We gave limited context to “The Way” in our last GraceNotes referring to the group of Jesus believers who were originally worshiping inside the Jewish faith. These Jewish believers knew God’s Old Testament ways and expected Jesus to be the Messiah, the King of Israel. This was their Hope!
Having personally seen Jesus, He proclaims that He is the way, and then, before their eyes, He is nailed to a cross; three days later He is resurrected from the dead; soon after, He is personally seen going back to heaven in a cloud. Their Hope in Jesus as King of Israel vanishes!
Several years pass before the New Testament gospel is written and then circulated among “The Way” believers in addition to new churches such as Galatia, Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome, Colossae and Ephesus. It is in these and other letters our new Hope of Glory becomes reveled. Paul, some 20 plus years after Jesus, gives definition to what our new hope of glory looks like in his letter written to the Romans.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed into us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this HOPE we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” -Romans 8:18-25.
It turns out, our new Hope is not earthy at all, rather, it’s about glory at the eternal level including both Jews and Greeks. It is the “glory that is to be revealed into us,” “the redemption of our bodies” and “the marriage supper of the Lamb.” This is the glory to be revealed into us as we adorn eternal bodies; it is far deeper than we can even imagine. It is the effect of being born-again followed by becoming the Bride in a Jewish feast called “The Marriage Supper of the Lamb,” and this in our new bodies! How deep is the agape love of God!
New Testament believers in Jesus, according to John’s record, are “born-again.” This refers to a Spiritual surgery performed by God whereby we are created new in Christ Jesus. Our human identity is radically altered; we have become a Spiritual person proclaimed to be the Bride of Christ. This preparatory marriage period is why and when we begin to taste the glory of God in us; Jesus Himself is in us and we are also in Him! In addition to this, as children of God, we also will receive the redemption of our bodies. All of this is our prologue to becoming the Bride of the Lamb!
This is made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The life we now live in the flesh, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave His life for us! The glory of God has been introduced into our earthly experience through His presence within us but will be enhanced at the rapture when we receive a body like His! Think of it, we will become even more like Him!
Jesus is now, already in us, and we are in Christ Jesus but our body currently remains fleshly. While in our flesh, we ought now to be preparing for our rapture through Spiritual maturity! This rapture event is the next step in our preparation as the Bride of Jesus. Our whole fleshly reality is already changing from a futile, temporal knowhow to a glorious eternal reality as we grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Himself. This is only possible because we are indeed created new in Jesus! But it requires commitment on our part while we still adorn our fleshly jar of clay! We will, in fact, begin seeing changes in the nature of our fleshliness as we grow in grace and agape love. This Spiritual preparedness looks toward the hope of becoming the wife of the Lamb.
If we neglect God’s grace for us to grow in Spiritual knowledge, we will suffer loss! We will be judged in this matter and lose glory if we neglect God’s grace which is already now given to us.
We are now Spiritual people with a Spiritual capacity to grow “in Christ;” this is a born-again quality unbelievers do not possess. Only those who are “born-again,” who are created new in Christ Jesus, can grow within grace, growing in Spiritual knowledge through our mentor, the Holy Spirit. With Christ in us, we now have access to the resurrection power of Jesus to deal with the world, the flesh and the devil. Since Jesus is actually in us, we have His power to live a life well pleasing to our heavenly Father God and experience His glory even while living in our fleshly “jar of clay,” one degree of glory to another. We are already, even now, preparing ourselves for the King to take us into the House of His Father God in glory as His bride.
Paul reminds us in Romans 8 that we are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit “if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.” In other words, we are “born-again,” or created new on the inside while our physical bodies have not yet been changed … but they will be if we are in Christ Jesus thus becoming His Bride!
Our outside bodies are still awaiting the redemption we have already experienced within our own spirit and soul. Our physical body is on schedule to become like Jesus’ body making us free from the sin in our flesh! We are sealed with the Holy Spirit who is within us guaranteeing we receive this glorious inheritance until we actually acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory!
This body changing event will occur at the “rapture.” We will be “caught up together” to meet Jesus in the air with other believers. Born-again believers who have already physically died after the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, are now a “soul” person alive in heaven. These born-again “soul” believers, in heaven, without bodies, will join us with their new bodies at the rapture (the dead in Christ having been raised first). These believers in heaven come down from heaven and meet us in the air with Jesus and we all together will be wearing heavenly bodies!
So, our hope is not in this judged world but rather in the Bridegroom who has donned us with His righteousness. First, we will experience His glory within our own Spiritual-self according to our faithfulness and Spiritual stewardship while presently wearing our old bodies of flesh. We are even now, here on earth, preparing to see Him and being with Him as we continue to prepare for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Desiring God should be our earnest and sincere hope! Second, we will see the resurrected Jesus. Third, not only are we going to actually see Jesus, we will see Him through an eternal body like He now has! We shall know even as we are known.
It is not enough that we do “Spiritual” things in the flesh because it is Jesus who is working within us so that we produce His righteousness in our flesh and not our own. Jesus has prepared before-hand the path or “way” in which we should be walking.
Paul addresses this point with the church at Corinth. Here, Paul emphasizes the necessity of making choices of gold, silver and precious stones, rather than, wood, hay and straw! If our choices, while in flesh, are according to the wisdom of men, they will burn in God’s holy fire! We will suffer loss … what will this loss look like? The glory we receive in heaven will be diminished by our self-oriented behavior on earth!! Yes, we will loose glory in heaven because we didn’t agape love Jesus while He was living on earth within us, while we were preparing to meet Him heaven! Yes, our sins are covered by the blood of the lamb, but did we run our race on earth to win His glory in heaven?
Jesus has pledged His Life and Love as a bridegroom to a bride who is to live and reign with Him forever and ever. Yes, He will come back as King, but when He does, He will bring with Him His bride, the church, the Body of Christ, You and me. Our “New Covenant” hope is experiencing Jesus as our Bridegroom, enjoying the intimacy of His personal fellowship both in heaven and on earth. Our Hope, as the body of Christ, is our expectation of seeing Him and being with Him for ever and ever. He is our Bridegroom and loves us with agape love!
The first 16 verses of Ephesians 4 describes the Body concluding with:
“… speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” -Eph. 4:15-16.
Christ in you, the hope of glory! -Colossians 1:27b.