"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is". ~
Wow, so says the Apostle who has been with the man who was born of a virgin, and the resurrected and immortal, Jesus, in person and touch, and having received from Him by His own mouth an explanation of Christ in all the scriptures from Moses to His appearing, (Luke 24:27) and further being filled with His Holy Spirit 10 days after watching the same Jesus ascend to heaven in His immortal body, and having been allowed visitation himself to heaven preceding this writing.
(as near as we can tell this letter was written in AD 95-110), Even hearing what the 7 thunders had uttered, well, doesn't he know as yet what we shall appear at Jesus' 2nd coming?
Maybe he is only commenting on a lack of capacity to compare what currently exists to what the new heaven and new earth look like, though we know they have physicality as does Jesus in His immortal body.
At least he is affirming that though we are sons of God right now by receipt of His Holy Spirit, we are not yet immortal until Jesus appears. That's quite miraculous a truth.
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. (Immortality) |
In the case we did not notice the current participation in death of believers as well as the unrighteous all around us so as to get a clue that we have not yet arrived at new creation though we are new creatures in the righteousness of Christ being fit for a new creation environment. We are groaning in occupation with His patience for the rest, and engaging partnership with Him in His singular resurrection and immortality to that blessed HOPE of our likeness to Him bodily.
The rub does not in appear in our clarity concerning our faith in the physicality of bodily habitation in the resurrection, and expectation of a new heaven and new earth fit in physicality to that immortal state of body which we will be afforded. But in clarity of duration of mortality that we are presently enduring in contradiction. As Peter says in the context of the ending of all mortality "a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day". 2 Peter 3
So we are set in the Present Kingdom of Christ at opposite to an supposed expectation arising from the theology of the Jewish Religion that demands another Messiah in physicality of reign in the present heaven and earth environment.
We who believe that Jesus is The very Christ the expected Messiah of the Jews, are in partnership with Him being translated into His Kingdom by His Holy Spirit so that His light has come to us, as well as the believers and faithful witnesses of them who ever believed and prophesied, joined to and culminating in the faithful witness of the Apostles at His appearing.
Isaiah 49:6, Col 1:13
We are seated as with Him where He is, in the present context of heaven and earth as the only transition period called the Kingdom of Christ from heaven, now existing and given to all of humanity, for entrance into all the goodness that God has held in His heart for us from the beginning when He said "let there be light' before He created us in the risk of mortality.
Ephesians 2:6, Romans 8:20
Many scriptural texts describe the necessity of domination and kingdom which exist presently and must exist in a context of both good and evil surviving together for a season of harvest in transition, gives us a clue, that we are not yet in that environment bodily, where there is only righteousness.
However, there should also be no stretch of the imagination as to embrace an ideology whereby when mortality is universally swallowed up by immortality there could possibly remain any unrighteousness or potential of sin mingled into it.
For once that anyone else besides Jesus alone receives immortality as the scriptures say all will be swept into it, for in this case Jesus said, those who were first to believe are the last to receive it, and those that are last to believe (alive and remain) will first receive immortality at His appearing from heaven.
We know that once having obtained immortality for entrance into the New Heaven and New Earth, it has been described consistently everywhere throughout the scriptures, that, there is no unrighteousness at all allowed there. And that flesh and blood cannot inherit that Kingdom but only the immortal. 1 Cor 15:50-53
And so we must understand the way God has chosen to extend mortality to His prophesied end, by the temporal reign of Christ in Kingdom bodily from heaven as it is at present. And this understanding should in no wise minimise nor invalidate the reality of His present Kingdom and Power, Himself alone immortal at present, as being worthy of that attribution long before spoken of as the Messianic millennial or multigenerational Reign of Christ in Kingdom.
Those that await or describe another messianic kingdom do so in reference to the perpetuated lie that Jesus is not Christ and so are caught up in a strong delusion at the end of this age. (This Age = The determined period of Christ in actual Kingdom from Heaven).
There is an end to the present context of His Kingdom in solicitation of voluntary love, in that Jesus finally puts down all dominion and authority and finally conquers death over all. He establishes thereafter the new heaven and new earth when all are dwelling in immortality together in righteousness forever in equality with Him in the Kingdom of God. 1 Cor 15:28
So by this we can discern the scriptural texts which apply to this type and scenario where there is still mortality death hell the grave and unrightousness for a season, as opposed to God's dwelling in immortality with resurrected human beings where there is no longer any dominion but blessedness, peace and eternal pleasure with God in immortality where there are no more tears, troubles or any unrighteousness at all.
While whatever we may well imagine in a life that is comparable to the best life that could be possible within our temporal environment in which we presently observe as fit for our mortality, that is pale compared to the glory and wonder of that which God has prepared for those who love Him and as Paul said, that perception comes to us only by the revelation of His Holy Spirit, all that we presently behold is as a shadow of that glorious New and eternal Creation.
Considering the difference as we may perceive it, of the effectual and physical change of this present environment to immortality whether imagined as a renovation of the present system created for mortality, and then changed, or of a completely new cosmology is a point of consideration in reading the scriptures throughout to obtain the most clarity.
But it is absolutely necessary to understand that in either case, the new environment must be so significantly different so as to no longer support humanity in the same state of mortality that now exists, by reason of the universal truth that mortality will be swallowed up by immortality.
1 Cor 15:22
In our day we seem to have many eager to offer explanation on what heaven is like without actually having had a visit there, let alone given a revelation of the new heaven and new earth. And though many wise theologians between the first resurrection and now have steered clear of making any such
assertions of knowledge, those who venture to attempt it, seem only able to describe it as though it were something like anything that humanity has ever seen before.
1 Cor 2:9
Note:
The "great" in "great harvest" is more readily understood in the context of an open door to the greater number of jew and gentile believers throughout the generations after Jesus appearing, as compared to the measured number of Jewish people saved before Jesus appearing and released from the grave to join Him in heaven until the ending of mortality over all.
Isaiah 26:19, Matt 27:52, Hebrews 12:22,23
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