual) garments and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering for the people, and make atonement for himself (the Christ, Head and body, the church) and for the people" (Leviticus 16:23-24).
It is obvious, is it not, that no atonement need me made for our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, for he was "without sin, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners", yet, in the shadow of things to come, an atonement was made for Aaron and his house. This ram offering for Aaron included all the members of his family, the priesthood, --and in type, then, covers all the members of Christ's Body, the Royal Priesthood--and we surely need an atonement! We can clearly see by this that there were two rams, two sacrifices, one for the priesthood, and another for the people. There is no reason to question the fact of two applications of Christ's Atonement, first for the Body of Christ during this age, and later for the whole world.
When every living stone has been shaped, dressed and polished to the great Builder's exact specifications and placed in the place prepared for it in the living walls of the temple of Sons, then, the living waters that Ezekiel saw in spirit will flow forth, and wherever that river flows everything shall live. All the waters of the sea (restless, surging masses of humanity) shall be healed and even the "owls and dragons of the deep" shall praise and worship our Lord.
The day in which we live finds the vast majority of Christians more miserable than most other people in the world. Most of those who name themselves "Christians" are simply "hanging on", and enduring this life so that they can die, fly away, don the white robes of righteousness and spend the next several billions years singing, dancing, twanging a harp of some kind and generally having what they imagine to be a "good old-fashioned revival meeting". (Boring, don't you think?--even for a week or two, and most people can't even stand two hours of a meeting where the glory of God is present in palpable magnificence, anyway.)
The problem with an enigmatical theological concept such as that is that it leaves the shakers and shouters with nothing constructive to do and eternity to do it in.
We are commanded to "go on to perfection", "put on the whole armor of God", "be filled with the fullness of God", and "grow up into Him in all things". We are promised that "we shall be like Him" and do "greater works" than Jesus did. (Not just more of the same--but "GREATER"). But if such majestic glory, such awesome power is to be used only through the fleeting years of this present life, or to be expended in eternity in a holy hootenany of shouting, singing and dancing--what a waste!
The FULL anointing of God is more than we can imagine. and surely more than mortal, unchanged man can handle. (Put a 5,000 h.p. motor on a 15-foot boat or in a model A Ford?? Actually, there is no way to compare God's full glory and power with anything known to us.) So, this promised anointing must be for work other than we find in this age; there must be something beyond our ken upon which so magnificent and glorious an anointing is to be used. If not, why has our Lord spent so much time, such meticulous care, in bringing forth a body in the fulness of His life, in the glory of His victory?
If we see no ministry beyond this life for which we can use this anointing, then we are indeed most wretched among men, for we are promised and commanded to possess something of little use. So far, God hasn't allowed the real fulness of this mighty anointing to come into actual use; it is, for the most part, lying dormant in the Body of Christ, the church. The church has witnessed only a modicum of God's glorious anointing, and comparison can't really be made between the measure we have received and ALL THE FULLNESS of God that is in store.
God, omniscient and omnipotent, has reserved the ages to come to display the fulness of His grace and glory and power, in demonstration through His perfected, overcoming, fully anointed Christ--the many membered Son of God!!
"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits: afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all". (1 Corinthians 15:19-28).
This is one of the truly remarkable passages in our Scriptures, giving special emphasis to certain proclamations. Read carefully, ignoring what certain "gospel-mongers" have told you it means; let the Spirit reveal: "...as in Adam all die; even so in Christ shall all be made alive." The Greek word meaning ":shall all be made alive" is "zoopoiethesontai", -- a verb, INDICATIVE, future, passive, third person, plural. And is properly translated into English as it stands in Scripture. It is not subjunctive or optative--but indicates an action that will be done and is being done now. Since it is God who is the doer--what room is there for doubt? Why do many pulpiteers continue to declare that although all are dead, because of Adam's death, not all are to be made alive by the super-effective sacrifice God made of Himself in order to reconcile His creation? Blind leaders of the blind cause tremendous heartache in God's people! Now just what does it mean for all to be made alive? First, let's understand what it means for all to "die". Let me talk plainly about the condition or state of being we call "death". Who are the dead?
Some will say, "What a stupid question. It's obvious that the dead are those who have departed this physical existence, their bodies buried in the earth or otherwise consigned to destruction."
But creation's subjection to futility brought much more than our physical decease; something which affects our being much more than the sleep which ends our earthly consciousness! God did NOT say to Adam, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:17.) Had He said that, Adam would have fallen down dead the day he sinned. Hebrew Bible scholars tell me that the precise language used in that scripture is, "And dying, you shall die." This indicates a process of dying as well as a condition of death, which we know is a long process of disintegration, even when we call the process "LIFE". Ever since Adam received the condemnation of death his decendants have been dying. It's not that "death catches up with us"--physical death is a part of us, from the very instant of conception until the day the process triumphs. In Adam all are dying, even while they walk about as inhabitants of the earth--and that life-death is what we inherited from our parent, Adam.
But death is much more than this. The most precise definition of death is the one God Himself has given us: "For to be CARNALLY MINDED is death; but to be 'SPIRITUALLY MINDED' is life and peace" (Romans 8:6) As long as we remain "carnally minded" we are in a state of death, not of dead bodies, but of dead-consciousness toward God. Those in this state of death are not in any sense conscious of God, or His life, or of what God is doing about them. They don't know God or His will or His work; these things are as alien to them as if they were not even of God's universe.
And sadder still, many of the dead are professing Christians. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Ephesians 5:14). Were these words directed to dead bodies in a cemetery somewhere? NO !! These words were written to professed Christians in the church at Ephesus. In God's sight, death isn't so much concerned with the body of flesh as with the consciousness of God's life.
We know that the mind of the flesh is enmity toward God (Romans 8:7), because it's not subject to God's law, indeed it can't be. The mind of the flesh cares only for things of the flesh, and that carnality of mind fulfills only carnal desires of the self-will--All of which perish. Here is a good description of the natural state, written by Paul to the Ephesians, "And you, who were DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Ephesians 2:1-3).
Romans 6:23 tells us that the "wages of sin is death" and death has passed upon all men, for all have sinned. This "inworking of the mystery of iniquity" has brought every man into the death of the carnal mind, ending our spirit-consciousness, and burying us in self-consciousness of our flesh. If a man is apart from God in Christ, that man is dead, whether in this life or any other. "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (NIV, 1 John 5:12).
Physical death is only one of the results of spiritual death, a death brought about because of the broken communion between Adam and God. Even though Adam lived in the flesh hundreds of years after his separation from God's spiritual realm, the inner reality of death reigned in his mortal body every day. That's REAL death.
Sorrow, frustration, sickness, pain, disappointment, tragedy, loneliness--all the torments of our poor mortal existence are part of the domain of death, the realm that rules the condition of all men "in Adam".
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). The whole 15th chapter deals with resurrection, but the word "resurrection" is inadequate to express the thought the Holy Spirit is conveying to us. Consider, the common conception of the word causes people to visualize opening of all the graves throughout the world and "giving up", or expelling, the physical bodies of those who have died. But death is more than dead bodies, and since death is more than the cessation of physical life, you can be assured that "resurrection" is something far greater, far beyond, than just bringing bodies out of a tomb to walk in imitation of life.
A false and limited view of the resurrection indicates the same false and limited view we have of God's work throughout the ages. Dwarfing our view of the resurrection dwarfs the whole view of God's great plan.
We have read that in Christ ALL shall be made alive, and the contrast is not between corpses and walking bodies, but between two processes--the dreadful dying process in Adam and the marvelous life process in our God. The Greek text reads, "as in Adam all are dying, so in the Christ shall all be made alive". The verbs "are dying" and "shall be made alive" are in tenses indicating ongoing, incomplete actions, actions in progress. The long, tedious and tormenting working of death that drags mankind down to sin, death and the grave are contrasted with the endless activity of life that imparts holiness, power, incorruption, and glory--for all who endured the first shall enjoy the second!
Here, then, is the good news that lifts mankind out of its misery! The process of HIS life, i.e. the process of resurrection, has already begun with us! "...even when we were dead in sins, He hath quickened (made alive) us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:5-6). "If then, you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above..." (Colossians 3:1).
Being "made alive" is a great deal more than some instantaneous, quasi-mystic, event to take place at a time in the distant future. It is not just a blasting open of graves and an eruption of bodies buried in them. Being "made alive" doesn't point to some event when people will go flying off into the wild blue yonder.
Read! Jesus stood before the tomb in which His friend Lazarus lay, having been dead 3 days, and by all human standards in a state of malodorous corruption. Martha, a believer in and follower of Jesus, looked for some distant resurrection, when Lazarus would live again, but Jesus rebuked her for such folly and told her that the resurrection was standing right there before her. "I am the resurrection and the life"--don't we see that the eternal Father within the Christ was and is the resurrection? "I live by the Father", Jesus declared (John 6:57). The resurrection is not just something that happened to Jesus, not a day marked on a calendar (and fought over bloodily by the self-appointed "church" and her harlot daughters), not just an event of which He was a partaker. NO -- the resurrection is A MAN -- Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God --. " I AM the resurrection and the life". To have the MAN, to put on the MAN, to come into union with the MAN is to have resurrection, for that MAN IS the resurrection --"In Christ shall all be made alive".
That's what the l5th Chapter of 1 Corinthians is about.
The argument is based on whether or not Christ's rising from the dead is fact. In verse sixteen we read, "For if the dead are not being raised, neither has Christ been raised" (from the Greek text). The Greek verb concerning the resurrection of the dead is indicative, present tense, passive -- and simply tells us of an active, ongoing action directed toward and received by "the dead". The text doesn't say "If dead persons wlll not (future tense) be raised up..."
Then comes the triumphant and overcoming verse 20, written right out of the Apostle's personal experience, " BUT NOW IS CHRIST RISEN FROM THE DEAD , and become the FIRSTFRUITS of THEM THAT SLEPT." The words for "them that slept" are, in the Greek, "Ton Kekoimemenon", a participle in the perfect tense, "they who have slept". or "they who have been sleeping". There are a host of those who were "dead" now enjoying resurrection "life" with Jesus Christ.
Resurrection is a present reality. Just as those in Adam are dying, so in Christ men are being made alive. When you receive Christ as your saviour, you receive His Life, and His Life is Resurrection Life. "Anastasis" is the Greek word used in the New Testament for our English "resurrection", and its basic meaning is a standing or rising up. But it denotes much more than our English word "resurrection" which we think of as "a restoring to life again". The Greek word means the whole process of advancing and rising until we reach the highest possible realm the Father has prepared for us. (Hear what the Spirit says!)
Our goal is nothing short of full conformation to the image of God's Son so that when He shall appear we shall be like Him--for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). This resurrection is the process of rising up and advancing, standing up and coming out of the dust and out of the lowly death-trap of the earth, to bear the image of the heavenly for which we have been chosen! Resurrection is the process of being raised up, of having our life lifted up and joined as one to the fullness of the Holy Spirit of God. All the sorrows attendant upon our separation from God are already beginning to end in this life--because in and through Christ we are made alive -- And in Christ shall ALL be made alive.
Some raise objections to this blessed hope, arguing that not All who die in Adam will be made alive in Christ. They contend that in each case the "all" is limited so that it is only all who are in Christ that shall be made alive. Their concept is that it is not the same all who die in Adam that are made alive in Christ. They say, that all who ever lived were "in Adam" and therefore died, but only a few have come to be "in Christ" and only "all in Christ" are made alive.
That argument is indeed a crafty one--cunning, devious and so very fleshly. Sadly, it reveals the downright ignorance of those who use it, showing that they haven't read the scripture, or having read it, don't understand what they have read. Like the Ethiopian eunuch they need "some man to teach them".
I've heard it said that if the average professing Christian knew what his Bible is talking about he'd burn it as a dangerous, heretical writing. I think that's truer than most of us will admit. False teaching is founded on error, and while professing to believe and teach the WORD, it can do nothing but contradict it. Almost all of its efforts are attempts to make the word conform to its own vain imagination.
Some who are easily led by the error-filled doctrines of man loudly proclaim the Bible to be absolutely true and profess to believe it, but must continually alter and explain its truth so that it supports their own reasoning. God's true ministers have come to a place where they believe God, even though it makes all men liars. And it's obvious from past and present events that anyone who will serve the Lord God fruitfully, declaring His truth, and believing what He says, is bound to be unpopular with all of Babylon's bible-bashing brotherhood. Their apostasy is exposed by truth and they must either accept the truth or with much loud "preachifying" condemn the messenger and his message.
It is so now, and has been for centuries; The Body of Christ suffers rejection.
The assertion that all who die in Adam will not be made alive in Christ is a sly and deceptive canard, a flat contradiction to the Word of the Living God. Further, it dishonors Christ, and is a blasphemy straight from the cesspool of the carnal mind.
The argument is a subtle play on words, missing and ignoring what the Holy Spirit really says in 1 Corinthians 15:22. That statement can be made to say what the deceivers make it say only by taking it out of context. It must be read in connection with the verses surrounding it, and when this principle is followed faithfully, the truth becomes plain. The verse under consideration is; "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive". -- But that isn't the end of it -- The Holy Spirit doesn't just drop the thought and change the subject. The next verse is a continuation of the thought where He states "BUT EVERY MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER". All shall be made alive in Christ and will be made alive in a certain order, according to a sequence decided on by God. Our Bible makes it quite evident that not all are saved at the same time, "Who gave Himself a ransom for all; to be testified in due time " (1 Timothy 2:6).
At this present time God is saving only those He has called into special salvation of the ages. (1 Corinthians 1:26-30) and He'll use these to bring salvation to the "remainder of men" (Please read Romans 8:18-23; Ephesians 1:9-12; 2:6-10).
The Greek word translated "order" in 1 Corinthians 15:23 is "Tagmati" the dative of "tagma" which means, in English, "That which has been arranged, a thing placed in order" or "as a body of soldiers, a corps" hence a "troop, a band, or class". It's the same word used in Acts 13:48 as a participle in the perfect passive tense, "...and as many as were ORDAINED (tetagmenoi) to eternal life believed". The Holy Spirit of God calls to resurrection life every man in his own time and place, his own order, rank and file. No man has the authority or ability to hasten, change, or delay the order that God has foreordained.
"No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him..." (John 6:44). Men with little or no understanding of the plan of God rush all over creation, frantic in their desperate efforts to convert the whole world "before it's eternally too late". Meanwhile, God beholds with joy His perfect plan of the ages developing just exactly as He arranged it should, and He sends His Spirit at just exactly the right time to call "every man in his own order".
The verse written above indicates clearly that the initiative is God's, as He causes us to come in His time, in the order He predetermined for us. And He's made it easily discernible that regardless of the time of our call, when the Father draws us to Himself, the process continues until ALL are brought to Him; "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, WILL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO ME", (John 12:32). The word translated "draw" is the Greek word "elko", in the future tense (elkuso)--and means "to draw" as a sword from a sheath, or in the case of persons, "to drag", "drag off", "to draw by inward power, lead", "to impel". So, it's not a matter of wheedling, coaxing or begging and bribing man to come--it's the will of God that man come--and he'll come when he's called.
"Every man in his own order" is very reassuring, don't you think? This promises that in God's own time and calling for each of us, He'll bring us into the fullness of His life. EACH IN HIS OWN RANK. There's no merit falling to man for this choice--because, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, BUT OF GOD that showeth mercy" (Romans 9:16).
When He calls us all we can do is come to Him in humble thanksgiving for His expression of the great love he has for us. We receive Him, yield to Him, and follow Him with all our being.
Then let me reiterate what the order or arrangement is. "In Christ shall all be made alive--but every man in his own order". The scripture lists three unmistakeable, successive orders in which EVERY MAN is made alive! Read it again. 1 Corinthians 15:23-28: "But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."
There are three orders indicated in those scriptures:
1. Christ, the firstfruits
2. Afterwards those who are Christ's at His coming (parousia).
3. Then the end...all enemies--all things subdued--until God is ALL in ALL.
There are those who insist that only a few "saints" who find life in Christ during the present church age will make up the "all". They believe that the Christ was made alive, and they believe that those who are now His are being made alive, but in their blindness they miss, entirely, order number 3 in which ALL MEN AND ALL THINGS, including God's enemies, are subjected and subdued unto Him and then delivered up in HIS KINGDOM unto God, so that He (God) may be "ALL IN ALL". It takes all three "orders" to make up the ALL who are MADE ALIVE IN CHRIST.
To say that "all" is other than this, is to distort God's word and mock the power of HIS LIFE, as well as to call our Father a monstrous liar.
The power of HIS LIFE in this third order demonstrates to us that the impelling force given to God's purpose by the resurrection of Christ from among the dead doesn't expend itself and "die out" until all others are made alive in Him; until all power, all rule and authority opposed to Him is overcome completely; until all enemies are placed under the feet of Christ, subdued to Him. Until the last enemy, death, is abolished and there is no more death left in any of God's creation--and the whole universe is included in the Kingdom of Christ and the Son Himself, in His many membered body, has been delivered to the Father--and God has become ALL IN ALL--everthing to everyone everywhere!!
The resurrection of Christ from the dead has set in motion a chain of events which will continue and never pause for an instant until God's purpose in the ages is fulfilled!!
God's mighty power which operated in Christ, raising Him from the dead, is potent enough to exalt Him to the highest possible position in the universe, ensuring that all His enemies will be reconciled to Him, every opposing power subordinate to Him, all sin and death in every dominion in every man and every creature be swallowed up by His LIFE, and God is ALL in ALL.
After "Christ the firstfruits" and "those who are Christ's at His coming" notice the words "then cometh the end" . The Greek says "then the end"--very much like saying "then the last of the ranks", or "then bringing up the rear". It is the "end order" or "end rank" in the parade that constitutes all of mankind.
The apostle through whom God sent this message to us piles words upon words to make his meaning clear that all things in the universe are to be in subjection and delivered to God. In 1 Corinthians 15:22-28 the word "all" is used 12 times, and in just the last two verses the idea of subjection is used 6 times. God is saying as plainly as words can say that His goal is the bringing into subjection of all beings in the universe, in heaven, in earth, and in the underworld.
In the last two verses of 1 Corinthians 15:24-28 the verb translated "to put into subjection" is used six times in various voices, moods and tenses. It has been translated as "put under", "be subject" and "subdues". The Holy Spirit chose this word to make clear that all things in the UNIVERSE are being brought into subjection to God.
"To put into subjection" means "to subordinate", "to arrange under", "to subject one to obedience" -- and there can be no reconciliation, no orderly and harmonious Kingdom, no God "all in all" until all creation is subjugated to God. Now, since God accepts nothing but willing obedience, His plan is to bring all to a willing obedience of His will. God made Jonah willing to go to Ninevah, and He will make the universe willing to obey Him. It may take more or less processing, disciplining, training, and instruction for some than for others -- but -- His creation WILL be subject to Him, willingly, in the fullness of HIS time.
"For our conversation (citizenship) is (present tense) in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the WORKING WHEREBY HE IS ABLE EVEN TO SUBDUE ALL THINGS TO HIMSELF" (Phillipians 3:20-21). The power exercised to transform the "body of our humiliation" into the likeness of His body is the same power that subdues ALL THINGS to Himself. All things become His subjects, -- He becomes their King.
Some teach that "things" doesn't mean people, but that it means only nature, thrones, governments, et cetera. Then does God love His inanimate creation more than the man He made to bear His exact likeness? "Yes", say the prophets of doom.
That's another of the babylonish brotherhood's boldfaced and brazen lies, a devilish deceit used to keep the Lord"s beloved people fearful and strangers to truth.
The scriptures disavow such an indefensible position. Certainly ALL THINGS include ALL PEOPLE!! We could cite several passages to establish this position, but these two seem to me to be enough: "Therefore let no man glory in men. For ALL THINGS are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. ALL are yours" (1 Corinthians 3:21-22). Isn't it plain that people are among the all things that are listed here as belonging to God's elect, along with "the world" and "life"? There is a verse that calls our Lord Jesus Christ a "thing". Read Luke 1:35, where the angel is talking to Mary; "And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God ".
However, the real proof, if such proof needed, is in the verses under consideration; "For HE hath put ALL THINGS under His feet. But when He saith ALL THINGS are put under Him, it is manifest that HE is excepted , which did put ALL THINGS under Him" (1 Corinthians 15:27).
Is God inanimate? Is He some object, or abstract ephemeral position in Never-Never Land? Of course not! He's a living being, a person, who revealed Himself in the Christ, and He's the only THING that isn't subdued to that beloved Christ. The text we read here shows us beyond any shadow of a doubt that "all things" subdued to our Lord Jesus Christ and then delivered to the Father are ALL LIVING BEINGS other than God Himself.
The only people who will contradict this fact are those who are bound so fast in error that they don't care what the written word of God says;--they are steeped in the stagnant traditions of the self-ordained "church" and will defend the mind-made morass of man's maxims to the very end--which end comes when God opens their hearts, cleanses their minds, and lets loose His Spirit in their being.
The words describing this consummation "God all in all", mean nothing if they don't express total, universal reverence and homage paid by WILLING HEARTS to Jesus Christ, and thus to God. There are those who call themselves Christians who will tell you that the subjection referred to is like the subjection of the Jews to their Nazi captors in the concentration camps of World War II. The vision they conjure up and try to sell to God's people is a panorama worthy of the grossest, cruelest and most maddened mind: --billions of people confined to a lake of fire screaming; cursing, hating and blaspheming God in their torments; down-trodden, confined, forcibly held and subdued to God who is love. And here those creations of God will stay "forever", "for eternity" (whatever that is) and never change. Nonsense!!
Take notice that the very same Greek word that describes complete and loving subjection of the Son to the FATHER, is used to declare the nature of submission of ALL THINGS to the rule and reign of our Blessed Saviour. There isn't going to be anything anywhere that is antagonistic to God, and that's the reason why our Christ's Redemptive reign ends. He hands the entire redeemed and reconciled creation over to God; all the subjugated and loyal realms of heaven, of earth and hell become "All in all in God and God is All in All".
About the word "subdue". It is used in other places to describe the kind of subjection Jesus of Nazareth yielded to His earthly parents (Luke 2:51), the kind that the church gives to Christ (Ephesians 5:24), and that God's children are to render to Him (James 4:7). Also, the same word used in Romans 8:20, where God's subjection of creation to "vanity" is done lovingly, in HOPE.
This total submission to God is that which is being brought to maturity in the firstfruit company in this day. God demands total surrender, and He says this over and over again in different ways, different words, in various places. Still we fail to get the message; "Yield yourselves to God"; "subject yourselves to Christ. Offer your bodies to Christ as a sacrifice, living, holy and acceptable to God"; "die to self"; "lay down your life". "Present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead"; "yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness but as instruments of righteousness unto God"; "put off the old man"; "put on the mind of Christ"; "walk in the spirit"; He says these things over and over again, and what He now requires of us, His firstfruits, He finally requires of His entire creation.
It seems we are, in most part, ready to do almost anything but surrender ourselves to God.
A man of God, George D. Watson, wrote the following, and I think it helps me see the beauty and majesty of what it really means to be "subdued unto God". Quote: "Before God can launch us out into the breadth and sweetness of His service, and entrust to us great things for Himself, we must be perfectly subdued in every part of our nature to His will and disposition of His mind. We must be subdued in our hearts, in our will, in our words, in our tempers, in our manners; subdued through and through so thoroughly that we will be flexible to all His purposes and plans. We must be subdued that harshness, severity, criticism, sluggishness, laziness, impetuosity, and all wanting our way, even in religious matters must be subdued out of us. Conversion will not finish this job."
"We must be subdued, not merely in our own opinion, not merely think ourselves subdued, not only subdued in the esteem of our friends and fellow workers, but subdued so perfectly that the all seeing eye of God can look us through, and the omniscient One knows that we are subdued. God must conquer the man that He can trust with His great thoughts and plans. The Holy Ghost must saturate us with a divine conquest, before He can use us to conquer other souls. The Lord will begin to subdue us with gentle means; and if we sink lovingly and promptly into His mind, the work will be done; but, if we have flint or iron in our nature, and it is necessary, He will use heroic means to put us between the millstones and grind us to powder, until He can mold us without any resistance to His purpose. We must be so subdued that we can hold our tongues, and walk softly with God, keep our eyes upon Jesus, attend to our won work, and do God's will promptly and lovingly, glad to have a place in His Kingdom."
"Oh! it is grand to be absolutely conquered by the Holy Ghost, and swing out a thousand miles from everybody and everything into the ocean of God's presence. When we are subdued in the sight of God, He will work miracles in us, and power in experience, in healing, in finance, in service, in gentleness, and in sweetness of the inner heart life; miracles of grace that will astonish us and surprise our friends, and utterly amaze our enemies, when they come to know the magnitude of what God has wrought. Let us get subdued in every way, in everything!" --end quote.
"Salvation is of the LORD" (Jonah 2:9). It is a wonderful, glorious and fundamental fact that salvation is of the LORD , and NOT man, but the LORD doesn't save all in this age. Why not? He does save some, and if He saves some, why doesn't He save others? Are these "others" too sinful, too depraved for God's salvation? Nonsense!! The chiefest of the Apostles wrote, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief" (1 Timothy 1:15). If God saved the "chief" of sinners, can any be excluded because of their depravity? Are any excluded because their hearts are too hard to be won? NO!! Of the most stony-hearted people of all we find written, "And I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them: I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19, NIV). Is it that some of the "unsaved" are so defiant, so stubborn and intractable, so absolutely incorrigible that God CAN'T draw them to Himself?
I'll ask another question in answer to the above. Wasn't there a time when YOU "walked in the counsel of the ungodly, stood in the way of sinners, sat in the seat of the scornful" and with them said, "We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14)? Wasn't there a time when you, would not come to Christ that you might have life (John 5:40)? Most of us will acknowledge, shamefacedly, that there was such a time.
Now more questions. What caused you to come to Him and put your trust in Christ? Is it because of your superior intelligence? Are you quicker than your fellows to see your need for the saving grace of God? Of course not---"For who makes you different from anyone else? What have you that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not" (1 Corinthians 4:7, NIV). It is by the grace of God that we are what we are. (See 1 Corinthians 15:10).
Then don't we see that it is not lack of power in God, not his refusal to coerce mankind, that other rebels are not saved too? If our hearts have been subdued by the Lord, isn't He able to do the same for others? Certainly!!
So--how illogical, inconsistent, how foolish of men to proclaim from their thrones of ignorance that God is not able to save masses of hell-bent-for-eternity mankind because THEY JUST WON'T LET HIM DO IT.
But some who have been saved will say, "When I was saved it was because I was willing to receive Christ as my Saviour". True! Absolutely true!!--but it was our LORD who made you willing. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of HIS good pleasure" (Phillipians 2:13).
In His good time He will make all sinners willing. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive. BUT EVERY MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER: an anointed firstfruit; afterwards they that are Christ's at His appearing. Then the end, when--ALL SHALL BE SUBDUED TO HIM, so that God may be ALL IN ALL".
Every man upon the earth, every man under the earth belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ. He made the earth and He made every man. He tasted death for every man, so Everything belongs to Him, by right of creation and by right of redemption.
The "church" has forgotten that Jesus Christ came to establish a Kingdom and that that Kingdom must break in pieces and consume (take into itself) every other kingdom including the "devil's" kingdom. The gospel preached by Christ was the gospel of the Kingdom, and the aim of His work was the establishment of this Kingdom of God. So, when the end comes, Jesus Christ will deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father and it will be everything ever created by God,--God will be ALL IN ALL.
This is the all inclusive Gospel--a gospel of the redemption of ALL things--not a limited message of a limited atonement, a partial kingdom; not a Christ who failed or a Satan who won, and will possess billions of "unsaved" men through a tormenting "forever". A teaching such as that is blasphemy.
The true gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and the triumph of that Kingdom in every realm. Read! Listen! Every man upon God's earth, in heaven, in hell, throughout the universe WILL BOW THE KNEE AND GLORIFY GOD by calling Jesus LORD and serving and obeying Him with a joyful and willing heart. It makes no difference how many ages it takes-- God is doing the work! The frantic flummery of the "church world's" frenzy of trying to get the world destroyed, all sinners into hell and the little band of the beatified into heaven for eternity reminds me of someone driving at a dangerously high speed so that he can "hurry up" and get there, in order to sit down and do nothing. Such people have no conception of God's plan, His intense love, nor of His omnipotence.
God will have His way! Life and death are in His hands and no one else has anything to say about it. His clearly expressed will is that ALL be saved, for God "will have all men to be saved." (1 Timothy 2:4).
He'll get His way. Count on it!! God all in all--the grand conclusion to world history and Christ's work of redemption. The day is coming, a day of glory such as we can in no way conceive, the mystery of which is too deep for our realization--when the Son will deliver the Kingdom that God gave Him and which He paid for with His body and blood; which He established and perfected. "All in All" is the grand goal of our Father. He has created all things, and for His pleasure they are and were created (Revelation 4:11). Nothing less than the reconciliation of all things will vindicate His love or bring to a fit conclusion His plan for ending sin, sorrow, pain, poverty, the grave, and death of the ages.
We need to rouse ourselves from the paralyzing delusion of Babylon's nightmare and awaken to God's glorious consummation, for this ultimate reality must begin in us who have been called to the adoption, that is, the placement of sons. The burden of our hearts, the target of our thought, the essence of our prayer must be: EVERYTHING MADE SUBJECT TO AND SWALLOWED UP IN HIM THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL.
That He is not all in all at the present time is quite obvious. Only a small part of those called have yet even faintly felt that God is indeed ALL to them. Some know Him as their Saviour, some have experienced His presence in healing, some have received glorious gifts from His loving heart; some have called Him LORD. Many have experienced the Lord in His wonderful Baptism of the Holy Spirit with its evidence, but sadly, have stopped there--with their healing, their salvation, their gifts, and His grace as a goal rather than the phases of processing that they are.
And there are some who have found Him as their ALL , having tasted of the cup ineffable, which quenches every thirst and brims with every blessing.
Everything in history moves inexorably toward the day when the Christ will have conquered everything and everyone everywhere. All that can be conquered is being gathered into His arms so that He may turn it over to the Father--: ALL IN ALL.
We know that when Christ ascended after His resurrection He led many captives out of the darkness of Hades and also revealed His greater purpose: "Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, THAT HE MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS (Ephesians 4:9-10). (Let the reader understand!)
Clearly, redemption doesn't include only the salvation of mankind, but also encompasses the complete transformation of the entire universe--so God shall fill all things. There will be no place, no being, no corner or nook or cranny of the universe which is not filled with Him. HE IS LORD, HE IS KING--and HE is restoring everything everywhere to the perfect harmony and order of HIS love.
A man named Gelesnoff once wrote: "The current Evangelical Theology involves in its system belief in the deathlessness of sin, the indestructibility of error, and permanence of evil. That though there was a time in the history of the universe when sin in any shape or form did not exist, when no cry of pain or sense of guilt darkened the all-extensive bliss and holiness of creation, yet since sin has once effected an entrance into such a scene, it has come in NEVER TO GO OUT AGAIN, indestructible, unconquerable, ineradicable, endless. Absolute happiness and sinlessness have forever vanished like the phantom of a dream. The "eternal state" is a universe endlessly finding room for myriads of souls rolling and writhing in the burning agonies of ceaseless flame, eternally sinful, vile and morally hideous. It pictures the final perfection(?) yet to be attained as having room for a vast cesspool of immoral and degraded beings, continually existing in opposition to God."
"This system of doctrine, though as old as man, as venerable as tradition, as hoary as the pyramids, as "orthodox" as anything in ancient or modern theology. is a misconception, a travesty of God's character, a caricature of His wisdom, and must be relegated to the scrapheap of ancestral error."
"GLADLY DO WE TURN FROM THIS figment of natural reason to the grand, simple statements of the unadorned word of God. It looks forward to a time when God shall be all in all, when heaven and earth shall be purged from every stain of sin's pollution. It anticipates that glad occasion when every heart shall beat in unison with the heart of God; every mind shall harmonize with the Divine wisdom and purpose; every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord".--end quote, emphasis mine.
Sin and death still stalk across God's creation, holding vast numbers of God's mankind in their horrible grip. Isn't it glorious to know that every moving of His spirit, every step of His all-wise plan, comes to pass for His purpose, in His time-- and that nothing can alter it? His will is being done!!
None of the "revivals" of history have defeated sin and death; no revival anywhere has turned the whole world to God. None of God's dealing with humanity has brought total triumph in all realms.
Then, is there no deliverance? Truly, the whole creation groans and travails in birth-pangs, not to deliver another Paul, another Luther, nor another Peter, or Finney, or Moody. Creation doesn't wait for another pentecost, nor for another great healing campaign complete with prophets. (Romans 8:19) "For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God " (KJV). "The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the Sons of God coming into their own." (Phillips). "For (even the whole) creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's Sons to be made known--waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship" (Amplified Bible).
WHY?
"For the creation itself ALSO shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption INTO THE GLORIOUS LIBERTY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD!" (Romans 8:21).
And Daniel 7:27 is really the truth! "And the Kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the Kingdom, under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and ALL DOMINIONS SHALL SERVE HIM!" So is Ephesians 1:10 also the inspired word of God. "And this is in harmony with God's merciful purpose for the GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD when the times are ripe for it--the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of RESTORING THE WHOLE CREATION to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head IN HIM " (Weymouth).
The whole creation, past, present, future, looks forward to that great day when our Saviour-God shall deliver the Kingdom to the Father-God--and God shall be all in all. Let's yield ourselves to His will, because His will is being done, and we desire to be in the fullest sense the firstfruits of His redemption.
God ALL in a few? ALL in many? ALL in most? Some in some? Some in ALL ?