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Milt to Maturity: Spiritual Anatomy - 7

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We are remiss exiting this spiritual anatomy discussion without connecting to scriptural teaching about the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). We tend to focus exclusively on being “individual members of it.” 

Jesus Himself makes the point for us in John 17:21,

“That they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

Our connection to the Body of Christ seems secondary because we are insecure about our primary relationship in Christ. Grace is a relationship! The “Body” is interpreted as the church, where we gather to satisfy social needs while becoming spirituality religious. Nurturing a relationship with a living Person is not a religion.

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Milk to Maturity: Spiritual Anatomy - 6

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We are exploring scripture’s framework for our spirituality. Being “in Christ” conveys meaning it sometimes take years to understand.  We acquire spiritual senses not possessed by natural persons when we become  2 Corinthians 5:17 Christians. Seeing ourselves spiritually helps discern natural things of the “flesh” so we can deal with them spiritually.

The scripture speaks not only of spiritual growth in naturally polluted habitats, but also our hope and glory in Him. Hope and glory are often thought of as waiting for us after physical death. While this is true, it isn’t the whole scriptural story. 

Hope and glory are linked like two companions always traveling together. It is like having spokes in a wheel, one is always there with the other.  Spiritually speaking, glory has to exist before hope can exist. Scriptural glory comes out of God’s existence while hope is man’s expectation of God’s glory. Glory is of God while hope speaks of man.

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Milk to Maturity: Spiritual Anatomy - 5

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We were thinking, maybe, three Spiritual Anatomy pieces and here we are on number five out of six. As we walk this anatomy path together, we seem to find one more door to open before wrapping up.  Last week, we considered the blending of our human contribution into God’s continuing grace within us. We looked at how we use our mind and heart to build our structure so that God can do His organic work within our soul, bringing us to a complete salvation. The power bringing us into salvation is the same mighty power effecting our salvation as we attain an imperishable inheritance through the living and abiding word of God, 1Peter 1:23.

The term salvation is used in scripture within the context of saving our own soul more often than the more familiar usage referring to our reconciliation, regeneration or new birth. Part of this salvation process is self-judgment so that we are able to build a better structure (our soul & body) in which God is dwelling. God is certainly the project manager expressing His wisdom through our sanctified construction. 

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Milk to Maturity: Spiritual Anatomy - 4

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Our anatomy discussions have been focusing on discernment, not just good v. evil but spiritual “things” exposed in our temporal and corporeal experience.  In Adam, we are spiritually dead and totally bonded to time and space references. This all changes when we are born again. Our essence becomes eternal and we are faced with dilemmas of blending spiritual realities into corporeal experience. 

Our spiritual “things”, however, turn into genuine, quality realities as we move from drinking milk and begin digesting spiritual meat. The “things” in our life turn out to be elements of deep relationships and the “things” become tools in growing out of circumstances into grace by faith. 

Paul tells us in Romans 5 that since we have been justified by faith we not only have peace with God but we also have access by faith into grace in which we now stand. It is this moving into our grace relationship by faith that changes circumstances into opportunities for moving from milk to maturity. The important “things” in our natural life, our temporal and corporeal life, becomes a smaller part of a much bigger reality challenging our comfort zones.

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Milk to Maturity: Spiritual Anatomy - 3

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Seeing ourselves from God’s vantage point may be impossible. But God has blessed us, even through a glass darkly, with a view of eternality we do experience while still wearing shoe leather. It is a blend of the first Adam and the Last Adam and we are elected to contain both. It is a parallel Paul makes for us in Romans 5:12-21 providing a comparison and contrast. The first Adam Paul points out, “was a type of the one who was to come” which was Jesus Himself, the “last Adam”.

The first Adam was a created life. God provided Adam with his own righteousness and he had eternal life.  Death for Adam was not a natural consequence until after he sinned.  God created Adam from the dust and breathed into him the breathe of eternal life.  Adam was the product of God’s work and it was good.  Adam and God had a personal relationship including communion and fellowship.

Adam’s single sin brought an end to fellowship with his creator. It was this single sin that separated Adam and his prodigy from God.  Man’s nature became independent from God and that is why it is sinful. 

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Milt to Maturity: Spiritual Anatomy - 2

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Last week we looked at who we are in Christ. We tried to expose the quantum leap from being dead in sin to being spiritually alive in Christ. What we didn’t do is deal with the sin question except in a very general way. Yes, the scripture says sin no longer rules us but we all deal with its effects in daily experiences. The effects of sin are so severe gross assumptions can easily be made that are not scripturally based. 

Next week we will probably conclude this spiritual anatomy discussion with a comparison of our relationship to Adam with Jesus the man-God, the last Adam. Foundational to that discussion and germane to this discussion is the nature of our sin inheritance. To do this we want to refer briefly to Hebrews 7:10 where the writer of Hebrews says Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek through Abraham even though Levi had not yet been born, Genesis 14:18ff.

This example gives us God’s view of man within the context of His plan and purposes. God viewed Levi in the loins of Abraham to be paying tribute to Melchizedek in the same way we participate to Adam’s behavior because we were in the lions of Adam, even though we were yet to be born. When Adam sinned, we sinned.  

Milk to Maturity: Spiritual Anatomy - 1

Last week we looked at Saul  who was selected by God in response to Israel’s cry for a king. A king was not God’s choice! God retained the services of Samuel, His prophet.

Saul was like a branch on the vine of Israel. He was selected by God with the opportunity to be God’s channel of grace to the people. Samuel gave Saul access to God’s wisdom and God wasready to bless him if he would obey instructions.Saul’s heart was the issue. His desire was to gratify himself using God’s grace.

God gave Saul concrete assurances and evidencethat He, God, was in control and would manage Saul’s circumstances. God created a brand new life for Saul but it required Saul to depend upon God rather than himself.

In many ways we, as persons created new in Christ Jesus, can trace similarities in Saul’s choices. The temporal culture of our soul tempts us to make self-gratifying choices just like Saul.But unlike Saul we have been created new withan unseen water source bubbling up within us that will satisfy thirst. When we become 2Corinthians 5:17 believers, we are joinedtogether with God in Christ.

Our natural anatomy is put to death. It no longer controls us.  Our new anatomy is Spirit based. This is quite different than the old culture rooted temporally in things physical. The culture of man operates within the laws of physics and creation. The eternal culture of God’s graceoperates in a realm outside natural boundaries and the limits of creation. We have been lifted out of our set of natural barriers and placedinside a culture foreign to natural experience.

We are literally brand new beings created with a spiritual reality anchored in God’s absoluteeternal values. It is not a figure of speech. The spiritual anatomy of the believer is a quantum shift into dimensions of “Life” outside of both space and time. “Eternal life” is what it is and it begins within each person who is “born again”even while still living in houses of flesh.

God performs a miracle in each person whosubmits to God’s authority and accepts His gift of faith and grace.  He births a new spiritualperson! He breathes into them the breath of spiritual life and they are “born again”.

When you stop to think about it, new birth makes logical sense because we actually become a dwelling place for God Himself. In order for our bodies to become an actual dwelling place or “temple” for God something major would have to happen. Can you imagine God living in the un-holy, un-sanctified place you and I hang out in all day long. It is polluted with sin and our every thought is tainted with a bias toward self.

This is what happened in the garden when our dad, Adam, allowed sin to enter into God’s creation. Adam died and so did we all through Adam. Did he fall over on the ground and die? No, he died spiritually. He became spiritually dead and his entire prodigy is born into temporal life dead to God. They are dead to God but also reconciled awaiting a response to God’s grace through faith.

God, who created life in the first place, created anew path through Christ, for believers to enter into His love. His way not only takes care of the problem of sin but provides the believer direct access into the eternal qualities of God Himself.The absolute qualities of God’s righteous virtuesactually become an option of our choice to replace the polluted residue in our soul.

Paul gives clearly the connection God establishes in Romans 8:16, “the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we arechildren of God.” God creates in us the condition where we are joined together spiritually. The center of our being has been changed from temporal to eternal through the joining of our spirit to God’s eternal Spirit.

Jesus Himself speaks to this union by illustrating the relationship He has with the Father is the relationship we have with the Father through Him, “…that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfectly one” (John 17:22-23).In John 14 He put it this way, “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you”. (John 14:20).

John’s use of the Greek word logos (λογοs) in his 14 verse prologue to his gospel (John 1:1-14) suggesting a continuous unveiling of God through Christ. John is talking about the physical manifestation of God in the flesh full of grace and truth. The “word” of God in us (Christ in us) used in Hebrews 4:12 is also logos indicating its revealing effects by being able to separate soul and spirit, joints and marrow. He is talking about a spiritual sword in the hands of the Spirit joined to our spirit so that we have the spiritual capacity of judgment.

The writer to the Hebrews in one of our Milk to Maturity passages has also identified a spiritual sense given us by his use of the word translated “discernment”. It is a capacity to understand and judge between things spiritual, in a biblical sense, and those things not spiritual. This unique capacity is acquired when we are created new under 2Corinthains 5:17.

Paul uses this same word to the Philippians in Phil. 1:9, “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all ‘discernment.’” Clearly Paul is addressing people with the capacity to judge knowledge in the context of God’s love. This is an intimate relationship gifted to people who are in the context of His love and grace. Our spiritual based grace culture is our eternalessence and identity.

It is through the union of our spirit with His Spirit, we would argue, that the will in our soul can open up our heart and mind to the things of Christ. This would explain how we have access  to the “mind of Christ” we find in 1Corinthians 2:16. This also gives us good context for passages referring to the Holy Spirit’s intercession in our behalf. i.e., Romans 8:26, helping us to pray in our weakness.

God’s residence in us as a result of being birthed again is a beginning work that will be continuous while we are alive functioning in thisbody of flesh, Philippians 1:6. It is the continuous revelation of the mysteries of God within us that Paul speaks to in that wonderful passage to the Corinthians where he say, “Forwe who  live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal self”, 2Corinthians 4:7ff. We will talk about the death part of His life in us next week in part 2.

Paul writing to the Colossians puts it this way, “To them (believers) God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” –Colossians 1:27.

The mystery of “Christ in us” is not the unknowable kind of mystery. It is the kind of mystery that is knowable because the connection we have with the Father through the 2Corinthians 5:17 new creation reality. Jesus speaks to it in John 14:20 “… I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you. … and I will love him and manifest my self to him.” Jesus will manifest Himself in those who love Him, how?Through the union of our spirit with His Spirit.

All of this to say, God has equipped us to operate spiritually and dump the old nature which has been put to death and “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 13:14. There is no reason for us to act like Saul and make bad choices. In fact, God has make it “normal” in our new birth to make righteous choices  sinceHe has created our default self to be in Him.

God has chosen to make known to new saints the mystery of ages  which is the resurrected living Jesus abiding within us, “Christ in us”. Imagine, we actually become literal dwelling places of God Himself. Paul tells the Corinthians in three different places that their bodies are the temples of God. Lets see, does that make us holy?

Can you imagine getting on a bus and sitting next to Jesus. And if that weren’t enough, what if Jesus came to sit down next you. What if Jesus wanted to engaged you to work for Him with wages and bonuses you can’t believe!

But it is much more than that. He has a plan to engage us in a holy work. It is not enough we now have His Spirit based absolute eternal values. We are redeemed, purchased back as His prized possession but much more than that!Jesus Christ Himself is knocking on our soul’s door requesting a sit down one-on-one, Revelation 3:20. It is totally new, different and un-natural. He wants us to be intimate friends and grow His fruit! Wow!

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The Vine: Saul’s Preparation

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We saw abrupt changes in Saul’s circumstances in our last discussion.  He was about 40 years of age becoming established in his Father’s donkey business when God offered him grace and blessing.  All he had to do was drop what he was doing and become king of God’s people, Israel. Yeah, like that was really going to happen!!  

When we first read this story, it seems Saul was God’s choice for King.  But in the larger context we soon learn this was not true.  God gave his people the man they wanted.   Saul was a man who looked kingly. He was strong, domineering, and taller than anybody else. He was a man who had a way with people.  He would score high on the Gallup polls. Israel chose man over God and they “benefited” from their bad choice for years to come. 

God created a way for the people’s choice to sit on the throne. But God did not give up His sovereignty or His love for His chosen ones. In fact, the story of people on earth is a love story of God for His created people.  God patiently instructs and reveals while constantly searching for people who fear, respect and love Him. Jesus died for all the people who live on planet earth.

The Branches - Part 1

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from me ye can do nothing.  

We introduced this study by looking at the vine as a whole plant including the stem, branches and fruit.   Jesus said he was the True Vine and it is out of this True Vine the branches grow to produce fruit.

One of the first things we notice is the word John uses for branches. It is different than the one Paul uses in Romans 11 for the descendants of Israel, or Matthew uses for the triumphal entry, or Matthew, Mark and Luke uses for the fig tree.  This word  denotes a tender new growth such as a sprout on a vine. This helps visualize the nature of these ”branches” relative to the vine. These are not mature branches grafted into the vine. This  is new growth nurtured by the Vine and its root.  These tender new growths depend upon the vine root to supply nutrients to form its character and the quality of its fruit. This Greek word for “branch” clearly gives us the defining nature of our life in Christ. It distinguishes new life flowing from Christ rather than branches grafted in which is Paul’s point regarding the Gentiles being grafted into Jewish stock,  a different point entirely. John’s context is being ”born again” and having life in his name. The Romans passage does however make the point that the root supports the branches whether they are Jew or Gentile branches. This suggests a larger context in which the branches do grow.

Grace Culture

As ye have, therefore, received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding with thanksgiving. 

Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of your brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed that is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God. 

Faith is critical to our walk in the Lord at every level. We are expanding our faith discussions to look a little deeper into the mechanics of this important subject. In the previous discussion our focus was on the state of our being “in Christ”. It is by faith that we have entered into Christ, into the state of being in Christ. The realities of our life have changed. The temporal resources of the flesh no longer control us. Now, we are able to use temporal resources to serve God’s grace.  Now, in Christ, we have our personal mentor, the Holy Spirit. Now, in Christ, we have unseen eternal resources in the heavenlies.

The person of the Holy Spirit is revealing the mysteries within us of being in Christ. Our eternal resources are being identified by faith in scripture. It is a matter of walking by faith rather than sight, walking by what is unseen rather than what is tangible.  We want to explore these unseen resources and consider how the Holy Spirit creates a grace culture which is a new life style in Christ. Welcome to eternal life walking in faith while still in our mortal flesh.

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Milk to Maturity - 2

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We considered last week two stories of Jesus illustrating the arduous task of moving from milk to maturity in the Christian life.  This week we look at the life of Paul and see how he navigated his life into the port of maturity. 

Paul’s father was a Roman citizen who was also a Pharisee of unmixed Jewish blood. He was born in Tarsus which was the home of the best university in the known world.  He went to school in Tarsus to become a rabbi which dictated he learn a trade, tent making.  After completing his preliminary education, he was sent to Jerusalem and became a student of rabbi Gamaliel who was president of the Sanhedrin.  He spent several years studying the scriptures here before returning to Tarsus.  Barnabas may have been a classmate of Saul.

Paul returned to Jerusalem after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. He was probably a member of the Sanhedrin about two years later when Stephen was martyred because of his strong witness that Jesus was, in fact, the promised Messiah.  Saul (who later became Paul) probably was in charge of Stephen’s martyrdom. Stephen was a Greek speaking Jew who was eloquent and very persuasive causing severe controversy within the Hellenistic synagogues.

Milk to Maturity

During Jesus’ three years of ministry with His disciples many more miracles were performed than are recorded, John 20:30, 21:25. Living with Jesus for three years, witnessing daily His ministry among sick and poor, rulers and teachers, the disciples were unable to absorb the truth and come into an understanding of Jesus and his ministry to the people. 

Jesus had just fed the four thousand, got into a boat with the disciples and left for another location. They arrived, met by Pharisees, who came to argue and demand a sign from heaven.  Jesus got back into the boat with the disciples and went to the other side of the lake.

The minds of the disciples were on the one loaf of bread they had in the boat, but Jesus was thinking about the Pharisees whom they had just left. He said to the disciples, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”  His comment sparked a discussion among the disciples about what to do about not having enough bread with them in the boat.  There are a few places we see Jesus expressing His righteous human anger, this might be one of them.

“Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how man baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him “Twelve”. “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets did you pick up?” And they said to him, “Seven”. And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”- Mark 8:17-21.

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Our Shepherd Lamb

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Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth and became the Son of Man. He was both man and God. He became God’s Lamb so that He could become God’s Shepherd.  This is both beautiful and profound.  

God put Himself sinlessly into our fallen state so that He may righteously redeem and justify a new kingdom of mankind.  Adam is the head of our natural temporal state and we are all born into sin through him. When we enter into 2 Corinthians 5:17 as a believer, we are born a second time into the second Adam, Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 15:45.  The first birth is a natural birth and the second birth is a spiritual birth, 1 Corinthians 15:42ff, “the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”

We are spiritually dead in Adam.  We are spiritually alive in Christ. In 
Adam we are naturally hostile to God and we shun spiritual things.  Yet, while in Adam and hostile to God, Christ died for us and reconciled us back to God.   

This is the argument Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 15 and in Romans 5 but notice this astounding announcement in verse 10 of Romans 5:

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The Lamb of God

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A few weeks ago we visited heaven through the eyes of John.  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world was there!  The Lamb’s Book of Life is also there with the names of believers who will be with Christ in heaven.  The curious thing is this Book was written before the people in it were born. In fact, it was written before the foundation of the earth was even in place.

How do we bring together this pre-creation reality with the vision of the Lamb of God we see in Revelation? How does what existed before time extend into a place not yet in history  and how can it have relevance for you and me?  That is the beauty of it all. It IS about us! 

The Bible is very comprehensive. It is not just a collection of religious stories. It is God’s communiqué of reality to creatures He created. God prepared the Bible to reveal His supernatural unseen contemporary plan.  It is a map showing how Jesus Christ is the portal through which we can actually step into the eternity existing before and after our present temporal experience. It sounds mystic but it is, in fact, NOT.

There are a myriad ways of reading the Bible, studying it, preaching it and trying to understand it in meaningful ways. To get there from here requires walking on stepping stones called faith. These faith stones themselves are divinely placed leading us to the portal of Jesus Christ.  It is up to us to choose the steps we follow and it is also up to us to step into eternity through Christ.

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Our Shepherd

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Last week we explored our origins. We saw how the scripture pilots the prologue of our very life into eternity, existing before creation.  The Lamb’s Book of Life already existed and in it names of people like you and I, people who accept by faith God’s provisions for salvation.

God provided through visual creation, the written record of men like Abraham, and His own Son a revelation of who He is and how we participate in what He is doing.  He has also given us a will to choose our own paths.  Lets take one thin slice of Abraham lemon meringue pie and savor the truth the Holy Spirit may provide about His love so that we can make righteous choices.

Abraham’s name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life along side of yours and mine.  God used His story to illustrate truth about our lives. Abraham is prominent in the Biblical account of man’s journey on earth.  The story of Abraham and his son Isaac demonstrates how our eternal God reveals eternal plans in lives who have faith in Him.

Lets review the context of Abraham’s story.  Abraham was Abram when he was born in the region of Ur of the Chaldeans. Ur is located in the valley of the Euphrates River toward the Persian Gulf.  Abram’s father Terah took Abram and his cousin Lot toward Canaan by way of Haran.  Haran was a northern city in the Euphrates River Valley.  They stayed in Haran for an extended time and Terah died there. 

My Prologue

Do you realize the entire Bible, all 66 books, is a prologue of your life.  Each person is a consequence of divine creation and the primary object of the biblical story.  It started before the foundation of the world and it is about lambs!  We will get to the lambs later.

It is hard to imagine anything before time.  Yet in John 1:1 we read “In the beginning”, the advent of time, “was the Word and the Word was God”.  In the Greek it reads in the beginning “God was the Word”.

Existing in eternity before the clock of time ticks is paradoxical.  A book existed before time? Names of people like you and me in a book before there was sky, a moon or suns and galaxies? This is the Lamb’s Book of Life, before there were lambs.  Our personal context for life is a reality before creation.  If you are not in Christ it is mystic but, if you are in Christ, it is existential and practical.

Our scriptural perception of God is vital to understanding God correctly.  How we think about God matters because we are objects of His love. He desires us to know Him and make Him the object of our love.

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Our Covenant God

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Last week we saw God both willing and able to do abundantly above what we think or ask.  This Corinthians passage continues to affirm God’s sufficiency to perform His purpose with an added responsibility. Our God of grace has freely given much but He has also made us competent ministers.  Our grace also carries with it responsibility.

Ministers either graduate from seminary or are assigned by the State Department.  For each of us to be ministers may be a stretch and a scary thought. This takes God’s sufficiency to another level. God’s provision in your life and mine is really where the action is taking place.  Ministering makes effective the grace given to us.  This passage tells us that we are competent to do as well as to be. 

The trick is in both content and faith.  “Our Covenant God” has provisioned us with both.  Content is more than words on a printed page or being able to explain the gospel message.  The content must first have passed through our personal soul with the power of revelation imparting knowledge of God’s living presence.  Holy Spirit’s presence in us imparts both understanding and faith with our participation.

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A Doxology!

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Tozer is accused of being a mystic by his critics.  He understood A.W. Pink!  The evangelical community focuses on being “in Christ”  but scripture also teaches Christ being “in us”.  There is a harmonic correspondence between the new creation God plants within the believer and the eternal reality which is the Divine Nature of Himself.  Growing spiritually has to do with cultivating the esoteric spiritual union between the believer’s spirit and God through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.  This is His Spirit joined with our spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:17, Romans 8:16. The doxology is the expression of this spiritual union.

Doing a Drill Down exercise on our Ephesian doxology may provide some clarity.  But first we must provide brief context for this scripture which is a prayer for the Ephesian church.  This extraordinary prayer requests knowledge for the dimensions of God’s love and  requests being filled with all of His fullness.  On the surface it appears to be quite impossible for the creature to be filled with all the fullness of the creator … or to have knowledge of God’s love which is obviously beyond the creature’s scope.  Implicitly this doxology speaks to the expectation of this request being realized by the recipients of God’s grace.  Imagine being able to know and understand the love of Christ and being filled with all the fullness of God!  This trail of sanctification leads to glorification.

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Lord, give me a Doxology!

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I attended 4th Presbyterian Church in Spokane, Washington during my Junior High and High School years.  We sang the doxology every Sunday.

        Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
        Praise him all creatures here below;
        Praise him above, ye heavenly hosts;
        Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! 
        Amen.

I was a young 2 Corinthians 5:17 Christian, naïve and completely unaware of the snares and pitfalls of life.  I rushed through open doors and experienced successes and black belt punishments.  I didn't know I was justified, sanctified or holy but suspected I was called to bear the name of Jesus.  I played ball, ran track and tried to stay out of trouble.

Singing the doxology every Sunday was a comfort but I didn’t know why.  I didn't know theology or the meanings behind the gospel message.  Why  was I being protected, nurtured and gently guided by God?  I don't know,  perhaps the fruit of praying grandmothers.  

Years later, in Menlo Park, CA., I ran into Helen Asazawa. She was passing through the neighborhood the spring of 1964 heading for grad school in Seattle.  I needed someone special … and she was very special and so much more.  

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Glory and Dominion - Dominion - Part 2

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Glory and Dominion - Dominion - Part 2

Last week we looked at Glory through the lens of 2Corinthinas 3:18. The Person of the Holy Spirit provides grace to grow the eternal attributes we acquire in Christ Jesus our Lord and Redeemer Lamb.

We also glimpsed a peek of the Lion King in the throne room. The Lamb who takes away the sins of the world also is the King Who rules. The combination of Glory and Dominion speaks to an inherent relationship with the Father as both Lamb and King.